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Practical SRD 5.2.1 guides: read the rule, work through a specific decision, and keep a printable card beside the dice.

These are optional fifth-edition rules references. Our original adventures remain system-neutral.

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Conditions

Blinded: sight checks and attack rolls

Separate a task that requires sight from a task that merely becomes harder without it. Blinded changes specific rolls; it does not remove every way a character can interact with a scene.

Conditions

Charmed: restrictions without mind control

Read the condition separately from the spell or ability that caused it. Charmed protects the charmer from certain harm and changes social checks; additional instructions must come from the originating effect.

Conditions

Deafened: decide which checks need hearing

Deafened is a narrow sensory condition. The important ruling is whether the information being sought depends on sound, rather than assuming that all observation or communication becomes impossible.

Conditions

Exhaustion: calculate the current penalties

SRD 5.2.1 uses one cumulative level counter. Track that level before calculating a D20 Test or Speed change, and use this edition’s arithmetic instead of a condition table from another edition.

Conditions

Frightened: line of sight and approaching the source

Frightened contains two separate limits. Line of sight controls the listed roll penalty; it is not written as a prerequisite for the restriction on willingly moving closer.

Conditions

Grappled: targets, movement and dragging

A grapple is not the same as restraint or incapacitation. Keep the grappler’s identity on the table because it determines which attack rolls the condition penalizes.

Conditions

Incapacitated: actions, speech and concentration

Incapacitated is often included inside another condition. Resolve its complete list even when the visible label on the character is Stunned, Paralyzed or Unconscious.

Conditions

Invisible: who can see you matters

Invisible changes targeting and rolls, with an explicit exception for a creature that can somehow see you. Check that observer separately instead of treating visibility as one global yes-or-no state.

Conditions

Paralyzed: saves and close-range critical hits

Paralyzed combines Incapacitated with additional movement, saving throw and attack consequences. Apply the distance requirement to a hit before declaring it a critical hit.

Conditions

Petrified: weight, damage and immunity

Petrified changes both the creature’s material state and its game effects. Keep resistance to damage separate from immunity to a condition; they do not mean the same thing.

Conditions

Poisoned: which rolls are affected?

The Poisoned condition imposes two categories of roll penalty. A poison may also cause damage, saves or a specific duration, but those instructions come from the poison or other effect itself.

Conditions

Prone: standing up and attacker distance

Prone affects your movement and attacks, while incoming attacks depend on the attacker’s distance. Record Speed before pricing the movement needed to stand.

Conditions

Restrained: movement, attacks and Dexterity saves

Restrained has broader combat effects than Grappled, but it is not automatic incapacitation. Keep the creature’s available actions separate from its movement and roll penalties.

Conditions

Stunned: apply its list without adding paralysis

Stunned includes Incapacitated and two further effects. It does not contain every clause of Paralyzed, even though both conditions can look similar in a scene.

Conditions

Unconscious: what remains after waking?

Unconscious bundles several effects and explicitly leaves one of them behind when it ends. Track held objects and posture as well as the immediate attack and saving throw consequences.

Actions

Dash: use your modified Speed

Dash adds movement for the current turn. Calculate it from the Speed that applies now, including modifiers, and distinguish gaining movement from making movement free.

Actions

Disengage: move without provoking Opportunity Attacks

Disengage provides a specific protection for movement during the current turn. It does not supply extra distance, undo every hazard or last through all future movement.

Actions

Dodge: when the benefits apply and end

Dodge is a temporary defensive action with specific visibility and loss conditions. Mark its expiry and recheck it when the character is immobilized or incapacitated.

Actions

Help: choose the check or the attack

Help has two distinct uses. Declare which one you are taking so the table knows who gets Advantage, what roll it applies to and when the benefit expires.

Actions

Hide: requirements, check and discovery

The Hide action has positioning requirements before the roll and named ways for hidden status to end. Keep the successful check total available for a later search.

Actions

Influence: decide whether a check is needed

Start with the request and the creature’s response, not a reflexive Persuasion roll. The Influence action distinguishes willing, unwilling and hesitant responses before assigning a check.

Actions

Ready: trigger, reaction and held spells

Ready trades your current action for a later response within a limited window. Write the trigger and response separately, then reserve the Reaction needed to carry it out.

Actions

Search: choose the right Wisdom skill

Search is about discerning something that is not obvious. Name the information being detected before picking the skill, so a hidden object, a mental state and tracks do not all default to the same roll.

Actions

Study: match a question to a knowledge skill

Study uses an Intelligence check to retrieve or interpret important information from memory, a clue, a book or another source. State the question and the source of knowledge before selecting the skill.

Equipment

Armor training: separate armor penalties from shield use

Check the category a character is trained to wear before resolving a test or spell. The rule gives different consequences for untrained armor and an untrained shield.

Turns

Attack: equip a weapon and move between attacks

The Attack action includes specific opportunities to equip a weapon and, when a feature grants multiple attacks, to divide movement between them. Identify which attacks belong to the action.

Senses

Blindsight: check range and Total Cover

Blindsight provides sight without relying on physical vision, but its range and Total Cover limit still matter. Darkness and invisibility do not remove those limits.

Turns

Bonus Action: choose between competing options

A Bonus Action is available only when a rule gives a specific use. Having several possible uses gives a choice, not additional Bonus Actions on the same turn.

Hazards

Burning: stop recurring fire damage

Burning deals damage at the start of each turn until the fire is extinguished. Track the damage timing separately from the action used to put it out.

Movement

Burrow Speed: distinguish earth from solid rock

A Burrow Speed allows movement through particular materials. It does not automatically turn every wall, floor or mountain into a traversable surface.

Movement

Climbing: budget movement before making a check

A climbing route has a movement cost even when no check is needed. A difficult surface can add a check at the GM’s option; success does not itself make the climb cost no movement.

Magic

Concentration: calculate the damage save and its cap

Concentration can end through damage, a new concentration effect, incapacity or death. For damage, calculate the save from damage actually taken and apply the edition’s stated DC cap.

Damage

Critical Hit: double the dice, then add modifiers

A critical attack changes damage dice, not every number in the damage expression. Keep the attack roll and the damage calculation as separate steps.

Damage

Damage Threshold: a gate, not damage subtraction

A damage threshold determines whether one instance deals damage at all. Once the instance reaches the threshold, the rule applies the entire instance rather than subtracting the threshold.

Senses

Darkvision: preserve the difference between dark and dim

Darkvision upgrades lighting within a specified range. It does not make every dark scene look like daylight or restore color information in Darkness.

Movement

Difficult Terrain: overlapping obstacles do not stack

A space either is Difficult Terrain or is not. Multiple reasons for that classification do not multiply the Difficult Terrain movement cost.

Checks

Expertise: double proficiency once

Expertise enhances a particular skill proficiency. It doubles the Proficiency Bonus for that check, not the ability modifier or the complete check total.

Hazards

Falling: count distance, damage and the landing condition

A fall has a damage calculation and a landing consequence. Landing in liquid provides a possible Reaction and check, rather than automatically eliminating all fall damage.

Movement

Flying: check hover before a forced fall

A flying creature can fall when specific conditions or a zero Fly Speed apply. The ability to hover provides an exception; being airborne alone does not.

Combat

Grappling: release a target when the hold ends

Grappling describes establishing and ending a hold. Use it alongside the Grappled condition, which describes the held creature’s ongoing restrictions.

Checks

Heroic Inspiration: commit to the reroll

Heroic Inspiration can reroll any die immediately after it is rolled. The new result is mandatory, so the decision carries a real possibility of a worse roll.

Movement

High Jump: calculate leap height and reach separately

High Jump uses the Strength modifier, and reaching above the leap also uses the jumper’s height. Keep vertical leap, arm reach and movement cost as separate quantities.

Magic

Illusions: distinguish sensory detail from substance

An illusion’s description tells you which senses it deceives. General environmental details can appear convincing without giving the illusion physical substance or weight.

Equipment

Improvised weapons: choose the ordinary rule or a weapon equivalent

A makeshift weapon normally has its own damage, range and proficiency rules. A GM-approved resemblance to an existing weapon can replace that procedure with the named weapon’s rules.

Combat

Knocking out a creature: use the melee finishing option

This option applies when a melee attack would reduce a creature to zero Hit Points. It changes the resulting Hit Points and starts a specific unconscious recovery process.

Movement

Long Jump: include the run-up in the movement budget

Long Jump uses the Strength score for distance after a qualifying run-up. Its distance permission does not grant free movement beyond the amount available on the turn.

Rest

Long Rest: resume after an interruption with added time

A Long Rest has sleep, activity, timing and interruption requirements. Record actual rest progress so an interruption is resolved using this edition’s resume rule.

Magic

Magic action: resolve an interrupted long casting

The Magic action covers action-time spells and features that require it. A spell taking at least a minute has a continuing action and Concentration requirement during casting.

Combat

Opportunity Attacks: react before the target leaves reach

An Opportunity Attack uses a Reaction and occurs at a specific point in another creature’s departure. Visibility, movement source and available Reaction all matter.

Senses

Passive Perception: apply the five-point adjustment

Passive Perception is a score used by the GM for awareness without a conscious check. Build it from the complete Perception check bonus, then apply the stated Advantage or Disadvantage adjustment.

Turns

Reaction: refresh at the start of your next turn

A Reaction responds to a defined trigger and can happen on another creature’s turn. Its availability refreshes at the start of your next turn, not at every round boundary.

Magic

Ritual: add time without spending a spell slot

A prepared spell with the Ritual tag can be cast using the ritual option. This trades extra casting time for no spell-slot expenditure; it does not create an upcast version.

Rest

Short Rest: spend recovery dice after completing the hour

A Short Rest takes an hour and has specific interruption rules. Its recovery dice can be spent one at a time after the rest is completed, with a minimum recovery per die.

Turns

Simultaneous effects: the current turn’s controller chooses order

When multiple things happen at the same time on a turn, the person whose turn it is chooses their order. Establish that they share a timing point before applying this rule.

Hazards

Suffocation: track its Exhaustion separately

Suffocation has a breath-holding period and then adds Exhaustion each turn. Recovery from breathing again removes the levels gained from suffocation, so keep their source visible.

Movement

Swimming: distinguish movement cost from rough-water checks

Swimming consumes additional movement unless the creature uses a Swim Speed. Rough water can call for a check, but that question is separate from the normal movement cost.

Movement

Teleportation: carrying gear does not carry another creature

Teleportation changes position without crossing the intervening space. Its general rules cover movement, possessions, occupants and blocked destinations, while the specific effect controls additional permissions.

Senses

Tremorsense: locate without granting sight

Tremorsense pinpoints locations through a shared surface or liquid. Knowing a location is not the same as seeing a target, especially when another feature requires sight.

Senses

Truesight: see through visual deception within range

Truesight lists specific enhancements within its range. Apply each listed benefit to the relevant visual effect without turning the sense into unlimited knowledge or an instruction to end the effect.

Combat

Unarmed Strike: choose damage, grapple or shove

An Unarmed Strike has three different outcomes. The damage option uses an attack roll; the ordinary grapple and shove options instead make the target roll a saving throw.

Each guide links its official source page. Examples and summaries are adaptations; consult the full effect when a spell, item or creature adds a special rule.

Source and reuse

This work includes material from the System Reference Document 5.2.1 (“SRD 5.2.1”) by Wizards of the Coast LLC, available at dndbeyond.com/srd. The SRD 5.2.1 is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, available at creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode.

The explanation, example and table prompt are Table Ready adaptations; source text has been reflowed. This guide and its printable card are available under the same CC BY 4.0 license. Independent reference; no official affiliation. These rules are optional for our system-neutral adventures.