Skill Examples (5A)
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You might have noticed that skills are incredibly fast and loose in 5th edition. The intention is that the GM has a lot more room to adjudicate what is right for their game. However, some may also find this freedom a little confusing. Below we have fleshed out the skills to some additional degree and provide options for that skill's use.
When the DC of a skill use has a list of several values, generally based on someone else's skills, always use the highest number.
Many checks have a difficulty equal to another creature's passive value. This is 10 + ability modifier + proficiency modifier. This avoid having to record the check result creatures achieve on tasks such as stealth and disguise. It also prevent a good roll carrying through an entire story; each time an opponent makes a check, there is a real danger of discovery. An opposed check is the same as a check against a passive value.
Strength
Strength measures bodily power and the extent to which you can exert raw physical force.
Athletics
The Athletics skill reflects aptitude in certain kinds of Strength checks. Examples include the following activities:
- You attempt to climb a sheer or slippery cliff, avoid hazards while scaling a wall, or cling to a surface while something is trying to knock you off.
- You try to jump an unusually long distance or pull off a stunt mid-jump.
- You try to force a door open or closed.
- You try to drag or topple a heavy weight.
Climbing, Swimming. And Crawling While climbing or swimming, each foot of movement costs 1 extra foot (2 extra feet in difficult terrain). unless a creature has a climbing or swimming speed. At the DM's option, climbing a slippery vertical surface or one with few handholds requires a successful Dexterity (Acrobatics) or Strength (Athletics) check. Similarly, gaining any distance in rough water might require a successful Strength (Athletics) check.
Catch a Falling Character
If someone falls, you can attempt to catch the falling character if they are within your reach. Doing so requires a successful Athletics check DC 15 + the falling creature's Strength bonus. If the creature would take falling damage, subtract your Strength (Athletics) check from the damage and split the remainder between you two.
Climbing
With a successful Athletics check, you can advance up, down, or across a slope, wall, or other steep incline (or even across a ceiling, provided it has handholds) at half your normal speed. A slope is considered to be any incline at an angle measuring less than 60 degrees; a wall is any incline at an angle measuring 60 degrees or more. A climb check that fails 5 or less means that you make no progress, and one that fails by more than 5 means that you fall from whatever height you have already attained. The DC of the check depends on the conditions of the climb.
You need both hands free to climb, but you may cling to a wall with one hand while you cast a spell or take some other action that requires only one hand. While climbing, you can’t move to avoid a blow, so opponents have advantage on their attacks against you. Anytime you take damage while climbing, make an Athletics check against the DC of the slope or wall. Failure means you fall from your current height and sustain the appropriate falling damage.
If you can brace yourself against another wall or surface, you gain advantage on the check. The use of pitons or hand-and-footholds placed before you climb grant advantage. If any of the surfaces are slippery (from rain, greased, polished, etc.) the checks are made with disadvantage. You can also try to climb at full speed by making the Athletics check with disadvantage.
Compare the task with those on the following table to determine an appropriate DC.
Climb DC | Example |
5 (Easy) | Knotted rope, rickety ladder |
10 (Moderate) | Very rough wall or ship’s rigging |
15 (Hard) | Rough wall or tree |
20 (Difficult) | Smooth wall with no handholds |
25 (Very Difficult) | Polished wall |
-5 | Positive incline (60 degrees) |
+5 | Negative incline or overhang |
Catch Yourself When Falling It’s incredibly difficult to catch yourself while falling. Make an Athletics check with a DC equal to the climb DC at disadvantage to do so.
Expeditious Climb In return for suffering disadvantage on your Athletics check to climb, you can move with such speed and vigor that you do not lose your Dexterity bonus to AC while climbing and climb at your full movement speed.
Rappelling: Climbing down a rope can be done at a much accelerated rate by rappelling. This requires a belt or other sturdy attachment point on your person. Rappelling is done at normal land speed with advantage, or at double land speed without advantage. A creature can use land or climb speed to determine rappelling speed.
Climb On A Bigger Creature
If one creature wants to jump onto another creature, it can do so by grappling. A Small or Medium creature has little chance of making a successful grapple against a Huge or Gargantuan creature, however, unless magic has granted the grappler supernatural might.
As an alternative, an opponent two size categories larger than you can be treated as terrain for the purpose of jumping onto its back or clinging to a limb. After making any checks necessary to get into position and onto the larger creature, the smaller creature uses its action to make a Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check against the target's passive Dexterity (Acrobatics).
If it wins the contest, the smaller creature successfully moves into the target creature's space and clings to its body. While in the target's space, the smaller creature moves with the target and has advantage on attack rolls against it. The smaller creature can #Climb within the larger creature's space, the DC is the passive Dexterity (Acrobatics). The larger creature's ability to attack the smaller creature depends on the smaller creature's location, and is left to the GMs discretion.
The larger creature can dislodge the smaller creature as an action-knocking it off, scraping it against a wall, or grabbing and throwing it-by making a Strength (Athletics) check against the smaller creature's passive Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check. The smaller creature chooses which ability to use.
Disarm
After you have score a melee hit against an armed opponent, instead of rolling damage, you can attempt a disarm. Make a Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check against the target's passive Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics). On a success they drop one item they are holding. The item lands 1d6 squares away in a direction of your choice.
Feat of Strength
When the rules call for a Strength check, you can use Strength (Athletics). This includes tasks like bursting bonds, forcing open a stuck, locked, or barred door, move or tip an heavy item like a large rock, pillar, or statue.
For tasks that depend on a lot on brute strength and little on skill, the GM may have you use your Strength score instead of an Athletics check. You can use the Athletics skills to temporarily push your Strength as an action. Make a Strength (Athletics) check, the DC is your Strength score. On a success you increase your effective Strength score by 2. For each 5 points of margin on the roll, increase your Strength by 2 additional points.
Grappling
Quoted from the combat rules. When you want to grab a creature or wrestle with it, you can use the Attack action to make a special melee attack, a grapple. If you’re able to make multiple attacks with the Attack, this attack replaces one of them.
The target of your grapple must be no more than one size larger than you and must be within your reach. Using at least one free hand, you try to seize the target by making a grapple check instead of an attack roll: a Strength (Athletics) check contested by the target’s Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check (the target chooses the ability to use). If you succeed, you subject the target to the grappled condition (see appendix A). The condition specifies the things that end it, and you can release the target whenever you like (no action required).
Escaping a Grapple: A grappled creature can use its action to escape. To do so, it must succeed on a Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check contested by your Strength (Athletics).
Moving a Grappled Creature: When you move, you can drag or carry the grappled creature with you, but your speed is halved, unless the creature is of a size smaller than you.
Jumping
You can use the Acrobatics and Athletics skills to make jumps.
Long Jump. When you make a long jump you cover a number of feet up to your Strength score if you move at least 10 feet immediately before the jump. When you make a standing long jump, you can leap only half that distance. Either way, each foot you clear on the jump costs a foot of movement. This rule assumes that the height of your jump doesn't matter. such as a jump across a stream or chasm. At your DM's option, you must succeed on a DC 10 Dexterity (Acrobatics) or Strength (Athletics) check to clear a low obstacle (no taller than a quarter of the jump's distance), such as a hedge or low wall. Otherwise you hit it. When you hit an obstacle or land in difficult terrain you must succeed on a DC 10 Dexterity (Acrobatics) check to land on your feet. Otherwise you land prone.
High Jump. When you make a high jump you leap into the air a number of feet equal to 3 + your Strength modifier if you move at least 10 feet on foot immediately before the jump. When you make a standing high jump, you can jump only half that height. Either way, each foot you clear on the jump costs a foot of movement. You can extend your arms half your height above yourself during the jump. Thus. you can reach above you a distance equal to the height of the jump plus 1 1/2 times your height.
Extended Jumps. As a bonus action you can make a Dexterity (Acrobatics) or Strength (Athletics) check to jump farther. The DC is your Strength score. On a success you increase your effective Strength score by 2 and your effective Strength bonus by 1 for this jump only. For each 5 points of margin on the roll, you gain this bonus again.
Overrun
As a part of movement a larger creature can barge its way through a smaller creature's space with a Strength (Athletics) check against each target's passive Strength (Athletics). One roll is made and compared to each target's Strength (Athletics). If the larger creature treats the smaller creature's space as difficult terrain, it gains advantage on the check. If the larger creature ends its turn with smaller creatures in its space, the smaller creatures are moved to the closest safe, legal position. The larger creature provokes attacks of opportunity normally for this movement.
Shove
From the combat rules. Using the attack action, you can make a special melee attack to shove a creature, either to force it prone or push it away from you. If you’re able to make multiple attacks with the attack action, this attack replaces one of them. The target must be no more than one size larger than you and must be within your reach. Instead of making an attack roll, you make a Strength (Athletics) check contested by the target’s Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check (the target chooses the ability to use). If you win the contest, you either force the target prone or push it 5 feet away from you. A pushed target decides where to go, as long as it moves away from you. If you wish to push the target into a precise space, even one that is not away from you, you can do so by taking disadvantage on the Athletics roll to shove.
Swim
Make a Strength (Athletics) check once per round while you are in the water. Success means you may swim at up to half your base speed as your movement. If you fail by 4 or less, you make no progress. If you fail by 5 or more, you go underwater. Once you succeed by 5 or more, you have got a grip on the situation and need not make any more Strength (Athletics) checks until conditions grow worse.
If you are underwater, either because you failed an Athletics check or because you are swimming underwater intentionally, you must hold your breath. Each hour that you swim, you must make a Constitution save against the swim DC or gain a level of exhaustion.
Water Conditions | Swim DC |
Calm water | 10 |
Rough water | 15 |
Stormy water | 20 |
Climbing, Swimming. And Crawling While climbing or swimming, each foot of movement costs 1 extra foot (2 extra feet in difficult terrain). unless a creature has a climbing or swimming speed. At the DM's option, climbing a slippery vertical surface or one with few handholds requires a successful Dexterity (Acrobatics) or Strength (Athletics) check. Similarly, gaining any distance in rough water might require a successful Strength (Athletics) check.
Swimming in Armor If you attempt to swim while wearing armor, you suffer disadvantage on your Strength (Athletics) check if your armor provides a penalty to Stealth checks. If a creature with a swim speed wears heavier armors, its swim speed is reduced in the same way as land speed.
Drowning Any character can hold her breath for a number of rounds equal to twice their Constitution score. If a character takes any strenuous actions (such as an Attack or Dash action), the remaining duration that the character can hold her breath is reduced by 1 round. After this period of time, the character must make a DC 10 Constitution save every round in order to continue holding her breath. Each round, the DC increases by 1.
If the character finally fails their Constitution check, they begin to drown. In the first round, they become incapacitated and their hit points are reduced to zero. Drowning characters make death saves as normal and might wake up and thus get a chance to pass a Swim check to get air. Characters who are or become unconscious while in water must begin making Constitution saves immediately. Once they fail one of these checks, they immediately drop to 0 hit points and begin making death saves.
It is possible to drown in substances other than water, such as sand, quicksand, fine dust, and silos full of grain.
Dexterity
Dexterity measures agility, reflexes, and balance.
A Dexterity check can model any attempt to move nimbly, quickly, or quietly, or to keep from falling on tricky footing. The Acrobatics, Sleight of Hand, and Stealth skills reflect aptitude in certain kinds of Dexterity checks.
Acrobatics
Your Dexterity (Acrobatics) check covers your attempts to stay on your feet in a tricky situation, such as when you’re trying to run across a sheet of ice, balance on a tightrope, or stay upright on a rocking ship’s deck. The GM might also call for a Dexterity (Acrobatics) check to see if you can perform acrobatic stunts, including dives, rolls, somersaults, and flips.
Agile Maneuvers
You can practice #Climbing, #Climb On A Bigger Creature, #Disarm and #Jumping using Dexterity (Acrobatics) in lieu of Strength (Athletics).
Balance
Conditions | DC Modifier |
Light Obstructions (gravel, sand) | DC 5 |
6" to 12" wide | DC 5 |
Severe Obstructions (cavern, rubble) | DC 10 |
2" to 6" wide | DC 10 |
Steep slope 45-60 degrees) | DC 15 |
1/10" to 1" wide | DC 15 |
Severely Unsteady (earthquake) | DC 20 |
1/10 inch wide or less | DC 20 |
You can use Acrobatics to move on narrow surfaces and uneven ground without falling. A successful check allows you to move across such surfaces. A failure means you do not move. If you fail by more than 5 you fall. If you take damage while Maintaining Balance, you must immediately make another Acrobatics check at the same DC to avoid falling or being knocked prone. A balancing pole (8 sp, 10 lbs.) grants advantage on the balance check. If the surface is unsteady or slippery, such as wet stone or a slack line, you have disadvantage.
Diving Into Water
You can use the Acrobatics skill to safely dive into water without taking damage. You can safely dive into water from a height equal to twice your Acrobatics check. The difference in your check becomes your falling height and calculates your falling damage (if any).
Escape Bonds
Your training and flexibility in Acrobatics allows you to slip bonds during a short or long rest. The DC is the passive Athletics of the binder, 15 for simple manacles, 25 for masterwork manacles. By taking disadvantage on your Acrobatics skill check to escape bonds, you can do so without being noticed while under observation.
Kip Up
You can get back to your feet by doing a flip back onto your feet. With a successful Acrobatics check (DC 15), you stand up from a prone position without spending extra movement to stand. If you fail, you spend the normal amount of movement to get up. If you fail the roll by more than 5, you spend half your movement without getting up.
Move through an Enemy Square
You can move through an enemy square with an opposed Dexterity (Acrobatics) check as an action or bonus action. If you do not succeed in your Acrobatics check, your movement for the round ends in front of the enemy’s square and you do not pass through. If you fail by more than five you fall prone in the last legal space before you enter the opponent's space.
Squares occupied by creatures are difficult ground. You can ignore this by taking disadvantage on the check. You can even ignore the difficult ground of friendly squares in this way, the DC is 10 and you add 'both your own and the friendly creature's Dexterity (Acrobatics) to the check.
Roll with Fall
A Dexterity (acrobatics) check (DC 10) allows you to reduce the effective height of a fall by the success margin of the roll (in feet). If you roll 20 or more, or if you take no damage, you can roll to a standing position.
Sleight Of Hand
Whenever you attempt an act of legerdemain or manual trickery, such as planting something on someone else or concealing an object on your person, make a Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) check. The GM might also call for a Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) check to determine whether you can lift a coin purse off another person or slip something out of another person’s pocket.
Binding
You can use ropes or cuffs to bind a creature that is helpless or does not resist. Binding sets the difficulty of #Escape Bonds. You can attempt to bind or cuff a creature as an action, this requires an opposed Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) check. You can use Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) in lieu of Dexterity (Acrobatics) to #Escape Bonds.
Draw Hidden Weapon
When you draw a hidden weapon, make an Dexterity (Deception) check opposed by your foe’s passive Wisdom (Perception). You must then attack with the weapon. If your check succeeds, you gain advantage on your attack. If you fail, you draw the weapon but do not get advantage. If your check fails by more than 5, you drop the weapon and lose the attack. #Hide Object is a separate task. Once you have been seen drawing a hidden weapon, you suffer disadvantage on further tests to do so in the same fight.
Feint
You can take an action to attempt to feint an adjacent character. Make a Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) check against the target's passive Wisdom (Insight) or Wisdom (Perception). On a success you can grant advantage to one attack made against this target before the end of your next round. This can be an attack you or another creature makes. For every 5 points of margin, you can grant advantage on another attack.
Fuddle Spellcasting
You can #Obfuscate Spellcasting using Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) in lieu of Dexterity (Deception).
Hide Object
You can hide an object on your person. You can do this as a part of palming an object or with a separate action with the same difficulty. A creature inspecting you can take an action to make a Intelligence (Investigation) or Wisdom (Perception) check against your passive Charisma (Sleight of Hand). A physical search gives a +5 modifier on this action.
A thumb-sized or smaller object (including thieves tools) gives you advantage and opponent's disadvantage. An object larger than a large dagger gives you disadvantage and observers advantage. You must also wear sufficient clothes or accessories to make the task credible. If you are wearing very heavy clothing, the DM may extend the size of objects you can hide.
An object crafted to look harmless at double the normal cost gives you advantage regardless of the objects size, as long as the object seems harmless and fits in the persona you are using. (The cost of enchanting the item does not change.) Examples include holy symbols with hidden features, items disguised as jewelry or ornaments, instrument cases with nefarious content, bladed boots, cane swords, umbrella shields, and fighting fans.
Palm Object
A DC 5 Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) check lets you palm a coin-sized object. The difficulty is 10 for a palm sized object, 15 for an object long as your underarm, and 20 for an even larger object. When you use this skill under close observation, your skill check is opposed by any observer’s passive Wisdom (Perception). You are assumed to notice if you are seen and abort the attempt, but if you fail by more than 5, you fail to notice that you are observed. You can do this in combat, but only if you are involved in a grapple. The object is assumed to be in another's possession, but not safely secured. A secured or attached object (such as a ring or earring) gives you disadvantage, while an unattended object gives you advantage.
Plant Item
This is the reverse of Palm Object and has the same difficulty. If you both palm and plant an object you have to spend separate actions and make separate rolls.
Stealth
Make a Dexterity (Stealth) check when you attempt to conceal yourself from enemies, slink past guards, slip away without being noticed, or sneak up on someone without being seen or heard.
Camouflage
You can use an action and your Stealth to hide creatures or object, who remain hidden until they move. You need to use materials from the environment to create a camouflage, which is hard in areas with little or no litter. The Perception DC to spot camouflage is your Passive Wisdom (Stealth).
Hide
If you begin your turn in stealth, you can spend an action each round to focus on hiding. Opponents suffer disadvantage on Wisdom (Perception) check against your Dexterity (Stealth) to spot you. You cannot move while hiding.
Marathon Stealth
Using Stealth over long distances can quickly grow repetitive. To simplify the process, only make a Stealth check when circumstances change, such as moving from one terrain into another. The GM should always require Stealth checks at obstacles, such as when climbing a fence or wading a moat. Marathon Stealth cannot be used when within 40 ft. of an enemy.
Sneaking
As an action you can make a Dexterity (Stealth) check against the Wisdom (Perception) of any observer. This requires you to have cover, or that all observers are distracted, such as by Deception or having enemies closer than you are. You remain in hiding until the end of your next turn or until you attract attention to yourself. If an enemy during the enemy's turn is in a position such that you have no cover or concealment against them, they spot you.
If you make an attack you have advantage, but stop sneaking. If you begin a round sneaking you can remain sneaking without having to roll again as long as you do not attract attention to yourself.
Tail
You discreetly follow another person, using the city crowds, jungle foliage, or other cover to conceal your presence. You keep your quarry in sight, carefully monitoring him while remaining far enough in the background to evade his sight. Every ten minutes of your pursuit, make a Wisdom (Stealth) check against your target’s passive Wisdom (Perception). Other creatures can spend actions to make Wisdom (Perception) checks against your passive Wisdom (Stealth) to spot you.
Constitution
Constitution measures health, stamina, and vital force.
Constitution checks are uncommon, and no skills apply to Constitution checks, because the endurance this ability represents is largely passive rather than involving a specific effort on the part of a character or monster. A Constitution check can model your attempt to push beyond normal limits, however. The DM might call for a Constitution- based skill check when you try to accomplish tasks like the following. In these cases, you must use Constitution rather than the ability the skill is normally connected to.
- Constitution (Athletics) to hold your breath March or labor for hours without rest.
- Constitution (Survival) to survive without food or water
- Constitution (Persuasion) to quaff an entire stein of ale in one go
- Constitution (Investigation) to read a book burning the midnight oil.
Intelligence
lntelligence measures mental acuity. accuracy of recall, and the ability to reason.
An lntelligence check comes into play when you need to draw on logic, education, memory, or deductive reasoning. The Arcana, History, Investigation, Nature, and Religion skills reflect aptitude in certain kinds of lntelligence checks.
Lore
Many skills allow lore checks in their area of expertise. The GM may allow other skills to make lore checks, and even lore checks related to proficiencies. General rules for lore checks are given here, with specific descriptions in each skill.
Lore checks are almost always Intelligence checks. The difficulty depends on the obscurity of the information sought or the rarity of the creature to be identified. Making a Lore check is a bonus action. If you want more information, you can try once more as an action. If the Lore is connected to your background, you have advantage on the roll, if it is alien you suffer disadvantage. If you succeed in recalling lost or unknown information you surmise the information on the spot. The GM is always free to embellish or add to the information gained, even adding untruths on lower rolls.
Condition | DC | Examples |
General information | 10 | Are oysters really food? |
Specific information | 15 | Are oysters appropriate food on a date? |
Rare or ancient lore | 20 | Blue oysters produce black pearls |
Secret lore | 25 | Feeding a blue oyster a chip of onyx causes it to make a black pearl |
Lost or unknown information. | 30 | Blue oysters were created by aboleth in the distant past to farm material components for necromantic spells. |
Identify Creature
A common use of Lore is to identify a creature. If you pass DC 10 you have a general idea about what type of creature this is, but have no details. If you beat a DC of 15 + 1/2 the creature's challenge you can identify the creature by name and remember a bit of useful information about that creature. For every 5 points by which your check result exceeds the DC, you recall another piece of increasingly obscure information. A common, well known, or notorious creature gives advantage on this roll. A very rare or secretive creature gives disadvantage on the check. As creatures of higher level are naturally rarer, this should be used with caution and only for creatures that are rare or secretive compared to the norm for their level.
Type | Description | Lore |
Aberration | Aberrations are utterly alien beings often associated with the Far Realm. | Arcana |
Beast | Beasts include all varieties of ordinary animals, dinosaurs, and giant versions of animals. | Animal Handling or Nature |
Celestial | Celestials are creatures native to the Upper Planes. | Arcana or Religion |
Construct | Constructs are made, not born. Golems are the iconic constructs. | Arcana |
Dragon | Dragons are large reptilian creatures of ancient origin and tremendous power. Also in this category are creatures related to dragons, but less powerful. | Arcana, History, or Nature |
Elemental | Elementals are creatures native to the elemental planes. | Arcana or Nature |
Fey | Fey are magical creatures closely tied to the forces of nature. | Arcana or Nature |
Fiend | Fiends are creatures of wickedness that are native to the Lower Planes. | Arcana or Religion |
Giant | Giants tower over humans and their kind. They are human-like in shape, though some have deformities. | History |
Goblinoids | The races of goblinoids (goblins, hobgoblins, and bugbears). | History |
Humanoid | Humanoids are the main peoples of a fantasy gaming world, both civilized and savage. | History |
Monstrosity | Monstrosities are monsters in the strictest sense. They defy categorization, and in some sense serve as a catch-all category for creatures that don’t fit into any other type. | Nature |
Ooze | Oozes are gelatinous creatures that rarely have a fixed shape. | Arcana or Nature |
Plant | Plants in this context are vegetable creatures, not ordinary flora. | Nature |
Undead | Undead are once-living creatures brought to a horrifying state of undeath. | Arcana or Religion |
Legends and Stories
You know many tall tales and lays about important events. You can retry any#Lore check without spending any action to quote legends and stories. The GM makes the roll, and information gained this way might be biased, incomplete, or fictional.
Appraise Item
You can use #Lore to appraise the value of most items. Ordinary valuables use the #History skill, other skills cover items related to their field. If you succeed by 5 or more, you also determine if the item has magic properties, although this success does not grant knowledge of the magic item’s abilities. If you fail the check by less than 5, you determine the price of that item to within 20% of its actual value. If you fail this check by 5 or more, the price is wildly inaccurate, subject to GM discretion.
You can also use this check to determine the most valuable item visible in a treasure hoard or on a person. You find the highest value item whose item difficulty (above) you meet. You can also use this check to determine the rough value of an entire hoard with a roll against the highest item difficulty in the hoard.
Read Books of Lore
The information from books is much more substantial that that from ordinary #lore checks, but books are hard to read and understand.
Most documents are hand-written, often in obscure dialects and dealing with difficult subjects. A #Lore check is required to read a book in a long rest. The DC depends on the book; the older and more complex the book is, the higher the difficulty. A success allows you to absorb the subject of the book. If you fail by 5 or more, any attempt to read the book until you next level up suffers disadvantage.
To answer specific difficult questions, extract obscure information, or other deep reading requires a better roll (one such data per 5 points of margin on the the roll) or further long rests and successful #Lore checks.
Arcana
Your Intelligence (Arcana) check measures your ability to recall #Lore about spells, magic items, eldritch symbols, magical traditions, the planes of existence, and the inhabitants of those planes. This covers aberrations, constructs, dragons, elementals, and monstrosities. Arcana covers all planes and all magic. The #Nature and #Religion skills also covers magic, but is focused of one particular area of magic as well as providing other lore.
Identify Magic
Magic takes many forms, and Arcana is the skill to recognize them all. Other skills such as #Religion and #Nature can identify related magic, but Arcana works on all kinds.
Identify Spell As an action, reaction, or bonus action you can identify a spell effect with an Intelligence (Arcana) check of DC 15 + spell level. If you do not see the spell being cast or a visible effect of the spell, you have disadvantage. Detect Magic Gives advantage. If you spend an action (rather than a reaction or bonus action) trying to identify a spell, you have advantage.
Rarity | DC |
Common | DC 10 |
Uncommon | DC 15 |
Rare | DC 20 |
Very Rare | DC 25 |
Legendary | DC 30 |
Identify Magic Item You can spend a minute identifying a single magic item you are touching. You automatically learn its basic abilities, but risk falling under a cursed items curse.
With Arcana you can identify an item by studying its aura instead of touching it, which avoids most curses. Make an Intelligence (Arcana) check against the difficulty from the table. On a failure, you still identify the item, but suffer any curse or side effect. On a success, you identify the item as above, but avoid (and do not learn) any curse or side effect. With a success margin of 5, you also get a bad feeling about a cursed item. With a success margin of 10, you identify most curses or side effects. The GM may still keep certain effects hidden for plot reasons.
You can spend an action touching a magic item and make an Intelligence (Arcana) check to identify an item quickly, but do so with disadvantage and risk any curses or side effects.
Identify Magical Materials You can spend an action to identify materials manufactured by magic with an Intelligence (Arcana) check of DC 10 + spell level. You can only attempt this check once for each batch of materials.
Analyze Magic Trap You can spend an action to attempt to determine the exact nature of a magical trap you know about. The DC of this check equals 15 + the level of the spell or 15 + 1/2 the challenge of a trap. If you succeed, you know what spell the trap triggers. If the trap triggers more than one spell, check separately for each one. This knowledge grants you no advantage for disarming the trap, but it does tell you what to expect should the trap go off. You can only attempt this check once for each trap.
Determine Spellcaster Power Observing an opponent cast a spell you can, as a reaction with a successful opposed Intelligence (Arcana) check, identify the opponent’s caster level and the highest spell level they can cast. If the spellcaster uses a feat or special class ability when casting the spell, that too is identified if you beat the difficulty by 5. If the opponent is a beast, fey, ooze or plant or casts druid and ranger spells, they can use Intelligence (Nature) as the difficulty of this task. If the opponent is a celestial, fiend, undead, or casts cleric, monk, or paladin spells, they can use Intelligence (Religion) as the difficulty of the task.
Magical Research You can work on designing new spells and magic items or reverse-engineer old ones. This is a special kind of downtime activity. Check with your GM if this is allowed in your game.
Identify Creatures
You can identify aberrations, celestials, constructs, dragons, elementals, fey, , fiend, ooze, and undead. See #Lore above.
Planar Lore
You can recall #Lore about the planes of existence with an Intelligence (Arcana) check. On the Inner Planes and the Far Realm you can use Arcana in lieu of #History to know of personalities, events, and history.
History
Your Intelligence (History) check measures your ability to recall #Lore about historical events, legendary people, ancient kingdoms, past disputes, recent wars, and lost civilizations. This covers giants, goblinoids, and humanoids and is a catch-all skill for the doings of such creatures both in the past and the present.
Determine Age of Construction
With a DC 10 Intelligence (History) check, you can identify and determine the age of ruins or structures. If the structures are more than 500 years old, the DC increases to 15. If they are more than 1000 years old, the DC increases to 20.
Evaluate
A successful DC 10 Intelligence (History) check will allow you to identify the value of things on the market. If you fail the check by more than 5, you fail to recognize the value of a find.
Identify Dragons and Folk
You can identify dragons, giants, goblinoids, and humanoids. See #Lore above.
Know Historical Facts
You can delve into general historical knowledge with a Intelligence (History) #Lore check.
Local Knowledge
You know the local laws, customs, nobility and, significant places with a Intelligence (History) #Lore check.
Investigation
When you look around for clues and make deductions based on those clues. You make an Intelligence (Investigation) check. You might deduce the location of a hidden object, discern from the appearance of a wound what kind of weapon dealt it, or determine the weakest point in a tunnel that could cause it to collapse. Poring through ancient scrolls in search of a hidden fragment of knowledge might also call for an Intelligence (Investigation) check.
When you look around for clues and make deductions based on those clues, you make an Intelligence (Investigation) check. You might deduce the location of a hidden object, discern from the appearance of a wound what kind of weapon dealt it, find a hidden door or device, or determine the weakest point in a tunnel that could cause it to collapse. Poring through ancient scrolls in search of a hidden fragment of knowledge might also call for an Intelligence (Investigation) check.
Perception generally deals with creatures, while Investigation covers locations and objects, but there is some overlap.
Item Difficulty Investigation checks directed at objects have a DC 10 + the Ability modifier and proficiency bonus of the maker of that item. This can be assumed to be 10 for simple home-made items, 15 for most crafted items, 20 for masterwork craftsmanship and 25 or higher for unique items and heirlooms.
Detect Forgery
You can use the Intelligence (Investigation) to detect if a crafted good is real or a forgery. This generally requires time to examine the object in close proximity and an Intelligence (Investigation) check against item difficulty (see above).
Identify Artificer Powers
You can #Identify Magic using Investigation in lieu of #Arcana. When working with magic other than artificer magic and on technological items that duplicate spells or otherwise have strange abilities you have disadvantage.
Assess Damage
You can look over an item as an action and accurately measure how much damage the object has taken and how much more punishment it can take. With a successful check (the DC is equal to the object’s AC), the GM tells you the object’s hardness, how many hit points of damage it has taken, and how many more it can withstand before being ruined. This skill does not work on constructs or undead.
Evidence Analysis
After you have #Searched an area, you can spend a minute of time to try to reconstruct what happened there. Make an Intelligence (Investigation) check against the highest Intelligence (Investigation) or Wisdom (Survival) among the opposition. On a success you get a general idea of events. For each 5 points of margin, you learn a significant fact. If you fail by more than 5, you draw false conclusions.
Decipher Language
You can #Decipher Text or Speech.
Deduction
During 15 minutes, you can try to correlate what clues you have and test a theory of what really happened. As a player you must make a description of events as you think they are. The GM rolls your Intelligence (Investigation) check against the highest passive Intelligence (Investigation) among the opposition. On a success, the GM gives a general assessment of your case, rating it as entirely false, mostly false, somewhat true, or mostly true. The GM may deem the clues you have to weak to try, weak (disadvantage), strong, or complete (advantage).
Cross Examining
Asking someone a series of questions to reveal what they know, and possibly to make connections the witness did not even realize they knew. This requires a cooperative target, convincing someone to accept a cross-examination is a separate task, usually using Charisma (Intimidation) or Charisma (Persuasion). A cross examination requires 15 minutes. Make a Wisdom (Investigation) check with a DC equal to the target's passive Intelligence (Deception) or Wisdom (Insight). A cooperative target has DC 5. Once successful, a cross examining gives a detailed account of the target's experiences. A cross examination that fails by more than five gives misleading conclusions, while a higher roll gives additional detail for every 5 points over the difficulty.
Even if you uncover that the target did something criminal, cross examination is not a confession and at best circumstantial evidence.
Search
As an action you can search a 15 ft. square area (all squares adjacent to you) for any hidden object. This includes traps and secret doors, but also clues, evidence, hidden treasures and such. The DM makes an Intelligence (Investigation) check for each object you can find.
Nature
Your Intelligence (Nature) check measures your ability to recall lore about terrain, plants and animals, the weather, and natural cycles.
Evaluate Natural Objects
A successful DC 10 Intelligence (Nature) check will allow you to identify the value of things found in nature, such as gems precious metals, and other finds. If you fail the check by more than 5, you fail to recognize the value of a find.
Know Hazards
You can use #Lore to know about dangers in the environment you are traversing. You can assist Strength (athletics), Dexterity (acrobatics), Wisdom (Perception), Wisdom (Survival), and Intelligence (Investigation) checks against natural hazards. You do this with advice, which allows you to assist at a range of 100 ft.
Identify Natural Creature
You can identify beast, dragon, elemental, fey, monstrosity, and plant creatures. See #Lore above.
Identify Natural Magic
You can #Identify Magic using Nature in lieu of #Arcana. If the magic is not natural you have disadvantage. Natural magic is that created by a beast, fey, ooze or plant. The druid and ranger classes also use nature magic.
Know Geography
You can use #Lore (see above) to know about geographic locations. You knowledge focuses on terrain, flora, and fauna, but you will also know the locations and extent of settlement, if not much about what is inside each settlement.
Know Location
You can use Intelligence (Nature) #Lore checks (see above) to know where locations are relative to you, even without a map. With a map or rutter, you have advantage. With a faulty guide, you have disadvantage. This does not cover navigating in an area without landmarks, such as the sea or deep desert, that requires navigator's tools.
Read Map
Most maps are just sketches with invented notation and very hard to read (DC 20), but even commercial maps are not so easy to understand (DC 10). A failure means you are confused and uncertain. You can retry after an hour. A failure by more than 10 means you misread the map.
Religion
Your Intelligence (Religion) check measures your ability to recall #Lore about deities, rites and prayers, religious hierarchies, holy symbols, and the practices of secret cults.
Identify Divine Magic
You can #Identify Magic using Religion in lieu of #Arcana. If the magic magic is not religious you have disadvantage. Religions magic is used by a celestial, fiend, undead, and the cleric, monk, and paladin classes.
Identify Mythical Creature
You can make #Lore checks to identify celestials, fiends, and undead.
Mythology
You know a wide amount of information about the gods and their various mythologies. You can make #Lore checks about gods, their servants, mythological beings, and spiritually significant places and events.
Outer Planar Lore
You can recall #Lore about the planes of existence with an Intelligence (Religion) check. On the Outer Planes you can use Religion in lieu of #History to know of personalities, events, and history.
Recognize Iconography
You are familiar with the gods and their iconography and can make #Lore checks to identify them. Even if your #Lore check fails, you can make an additional Wisdom (Religion) check to understand the alignment of the religion.
Wisdom
Animal Handling
When there is any question whether you can calm down a domesticated animal, keep a mount from getting spooked, or intuit an animal’s intentions, the GM might call for a Wisdom (Animal Handling) check.
You also make a Wisdom (Animal Handling) check to control your mount when you attempt a risky maneuver, applying your Animal Handling proficiency bonus to the animal's Dexterity (Acrobatics) and Strength (Athletics) checks.
Avoid Fall from Mount
You can react instantly to try to avoid falling or to land safely when your mount falls, rears, or bolts unexpectedly with a DC 15 Dexterity (Animal Handling) skill check. This usage takes no action.
Control Mount in Battle
In place of your own movement, you can attempt to control a mount not trained for combat riding while in battle with a DC 15 Wisdom (Animal Handling) check. If you do not use a hand to direct the mount, the DC becomes 20. If you fail the Animal Handling check, you can do nothing else in that round. You do not need to roll for mounts trained for combat, but it will not attack unless you use an action to activate a trick that involves attacking.
Fast Mount or Dismount
You can attempt to mount or dismount from a mount by making a Dexterity (Animal Handling) skill check. If you fail the Animal Handling check, mounting or dismounting takes half your movement. If you fail by more than 5, you spend half your movement but fail to mount. The difficulty depends on the size of the mount: Medium 5, Large 10, Huge 15, Colossal 20.
Identify Beasts
You can identify creatures of the beast type. See #Lore.
Racial Beast Affinities
Race | Creature affinities |
Boggard | Toad |
Catfolk | Felines |
Changeling | By father's race |
Cyclops | Cockatrice, pig, goat |
Dark Creeper | Bat |
Dwarf | Ram, bear, raven |
Elf, Aquatic | Aquatic shellfish, sea horse |
Elf, Drow | Spider, lizard |
Elf, High | Cooshee, eagle, horse |
Elf, Other | Cooshee, deer |
Giant, Cave | Lizard |
Giant, Cloud | Griffon, roc |
Giant, Fire | Hell hound |
Giant, Frost | Winter wolf |
Giant, Hill | Dire wolf |
Giant, Stone | Cave bear |
Giant, Storm | Griffon, roc, shark |
Gillmen | Squid |
Gnoll | Hyena, hyaenodon |
Gnome | Badger, weasel |
Goblin | Wolf |
Grippli | Frog |
Halfling | Dog, pony |
Hobgoblin | Leopard |
Human | Dog, house cat, horse |
Kitsune | Fox |
Lizardfolk | Dinosaur |
Locathah | Fish |
Merfolk | Dolphin, porpoise |
Orc | Boar |
Ratfolk | Rat |
Sahuagin | Shark |
Skum | Ooze, Shark |
Tengu | Blackbird |
Vishanka | Snake |
Racial affinities are cultural and physiological traits that make certain creatures easier to train. A matter of shared perceptions, modes of communication, social organization, and food preferences, these traits create a strong compatibility between certain intelligent races and species of creatures. A tame beast will never attack a type of creature with racial compatibility, even if provoked. Such beasts are safe to have around children who have a racial affinity, and are often kept as pets in the home. Beasts consider creatures they have affinity for and know well to be pack mates and seek to protect them.
Other Affinities You can have an affinity for creatures that are not beasts. You treat such creatures as beasts for the purpose of the Animal Handling skill.
- Any Animal Handling task directed at a creature you have beast affinity for has advantage—except the tasks described here that require beast affinity.
- Animal Handling can be used as if it was the #Persuasion to #Influence Attitude of a creature you have beast affinity for. This takes 5 minutes. A creature that is made friendly this way can be tamed and/or trained.
- A familiar or companion normally chosen from a restricted list can always be a creature you have affinity for that fulfills the size and challenge requirements.
Read Beast
Many beasts rely on relatively simple tactics and maneuvers in combat. You can #Read Action against a beast using Animal Handling in lieu of Insight.
Placate Beast
You can silence an angry beast or convince it to leave you alone. You can attempt to influence a beast’s mood by offering it a treat appropriate to its appetite and making an Wisdom (Animal Handling) check against the beast's passive Charisma saving throw. If you do not have a treat to offer you have disadvantage. If you have a particularly succulent treat, you have advantage. If the check succeeds, the beast ignores you as long as you do not move close to it or its family. Failure means you cannot try again against the same target for 24 hours. Failure by more than 5 results in you provoking an attack from the creature. This skill works only against creatures of the beast creature type.
Spur Mount
You can spur your mount to greater speed as a bonus action with a DC 15 Wisdom (Animal Handling) skill check. Each attempt, successful or not, inflicts 1 hit point of damage to the mount. A successful Animal Handling check increases the mount’s speed by 10 feet for 1 round. Failure by 10 means your mount attempts tho throw you, see #Obedience Training. You can kill your mount this way.
Trick Instruction
You can teach a beast group of tricks with one week of work and a successful Animal Handling check against DC 15 + the beast's Charisma saving throw. An beast can learn one group of tricks for each point of its Intelligence score. See #Trick Orders for how to use tricks.
A beast that has been taught a specific trick and that is not with a handler and ends up in a situation where that trick would be appropriate, its handler can make a Handle Animal check without advantage to see if the beast performs the appropriate trick.
Trick Orders
You can order beasts to perform a specific trick. You can give orders to a single beast as a bonus action or number of beasts equal to your Charisma as an action. Make a single Animal Handling check to control one or multiple beasts. The tricks are arranged into groups. An animal can be trained in certain groups of tricks (see #Trick Instruction); ordering these tricks gives you advantage on the Wisdom (Animal Handling) check and allows the beast to add your Animal Handling proficiency bonus to any check required when executing the trick. If the beast is not accustomed to you, you have disadvantage on Trick orders. Against a beast that has a handler, the minimum difficulty of this is the handler's passive Wisdom (Animal Handling). You have perfect control of beast followers gained as class features, including creatures like familiars that are of another creature type. Such beasts need not be taught tricks and trick orders are automatically successful.
Combat Training
- Attack (DC 15) The beast attacks apparent enemies. You may point to a particular creature that you wish the beast to attack, and it will comply if able. Normally, a beast will attack only Beasts, Giants, Goblinoids, and Humanoids. Ordering a beast to attack another type of creature has a DC of 20.
- Bombard (DC 20) A flying beast can deliver projectiles on command, attempting to drop a specified item that it can carry (often alchemist’s fire or some other incendiary) on a designated point or opponent. The beast cannot throw the object, and must be able to fly directly over the target.
- Help (DC 10) The beast can use the Help action to aid a specific ally in combat. You may point to a particular creature that you wish the beast to aid, and it will comply if able. The beasts aid grants advantage on the helped creature's first melee attack or disadvantage on the first melee attack against the helped creature.
- War Mount (No DC) The beast counts as trained for war when used as a mount.
Discipline Training These tasks are very simple and master trainers generally do not bother to train beasts they expect to use themselves this way, in order to be able to tech other tricks. This means that their beasts are fidgety around strangers, which is often just what the trainer wants.
- Call (DC 5) The beast comes if called.
- Domestic (DC 5) The creature does not attack or bother other creatures.
- Serve (DC 15) A beast with this trick willingly takes orders from a creature you designate. The creature can instruct the beast to perform tricks using its own Wisdom but your Animal Handling proficiency bonus on the check instead of its own. The beast treats the designated ally as friendly. The beast can be taught recognize a number of creatures equal to its Intelligence score. It takes a week to change who the beast serves.
- Stay (DC 10) The beast stays in place, waiting for you to return. It does not challenge other creatures that come by, though it still flees or defends itself if attacked.
- Work (DC 5) The beast carries, pulls, or pushes a medium or heavy load and works until exhausted. Using a highly trained beast for work tends to demoralize the creature.
Guard Training
- Defend (DC 15) The beast defends you (or is ready to defend you if no threat is present), even without any command being given. Alternatively, you can command the beast to defend specific other creatures. The beast can be taught recognize a number of creatures equal to its Wisdom score When defending, it can cause one attack per round against an adjacent creature that attacks a creature it guards to be made with disadvantage.
- Guard (DC 15) The beast stays in place and prevents others from approaching. It makes threatening noise when it detects the approach of others it is not familiar with.
- Menace (DC 15) A menacing beast attempts to keep a creature you indicate from moving. It does its best to intimidate the target, but only attacks if the target attempts to move from its present location or take any significant action (particularly a hostile-seeming one). As soon as the target stops moving, the beast ceases attacking, but continues to menace.
- Watch (DC 10) The beast can be commanded to keep watch over a particular area, such as a campsite, and raise an alarm if it notices any sizable or dangerous creature entering the area.
Hunting Training
- Fetch (DC 10) The beast goes and gets something, usually small prey you just shot. If you do not point out a specific item, the beast fetches some random object. This trick also appears under show training.
- Hunt (DC 10) This trick allows a beast to use its natural stalking or foraging instincts to find food and return it to the beast’s handler. A beast can attempt Wisdom (Survival) checks to provide food for others or lead them to water and shelter and use the Help action to assist Survival checks made by its handler for these purposes.
- Search (DC 15) The beast seeks out unusual smells, noises, air currents, and other common elements signifying potential dangers or secret passages. When commanded, the beast uses its Perception skill to try to pinpoint the source of anything that strikes it as unusual about a room or location and goes on point. Note that because the beast is not intelligent, any number of strange mechanisms, doors, scents, or unfamiliar objects may catch the beast’s attention. If shown an example of what it is to detect, it can limit its search to that one thing.
- Seek (15) The beast searches an area for creatures. If you present an object worn by a creature in the area, the beast will seek for that specific creature.
- Track (DC 10) The beast tracks the scent presented to it. (This requires the beast to have the scent ability)
Independence Training
- Break Out (DC 15) On command, the beast attempts to break or gnaw through any bars or bindings restricting itself, its handler, or a person indicated by the handler. If not effective on its own, this trick can grant the target character advantage on skill or ability checks to escape bonds. The beast can also take certain basic actions like lifting a latch or bringing its master an unattended key. Weight and Strength restrictions still apply, and pickpocketing a key or picking any sort of lock is still far beyond the beast’s ability.
- Flee (DC 15) The beast attempts to run away or hide as best it can, returning only when its handler commands it to do so. Until such a command is received, the beast does its best to track its handler and any creatures with him or her, remaining hidden but within range of its sight or hearing. This trick is particularly useful for thieves and adventurers in that it allows the beast to evade capture, then return later to help free its friends.
- Get Help (DC 20) With this trick, you can designate a number of creatures up to the beast’s Intelligence score as “help.” When the command is given, the beast attempts to find one of those people and bring her back to you, even if that means journeying a long distance to the last place it encountered the target creature.
- Sneak (DC 15) You order the beast to make Stealth checks in order to stay hidden and to continue using Stealth even when circumstances or its natural instincts would normally cause it to abandon secrecy.
Obedience Training
- Exclusive (DC 15) The beast takes directions only from you until ordered otherwise. If a beast has both the exclusive and serve tricks, it takes directions only from you and those creatures you indicated. This does not prevent it from being controlled by enchantment spells (such as dominate animal), and the beast still otherwise acts as a friendly or helpful creature when applicable.
- Throw Rider (DC 20) The beast attempts to fling a creature riding it to the ground. Treat this as Shoving a Creature.
Show Training
- Bury (DC 10) A beast with this trick can be instructed to bury an object in its possession. The beast normally seeks a secluded place to bury its object. The beast can be instructed to fetch an item it has buried.
- Deliver (DC 15) The beast takes an object (one you or an ally gives it, or that it recovers with the fetch trick) to a place or person you indicate. If you indicate a place, the beast drops the item and returns to you. If you indicate a person, the beast stays adjacent to the person until the item is taken.
- Entertain (DC 15) The beast can dance, sing, or perform some other impressive and enjoyable tricks suitable to its species to entertain those around it. See the Performance skill for how to exploit this.
- Fetch (DC 10) The beast goes and gets something. If you do not point out a specific item, the beast fetches some random object. This trick also appears under hunt training.
Use Mount as Cover
You can react instantly to drop down and hang alongside your mount, using it as cover with a DC 15 Dexterity (Animal Handling) skill check. If you fail your Animal Handling check, you don’t get the cover benefit. If you fail by more than 5, you fall off your mount. Using this option is a reaction.
Insight
Your Wisdom (Insight) check decides whether you can determine the true intentions of a creature, such as when searching out a lie or predicting someone’s next move. Doing so involves gleaning clues from body language, speech habits, and changes in mannerisms.
Comprehend Language
When trying to communicate with someone with whom you do not share a common language, you can watch his body language, listen for changes in his tone of voice, and use other subtle clues to determine the gist of what he is trying to say. A successful Intelligence (Insight) check allows you to pick up the basics of a conversation carried on in a foreign language. You must be able to see and hear the creature you wish to use this skill on.
The level of comprehension is determined by the result of the skill check:
History Check | Level of Comprehension | Example |
5 | You can sense the general emotional tone of the creature. | This goblin is nervous about something. |
10 | You have a general sense of what the creature is talking about. | This goblin is nervous about the well water. |
15 | You pick up half the specific details about what a creature wants. | This goblin thinks the well water is poisoned. |
20 | You fully comprehend what a creature is trying to communicate. | This goblin is trying to tell us that the orcs poisoned the well. |
Discern Secret Message
You may use Wisdom (Insight) to detect and attempt to #Convey Secret Message.
Hunch
This use of the skill involves making a gut assessment of the social situation with a DC 20 Wisdom (Insight) skill check. You can get the feeling something is wrong. This is always vague, you do not know what triggered the reaction, and the feeling may come to you after the fact. This is no action.
Read Action
You can read an opponent’s body language and eyes to determine the nature of their next action. As an action, you can attempt an Insight check opposed by your opponent’s passive Charisma (Deception) to read your foe’s intentions. If your check succeeds, you learn what your foe plans to do on her next action. You learn only general information, such as whether your foe intends to cast a spell, make an attack against a specific target, or flee. You do not learn exactly which spell she plans to use, but you do know their target. Note that the result of your action, and others’ actions, could cause the target to change her mind. You only learn what she is planning to do at the moment you act. If you do this successfully and warn the opponent's target (no action), the opponent suffers disadvantage on their action.
Read Profession
You can use Insight check to read a target’s profession. You can examine the subtle physical and social traits exhibited by someone to determine their trade and relative level of skill. After studying someone for a minute, or as an action in combat, you may make an Insight check against their passive Charisma (Deception) to search for subtle clues, such as calluses on a person’s hand, his peculiar stance that indicates he studied at a fencing school, or the faint traces of spell components staining his fingers. On a success, you learn one of the following, generally in this order: what skills he is trained in, what classes he has levels in, what weapons he is proficient in, what his favorite spells are, what level he is, or what tools he is proficient in.
If you attempt to use this skill against a disguised person, this becomes an attempt to discover the use of a #Disguise kit.
Sense Enchantment
You can tell that someone’s behavior is being influenced by an enchantment effect even if that person isn’t aware of it. The usual DC is 25.
Medicine
A Wisdom (Medicine) check lets you try to stabilize a dying companion or diagnose an illness.
Autopsy
It is possible to gain a significant amount of information from a corpse without the use of magic. The Intelligence (Medicine) skill forms the basis of forensic pathology, and allows you to test the characteristics of blood and is required for certain advanced actions.
The table below indicates the type of information that can be gained with a Wisdom (Medicine) check (the check is made in secret by the GM, see retry), along with the DC of the check.
Nature of Information | DC |
Cause of Death | 10 |
Examine Injury | 10 |
Time of Death | 15 |
Presence of Foreign Substance or magic | 15 |
Nature of Foreign Substance or magic | 20 |
Performing an autopsy requires an hour. You can spend additional hours to get a better result.
Time is the enemy of the pathologist. Every twelve hours that passes from the point of death adds 2 to the DC of any autopsy check. In a swampy or tropical environment, this penalty is doubled; in an especially dry environment it is halved. The spell gentle repose will preserve a body in its current condition for the duration of the spell.
If an attempt to hide the information was made, the check is opposed to the opponent's passive Intelligence (Medicine) check.
During the course of an autopsy, you may also make an Intelligence (Investigation) check check to notice any other physical evidence, as #Search.
Care
You can provide for resting creatures, improving their chances of recovery over a long or short rest. You can tend as many patients at a time as you Wisdom bonus plus your proficiency bonus. You can be your own patient. Each patient requires one application of a healing kit. You can give long-term care to ten times as many if you work at it full time, but then you are spending all your time at this and cannot provide for yourself or benefit from the period of rest. See also the downtime activity of recuperating.
Short-Term Care Short-term care helps during a short rest:
- Each patient recovers an additional number of Hit Points equal to your Medicine proficiency bonus.
- Each patient may add your Medicine proficiency bonus to any saving throw against any lasting debilitating effect that would normally allow saving throws during the perio
Long-Term Care Providing long-term care means treating a patient during a long rest:
- Each patient recovers an additional number of Hit Dice equal to your Medicine proficiency bonus.
- Each patient may add your Medicine proficiency bonus to any saving throw against any lasting debilitating effect they are currently suffering.d of the short rest.
First Aid
A dying creature can be stabilized so that it isn’t killed by a failed death saving throw. You can use your action to administer first aid to an unconscious creature and attempt to stabilize it, which requires a successful DC 5 Wisdom (Medicine) check. If you beat a DC of 15, the creature becomes conscious at 1 hp.
Identify Medicine
You can take a bonus action to make an Intelligence (Medicine) check to identify and understand potions, oils, pharmaceuticals, drugs, and poison. The DC varies by rarity. If the substance has a save DC, that is also the identification DC. Otherwise use #Lore difficulties.
Malpractice
You need to use Charisma (Deception) and Medicine to effectively malpractice. Rather than performing first aid or some other form of treatment on a helpless or willing creature you intentionally bungle the job in order to ensure that the creature perishes or is severely injured.
You must spend an action and end your move adjacent to your patient to malpractice. You make the check and deal hit point damage to the creature at the beginning of your next turn equal to your Medicine skill check. If under observation (including a conscious patient), also make a Charisma (Deception) check against observers' passive Wisdom (Insight) or Wisdom (Medicine), a failure on your part results in them detecting your malpractice and they may attempt to intervene. A suspicious observer may take an action to make a Wisdom (Insight) or Wisdom (Medicine) against your passive Charisma (Deception) If someone successfully performs a first aid check before the beginning of your next turn, the damage is negated.
Torture
Torture is a finely honed skill in some creatures’ repertoires, whether used to elicit information or simply for pleasure. However, torture is an unreliable means of gaining accurate information: You can use Wisdom (Medicine) against the target's passive Wisdom or Con Save DC to force them to speak. This takes 15 minutes of torture. Once they are speaking, you must make a Wisdom (Insight) check (DC 20, or their passive Wisdom or Con Save DC, whichever is higher) to elicit some useful information. For every 5 points you succeed by, you learn another piece of useful information. If you fail this check by more than 5, the victim says anything that will please you, which only reaffirms what you already think you know. Once the torture is done, the target becomes dying. Creatures immune to critical hits, pain, or fear effects cannot be tortured.
Treat Ailment
You can spend an action and an application of a healing kit to treat a lasting ailment on a willing patient. A lasting ailment is any effect that requires further saving throws at a later time. This is commonly poison and disease, but also includes a number of spells and other effects. The patient can add your Medicine proficiency bonus to any further saving throws against that condition until their next long rest. As a side effect the patient is restrained for one round as you apply the treatment.
Triage
Triage is used to quickly diagnose a living creature's condition. Triage is a bonus action that can analyze any creature within 10 ft. Touching a creature you triage gives a +10 bonus on the check. The DC is 10 + 1/2 the creature's level or challenge. On a success, you can grade the creature's condition as healthy (more than half hp, no harmful effects or conditions), hurt (conscious with less than half hp remaining, or with any harmful effect or condition), helpless, dying (this also gives approximate number of rounds until death), or dead. If the check is twice the DC, you can identify the exact conditions, damage, and remaining points of the patient.
Perception
Your Wisdom (Perception) check lets you spot, hear, or otherwise detect the presence of creatures. It measures your general awareness of your surroundings and the keenness of your senses. For example, you might try to hear a conversation through a closed door, eavesdrop under an open window, or hear monsters moving stealthily in the forest. Or you might try to spot things that are obscured or easy to miss, whether they are orcs lying in ambush on a road, thugs hiding in the shadows of an alley, or candlelight under a closed secret door.
Perception generally deals with creatures, while Investigation covers locations and objects, but there is some overlap.
When a roll is made against passive Perception, it is usually not so important to learn who actually spotted the event. But in cases when it is important, all potential observers make Wisdom (Perception) checks. The high roller, and all who succeed against the triggering roll, notice the event. This can apply to other skills used as passive defenses, such as Investigation and Insight.
Read Lips
To understand what someone is saying by reading lips, you must be within 30 feet of the speaker, be able to see him speak, and understand the speaker’s language.
When you make the attempt, the GM makes the roll in secret (DC 15, but it increases for complex speech or an inarticulate speaker). You must maintain a line of sight to the lips being read. If your Perception check succeeds, you can understand the general content of a minute’s worth of speech, but you usually still miss certain details. If the check fails by 5 points or more, you draw some incorrect conclusion about the speech.
Spot
Perception has a number of uses, the most common of which is that passive Wisdom (Perception) sets the DC of an opponent’s Stealth check. You can also take an action on your turn to make a Wisdom (Perception) check a against hidden creatures' passive Dexterity (Stealth). If you are successful, you notice the opponent and point them out to your allies. If you fail, your opponent can sneak past you or attack when you are unaware.
Detail | Perception DC |
Hear the sound of battle | 0 |
Notice the stench of rotting garbage | 0 |
Detect the smell of smoke | 0 |
Notice a conversation. A result of 10 allows you to hear what is said. | 0 |
Notice a visible creature | 0 |
Determine if food is spoiled | 5 |
Hear the sound of a creature walking | 5 |
Notice a whispered conversation. A result of 20 allows you to hear what is said. | 10 |
Hear the sound of a key being turned in a lock | 15 |
Hear a bow being drawn | 20 |
Sense a burrowing creature underneath you | 25 |
Notice a pickpocket | Opposed |
Notice a creature using Stealth | Opposed |
Perception Modifiers | DC Modifier |
Distance over 40 ft. | -5 |
Through a closed door | -5 |
Through a wall | -10 or more |
Asleep | Disadvantage |
Survival
The GM might ask you to make a Wisdom (Survival) check to follow tracks, hunt wild game, guide your group through frozen wastelands, identify signs that owlbears live nearby, predict the weather, or avoid quicksand and other natural hazards.
Determine Distance
By concentrating for 1 minute, and making a Wisdom (Survival) DC 15 check you can determine the distance between two points within your line of sight. If the check fails, you cannot determine the distance. If you succeed, the GM tells you the distance in a reasonable unit of measure. If you fail the check by 5 or more, the GM adds or subtracts (at his option) 1d20 of the same units to or from your measurement. You cannot determine the distance between two towns down to the nearest foot, but you can judge how many miles separate them. You may also use this skill to determine the size and dimensions of a subterranean chamber that you cannot fully see, using echoes, and telltale rock formations (DC 20).
Find Path
A risky use of the Survival skill is to allow quick movement through wilderness terrain. Whenever you are moving in trackless terrain you may attempt a DC 20 Survival check to locate a path through the terrain as though it were a road or trail for the purpose of determining your overland speed. This benefit also extends to your allies or traveling companions. If this roll fails by more than 10, you find a path to nowhere and get lost.
Fire-Starting
You can spend a minute and make a Survival check to start a fire. This can light a torch, lantern, campfire, even a bonfire. If you need to first gather fuel, that is a separate task with the same time and difficult but also depends on the environment. The DC is 15 in dry conditions, 20 when things are moist, and 25 or higher in a downpour. If you fail by more than 5, you need to gather new fuel, use another torch, or re-fuel your lamp to try again. If you have fire-making tools, such as a tinderbox or magnifying glass in sunlight, attempting to start a fire is an action instead of taking a minute.
Forage
The character can keep an eye out for ready sources of food and water, making a Wisdom (Survival) check when the DM calls for it.
From the DMG: Characters can gather food and water a s the party travels at a normal or slow pace. A foraging character makes a Wisdom (Survival) check whenever you call for it, with the DC determined by the abundance of food and water in the region. DC If multiple characters forage, each character makes a separate check. A foraging character finds nothing on a failed check. On a successful check, roll ld6 + the character's Wisdom modifier to determine how much food (in pounds) the character finds, then repeat the roll for water (in gallons). The food and water requirements noted i n the Player 's Handbook are for characters. Horses and other creatures require different quantities of food and water per day based on their size. Water needs are doubled if the weather is hot.
Food and Water Availability | DC |
Abundant food and water resources | 10 |
Limited food and water resources | 15 |
Very little, if any, food and water resources | 10 |
Creature Size | Food per Day | Water per Day |
Tiny | 1/4 pound (0.1 kg) | 1/4 gallon (1 litre) |
Small | 1 pound (0.5 kg) | 1 gallon (4 litres) |
Medium | 1 pound (0.5 kg) | 1 gallon (4 litres) |
Large | 4 pounds (2 kg) | 4 gallons (15 litres) |
Huge | 16 pound (8 kg) | 16 gallons (60 litres) |
Gargantuan | 64 pounds (30 kg) | 64 gallon (240 litres) |
Intuit Depth
By concentrating for five minutes, you can gauge your current depth beneath the earth’s surface. The GM makes this check in secret. If the check is successful (DC 20), you correctly deduce your depth. If you fail the check by 10 or more the GM gives a misleading estimate.
Know Direction
Outdoors, you can spend one minute determine true north in relation to yourself with a DC 20 Wisdom (Survival) check. If you can see the sky or have a compass you have a +10 on this check. If you miss the check by more than 10, you misidentify which way is north. You can only attempt this task once. You restore this ability with a long rest.
The character can try to prevent the group from becoming lost, making a Wisdom (Survival) check when the DM calls for it. (The Dungeon Master's Guide has rules to determine whether the group gets lost.) This does not cover navigating in an area without landmarks, such as at sea or in the deep desert, that requires navigator's tools.
Predict Weather
You can predict what the weather will be up to 24 hours in advance. For every 5 points by which your Survival check result exceeds 15, you can predict the weather for one additional day in advance. Later events, especially magic, can invalidate your prediction.
Survive Wilderness
You can substitute saving throws and ability checks made to avoid natural hazards with your Wisdom (Survival) check.
Track
A character can follow the tracks of another creature, making a Wisdom (Survival) check when the DM calls for it.
Surface Condition | Survival DC |
Very soft ground | 5 |
Soft ground | 10 |
Firm ground | 15 |
Hard ground | 20 |
Condition | Survival Modifier |
Every three creatures in the group being tracked | –1 |
Precipitation since the trail was made | Disadvantage |
Poor visibility | +5 |
Cover Tracks You know not only how to find signs that mark the passage of men and animals but also how to make your own tracks more difficult to follow. Anyone attempting to track you and your group must not only beat the DC of the environmental conditions, but also your passive Wisdom (Survival).
Charisma
A Charisma check might arise when you try to influence or entertain others, when you try to make an impression or tell a convincing lie, or when you are navigating a tricky social situation. The Deception, Intimidation, Performance, and Persuasion skills reflect aptitude in certain kinds of Charisma checks.
Deception
Your Charisma (Deception) check determines whether you can convincingly hide the truth, either verbally or through your actions. This deception can encompass everything from misleading others through ambiguity to telling outright lies. Typical situations include trying to fast-talk a guard, con a merchant, earn money through gambling, pass yourself off in a disguise, dull someone’s suspicions with false assurances, or maintain a straight face while telling a blatant lie.
If an opponent wants to believe you, is drunk or otherwise impaired, or you have convincing proof of your deception, you have advantage on the roll. If your deception is highly unlikely or the target mistrusts you, you have disadvantage on the roll.
Blend In
You can move into a large crowd of people and slightly change your appearance to resemble those around you. You may also use this Deception check as a Stealth check to “hide in plain sight.” However, you may only use Deception in this manner if there is a group of people nearby in which you can hide. For example, you could blend into a small group of beggars by grabbing a nearby filthy, soiled cloak, draping it over your shoulders, and sitting down amongst them. Obviously, this skill does not prevent anyone who witnessed your attempt from pointing you out to any pursuers or enemies.
Convey Secret Message
You can use Deception to pass hidden messages to another character without others understanding your true meaning. The DC of this check is 15 for simple messages and 20 for complex messages. If you are successful, the target automatically understands you, assuming you are speaking in a language that it understands. If your check fails by 5 or more, the message is misinterpreted. If the check fails against an observer's passive Insight check the observer notices something happening, if the check fails by more than 5 the observer understands the message conveyed.
Conceal Accent
You can try to #Speak Like a Native.
Fast-Talk
With meaningless fast-talk and quick thinking you can sometimes converse your way out of a problem you talked yourself into. The use of fast talk happens after you have just failed a Persuasion or Deception check. If you have failed that check by 5 or more, you would normally have disadvantage on future attempts. However, with a successful fast-talk attempt, you are able to recover from your failure and regain the target’s (relative) trust. If, after your failed Persuasion check, you also fail on your fast-talk use of Deception, and you fail by 5 or more, you also deeply insult your target. If it was an attempt to influence a given creature’s attitude, you make the character’s attitude worsen by yet another step (so, two steps total since you failed by 5 or more on the initial Persuasion check), and if it was a request, you cannot make any other requests of the target for 24 hours. Once you attempt this skill use (successfully or not), you cannot use it against the same target again for 24 hours.
Feign Death
You can use a reaction to make a Charisma (Deception) check when you take damage. Make the Deception check with a DC equal to any observer’s passive Wisdom (Insight) or Wisdom (Perception). You fall prone and drop any items you hold during the attempt. You are prone, but are not considered helpless, as you can try to defend yourself against a coup de grace or similar attack at the last moment. If you attack an opponent who thinks you are dead, you gain advantage on your first attack against that opponent.
Feign Weakness
You use an action to attempt to convince your target you are weaker than you actually are through your actions and posture. If your opponent has seen you take an offensive action, you suffer disadvantage on this roll. If you are one size smaller than your target and have taken no offensive actions against it, you gain advantage on this skill use.
Distraction
As a reaction with a successful Charisma (Deception) check against the passive Wisdom (Insight) of observers, you can create a very short distraction, just enough to allow you or an ally to abort a failed #Sleight Of Hand or #Stealth check. An action so aborted can be attempted again on a later round. If you fail the Deception check by more than 5, those you attempted to distract realize where you are and that you were attempting a distraction.
Diversion
As an action with a successful Charisma (Deception) check against the passive Wisdom (Insight) of observers you create a diversion that draws everyone’s attention for 1 round. Allies flee until they are out of sight during this time can use #Stealth to hide . Unless you fail the Deception check by more than 5, those diverted do not realize you were intentionally making a distraction.
Obfuscate Spellcasting
Perceiving a Caster at Work
Many spells create obvious effects: explosions of fire, walls of ice, teleportation, and the like. Other spells, such as charm person, display no visible, audible, or otherwise perceptible sign of their effects, and could easily go unnoticed by someone unaffected by them. As noted in the Player's Handbook, you normally don't know that a spell has been cast unless the spell produces a noticeable effect. But what about the act of casting a spell? Is it possible for someone to perceive that a spell is being cast in their presence? To be perceptible, the casting of a spell must involve a verbal, somatic, or material component. The form of a material component doesn't matter for the purposes of perception, whether it's an object specified in the spell's description, a component pouch, or a spellcasting focus. If the need for a spell's components has been removed by a special ability, such as the sorcerer's Subtle Spell feature or the Innate Spellcasting trait possessed by many creatures, the casting of the spell is imperceptible. If an imperceptible casting produces a perceptible effect, it's normally impossible to determine who cast the spell in the absence of other evidence. |
You can spend an action to attempt to obfuscate the verbal, somatic, and material components of a spell you cast before the end of your next turn, and thus make it harder for others to recognize that you are casting a spell. You need to be in a situation where your speech and action can be inconspicuous; you cannot hide verbal components in silence or somatic/material components if any hand movement would attract attention. Make a Dexterity (Deception) check opposed by any observing creature’s passive Wisdom (Insight). Depending in the type of spell cast, an observer can substitute Wisdom (Insight) with Intelligence (Arcana) (Bard, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard), Intelligence (Investigation) (Artificer), Intelligence (Nature) (Druid, Ranger), or Intelligence (Religion) (Cleric, Monk, Paladin) as relevant for the spell cast. If creatures can see the spell’s effect project outward from you, they know you cast a spell, but only after the casting finishes.
Lie
If you use Deception to fool someone, with a successful check you convince your opponent that what you are saying is true. Deception checks are modified depending upon the believably of the lie. The following modifiers are applied to the roll of the creature attempting to tell the lie. Note that some lies are so improbable that it is impossible to convince anyone that they are true, though the opponent might believe that you think you are telling the truth (subject to GM discretion).
Conditions | DC Modifier |
The target wants to believe you | Advantage |
The target is suspicious of you | Disadvantage |
Lie is believable | – |
Lie is unlikely | Disadvantage |
Target is drunk or impaired | Advantage |
You possess physical “proof” | Advantage |
Play Role
Magic or a #Disguise Kit can change your appearance, but Deception is needed to act in a role. Only check this when you are using your role in a social contest, such as giving orders or making conversation. Make a Charisma (Deception) check against the opponent's Wisdom (Insight) to pull this off. If playing your role requires information you do not have or a relationship you are not aware of, you suffer disadvantage.
Seduction
Some enjoy sensual pleasures for the acts in and of themselves, while some use them as a means to a greater end. You can use the Deception skill to seduce others. You suffer disadvantage when attempting to seduce a creature that is not attracted to your race, culture, gender, or proclivities (such as a faithful spouse, one who only likes blonde-haired women, or someone who has taken a vow of celibacy). Before you can get to the point where a sated partner can be used for gather information, or if you are just seeking sensual pleasures, you must first get through the target’s defenses and lure him or her into intimacy. You must succeed at a Charisma (Deception) check against their passive Wisdom (Insight). When intimacy is about to begin, they can make a Wisdom (Insight) check against your passive Charisma (Deception) to notice something wrong at the last minute. This skill use requires an evening of socializing and usually somewhere private to retire to. If you successfully seduce a target, further attempts to seduce that person into your bed gain advantage. If you fail the check, however, you are rebuffed and may not make another seduction attempt against the same target for at least 1 week. After you have successfully seduced a target you may make one Deception check, instead of Investigation to gather information or Persuasion to suggest the target do something. Your seduced target makes regular reports to you, in attempts to keep your favor, about any specific topic you designate. You may have a number of partners that provides these benefits equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum 1). A seduced creature that you snub or rebuff may become hostile.
Spread Rumors
See DMG p 132.
Suggestion
You can use Deception and Persuasion together to make a request of a creature, without it even realizing you have made the request. You can gradually coax a target into thinking a suggestion is entirely its own idea, making the creature more likely to act on the idea than if you had suggested it outright. You discuss topics subtly relevant to the request, asking leading questions and narrowing the scope of the conversation so that the target eventually decides to take a specific action you have led it to. You first attempt a Deception check to convince the target that your request was actually its idea. If successful, you then attempt a Persuasion check to make the request of the creature, treating its attitude toward you as indifferent for this single request (regardless of its actual attitude).
Intimidation
Use and action to attempt to influence someone through overt threats, hostile actions, and physical violence, the GM might ask you to make a Charisma (Intimidation) check. Examples include trying to pry information out of a prisoner, convincing street thugs to back down from a confrontation, or using the edge of a broken bottle to convince a sneering vizier to reconsider a decision.
The normal DC of Intimidation attempts is equal to the target’s passive Wisdom save or Charisma (Intimidation) - the target chooses which to use.
Bully
You can #Make a Request as outlined if you have some kind of superiority.
Challenge
You can issue a challenge as an action, declaring your own merits and accusing your opponents of cowardice, you attempt to rile them into focusing on you. This affects a creature and if he is a leader it may affect his underlings.
- On a success, the creature takes a -2 penalty on attacks and save DCs on effects that does not include you as a target.
- If you succeed by 5 or more, the followers of the creature you challenged also suffer this penalty.
- If you succeed by 10, the followers of the creature you challenged suffer the penalty on all opponents, including you.
Challenge lasts for one minute, or until a creature is interacted with by another of its enemies.
Command
Once you have #Command Authority you can lead NPCs in combat. You can give orders to a single NPC as a bonus action or number of subordinate NPCs equal to your Charisma as an action. You need to do this each round, or those NPCs are under the GM's control, which usually means they take the Dodge action.
Command Authority
As an action you can attempt to take command of a group of NPCs up to a number of subordinate NPCs equal to your Charisma. Outside of combat, this takes a minute or more to do. Use the highest difficulty in the group. If you and they are part of an organization, and you outrank them, you gain advantage on this check. If they are acting as a part of an organization you are not a member of, or if they outrank you, you have disadvantage. An army uses multiple tiers of ranks, where a general commands a number of captains, who in turn command lieutenants, sergeants, and finally troops.
Deadly Boast
As you hew through your enemies, you use threats, taunts, and a bloody display of your prowess to strike terror into your remaining opponents. If you defeat an opponent by dropping her from full hit points to zero hit points or by bringing them to instant death, you may make an Intimidate check against all foes of the same or lower level within 30’ as a bonus action. If your check succeeds, the foe gains the frightened condition for one round. For each additional five points over the target’s Wisdom score you achieve, they are frightened for one additional round. This is a mind-affecting effect.
Threaten
You make a threat of a physical (Strength) or more subtle nature (Charisma) against a target. As an action, make an Intimidate check against a target within 30’. If your check succeeds, the foe gains the frightened condition for one round. For every 5 points of margin the target is demoralized for an additional round.
Performance
Perform Check | Performance Quality |
10 | Routine performance. This level of performance in public is akin to begging. |
15 | Enjoyable performance. |
20 | Great performance. In time, you may be invited to join a professional troupe and may develop a regional reputation. |
25 | Memorable performance. In time, you may come to the attention of noble patrons and develop a national reputation |
30+ | Extraordinary performance. In time, you may draw attention from distant patrons, or even from extraplanar beings. |
Your Charisma (Performance) check determines how well you can delight an audience with music, dance, acting, storytelling, or some other form of entertainment.
Each category of the Perform skill includes a variety of methods, instruments, or techniques, a small sample of which is provided for each category below. Choose a number of fields equal to your proficiency bonus you are proficient in. Performing in a category of Performance you know, and for which you fulfill the listed prerequisite, gives you advantage.
- Actor (Deception)
- Animal Acts (Animal Handling)
- Chanter (Religion)
- Clown (Intimidation)
- Dancer (Acrobatics)
- Fire-eater (Alchemy kit proficiency)
- Instrumentalist (Musical instrument proficiency)
- Jester (Insight)
- Juggler (Sleight of Hand)
- Magician (Sleight of Hand)
- Mentalist (Investigation)
- Poet (Persuasion)
- Singer (History)
- Soothsayer (Insight)
- Storyteller (History)
- Strongman (Athletics)
- Tumbler (Acrobatics)
- War Cries (Intimidation)
Influence Crowd
Performers use their skills to influence an audience’s attitudes (in a similar manner to using the Persuasion skill to change NPC attitudes). To influence the attitudes of a crowd, make a normal Performance check and treat the result exactly as you would the result of a #Persuasion check to #Influence Attitude. You need not have a common language with the audience, and might even affect creatures lacking a language, at the GMs whim. This generally takes longer than using #Persuasion to #Influence Attitude, and requires the audience to be willing to witness the performance.
Obfuscate Spellcasting
Perform can be used in lieu of Deception to #Obfuscate Spellcasting as a part of a performance.
Set Mood
A performer can set the mood by providing backing to other activities. Choose a mood and task, this is any one task listed under skills. As long as your Perform check is 15 or higher, all stunts that fit your chosen mood have advantage. This is typically social stunts like #Bully, #Influence Attitude, or #Seduction.
Persuasion
When you attempt to influence someone or a group of people with tact, social graces, or good nature, the GM might ask you to make a Charisma (Persuasion) check. Typically, you use persuasion when acting in good faith, to foster friendships, make cordial requests, or exhibit proper etiquette. Examples of persuading others include convincing a chamberlain to let your party see the king, negotiating peace between warring tribes, or inspiring a crowd of townsfolk.
The DC of Persuasion tasks is generally the target's passive Will Save or passive Wisdom (Insight). You cannot use Persuasion against a creature that does not understand you or has an Intelligence of 3 or less, tough the GM may allow such checks with disadvantage in favorable conditions. Your GM may rule that certain foes are immune to this skill use, such as fanatics who are inspired by religious or political fervor, raging barbarians, and other hateful enemies.
Bargaining
An item is worth only what someone will pay for it. To an art collector, a canvas covered in daubs of random paint may be a masterpiece; a priestess might believe a weathered jawbone is a holy relic of a saint. The target can use passive Intelligence (History) or Intelligence Tool (relevant proficiency bonus) if this is better than the standard difficulty for Persuasion (above). You can usually just accept the list price and avoid bargaining. Some merchants may insist on bargaining or refuse to bargain, depending on culture and personality.
When selling the normal price is 50% of the value. A success raises the price to 75%. A failure cuts the price to 30%. When buying, the normal price is 100%. A success raises the price to 150%. A failure lowers the price to 65%. If you refuse an offer you bargained yourself into, you get a bad reputation in that marketplace, and all bargaining checks the next week suffer disadvantage.
If the bargaining check succeeds by 10 (minimum difficulty 25) you can convince the buyer the item is something other than what it is and worth an exceptional price. This is a form of fraud and may come back to haunt you, but is also very profitable, as determined by the GM. You need not use this opportunity.
Bribery
A character can attempt to bribe an NPC for a much better Persuasion result. The formula to bribe a target is their level squared x10 gp.
A bribe of this value or greater grants advantage on a Persuasion check or allows for a reroll on a failed attempt. Some NPCs might be greatly offended by attempted bribes and this could cause disadvantage however. Bribery generally does not work when Bargaining with professional merchants who understand economics, but might work on nobles and other buyers unaware of how commerce works.
Wisdom (Insight) or Intelligence (History) can be used to find out if bribery is applicable and to know the right bribe.
Complicate
Sometimes you find it to your advantage to delay the resolution of a specific discussion for a while (or even indefinitely). Every time you attempt to complicate a situation in order to delay resolution you make a single Charisma (Persuasion) check. The other participants in the discussion make opposed Insight checks; if you succeed, then you can prevent any of the discussion’s participants from coming to agreement for a single day, without seeming to be interfering. Each participant that beats your Persuasion check realizes what you are doing.
The danger associated with this activity is directly related to the importance of the situation. Complicating the negotiations between two countries on the brink of war exposes you to a high degree of risk. Similar actions taken to delay the discussions of a sea captain and a merchant so that your party can get onto a ship carry a fairly low degree of danger.
Gather Information
You can use Charisma (Persuasion) to gather information about a specific topic or individual. To do this, you must spend at least 1d4 hours canvassing people at local taverns, markets, and gathering places. The DC of this check is the passive Charisma (Persuasion) of the local leader of the creatures you are gathering information about. The information you get depends on the degree of success; a failure gets how the target likes to be described, a success gains basic truthful information, and for each five points of margin on the roll you learn one piece of obscure or secret information. The GM might rule that some topics are simply unknown to common folk.
The opposition are allowed an opposed Charisma (Persuasion) check to hear about your meddling. To avoid this you can focus on overhearing conversations, drawing inferences from peoples’ behavior, and spying on others. You suffer disadvantage on your attempts, but you avoid leaving any clues about the information you seek.
Influence Attitude
The DMG p 246 offers rules for influencing attitudes in important situations. The rules here are more simplistic and suited to less important occasions.
You can change the initial attitudes of non-player characters with a successful Persuasion check. Influencing attitude suffers disadvantage whenever it is just words - bu demonstrating your friendly attitude through actions can you get rid of this disadvantage or even gain advantage. Influencing attitude takes at least a few minutes of interaction and thus cannot be done in combat. You can do further attempts to Influence Attitude once per short rest you spend along with the target, or after a long rest. An attitude shift caused through Persuasion generally lasts for 1d4 hours but can last much longer or shorter depending upon the situation (GM discretion).
There are three attitudes, from worst to best: hostile, indifferent, and friendly.
A hostile creature may attack you, and any Persuasion checks against such a creature is at disadvantage. Creatures start out hostile towards known enemies, such as enemy soldiers, bandits and prey, and races and religions hostile towards one another. Creatures that are not used to strangers may be hostile towards anyone they do not know. People used to dealing with strangers, such as merchants, nobles, and service providers are only hostile to known rivals.
An indifferent creature has no particular attitude and is open to forming one based on impression. Creatures that do not suffer from xenophobia or prejudice are indifferent to all they do not know.
A friendly creature is well disposed towards you, and Persuasion tasks against a friendly creature generally has advantage, but may later worsen their attitude if they feel you took advantage of them. This advantage does not apply to bargaining.
Success If you succeed, the character’s attitude toward you is improved by one step.
Failure If you fail the check by 5 or less, the character’s attitude toward you is unchanged. If you fail by more than 5, the character’s attitude toward you is decreased by one step. If they end up hostile, they don't want to spend any more time socializing.
Genuine Interaction
You can use Persuasion in lieu of #Deception for #Seduction and #Spread Rumors, providing you genuinely ally care for the one you are romancing or believe the rumors you spread.
Make a Request
You can attempt to make requests of the creature. This is a Charisma (Persuasion) check, with one of the following modifiers. Some requests automatically fail if the request goes against the creature’s values or its nature, subject to GM discretion.
If you are clearly in a superior position to your target, either socially or tactically, you can use Charisma (Intimidation) or even Strength (Intimidation) to make a request. If you are socially superior, this moves the target's attitude from friendly to indifferent. If you are tactically superior, this moves the target's attitude to hostile.
Condition | Check Modifier |
Hostile | +0 |
Indifferent | +10 |
Friendly | +20 |
Abrupt request, no time to think (Persuasion only) | -5 |
Generous pay is offered | +5 |
Check Result | Reaction |
0 | The creature opposes the adventurers' actions and might take risks to do so. |
10 | The creature offers no help but does no harm. |
20 | The creature does as asked as long as no risks or sacrifices are involved. |
30 | The creature accepts a minor risk or sacrifice to do as asked. |
40 | The creature accepts a significant risk or sacrifice to do as asked. |
Parley
Using your skills of persuasion, you call for a temporary halt to fighting. On a success, the enemies are willing to accept your surrender. On a success of 5 or more your enemies halt to listen, but they remain alert and ready for a trick. You may then use other interactions as normal. Your foes still take actions on their initiative counts, either to negotiate with you, or to steel themselves to renew the attack- this generally requires a Charisma (Intimidation) check against your passive Charisma (Persuasion).
You have disadvantage on this check if the enemy are hostile, as normal. If you are winning the fight, do not suffer disadvantage trying to start a parley. If the enemy is clearly beaten, or have lost their leader, the DM may even give you advantage. If you parley in a situation that seems to erupt into a fight, but has not yet done so, you have advantage.
Spread Rumors
See DMG p 132.
Other Proficiencies
Not keyed to a specific ability score, other proficiencies include languages, tools, and vehicles.
Language
The World of Greyhawk has many languages, divided into families. See Languages of Greyhawk.
Speak Like a Native
You speak your native language like a native. Speaking other languages you know, you have an accent that can be concealed as a bonus action with a Charisma (Deception) check against passive Wisdom (Insight). You cannot fool speakers in a language you do not know that you are a native, but you can emulate melody to fool someone who cannot hear or do not understand your words that you are speaking another language.
Decipher Text or Speech
You can decipher languages you don't know as an action with an Intelligence (Investigation) check. The DC for straightforward statements is 20, increasing with the complexity of the subject and formality of expression. If you know a language in the same language family, add +10 to this check.
Cultural Knowledge
Learning languages, you also absorb some knowledge about the culture and know what to do and what not to do. When communicating with a creature whose native language you speak, you have advantage on Charisma (Persuasion) checks to #Influence Attitude or #Parley. This does not apply to the locally dominant culture or to the Common language, as such speakers expect to be understood. Note that magical translation does not give the cultural background needed to gain this result.
Tool Kits
All tool kit proficencies can be used to identify items relating to or made with that tool kit. For example, smith's tools gives #Lore and can #Assess Damage, #Detect Forgery, and #Identify Magic about items made of iron and about a smiths tools and workshop, including anvils, bellows, charcoal, and the various sands and liquids used in the craft. Likewise, proficiency in a type of vehicle lets you do the same with regards to vehicles and suitable routes of travel.
Tool Proficiencies Tool Proficiencies are a useful way to highlight a character’s Background and talents. At the game table, though, the use of tools sometimes overlaps with the use of Skills, and it can be unclear how to use them together in certain situations. This section offers various ways that tools can be used in the game.
Tools vs. Skills Tools have more specific applications than Skills. The History skill applies to any event in the past. A tool such as a Forgery Kit is used to make fake Objects and little else. Thus, why would a character who has the opportunity to acquire one or the other want to gain a tool proficiency instead of proficiency in a skill?
To make Tool Proficiency more attractive choices for the characters, you can use the methods outlined below.
Advantage. If the use of a tool and the use of a skill both apply to a check, and a character is proficient with the tool and the skill, consider allowing the character to make the check with advantage. This simple benefit can go a long way toward encouraging players to pick up Tool Proficiency. In the tool descriptions that follow, this benefit is often expressed as additional Insight (or something similar), which translates into an increased chance that the check will be a success.
Added Benefit. In addition, consider giving characters who have both a relevant skill and a relevant tool proficiency an added benefit on a successful check. This benefit might be in the form of more detailed information or could simulate the Effect of a different sort of successful check. For example, a character proficient with mason’s tools makes a successful Intelligence (Investigation) check to find a Secret door in a stone wall. Not only does the character notice the door’s presence, but you decide that the tool proficiency entitles the character to determine how to open the door.
Tool Descriptions
The following sections go into detail about the tools presented in the Player’s Handbook, offering advice on how to use them in a campaign.
Components. The first paragraph in each description gives details on what a set of supplies or tools is made up of. A character who is proficient with a tool knows how to use all of its component parts.
Skills. Every tool potentially provides advantage on a check when used in conjunction with certain Skills, provided a character is proficient with the tool and the skill. As DM, you can allow a character to make a check using the indicated skill with advantage. Paragraphs that begin with skill names discuss these possibilities. In each of these paragraphs, the benefits apply only to someone who has proficiency with the tool, not someone who simply owns it. With respect to Skills, the system is mildly abstract in terms of what a tool proficiency represents; essentially, it assumes that a character who has proficiency with a tool also has learned about facets of the trade or profession that are not necessarily associated with the use of the tool. In addition, you can consider giving a character extra information or an added benefit on a skill check. The text provides some examples and ideas when this opportunity is relevant.
Special Use. Proficiency with a tool usually brings with it a particular benefit in the form of a Special use, as described in this paragraph.
Sample DCs. A table in each section lists activities that a tool can be used to perform, and suggested DCs for the necessary Ability Checks.
Crafting Tools
Crafting is a specialized use of tools to Craft.
Jury Rig You can create shoddy, temporary versions of mundane items. Spend a short rest and make an Intelligence (tool proficiency) check, the difficulty is the value of the item in gold pieces. If you have a destroyed item to work with, halve the DC while lack of any suitable materials doubles the DC. A jury-rigged breaks on any d20 roll of 1 involving the item. Jury-rigged items have no resale value fall apart after 24 hours.
Alchemist's Supplies
Activity | DC |
Create a puff of thick smoke | 10 |
Identify a poison | 10 |
Identify a substance | 15 |
Start a fire | 15 |
Neutralize acid | 20 |
Alchemist’s supplies enable a character to produce useful concoctions, such as acid or alchemist’s fire. Alchemists tools are used to craft poisons, medicine, and alchemical items.
Components. Alchemist’s supplies include two glass beakers, a metal frame to hold a beaker in place over an open flame, a glass stirring rod, a small mortar and pestle, and a pouch of Common alchemical ingredients, including salt, powdered iron, and purified water.
Arcana. Proficiency with alchemist’s supplies allows you to unlock more information on Arcana checks involving Potions and similar materials.
Investigation. When you inspect an area for clues, proficiency with alchemist’s supplies grants additional Insight into any chemicals or other substances that might have been used in the area.
Alchemical Crafting. You can use this tool proficiency to create alchemical items. A character can spend money to collect raw materials, which weigh 1 pound for every 50 gp spent. The DM can allow a character to make a check using the indicated skill with advantage. As part of a Long Rest, you can use alchemist’s supplies to make one dose of acid, alchemist’s fire, Antitoxin, oil, Perfume, or soap. Subtract half the value of the created item from the total gp worth of raw materials you are carrying.
Brewer’s Tools
Activity | DC |
Detect poison or impurities in a drink | 10 |
Identify alcohol | 15 |
Ignore Effects of alcohol | 20 |
Brewing is the art of producing beer. Not only does beer serve as an alcoholic beverage, but the process of brewing purifies water. Crafting beer takes weeks of fermentation, but only a few hours of work.
Components. Brewer’s supplies include a large glass jug, a quantity of hops, a siphon, and several feet of tubing.
History. Proficiency with brewer’s supplies gives you additional Insight on Intelligence (History) checks concerning events that involve alcohol as a significant element.
Medicine. This tool proficiency grants additional Insight when you treat anyone suffering from alcohol poisoning or when you can use alcohol to dull pain.
Persuasion. A stiff drink can help soften the hardest heart. Your proficiency with brewer’s supplies can help you ply someone with drink, giving them just enough alcohol to mellow their mood.
Potable Water. Your knowledge of brewing enables you to purify water that would otherwise be undrinkable. You can purify a 1 gallon of water per hour.
Calligrapher’s Tools
Activity | DC |
Identify writer of nonmagical script | 10 |
Determine writer’s state of mind | 15 |
Spot forged text | 15 |
Forge a signature | 20 |
Calligraphy treats writing as a delicate, beautiful art. Calligraphers produce text that is pleasing to the eye, using a style that is difficult to forge. Their supplies also give them some ability to examine scripts and determine if they are legitimate, since a calligrapher’s Training involves long hours of studying writing and attempting to replicate its style and design.
Components. Calligrapher’s supplies include ink, a dozen sheets of Parchment, and three quills.
Arcana. Although calligraphy is of little help in deciphering the content of magical writings, proficiency with these supplies can aid in identifying who wrote a script of a magical Nature.
History. This tool proficiency can augment the benefit of successful checks made to analyze or investigate ancient writings, Scrolls, or other texts, including runes etched in stone or messages in frescoes or other displays.
Decipher Treasure Map. This tool proficiency grants you Expertise in examining maps. You can make an Intelligence check to determine a map’s age, whether a map includes any hidden messages, or similar facts.
Carpenter’s Tools
Activity | DC |
Build a simple wooden structure | 10 |
Design a complex wooden structure | 15 |
Find a weak point in a wooden wall | 15 |
Pry apart a door | 20 |
Skill at carpentry enables a character to construct wooden structures. A carpenter can build a house, a shack, a wooden cabinet, or similar items.
Components. Carpenter's tools include a saw, a hammer, nails, a hatchet, a square, a ruler, an adze, a plane, and a chisel.
History. This tool proficiency aids you in identifying the use and the origin of wooden buildings and other large wooden objects.
Investigation. You gain additional insight when inspecting areas within wooden structures, because you know tricks of construction that can conceal areas from discovery.
Perception. You can spot irregularities in wooden walls or floors, making it easier to find trap doors and secret passages.
Stealth. You can quickly assess the weak spots in a wooden floor, making it easier to avoid the places that creak and groan when they're stepped on.
Fortify. With 1 minute of work and raw materials, you can make a door or window harder to force open. Increase the DC needed to open it by 5.
Temporary Shelter. As part of a long rest, you can construct a lean-to or a similar shelter to keep your group dry and in the shade for the duration of t he rest. Because it was fashioned quickly from whatever wood was available , the shelter collapses ld3 days after being assembled.
Cobbler’s Tools
Activity | DC |
Determine a shoe’s age and Origin | 10 |
Find a hidden compartment in a boot heel | 15 |
Although the cobbler’s trade might seem too humble for an adventurer, a good pair of boots will see a character across rugged Wilderness and through deadly Dungeons.
Components. Cobbler’s tools consist of a Hammer, an awl, a knife, a shoe stand, a cutter, spare leather, and thread.
Arcana, History. Your knowledge of shoes aids you in identifying the magical Properties of enchanted boots or the History of such items.
Investigation. Footwear holds a surprising number of Secrets. You can learn where someone has recently visited by examining the wear and the dirt that has accumulated on their shoes. Your experience in repairing shoes makes it easier for you to Identify where damage might come from.
Maintain Shoes. As part of a Long Rest, you can repair your companions’ shoes. For the next 24 hours, up to six creatures of your choice who wear shoes you worked on can Travel up to 10 hours a day without making Saving Throws to avoid Exhaustion.
Craft Hidden Compartment. With 8 hours of work, you can add a hidden compartment to a pair of shoes. The compartment can hold an object up to 3 inches long and 1 inch wide and deep. Your passive Intelligence + tool proficiency determines the Intelligence (Investigation) check DC needed to find the compartment.
Cook’s Utensils
Activity | DC |
Create a typical meal | 10 |
Duplicate a meal | 10 |
Spot poison or impurities in food | 15 |
Create a gourmet meal | 15 |
Adventuring is a hard life. With a cook along on the journey, your meals will be much better than the typical mix of hardtack and dried fruit.
Components. Cook’s utensils include a metal pot, knives, forks, a stirring spoon, and a ladle.
History. Your knowledge of cooking Techniques allows you to assess the social patterns involved in a culture’s eating habits.
Medicine. When administering treatment, you can transform Medicine that is bitter or sour into a pleasing concoction.
Survival. When Foraging for food, you can make do with ingredients you scavenge that others would be unable to transform into nourishing meals.
Prepare Meals. As part of 15 minutes, you can prepare a tasty meal that helps your companions regain their Strength. You and up to five creatures of your choice regain 1 extra hit point per Hit Die spent during 15 minutes, provided you have access to your cook’s utensils and sufficient food.
Glassblower’s Tools
Activity | DC |
Identify source of glass | 10 |
Determine what a glass object once held | 20 |
Someone who is proficient with glassblower’s tools has not only the ability to shape glass, but also specialized knowledge of the methods used to produce glass Objects.
Components. The tools include a blowpipe, a small marver, blocks, and tweezers. You need a source of heat to work glass.
Arcana, History. Your knowledge of glassmaking Techniques aids you when you examine glass Objects, such as potion bottles or glass items found in a Treasure hoard. For instance, you can study how a glass potion bottle has been changed by its contents to help determine a potion’s Effects. (A potion might leave behind a residue, deform the glass, or stain it.)
Investigation. When you study an area, your knowledge can aid you if the clues include broken glass or glass Objects.
Identify Weakness. With 1 minute of study, you can Identify the weak points in a glass object. Any damage dealt to the object by striking a weak spot is doubled.
Jeweler’s Tools
Activity | DC |
Modify a gem’s Appearance | 15 |
Determine a gem’s History | 20 |
Training with jeweler’s tools includes the basic Techniques needed to beautify gems. It also gives you Expertise in identifying precious stones.
Components. Jeweler’s tools consist of a small saw and Hammer, files, pliers, and tweezers.
Arcana. Proficiency with jeweler’s tools grants you knowledge about the reputed mystical uses of gems. This Insight proves handy when you make Arcana checks related to gems or gem-encrusted items.
Investigation. When you inspect jeweled Objects, your proficiency with jeweler’s tools aids you in picking out clues they might hold.
Identify Gems. You can Identify gems and determine their value at a glance.
Leatherworker’s Tools
Activity | DC |
Modify a leather item’s Appearance | 10 |
Determine a leather item’s History | 20 |
Knowledge of leatherworking extends to lore concerning animal hides and their Properties. It also confers knowledge of Leather Armor and similar goods.
Components. Leatherworker’s tools include a knife, a small mallet, an edger, a hole punch, thread, and leather scraps.
Arcana. Your Expertise in working with leather grants you added Insight when you inspect Magic Items crafted from leather, such as boots and some cloaks.
Investigation. You gain added Insight when studying leather items or clues related to them, as you draw on your knowledge of leather to pick out details that others would overlook.
Identify Hides. When looking at a hide or a leather item, you can determine the source of the leather and any Special Techniques used to treat it. For example, you can spot the difference between leather crafted using dwarven methods and leather crafted using halfling methods.
Mason’s Tools
Activity | DC |
Chisel a small hole in a stone wall | 10 |
Find a weak point in a stone wall | 15 |
Mason’s tools allow you to craft stone structures, including walls and buildings crafted from brick.
Components. Mason’s tools consist of a trowel, a Hammer, a chisel, brushes, and a square.
History. Your Expertise aids you in identifying a stone building’s date of construction and Purpose, along with Insight into who might have built it.
Investigation. You gain additional Insight when inspecting areas within stone structures.
Perception. You can spot irregularities in stone walls or floors, making it easier to find trap doors and Secret Passages.
Demolition. Your knowledge of masonry allows you to spot weak points in brick walls. You deal double damage to such structures with your weapon attacks.
Painter’s Tools
Activity | DC |
Paint an accurate portrait | 10 |
Create a painting with a hidden Message | 15 |
Create an original painting | 20 |
Proficiency with painter’s supplies represents your ability to paint and draw. You also acquire an understanding of art History, which can aid you in examining works of art.
Components. Painter’s supplies include an easel, canvas, paints, brushes, charcoal sticks, and a palette.
Arcana, History, Religion. Your Expertise aids you in uncovering lore of any sort that is attached to a work of art, such as the magical Properties of a painting or the Origins of a strange mural found in a dungeon.
Investigation, Perception. When you inspect a painting or a similar work of visual art, your knowledge of the practices behind creating it can grant you additional Insight.
Painting and Drawing. As part of a short or Long Rest, you can produce a simple work of art. Although your work might lack precision, you can Capture an image or a scene, or make a quick copy of a piece of art you saw.
Potter’s Tools
Activity | DC |
Determine what a vessel once held | 10 |
Create a serviceable pot | 15 |
Find a weak point in a ceramic object | 20 |
Potter’s tools are used to create a variety of ceramic Objects, most typically pots and similar vessels.
Components. Potter’s tools include potter’s needles, ribs, scrapers, a knife, and calipers.
History. Your Expertise aids you in identifying ceramic Objects, including when they were created and their likely place or culture of Origin.
Investigation, Perception. You gain additional Insight when inspecting ceramics, uncovering clues others would overlook by spotting minor irregularities.
Reconstruction. By examining pottery shards, you can determine an object’s original, intact form and its likely Purpose.
Smith’s Tools
Activity | DC |
Sharpen a dull blade | 10 |
Repair a suit of armor | 15 |
Sunder a nonmagical metal object | 15 |
Smith’s tools allow you to work metal, heating it to alter its shape, repair damage, or work raw ingots into useful items.
Components. Smith’s tools include hammers, tongs, charcoal, rags, and a Whetstone.
Arcana and History. Your Expertise lends you additional Insight when examining metal Objects, such as Weapons.
Investigation. You can spot clues and make deductions that others might overlook when an Investigation involves armor, Weapons, or other metalwork.
Repair. With access to your tools and an open flame hot enough to make metal pliable, you can restore 10 Hit Points to a damaged metal object for each hour of work.
Tinker’s Tools
Activity | DC |
Temporarily repair a disabled device | 10 |
Repair an item in half the time | 15 |
Improvise a temporary item using scraps | 20 |
A set of tinker’s tools is designed to enable you to repair many mundane Objects. Though you can’t manufacture much with tinker’s tools, you can mend torn clothes, sharpen a worn sword, and patch a tattered suit of Chain Mail.
Components. Tinker’s tools include a variety of hand tools, thread, needles, a Whetstone, scraps of cloth and leather, and a small pot of glue.
History. You can determine the age and Origin of Objects, even if you have only a few pieces remaining from the original.
Investigation. When you inspect a damaged object, you gain knowledge of how it was damaged and how long ago.
Repair. You can restore 10 Hit Points to a damaged object for each hour of work. For any object, you need access to the raw materials required to repair it. For metal Objects, you need access to an open flame hot enough to make the metal pliable.
Weaver’s Tools
Activity | DC |
Repurpose cloth | 10 |
Mend a hole in a piece of cloth | 10 |
Tailor an outfit | 15 |
Weaver’s tools allow you to create cloth and tailor it into articles of clothing.
Components. Weaver’s tools include thread, needles, and scraps of cloth. You know how to work a loom, but such Equipment is too large to transport.
Arcana, History. Your Expertise lends you additional Insight when examining cloth Objects, including cloaks and robes.
Investigation. Using your knowledge of the process of creating cloth Objects, you can spot clues and make deductions that others would overlook when you examine tapestries, upholstery, clothing, and other woven items.
Repair. As part of 15 minutes, you can repair a single damaged cloth object.
Craft Clothing. Assuming you have access to sufficient cloth and thread, you can create an outfit for a creature as part of a Long Rest.
Woodcarver’s Tools
Activity | DC |
Craft a small wooden figurine | 10 |
Carve an intricate pattern in wood | 15 |
Woodcarver’s tools allow you to craft intricate Objects from wood, such as wooden tokens or Arrows.
Components. Woodcarver’s tools consist of a knife, a gouge, and a small saw.
Arcana, History. Your Expertise lends you additional Insight when you examine wooden Objects, such as figurines or Arrows.
Nature. Your knowledge of wooden Objects gives you some added Insight when you examine trees.
Repair. As part of 15 minutes, you can repair a single damaged wooden object.
Craft Arrows. As part of 15 minutes, you can craft up to 20 Arrows. As part of a Long Rest, you can craft up to twenty. You must have enough wood on hand to produce them.
Adventuring Tools
These tools are not primarily used to craft, but instead cover other feields.
Cartographer’s Tools
Activity | DC |
Determine a map’s age and Origin | 10 |
Estimate direction and distance to a landmark | 15 |
Discern that a map is fake | 15 |
Fill in a missing part of a map | 20 |
Using cartographer’s tools, you can create accurate maps to make Travel easier for yourself and those who come after you. These maps can range from large-scale depictions of Mountain ranges to diagrams that show the layout of a dungeon level.
Components. Cartographer’s tools consist of a quill, ink, Parchment, a pair of compasses, calipers, and a ruler.
Arcana, History, Religion. You can use your knowledge of maps and locations to unearth more detailed information when you use these Skills. For instance, you might spot hidden messages in a map, Identify when the map was made to determine if geographical features have changed since then, and so forth.
Nature. Your familiarity with physical geography makes it easier for you to answer questions or solve issues relating to the terrain around you.
Survival. Your understanding of geography makes it easier to find paths to civilization, to predict areas where villages or towns might be found, and to avoid Becoming Lost. You have studied so many maps that Common patterns, such as how trade routes evolve and where Settlements arise in relation to geographic locations, are familiar to you.
Craft a Map. While traveling, you can Draw a Map as you go in addition to engaging in other activity.
Disguise Kit
Activity | DC |
Cover Injuries or distinguishing marks | 10 |
Spot a disguise being used by someone else | 10 |
Copy a humanoid’s Appearance | 15 |
Situation | Skill Modifier |
Disguised as different gender | -1 |
Disguised as different race | -1 |
Disguised as different age category | -1 |
Disguised as different size category | -5 |
You can create a disguise for yourself or another. This usually takes 15 minutes and you can work on a number of disguises equal to your proficiency bonus with the disguise kit. A very simple disguise, making someone less distinctive can be made in a minute.
Use Intelligence + proficiency bonus when making disguises. Creating a generic character like a servant, waiter, or laborer at DC 5. Creating a disguise of a particular role, such as a city guard or liveried servant, has a DC of 15. Imitating a particular person has a DC of 25. If you have access to appropriate clothes and accessories, you gain advantage.
If you don’t draw any attention to yourself, others do not get to make Perception or Insight checks. If you come to the attention of people who are suspicious (such as a guard who is watching commoners walking through a city gate) the disguise is tested. If you are impersonating a particular individual, those who know that person gain advantage on their Perception or Insight checks. Furthermore, they are automatically considered to be suspicious of you, so opposed checks are always called for. When a disguise is tested, observers can make an Intelligence (Investigation) or Wisdom (insight) against the 10 + the disguised character's Charisma modifier + the proficiency bonus of the creator of the disguise.
The effectiveness of a disguise depends in part on how much of a change is attempted. This affects both the initial disguise check and the difficulty of penetrating the disguise.
Forgery Kit
Activity | DC |
Mimic handwriting | 15 |
Duplicate a wax seal | 20 |
A Forgery Kit is designed to duplicate documents and to make it easier to copy a person’s seal or signature.
Components. A Forgery Kit includes several different types of ink, a variety of parchments and papers, several quills, seals and Sealing wax, gold and silver leaf, and small tools to sculpt melted wax to mimic a seal.
Arcana. A Forgery Kit can be used in conjunction with the Arcana skill to determine if a magic item is real or fake.
Deception. A well-crafted forgery, such as papers proclaiming you to be a noble or a writ that grants you safe Passage, can lend credence to a lie.
History. A Forgery Kit combined with your knowledge of History improves your ability to create fake historical documents or to tell if an old document is authentic.
Investigation. When you examine Objects, proficiency with a Forgery Kit is useful for determining how an object was made and whether it is genuine.
Other Tools. Knowledge of other tools makes your forgeries that much more believable. For example, you could combine proficiency with a Forgery Kit and proficiency with cartographer’s tools to make a fake map.
Forge Document. As part of 15 minutes, you can produce a forged document no more than one page in length. As part of a Long Rest, you can produce a document that is up to a dozen pages long. Your passive Intelligence (Forgery Kit) determines the DC for someone else’s Intelligence (Investigation) check to spot the fake, or the GM may allow you to roll against their passive value.
Herbalism Tools
Activity | DC |
Find Plants | 15 |
Identify poison | 20 |
Proficiency with an Herbalism Kit allows you to Identify Plants and safely collect their useful elements.
Components. An Herbalism Kit includes pouches to store herbs, clippers and leather gloves for collecting Plants, a mortar and pestle, and several glass jars.
Arcana. Your knowledge of the Nature and uses of herbs can add Insight to your magical studies that deal with Plants and your attempts to Identify Potions.
Investigation. When you inspect an area overgrown with Plants, your proficiency can help you pick out details and clues that others might miss.
Medicine. Your mastery of herbalism improves your ability to treat illnesses and wounds by augmenting your methods of care with medicinal Plants.
Nature and Survival. When you Travel in the wild, your skill in herbalism makes it easier to Identify Plants and spot sources of food that others might overlook.
Identify Plants. You can Identify most Plants with a quick inspection of their Appearance and smell.
Gaming Set
Activity | DC |
Catch a player cheating | 15 |
Gain Insight into an opponent’s Personality | 15 |
Proficiency with a gaming set applies to one type of game, such as Three-Dragon Ante or games of chance that use dice.
Components. A gaming set has all the pieces needed to play a specific game or type of game, such as a complete deck of cards or a board and tokens.
History. Your mastery of a game includes knowledge of its History, as well as of important events it was connected to or prominent historical figures involved with it.
Insight. Playing games with someone is a good way to gain understanding of their Personality, granting you a better ability to discern their lies from their truths and read their mood.
Sleight of Hand. Sleight of Hand is a useful skill for cheating at a game, as it allows you to swap pieces, palm cards, or alter a die roll. Alternatively, engrossing a target in a game by manipulating the Components with dexterous movements is a great distraction for a pickpocketing attempt.
See Also: Downtime Activities: Gambling.
Thieves' Tools
Activity | DC |
Pick a lock | Varies |
Disable a trap | Varies |
Perhaps the most common tools used by adventurers, thieves' tools are designed for picking locks and foiling traps. Proficiency with the tools also grants you a general knowledge of traps and locks.
Components. Thieves' tools include a small file, a set of lock picks, a small mirror mounted on a metal ha ndle, a set of narrow-bladed scissors, and a pair of pliers.
History. Your knowledge of traps grants you insight when answering questions about locations that are renowned for their traps.
Investigation. You gain additional insight when looking for traps, because you have learned a variety of common signs that betray their presence. You have advantage on Intelligence (Investigation) checks to spot and analyze traps.
As an action, you can try to analyze a known trap. This reveals the entire stat block of the trap. The DC is the same as for disabling a trap, but there is no danger.
Disarm Trap. As an action, you can try an Intelligence or Dexterity (Thieves' Tools) against a trap's disarm DC in order to disarm it. You can then either destroy the trap, or just suspend its function, reactivating it with another check. You can try again. If the check fails by more than 5 you trigger the trap.
Open Lock. As an action, you can try an Intelligence or Dexterity (Thieves' Tools) against the DC of a lock. If you fail by more than 5, the lock was problematic for you and you must either accept disadvantage on the attempt or spend a full minute to try again without disadvantage. Certain safes and other complex locks might be much harder, with special rules.
Set a Trap. Just as you can disable traps, you can also set them. As part of 15 minutes, you can create a trap using items you have on hand. Your passive Intelligence (Thieves' Tools) becomes the DC for someone else's attempt to discover or disable the trap. The trap deals damage appropriate to the materials used in crafting it (such as poison or a weapon) or damage equal to half the total of your check, whichever the DM deems appropriate.
You can deploy a trap that has been crafted and is ready to be set up can be deployed. It requires an Intelligence (Thieves Tools) check with a of DC 15 + 1/2 the Challenge level of the trap. Failing by 10 or more means you are caught in the trap. Traps that depend on terrain features, such as a pit trap, can only be deployed if such a terrain feature is available.
Traps can also be deployed faster, but such makeshift deployment is much less effective; reduce the Perception and Disable Device DCs of the trap by 5 if you spend 1 minute and 10 if you spend just an action.
Activity | DC |
Plot a course | 10 |
Discover your position on a nautical chart | 15 |
Proficiency with navigator’s tools helps you determine a true course based on observing the stars. It also grants you Insight into charts and maps while developing your sense of direction.
Components. Navigator’s tools include a sextant, a compass, calipers, a ruler, Parchment, ink, and a quill.
Survival. Knowledge of navigator’s tools helps you avoid Becoming Lost and also grants you Insight into the most likely Location for roads and Settlements.
Sighting. By taking careful measurements, you can determine your position on a nautical chart and the time of day.
Poisoner’s Tools
Activity | DC |
Spot a Poisoned object | 10 |
Determine the Effects of a poison | 20 |
A poisoner’s kit is a Favored resource for thieves, assassins, and others who engage in skulduggery. It allows you to apply poisons and create them from various materials. Your knowledge of Poisons also helps you treat them.
Components. A poisoner’s kit includes glass vials, a mortar and pestle, chemicals, and a glass stirring rod.
History. Your Training with Poisons can help you when you try to recall facts about infamous poisonings.
Investigation, Perception. Your knowledge of Poisons has taught you to handle those substances carefully, giving you an edge when you inspect poisoned objects or try to extract clues from events that involve poison.
Medicine. When you treat the Victim of a poison, your knowledge grants you added Insight into how to provide the best care to your patient.
Nature, Survival. Working with Poisons enables you to acquire lore about which Plants and animals are poisonous.
Handle Poison. Your proficiency allows you to handle and apply a poison without risk of exposing yourself to its Effects.
Collect Poison You can gather the poison of a living or recently dead creature with a natural poison. Make a Dexterity (tool proficiency) check against the creature's passive Strength save. On a success, you have collected enough raw material to craft 1d4 doses of the poison, plus another dose for every 5 points of margin. Crafting the poison from what was salvaged requires the normal time, but has no cost.
Musical Instruments
Activity | DC |
Identify a tune | 10 |
Improvise a tune | 20 |
Proficiency with a musical Instrument indicates you are familiar with the Techniques used to play it. You also have knowledge of some songs commonly performed with that Instrument.
History. Your Expertise aids you in recalling lore related to your Instrument.
Performance. Your ability to put on a good show is improved when you incorporate an Instrument into your act. A character proficient in a musical instrument can stage a #Performance using Charisma + Proficiency bonus. Depending on the instrument, this might use some other ability, such as Dexterity for a stringed instrument or Constitution for a wind instrument.
Compose a Tune. As part of a Long Rest, you can compose a new tune and lyrics for your Instrument. You might use this ability to impress a noble or spread scandalous rumors with a catchy tune.
Vehicles
Activity | DC |
Navigate rough terrain or waters | 10 |
Assess a vehicle’s condition | 15 |
Efficient travel | DC |
Frequently traveled routes | 5 |
Secondary routes | 10 |
Routes less traveled | 15 |
Off route | 20 and up |
Proficiency with vehicles grants the knowledge needed to handle vehicles of that type, along with knowledge of how to repair and maintain them. In addition, a character proficient with vehicles is knowledgeable about anything a professional Sailor, Teamster, or air pilot would be familiar with, such as information about local communication channels, tying knots, and assessing weather Conditions.
- Air Vehicles (5A) covers balloons, gliders, dirigibles, airplanes and airships?
- Ice Vehicles (5A) covers vehicles that use the low friction of snow and ice, such as skis, skates, sleds, and ice yachts.
- Land Vehicles covers a wide range of options, from Chariots and howdahs to wagons and carts.
- Water Vehicles covers anything that navigates waterways.
Efficient Travel. Sail and animal travel uses Wisdom, muscle-powered vehicles like carts and canoes use Strength. A successful roll indicates normal travel time. A failure increases travel time by 25%, while a failure by more than 5 indicates some kind of mishap. Every 5 points over the DC saves 10% travel time.
Arcana. When you study a magic vehicle, this tool proficiency aids you in uncovering lore or determining how the vehicle operates.
Investigation, Perception. When you inspect a vehicle for clues or hidden information, your proficiency aids you in noticing things that others might miss.
Vehicle Handling. When piloting a vehicle, you can apply your Proficiency Bonus to the vehicle’s AC and Saving Throws.