D&D Terminology Explained

As I wrote in the introductory post of The Demonomania, many mechanics that take place “behind the scenes” are based on the fifth edition of Dungeons & Dragons. Maybe not everyone who reads this blog is familiar with all the different skills and elements of combat, so I want to explain most of them briefly down below.
I will not write a very elaborate report with all the dice outcomes, hit points increases and decreases, and number of feet moved, because that’s not a story; that’s a battle report.
First: the most important element is the twenty-sided die (also called d20). Together with the bonus on a skill, it determines the success of your action. A rolled 20, called natural 20 or critical hit, guarantees the best success possible on attack roll, not for skills checks (read on to learn more). In contrary, a rolled 1, called natural 1 or critical fail / miss, makes any attempt to attack fail, sometimes (or mostly) creating a disadvantage for the one who rolled the die. Everything in between can be a success or a fail, based on if the outcome surpasses the number to beat (also called a DC, meaning Difficulty Class).

Outside of combat, which is basically most of the time, skill checks can be made to gain information or make some kind of action. These actions gain a certain bonus, depending on how high the corresponding ability is. These six abilities are strength, dexterity, constitution, intelligence, wisdom and charisma. Every hero in this story has its own strengths and weaknesses, all written down in the character sheets that drive them behind the scenes.

Strength determines your physical power. How easily can you push a boulder or how difficult is it for you to break free when someone holds you down? Roll a strength check and you’ll know it. Another strength-based check is athletics. It determines how well one can jump, climb or swim.

Dexterity says something about how quick and nimble you are, your agility and reflexes. How easy can you pick a lock and how well can you tie up someone? The dexterity-based checks are acrobatics, sleight of hand and stealth. Acrobatics checks determine how well you stay on your feet when slipping on ice or maintain your balance when on a rocking ship. Sleight of hand is an ability to see how well you - for example - can pickpocket an unobservant citizen. A successful roll on stealth conceals you from enemies and sneak past someone.

Constitution has no specific skills, but determines your vitality and stamina. A constitution check can made rolled to see how well you can handle your alcohol, how long you can hold your breath underwater, how long can you go without sleep and how long you survive without rattions.

Intelligence measures your ability to reason, your mental sharpness and a lot of magical properties. Want to make a logical deduction, recall something or educate? Roll intelligence. There are five different intelligence skills: arcana, history, investigation, nature and religion. Arcana helps you to recall information about magic, spells and all kinds of wondrous symbols and sigils. History informs you about the local folklore and legends, recognize well-known historical buildings and know about former wars and civilizations. Investigation helps you to find clues, hidden objects and covers all kind of forms of deduction. Nature skills measure your knowledge about plants, animals, weather and terrain. Religion checks are made when you want to know about rituals, deities, cults and holy buildings.

Wisdom reflects empathy, the ability to notice things around you, read someone’s body language and aid someone. Wisdom consists out of five skills: animal handling, insight, medicine, perception and survival. If you want to mount an animal or calm down a beast, you roll a check for animal handling. Your roll on insight decides if you can find out what someone’s true intentions are; are they speaking the truth or are they lying? Check the tone of their voice or spot a change in mannerisms and you may find out. Medicine helps you stabilize a dying ally, determine what kind of symptoms someone is experiencing, what kind of disease it is and where or how to find a cure. Perception is an often used skill as it gives you your sensory information. It’s used to follow foot tracks, identify natural hazards and interpret signs of nearby creatures.

Charisma determines your confidence, your leadership, your charm. If you want to influence others in any other way or find out the local gossip, charisma is the ability to use, consisting out of four different skills: deception, intimidation, performance and persuasion. If you hide the truth, verbally or nonverbally, you must roll for deception to prevent someone to catch you on your lie. Intimidation helps you achieve a goal by making threats, use violence or torture someone for information. If you want to pull off a good act, song, dance or storytelling, you must roll for performance. Persuasion is used to make your cause plausible and convince someone of your good intent or innocence.

Sometimes a character finds himself in a situation where he or she needs to resist or overcome an obstacle. This is when, sometimes, a saving throw needs to be made. Resist a spell, overcome a spreading poison running through your veins or try to evade a just sprung trap quickly; you need a save.

During an encounter with someone or something that poses a threat, combat is not an unusual outcome. Obviously, when one is facing an enemy, one attacks and, basically, attacks can hit or miss. Most of the time, this is determined to see if the d20 used to see if an attack hits surpasses the armor class (AC) of the target. Two examples: if you roll a 19 and the enemy has an AC of 13, you may roll for damage, because the attack hits. If you roll a 7 and the enemy has an AC of 11, you miss.

Hopefully this information helps to help understand what some terms and numbers mean when you come across them. The result of the die roll will be part of the story, so you always know what happens. Making most of the parts of the story depending on dice outcomes, every scene can be a surprise for me as well. Hopefully you’re just as excited as I am as the this long and epic quest begins with the prologue: A Gathering of Heroes.