Every game has rules. Some have only a few and are very straightforward, but when a game allows you to do a lot of different things, it needs a plethora of rules to make sure things don’t go off the rails.Dungeons & Dragonsis one of these games with many rules, especially since the idea of the game is to be able to do virtually anything, within reason and logic.
That also means some rules get misinterpreted. Whether because a wrong reading of the rule got popular or a homebrewed version of the rule became so common that people aren’t even aware that it is not official, many interpretations can go wrong.
10Darkvision
It Doesn’t Annul Darkness
A rule that is commonly misinterpreted ishow darkvision works.Despite how most people use it, darkvision doesn’t allow you to see in darkness as if you were in bright light, where you can easily distinguish everything.
While you may still fight normally in the dark with darkvision, you can’t tell the color of anything, and trying to do any Perception roll that relies on your sight will have a disadvantage. What if you don’t have darkvision? Then you fight at a disadvantage (assuming you can tell someone is nearby through sound, for instance), and you can’t even try a Perception roll that relies on sight to begin with.
9Where To Use Criticals
Optional Rules Change Things
This rule is more complicated since optional rulings change this one. Still, the default is that critical successes and failures only apply in two instances: attack rolls and death saving throws. A natural one in a skill check can still succeed, and a natural 20 can still fail.
Attacks go as most people know: one always misses, 20 always hits, and it doubles the dice from the damage roll. In death saving throws, one gives you two failures, and 20 gives you one hit point, instantly waking you up and ending the death saves.
8Readying An Action
Particularly Spells
Most people are aware that you canready an action.Like a line of code, you establish an action and a trigger for it, such as “If someone comes out of that door, I’m shooting them.” However, things work differently if you want to use a spell. Spells cost an action to cast. Thus, you need to cast a spell and hold it in your hands until the trigger happens. To do that, you need to concentrate on the spell, no matter which one it is.
So, suppose you want to ready a Fireball for whenever someone comes out of that door. In that case, you need to concentrate on the Fireball, risking losing said concentration or breaking concentration from other spells if they were active.
7Help Actions
There Are Limits
Helping is a very useful action, especially when your character can’t solve a problem, but someone else can. However, you can only use it in two situations: ability checks and attack rolls. You can’t help someone through a saving throw, for example. But there’s more.
To help an attack roll, you’re not supposed to be next to your ally but next to the enemy who’ll be targeted - it’s more like a hindering action towards the enemy. For ability checks, you need to be proficient with the skill or tool you want to help with, and the DM has the final say on whether it makes sense for someone to be able to help with the particular action.
6Using Spell Scrolls
We Recommend Ignoring The Official Rules, Though
Spell scrolls are a good way for anyone to cast spells, right? Wrong. First, you’re able to only use a scroll if the spell is part of your class’s spell list. A wizard can’t use a scroll with Healing Word, and a barbarian can’t use any scroll at all.
Along with that, scrolls have their attack bonuses and DCs. The weaker the spell’s level, the weaker these numbers will be. You can also attempt to cast a spell from a level you don’t have access to as long as you pass an ability check.
5Ranged Attacks At Melee
Anyone Can Be A Problem
Most people know that if you try to use a ranged attack on someone within five feet (1.5m) of you, aka in melee, you’ll have disadvantage on the attack roll. While that is correct, this information is incomplete.
The problem isn’t that your target is in melee, but that an enemy is in melee. If you’re trying to hit someone who’s far from you, but there’s a random enemy in melee with you, that also triggers disadvantage. Get a feat to overrule this, though, and you’re good.
4Stacking Advantages And Disadvantages
Yeah, They Don’t Stack
If you have both advantages and disadvantages on a roll, they cancel each other out, and you roll normally, as most players know. But what if you have two things triggering an advantage on your attack and only one triggering a disadvantage?
In this case, they cancel each other out, and you roll normally. There’s no math here saying that two advantages minus one disadvantage equals one advantage; they’re just canceled, and it’s over. That said, this is a fun homebrew rule.
3Invisibility
Stealth Sold Separately
A common thing people assume when going invisible is that they are also hidden in the process, which is not the case. You can still be attacked (albeit at a disadvantage), and people can still track you through sound, smell, or other ways.
Sure, when invisible, you’ll have an easier time hiding since you won’t need to find a proper place to break the line of sight, and enemies will have a harder time tracking you. You’re also safe from spells that require the caster to see the target, so there are positives here.
2Grappling
Opportunity Grapples Work Now
Grappling is a useful attack,especially after the revised 2024 version of the book. A grapple prevents an enemy from moving and allows the grappler to move them around. The grappled person also has a disadvantage attacking anyone other than the grappler.
What used to be confusing but is now a valid trick is how to pull it off. Grappling is now part of an unarmed strike, meaning you can use one of your attacks to grapple instead of your whole action, and you can even grapple someone who’s attempting to get away from you through an opportunity attack, something the 2014 rules didn’t allow.
1Casting Multiple Spells Per Turn
Yes, You Can
Casting more than one spell per turn is empowering and allowed within both 2014 and 2024 rules. Under both rule sets, you can use a spell with your action and a cantrip with your bonus action or vice versa. You can also use spells with a reaction, though the 2024 rules don’t let them be on the same turn (they can be on the same round, however).
Under 2024 rules, you can also use a loophole since the rules don’t forbid you from casting multiple spells per turn, but only from using multiple spell slots per turn. So, if you can cast a spell for free through items or your species, you can use your spell slot for one spell and your innate/item spell for another, such as attacking and using Misty Step on the same turn.
