Chapter 0 - Introduction Index Chapter 2 - Character Creation

Chapter 1 - Playing the Game

This chapter focuses on the fundamental changes to the combat rules. Most other fundamentals remain unchanged.

Firstly, the core change, AC-less Defence, is introduced, featuring Hit DC, Damage Reduction and Cover. Then, Aimed Strikes, Surge Dice and changes to Reactions are added to supplement AC-less Defence, and Contests are reintroduced. Finally, Vision & Focus and Grappling & Shoving are changed, and Aspects of Stealth are introduced.

AC-less Defence

AC-less: Creatures do not have an Armor Class anymore. A combination of Hit DC and Damage Reduction takes its place.

Hit DC

Missing attacks: An attack automatically misses its target if the attack roll isn’t at least as high as the Hit DC.

Base Hit DC: The base Hit DC of a target depends on its size, as shown in the table below. To determine the size of something that has no given size, you can use the Hit Area and height or length measures as guidelines.

Size Hit DC Hit Area Height or Length
Minuscule 20 <25cm² <8cm
Fine 18 <100cm² <15cm
Diminutive 16 <400cm² <30cm
Tiny 14 <0.15m² <60cm
Small 12 <0.6m² <120cm
Medium 10 <2.5m² <240cm
Large 8 <10m² <5m
Huge 6 <40m² <10m
Gargantuan 4 >40m² >10m

The Hit Area refers to the area of a target that is facing the attacker. For example, a piece of paper is easier to hit from the front than from the side, because the papers thinness leads to a smaller Hit Area when looking at it sideways.

For the purposes of very small targets, a new set of sizes has been introduced. These will, for example, be used for Aimed Strikes.

Even smaller sizes: If a target is significantly smaller than the sizes listed above, you can either find an extended table in the tables chapter, or extrapolate the Hit DC from the measures in the table. Start with the measures and Hit DC for minuscule targets. Then add 2 to the Hit DC, quarter the Hit Area and halve the height or length. Repeat this until the measures fit the target you have in mind to get the appropriate Hit DC.

Cover

Cover: Instead of increasing the Armor Class of the target that is behind cover, the Hit DC for attacks against the target increases in correlation with the now reduced Hit Area. Thus, Half Cover and Three-Quarters Cover can now be disregarded for attack rolls.

For example, if the Hit Area of an otherwise Medium size target matches the Tiny size due to Cover, the targets Hit DC is that of a Tiny target for attacks that are affected by that Cover.

Cover size: Sometimes, the creatures or objects that are used for Cover have an associated size category. If the Cover is of a larger size category than the target, it gives Total Cover. If it has the same category, it only leaves a few openings at best, which usually manifests as an increase in Hit DC of +4. If it is one category smaller, it leaves a decent area open to attack, giving no more than a +2 to the Hit DC. Even smaller Cover is too small to effectively reduce the Hit Area. It can, however, still be used to give Cover to specific body parts and other smaller targets.

Cover Cone: In some cases, it is not clear against which attacks a target benefits from Cover. The Dungeon Masters Guide describes a method to determine Cover through occupied and blocked spaces on a battle map, but some cover is not represented by this because it is too small and thus too finicky to place and manage on a battle map. For example, this is usually the case with Shields.

In such cases where the cover is sufficiently small and close to the target, attacks originating from within a type of Cone, the Cover Cone, are affected by that cover. The Cover Cone originates from the target and is directed towards the cover, has no range limit and can't be interrupted.

To continue the Shield example, if you are holding a Shield directly towards an enemy, that enemy is within the Cover Cone originating from you and directed through the Shield, as they are directly on the opposite side of the Shield. Therefor, you benefit from the Cover your Shield provides you with, increasing your Hit DC against attacks by that enemy, usually by 2 or 4.

Crouching behind cover: Creatures may crouch, perch, sit down, or fall prone behind cover at will to increase the degree of cover they can obtain. When doing so, the following effects apply to the crouched creature:

For example, a Medium Humanoid receives three quarters cover from a Tower Shield when crouching behind it instead of the usual half cover, while a Small Humanoid can receive full cover from a Tower Shield when crouching behind it.

Damage Reduction

Damage Reduction: Targets now have a Damage Reduction value. When the target takes damage through an attack, that value is subtracted from this damage.

Resistances & Vulnerabilities: Damage Reduction happens before resistances and vulnerabilities modify the damage.

Multiple Damage Types: When one attack deals damage of multiple different damage types, the Damage Reduction still only applies once to the attack, not to every type of damage it deals.

Damage of different types is reduced in order, with leftover reduction being carried to the next type. Bludgeoning, Piercing and Slashing damage are reduced first, Force damage and Psychic damage are reduced last, and all other damage types are reduced in-between. Within each category, the order of reduction is chosen by the target for each attack, so you may choose to reduce Bludgeoning damage before Slashing damage and vice versa whenever relevant.

For example, if an attack deals 2 Piercing damage, 2 Cold damage and 2 Force damage against a Damage Reduction of 3, the Piercing damage is reduced to 0, the Cold damage to 1 and the Force damage stays at 2, reducing the total damage dealt by 3. If it dealt Fire damage instead of Force damage, the target could have chosen to reduce the Fire damage by 1 instead of the Cold damage.

Damage Reduction for Specific Damage Types: Some features may give Damage Reduction against a specific damage type only. This Damage Reduction only reduces the Damage of its specified type, and its reduction takes place before general Damage Reduction is applied as described above.

Converting Armor Class to Damage Reduction: Every bonus to Armor Class that is not the Dexterity bonus can be converted 1:1 into a bonus for Damage Reduction, unless otherwise noted. An armour that sets the Armor Class of the wearer to 13 + Dexterity modifier will, for example, be converted to 3 Damage Reduction, because it is an Armor Class bonus of +3 compared to the base Armor Class of 10, while the Dexterity modifier is discarded. The conversion for armours can also be seen in their chapter.

Stacking Damage Reduction: Damage Reduction from multiple sources stacks. However, the prerequisites for each source must still be met. For example, the Damage Reduction now gained from the Barbarians Unarmoured Defence and a heavy armour will not stack, because the heavy armour still disables the Barbarians Unarmoured Defence.

Other changes

Reactive Defence: There are now options to reactively defend against incoming attacks and other effects. These include Dodging, Blocking and Parrying, as detailed within the Rules Glossary. For spellcasters, some of the new and reworked spells provide options for reactive defence.

Defence Action: You can use your Action to take the Defence Action. Doing so gives you a number of Reactions equal to your Proficiency Bonus. You may only use these additional Reactions for defensive Reactions, including Dodging, Blocking, Parrying, or another Reaction that fulfills the following conditions:

When gaining Surge Dice at the start of your next turn, no more than three of your unspent Reactions are converted into Surge Dice.

Dodge Action: If you take the Dodge action, you gain a number of Reactions equal to your Proficiency Bonus. You may only use these additional Reactions for Dodging. You also gain the following benefits until the start of your next turn:

When gaining Surge Dice at the start of your next turn, no more than three of your unspent Reactions are converted into Surge Dice.

You lose these benefits if you have the Incapacitated condition or if your Speed is 0.

Misses? Any rule or feature that requires a missed attack to work also works if the attack does not deal damage because of Damage Reduction, Blocking, or Parrying. Those attacks count as both a hit and a miss in that regard. Note that Dodging explicitly causes dodged attacks to miss.

Aimed Strikes

During play, it became apparent that attack rolls lost a good deal of their charm. This was mainly because an uncontested attack roll was too likely to succeed, given that the Hit DC is significantly lower than Armor Class is in the base game. This also made having a good attack bonus or rolling with Advantage or Disadvantage less significant on attacks, especially against larger targets that have an even smaller Hit DC. In short, making an attack roll felt redundant as soon as it was uncontested.

Aimed Strikes are the response to this problem. They allow the attacker to trade their hit chance against other benefits, damage among them, increasing the risk of the attack roll. This also deepens strategic thinking, as some circumstances may still incentivize going for the easy hit. This active choice should make the reliability feel better than before, where the reliability was imposed.

Aimed Strike: When attacking a target, you can choose to target a specific part of them instead of them in general. This changes the base Hit DC of the attack to the base Hit DC of the targeted part, depending on its size as noted in the chapter on AC-less Defence. Parts can benefit from cover and usually have the same Damage Reduction as the creature or object they belong to. When an Aimed Strike hits a creature, they must make a Wound Save as described below.

The DM may decide to also tie other effects to specific parts, such as a Damage Reduction modifier, particular damage vulnerabilities, other conditions to save against and the like.

Wound Save: When you are struck by an Aimed Strike you must make a Constitution saving throw against half the attacks damage or 10, whichever is higher. If you succeed, nothing happens. Otherwise, the attack leaves the targeted body part Wounded.

If the damage is higher than twice your Constitution score or half your maximum Hit Points, whichever is lower, the targeted body part is Wounded on a successful save and Disabled on a failed save.

Weakspots: Some creatures may have regions on their body that are especially vulnerable to attacks. Targeting these regions should be more difficult, but also yield more devastating results for the target.

As a DM, you can make use of this when designing an encounter to make a fight more interesting. Maybe the Kobold tinkerer has a bomb in their pocket that just waits to be hit by Fire damage to explode in their face, or maybe the dragon loses their breath weapon with a well placed strike through their lungs.

Some weakspots may not be apparent at first glance. In this case, a Study action may give the players just the information they need.

Covering Body Parts: Similar to how a creature can receive cover, body parts can also become harder to hit when covered, as described in the chapter about AC-less Defence.

For example, when a Tiny shield is held accordingly, it can give total cover to a Diminutive body part, turn a Tiny body part into a Fine target, and a Small body part into a Diminutive target.

Body part sizes for Medium Humanoids: The table below shows the rough sizes of the body parts of a Medium Humanoid. This table is not definitive, as the size of a body part can vary from person to person and effectively also depends on the angle it is viewed at. A buff humans arms may be easier to hit than those of a lanky one, and a torso viewed from the side is effectively smaller than one viewed from the front.

Body Part Size Hit DC
Head Diminutive 16
Eye Minus 1 22
Neck Diminutive 16
Arm Tiny 14
Hand Diminutive 16
Torso Small 12
Crotch Fine 18
Leg Tiny 14
Foot Diminutive 16

Example Scenario

The champion knows that a blinded cyclops is a harmless cyclops. Therefor, she decides to aim her shot at his eye. This increases the Hit DC for the attack from 6 to 18, given that the eye is a Fine target. The DM decides on the fly that the eye is vulnerable to piercing damage. She rolls her attack as usual and hits, dealing 38 piercing damage, so the cyclops must make a DC19 Wound Save. He fails this save, so his eye is now wounded, giving him Disadvantage on everything that relies on his sight. This is not enough for the champion though, so she fires a second arrow towards his eye, dealing 46 piercing damage. The cyclops fails his DC23 Wound Save and his eye is now disabled, leaving him Blinded.

Reactions

Free Reactions: In addition to a Reaction, every creature also has a Free Reaction they can use.

The free object interaction each character has once per turn may be used as a Free Reaction instead, if there is a trigger that plausibly allows for such a reaction, at the DMs mercy. For example, you can use your Free Reaction to shut a door as soon as someone has walked through it on their turn.

When you have the Incapacitated condition, you can no longer use your Free Reaction.

Every feature that uses a Free Reaction can also use a Reaction instead.

Reserving Actions: At the end of your turn, you gain 1 additional Reaction per Action you did not use. If you were unable to use these Actions because you were Incapacitated, this conversion does not happen.

Ready Action: When using the Ready Action, you also gain 1 additional Reaction.

Reserving Bonus Actions: At the end of your turn, you gain 1 additional Reaction per Bonus Action you did not use. If you were unable to use these Bonus Actions because you were Incapacitated, this conversion does not happen.

Reserving Reactions: At the start your turn, you gain 1 Surge Die per Reaction you did not use. If you were unable to use these Reactions because you were Incapacitated, this conversion does not happen.

Reactive Defence: There are now options to reactively defend against incoming attacks and other effects. These include Dodging, Blocking and Parrying, as detailed within the Rules Glossary. For spellcasters, some of the new and reworked spells provide options for reactive defence.

Surge Dice

A Surge Die is 1d6 that can be used for various effects that are described below. You can use one or more Surge Dice as part of any of your Actions, Bonus Actions, Free Actions, Reactions, or Free Reactions. You can use more than one Surge Die at once for the same effect. All unspent Surge Dice expire at the start of your next turn and at the end of combat.

When Surge Dice are to be used in a contest, each participating party must announce the number of Surge Dice they use before knowing the roll of another party.

Obtaining Surge Dice: You can obtain Surge Dice through reserving Reactions as described in the Reaction rules. Some classes may also give features that relate to Surge Dice.

Surge Reaction: Instead of using Surge Dice as part of other actions, you can also use them by themselves. When you notice something happening, you can take a Free Reaction to use any number of your Surge Dice.

Surge Die Effects

You can use Surge Dice for the following effects:

Power: Add the roll to an attack roll, an ability check, or the damage you deal to one creature. If the Surge Die is added to the damage of a critical hit, it is not doubled.

Force: Subtract the roll from one saving throw you require one creature to make. This can be part of an effect that requires multiple creatures to roll a saving throw, but it only applies to the one creature you choose.

Speed: You gain 10ft. of movement that you can immediately use.

Tenacity: You gain temporary hit points equal to the roll until the start of your next turn.

Vision & Focus

Vision

Vision: Many features in these rules rely on seeing something happen. In combat, track and attend to the direction you look. Using miniatures on battlemaps works well for this, but any small thing that discernibly points any direction will do.

Field of View: There are four different fields of view that apply to creatures and objects that have vision:

Out of View: When you are outside of another creatures or objects field of view, it treats you as if you had the Invisible condition.

Focus

Focus: You usually have something within your perception that you primarily attend to - this is what you focus on. You automatically switch focus to a creature or object when targeting them with a single-target spell, attack, or other effect. You can only focus on one target at a time.

As long as you are focused on a target, you can rotate with the target's movement, if needed, to keep that target within your sight. This way, for example, a Humanoid can save their back from another creature’s attacks, allowing them to react to their attacks.

Switch Focus: At the end of your turn, you can switch Focus to any creature that you perceive. Otherwise, you can use a Free Reaction or Reaction to Focus a creature that you notice moving towards you or doing something near you.

Losing Focus: You lose Focus if you receive the Incapacitated condition or when you lose the ability to perceive the target of your Focus.

A creature that you Focus may also make you lose Focus by applying the charmed or frightened condition to you, by successfully hiding behind total cover, or by spontaneously becoming unperceived by you (for example through invisibility or teleportation).

Escape Focus: To escape a creature's Focus, you can take a Bonus Action, making a Dexterity (Acrobatics) check contested by the creature's passive perception, and use your movement to leave their vision. On a success, the creature loses Focus, on a failure, they can turn to keep their Focus and you in their vision.

This can, for example, be used to be able to attack the back of a Humanoid that previously focused their vision on you, making sure they can't react to your attack.

Draw Focus: You can force other creatures to Switch Focus by drawing their attention to yourself, another creature or something else. This may occur as a side-effect of anything you do that is sufficiently noticeable, at the mercy of the player controlling the respective creature whose Focus is to be drawn.

If a creature does take notice and the controlling player decides it would be plausible that their creatures Focus could be drawn, the creature may make a Concentration check to resist having to Switch Focus. The Difficulty Class of this check is determined by the controlling player and the drawing player in a way that should be plausible for whatever was done to attempt drawing attention.

Example Scenarios

A Halfling cutthroat is looking to take out a Human guard they lead into an alley. They are currently looking at another, and the guard charges forward to strike. To escape the guards focus, the nimble cutthroat swiftly maneuvers around the guard, using their Bonus Action to make a Dexterity (Acrobatics) check against 13, the guard’s passive perception. They succeed and stand behind the disoriented guard’s back, able to attack the guard without them being able to react.

A Bard attempts to draw the attention of a bloodthirsty Gnoll that prioritizes the weak. They attempt to do so by faking a scream of pain and acting hurt & vulnerable. The DM controlling the Gnoll may decide that the attempt is automatically successful and make the Gnoll Switch Focus to the Bard - they might also decide that the Gnoll might try to resist (for a reason) and roll a Concentration check contested by a Charisma (Performance) check by the Bard, only switching the Gnolls Focus if they lose the contest - they might also decide that the attempt automatically fails (for a reason).

Contests

The 2024 rules saw the removal of contested rolls and moved towards the use of saving throws instead. That is the exact opposite direction that these rules want to go. To establish more interactivity, contests are thus reintroduced here. The actions that use those are described throughout the book, for example with the Grapple and Shove attacks described in Grappling & Shoving.

Sometimes one character’s or monster’s efforts are directly opposed to another’s. This can occur when both of them are trying to do the same thing and only one can succeed, such as attempting to snatch up a magic ring that has fallen on the floor. This situation also applies when one of them is trying to prevent the other one from accomplishing a goal, for example, when a monster tries to force open a door that an adventurer is holding closed. In situations like these, the outcome is determined by a special form of D20-Test, called a contest.

Contest: Both participants in a contest make D20-Tests appropriate to their efforts. They apply all appropriate bonuses and penalties, but instead of comparing the total to a DC, they compare the totals of their two checks. The participant with the higher check total wins the contest. That character or monster either succeeds at the action or prevents the other one from succeeding.

If the contest results in a tie, the situation remains the same as it was before the contest. Thus, one contestant might win the contest by default. If two characters tie in a contest to snatch a ring off the floor, neither character grabs it. In a contest between a monster trying to open a door and an adventurer trying to keep the door closed, a tie means that the door remains shut.

Aspects of Stealth

When using stealth, there are multiple aspects that can lead to being detected. Most commonly, being seen or heard is key to being detected, but scent may also play a role at some points, especially when a creature that may detect you has a keen sense of smell, like a wolf.

Passive Stealth (Scent): You have a base passive Stealth (Scent) score of 15. You can mask your scent to gain a bonus of +5 to this score, but you can also receive -5 to this score when giving off a strong scent that is uncommon for the place you are traversing.

The bonus might be given after applying herbs or some magic to yourself or by being washed. The malus might be given after taking a tour through the sewers, after a tough battle that left you wounded or after strenuous activity that left you sweaty.

When you try hiding from a creature that is close to you, both your Dexterity (Stealth) check and your passive Stealth (Scent) must be below the creature’s passive perception. If the Dexterity (Stealth) check fails, you are heard or seen, as usual. If the passive Stealth (Scent) fails, the creature smells you. This may only be a hint towards your presence (DMs choice) and may not lead to you being seen immediately, but it is reason for the creature to make a Wisdom (Perception) check to try and locate you. For some creatures it may be reasonable to have them be able to locate you based on scent alone, at the DMs discretion.

Example Scenario

A thief tries to sneak past a guard dog. They rolled a 21 on their Dexterity (Stealth) check and have a passive Stealth (Scent) score of 15, because they took no measures to mask their scent (no bonus) and do not smell strongly (no malus).

The guard dog has a passive perception of 12, so the thief gets close to passing him with ease, without a sound, but the guard dog has a keen sense of smell, bumping up his passive Perception for scent to 17. The guard dog smells something unusual as soon as the thief gets too close, and, trying to investigate that unusual scent, the guard dog rolls a Wisdom (Perception) check, resulting in a 19. The guard dog did not see or hear the thief through that, so the thief is still unnoticed and can pass without further worries.

Grappling & Shoving

Unarmed Strikes: The Grapple and Shove options of the Unarmed Strike are changed to use Contests again, as described below.

Grapple: Using at least one free hand, you try to seize the target by making a grapple check, a Strength (Athletics) check contested by the target's Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check (their choice). If you succeed, you subject the target to the Grappled condition. You can release the target whenever you like (no action required). The target of your grapple must be no more than one size larger than you, and it must be within your reach.

Escaping a Grapple: A grappled creature can use its action to escape. To do so, it must succeed on a Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check contested by your Strength (Athletics) check. The grapple also ends if the you have the Incapacitated condition or if the distance between you and the Grappled target exceeds your reach.

Shove: You make a Strength (Athletics) check contested by the target's Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check (their choice). If you win the contest, you either knock the target Prone or push it 5 feet away from you, your choice. The target of your shove must be no more than one size larger than you, and it must be within your reach.

Chapter 0 - Introduction Index Chapter 2 - Character Creation