Inept Wizard

Damage Types

Does Necrotic Damage Heal the Undead?

No.

Necrotic damage is the decomposition of body and soul — the same thing that happens to a corpse after death. An undead is already dead matter, kept functioning by sleight of hand, by miracle, and by constant maintenance: an undead creature must preserve its own body so that body does not decompose completely. Its essence, the soul it used to have, is already corrupted beyond salvation.

Necrotic damage pushes both further along a road they have already travelled. That does not heal an undead. It may well be among the worst things you can do to one.

Speed

A creature’s Speed is the distance in feet it can cover when it moves on its turn. A character’s Speed is set at character creation; a monster’s Speed is given in its stat block.

Special Speeds

Some creatures have a special speed as well: a Burrow Speed, a Climb Speed, a Fly Speed, or a Swim Speed.

Burrow Speed. A creature that has a Burrow Speed can use it to move through sand, earth, mud, or ice. It cannot burrow through solid rock unless it has a trait that says so.

Climb Speed. A Climb Speed can be used in place of your Speed to cross a vertical surface without paying the extra cost of climbing.

Fly Speed. A Fly Speed can be used to travel through the air. While you have a Fly Speed, you stay aloft until you land, fall, or die.

Swim Speed. A Swim Speed can be used in place of your Speed to swim without paying the extra cost of swimming.

Using More Than One. If you have more than one speed, choose which to use when you move, and you can change from one to another during the move. Whenever you change, subtract the distance already moved from the new speed; the result is how much farther you can go on it. If the result is 0 or less, you cannot use that speed for the rest of the move. A creature with a Speed of 30 feet and a Fly Speed of 40 feet can fly 10 feet, walk 10 feet, and leave the ground again to fly 20 feet more.

Changes to Your Speeds. If an effect raises or lowers your Speed for a time, every special speed you have changes by the same amount for the same duration. If your Speed is reduced to 0, so is your Climb Speed; if your Speed is halved, so is your Fly Speed.

Climbing

While you are climbing, each foot of movement costs 1 extra foot, or 2 extra feet in Difficult Terrain. You ignore this extra cost if you have a Climb Speed and use it to climb.

At the GM’s option, climbing a slippery surface or one with few handholds calls for a successful DC 15 Strength (Athletics) check.

Crawling

While you are crawling, each foot of movement costs 1 extra foot, or 2 extra feet in Difficult Terrain.

Flying

Various effects allow a creature to fly. While flying, you fall if you have the Prone or Unconscious condition, or if your Fly Speed is reduced to 0 (see “Falling”).

Hovering. Some creatures can hover, as their stat blocks note, and some spells and other effects grant it. A creature that can hover stays aloft in the circumstances above rather than falling.

Jumping

When you jump, you make either a Long Jump, which is horizontal, or a High Jump, which is vertical. Either way, each foot of the jump costs a foot of movement.

Swimming

While you are swimming, each foot of movement costs 1 extra foot, or 2 extra feet in Difficult Terrain. You ignore this extra cost if you have a Swim Speed and use it to swim.

At the GM’s option, moving any distance in rough water calls for a successful DC 15 Strength (Athletics) check.

Teleportation

Teleportation is a magical way of getting about. When you Teleport, you disappear and reappear elsewhere in the same instant, without crossing the space between. Teleporting costs no movement unless a rule says otherwise, and it never provokes an Opportunity Attack.

Everything you wear and carry Teleports with you. A creature you are touching does not, unless the effect says otherwise.

If the destination space is occupied by another creature or blocked by a solid obstacle, you appear instead in the nearest unoccupied space of your choice. A space is unoccupied if no creature is in it and it is not wholly filled by objects.

The effect that Teleports you says whether you must see the destination.

Blinded

While you have the Blinded condition, you experience the following effect.

Can’t See. You lose the Sight sense. You cannot notice, locate, or study anything by sight, and any ability check that would rely on doing so fails, as if there were nothing for your eyes to work with.

Burning

While you have the Burning condition, you experience the following effect.

Alight. At the start of each of your turns, you take 1d4 Fire damage, unless the effect that set you alight specifies otherwise. That effect also specifies how the fire is put out.

Deafened

While you have the Deafened condition, you experience the following effect.

Can’t Hear. You lose the Hearing sense. You cannot notice, locate, or study anything by sound, and any ability check that would rely on doing so fails, as if there were nothing for your ears to work with.

Drunk

While you have the Drunk condition, you experience the following effects.

Unsteady. You have Disadvantage on attack rolls and on ability checks other than Strength checks.

Bold. You are Immune to the Frightened condition.

Fortunate. If your Luck score is lower than 19, it is 19.

After. When this condition ends, however it ends, you gain the Weakened condition until you finish a Long Rest.

Frightened

While you have the Frightened condition, you experience the following effects.

Failing Body. Your legs weaken, your hands shake, and your mouth goes dry. You have Disadvantage on attack rolls, ability checks, and saving throws while the source of your fear is within your line of sight.

Steadied. When this condition ends, you become immune to the Frightened condition from any creature of the same type as the source.

Grappled

While you have the Grappled condition, you experience the following effects.

Locked Up. You can’t move away from the grappler, and you can’t be moved away from it. If either of you moves, both of you move together. If one of you is larger than the other, the larger creature moves the pair freely, and the smaller has no say in where it goes. If you are the same size, either of you may move the pair, but each foot of that movement costs an extra foot. Moving the pair costs the mover an action, and the other may resist with an Opposed Strength (Athletics) check at no cost of its own; the pair moves only if the mover wins. If both spend an action to pull in opposite directions, the winner of that check moves the pair.

Fouled. You have Disadvantage on attack rolls against any target other than the grappler. You have Disadvantage on attack rolls against the grappler, unless you attack with a weapon of the Daggers group or with an Unarmed Strike. You can’t attack at all with a weapon of the Spears, Staffs, or Bows group.

Insane

While you have the Insane condition, you experience the following effects.

Unnatural Strength. Your Strength modifier is increased by 5 for attack rolls, ability checks, and saving throws.

Broken Reason. Your Intelligence and Wisdom modifiers are each reduced by 5 for attack rolls, ability checks, and saving throws, to a minimum of −5.

Invisible

While you have the Invisible condition, you experience the following effects.

Unseen. Other creatures lose the Sight sense with regard to you and anything you wear or carry. They cannot notice, locate, or study you by sight, and any ability check that would rely on doing so fails, as if there were nothing for their eyes to work with.

The effect that grants this condition specifies if any of the following applies, and which one.

Light Aberration. Light passes around you rather than through you, and the distortion shows when you move. On any turn in which you move, a creature can use the Search action to notice and locate you by sight despite Unseen. You remain Unseen whether or not it succeeds.

No Light. Light passes through you, without interacting with you, and through your own eyes as well. You have the Blinded condition for the duration.

Paralysed

While you have the Paralysed condition, you experience the following effects.

Motionless. Your Speed is 0 and can’t increase. You can’t take any action, Bonus Action, Free Action, or Reaction requiring movement of your body or hands, and your Concentration is broken. You remain aware of yourself and of your surroundings, and you can speak.

Defenceless. You don’t add your Dexterity modifier to your Armour Class, attack rolls against you have Advantage, you automatically fail Strength and Dexterity saving throws, and any attack that hits you from within 5 feet is a Critical Hit.

Petrified

While you have the Petrified condition, you experience the following effects.

Turned to Inanimate Substance. You and any nonmagical objects you wear or carry are transformed into a solid inanimate substance, usually stone. Your weight increases tenfold, and you cease aging.

Motionless. You can’t move, speak, take any action, Bonus Action, Free Action, or Reaction. You cannot perceive your surroundings, unless the effect that causes the Petrified condition says otherwise. Your Concentration is broken.

Inanimate. You don’t need to sleep, eat, drink, or breathe.

Enduring. You have +10 Resistance Points against all damage.

Defenceless. Attack rolls against you have Advantage, and you automatically fail Strength and Dexterity saving throws.

Prone

While you have the Prone condition, you experience the following effects.

Restricted Movement. You can crawl at half your Speed, or spend an amount of movement equal to half your Speed to right yourself and end the condition. If your Speed is 0, you can’t right yourself.

Attacks Affected. You have Disadvantage on attack rolls. An attack roll against you has Advantage if the attacker is within 5 feet of you and not Prone itself. Otherwise, that attack roll has Disadvantage.

Restrained

While you have the Restrained condition, you experience the following effects.

Bound. Your Speed is 0 and can’t increase, and you can’t be moved except by a creature that carries or drags you.

Tied. You can’t take any action, Bonus Action, Free Action, or Reaction requiring movement of your body or hands, other than an action aimed at freeing yourself.

Hampered. You have Disadvantage on Dexterity saving throws, you add half your Dexterity modifier to your Armour Class, and attack rolls against you have Advantage.

Stunned

While you have the Stunned condition, you experience the following effects.

Delayed. You can’t take Reactions, and your Concentration is broken.

Clumsy. You have Disadvantage on attack rolls and on Strength and Dexterity checks.

Alone. You can’t take the Help action, and you can’t benefit from it.

Blank. You have Disadvantage on the Study action. When you cast a spell, roll 1d10. The spell fails if the roll is above your Skill Rank in its school, minus the spell’s level, plus 1. A failed spell consumes half the Magic Points it would have cost.

Suffocating

While you have the Suffocating condition, you experience the following effects.

Starved of Air. At the end of each of your turns, you take 1d6 Vital damage.

Failing. You have Disadvantage on attack rolls, ability checks, and saving throws.

Unconscious

While you have the Unconscious condition, you experience the following effects.

Insensible. You are not aware of yourself or of anything around you. You cannot take any action, Bonus Action, Free Action, or Reaction, you perceive nothing and lose all Senses, your Concentration is broken, and you drop whatever you’re holding. You have the Prone condition, and remain Prone when this condition ends.

Defenceless. Your Speed is 0 and can’t increase, you don’t add your Dexterity modifier to your Armour Class, attack rolls against you have Advantage, you automatically fail Strength and Dexterity saving throws, and any attack that hits you from within 5 feet is a Critical Hit.

Weakened

While you have the Weakened condition, you experience the following effects.

Feeble. Your Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution modifiers are each reduced by 2 for attack rolls, ability checks, and saving throws, to a minimum of −5.

Faltering. When you deal damage with an attack that is not magical, that damage is halved. Magical damage is unaffected, including the damage of a spell, of a magic item, and any magical portion of a weapon’s damage.

Leprosy

Mild disease

The extremities lose sensation. Injuries to them go unnoticed and untended, and the flesh is lost by degrees.

A creature that takes Long Rests in close company with an afflicted creature for a week must succeed on a DC 13 Constitution saving throw or contract leprosy.

The disease does not progress and does not retract. A creature afflicted with leprosy has its Charisma modifier reduced by 5 for ability checks, to a minimum of −5, and automatically fails any ability check to notice injury to itself by touch.

Leprosy does not kill. It is not cured by any ordinary art, and those who bear it are usually put outside the city walls.

Grippe

Mild disease

Fever, aching limbs, and difficulty breathing. It passes within a week, or it settles in the lungs and does not.

A creature that spends an hour in close company with an afflicted creature must succeed on a DC 13 Constitution saving throw or contract grippe.

Saving Throw DC 10. Stages retract.

• Stage 1. The creature has the Weakened condition.
• Stage 2. The creature has the Weakened condition and cannot benefit from a Long Rest, but is not Sleep Deprived.
• Stage 3. The creature has the Weakened and Unconscious conditions. At the end of each Long Rest it takes 1d6 Vital damage before making its saving throw.

A creature that fails its saving throw at Stage 3 dies.

Lice

Common disease

The scalp and body itch without relief, worst at night. The affliction is a misery and nothing worse.

A creature that takes a Long Rest in filthy bedding, or in close company with an afflicted creature, must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or contract lice.

A creature afflicted with lice has its Dexterity modifier reduced by 1 for attack rolls, ability checks, and saving throws, and cannot benefit from a Long Rest unless it rests for 10 hours rather than 8.

A creature that bathes thoroughly in hot water, launders or replaces all it wears, and does both again a week later is rid of them.

Plague

Severe disease

Fever, followed by hard black swellings at the neck and groin, and the death of the flesh around them.

A creature that spends an hour in close company with an afflicted creature, or in a rat-infested area, or that handles the body of one who has died of it, must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or contract plague.

Saving Throw DC 15.

• Stage 1. The creature has the Weakened condition.
• Stage 2. The creature has the Weakened condition, and its Hit Point maximum is halved.
• Stage 3. The creature has the Weakened and Unconscious conditions.

A creature that fails its saving throw at Stage 3 dies. A creature that succeeds on three consecutive saving throws at any stage has survived the plague, returns to Stage 1, recovers fully after a week, and can never contract it again.

Rabies

Fatal disease

No sign of illness for a long while. Then an aversion to water so complete that the creature cannot drink, followed by madness, and then death.

A creature bitten by an afflicted creature must succeed on a DC 20 Constitution saving throw or contract rabies.

Saving Throw DC 12.

• Stage 1. The creature shows no sign of the disease. It makes no saving throws and suffers no effect. This stage lasts 1d4 months, and the creature advances to Stage 2 at its end regardless of anything it does.
• Stage 2. The creature has the Weakened condition and cannot drink.
• Stage 3. The creature has the Weakened and Insane conditions.

A creature that fails its saving throw at Stage 3 dies.

Drowning

A creature that runs out of air underwater gains the Suffocating condition. The condition ends when the creature can breathe again.

A drowning creature’s arms press downward of their own accord, seeking anything solid enough to lever its mouth clear of the water. When a creature comes within 5 feet of a drowning creature, the drowning creature must succeed on a DC 10 Wisdom saving throw or attempt to Grapple it. This is not a decision, and knowing better is no protection: the body does it without asking.

The Drowned Teach the Living

Every scrap of Wisdom in the world began as somebody’s Luck.

A man went into black water and did not drag his rescuer down with him — not because he knew better, for no one knew better yet, but because his hand found driftwood in the dark. He lived. He told it. His sons told it. In time it passed into the blood of every man who has ever swum. Every piece of folk wisdom is somebody’s lucky accident, repeated until it stopped being an accident.

Six of your abilities are what you have become. The seventh is the chance that let your forebears become anything at all, and it has not finished with you yet.

Falling

A falling creature descends 500 feet in the first round and 1,000 feet in each round thereafter.

A creature that falls takes no damage from the first 5 feet, and 1d6 Bludgeoning damage for every 10 feet fallen beyond that, to a maximum of 20d6. When the creature lands, it has the Prone condition unless it took no damage from the fall.

A creature that falls into water or another liquid can use its Reaction to make a Dexterity (Acrobatics) check to hit the surface head or feet first. The DC is 20, minus 1 for every 10 feet fallen. On a success, damage from the fall is halved.

A creature that has fallen more than 150 feet cannot attempt this check. At that height the surface may as well be stone.

A creature with a Fly Speed that is falling can spend movement to arrest its descent, ending the fall. Doing so costs 5 feet of movement for every 50 feet it has already fallen this round. If the creature lacks the movement to pay the full cost, it arrests as much as it can and continues falling.

Famished

A creature needs an amount of food each day based on its size, as shown in the Food Needs per Day table.

A creature that eats at least half the food it needs can continue for 3 days, but its Long Rest requires 12 hours rather than 8 during that time. At the end of the third such day, and at the end of each day thereafter, it has the Weakened condition.

A creature that eats nothing has the Weakened condition at the end of the first day.

The condition ends when the creature has eaten the full amount of food it needs for a day.

A creature that goes without food long enough dies. These rules give no timeline for it, because it depends on the creature’s size, its Constitution, its body composition, and how hard it labours — a creature weeks without food is dying, and the Game Master decides when.

Sleep Deprived

A creature that does not finish a Long Rest for a full day has the Weakened condition at the end of the night in which it did not rest.

The condition ends when the creature finishes a Long Rest.

A creature that has gone four consecutive days without finishing a Long Rest also has the Insane condition. Both conditions then end only when the creature finishes two Long Rests in immediate succession, resting for 16 hours without interruption.

Thirst

A creature needs an amount of water or other liquids each day based on its size, as shown in the Water Needs per Day table.

A creature that drinks less water than it needs has the Weakened condition at the end of the first day.

The condition ends when the creature has drunk the full amount of water it needs for a day. A creature that drinks nothing for three consecutive days dies at the end of the third day.

Blessings

A blessing is freely given and asks nothing in return. It is usually given in gratitude for what a creature has already done, or as a token of fortune for what it is about to attempt.

Curses

A curse originates from a creature: a slighted neighbour, a dying rival, a priest at the altar, or a god. Some creature always lays it.

The creature that lays a curse sets the terms of its ending, and those terms are part of the curse itself. A curse persists until its terms are satisfied, and no art removes it otherwise. A creature that does not know who laid a curse does not know its terms either, and must discover both.

The terms vary widely. A neighbour who suspects a creature of a romance with her spouse may require only the offender’s departure from the village. A king who has lost a war may curse the house of a defeated general to the seventh generation and impose terms no living member of it can satisfy.

A creature that plunders a tomb may find no living being who could have cursed it for the deed. The curse holds regardless. It was laid on the tomb to guard it, and it does not end with the death of the creature that laid it.

Complications

A Complication is what a creature does to itself when an attack goes wrong.

When you score a Critical Failure on an attack roll, the attack misses and a Complication happens at once (see “Critical Failures” in “Playing the Game”). Roll 1d6 on the table for the kind of attack you made.

Unarmed Strikes. An attack made with an Unarmed Strike uses the Complications: Unarmed Strikes table.

Melee Weapons. An attack made with a weapon you hold uses the Complications: Melee Weapons table.

Thrown Weapons. An attack made with a weapon that has the Thrown property, thrown rather than held, uses the Complications: Thrown Weapons table.

Bows. An attack made with a weapon of the Bows group uses the Complications: Bows table.

Other Ranged Weapons. An attack made with any other weapon that has the Ammunition property — a sling, and any weapon that shoots by a cord, a spring, or a mechanism — uses the Complications: Ranged Weapons table.

Spells. A spell attack roll uses the Complications: Spells table. A spell that calls for a saving throw makes no attack roll, so it cannot produce a Critical Failure and never causes a Complication.

The following holds for every table.

Your Turn Ends. Where a Complication ends your turn, you take no further Activity this turn. Movement you have not spent is lost, and a Bonus Action you have not taken is lost. Your Reaction is unaffected.

One Complication to an Attack. A single attack roll produces one Complication, whatever else it triggers. Where an attack lets you strike more than once, only the roll that failed produces one.

Half Damage. Where a Complication deals half an attack’s damage, roll the damage as though the attack had hit and add the modifiers you would have added, then halve the total, to a minimum of 1. The damage keeps the type it would have had.

Wrenched Joints. Three Complications hurt the limb rather than the creature: the sprained ligament on the Unarmed Strikes table, the wrenched joint on the Melee Weapons table, and the dislocation on the Thrown Weapons table. Each is an Injury (see “Injuries” below). Each ends when it is treated as an Injury or when you finish a Short Rest, whichever comes first.

The Nearest Creature. Where a Complication strikes the creature nearest the target, measure from the target and take the closest other creature, ally and enemy alike. If two are equally close, it strikes the one with the lower Initiative count. If there is no other creature within the attack’s range, the attack strikes nothing.

Injuries

An Injury is what an attack leaves behind when it finds something that matters.

When a creature is dealt a Critical Hit, it gains one Injury at once (see “Critical Hits” in “Playing the Game”). Roll 1d4 on the table for the damage type the attack dealt.

Two Damage Types. If the attack deals more than one type of damage, use the type that dealt the most: a mace that deals 8 Bludgeoning damage and 16 Radiant damage from a Divine Strike gives a Radiant Injury. If two types dealt the same damage, use the one named first in the weapon’s or the spell’s description.

Proof Against the Type. A creature that has +20 Resistance Points against a damage type suffers no Injury from that type. Where an attack deals two types and the creature is proof against the dominant one, use the next type down; if it is proof against every type the attack deals, the Critical Hit gives no Injury.

Damage Shrugged Off. A creature that shrugs off an instance of damage on its Resistance Points roll suffers no Injury from that damage either (see “Resistance Points” in “Playing the Game”). Where an attack deals two types and the creature shrugs off the dominant one, use the highest of the types that landed; if it shrugs off every type the attack deals, the Critical Hit gives no Injury.

Vital Damage. Vital damage has no Injury table. It is what the body does to itself, and the body scores no Critical Hit upon itself.

Every Creature Is Injured. Every creature can suffer every Injury on these tables, whatever it is made of. Describe the wound to suit the creature; the effect is the same.

Injuries Together. A creature can suffer any number of Injuries at once, the same one twice among them. Their penalties add together: two Injuries that each reduce your Hit Point maximum by 5 reduce it by 10, and two that each give a −1 penalty to attack rolls give −2. Disadvantage does not add. A creature that has Disadvantage on a roll from two Injuries has Disadvantage on it, and no more than that.

Ending an Injury. An Injury ends when it is treated, and not otherwise, unless the Injury says how else it ends. Rest does not end it, and neither does the restoration of Hit Points. A Healer’s Kit treats one Injury (see “Adventuring Gear” in “Equipment”), and some features treat one as well.

Cone

A Cone extends in straight lines from a point of origin in a direction its creator chooses. A Cone’s width at any point along its length equals that point’s distance from the point of origin: a Cone is 15 feet wide at a point 15 feet from its origin. The effect that creates a Cone specifies its maximum length.

A Cone’s point of origin isn’t included in the area of effect unless its creator decides otherwise.

Cube

A Cube extends in straight lines from a point of origin located anywhere on one face of the Cube. The effect that creates a Cube specifies its size, which is the length of each side.

A Cube’s point of origin isn’t included in the area of effect unless its creator decides otherwise.

Cylinder

A Cylinder extends in straight lines from a point of origin located at the centre of the circular top or bottom of the Cylinder. The effect that creates a Cylinder specifies the radius of its base and its height.

A Cylinder’s point of origin is included in the area of effect.

Emanation

An Emanation extends in straight lines from a creature or an object in all directions. The effect that creates an Emanation specifies the distance it extends.

An Emanation moves with the creature or object that is its origin, unless it is an instantaneous or a stationary effect.

An Emanation’s origin isn’t included in the area of effect unless its creator decides otherwise.

Line

A Line extends from a point of origin in a straight path along its length and covers an area defined by its width. The effect that creates a Line specifies its length and its width.

A Line’s point of origin isn’t included in the area of effect unless its creator decides otherwise.

Sphere

A Sphere extends in straight lines from a point of origin outward in all directions. The effect that creates a Sphere specifies the distance it extends as the radius of the Sphere.

A Sphere’s point of origin is included in the area of effect.