Image from Wizards of the Coast 

The Game

Dungeons & Dragons or "D&D" or "DnD" or however else you wanna abbreviate it is a super old fantasy tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG). The genre gets its name from its players usually sitting at a table and playing make-believe with each other! If that sounds cool to you let me show you how exactly it's played and how you can get started.

The game is usually played by 2-6 players, but you can theoretically play it alone or with as many players as you want! You can play it online or in person and only require a document that details the rules, a pen, a sheet of paper, or simply your phone.

You can either play a "one-off", an adventure designed to be completed in a single 2-6 hour sitting, or a "campaign" which can stretch out for years of regular 2-6 hour sessions every (other) week.

By far the toughest challenge when it comes to running a game is scheduling, so make sure you and your friends have time to invest in this game before you start!

Image from Wizards of the Coast

The Players

Remember when you were a kid and you started fighting with the neighbour's kids about how the "invisible shield" they put up when playing was total bullshit? Well, guess what, D&D got you covered by designating one of its players as the "Dungeon Master" or DM for short, which controls the broader world, monsters, and the rules! You can think of him like a referee - keeping the game fair and fun for everyone but also providing the challenges the players must face.

The other players play "Player Characters" or PCs. They are the primary actors and drivers within the world and rules that the DM creates. You can look at them as the "protagonists" in a movie, while the DM is a director who has no control over the behaviour of the protagonists but can set ground rules and plays all the other supporting characters.

"OK cool, but isn't this dynamic a bit one-sided?" - Yes, and that asymmetrical structure is very much by design. By granting a person sole control over the world, you can create near-infinite story permutations on the fly that are just not possible in any regular board or video game.

The Story

So this is where it gets awesome - there is none. Or rather, there is not a "standard" one. Since you designated one player in control of the world, they decide on what the world and therefore the story is and collaborate with the players on how the story progresses or what it should be!

"How the hell does that work?" - Just imagine it and you already did it! Do you want to play as a pirate? Done. You are on a boat in a beautiful island archipelago and a pirate king is terrorizing the local populace.

The rest is up to the Player Characters: 
Do they want to take down the pirate king? 
Do they want to become the pirate king? 
Do they want to become part of the crew? 
How will they deal with the corrupt government that secretly sponsors the pirate king to suppress rebellious sentiment? 

Whoops, there you go again, another plot thread players could follow. The player characters don't seem interested? Tell them of a legendary treasure hidden somewhere in the depths of the sea - and so on.

Image from Reddit

"But that sounds like a ton of work! I love the idea but I'm neither creative nor have the time to create a whole world!" - You are not alone! There are tons of pre-written worlds and adventures called "adventure modules" for these exact reasons that detail most of the world for the DM! 

This can be A LOT to keep track of in and of itself in the beginning so pick your poison. Do you want to learn a module inside and out or create your own little world that you expand bit by bit?

The Structure

OK, you got talking with your friends about playing make-believe in a pirate world that is totally not inspired by One Piece but neither they nor you actually got a clue what to do next. How do you "start" playing Dungeons & Dragons?

For there to be an adventure - there needs to be adventurers! Arguably the most fun thing of the game - creating a character!

The Characters

Each Player except the DM creates a character that they want to explore the world with. "Uhhh... how do I do that?" Well, the easiest way is to do it via the official character creator in D&D Beyond. Simply register and access this website to start building your character!

You can either choose a pre-made character if you just want to get started or build your character from scratch!

I will walk you through this step-by-step, no worries!

Let's assume you want to create your character from the ground up. Select the standard option and click "start building"!

Screenshot from ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​W​i​z​a​r​d​s​ o​f ​t​he ​C​oas​t​​​

You will be greeted by another explanation of how to build your character but since this is a step-by-step guide, we will skip this for now by clicking on the blue/white arrow to the right.

Screenshot from Character Builder, D&D Beyond

Next up is your Player Character portrait, their name, and some other configurations. Focus on the important stuff for now and only pick out a name and portrait if you have one. Do you have no idea yet and want to get inspired first? You can skip everything on this page. Click on the blue/white arrow to the right again to move on and come back later.

Screenshot from Character Builder, D&D Beyond

D&D Beyond will give you a detailed explanation of what races are in D&D and what kind of impact they have but not to worry – we want to do as little reading as possible for now. You can read it or continue on.

Time to choose a race! .... Man, they really gotta change the name for that. You obviously don't choose your ethnicity or your skin colour next but rather the humanoid species you want to inhabit. Since it is a fantasy game you find most of the prominent fantasy races you know from Lord of the Rings or other fantasy properties.

Keep in mind that this choice might already have some consequences for some stats later on but for now purely choose based on what you want to play - not what would be best mechanically.

Screenshot from Character Builder, D&D Beyond

I chose a Mountain Dwarf because they look cool and I wish I could grow a beard. D&D Beyond makes you aware of the usual lore and characteristics of the chosen race. For example, as a Mountain Dwarf, I can see better in the dark, I am resistant to poisons, I have the ability to wield hammers and axes, and wear light or medium armor regardless of the class I choose.

Screenshot from Character Builder, D&D Beyond

For tool proficiency (proficiency is something the character is particularly skilled in) I simply chose smith's tools since it would be cool if I could craft or mend equipment as we go through the adventure. I also know a lot about stone so that is also cool I guess but I will not make that a big part of the character.

Next up, choosing a Class! You can think of the class as a combat style your character specializes in. This will determine how your character deals with enemies on the battlefield.

Screenshot from Character Builder, D&D Beyond

As you progress in the game, you can actually choose multiple classes, but this is only recommended for players that already have a lot of experience and will probably be a separate blogpost!

Let me quickly summarize the combat styles of all the default classes!

• Barbarian - Embrace a primal warrior ethos, donning minimal armor for agility and ferocity. Channel your inner rage to deliver powerful blows and withstand numerous attacks.
• Bard - Utilize the captivating power of your voice and musical talents to mesmerize or incapacitate adversaries, wielding art as a formidable weapon.
• Cleric - Serve as a conduit of divine energy, harnessing sacred powers to either mend wounds or unleash divine wrath in the service of your deity.
• Druid - Tap into the ancient magic of the natural world, shapeshift into various creatures, and employ a blend of animalistic forms and nature-based magic in combat.
• Fighter - Exhibit unparalleled martial expertise, dominating the battlefield with strategic prowess and mastery over a wide array of weaponry.
• Monk -  Transform your body into a lethal weapon, combining agility, precision, and martial arts to become a formidable, elusive combatant.
• Paladin -  Stand as a bastion of divine justice, wielding holy retribution against evil, bound by a sacred oath and clad in the heaviest of armors.
• Ranger -  Adept in both ranged and close combat, specializing in navigating and utilizing different environments and hunting specific foes.
• Rogue -  Embody the quintessence of stealth and cunning, striking with precision and deadly force, while adeptly navigating the intricacies of societal survival.
• Sorcerer -  A natural-born arcane talent, wielding an innate ability to cast selected spells with remarkable intensity and effect.
• Warlock -  Bound by a pact with a powerful entity, you command terrifying spells and channel otherworldly energies to devastating effect.
• Wizard -  A scholarly master of the arcane, strategically providing support and dealing damage from the rear, wielding an extensive repertoire of spells.

Screenshot from Character Builder, D&D Beyond

This is also where you can pursue your "class fantasy" and tie in a little bit of background information about the character.

Alright, let's go with something that would be interesting in a pirate world... Maybe a paladin! Since paladins rely on an oath - let's go with the fantasy that my character has sworn an oath to the government to protect its citizen's but one day noticed that the government does not have the citizens best interest at heart and chooses to obey his oath by becoming an enemy of the state and join up with pirates (the other players) in order to protect the citizens from the very government itself.

Screenshot from Character Builder, D&D Beyond

The class lets me choose additional proficiencies. I chose Athletics (because of his military training) and Persuasion (because he is a charming fella). He knows evil when he sees it and is able to heal his allies to continue fighting for what is good! Nice, I like this a lot already.

Next up, the abilities. 

Screenshot from Character Builder, D&D Beyond

Each character can distribute points into 6 primary abilities that impact everything they do:

• Strength
• • The general athleticism of your character
  • Impacts accuracy and damage of all melee weapons
  • Impacts your ability to withstand physical pressure and forces
• Dexterity
• • Your general agility/finesse
  • Impacts accuracy and damage of all ranged weapons
    
  • Impacts accuracy and damage of "finess"-weapons (daggers, rapiers, etc.)
  • Impacts your ability to dodge attacks (increases your armor class with lighter armor)
• Constitution
• • Your general toughness/vitality
  • Affects how much Health Points (HP) you have
  • Affects the chance of how successfully you can concentrate on spells when receiving damage
    
  • Affects how much poison you can withstand
• Intelligence
• • Your general knowledge and problem-solving ability
  • Affects the success chance and potency of spells for Wizards
• Wisdom
• • Your general awareness and your "in-tuneness" with your surroundings
  • Affects the success chance and potency of spells for Cleric, Druid & Ranger
  • Affects the toughness and later on the damage done by Monks
  • Negatively affects the success chance of enemy control spells
    
• Charisma
• • Your general psychological resolve
  • Affects the success chance and potency of spells for Paladin, Sorcerer, Warlock & Bard
    
  • Affects your success chance of persuading, deceiving, or intimidating people
  • Negatively affects the success chance of enemy control spells

Screenshot from Character Builder, D&D Beyond

I decided to go with the point-buy option when distributing the points but you can also choose an array or even leave it up to chance and roll your abilities with a 20-sided die!

As you can see, I also get some racial bonuses in strength and constitution because of the race I have chosen which is lucky!

I chose strength because it is the primary way of dealing damage for people focusing on melee weapon attacks. 

I chose constitution as the second option because I want to be a tough nut to crack and increase the amount of hits I can take before I go down.

Lastly, I focused on charisma as it allows me to persuade and intimidate even better and is the primary spell-casting ability for paladins - meaning when I use my divine magic it is more potent and more accurate.

Why did I not go with dexterity, if it makes it harder to hit me and can also add accuracy and damage to ranged weapon attacks and certain melee weapon attacks? I could, but since I want to wear the heaviest armor I can find, dexterity helps me little to nothing when trying to dodge in full-plate armor.

If I chose to fight with finesse weapons, focus on ranged weapon attacks and wear lighter armor the stat would make more sense and would be totally worth it! Mind you that almost every build is completely valid as long as you focus on at least one primary ability for your class!

Whew, that was a lot to take in. Let's move on to something more fun, the background!

Screenshot from Character Builder, D&D Beyond

This is where you can also pick a name and character portrait if you havent already. Say hello to Grumbly! He will be our little lab rat in this blog post.

Screenshot from Character Builder, D&D Beyond

I chose the custom background I described earlier and left out the bonus proficiencies in languages, features, and characteristics as I don't want to overcomplicate the character creation since I'm already very content.

After writing our background we can choose to fill out some character details like visual characteristics, personality, friends, enemies and much more. However, since this is all optional and I have been on this character for a while now, I will complete the character for now. I can always adjust these fields later on when the mood strikes me.

At last, we make our way to the equipment.

Screenshot from Character Builder, D&D Beyond

I'm going to be completely honest. As long as you don't have a lot of roleplay reasons to not have any equipment, choose the equipment instead of the gold.

Screenshot from Character Builder, D&D Beyond

I chose to go with a longsword and a shield as weapons, a backup dagger and an explorer's pack for survival. Additionally, Grumbly gets a chainmail with an amulet as a reminder and promise of his oath. After that, I simply add the starter equipment via the red button and... DONE!

We can choose to add other equipment or items to carry but I'm more than happy with the character.

We now get to print out or view the character sheet and see the culmination of our choices!

Screenshot from Character Builder, D&D Beyond

I chose to view my character sheet digitally in order to showcase the character a little bit better.

Screenshot from Character Sheet, D&D Beyond

Don't forget to equip all the equipment we gave the character in the inventory tab to the right!

Screenshot from Character Sheet, D&D Beyond

Ahhh a lot better. This interface can be a lot to take in - we will take a closer look at each section of the digital character sheet once we get to the rules!

Planning the first Session

Image from ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​W​i​z​ar​d​s​ o​f​ ​t​h​e ​C​o​a​st​

Alright, now you have your character and their respective character sheet! The character sheet will be your best friend and tell you everything you need to know about your character and their abilities.

But how exactly do you use the character in play? How do you even play?

Before you begin your first session as a DM, make sure you have all of your notes for the sessions prepared. Every DM has their own way to organize, some DMs have everything in their head, others need detailed descriptions of everything the player could encounter written down. Some can even create entire sessions without any preperation whatsovever, but make sure you are very familiar with the game before you try this, as this takes a lot of improv skill.

The DM also usually has a "DM screen" which hides some of their notes and usually even their dice rolls. "Why the hell would a DM need to hide their dice rolls? Isn't that unfair? They could just make up what a monster or NPC rolls!". Some DMs prefer not to give complete transparency over their dice rolls because the randomness of the dice can get in the way of a satisfying story. An enemy is about to land an attack on the last player standing? Maybe they didn't roll a 20 but rather a 1. 

This is what we call fudging the dice and is for some DMs absolutey heretical, for others a tool to use in the rarest of circumstances, and for others a tool they use liberally. The DM has to decide for themself, whether dice fudging is something they want to do or not.

Additionally, I would recommend to have a player's handbook at your side, which details all of the rules, should something come up. You can either read a digital version ​online or buy a physical copy from our store.

Another tool the DM can employ are maps. Maps are often used in combat to easily visualize and calculate distances. These maps can either be played on digitally or physically. You find some pretty well pre-prepared ones online for free by simply googling the terrain you are searching for. You can then simply print them out on either one or several sheets of paper and voilà, you have you terrain! 

Other (more expensive) options are to actually buy some maps that let you draw your own terrain by hand, buy some often used terrain template mats, or go even as far as buying 3D Models and 3D Terrain. You can go with any combination you want.

If you do not have the money or time to invest in these, use the power of imagination to detail where the characters are and what they are able to see/do!

Alright we have everything we need. Ready foryour first session?

At the start of the session the DM will usually introduce the players to the world and explain how all of the characters meet and what their first objectives will be - how this is played out can vary drastically! The DM will maybe explain the journey of one or more particular player characters and introduce the others as they come into contact with them in a very slow manner. Another option is to drop in the player in medias res in their first combat encounter.

Do your player characters know each other already? Do they have an immediate objective? These are the first questions to be answered before beginning your first play session!

To give an example that fits into a pirate setting, let's go with the whole party being a group of a newly recruited pirate crew of an upstart pirate captain with the mission to find buried treasure on an island. Let's plan that something goes horribly wrong when arriving on that island - causing the captain and the rest of the crew to be killed, leaving the players as the sole commandeers of the now ownerless ship.

The DM takes the role of the captain and questioning each the PCs at the start, which gives a great opportunity for each of the players to introduce themselves without spilling all that juicy backstory.

This also allows the DM to give his best pirate accent a try! "What's yer name, laddie?", "Why ye think ye is a good fit for da' crew?" and so on!

Whether you talk in first person or third person is completely up to the DM and the Players. Whatever you feel most comfortable with!

The player can then describe what the captain sees and what their characters look like. The captain can finish his recruiting (obviously hiring every player character) and brief them on the first expedition. The DM can then explain how the characters go on the ship, how they are setting sail, explain their journey to the island, and of course their arrival.

There may be some questions throughout these sequences. What is the name of the captain and the ship? What does the captain look like? How many other crew mates are there? How big is the treasure they are searching for? How did the captain learn of the treasure and why did he need to hire additional crewmates?

Take your time to answer the biggest questions a player could have before the session. If anything comes up that you haven't thought about yet, just improvise! It is a game of make-believe after all.

Image from ​​​​​​​​​​A​s​u​re​ M​i​s​o​a​​

When arriving on the island, something seems off, but nobody can really put their finger on it. The party and the rest of the crew come up to a deep crevice on the island that they somehow need to cross. This would be an ideal opportunity to let the players figure out how to solve a problem in character! The DM doesn't even need to have a clear solution written down somewhere but let the players figure it out for themselves.

Now the players get to think. What are some ways to get over the crevice? They could use some rope and a hook to try to cross it that way or go even as far as going back to the ship and shooting themselves from a canon! Trust me, some of the players will find the weirdest ways around the obstacles the DM places and it is a delight to have them come up with absolutely ludicrous ideas. This is the fun of D&D. However, the DM gets to decide just how ludicrous the players are allowed to be and even more importantly what the consequences of their actions will be. Maybe the canon would completely rip apart a player that tried to shoot themselves out of it or maybe they get shot out completely unharmed. That is up to the DM to decide in the moment and depends on the kind of story you want to play!

The Rules

These are the types of scenarios where you roll your first ability checks - one of the primary die rolls the players will do in D&D and a staple in the game. A player decides to shoot themselves out of the canon and will receive no damage because of the explosion as of the ruling of the DM. Let's go through the list of all available abilities and skills to pick out what kind of skill would be appropriate for aiming a canon.

Screenshots from Character Sheet, D&D Beyond

We can see all of our skills in these sections of the character sheet. We can of course use the ability scores and modifiers themselves if we can't find any fitting ones in the skills section. 

As there really aren't any fitting skills we could use to determine how well the player shoots themselves out of the canon we can use the primary ability section. Let's go with the dexterity modifier since this is basically an attack with a ranged weapon. Let's assume this is the first time the player tries to shoot a canon and is not yet proficient with it, meaning the +2 proficiency modifier will not be applied.

Next up we need to decide what the target value that has to be reached should be, generally referred to as "difficulty class" or DC. These are normally split into fives and can be structured like this:

• DC 0 (almost never used in actual games)
• • Difficulty: Trivial
  • Literally requires a natural 1 to be rolled in order to fail
  • Example: Notice something big in plain sight (perception)
• DC 5
• • Difficulty: Very Easy
  • Only the incredibly unlucky will not pass this check
  • Example: Climb a knotted rope (athletics)
• DC 10
• • Easy
  • Most of the players will pass this check if they are proficient
  • Example: Persuading a squirrel to get you something from a tree (animal handling)
• DC 15
• • Medium
  • Chance of failure is common if the player is not specialized in that skill
  • Example: Unlocking a regular lock (sleight of hand)
• DC 20
• • Hard
  • Usually, only people who specialized in this skill will pass some of the time
  • Example: Pry open a tightly locked hatch with your bare hands (Strength)
• DC 25
• • Very Hard
  • Even people who specialize in the respective skill will fail easily
  • Example: Successfully perform a miraculous surgery (medicine) 
• DC 30
• • Incredibly hard
  • Borderline impossible if you are not high-level and specialized in the skill required
  • Example: Intimidate a king of giants into not attacking you after you killed their kin (intimidation)

Let's assume that the DC required for accurately shooting yourself out of a canon is a 15 since it is slightly difficult to calculate what the trajectory of a person shot out of a canon would be. This is called a "DC15 ability check".

To succeed in an ability check, the target value has to be met by rolling the most iconic object in D&D: a 20-sided die called the d20. If you don't have a physical one at hand, don't worry! You simply google d20 and Google will let you roll them digitally!

Screenshot from Google

Alternatively, you can also use D&D beyond by simply clicking on the ability modifier in your digital character sheet. This way, the modifier will automatically be applied to the d20.

Video from Character Builder, D&D Beyond

Or, of course, you can go old school and buy some physical dice from our shop!

Now let's assume the player picks up a d20, rolls it and rolls a 3 just like I have. Did they fail? Not yet! Don't forget, we can still add the dexterity modifier. Oh... it's +0.. that makes sense. This means that the 3 really is the final value. Since the roll of 3 is lower than the target value of a DC15, they fail the skill/ability check.

"Failing" these dice rolls is part of the game and you can even make failed skill checks fun! In this case, let's assume the player failed to "accurately" aim himself which doesn't necessarily mean that they don't fly over the crevice. It just means that they.... maybe overshot it... by a lot.. and flew into a thorny bush way on the other side and took 1d4 damage. This may get a laugh out of the table and that's what we are all here for: Fun!

Now let's assume that the player shoots themselves to the other side and secures a rope there so all the other players can cross the crevice as well - and without harming themselves (assuming they didn't fail an acrobatics or athletics check while using the rope). . They make their way into a cave and are very close to the location of the treasure. There is a branching path deeper into the caves and the crew splits up. The captain and the player characters go into the right branch while the rest of the crew go into the left branch. 

As they go deeper into the cave you suddenly hear a loud harrowing scream that subsequently gets muffled. As they question what that could've been they are ambushed by skeletons rising from the ground! Combat time!

The Combat

D&D has turn-based combat, which means that we now need to figure out what the sequence of characters in a turn is. This is called rolling for initiative. At the start of each combat, every PC and NPC has to roll a d20 and add their initiative bonus to that roll to determine their position in the turn order.

Screenshot from Character Sheet, D&D Beyond

Grumbly rolled a 12 and has an initiative bonus of +0 (the initiative modifier is based on the dexterity modifier) so that is his total.

The two skeletons rising from the ground rolled a 6 and a 16 respectively, and the captain rolled a 3. The character with the highest rolled initiative has the first turn, followed by the character with the second-highest score and so on.

The DM can track the turn order by ordering the scores respectively:

• 16 - Skelly 2
• 12 - Grumbly
• 6- Skelly 1
  
• 3 - Captain

Skelly 2 has the first turn. Ideally, the DM has a stat block on hand for the creature, which can also be found on D&D beyond!

Screenshot from D&D Beyond

The monsters function very similarly to the players in that they also have primary ability scores, resistances, armor class, and actions that they can do. However, the actions are usually very simplified to make combat less complicated. It is important to note that traditionally only the DM has access to this stat block to avoid players knowing monsters inside and out.

On each turn of a character, the character has the following resources to spend:

• One action 
• • Attacking with a weapon
  • Casting a spell
  • Dashing - doubling your movement speed for the turn
  • Disengaging - moving away from melee range of an enemy without provoking an oppertunity attack
  • Dodging - Applying disadvantage to all attacks against you for one turn
  • Grapple - Trying to restrain an enemy to lower their movement speed
  • Help - Give someone advantage on the next ability/skill check
  • Ready - Anticipate something and react with an action as a reaction to the trigger
  • Search - Try to find something that you currently do not perceive
  • Shove - Either shove a creature 5 feet or knock it prone (athletics roll against athletics or acrobatics roll)
  • Use an object - Drink a potion, read a scroll, etc.
• One bonus action (if one is specified)
• Movement equal to the speed specified in the character sheet or monster stat block

An attack always consists of two rolls. One for the accuracy of the attack (whether a creature is hit) and another one for the damage done. Obviously, you don't roll for damage if you don't hit the other creature. Let's say that Skelly 2 tries to attack Grumbly with a shortsword attack (which can be found under Actions).

The DM sees the text "Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit" which means he can add a +4 Modifier to the result of a d20 roll. Let's say Skelly 2 rolled a 12 and added their +4 modifier to arrive at a total value of 16! Now how do we know if that hits?

Just like with the ability checks that require a roll total to meet the threshold of a defined Difficulty Class (DC), an attack must meet the threshold of the Armor Class (AC) of the character that is being attacked. We can find Grumbly's Armor Class in the character sheet displayed as a little shield:

Screenshot from Character Sheet, D&D Beyond

This means that when Grumbly is attacked the total roll of the attacker must meet or exceed the value of 18. Since Skelly 2 only rolled 16 in total, the attack misses Grumbly, nice!

So what determines the AC? Every character has a default armor class of 10, just like the ability scores. There can be multiple methods for achieving a high armor class as listed here:

• Equipping armor, which simply replaces the default AC by a flat amount (the usual goal is to have the highest possible AC for the chosen armor type)
• • Heavy armor (usually 14-18 or higher)
  • • Prohibits the ability to add your Dexterity Modifier to your AC
  • Medium armor (usually 12-15 or higher)
  • • Allows the ability to add your Dexterity Modifier up to +2 to your AC
  • Light armor (usually 11-12 or higher)
  • • Allows the ability to add your whole Dexterity Modifier to your AC
• Adding your Dexterity Modifier to your Medium or Light Armor (as mentioned above)
• Equipping a shield, which gives you +2 to your AC but occupies one of your hands
• Magical buffs (temporary bonuses) from spells

So why don't just all characters wear heavy armor if it has the best AC score even without the Dexterity bonus added? Only certain classes are actually proficient in wearing heavy armor! 

If you are wearing armor that you are not proficient in, you will have disadvantage on attack and ability rolls. You also cannot cast spells and cannot use certain class features. You can imagine that a monk needs to have little to no armor in order to move around freely and cannot perform his combat style while wearing armor that obstructs movement. However, this does not mean that they cannot achieve a high AC value. Monks (when wearing no armor) can add their dexterity modifier and their wisdom modifier to their armor class. 

For exmaple, if a monk has a +4 dexterity modifier and a +3 wisdom modifier:

No Armor:

(Default) Armor Value	10
Dexterity Modifier	+4
Wisdom Modifier	+3
Total	17

When wearin no armor monks can add both modifiers to the default AC value of 10, resulting in an AC of 17, which is really high!

Light Armor:

Armor Value	12
Dexterity Modifier	+4
Total	16

If they were to equip light armor with a base AC of 12, they could only add their dexterity modifier, (+4) which totals 16. 

Meaning that the monk is in this case better off wearing no armor than light armor!

As you may remember, choosing the Paladin class got us proficiency with all armor types, effectively unlocking our ability to wear heavy armor over medium and light armor. Additionally, heavy armor or even plated medium armor is not the stealthiest, as you can imagine, and actually gives you a hefty penalty on stealth skill checks called disadvantage.

Since Grumbly wears Chain Mail, which gives him a 16 flat Armor Class, and a Shield, which gives him a modifier of +2 to his Armor Class, he reaches a total of 18, which is pretty high for the beginning! 

After Skelly 2 misses, it's Grumbly's turn. You can check a character's possible actions by selecting the actions tab on the bottom right of the character sheet. 

Screenshot from Character Sheet, D&D Beyond

This section will highlight all of the possible actions your character can take on your turn! You can see the range of each weapon, their Hit modifier, which will be applied when trying to determine whether an attack will hit or not, and the damage roll with all the modifiers related to it.

Let's break them down quickly as well as this is just repetition:

The Hit modifier is simply the proficiency bonus from you being able to wield that weapon (+2) added to the modifier of your related weapon ability (in our case strength +3) which totals a modifier of +5 to all attack rolls that we do.

The damage die to the right is calculated based on the size of the weapon and whether you are two-handing or one-handing a weapon. Grumbly is primarily wielding a longsword in one hand, in order to wield the shield in the other, meaning that we have to use the 1d8 roll instead of the 1d10 roll when making weapon attacks. The modifier of course stays the same.

You can always click on the buttons for D&D Beyond to roll the dice for you.

The dagger obviously doesn't do as much damage (1d4+3) as the one-handed longsword (1d8+3) but we can still throw it from 20 up to 60 feet if we can't reach an enemy on a turn!

Then we have our class-specific actions at the bottom, which let us sense evil (which for example would let us detect where the skeletons are coming from or if more of them are coming), and heal a person in touch distance for up to 5 HP.

In this case, Grumbly just attacks with his longsword! He rolls a 10 for the attack, and adds his +5 (+2 from proficiency, +3 from ability modifier) attack modifier to get to a total of 15! When we look at the skeletons Armor Class, we can see that their Armor Class is very low with a 13, which means the attack hits!

Now Grumbly gets to do damage and rolls his 1d8+3 damage die (instead of the 1d10 since he is one-handing the weapon). He rolled an 8! Now he adds the +3 damage and comes out to a total of 12 damage. Since a skeleton only has 13 HP the DM can say that the attack was very effective, and the skeleton is about to give out and has very little HP left.

Usually, the DM only gives a vague idea about how much HP a creature has left in order to keep it interesting! Try some visual clues, like how heavily the skeleton has been fractured by the attack.

Once all the characters are done with their turn, the turn order begins again by starting with Skelly 2, if he is not dead by then! If Skelly 2 was defeated, Grumbly would be the first one to act on the next turn.

No worries, in the beginning this can take quite a while to get used to and the combat can feel very slow. But as you get experience and know what you are doing or going to do, the turns can end very quickly. It is important to note that the amount of PCs and NPCs that are fighting has a very large impact on how long a combat encounter can last.

Try to aim for combat with as few participants as possible in the beginning to keep things clear for the players (by, for example, splitting the rest of the crew from the PCs narratively). Use monsters that do not have a lot of HP and low AC to get the players a type of tutorial section.

If any of the players are reduced to 0 Health Points or below, do not worry, they are not instantly dead. D&D has a safeguard in place that allows for player characters to actually get back up via a mechanic called Death Saving Throws.

After the fight, the captain signals to the PCs that they have to hurry and arrive at the treasure at last. It is a giant sarcophagus laden with gold and loot. The captain gives one of the PCs the treasure map and makes his to the treasure ordering you to stay back for now. But as he touches the gold, the entire island starts to rumble and the cave starts to fall apart. In his greed, the captain tries to take as much gold as possible, when a giant boulder separates the players from the captain. The players escape and assume that the captain's greed is his end. As they make their way back to the ship, they notice that the island is slowly sinking and they do not have a lot of time left to get back to the ship. No other crewmate is in sight and they are the only ones to make their way back to the ship.

Now that the players have learned the very basics of the game, they can enjoy the freedom of choosing what to do next. Ideally, the DM gives them a lead on what to do but at this point, the players are completely free to choose whatever they want. They can, for example, inspect the treasure map and find that after the island has been swallowed up, it points to another island. Later on, they can find out that the treasure map is a cursed item of the pirate king, that hides his true treasure, and he is on the hunt for the people that stole it from him. They can ignore it altogether and pursue their own personal goals with each other or even decide that D&D is not a game for them and quit at this point. All these options are extremely valid and underscore the principle of D&D, which is to do what you want in the most fun way that you want.

The Progression

The game provides a level system to simulate the progression of the journey and the characters getting stronger based on the experiences they have had. This could either be done by XP per creature killed or by a milestone basis. For newcomers, I would recommend the milestone system, where the DM decides when the party has experienced enough to level up. Usually, the very first few levels are awarded relatively rapidly, while later levels take more time to achieve. I think for Grumbly, that was more than enough to achieve Level 2.

A character can progress from Level 1 to Level 20. At first glance, this sounds like relatively few levels but in reality, there is a giant gap between a level 1 character, which has problems fighting oversized rodents, and a level 20 character that is able to challenge gods.

Of course, you can use D&D beyond to level up your character. Simply click on the anvil and hammer on the top right of your digital character sheet to edit your character.

Screenshot from Character Sheet, D&D Beyond

This will take you to your class overview. You can simply set the level of your class to the level you achieved. In Grumbly's case, we will set it to level 2 for paladin.

Screenshot from Character Builder, D&D Beyond

Our Paladin will receive more HP with every level up depending on their Hit Dice. Every class has a hit die associated with it that determines how much HP the character will receive when choosing or levelling up a class.

The paladin has a hit die of d10, which means that the default amount of HP for a level 2 Paladin should be 2d10+the constitution modifier per level.

It is important to note that for the first level the total hit die (in our case 1d10 = 10) is added to give an initial HP boost.

You can either choose to always take the average of a hit die (for example 5 for 1d10) or roll the actual die in order to determine the score. 

Keep in mind that you could potentially end up with a lot more or a lot less HP when rolling yourself than when using the averaging method. Discuss which method for calculating HP you prefer with the DM.

Let's stick with taking the average of a d10 in order to show the hit point progression throughout some levels:

Paladin Level	Hit die formula	Average Hit die HP Addition	Constitution Modifier HP Addition	Total
1	1(d10+con mod)	10	+3	13
2	2(d10+con mod)	15	+6	21
3	3(d10+con mod)	20	+9	29
4	4(d10+con mod)	25	+12	37
5	5(d10+con mod)	30	+15	45
6	6(d10+con mod)	35	+18	53

It is also important to note that when your constitution modifier changes, the health calculations for all previous levels are impacted as well.

Let's assume I managed to increase my constitution modifier from +3 to +4. I would multiply the new modifier with the number of levels I have and get my new constitution bonus to add to the hit die total.

Next up we have the proficiency bonus progression. As mentioned in the beginning, when starting out, the proficiency modifier is always +2 and will be added to all Attack or Ability rolls in which a character is proficient in. 

With every fourth level up this bonus will increase. See this table to see at which level your proficiency bonus increases:

Level	Proficiency Bonus
1	+2
5	+3
9	+4
13	+5
17	+6

With a level up we will also get access to new features of that class, which you can inspect by opening the cards that have been added. Any outstanding action or choice is marked with a white/blue exclamation mark.

Screenshot from Character Builder, D&D Beyond

For fighting style, I chose Defense as it gives me an additional +1 to the already high AC. Grumbly wants to play his strengths and become a living fortress that takes vulnerable characters under his wing and protects them.

With level two, the paladin gets the ability to cast spells and use one of their signature damage-dealing abilities "Divine Smite", which consumes a spell slot. He can use it to imbue his weapon with holy light and attack with his melee weapon and add a whopping 2d8 radiant damage on top of the regular damage. This means when he attacks with the longsword he can roll 3 8-sided die (or 3d8) and add his strenght ability modifier as well (+3), which can deal devastating damage in one turn.

We can also take a look at future features the paladin might get by expanding the plus sign at the bottom of the screenshot, hiding features of higher levels. This way you can plan your character for multiple levels in advance!

When we move back to the character sheet (no worries, everything is saved automatically), we can see that I received the +1 to AC and unlocked a new tab called "Spells"!

Screenshot from Character Sheet, D&D Beyond

We can see:

• Our spellcasting modifier (+2), which is basically our charisma modifier as a paladin.
• • This just displays how strong we are with our primary spellcasting ability.
• Our spell attack modifier (+4), which is basically our charisma modifier + our proficiency bonus.
• • This tells us what to add to a d20 when attacking with an attack spell to determine whether the attack hits the target or not - similar to the hit/dc value when making weapon attacks.
• And our spell DC Save, which is a 10+our charisma modifier.
• • This determines the difficulty class the enemy has to overcome in order to not be affected by Grumbly's control spells.
• Two first-level spell slots
• • Spell slots are the amount of spells you can cast before you can't cast any more spells.
  • You can recover spell slots by resting.
  • Every class except the warlock replenishes their spell slots with a long rest (at least 8 hours), while the warlock replenishes them with a short rest (at least 1 hour).
  • There are multiple levels of spell-casting levels
  • • Level 1 spells are the weakest
    • Level 9 spells are the strongest
    • Each level of spells has its own amount of spell slots
• Your learned spells

When trying to overcome an enemy Spell Save DC, the player has to roll a d20+ the respective saving throw modifier mentioned on the left in the character sheet.

Screenshot from Character Sheet, D&D Beyond

If Grumbly was, for example, targeted by an enemy control spell that requires him to succeed on a DC 10 charisma save, he, would add the charisma saving throw modifier (+4) to a d20 roll to try to get at least a 10 in order to resist the spell.

Since Grumbly has not yet learned any spells, we can click on "manage spells" in order to learn some.

Screenshot from Character Sheet, D&D Beyond

Carefully read what each spell can do and choose the ones that sound the most fun to you! In Grumbly's case, he chose Bless to buff himself and his allies, command to force enemies to do his bidding, and heroism to buff a singular ally.

Screenshot from Character Sheet, D&D Beyond

Once you "prepare" the spells you can cast them via your spell tab. The spell tab now details the effects and circumstances under which the spell can be cast. For example, "Bless" has a range of 30 feet and requires no accuracy or DC to apply to allies, meaning it hits no matter what, as long as the allies are within 30 feet of him. We can see the effect "buff" but to be sure what exactly the buff is, we can simply click on the spell to give us a more detailed description on the side.

Screenshot from Character Sheet, D&D Beyond

This spell requires concentration, which means I cannot use any other spell that requires concentration for the duration of that spell, without dispelling the original spell. Additionally, whenever Grumbly gets attacked while concentrating on a spell, he has to succeed a DC 10 (or half of the damage you take, whichever is higher) with a d20+ his constitution modifier. If he fails the check, the concentration is broken and the buff is removed from all of his allies.

Now to the buff itself. It mentions that Grumbly can buff up to three creatures that then get to add an extra d4 roll to all of their attack rolls! That is extremely powerful! It lasts up to 1 minute. In combat, each round is approximately 6 seconds in real-time, which puts 1 minute at around 10 turns before the bless spell dissipates.

Screenshot from Character Sheet, D&D Beyond

When pressing on "cast", you can see one of the spell slots being filled on the right, signalling that Grumbly only has one more level 1 cast left. I can either cast another spell or use my divine smite to completely exhaust my spell slots.

The number of spell slots you have for each level depend on your Spell Level. Spell levels are gained at every level for full caster classes (Druid, Bard, Wizard, Sorcerer & Cleric) and every second level for partial caster classes (Paladin & Ranger). Sometimes certain subclasses will enable other classes to gain spell levels as well (like the eldritch knight for fighter for example). 

Here is a table of the number of available spell slots for each slot level (x-axis) with each spell level (y-axis):

Level	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th
1st	2	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
2nd	3	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
3rd	4	2	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
4th	4	3	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
5th	4	3	2	—	—	—	—	—	—
6th	4	3	3	—	—	—	—	—	—
7th	4	3	3	1	—	—	—	—	—
8th	4	3	3	2	—	—	—	—	—
9th	4	3	3	3	1	—	—	—	—
10th	4	3	3	3	2	—	—	—	—
11th	4	3	3	3	2	1	—	—	—
12th	4	3	3	3	2	1	—	—	—
13th	4	3	3	3	2	1	1	—	—
14th	4	3	3	3	2	1	1	—	—
15th	4	3	3	3	2	1	1	1	—
16th	4	3	3	3	2	1	1	1	—
17th	4	3	3	3	2	1	1	1	1
18th	4	3	3	3	3	1	1	1	1
19th	4	3	3	3	3	2	1	1	1
20th	4	3	3	3	3	2	2	1	1

The full caster class "Warlock" is an exception as they have no restriction based on "slot levels" but rather just a set amount of spell slot total which correspond to the class level.

Let's look at the warlock spell slot table with their class level and spell slots:

Class Level	Number of Spell Slots
1st	1
2nd	2
3rd	2
4th	2
5th	2
6th	2
7th	2
8th	2
9th	2
10th	2
11th	3
12th	3
13th	3
14th	3
15th	3
16th	3
17th	4
18th	4
19th	4
20th	4

To make up for that, the Warlock class also regains their spellslots with every short rest, while other casters require long rests to replenish them.

Aaaaaand that's it. Of course, there is a lot more you can explore and find out about the rules of the game, but this will cover 90% of all that you need in order to play your first session of D&D with your friends. 

Getting into D&D can be a daunting task considering all the rules and dice rolls, but when it comes down to it you really only need them once you are in combat. Even when you don't know the combat in and out, you can just google anything you have questions for with the appendix "5e" in the search bar and you will receive the answer.

Forgot what to roll for an attack? Google. Forgot how something is calculated? Google. Not sure if something works or is allowed? Google. And between us: If Googling disrupts something in the game or slows it down; just improvise. You are there to have fun, not write an encyclopaedia.