Glossary of terms by

## Glossary of Terms Currently Used in D&D

While some of these terms come from back in the first edition of D&D, some have come more recently from online computer games and some are specific to 5th edition D&D.

**5e** - 5th Edition Dungeons and Dragons.

**Action Economy** – Term covering all available things you can do on your turn: action, bonus action, reaction, movement, and object interaction. Usually used when talking about maximising your per turn use of those things, as a character that can also use their bonus action and reaction in a turn is doing twice as many things as a character that only uses their action and interaction.

**Advantage** – A game mechanic that allows you to roll two d20s (instead of just one) and take the highest roll.

**Backstory** – What has happened to your character prior to the beginning of the game.

**Beer and Pretzels Game** – A style of campaign where rules are loosely used and play is very casual. Roleplay is often secondary to combat in this type of game.

**Bonus Action** – Used by certain abilities or spells, such as Misty Step, Cunning Action, and the two weapon fighting rules. Less common and more restricted in uses than a normal action.

**Botch** – Also known as a critical fail, this is when you roll a 1 on an attack roll or skill check.

**Buff** – To provide a benefit to a creature that is not healing; the spells Bless and Haste from the Players Handbook are examples of buffing spells. Comes from the term used by body builders who would apply oil to their muscles to look like they have been polished or "buffed".

**Controller** – A character built around using control spells to manipulate the battlefield. Examples of such spells from the Players Handbook are Grease, Web and Spike Growth.

**Core/Core Rules** – This refers to any content within the three main books for the game: the Players Handbook, Dungeon Masters Guide and the Monster Manual.

**Crit** – Short for Critical hit, this is when you roll a 20 on a d20 during an attack roll.

**Crunch** – Crunch refers to the mechanics and rules of the game, in contrast with Fluff which is the descriptive and artistic side. It comes from "crunching numbers". For example: the description of your runic armour is cool (this is fluff), but the fact that it’s AC 18 means a 10% reduction in hits which will improve your character's survivability (this is crunch).

**Dead Stat** – An odd numbered ability score, as it doesn't increase the modifier.

**Debuff** – To impose a hindrance on a creature; Blindness/Deafness and Bane are examples of debuffing spells from the Players Handbook. It is the opposite of Buff.

**Dirty 20** – When the number you roll on a d20 and your modifier adds up to 20, as opposed to rolling a Nat20.

**Disadvantage** – Like advantage but bad, this is when you roll two d20s (instead of one) and take the lowest result.

**DMG** - Dungeon Masters Guide.

**Downtime** – A period of time between adventures, or during a lull mid-adventure, where players can pursue personal projects. Examples of downtime activities include: shopping, carousing, working a mundane job, building or buying a player home/base, etc.

**Dump Stat** – An ability score you put your lowest number in (or don't invest any points into).

**Dungeon Crawl** – A specific style of combat-heavy play where the party work through a ‘dungeon’ (this can be a literal dungeon, but is used as a more abstract term for a hostile environment), which usually involves searching individual rooms, traps and encounters. This style of play can involve sleeping in the dungeon if required and then carrying all the loot out at the end. Dungeon crawling was a more common style of play in the early editions of the game.

**Dungeon Ecology** – When thought is put into how a dungeon would naturally exist; for example, how the various factions of monsters would interact, sources of food, and so on.

**Encounter** – A situation where players need to solve a problem in order to proceed, the most common form of encounter is combat. Social and exploration encounters also exist, and challenge the players in other ways (for example, convince the king to send aid or devise a method to cross this 100ft wide chasm, respectively).

**Five Minute Workday** – A term referring to the tendency of some groups of players to long rest (or try to) after a very little amount of time, possibly a single combat encounter. More prevalent in a party consisting of long rest dependent classes (like Wizards and Paladins) and inexperienced players.

**Fluff** – This a shorthand term for any narrative or descriptive text that has no actual mechanical bearing on the game. For example, "Your armor is engraved with an elaborate formulation of ancient runes, intended to harness the raw power of rage and violence itself". That sounds cool and impressive, but it means nothing when the monster rolls to attack you. Pretty much everything in the game has its own story, description, its own fluff, but as it doesn't have any impact on the game, you can usually change it to whatever fits your character best (though check with your DM). It is the opposite of "Crunch".

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**Fudge** – When a DM ignores the result of a die roll and chooses the result instead, only possible when rolling privately. This can be done to increase the challenge the players are facing if the combat is proving too easy, or to spare them if bad dice rolls (or bad encounter design) is making it too difficult.

**Fullcaster** – A class that gets spellcasting at first level and ultimately gets 9th level spells.

**Gish** – A character that uses magic to enhance their martial combat, originally taken from the Githyanki Gish monster entry. An example of a gish subclass from the Players Handbook is the Eldritch Knight Fighter.

**Glass Cannon** – A character or creature that has a strong offense, but weak defenses/low hp.

**Grimdark** – A campaign that is dark and gritty in theme. This can be a tongue in cheek or derogatory way to refer to a campaign done poorly in this fashion. Derived from the Warhammer 40k game.

**Grognard** – French for ‘the old guard’ it refers to older players that started playing the game in older editions, usually 1st or 2nd edition. It can be used negatively if the player is set in their way about an older style of play. Players from 3rd and 4th edition are usually not considered Grognards, though as years pass this could change.

**Halfcaster** – A class that gets spell casting at 2nd level and only reaches a maximum of 5th level spells. These classes do not typically get cantrips when they gain their spellcasting feature. Currently this is the Paladin and Ranger.

**Hex Crawl** – A type of campaign where the players explore a world map set out on a hex grid. The game mostly occurs in the wilderness. This type of campaign often utilises randomly generated encounters and puts a larger emphasis on exploration, including things such as time and resource management.

**Homebrew** – A game option that is created by a DM or player, not published by Wizards of the Coast or another game company. Often found for free on forums or sold in stores like the DM’s Guild.

**Houserule** – A DM deciding a rule works better differently than written/intended, or creating additional rules. Not to be confused with a ruling.

**MacGuffin** – Need a sword forged by the gods themselves to stop the rising of an ultimate evil? Perhaps a tome filled with lost eldritch knowledge to seal shut the gates of the Abyss? It doesn’t really matter what it is, if it’s a central item that is important to the story/saving the world, then it can be considered a MacGuffin. This is a very meta way of thinking of a narrative and will mostly be found in DM discussions or abstracted discussions about the game as a whole but not a particular story.

**Melee Range** – The range a creature can use a melee attack against another creature, typically but not always, 5ft.

**Mega Dungeon** – A dungeon of immense or endless size, large enough that an entire campaign could happen within it. Mega dungeons often lead to their own style of play, routinely leaving to a nearby town to resupply and sell loot, or using settlements that exist within the dungeon itself. Undermountain is an example of a mega dungeon and the setting for the Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage adventure.

**Metagaming** – Using knowledge available to you as a person to make or influence decisions in-game, where your character may not have any reason to know such a thing. An example of this, is targeting the weakness of a monster because you have fought it in a different game, or read its statblock. This is usually negatively received by other players and the DM. An example of metagaming that is permissible by more DMs is when the players strategise what to do by discussing the abilities of their various characters in game terms. This is seen as more reasonable as the characters should be aware of what each other can do and talking out of character is easier and faster.

**Minionmancy** – A style of play that revolves around summoning, creating, and controlling other creatures. Examples of this are the Necromancer Wizard and Circle of the Shepherd Druid.

**Min-Maxing** - A style of play that applies mathematics to calculate the most effective way to build a character, determining what way to assign ability scores, which skills to take, what weapons to use, what spells to cast, etc. It is usually viewed to be the diametric opposite to roleplaying where the character is designed to fit their background in the most appropriate way without considering how effective the abilities are.

**MM** - Monster Manual.

**Modifier** – Also known as mod, is the number you add to your rolls, determined by your ability score. This can also determine how often you can use some abilities.

**Monty Hall/Monty Haul** – A type of campaign centered around gathering as much wealth/magic items as possible, or a game where loot is excessively generous.

**Movement Speed** – How far a character or creature can move in a single turn; this can be affected by spells, abilities, encumbrance and other effects.

**Munchkin** – A derogatory term for an immature player that wants to ‘win’ in a collaborative game, often by exploiting rules. Sometimes misused towards players that enjoy building mechanically effective characters.

**Murderhobo** – A style of player behaviour that focuses on killing everyone and looting everything. This type of player usually doesn't engage in other methods of resolution, such as avoiding combat or roleplay solutions.

**Mythic Dungeon** – Counter to Dungeon Ecology, a mythic dungeon may be given a supernatural reasoning (a god created it, etc.) for existence, but usually just ignores reasoning behind what kind of creatures inhabit a dungeon (allowing unusual mixes of monsters to be used outside their typical environments), and how they coexist and survive (no food sources or supplies found, etc.).

**Nat20** – Rolling a 20 on a d20.

**Nerf** – To reduce the power or effectiveness of something, often in response to perceived game imbalance. This is a reference to a Nerf or foam version of a weapon being less dangerous than a real one.

**Nova** – To utilise as many resources and abilities as quickly as possible to defeat an opponent. This usually happens on the first turn of combat, but can happen on any turn. Players prone to using nova tactics can often fall into the five minute workday style of play.

**Object Interaction** – Part of the action economy, allowing you to interact with an object, such as opening a door or drawing a sword.

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**PHB** - Players Handbook.

**Phylactery** – The vessel for a Lich’s soul.

**Player Agency** – The ability for a player to make decisions, including describing some aspects of the world, situations, and so on.

**Powergaming** – To build a character to be as powerful or mechanically effective at something as possible. Usually but not exclusively referring to combat prowess. Can be used in a derogatory way towards players that enjoy creating effective and powerful characters.

**Prof (Bonus)** – Short for proficiency.

**Rage** – A core Barbarian ability.

**RAI** - Rules As Intended. This is the application of the rules where the letter of the law is overlooked sometimes to make the rules work as they should in a particular situation in the game.

**RAW** - Rules As Written. This is the application of rules following exactly as they are written in the rulebooks. This can lead to absurd situations which can be exploited, which is where RAI comes in.

**Ribbon Ability** – An ability that is solely to provide flavour to the class, race, feat, etc. that it is found in. They are not intended to be useful in combat and not considered by Wizards of the Coast to affect balance. Examples of ribbon abilities include Thieves’ Cant for the Rogue and Magical Tinkering for the Artificer.

**Round** – An in-combat measurement of time, it represents 6 seconds in the game. One round is going round all of the players from the top of the initiative order to the bottom and determining the results of each of their turns.

**Rule Zero** – The DM has the final say for how the game works and what happens, overruling any book and potentially disruptive or toxic player behaviour.

**Rules Lawyer** – A player that will argue RAW or RAI with the DM, usually for personal or party benefit.

**Rule of Cool** - The DM applies the rules of the game to resolve situations, but the rules cannot cover every situation that the players come up with when trying to meet the challenges they encounter. Rather than taking a strict or negative interpretation of the rules many DMs are willing to relax the rules when a player comes up with a "cool" solution. If a player wants to jump onto their shield and use it to snowboard down a steep hill to reach the orc leader, then instead of trying to come up with rule interpretations which would prohibit that, the DM can just apply the Rule of Cool, set a DC and let them try.

**Ruling** – An interpretation of the rules by a DM to resolve a situation.

**Satanic Panic** - In the 1980s when D&D was just gaining a foothold amongst high school students Christian groups jumped on a bandwagon declaring that D&D contained demon and devil worship and tried to have it banned. The publicity only served to drive up sales, however the next edition of D&D released removed references to the word devil. Those references were returned in the following edition.

**Save** – Short for saving throw. A type of defense against effects that don't target your AC.

**Session Zero** – The first session of a new campaign. Used to discuss what everyone expects, whether anyone would like something to come up or not come up in the game, to discuss characters, and perhaps roll stats. It’s common for this session to not include any playing of the game, but it can include a small roleplaying or basic combat at the end.

**Slog** – Term used to describe a back and forth fight with a high hp monster (or many monsters) lacking dynamic elements and which feels boring or a drag.

**Stormwind Fallacy** – The misconception that because a person power-games, they cannot roleplay effectively or vice versa.

**Stunlock** – A Monk using Stunning Strike on subsequent turns to keep an enemy under the Stunned condition, ‘locking’ them out of the combat.

**Tank** – A character with high defenses or survivability that intends to take hits on behalf of the rest of the party. Abilities that encourage enemies to attack this kind of character are classed as tank abilities, even though they may not add to defenses. A Barbarian is an archetypal tank.

**Turn** - An in-combat measure of time, it represents 6 seconds of time in the game for one character. In resolving one round of combat by going round all of the players from the top of the initiative order to the bottom each player takes their turn. The character's turn then are the actions that the one character takes within the 6 seconds of the round which are separated out from the other characters and resolved individually, though in actuality all of the characters actions are taking place simultaneously.

**Vanilla** – A game using no homebrew/third party content.

**West Marches** – A style of game where there is no set group of players or play time. Whichever players are available on the game day form a group and play. If the DM is up to it and runs a consistent world, different groups may play on different days pitting the groups in competition with one another for the treasures that are available in the world. The characters in one group may enter a dungeon only to find that it has already been looted by the other group and there is nothing of value left. In this type of campaign each player usually has a stable of characters to choose from so that they have an appropriate character to use for whatever group forms. The campaign world is usually quite large to accommodate all of the groups so it usually overlaps with a Hex Crawl style of game.