Combat
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Compendium
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Contents
- 1 Surprise
- 2 Initiative
- 3 Your Turn
- 4 Reactions
- 5 Movement and Position
- 6 Actions in Combat
- 7 Making an Attack
- 8 Cover
- 9 Damage and Healing
- 10 Mounted Combat
- 11 Underwater Combat
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A typical combat encounter is a clash between two sides, a flurry of weapon swings, feints, parries, footwork, and spellcasting. The game organizes the chaos of combat into a cycle of rounds and turns. A round represents about 6 seconds in the game world. During a round, each participant in a battle takes a turn. The order of turns is determined at the beginning of a combat encounter, when everyone rolls initiative. Once everyone has taken a turn, the fight continues to the next round if neither side has defeated the other.
Surprise
A band of adventurers sneaks up on a bandit camp, springing from the trees to attack them. A gelatinous cube glides down a dungeon passage, unnoticed by the adventurers until the cube engulfs one of them. In these situations, one side of the battle gains surprise over the other. The DM determines who might be surprised. If neither side tries to be stealthy, they automatically notice each other. Otherwise, the DM compares the Dexterity (Stealth) checks of anyone hiding with the passive Wisdom (Perception) score of each creature on the opposing side. Any character or monster that doesn’t notice a threat is surprised at the start of the encounter. If you’re surprised, you can’t move or take an action on your first turn of the combat, and you can’t take a reaction until that turn ends. A member of a group can be surprised even if the other members aren’t.
Initiative
| Legends of Hyrule assumes this Wisdom-based initiative is used instead of the Dexterity-based initiative that is the default ruleset for Dungeons & Dragons. Hyrulean content can nonetheless be used in conjunction with Dexterity-based individual initiative. While Zelda doesn't feature turn-by-turn combat, it often employs a back-and-forth in which the protagonist(s) are looking for their chance to strike. In Hyrule, initiative mostly represents the character’s ability to perceive enemies, detect threats, notice vulnerabilities, and make decisions. It is much less considered a measure of physical agility. |
Initiative determines the order of turns during combat.
Normally combat has two opposing groups: the players and the monsters. Each group can be comprised of any number of creatures. Each group has its own initiative score, which determines the order of combat. Each player makes a Wisdom check for their characters, and the DM makes a Wisdom check for each monster or non-player-character. The median result for all the players's checks is compared to the median result for all the monsters' checks. The group with the higher median score takes their turns first. In case of a tie, reroll until the tie is broken.
In case of a combat with three or more groups, each group rolls its own initiative as normal. Groups take their turns in initiative order from highest to lowest.
The group with initiative has all creatures within that group take their individual turns in any order the creatures choose. Once all creatures in this group have taken their turns, all creatures in the other group take their turns. Once all groups have had their turns, the round ends, and turns begin again with the group that won initiative. Initiative order remains the same from round to round.
Your Turn
On your turn, you can move a distance up to your speed and take one action. You decide whether to move first or take your action first. Your speed— sometimes called your walking speed—is noted on your character sheet. The most common actions you can take are described in the “Actions in Combat” section. Many class features and other abilities provide additional options for your action. The “Movement and Position” section gives the rules for your move. You can forgo moving, taking an action, or doing anything at all on your turn. If you can’t decide what to do on your turn, consider taking the Dodge or Ready action, as described in “Actions in Combat.”
Bonus Actions
Various class features, spells, magic items, and other abilities let you take an additional action on your turn called a bonus action. You can take a bonus action only when a special ability, spell, or other feature of the game states that you can do something as a bonus action. You otherwise don’t have a bonus action to take. You can take only one bonus action on your turn, so you must choose which bonus action to use when you have more than one available. You choose when to take a bonus action during your turn, unless the bonus action’s timing is specified, and anything that deprives you of your ability to take actions also prevents you from taking a bonus action.
Other Activity on Your Turn
Here are a few examples of the sorts of thing you can do in tandem with your movement and action:
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Your turn can include a variety of flourishes that require neither your action nor your move. You can communicate however you are able, through brief utterances and gestures, as you take your turn. You can also interact with one object or feature of the environment for free, during either your move or your action. For example, you could open a door during your move as you stride toward a foe, or you could draw your weapon as part of the same action you use to attack. If you want to interact with a second object, you need to use your action. Some magic items and other special objects always require an action to use, as stated in their descriptions. The DM might require you to use an action for any of these activities when it needs special care or when it presents an unusual obstacle. For instance, the DM could reasonably expect you to use an action to open a stuck door or turn a crank to lower a drawbridge.
Reactions
Certain special abilities, spells, and situations allow you to take a special action called a reaction. A reaction is an instant response to a trigger of some kind, which can occur on your turn or on someone else’s. The opportunity attack is the most common type of reaction. When you take a reaction, you can’t take another one until the start of your next turn. If the reaction interrupts another creature’s turn, that creature can continue its turn right after the reaction.
Movement and Position
In combat, characters and monsters are in constant motion, often using movement and position to gain the upper hand. On your turn, you can move a distance up to your speed. You can use as much or as little of your speed as you like on your turn, following the rules here. Your movement can include jumping, climbing, and swimming. These different modes of movement can be combined with walking, or they can constitute your entire move. However you’re moving, you deduct the distance of each part of your move from your speed until it is used up or until you are done moving.
Breaking Up Your Move
You can break up your movement on your turn, using some of your speed before and after your action. For example, if you have a speed of 30 feet, you can move 10 feet, take your action, and then move 20 feet.
Moving between Attacks
If you take an action that includes more than one weapon attack, you can break up your movement even further by moving between those attacks. For example, a fighter who can make two attacks with the Extra Attack feature and who has a speed of 25 feet could move 10 feet, make an attack, move 15 feet, and then attack again.
Using Different Speeds
If you have more than one speed, such as your walking speed and a flying speed, you can switch back and forth between your speeds during your move. Whenever you switch, subtract the distance you’ve already moved from the new speed. The result determines how much farther you can move. If the result is 0 or less, you can’t use the new speed during the current move. For example, if you have a speed of 30 and a flying speed of 60 because a wizard cast the fly spell on you, you could fly 20 feet, then walk 10 feet, and then leap into the air to fly 30 feet more.
Difficult Terrain
Combat rarely takes place in bare rooms or on featureless plains. Boulder-strewn caverns, briar-choked forests, treacherous staircases—the setting of a typical fight contains difficult terrain. Every foot of movement in difficult terrain costs 1 extra foot. This rule is true even if multiple things in a space count as difficult terrain. Low furniture, rubble, undergrowth, steep stairs, snow, and shallow bogs are examples of difficult terrain. The space of another creature, whether hostile or not, also counts as difficult terrain.
Being Prone
Combatants often find themselves lying on the ground, either because they are knocked down or because they throw themselves down. In the game, they are prone.
You can drop prone without using any of your speed. Recovering, or standing up, takes more effort; doing so costs an amount of movement equal to half your speed. For example, if your speed is 30 feet, you must spend 15 feet of movement to stand up. You can’t stand up if you don’t have enough movement left or if your speed is 0.
To move while prone, you must crawl or use magic such as teleportation. Every foot of movement while crawling costs 1 extra foot. Crawling 1 foot in difficult terrain, therefore, costs 3 feet of movement.
Moving Around Other Creatures
You can move through a nonhostile creature’s space. In contrast, you can move through a hostile creature’s space only if the creature is at least two sizes larger or smaller than you. Remember that another creature’s space is difficult terrain for you. Whether a creature is a friend or an enemy, you can’t willingly end your move in its space. If you leave a hostile creature’s reach during your move, you provoke an opportunity attack.
Flying Movement
Flying creatures enjoy many benefits of mobility, but they must also deal with the danger of falling. If a flying creature is knocked prone, has its speed reduced to 0, or is otherwise deprived of the ability to move, the creature falls, unless it has the ability to hover or it is being held aloft by magic, such as by the fly spell.
Creature Size
| Size | Space | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Tiny | 2.5 × 2.5 feet | Fairy of Life, |
| Small | 5 × 5 feet | |
| Medium | 5 × 5 feet | |
| Large | 10 × 10 feet | |
| Huge | 15 × 15 feet | |
| Gargantuan | 20 × 20 feet |
Each creature takes up a different amount of space. The Size Categories table shows how much space a creature of a particular size controls in combat. Objects sometimes use the same size categories.
Space
A creature’s space is the area in feet that it effectively controls in combat, not an expression of its physical dimensions. A typical Medium creature isn’t 5 feet wide, for example, but it does control a space that wide. If a Medium hobgoblin stands in a 5-foot-wide doorway, other creatures can’t get through unless the hobgoblin lets them. A creature’s space also reflects the area it needs to fight effectively. For that reason, there’s a limit to the number of creatures that can surround another creature in combat. Assuming Medium combatants, eight creatures can fit in a 5-foot radius around another one. Because larger creatures take up more space, fewer of them can surround a creature. If five Large creatures crowd around a Medium or smaller one, there’s little room for anyone else. In contrast, as many as twenty Medium creatures can surround a Gargantuan one.
Squeezing into a Smaller Space
A creature can squeeze through a space that is large enough for a creature one size smaller than it. Thus, a Large creature can squeeze through a passage that’s only 5 feet wide. While squeezing through a space, a creature must spend 1 extra foot for every foot it moves there, and it has disadvantage on attack rolls and Dexterity saving throws. Attack rolls against the creature have advantage while it’s in the smaller space.
Actions in Combat
When you take your action on your turn, you can take one of the actions presented here, an action you gained from your class or a special feature, or an action that you improvise. Many monsters have action options of their own in their stat blocks. When you describe an action not detailed elsewhere in the rules, the DM tells you whether that action is possible and what kind of roll you need to make, if any, to determine success or failure.
Attack
The most common action to take in combat is the Attack action, whether you are swinging a sword, firing an arrow from a bow, or brawling with your fists. With this action, you make one melee or ranged attack. See the “Making an Attack” section for the rules that govern attacks. Certain features, such as the Extra Attack feature of the fighter, allow you to make more than one attack with this action.
Cast a Spell
Spellcasters such as researchers and sages, as well as many monsters, have access to spells and can use them to great effect in combat. Each spell has a casting time, which specifies whether the caster must use an action, a reaction, minutes, or even hours to cast the spell. Casting a spell is, therefore, not necessarily an action. Most spells do have a casting time of 1 action, so a spellcaster often uses his or her action in combat to cast such a spell.
Dash
When you take the Dash action, you gain extra movement for the current turn. The increase equals your speed, after applying any modifiers. With a speed of 30 feet, for example, you can move up to 60 feet on your turn if you dash. Any increase or decrease to your speed changes this additional movement by the same amount. If your speed of 30 feet is reduced to 15 feet, for instance, you can move up to 30 feet this turn if you dash.
If you Dash multiple times during the same turn (such as with an opportunist's cunning action), each additional Dash increases your movement by your speed. Dashing twice triples your movement, for example, and Dashing thrice would quadruple your movement.
Disengage
If you take the Disengage action, your movement doesn’t provoke opportunity attacks until the start of your group's next turn.
Dodge
When you take the Dodge action, you focus entirely on avoiding attacks. Until the start of your next turn, any attack roll made against you has disadvantage if you can see the attacker, and you make Dexterity saving throws with advantage. You lose this benefit if you are incapacitated or if your speed drops to 0.
Help
You can lend your aid to another creature in the completion of a task. When you take the Help action, the creature you aid gains advantage on the next ability check it makes to perform the task you are helping with, provided that it makes the check before the start of your next turn.
Alternatively, you can aid a friendly creature in attacking a creature within 5 feet of you. You feint, distract the target, or in some other way team up to make your ally’s attack more effective. If your ally attacks the target before your next turn, the first attack roll is made with advantage.
Hide
When you take the Hide action, you make a Dexterity (Stealth) check in an attempt to hide, following the rules for hiding. If you succeed, you gain certain benefits, as described in the Unseen Attackers and Targets section below.
Ready
Sometimes you want to get the jump on a foe or wait for a particular circumstance before you act. To do so, you can take the Ready action on your turn, which lets you act using your reaction before the start of your next turn.
First, you decide what perceivable circumstance will trigger your reaction. Then, you choose the action you will take in response to that trigger, or you choose to move up to your speed in response to it. Examples include “If the wizzrobe steps on the trapdoor, I’ll pull the lever that opens it,” and “If the bokoblin steps next to me, I move away.”
When the trigger occurs, you can either take your reaction right after the trigger finishes or ignore the trigger. Remember that you can take only one reaction per round.
When you ready a spell, you cast it as normal but hold its energy, which you release with your reaction when the trigger occurs. To be readied, a spell must have a casting time of 1 action, and holding onto the spell’s magic requires concentration. If your concentration is broken, the spell dissipates without taking effect. For example, if you are concentrating on the web spell and ready magic missile, your web spell ends, and if you take damage before you release magic missile with your reaction, your concentration might be broken.
Search
When you take the Search action, you devote your attention to finding something. Depending on the nature of your search, the DM might have you make a Wisdom (Perception) check or an Intelligence (Investigation) check.
Use an Object
You normally interact with an object while doing something else, such as when you draw a sword as part of an attack. When an object requires your action for its use, you take the Use an Object action. This action is also useful when you want to interact with more than one object on your turn.
Making an Attack
Whether you’re striking with a melee weapon, firing a weapon at range, or making an attack roll as part of a spell, an attack has a simple structure.
- Choose a target. Pick a target within your attack’s range: a creature, an object, or a location.
- Determine modifiers. The DM determines whether the target has cover and whether you have advantage or disadvantage against the target. In addition, spells, special abilities, and other effects can apply penalties or bonuses to your attack roll.
- Resolve the attack. You make the attack roll. On a hit, you roll damage, unless the particular attack has rules that specify otherwise. Some attacks cause special effects in addition to or instead of damage.
If there’s ever any question whether something you’re doing counts as an attack, the rule is simple: if you’re making an attack roll, you’re making an attack.
Attack Rolls
When you make an attack, your attack roll determines whether the attack hits or misses. To make an attack roll, roll a d20 and add the appropriate modifiers. If the total of the roll plus modifiers equals or exceeds the target’s Armor Class (AC), the attack hits.
Modifiers to the Roll
When a character makes an attack roll, the two most common modifiers to the roll are an ability modifier and the character’s proficiency bonus. When a monster makes an attack roll, it uses whatever modifier is provided in its stat block.
Ability Modifier. The ability modifier used for a melee weapon attack is Strength, and the ability modifier used for a ranged weapon attack is Dexterity. Weapons that have the finesse or thrown property break this rule. Some spells also require an attack roll. The ability modifier used for a spell attack depends on the spellcasting ability of the spellcaster.
Proficiency Bonus. You add your proficiency bonus to your attack roll when you attack using a weapon with which you have proficiency, as well as when you attack with a spell.
Rolling 1 or 20
Sometimes fate blesses or curses a combatant, causing the novice to hit and the veteran to miss. If the d20 roll for an attack is a 20, the attack hits regardless of any modifiers or the target’s AC. This is called a critical hit. If the d20 roll for an attack is a 1, the attack misses regardless of any modifiers or the target’s AC.
Armor Class
The Armor Class (AC) of a creature is a numerical representation of how difficult it is to hit with an attack roll.
A player-character's AC is normally determined by its armor, but can also determined by features from its class or race. If a character is provided a AC by several effects, it always uses the highest AC.
Any other creature's AC is determined by its stat block. A creature might have AC just like a player-character does, or have "natural armor" that gives it a different AC.
Every creature has a baseline AC equaling 10 + its Dexterity modifier. No effect can reduce a creature's AC below this number.
Unseen Attackers and Targets
Combatants often try to escape their foes’ notice by hiding, casting the invisibility spell, or lurking in darkness. When you attack a target that you can’t see, you have disadvantage on the attack roll. This is true whether you’re guessing the target’s location or you’re targeting a creature you can hear but not see. If the target isn’t in the location you targeted, you automatically miss, but the DM typically just says that the attack missed, not whether you guessed the target’s location correctly.
When a creature can’t see you, you have advantage on attack rolls against it. If you are hidden—both unseen and unheard—when you make an attack, you give away your location when the attack hits or misses.
Ranged Attacks
When you make a ranged attack, you shoot a bow or a crossbow, hurl a handaxe, or otherwise send projectiles to strike a foe at a distance. A monster might spit rocks or seeds at high speed. Many spells also involve making a ranged attack.
Range
You can make ranged attacks only against targets within a specified range.
If a ranged attack, such as one made with a spell, has a single range, you can’t attack a target beyond this range.
Some ranged attacks, such as those made with a longbow or a shortbow, have two ranges. The smaller number is the normal range, and the larger number is the long range. Your attack roll has disadvantage when your target is beyond normal range, and you can’t attack a target beyond the long range.
Ranged Attacks in Close Combat
Aiming a ranged attack is more difficult when a foe is next to you. When you make a ranged attack with a weapon, a spell, or some other means, you have disadvantage on the attack roll if you are within 5 feet of a hostile creature who can see you and who isn’t incapacitated.
Melee Attacks
Used in hand-to-hand combat, a melee attack allows you to attack a foe within your reach. A melee attack typically uses a handheld weapon such as a sword, a warhammer, or an axe. A typical monster makes a melee attack when it strikes with its claws, horns, teeth, tentacles, or other body part. A few spells also involve making a melee attack.
Most creatures have a 5‑foot reach and can thus attack targets within 5 feet of them when making a melee attack. Certain creatures (typically those larger than Medium) have melee attacks with a greater reach than 5 feet, as noted in their descriptions.
Unarmed Strike
Instead of using a weapon to make a melee weapon attack, you can use an unarmed strike: a punch, kick, headbutt, or similar forceful blow. On a hit, an unarmed strike deals bludgeoning damage equal to 1 + your Strength modifier. You are proficient with your unarmed strikes, so you always add your proficiency bonus to attack rolls with one.
Some effects, like the Goron Punch feature, enable you to deal an alternative type or amount of damage for your unarmed strike. If you benefit from one or more of these effects, you can choose which one to use, or opt to use none of them and perform a regular unarmed strike.
Opportunity Attacks
In a fight, everyone is constantly watching for a chance to strike an enemy who is fleeing or passing by. Such a strike is called an opportunity attack.
You can make an opportunity attack when a hostile creature that you can see moves out of your reach. To make the opportunity attack, you use your reaction to make one melee attack against the provoking creature. The attack occurs right before the creature leaves your reach.
You can avoid provoking an opportunity attack by taking the Disengage action. You also don’t provoke an opportunity attack when you teleport or when someone or something moves you without using your movement, action, or reaction. For example, you don’t provoke an opportunity attack if an explosion hurls you out of a foe’s reach or if gravity causes you to fall past an enemy.
Two-Weapon Fighting
When you hit a melee attack using a light weapon, if you’re wielding a second light melee weapon in your other hand you can add the second weapon's damage dice to the damage roll.
For example, if you hit with a scimitar and are wielding a handaxe in your other hand, you deal slashing damage equal to 2d6 + your Strength or Dexterity modifier. Both weapons have a d6 damage die.
By contrast if you threw the handaxe for a ranged attack and hit, you couldn't add another light weapon's damage dice since that wasn't a melee attack.
Grappling
When you want to grab a creature or wrestle with it, you can use the Attack action to make a special melee attack, a grapple. If you’re able to make multiple attacks with the Attack action, this attack replaces one of them.
The target of your grapple must be no more than one size larger than you and must be within your reach. Using at least one free hand, you try to seize the target by making a grapple check instead of an attack roll: a Strength (Athletics) check contested by the target’s Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check (the target chooses the ability to use). If you succeed, you subject the target to the grappled condition. The condition specifies the things that end it, and you can release the target whenever you like (no action required).
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 that equals or exceeds by the grappler's escape DC if it has one. If the grappler doesn't have an escape DC, it makes a contested Strength (Athletics) check instead to act as the DC.
Moving a Grappled Creature. When you move, you can drag or carry the grappled creature with you, but your speed is halved, unless the creature is two or more sizes smaller than you.
Shoving a Creature
Using the Attack action, you can make a special melee attack to shove a creature, either to knock it prone or push it away from you. If you’re able to make multiple attacks with the Attack action, this attack replaces one of them.
The target must be no more than one size larger than you and must be within your reach. Instead of making an attack roll, you make a Strength (Athletics) check contested by the target’s Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check (the target chooses the ability to use). If you win the contest, you either knock the target prone or push it 5 feet away from you.
Target Strike
A target strike is a special type of attack that aims to deal maximum damage. Just before making an attack roll with a weapon or an unarmed strike, you can make a target strike either by expending 2 stamina points (if you have any), or by taking disadvantage on the attack roll. You cannot make a target strike if the attack roll would have disadvantage anyway, nor if any effect imposes a -5 penalty to the attack roll.
A target strike aims for wherever the target is most vulnerable, such as gaps in a warrior's armor, or the exposed eye of a huge monster. This kind of called shot maximizes the damage dice rolled on a hit (e.g., treat 1d8 as simply 8), including any extra dice rolled as part of a critical hit or from other sources. Your narrator may enable alternate or additional effects for a target strike.
Cover
Walls, trees, creatures, and other obstacles can provide cover during combat, making a target more difficult to hit. A target can benefit from cover only when an attack or other effect originates on the opposite side of the cover.
There are three degrees of cover. If a target is behind multiple sources of cover, only the most protective degree of cover applies; the degrees aren’t added together. For example, if a target is behind a creature that gives half cover and a tree trunk that gives three‑quarters cover, the target has three-‑quarters cover.
Half Cover
A target with half cover has a +2 bonus to AC and Dexterity saving throws. A target has half cover if an obstacle blocks at least half of its body. The obstacle might be a low wall, a large piece of furniture, a narrow tree trunk, or a creature, whether that creature is an enemy or a friend.
Three-Quarters Cover
A target with three-quarters cover has a +5 bonus to AC and Dexterity saving throws. A target has three‑quarters cover if about three-‑quarters of it is covered by an obstacle. The obstacle might be a portcullis, an arrow slit, or a thick tree trunk.
Total Cover
A target with total cover can’t be targeted directly by an attack or a spell, although some spells can reach such a target by including it in an area of effect. A target has total cover if it is completely concealed by an obstacle.
Damage and Healing
Injury and the risk of death are constant companions of those who explore fantasy gaming worlds. The thrust of a sword, a well-placed arrow, or a blast of flame from a Din's fire spell all have the potential to damage, or even kill, the hardiest of creatures.
Heart Points
Heart points represent a combination of physical and mental durability, the will to live, and luck. Creatures with more heart points are more difficult to kill. Those with fewer heart points are more fragile.
A creature’s current heart points (usually just called heart points) can be any number from the creature’s heart point maximum down to 0. This number changes frequently as a creature takes damage or receives healing.
Whenever a creature takes damage, that damage is subtracted from its heart points. The loss of heart points has no effect on a creature’s capabilities until the creature drops to 0 heart points.
Damage Rolls
Each weapon, spell, and harmful monster ability specifies the damage it deals. You roll the damage die or dice, add any modifiers, and apply the damage to your target. Magic weapons, special abilities, and other factors can grant a bonus to damage. With a penalty, it is possible to deal 0 damage, but never negative damage.
When attacking with a weapon, you add your ability modifier—the same modifier used for the attack roll—to the damage. A spell tells you which dice to roll for damage and whether to add any modifiers.
If a spell or other effect deals damage to more than one target at the same time, roll the damage once for all of them. For example, when a researcher casts acid splash, or sage of forest casts razor leaf, the spell’s damage is rolled once for all creatures caught in the spray.
Critical Hits
If the d20 roll for an attack is a 20, the attack hits regardless of any modifiers or the target’s AC. This is called a critical hit.
When you score a critical hit, you get to roll extra dice for the attack’s damage against the target. Roll all of the attack’s damage dice twice and add them together. Then add any relevant modifiers as normal. To speed up play, you can roll all the damage dice at once.
For example, if you score a critical hit with a dagger, roll 2d4 for the damage, rather than 1d4, and then add your relevant ability modifier. If the attack involves other damage dice, you roll those dice twice as well.
Damage Types
Different attacks, damaging spells, and other harmful effects deal different types of damage. Damage types have no rules of their own, but other rules, such as damage resistance, rely on the types. The damage types follow, with examples to help a DM assign a damage type to a new effect.
- Acid. The corrosive spray of silver lizalfos spit and the dissolving enzymes secreted by some oozes deal acid damage.
- Bludgeoning. Blunt force attacks—hammers, falling, constriction, and the like—deal bludgeoning damage.
- Cold. The infernal chill radiating from a chilfos' spear and the frigid blast of a blizzga’s breath deal cold damage.
- Fire. Gleeoks and volvagias breathe fire, and many spells conjure flames to deal fire damage.
- Force. Force is pure magical energy focused into a damaging form. The magic of technomancers and Sheikah often deal force damage, including the beams of guardian stalkers.
- Lightning. Electrical effects, lightning breath, and several spells deal lightning damage.
- Necrotic. Necrotic damage, dealt by certain undead and a spell such as chill touch, withers matter and even the soul.
- Piercing. Puncturing and impaling attacks, including spears and monsters’ bites, deal piercing damage.
- Poison. Venomous stings and toxic gas deal poison damage.
- Psychic. Mental abilities deal psychic damage. Exceedingly few creatures in Hyrule can attack the mind with psychic damage.
- Radiant. Radiant damage, dealt by some sage spells and some deity-derived powers, sears the flesh like fire and overloads the spirit with power.
- Slashing. Swords, axes, and monsters’ claws deal slashing damage.
- Thunder. A concussive explosion, such as from a bomb's detonation, deals thunder damage.
Damage Resistance and Vulnerability
Some creatures and objects are exceedingly difficult or unusually easy to hurt with certain types of damage.
If a creature or an object has resistance to a damage type, damage of that type is halved against it. If a creature or an object has vulnerability to a damage type, damage of that type is doubled against it.
Resistance and then vulnerability are applied after all other modifiers to damage. For example, a creature has resistance to bludgeoning damage and is hit by an attack that deals 25 bludgeoning damage. The creature is also within a magical aura that reduces all damage by 5. The 25 damage is first reduced by 5 and then halved, so the creature takes 10 damage.
Multiple instances of resistance or vulnerability that affect the same damage type count as only one instance. For example, if a creature has resistance to fire damage as well as resistance to all nonmagical damage, the damage of a nonmagical fire is reduced by half against the creature, not reduced by three-quarters.
If a creature has multiple effects that "reduce" damage, only the largest applies. If you have a magical aura that reduces all damage you take by 5 and a fighting style that reduces slashing damage you take by 3, you just reduce slashing damage by 5.
An object can also have a damage threshold.
Healing
Unless it results in death, damage isn’t permanent. Even death is reversible through powerful magic. Rest can restore a creature’s heart points, and magical methods such as a life spell or a red potion can remove damage in an instant.
When a creature receives healing of any kind, heart points regained are added to its current heart points. A creature’s heart points can’t exceed its heart point maximum, so any heart points regained in excess of this number are lost. For example, a sage grants an opportunist 8 heart points of healing. If the opportunist has 14 current heart points and has a heart point maximum of 20, the opportunist regains 6 heart points from the druid, not 8.
A creature that has died can’t regain heart points until magic such as the revivify spell has restored it to life.
Dropping to 0 Heart Points
When you drop to 0 heart points, you either die outright or fall unconscious, as explained in the following sections.
Instant Death
Massive damage can kill you instantly. When damage reduces you to 0 heart points and there is damage remaining, you die if the remaining damage equals or exceeds your heart point maximum.
For example, a sage with a maximum of 12 heart points currently has 6 heart points. If she takes 18 damage from an attack, she is reduced to 0 heart points, but 12 damage remains. Because the remaining damage equals her heart point maximum, the sage dies.
Falling Unconscious
If damage reduces you to 0 heart points and fails to kill you, you fall unconscious. This unconsciousness ends if you regain any heart points.
Death Saving Throws
Whenever you start your turn with 0 heart points, you must make a special saving throw, called a death saving throw, to determine whether you creep closer to death or hang onto life. Unlike other saving throws, this one isn’t tied to any ability score. You are in the hands of fate now, aided only by spells and features that improve your chances of succeeding on a saving throw.
Roll a d20. If the roll is 10 or higher, you succeed. Otherwise, you fail. A success or failure has no effect by itself. On your third success, you become stable (see below). On your third failure, you die. The successes and failures don’t need to be consecutive; keep track of both until you collect three of a kind. The number of both is reset to zero when you regain any heart points or become stable.
Rolling 1 or 20. When you make a death saving throw and roll a 1 on the d20, it counts as two failures. If you roll a 20 on the d20, you regain 1 heart point.
Damage at 0 Heart Points. If you take any damage while you have 0 heart points, you suffer a death saving throw failure. If the damage is from a critical hit, you suffer two failures instead. If the damage equals or exceeds your heart point maximum, you suffer instant death.
Stabilizing a Creature
The best way to save a creature with 0 heart points is to heal it. If healing is unavailable, the creature can at least be stabilized so that it isn’t killed by a failed death saving throw.
You can use your action to administer first aid to an unconscious creature and attempt to stabilize it, which requires a successful DC 10 Wisdom (Medicine) check.
A stable creature doesn’t make death saving throws, even though it has 0 hear points, but it does remain unconscious. The creature stops being stable, and must start making death saving throws again, if it takes any damage. A stable creature that isn’t healed regains 1 hear point after a short rest.
Monsters and Death
Most DMs have a monster die the instant it drops to 0 heart points, rather than having it fall unconscious and make death saving throws. Mighty villains and special nonplayer characters are common exceptions; the DM might have them fall unconscious and follow the same rules as player characters.
Knocking a Creature Out
Sometimes an attacker wants to incapacitate a foe, rather than deal a killing blow. When an attacker reduces a creature to 0 heart points with a melee attack, the attacker can knock the creature out. The attacker can make this choice the instant the damage is dealt. The creature falls unconscious and is stable.
Unless a feature allows otherwise, an attacker cannot knock a creature out with a ranged attack or any form of damage not from a melee attack.
Temporary Heart Points
Some spells and special abilities confer temporary heart points to a creature. Temporary heart points aren’t actual heart points; they are a buffer against damage, a pool of heart points that protect you from injury.
When you have temporary heart points and take damage, the temporary heart points are lost first, and any leftover damage carries over to your normal heart points. For example, if you have 5 temporary heart points and take 7 damage, you lose the temporary heart points and then take 2 damage.
Because temporary heart points are separate from your actual heart points, they can exceed your heart point maximum. A character can, therefore, be at full heart points and receive temporary heart points.
Healing can’t restore temporary heart points, and they can’t be added together. If you have temporary heart points and receive more of them, you decide whether to keep the ones you have or to gain the new ones. For example, if a spell grants you 12 temporary heart points when you already have 10, you can have 12 or 10, not 22.
If you have 0 heart points, receiving temporary heart points doesn’t restore you to consciousness or stabilize you. They can still absorb damage directed at you while you’re in that state, but only true healing can save you.
Unless a feature that grants you temporary heart points has a duration, they last until they’re depleted or you finish a long rest.
Mounted Combat
A knight charging into battle on a warhorse, a sage casting spells from the back of a fast-swimming gyorg, or a a hero soaring through the sky on a loftwing all enjoy the benefits of speed and mobility that a mount can provide. A willing creature that is at least one size larger than you and that has an appropriate anatomy can serve as a mount, using the following rules.
Mounting and Dismounting
Once during your move, you can mount a willing creature that is within 5 feet of you or dismount. Doing so costs an amount of movement equal to half your speed. For example, if your speed is 30 feet, you must spend 15 feet of movement to mount a horse. Therefore, you can’t mount it if you don’t have 15 feet of movement left or if your speed is 0.
If an effect moves your mount against its will while you’re on it, you must succeed on a DC 10 Dexterity saving throw or fall off the mount, landing prone in a space within 5 feet of it. On a flying mount, you fall to the ground. If you’re knocked prone while mounted, you must make the same saving throw.
If your mount is knocked prone, you can use your reaction to dismount it as it falls and land on your feet. Otherwise, you are dismounted and fall prone in a space within 5 feet it.
Controlling a Mount
While you’re mounted, you have two options. You can either control the mount or allow it to act independently. Intelligent creatures, such as most dragons, act independently.
You can control a mount only if it has been trained to accept a rider. Domesticated horses, donkeys, and similar creatures are assumed to have such training. The initiative of a controlled mount changes to match yours when you mount it. It moves as you direct it, and it has only three action options: Dash, Disengage, and Dodge. A controlled mount can move and act even on the turn that you mount it.
An independent mount retains its place in the initiative order. Bearing a rider puts no restrictions on the actions the mount can take, and it moves and acts as it wishes. It might flee from combat, rush to attack and devour a badly injured foe, or otherwise act against your wishes.
In either case, if the mount provokes an opportunity attack while you’re on it, the attacker can target you or the mount.
Underwater Combat
When adventurers pursue sahuagin back to their undersea homes, fight off sharks in an ancient shipwreck, or find themselves in a flooded dungeon room, they must fight in a challenging environment. Underwater the following rules apply.
When making a melee weapon attack, a creature that doesn’t have a swimming speed (either natural or granted by magic) has disadvantage on the attack roll unless the weapon has the aquatic property.
A ranged weapon attack automatically misses a target beyond the weapon’s normal range. Even against a target within normal range, the attack roll has disadvantage unless the weapon has the aquatic property.
Creatures and objects that are fully immersed underwater are always soaked. The condition can't be ended by any effect while they remain fully immersed.
The text of this page is partly based on the the V5.1 Systems Reference Document (SRD). The text of both this page and the SRD are released under Creative Commons (“CC-BY-4.0”). [1]
Alterations were made for clarity and to incorporate Hyrulean guidelines.
