It’s finally here: the third and final core book for 5e D&D – the Dungeon Master’s Guide. Let me tell you it was worth the wait. This books if fantastic. It is 320 pages of everything I was expecting from the 5e DMG. If you’re planning to stick with 5e then there’s no question, you’ll want this book.
Magic Item Table C d100 Magic Item 01–15 Potion of superior healing 16–22 Spell scroll (4th level) 23–27 Ammunition, +2 28–32 Potion of clairvoyance 33–37 Potion of diminution 38–42 Potion of gaseous form 43–47 Potion of frost giant strength 48–52 Potion of stone giant strength 53–57 Potion of heroism 58–62 Potion of invulnerability. Dec 18, 2018 What doesn’t invigorate me is the cumbersome method of finding the Treasure Checkpoint (TCP) cost of magic items. Cross reference the adventure for the magic item, find the a magic item table in the Dungeon Master’s Guide (DMG), then find the TCP cost on the Forgotten Realms Players Guide table.
I’m going to go through the highs and lows of each chapter. The DMG is massive and there is a lot of great material here. I can’t possibly do it all justice so I’m going to really try and focus on the things that I felt were worth noting; the things I’d want to know if I was reading a review of the 5e DMG. If you have questions about any of the things I discuss or you want to know about something you thought was in there but I didn’t cover, leave me a comment below.
After I’ve had my piece I’ll give you my final thoughts on the book and then it’s up to you to decide if you want to buy it or not.
General Observations
Before I get into each section and each chapter I want to make a few general comments. First of all I love the style of this DMG. Each section gives you just enough to get the point but not so much as to bog you down in rules and specificity. There is a tremendous emphasis on sharing the general concept and leaving it to you the DM to decide on how to reach the specific. Imagination is more important that hard rules. This is the case throughout every chapter of the book, for better or worse. Personally I think it’s great. It’s one of the things I’m enjoying most about 5e. Show me the way and then let me walk the path on my own. I don’t need you to hold my hand. I may stumble along the way, but I’m going to have a lot of fun in the process. Keep that in mind as you’re reading this review and as you’re reading the DMG.
The art in this book is fantastic, starting with the great cover. The are in the DMG is everything I’ve come to expect in a 5e rule book. After seeing the exceptional job done in the PHB and Monster Manual, I expected nothing less. The full splash pages are beautiful and really give you a sense of what D&D is all about. The fantasy worlds and creatures come to life on every page. There is a little bit of art that was borrowed from previous publications, but I can certainly forgive that.
To say there are a lot of table in the 5e DMG is an understatement. This book is packed full of tables. Every section has tables to help the DM use the mechanics quickly and easily. All the tables reminded me of the original 1e DMG, whihc was a good thing.
Part 1
Chapter 1: A World of Your Own
If you’re a new DM who’s never played before or you’re a player who hasn’t played in a very long time then this chapter provides a great introduction to world-building. If you’re an experienced DM and you’ve played any previous edition of D&D in the last few years then you can skip this chapter.
For experienced DMs the only things that you may want to take a look at quickly is the section on Factions & Renown and Tiers of Play. Although these sections are only three pages each, there is some new and interesting material in there.
The Faction section lacks the details about special missions we were hoping for, which was disappointing. The Renown section talks briefly about attitudes of members and perks. There is new rules on losing renown and new rules for how to use renown for pious characters to measure their devotion. The rest of what’s covered in these sections pretty much repeats what we already know from other 5e sources.
The Tiers of Play section names the four tiers:
- Levels 1-4: Local Heroes
- Levels 5-10: Heroes of the Realm
- Levels 11-16: Masters of the Realm
- Levels 17-20: Masters of the World
There is also guidelines for beginning play at higher levels and an interesting sidebar that recommends how much equipment, money and magic to give PCs starting above level 1 in low magic campaigns, standard campaigns, and high magic campaigns.
Chapter 2: Creating a Multiverse
If you’re an experienced DM who’s ever flipped through a Manual of the Planes (any edition) then you can likely skip this chapter too. It’s essentially all the good stuff from every Manual of the Planes condensed into 25 pages. It’s very useful if your campaign spans the Multiverse, but for everyday adventures, especially the kind you generally see at low levels and introductory play, this is too much too soon. I will call out the great 2-page write-ups on the Feywild, Shadowfell, and Sigil. This is all I was interested in and what was here was enough for now.
Part 2
Chapter 3: Creating Adventures
This is where the DMG really began to pay dividends for me. The chapter begins with a good breakdown of what makes a good adventure and then talks about the difference between playing a published adventure and one you make up yourself. From there we get helpful hints and many great tables that present numerous options detailing the different types of adventures, complications like plot-twists and side quests, how to create encounters with a strong focus on objectives and monsters, and how and when to use random encounters. This chapter covers how to manage XP budgets to create suitable encounters for your party’s level. It’s brief, but it covers the basics.
What this chapter really illustrated for me was that each section give you a very brief recount of what the intent is, but it leaves the specifics to the DM. This edition is light on rules, and heavy on imagination. They provide framework and it’s up to you to fill in the blanks as appropriate for your gaming group. We’ll continue to see this throughout the DMG in every chapter.
Chapter 4: Creating Nonplayer Characters
The chapter begins with eight tables that let you quickly throw together memorable and unique NPCs just by rolling some dice. Then we get a three pages on NPC party members and hirelings which is something we never got in the official 4e books. There’s a nice optional rule here about using a loyalty score to determine what NPCs will and won’t do in the face of danger.
Then we move on to villains where three more huge tables give the DM plenty of options to choose or roll when they need a quick villain that’s not your standard bad guy. The real gem in this section are the Villainous Class Options. The Cleric can chose the Death Domain and the Paladin can choose Oathbreaker. These are set up like the class options in the PHB, but are skewed for evil PCs. These look very interesting and will make experienced players salivate with delight at the prospect of playing these builds. The Oathbreaker in particular can actually atone and change back into a good aligned Paladin, but it’s a difficult undertaking. Fortunately there’s a DM sidebar to help adjudicate this eventuality. Assuming you want to give up your ability to control undead, your Aura of Hate, or your level 20 Dread Lord status.
Dmg Magic Item Tables C Program
Chapter 5: Adventure Environments
If you’ve never played D&D before then this is an important chapter because it talks about campaigns that take place in a dungeon, in the wilderness, or in an urban setting. It talks about how to describe these settings, how to map them, how to fill them with challenges and monsters, and how to survive in the harshest of environments. However, if you have played D&D before then this is another section you can pretty much skip until you need it.
The four pages on Adventures in Unusual Environments, like underwater or in the sky, are nice to have and were entertaining to read through. But the real high point of this chapter for me was the final four pages which were all about traps. After a very brief overview of how to use traps, there are 11 great sample traps. I’m sure all DMs will find clever and creative ways to use these deadly traps in their campaigns soon enough.
Chapter 6: Between Adventures
I think what we all want to know is what can I do with my downtime days? The DMG gives a few additional options beyond those already described in the PHB.
- Building a Stronghold: Spend 60-1,200 downtime days and 5,000-500,000 gp and you’ve got yourself a brand new stronghold.
- Carousing: When you want to party like it’s 1999 then spend those downtime days on some serious partying.
- Crafting Magic Items: Aside from the time and resources required to actually acquire the materials that the DM decides you need to make your magic item, you have to spend some downtime days.
- Gaining Renown: Want to rise through the ranks of your faction? Spend some downtime days to make a name for yourself.
- Perform Sacred Rites: Pray long enough and you’ll get inspiration for it. How much is up to the DM.
- Running a Business: Adventuring is hard work, so when the monsters are defeated come home, relax, and work at your day job.
- Sell Magic Items: In a world with few magic items there are fewer still who can afford to buy them. It takes many downtime days to find a suitable buyer. Maybe you should just keep the item?
- Sowing Rumors: Now the Bard and the Rogue can put those social skills to work by slandering your enemies and making the party sound more heroic than they really are. The bigger the town the longer it takes.
- Training to Gain Levels: As a variant rule the DM may require you to train before you can advance to the next level. Don’t worry it’ll only take 10-40 days depending on your level.
Chapter 7: Treasure
Most of this chapter is the description of magic items. Like the spell descriptions that make up so much of the PHB, you won’t need these descriptions until the items come into your game. However, the descriptions are wonderful to read. Most items have full colour pictures which always makes an item seem special. Some of the illustrations pay homage to previous editions of D&D. For example the Manual of Bodily Health looks a lot like the 3.5e Epic Handbook, the Talisman of the Sphere is shaped like the demon face carving some may recognize from the Tomb of Horrors, the Deck of Many Things shows the faces of nine cards that look similar to the cards provided with the 4e Madness at Gardmore Abbey, and the Book of Vile Darkness looks a lot like the 3.5e supplement of the same name. Also included after all the descriptions of magic items are details for sentient items and good old artifacts.
Aside from the 75 pages of magic items there are also a few other details worth noting in this chapter. At the beginning are some great tables for determining treasure by challenge rating. Following that, there are random magic item tables (tables A-I) with each table listing increasingly more powerful items. It’s got a very old school look and feel to it.
Other good tidbits include 11 tables for randomly determining gem and art objects. They’re not as detailed as the ones in the classic 2e Forgotten Realms Adventures hardcover, but they’ll certainly do the job. There are also good options presented on attuning items, identifying items, and cursed items – so players beware.
One thing I do in my home camping is allow PCs to mix potions. It often creates some random happenstance. There is a table in this DMG that lists some possible consequences of mixing potions. It’s not as imaginative as my list, but it’s nice to see it included.
Finally there are six pages that talk about other rewards beyond gold and magic items. These include things like blessings, medals, land, favours, strongholds, and training. The last section in rewards is Epic Boons. They’re only available to PCs who are level 20 and they are truly epic.
Part 3
Chapter 8: Running the Game
A lot of what’s in this chapter is covered in the free DMG Basic Rules PDF that Wizards already made available on their website. If you’ve DMed before, especially D&D Next or 5e then this is just a good refresher. For new DMs this section will tell you everything you need to know to run a good session. It covers a lot of details but each section is very short and to the point.
We get a few optional or more advanced rules in this chapter including ways to adjust monster damage severity, as well as guidelines for using maps (grids or hexes) and how to determine the tactical aspects that come with it such as flanking to gain advantage and facing rules. There are rules for handling chases, stats for siege equipment, and two pages on poison including the details for some of the deadlier varieties.
Chapter 9: Dungeon Master’s Workshop
This is where they’ve hidden the best stuff in the new DMG. This is all the stuff that we didn’t get in previous editions. When I got my DMG this is the chapter I flipped to and read first. It was all the modular stuff they promised us when they first released D&D Next. Some of these things I’m itching to use in my games, others I’m sure I’ll never use. But I’m certainly glad that all of this stuff is in here because you never know what you may want to add to your campaign down the road.
Before I get into some of tis stuff I want to stress that this is all optional. None of what’s in this chapter is expected to appear at every game table. If you like or dislike something you read in this chapter, talk to the players and DMs in your group and as a group collectively divide which ones you think will work and which ones wont.
- Proficiency dice replace the flat modifier in your traied skills. Instead you get a proficiency dice to roll when using skills you’re trained in. It eliminate auto-success and allows you to try some crazy and wacky stuff knowing that if you roll really well it just might work.
- Hero points are basically the 3e action points. You get a set number of hero points and when you spend one you roll 1d6 and add it to the check. You can also just cash in the points to do cool things including automatically stabilizing if you’re dying.
- Honor and Sanity scores. If you want to play a game with a traditional Asian feel or you want to port in your Call of Cthulhu campaign to D&D, now you have mechanics that will help you do both.
- Healing and resting options allow you to speed up healing by using healing surges like we did in 4e and making a short rest take only 5 minutes. Or you can slow down healing making short rests 8 hours and long rests 7 days.
- Firearms and Explosives will certainly change a traditional D&D campaign, but it does open doors to wild west themed adventures, something my home group has wanted to do for a long time. To take things one step farther there even guidelines for introducing alien technology.
- Plot points borrow heavily from the Dresden Files declaration mechanics. If you want something to happen or you want to change the scene as its unfolding, use a plot point. One interesting variant is to use plot points to change DMs mid-adventure.
- Initiative variations include doing group initiative for team heroes vs. team monsters, applying speed factors to individuals based on weapon type, and my personal favourite, making initiative a passive Dexterity check for everyone all the time.
- So you have the Monster Manual but you can’t find the exact monster you need? No problem. Now you can create you own monster. There is a 20-step procedure for making monsters that literally breaks down each line of a the monster’s stat block. As you add each ability, power, or magical spell the tables explain how the monster’s power level and CR change. This is the most in-depth monster creation I’ve seen in any edition yet it’s quite simple and easy to follow. Experienced DMs will love this. You can even give monsters class levels and spell casting abilities. It’s the best parts of monster creation from 3.5e.
- Want to create a magic item? Now you can. But in a system that’s magic light make sure that this item will add something necessary and doesn’t just feel like a better version of something else.
- Finally there are guidelines for adjusting what’s already in the PHB including new sub-races, adjusting the classes and making your own backgrounds. The Eladrin and Aasimar are both presented as example sub-races.
Appendix A: Random Dungeons
This is the down and dirty way to create a dungeon. There are 12 pages jam packed with tables allowing the DM to roll up a dungeon in just a few minutes. It’s got everything fom door type, to stairs, to the dungeon’s purpose, to the state of the dungeon when the PCs arrive, to traps, and all kinds of dungeon dressing.
Appendix B: Monster Lists
This is everything we wanted in the 5e Monster Manual and didn’t get. Monsters listed by 11 different types of environments and monsters listed by challenge rating.
Appendix C: Maps
You need a quick map, here are nine that should work. Some of the maps may look familiar. On pg 312 is the Vault of the Dracolich map, on pg 314 is a boat from The Talon of Umberlee Lair Assault, and on pg 311 is an updated version of the map printed on pg 95 of the original DMG.
Appendix D: Dungeon Master Inspiration
Want to become a better DM and a better storyteller? Here is a lost of great books and resources. Enjoy.
Thoughts
The only negative thing I can about the 5e DMG say is that it’s expensive, but even that’s not such a big deal. I think the investment of $50 US / $58 CAN is well worth the price considering the quality of the book you get. When balanced against the number of years I’ll be using and referencing this book, I think the price is right. Remember that only one person in your gaming group actually needs a DMG, but if you’ve got the money I’d certainly recommend you pick it up. Christmas is right around the corner. Why not ask Santa to get you a DMG?
What more can I say about this book? This is the DMG that we were waiting for. It delivered on all accounts in my opinion. The history of D&D is deeply steeped into all the 5e core books and the DMG is the best of them. If you’re a serious gamer you’ll want the 5e DMG.
- Final grade: 10 on a d10
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Magic Items are gleaned from the hoards of conquered Monsters or discovered in long-lost vaults. Such items grant capabilities a character could rarely have otherwise, or they complement their owner’s capabilities in wondrous ways.
Attunement
Some Magic Items require a creature to form a bond with them before their magical properties can be used. This bond is called attunement, and certain items have a prerequisite for it. If the prerequisite is a class, a creature must be a member of that class to attune to the item. (If the class is a Spellcasting class, a monster qualifies if it has Spell Slots and uses that class’s spell list.) If the prerequisite is to be a spellcaster, a creature qualifies if it can cast at least one spell using its traits or features, not using a magic item or the like.
Without becoming attuned to an item that requires attunement, a creature gains only its nonmagical benefits, unless its description states otherwise. For example, a magic Shield that requires attunement provides the benefits of a normal Shield to a creature not attuned to it, but none of its magical properties.
Attuning to an item requires a creature to spend a Short Rest focused on only that item while being in physical contact with it (this can’t be the same short rest used to learn the item’s properties). This focus can take the form of weapon practice (for a weapon), meditation (for a wondrous item), or some other appropriate activity. If the Short Rest is interrupted, the attunement attempt fails. Otherwise, at the end of the Short Rest, the creature gains an intuitive understanding of how to activate any magical properties of the item, including any necessary Command words.
An item can be attuned to only one creature at a time, and a creature can be attuned to no more than three Magic Items at a time. Any attempt to attune to a fourth item fails; the creature must end its attunement to an item first. Additionally, a creature can’t attune to more than one copy of an item. For example, a creature can’t attune to more than one Ring of Protection at a time.
A creature’s attunement to an item ends if the creature no longer satisfies the Prerequisites for attunement, if the item has been more than 100 feet away for at least 24 hours, if the creature dies, or if another creature attunes to the item. A creature can also voluntarily end attunement by spending another Short Rest focused on the item, unless the item is Cursed.
Wearing and Wielding Items
Using a magic item’s properties might mean wearing or wielding it. A magic item meant to be worn must be donned in the intended fashion: boots go on the feet, gloves on the hands, hats and helmets on the head, and rings on the finger. Magic armor must be donned, a Shield strapped to the arm, a cloak fastened about the shoulders. A weapon must be held.
In most cases, a magic item that’s meant to be worn can fit a creature regardless of size or build. Many magic garments are made to be easily adjustable, or they magically adjust themselves to the wearer. Rare exceptions exist. If the story suggests a good reason for an item to fit only creatures of a certain size or shape, you can rule that it doesn’t adjust. For example, drow-made armor might fit elves only. Dwarves might make items usable only by dwarf-sized and dwarf-shaped folk.
When a nonhumanoid tries to wear an item, use your discretion as to whether the item functions as intended. A ring placed on a tentacle might work, but a Yuan-ti with a snakelike tail instead of legs can’t wear boots.
Multiple Items of the Same Kind
Use Common sense to determine whether more than one of a given kind of magic item can be worn. A character can’t normally wear more than one pair of footwear, one pair of gloves or gauntlets, one pair of bracers, one suit of armor, one item of headwear, and one cloak. You can make exceptions; a character might be able to wear a circlet under a helmet, for example, or to layer two cloaks.
Paired Items
Items that come in pairs—such as boots, bracers, gauntlets, and gloves—impart their benefits only if both items of the pair are worn. For example, a character wearing a boot of striding and springing on one foot and a boot of elvenkind on the other foot gains no benefit from either.
Activating an Item
Activating some Magic Items requires a user to do something Special, such as holding the item and uttering a Command word. The description of each item category or individual item details how an item is activated. Certain items use the following rules for their activation.
If an item requires an action to activate, that action isn’t a function of the Use an Item action, so a feature such as the rogue’s Fast Hands can’t be used to activate the item.
Command Word
A Command word is a word or phrase that must be spoken for an item to work. A magic item that requires a Command word can’t be activated in an area where sound is prevented, as in the area of the Silence spell.
Consumables
Some items are used up when they are activated. A potion or an elixir must be swallowed, or an oil applied to the body. The writing vanishes from a scroll when it is read. Once used, a consumable item loses its magic.
Some Magic Items allow the user to Cast a Spell from the item. The spell is cast at the lowest possible spell level, doesn’t expend any of the user’s Spell Slots, and requires no Components, unless the item’s description says otherwise. The spell uses its normal Casting Time, range, and Duration, and the user of the item must concentrate if the spell requires Concentration. Many items, such as potions, bypass the casting of a spell and confer the spell’s Effects, with their usual Duration. Certain items make exceptions to these rules, changing the Casting Time, Duration, or other parts of a spell.
magic item, such as certain staffs, may require you to use your own Spellcasting Ability when you Cast a Spell from the item. If you have more than one Spellcasting Ability, you choose which one to use with the item. If you don’t have a Spellcasting ability—perhaps you’re a rogue with the Use Magic Device feature—your Spellcasting Ability modifier is +0 for the item, and your Proficiency Bonus does apply.
Charges
Dmg Magic Item Tables C To 1
Some Magic Items have charges that must be expended to activate their properties. The number of charges an item has remaining is revealed when an Identify spell is cast on it, as well as when a creature attunes to it. Additionally, when an item regains charges, the creature attuned to it learns how many charges it regained.