Welcome back dungeon masters and party members! This week, we will finally begin to get into the rules of the game. By now you should know the basic concepts and the process to use to make a character. Next comes actually gaining the ability to enter a campaign. The rules are slightly complex so this topic might also take a few weeks to conquer, but by the end you will be ready to embark on your adventure!
Advantage and Disadvantage on Dice Roll
Depending on your character’s abilities, class, and race, you might have advantage or disadvantage on specified rolls throughout the campaign. These can be ability checks, saving throws, or attack rolls (we will touch on exactly what these mean later on). For now though, you just need to know that these are points when you will have to roll the dice. When you have either advantage or disadvantage you roll the d20 dice 20. (Remember, the the number after the d means the number of faces on the dice.) When you have advantage you take the higher of the two rolls, but when you have disadvantage you take the lower. In situations where you might have advantage for two reasons or disadvantage for two reasons, you still only roll twice. If you have both advantage and disadvantage on the same roll they cancel each other out and you must only roll once.
Saving Throws
When your character is in danger because of a threat, you will be forced to make a saving throw, or save, to protect yourself. To make a save, you roll a d20 and then add the modifier which can be found on your character sheet. The roll + modifier must be higher than the number for the specific threat in a story-line. There are different types of saves depending on the situation. An example of that is an intelligence throw. Each character class is proficient in at least two types of saves.
Ability Checks
These test a your character when you are up against a certain challenge. Whenever you are attempting an action, if the DM believes it is worthy of a roll, you will have to roll to see if you were successful in the act. The DM will decide based on the challenge what number you must roll. The DM also decides which ability modifier applies to the situation. One time, my character was stuck at the bottom of a hole because of a trap. I rolled several times to climb the rope out, but each time my roll was too low and the rope snapped!
Next week we will continue with the rules. Hope you enjoyed, and thanks for reading!
Sources:
10, Posted by BadEye Apr. “D&D Beyond.” Races, 10 Apr. 2017, www.dndbeyond.com/sources/basic-rules/races.
Crawford, Jermey, et al. Dungeons and Dragons Essentials Kit Rulebook.