Page 78 - DnD 5e - Xanathar's Guide to Everything

CHAPTER 2

DUNGEON MASTER'S TOOLS

S THE DUNGEON M ASTER, YOU OVERSEE turn, you descend up to 500 feet at the end of that turn.
the game and weave together the story ex- This process continues untiJ the fall ends, either be-
perienced by your players. You're the one cause you hit the ground or the fall is otherwise halted.
who keeps it all going, and this chapter is
for you. It gives you new rules options, as FLYING CREATURES AND FALLING
well as some refined tools for creating and A flying creature in flight falls if it is knocked prone, if
running adventures and campaigns. It is a its speed is reduced to 0 feet, or if it otherwise loses the
supplement to the tools and advice offered ability to move, unless it can hover or it is being held
in the Dungeon Master's Guide. aloft by magic, s uch as the fly spell.
The chapter opens with optional rules meant to help If you'd like a flying creature to have a better chance of
you run certain parts of the game more smoothly. The s urviving a fall than a non-flying creature does, use this
chapter then goes into greater depth on several topics- rule: s ubtract the creature's current flying speed from
encounter building, random encounters, traps, magic the distance it fell before calculating falling damage.
items, and downtime-which largely relate to how you T his rule is helpful to a flier that is knocked prone but
create and s tage your adventures. is still conscious and has a current flying speed that is
The material in this chapter is meant to make your greater than 0 feet. T he rule is designed to sim ulate the
life easier. Ignore anything you find here that doesn't creature flapping its wings furiously or taking s imilar
help you, and don't hesitate to cus tomize the things that measures to slow the velocity of its fall.
you do use. The game's rules exist to serve you and the If you use the rule for rate of falling in the previous
games you run. As always, make them your own. section, a flying creature descends 500 feet on the turn
when it falls, just as other creatures do. But if that crea-
SIMULTANEOUS EFFECTS ture starts any of its later turns s till falling and is prone,
Most effects in the game happen in s uccession, follow- it can ha lt the fall on its turn by spending half its flying
ing an order set by the rules or the DM. In rare cases, speed to counter the prone condition (as if it were stand-
effects can happen at the same time, especiaUy at the ing up in midair).
start or end of a creature's turn. If two or more things
happen at the same time on a character or monster's SLEEP
turn, the person at the game table-whether player or Just as in the real world, D&D characters spend many
DM-who controls that creature decides the order in hours s leeping, most often as part of a long rest. Most
which those things happen. For example, if two effects monsters also need to sleep. While a creature s leeps,
occur at the end of a player character's turn, the player it is s ubjected to the unconscious condition. Here are a
decides which of the two effects happens first. few rules that expand on that basic fact.

FALLING WAKING SOMEONE
Falling from a great height is a significant risk for ad- A creature that is naturally s leeping, as opposed to be-
venturers and their foes. The rule given in the Player's ing in a magically or chemically induced sleep, wakes
Handbook is simple: at the end of a fall , you take ld6 up if it takes any damage or if someone else uses an ac-
bludgeoning damage for every 10 feet you fell, to a maxi- tion to shake or slap the creature awake. A sudden loud
mum of 20d6. You also land prone, unless you somehow noise- such as yelling, thunder, or a ringing bell-also
avoid taking damage from the fall. Here are two optional awakens someone that is sleeping naturaUy.
rules that expand on that s imple rule. Whispers don't disturb sleep, unless a sleeper's pas-
sive Wis dom (Perception) score is 20 or higher and the
RATE OF FALLING whispers are within 10 feet of the sleeper. Speech at a
norma l volume awakens a sleeper if the environment
The rule for falling assumes that a creature immediately
drops the entire distance when it falls. But what if a is otherwise silent (no wind, birdsong, crickets, street
creature is at a high altitude when it falls, perhaps on sounds, or the like) and the sleeper has a passive Wis-
the back of a griffon or on board an airs hip? Realisti- dom (Perception) score of 15 or higher.
cally, a fall from such a height can take more than a few SLEEPING IN ARMOR
seconds, extending past the end of the turn when the fall
occurred. If you'd like high-altitude falls to be properly Sleeping in light armor has no adverse effect on the
time-consuming, use the following optional rule. wearer, but sleeping in medium or heavy armor ma kes it
When you fall from a great height, you instantly de- difficult to recover fully during a long rest.
scend up to 500 feet. If you're still falling on your next

CHAPTER 2 DUNCl!01' MASTER'S TOOLS