D&D 5e Dungeon Master's Guide

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION 4 Unusual Environments .............................................. 116
Traps.............................................................................. 120
The Dungeon Master....................................................... 4
How to Use This Book....................................................4 CHAPTER 6: BETWEEN ADVENTURES .... .. ...... 125
Know Your Players ........................................................... 6
Linking Adventures .................................................... 125
PARTl 7 Campaign Tracking..................................................... 126
Recurring Expenses ................................................... 126
CHAPTER 1: A WORLD OF YOUR OWN .. ...... ........ 9 Downtime Activities ................................................... 127

The Big Picture................................................................. 9 CHAPTER 7: TREASURE ................................ .. .... .. . 133
Gods of Your World ........................................................ 10
Mapping Your Campaign............................................... 14 Types of Treasure ....................................................... 133
Settlements .....................................................................15 Random Treasure ....................................................... 133
Languages and Dialects............................................... 20 Magic Items.................................................................. 135
Factions and Organizations .........................................21 Sentient Magic Items ................................................. 214
Magic in Your World ..................................................... 23 Artifacts......................................................................... 219
Creating a Campaign ................................................... 25 Other Rewards ............................................................ 227
Campaign Events .......................................................... 26
Play Style ........................................................................ 34 PART3 233
Tiers of Play.................................................................... 36
Flavors of Fantasy ...........................:............................ 38 CHAPTER 8: RUNNING THE GAME ..... .. .......... 235

CHAPTER 2: CREATING A MULTIVERSE .. .. ..... 43 Table Rules ................................................................... 235
The Role of Dice .......................................................... 236
The Planes ..................................................................... 43 Using Ability Scores .................................................. 237
Planar Travel ................................................................. 44 Exploration ................................................................... 242
Astral Plane ........................................:.......................... 46 Social Interaction ....................................................... 244
Ethereal Plane ............................................................... 48 Objects........................................................................... 246
Feywild ....:....................................................................... 49 Combat .......................................................................... 247
Shadowfe ll..... ................................................. ... .. ..'.......... 51 Chases ........................................................................... 252
Inner P lanes....................................................................52 Siege Equipment.............................................,........... 255
Outer P lanes .................................................................. 57 Diseases ........................................................................ 256
Other Planes .................................................................. 67 Poisons .......................................................................... 257
Known Worlds of the Material Plane ....................... 68 Madness ........................................................................ 258
Experience Points....................................................... 260
PART2 69
CHAPTER 9: DuNGEON MASTER' s
CHAPTER 3: CREATING ADVENTURES ............ 71
WORKSHOP ...................................... ............... ..... ........ 263
Elements of a Great Adventure ..................................71
Published Adventures .................................................. 72 Ability Options............................................................. 263
Adventure Structure .................................................... 72 Adventuring Options..................................................266
Adventure Types ........................................................... 72 Combat Options .......................................................... 270
Complications ................................................................ 79 Creating a Monster ..................................................... 273
Creating Encounters .....................................................81 Creating a Spell........................................................... 283
Random Encounters .................................................... 85 Creating a Magic Item ............................................... 284
Creating New Character Options............................ 285
CHAPTER 4 : CREATING NONPLAYER
APPENDIXA: RANDOM DUNGEONS 290
CHARACTERS ................................. ..... ..... ................. .... 89
Designing NPCs ........................................................... 89 Starting Area ............................................................... 290
NPC Party Members.................................................... 92 Passages ....................................................................... 290
Contacts .......................................................................... 93 Doors ............................................................................. 291
Hirelings ......................................................................... 94 Chambers ..................................................................... 291
Extras .............................................................................. 94 Stairs ............................................................................. 291
Villains ............................................................................ 94 Connecting Areas ....................................................... 292
Villainous Class Options ............................................. 96 Stocking a Dungeon................................................... 292

CHAPTER 5: ADVENTURE ENVIRONMENTS .. . 99 APPENDIX B: MONSTER LISTS 302

Dungeons ........................................................................ 99 APPENDIX C: MA-P-S------------------3-1-0
Mapping a Dungeon ................................................... 102
Wilderness .................................................................... 106 APPENDIX D: DUNGEON
Mapping a Wilderness ............................................... 108
Wilderness Survival ................................................... 109 MASTER INSPIRA-T-I-O-N-------------3-1-6
Settlements .................................................................. 112 INDE-X---------------------------3-1-7
Mapping a Settlement.................................................114
Urban Encounters..............:......................................... 114













an everyday occurrence, as magical flying ships and calls clerics and paladins to his service and encourages
trains carry travelers from one great city to another. them to spread the ideals of honorable warfare,
chival ry, and justice in society. Even in the midst of his
Gods Inhabit the Land, orAre EntirelyAbsent. everlasting war with his brother Hextor, god of war and
What if the gods regularly walk the earth? What if the tyra nny, Heironeous promotes his own portfolio: war
characters can challenge them and seize their power? fought nobly and in the cause of justice.
Or what if the gods are remote, and even angels never
make contact with mortals? In the Dark Sun setting, the People in most D&D worlds are polytheistic, honoring
gods are extremely distant-perhaps nonexistent-and deities of their own and acknowledging pantheons of
clerics rely instead on elemental power for their magic. other cultures. Individuals pay homage to various gods,
regardless of alignment. In the Forgotten Realms, a
Gons OF YouR WoRLD person might propitiate Umberlee before setting out
to sea, join a communal feast to celebrate Chauntea at
Appendix B of the Player's Handbook presents a harvest time, and pray to Malar before going hunting.
number of pantheons (loose groupings of deities not
united by a single doctrine or philosophy) for use in your Some individuals feel a calling to a particular deity's
game, including the gods of established D&D worlds service and claim that god as a patron. Particularly
and fantasy-historical pantheons. You can adopt one of devoted individuals become priests by setting up a
these pantheons for your campaign, or pick and choose shrine or helping to staff a holy site. Much more rarely,
deities and ideas from them as you please. See "A those who feel such a calling become clerics or paladins
Sample Pantheon" in this section for an example. invested with the responsibility of true divine power.

As far as the game's rules are concerned, it doesn't Shrines and temples serve as community gathering
matter if your world has hundreds of deities or a church points for religious rites and festivals. Priests at such
devoted to a single god. In rules terms, clerics choose sites relate stories of the gods, teach the ethics of their
domains, not deities, so your world can associate patron deities, offer advice and blessings, perform
domains with deities in any way you choose. religious rites, and provide training in activities their
deities favor. Cities and large towns can host several
LOOSE PANTHEONS temples dedicated to individual gods important to the
community, while smaller settlements might have a
Most D&D worlds have a loose pantheon of gods. single shrine devoted to any gods the locals revere.
A multitude of deities rule the various aspects of
existence, variously cooperating with and competing To quickly build a pantheon for your world, crea~e
against one another to administer the affairs of the a single god for each of the eight domains available
universe. People gather in public shrines to worship to clerics: Death, Knowledge, Life, Light, Nature,
gods of life and wisdom, or meet in hidden places to Tempest, Trickery, and War. You can invent names
venerate gods of deception or destruction. and personalities for these deities, or borrow deities
from other pantheons. This approach gives you a small
Each deity in a pantheon has a portfolio and is pantheon that covers the most significant aspects of
responsible for advancing that portfolio. In the existence, and it's easy enough to extrapolate other
Greyhawk setting, Heironeous is a god of valor who areas oflife each deity controls. The god of Knowledge,

DAWN WAR DEITIES Alignment Suggested Domains Symbol
LE Trickery Three triangles in tight formation
Deity CG Tricker y Three stacked wavy lines
Asmodeus , god of tyranny LG Life, War Dragon 's head , in profile, facing left
Avandra, goddess of change and luck LE War Claw with three talons pointing down
Bahamut, god of justice and nobility CG Light Eight-pointed star
Bane, god of war and conquest LN Knowledge Upper half of a clockwork gear
Corellon, god of magic and the arts CE Tempest, War Triangular eye with bony protrusions
Erath is, goddess of civilization and invention N Knowledge Crook shaped like a stylized eye
Gruumsh, god of destruction CN Tempest Sword with a lightning bolt cross guard
loun , goddess of knowledge CE Tricker y Eight· pointed star with a web motif
Kord, god of strength and storms N Nature, Tempest Wavelike swirl
Lolth , goddess of spiders and lies LG Knowledge, War Flaming anvil
Melora, goddess of wilderness and the sea NG Life, Light Circle with six outwardly radiating points
Moradin, god of creation LN Life, Death Raven's head, in profile, facing left
Pelor, god of the sun and agriculture CG Trickery Crescent moon
Raven Queen , goddess of death CE Trickery Jagged counter-clockwise spiral
Sehanine, goddess of the moon LE Trickery, War Five-pointed star with curved points
Tharizdun , god of madness NE Death T attached to a circular shackle
Tiamat, goddess of wealth, greed, and vengeance NE Death, Knowledge Partially shattered one-eyed skull
Torog, god of the Underdark CE Trickery, Death Snake in the shape of a dagger
Vecna, god of evil secrets
Zehir, god of darkness and poison

CHAPTER I I A WORLD Of YOUR OWN

10

































PuTTING EvENTS IN MoT-IO-N- - - - - - To get started , select a world-s haki ng event category
or roll on the World-Sha king Events table.
World-shaking events can happen at any time in
a campaign or story arc, but the biggest incidents WORLD-SHAKING EVENTS
naturally fall at the beginning, middle, and end
of a story. dlO Event

That placement reflects the structure of dramatic Rise of a leader or an era
stories. At the beginning of a story, something happens 2 Fall of a leader or an era
to shake the protagonists' world and spur them into 3 Cataclysmic disaster
action. The characters take action to resolve their 4 Assault or invasion
problems, but other forces oppose them. As they reach a 5 Rebellion , revolution , overthrow
significant milestone toward their goal, a major conflict 6 Extinction or depletion
disrupts the characters' plans, shaking their world 7 New organization
again; failure seems imminent. At the end of the story, 8 Discovery, expan sion, inve ntion
they succeed or fail , and the world is shaken again by 9 Prediction, omen, prophecy
the way the characters changed it for good or ill. 10 Myth and legend

At the beginning of a D&D campaign , world-shaking 1-2. RISE OR FALL OF A LEADER OR AN ERA
events create instant adventure hooks and affect the
characters' lives directly. In the middle, they make great Eras are often defined by the prominent leaders,
turning points as the characters' fortunes reverse- innovators, and tyrants of th e day. These people change
rising after a defeat or falling after a victory. Near the world and etch their signatures indelibly on the
the end of a campaign, such events serve as excellent pages of history. When they rise to power, they s hape
climactic episodes with far-reaching effects. They might the time and place where they live in monumental ways.
even occur after the story has ended, as a result of the When they fall from power or pass away, the ghost of
characters' actions. their presence lingers.

WHEN NoT To SHAKE IT UP - - - - - Determine the kind of leader th at influences the new
or passing era. You can choose the type of leader or
In constructing a narrative, beware of "false action," determine one randomly using the Leader Types table.
or action for its own sake. False action doesn't move
a story forward , engage characters, or cause them to LEADER TYPES
change. Many action movies suffer from false action, in
which car chases, gunfights, and explosions abound but dG Leader Type
do little more than inconvenience the characters and
eventually bore the audience with their repetition and Political
dearth of meaningful stakes. Some D&D campaigns fall 2 Religious
into the same trap, stringing world-spanning disasters 3 Military
together one after another with little impact on the 4 Crime/underworld
characters or the world. Thus, it's probably not in the 5 Artjcu ltu re
DM's best interest to reorder the world every single time 6 Philosophyjlearningjmagic
there's a lull in the action, lest world-shaking events
become ordinary. Political leaders are monarchs, nobles , and chiefs.
Religious leaders include deities' avatars, high priests ,
As a general rule, a campaign can sustain up to and messiahs, as well as those in cha rge of monasteries
three large-scale, world-shaking events: one near the and leaders of influential religious sects. Major military
beginning, one near the middle, and one near the leaders control the armed forces of countries. They
end. Use as many small-scale events that disturb the include military dictators, warlords, and the heads of
bounded microcosms of towns, villages, tribes, fiefs, a ruler's war council. Minor military leaders include
duchies, provinces, and so forth as you like. Every the heads of local militias, ga ngs, and other martial
significant event shakes someone's ·world, after all, no organizations. At the broadest scale, a criminal or
matter how small that world might be. Let unexpected underworld leader wields power th rough a network of
a nd terrible events regularly afflict the world's smaller spies, bribes, and black-market trade . On the smallest
territories, but unless your story demands it, save the scale, these are local gang bosses, pirate captains, and
large-scale map-spanning events for the biggest, most brigands. A leader in art or culture is a virtuoso whose
important moments of your campaign. work reflects the spirit of the age and changes the way
people think: a prominent playwright, bard, or court fool
WORLD-SHAKING EVENT-S - - - - - - in whose words, art, or performance the people perceive
universal truth . On a smaller scale, this might be an
Yo u can use this section for ideas and inspiration to influential local poet, minstrel, satirist, or sculptor.
expand on world-shaking events already occurring (or A major leader in philosophy, learning, or magic is
oon to occur) within your world. Alternatively, you can a genius philosopher, a counselor to emperors, an
roll on the tables below to randomly generate an event enlightened thinker, the head of the highest institution
to inspire your imagination. The attempt to justify a of learning in the world, or an archmage. A minor leader
random result can reveal unforeseen possibilities.

CHAPTER 1 I A WORLD OF YOUR OWN ?..7



















This approach also allows you to break your design LEVELS 11-16: MASTERS OF THE
work down into smaller pieces. Create material such
as adventures, NPCs, maps, and so on for one tier at REALM
a time. You only need to worry about the details of the
next tier as the characters approach it. Even better, as By 11th level, characters are shining examples of
the campaign takes unexpected turns in response to the courage and determination-true paragons in the world,
players' choices, you don't have to worry about redoing set well apart from the masses. At this tier, adventurers
much work. are far more versatile than they were at lower levels, and
they can usually find the right tool for a given challenge.
LEVELS 1- 4: LOCAL HEROES
Dedicated spellcasters gain access to 6th-level spells
Characters in this tier are still learning the range of at 11th level, including spells that completely change
class features that define them, including their choice the way adventurers interact with the world. Their big,
of specialization. But even 1st-level characters are flashy spells are significant in combat- disintegrate ,
heroes, set apart from the common people by natural blade barrier, and heal, for example- but behind-the-
characteristics, learned skills, and the hint of a greater scenes spells such as word ofrecall, find the path,
destiny that lies before them. contingency, teleport, and true seeing alter the way
players approach their adventures. Each spell level after
At the start of their careers, characters use 1st- that point introduces new effects with an equally large
a nd 2nd-level spells and wield mundane gear. The impact. The adventurers find rare magic items (and very
magic items they find include common consumable rare ones) that bestow similarly powerful abilities.
items (potions and scrolls) and a very few uncommon
permanent items. Their magic can have a big impact in The fate of a nation or even the world depends on
a single encounter, but it doesn't change the course of an momentous quests that such characters undertake.
adventure. Adventurers explore uncharted regions and delve into
long-forgotten dungeons, where they confront terrible
The fate of a village might hang on the success or masterminds of the lower planes, cunning rakshasas
failure of low-level adventurers, who trust their lives and beholders, and hungry purple worms. They might
to their fledgling abilities. These characters navigate encounter and even defeat a powerful adult dragon
dangerous terrain and explore haunted crypts, where that has established a lair and a significant presence in
they can expect to fight savage orcs, ferocious wolves, the world.
giant spiders, evil cultists, bloodthirsty ghouls, and
hired thugs. If they face even a young dragon, they're At this tier, adventurers make their mark on the
better off avoiding a fight. world in a variety of ways, from the consequences of
their adventures to the manner in which they spend
LEVELS 5-10: HEROES OF THE REALM their hard-won treasure and exploit their well-deserved
reputations. Characters of this level construct fortresses
By the time they reach this tier, adventurers have on land deeded them by local rulers. They found guilds,
mastered the basics of their class features, though they temples, or martial orders. They take on apprentices
continue to improve throughout these levels. They have or students of their own. They broker peace between
found their place in the world and have begun to involve nations or lead them into war. And their formidable
themselves in the dangers that surround them. reputations attract the attention of very powerful foes.

Dedicated spellcasters learn 3rd-level spells at the LEVELS 17-20: MASTERS OF THE
s tart of this tier. Suddenly characters can fly, damage
large numbers of foes with fireball and lightning bolt WORLD
pells, and even breathe underwater. They master
5th-level spells by the end of the tier, and spells such By 17th level, characters have superheroic capabilities,
as teleportation circle, scrying, flame strike, legend and their deeds and adventures are the stuff of legend.
lore , and raise dead can have a significant impact on Ordinary people can hardly dream of such heights of
their adventures. They start acquiring more permanent power-or such terrible dangers.
magic items (uncommon and rare ones) as well, which
will serve them for the rest of their careers. Dedicated spellcasters at this tier wield earthshaking
9th-level spells such as wish, gate, storm of vengeance,
The fate of a region might depend on the adventures and astral projection. Characters have several rare
that characters of levels 5 to 10 undertake. These and very rare magic items at their disposal, and begin
adventurers venture into fearsome wilds and ancient discovering legendary items such as a vorpal sword or a
ruins, where they confront savage giants, ferocious staffofthe magi.
hydras, fearless golems, evil yuan-ti, scheming devils,
bloodthirsty demons, crafty mind flayers, and drow Adventures at these levels have far-reaching
assassins. They might have a chance of defeating a consequences, possibly determining the fate of
young dragon that has established a lair but not yet millions in the Material Plane and even places beyond.
extended its reach far into the surrounding territory. Characters traverse otherworldly realms and explore
demiplanes and other extraplanar locales, where they
fight savage bator demons, titans, archdevils, lich
archmages, and even avatars of the gods themselves.
The dragons they encounter are wyrms of tremendous
power, whose sleep troubles kingdoms and whose
waking threatens existence itself.

CHAPTER l I A WORLD OF YOUR OWN 37