I had to rule on if a corpse is “equipment” for the purpose of a druid’s wildshape merging the “item” into the new form

August 15, 2026Zoltar 2 Comments

So for tonight's #dnd, I had to rule on if a corpse is "equipment" for the purpose of a druid's wildshape merging the "item" into the new form. I said no. @JeremyECrawford did I make the right call?

— Bryan Eskew (@BryanWrites) November 13, 2019

When writing the D&D rules, we didn't consider corpses to be equipment.

That said, I could see Orcus, a Large lich, or some other macabre monster rocking a robe of corpses. #DnD https://t.co/cdsY2a1bdJ

— Jeremy Crawford (@JeremyECrawford) November 13, 2019

Today I received a message complaining that there was now a correct way to play D&D

August 15, 2026Zoltar Leave a comment

Today I received a message complaining that there was now a correct way to play D&D and that people ignore the optional rules in our books.

It is true that there is a correct way to play: whatever way gives your group the most joy. That's it.

Enjoy yourselves out there! #DnD

— Jeremy Crawford (@JeremyECrawford) December 12, 2019

I enjoy chatting about rules, what's written in D&D books, and what the design intent was. But the books' text and the design intent aren't the end of the road.

Each group takes that information—the rules, the intent, etc.—and then decides for itself how to use it. #DnD

— Jeremy Crawford (@JeremyECrawford) December 12, 2019

I often say things like, "The text of this D&D rule says such-and-such."

I might even follow that up with, "Our intent for that rule was such-and-so."

Neither statement puts any obligation on you.

The next step is yours to take. #DnD

— Jeremy Crawford (@JeremyECrawford) December 12, 2019

Don't mistake our liberty as D&D players and DMs as license to pretend the rules say things they don't.

The text says what it says. Sometimes it's clear. Sometimes it's not.

We read it, we ponder it, but ultimately we decide what to do with it. #DnD

— Jeremy Crawford (@JeremyECrawford) December 12, 2019

Is this D&D or the Bible?

— Santa Caws (Willy!) (@TheWillyboo) December 12, 2019

My MA is in theology. I honed my love of textual analysis through the study of sacred texts.

In that field, it's more crucial than in D&D to know the difference between (a) what a text says, (b) what people think the text says, and (c) what each person decides to do about it. https://t.co/JrRcNPoQ99

— Jeremy Crawford (@JeremyECrawford) December 12, 2019

My concern is contradictory information such as the PHB saying "targets" & one of your tweets changing the wording to "affects" and thereby altering the rules. At Session Zero I have to ban Sage Advice & game designer tweets to avoid misinformation causing arguments.

— Henry Prince (@HenryPr29247297) December 12, 2019

My tweets do not have the power to change the words in your books, alter the rules, or force anyone to play a certain way. When I tweet about the rules of D&D, I’m providing additional information that you can use when you decide how to play the game. Nothing more. #DnD https://t.co/DhKEsTuo9l

— Jeremy Crawford (@JeremyECrawford) December 13, 2019

I guess you understand that large swaths of the player base take your rulings as RAW. Explicitly saying you don't replace RAW is a nice first step here into rectifying a lot of table arguments.

— Big Energy (@forestsfailyou) December 13, 2019

If someone has told you that my tweets are rules in the game you're playing, that game isn't D&D.

Back in 2015, I kicked off the Sage Advice series with an article about rules, rulings, RAW, and more. From then to now, my tweets have never been RAW: https://t.co/rJvDgDR2KE #DnD https://t.co/vPyeRjm1N8

— Jeremy Crawford (@JeremyECrawford) December 13, 2019

This bit of ambiguity in 5e is partly why I don’t like 5e. Take Inspiration. It’s an idea with a rule on how players can use it with No rules for DMs on how to give it to players. So many tables don’t use it. Treating everything as DM optional strips Player Agency away, IMO. Thanks for the feedback. I understand that ambiguity can be frustrating in some circumstances but fun to play with in others.

Speaking of inspiration, have you had a chance to read the rules on awarding it in the “Dungeon Master’s Guide”? The rules are on pages 240 and 241.

— Jeremy Crawford (@JeremyECrawford) December 13, 2019

So I’m a little confused on the Sidekicks UA, is that still playtest or is what made it into the Essentials Kit the final version?

August 14, 2026Zoltar Leave a comment

@JeremyECrawford So I'm a little confused on the Sidekicks UA, is that still playtest or is what made it into the Essentials Kit the final version? The Essentials version seems pretty watered down compared to what the UA was so I wasn't sure.

— Jay Jarrett (@Jarrettc4Jay) October 10, 2019

The D&D Essentials Kit gives you an easy way to play your character and a sidekick.

The sidekicks in that kit were built using a revised version of the sidekick rules from Unearthed Arcana—basically an implementation of those rules, rather than being the rules themselves. #DnD https://t.co/TlEQ8ZKhW7

— Jeremy Crawford (@JeremyECrawford) November 8, 2019

Jeremy Crawford discuss of weaponry and improvised weaponry

August 14, 2026Zoltar Leave a comment

hello everyone and welcome to another segment of sage advice I am Greg Chino and I’m joined by a Jeremy Crawford hey there how’s it going doing great we have our tavern punch and we’re ready to talk about weapons I feel like we should be starting an adventure because we’re meeting here in a tavern now exactly what who’s our quest giver and this punch is courtesy of our interview guests and those of you listening will be able to hear how exactly to make this drink during the interview segment but Jeremy and I are cheating and just going right to the sips as we talk about how to throw these mugs of tavern punch at each other in discussion of weapons and how they’re used in vivid ition that was an amazing segue dude I’ve had like six really good segues today that I just want to like Pat myself yeah I’m just gonna sit here in awe for a few moments and the podcast will be silence s yeah no that was really good I’m feeling it so yeah weapons and improvised weapons like the tankard you toss at somebody exactly how does it work so weapons there’s something every character cares about in D&D even if you’re playing the bookish wizard who you know would rather write in there spell book than ever draw a weapon even then at some point in a campaign they’re probably gonna pick a weapon up we’re gonna need to get that dagger out and just do something yes and a lot of our rules care about weapons like you have references all over the place to weapon attacks melee weapon attacks ranged weapon attacks you have if if you’re the DM and you look at a monster snap-loc you’ll see you’ll see the words over and over again this is a melee weapon attack this is a ranged weapon attack which again begs the question well what the heck is a weapon yeah how did we define this so weapon of course has its natural meaning in English and that meaning holds in D&D which really means something you use to clobber somebody else but our rules also narrow it a little bit in the players handbook we have our whole chapter on equipment and a part of that chapter is specifically about weapons complete with illustrations of the you know many of the different web and types and there we clarify that weapons in D&D so did the weapons that the rules care about fall into two main categories they are simple weapons and martial weapons and then within those categories they’re either melee weapons or ranged weapons right the melee and ranged one is is pretty self-explanatory because there were we’re using natural English a melee weapon is you know weapon you use up close like that you know that knife that you’re about to thrust into that loud mouth in the bar fight whereas a ranged weapon is something like a longbow crossbow anything that you’re using to hit a target far away I love that you say melee is normal English because I don’t think anybody would know what melee is without Dungeons and Dragons I know and and it is thanks to me starting playing D&D around the age of six that for me melee is natural like when is your first like five hundred words that’s right and thanks to Gary Gygax I also at a very young age learned the word milieu and what the difference between a halberd and they pick is yeah yes it was a very kind of antiquarian English that I was learning very early on I know friends who pronounced it melee because they learned when they were six and yes how their brains learned it well and plus most of us had never heard it said anywhere right and in fact I think as a kid I did say melee did you because you know we had to guess how and plus we didn’t have the internet back then I mean we’re old enough we didn’t have you know Google to Google how do you pronounce this right and it wasn’t again word that was said in any other context except in in in Dungeons & Dragons here so that’s awesome so so there’s the range category there’s a melee character category and then and again simple and marshal those categories are a bit more abstract more having to do with honestly separating out some of the higher damage weapons into the marshal category and some of the lower damage weapons into the simple category it was that really the because I always assumed it was you know weapons that you would need a little bit more training or skill to be able to use effectively exactly and and you read my mind you’re on fire today that there is also a narrative layer to each of them and so essentially what we did is we and this is what we often like to do with our design is pair some kind of narrative notion with also a mechanical notion and so you are exactly right marshal weapons tend to be ones that people even in the real world generally need some training to use that their utmost effectiveness simple weapons tend to be things like anybody can just like it’s a club you know they can pick it up and bash somebody with it yeah but you’ll see if you look at the two lists the highest damage weapons are on the marshal list let’s go I didn’t notice that before and so we did that because it how it also breaks down is our classes that are more about being badasses with weapons in combat they start off with access to those marshal weapons whereas many of our classes like the wizard for instance usually just have proficiency with some simple weapons so again we’re not only there with our class design and how our class design interacts with weapons we’re not only telling a story like a typical wizard doesn’t train with marshal weapons the way a fighter would but what it also means is that if the wizard you know does want to wade into melee their weapon options are not as good as the fighters meaning they’re also going to deal less damage within the fighter and that is also a mechanical goal because we want to make sure that the classes that are all about weapon but in you know with weapons that they are in fact mathematically better at it that make sense so again that’s a that is the marriage there of narrative and and mechanics now people will rightly point out if they’re very familiar especially with the monster side of the game then in addition to simple and martial there is actually a third type of weapon at least when it comes to what the system often treats as a weapon and that is natural now that is largely an invisible category to the player side of the game like when the players handbook refers to weapons it really is zeroing in on what that book presents as weapons the dungeon master because the dungeon master is often controlling these creatures with claws and horns and you know various other protrusions that they might use to Maul people have access to again natural weapons although this is something that player characters will occasionally interact with if say they’re a druid and they wild shape into a beast or if they’re a ranger and have befriended an animal who’s joined the party essentially so again yeah there is that other that other group they are not the manufactured weapons that simple and martial are but the system when it comes to like making weapon attacks and whatnot treats them as such now yet there’s another thing I should point out here because this often creates some confusion people will wonder is my fist considered by the system to be a natural weapon the answer is no the game tends to treat only things like claws horns as natural weapons and if you’re ever wondering you know does this piece of this creatures Anatomy count as a natural weapon or not our stat blocks will tell you by having that piece of the creatures Anatomy appear as one of the creatures attacks in their stat block so we show you right there this thing is significant enough that it gets its own action entry and it can be used to make weapon attacks our sort of soft fleshy fists us humanoids that we have or you know our elbows or whatever it is we’re using to make an unarmed strike our system does not consider to be a weapon in the same way but you can still make weapon attacks with it and that distinction often does not matter at all this is one of those sometimes there are distinctions in the rules we’re very engaged and we’ll notice them and rightly so because sometimes the distinction really does matter but at the same time this is one of those ones where I would love it if people most of the time would just let it go sing along with Elsa let it go because most of the time it doesn’t matter and like really about the only time it matters is when something in the game talks about like enchanting a weapon silver ring a weapon where I was exactly gonna point out was like yeah there it does matter is wearing it’s it’s this corner case of do you have the right weapon needed to do damage to this preacher type and and and usually it is clear in the context that the game at that point is talking about an object yeah when you know it you know you’re not you know one place for silver over you’re exactly yeah and then and then they immediately report to the emergency room where you in the in the D&D multiverse you know the nearest cleric yeah as you were screaming with the hot silver on your fists at least kill that werewolf or at least get one good punch in that’s right yeah so it that distinction about unarmed strikes usually only matters when the game is is sort of fussing about do you have one of these objects that the system thinks of as a weapon that you know either is gonna have magic put into it or or or what have you and then and in the monk class there’s a lot of which is the class that you use under attack so the fists as often as most of them – there’s a lot of things in there that allow you to deal damage to these creature types that need magical weapons or silver weapon exactly exactly the monk has some workarounds built into the class where they’re they’re unarmed strikes are allowed to bypass different resistances and immunities to non magical weapon attacks out of curiosity was that something that was discovered as you were designing the monk class for fifth edition or is that something that kind of was like oh we’re gonna always want to make sure that this is in there we knew because of work on previous editions that this is an issue really for anyone in the game who is attacking not with a spell and not with a physical weapon because if you’re attacking with a spell okay you’re using magic and you can usually find some way to damage a thing that might have an unusual resistance or immunity if you’re using weapons well you can eventually get your hands on a magic weapon which usually also helps you bypass certain defensive capabilities but we know in the past that if you have a character is like you’re not using either you’re using you know your elbow or your shoulder or your butt or whatever it is you’re using to make your unarmed strike you’ve got to have some way especially at higher level to bypass some of those resistances and immunities because you don’t want to have a character who shows up and it’s just like oh I can’t do anything in this fight I’m one of the most skilled fighters here I can do all types of crazy things with back throws and things like that but then open oh my can’t hit it beam in yep yeah exactly and we’re fine with that to be the experience at low levels because part of the neat character narrative built into D&D with the leveling up mechanic is you’re meant to actually have at low level some of those experiences of oh no I have no way of affecting this thing and then we provide as you’re leveling up ways for you to get the tool that will overcome that past adversity so then the next time you face it you really feel like you’re getting more powerful because like hey last time I met this demon I couldn’t even hurt it this time I owned it oh my gosh that’s such a great trope not even just in D&D but just a whole storytelling where you’re like you know I’ve I’ve I’ve done the training montage and now I can finally get when I need to get that I couldn’t do at the beginning of the movie in act 1 yeah but act 3 nailed it yeah yeah yeah exactly a question I get sometimes is can a creature that has natural weapons still make an unarmed strike and the question is yes any creature in in D&D can make an unarmed strike and no matter what the creature is if you’re making an unarmed strike you use the unarmed strike rule in the combat chapter of The Player’s Handbook so even if you’re playing like oh my god it’s the it’s the sentient ball of horns that’s coming at me even though it’s all whore if for whatever reason the DM does not want it to use its horn attack the DM could still have it make an unarmed strike which then means it just rolls its you know attack roll adds its strength bonus if it hits then it deals exactly one damage plus its strength modifier because that’s how all unarmed strikes work in the game what’s the advantage of doing that they normally wouldn’t want to do it so the main reason why players bring this up it’s because of typically multi classing if you have a like druid monks who will wild shape into a critter and then want to know can I do unarmed strikes when I’m in this animal form even though it has horns and and or some other kind of natural weapon because you get the bonuses by doing unarmed strikes exactly as a monk and often often some of the most wonderfully strange rules questions we get are thanks to multi classic yeah they multi classing and which is why we it’s an optional part of the game where we don’t expect all groups to use it because there are many things like this where the issue will never even come up in your campaign unless someone is multi classic right because the systems were designed for the classes that’s discrete and then if you start to mix and match then it’s like well that’s where these corner cases can just arrive exactly and we wanted to design the system so that the majority of players who we know don’t multi class could basically sort of enjoy the game and not worry about any of this stuff and then the basically the groups who are ready to sign on for the extra complexity well then they will have to deal with some of these corner cases sometimes with the DM just making a call because we don’t always provide rules for every single corner case yeah that’s better with a complex game like that it’s kind of possible to do that yeah yeah exactly now there’s another area of weaponry that people are often fascinated by and it goes all the way back to the beginning of this podcast and that is well what happens when I throw the tankard of ale at somebody I’m improvised weapon exactly because it is an object and I’m using and I have weaponized this object in in English that would be what we would call a weapon so we have a rule for that that’s the improvised weapon rule and what the rule is basically that if it’s something that was not designed to be used a WEP as a weapon and doesn’t resemble a weapon in any way you can still attack with it but it doesn’t count as a simple or a Marshall weapon it essentially doesn’t have any of those categories that a weapon would have because it’s just it’s this it’s this like only partially formed weapon that you are now using you don’t have proficiency with it unless you have one of the few things in the game that does give you proficiency with improvised weapons so it means you don’t get to add your proficiency bonus to your attack role and no matter what it is it just as a d4 damage and showing that you know a weapon something that’s been crafted for a battle is going to deal more damage than the vase you just picked up off the side table to smash into the person’s head now that said we give DMS a lot of Liberty within the improvised weapon rule because one of the things we say is DM if a person is using something that is pretty darn close to an actual weapon you know one of the simple and marshal weapons on the weapon table in the players handbook DM go ahead and just let it count as that thing the example we given the players handbook is someone might in imagine again typical bar fight smashes a table picks up the table leg and clobber somebody with it table leg especially if it’s made of heavy enough wood functions like a colossus of a club and so if and so I would encourage DMS if the person wielding that table leg is proficient with clubs just have that table leg function fully like a club you can imagine grant let’s say imagine an unexpected fight like in a blacksmith’s shop and you didn’t bring your weapons and but there are no finished weapons in the shop but there’s all those tools at tongs tom as a hammer I as a DM would readily allow the players to grab those tools and have many of those tools particularly because that kind of tool usually has a lot of heft you know good for swinging or you know otherwise designed to be wielded in hand I would allow them to function like the weapons that they are most similar to and you know if a person has an appropriate proficiency allow them to apply the proficiency and even let that thing deal the amount of damage that that weapon would deal I encourage teams to be generous here and the main reason why an aside from the fact that you know I always love groups it’s just you know have a great time follow your bliss be generous have creative ways to have a fight that makes sense exactly and that’s it that’s the other reason is it encourages creativity right this kind of generosity at the table has kind of it creates a virtuous cycle where the more a DM says yes to these sorts of shenanigans rather than the game like sort of getting broken it’s encouraging the players to think outside of the box to create hilarious scenes you know I think of a recent episode of acquisitions incorporated I deemed where this sort of cycle of saying yes led to the group weaponizing one of the other characters I’m using using him as a weapon as a club yes as an improvised weapon yeah and you know most groups you want those kinds of crazy moves because it gives everyone something to remember something to laugh about again it’s not gonna break your game no it it gets again much more dicey when you’re instead talking about spells and other effects that do things permanently or for a long period of time to an object and that’s when you know again I don’t please don’t silver your fists or your friend we need to kill this werewolf can you have this molten silver poured all over your body I will use you as a club to beat it to death yeah whoo that is some extreme dungeons and drag its created yes so there’s a whole other dimension to weapons and that is their properties honestly you and I could talk a long time about some of these properties and when I say properties I mean when you look at the table some of the weapons will have over in the column called property there’ll be a word that will appear there like light finesse ammunition throne versatile each of these properties gives a weapon that has one of them some special twist in how you use that weapon one of the things to keep in mind is unless an improvised weapon is treated by the DM as effectively one of the weapons on the table the improvised weapon has none of those properties this is even true for a weapon that you used in an improvised way for example you have a longbow and you decide to hit somebody with the bow itself in melee the moment it basically its use goes from the use it was designed for two improvised weapon use them as it’s being used as improvised weapon basically none of its properties are implying it is now you just follow the improvised weapon a roll and a cranky DM might even give the bow a chance to break because if anyone’s used to bow although actually many bows the ones I’ve used in real life are pretty they have enough bend to them you would have to hit pretty hard to have a break it would probably be like a yeah the string would probably be the more vulnerable part of their boat yes the actual bow itself yeah because you can imagine like the string getting caught yeah on the person you’re hitting like oh no the what the ogre just walked away with my longbow you know sort of hanging from its neck so always under string your bows before you somebody with it important rule of thumb yeah exactly some of these weapon properties it I also get questions occasionally if natural weapons have them the answer is no a weapon in the game only has one of the weapon properties in the player’s hand books equipment chapter if the rules explicitly say so what if it druid wild shapes into a narwhal and their horn is like a rapier so therefore it would have the light property yes so again yeah if the DM basically uses that option in the improvised weapon rule to essentially have something treated like a weapon then that improvised weapon now that it’s being treated as a real weapon has all of that weapons properties right that doesn’t is not a thing that happens for each wild shaped thing that happens you know it’s right right it’s a call the DM makes this comes up in particular when again so much of it’s funny how many well multi class I know well or multi classing or druids it’s funny haha it’s funny how how often many of these questions do not arise from bling the the classes that are all about weapon use like the fighter instead know so much of it arises from okay so I wild shaped into X and I’m also a monk and then I cants probably more for myself yeah my wizard classes yeah so it I wonder if that is like a employer quality thing where like there are you know the people who gravitate towards playing martial characters they really just want to you know bash something and and have the fun of that and there’ll be you know some some tactical finesse needed with that but there is that type of character that loves doing what you’re saying I’ve liked having oh if I pull in from these different sources maybe I’m a way that I can bend you know the rules and the realities that I can get a little bit more effectiveness yeah and and to one of the ones that comes up a lot from those players who are are swimming around in in the wild shaped pool is alright I’ve turned into this animal and I can tell looking at the stat block that it’s melee attack uses dexterity mmm does that attack that natural weapon have the finesse property and usually they want to know because in this case they might be a druid who’s also multi classed into rogue and they’re hoping to sneak attack with their natural weapon now I gave the answer the answer is no your natural weapon does not have the finesse property and it would only have it if the rule said it did it’s also funny because the finesse property I noticed more than any other weapon property is misunderstood because often people will either say this explicitly or they will imply it that the finesse property means using a melee weapon with dexterity which is actually false the finesse property actually means you have the choice of using strength or dexterity so finesse weapon you can use strength with it using Dex is not a flag for it’s a finesse weapon right it doesn’t go both ways like the definition doesn’t apply in both directions yeah it’s just no finesse means simply if a weapon has this property you choose yeah and it’s like the versatile in a way we’re like yeah whatever is best for that situation you can you can use it that way exactly yeah it’s it’s not like we designed finesse weapons to just be for dexterity focused characters no there are there are strength focus characters who also have good reasons to use some finesse weapons and and can use their strengths with those weapons so and you know again there are other places in the game where people will see oh this class feature is letting me make a melee attack with Dex does this feature have the finesse property and again no it does not thing only a thing in the game only has one of these properties if the rules say so and then again asterisk read down that’s also finesse does not mean using Dex to attack in melee that’s that is only part of what finesse means makes sense yeah the some of the the other weapon properties pretty self-explanatory really the other thing that often comes up about weapons is how do I get my weapon into my hand it’s a really fundamental question when battle breaks out maybe you were in that bar you’re deep in your cups oh no combat just broke out and I don’t have my weapon in hand how do I get it there our rules are pretty generous where on your turning calm that everyone gets their move to get their action and then they get what we refer to as their free object interaction meaning at some point during your move or your action you can do something with an object including drawing your weapon so that does not have to eat up your movement or your action and you get to decide when it’s happening like you might decide as you’re moving you know you’re dashing across the tavern you draw your sword and then you attack with it or you draw it the instant you make your attack and you know like lightning swift motion we give you the narrative flexibility to decide this I love when players describe that like we’re like where they’re with over there charging in and drawing or they draw first but where this gets complicated I think is when people shift between using a ranged weapon and then a melee weapon the next round or hey I’m gonna get my shield out for this round because I’m anticipating the big bads gonna want to be hitting me and a lot of people have the ideas from previous editions that that is not allowed so you can do it the the key is the first interaction is free the second one gobbles up your action unless you have a special feature like rogues do to get around that well at least thieves do and yes yeah but what often people forget is the game does not tax you to to ever to drop things so whenever I’m playing a character who’s focused on weapon use oh boy do I drop things a lot yeah and and which you can imagine people would do in combat like I need to quickly get this thing out of my hand and get this other thing into my head I’m not going to sit here over the next six seconds carefully putting the thing away to boom on the ground yeah I get up later yeah exactly yeah I’ll pick it up next time but when you say the first one is free you mean first one per round correct first one per turn every time you have a turn you get one of these free object interactions used round but yeah yeah yeah but yeah every time it’s like you get it back you’ll appreciate this when we were are designing this rule because you know it feels like centuries ago I did a lot was well no no I’m not talking about that design I mean way before that back when I was in school I did a lot of acting and I used to in our design meetings refer to this free object interaction as your character stage business business yes because yeah anyone has anyone who’s acted knows about you know that little thing you do that it it it is not your main activity on stage when it’s your turn but it still can be really important to the flavor of your action yeah so going to make a drink while you’re delivering a speech or you know walking to the door and putting away your coat while you’re you know doing something in a dramatic way yeah there’s there’s ways to communicate through action on stage that I think is a big part of what you’re talking about here absolutely and that the list in the combat chapter of things you can use do with that free object interaction some of it was motivated basically from acting like things you know things I and others on the team know from experience you can do while doing something else because you know we’re not we’re not sort of single purpose robots we’re you know I can only do one thing at a time often there are these little you know nested things we can do especially in six seconds where you know we often think that it is a short amount of time but you know I mean if I count out six seconds right now I could do a lot of things I can flip this table throw it at you and all time it is often how furniture ends up being a big improvised weapon category yes yeah oh poor furniture I think I think of all the furniture destroyed in the indie games yes chandeliers alone but magic rather that’s right yep yeah oh boy and windows shattered all the property costs you wonder if in some D&D worlds there is you know you could have a guild where their whole job is just cleaning up after adventurers who are making messes everywhere I love that the cleanup crew yeah yeah so I mean we haven’t really touched too much on the weapon master the fighter being the one who uses weapons probably the most out of all of our classes and then yeah so we have we have three classes in particular that are really great with weapons the fighter the Ranger and the paladin they are the classes that have the fighting style feature that allows them to specialize in either weapon use or some other form of you know non-magical battle but of those three the fighter is the true master the fighter has access to so many open-ended options fighters depending on how you build your individual fighter could be amazing archers could be you know beasts in melee you know one fighter could be you know life and you know built like a swimmer and the other one could be built like a truck there’s just amazing flexibility in that class and then inside that amazingly flexible class is the battle master which is like you know flexibility dialed up to 11 where you can do all of these amazing maneuvers that really in a way are often fabulous flourishes that you add on to how you use your weapon yeah they’re they’re actually that all of those maneuvers are very fresh in my mind because recently an unearthed Arcana we released some new maneuvers and we also provided a more ways for non battle masters to use them because it’s such a rich pool of choice for characters that really do want to focus on just being an amazing warrior that we thought sort of like spells you know many classes have access to spells be nice to you know sort of really release the restrictions a little bit and give a few more people access to this amazing resource it’s a really good insight because there are a lot of just anecdotally I you know you see a lot of spellcasters in DMV play right now and I don’t think I’ve ever played with anyone who has played a bladder master as a fighter just you know and I know there are ones out there that really really enjoy that and so giving that kind of really elegant piece of design kind of it kind of incorporates a lot of what feats were in previous editions to the fighter I think it would be great to be able to see a lot more classes delve into them and we also know from our survey data that of the fighter subclasses the battle master pretty consistently scores the highest when it comes to satisfaction and I think begin because people really dig all the tools that that subclass gives because it really embraces this fantasy of mastering battle of weapon use of moving people around really making the battlefield yours yeah yeah and I want more people to get that that fantasy feeling yeah yeah any other weapon things we can go over and oh wait you and I can talk probably for another hour about this so the others is you know I would recommend people just give a close read to the properties for your weapons there are sometimes some goodie this their you you might be missing like you could be using a versatile weapon and missing out on the fact that if you use it with two hands you can actually deal more damage you know that kind of thing you have some you have some really good flexibility I Oh actually another one I cuz I often left pointing out sort of urban legend rules one who don’t exist yeah exactly you know so I’ve already pointed out one this idea that finesse means using dexterity with a melee weapon that’s an urban legend rule that’s not actually how what finesse is the other one actually is the heavy property I often will see people say characters who are small can’t use heavy weapons that that that’s what the heavy property means that’s not actually what the heavy property means the heavily heavy property doesn’t prevent you if you’re a small character from using a heavy weapon it simply means you have disadvantage on your attack roles if you do because it’s too big for you or too unwieldy right but you can still do it you know then there there might be times where you know maybe it’s a heavy magic weapon and it’s it’s essentially the MacGuffin that you need to wield and you’re the only person there who can do it and you’re a halfling or a gnome you can still do it particularly because there are also ways in the game to get advantage which will then shut your disadvantage off so this that’s another thing that is important to remember is that there are many ways in the game to get advantage and if you have advantage and also disadvantage at the same time they cancel each other out meaning that gnome is now wielding that heavy weapon just like it’s some other weapon well then I would house rule that you have double disadvantage well then you’re just mean but that’s I mean what’s interesting about that is also I can hear the players who are saying well it’s not optimal to do that so it’s the same as preventing folks from making that choice and it really isn’t right and that that actually comes up occasionally like you’ll also sometimes hear hear somebody say at a D&D table although I don’t hear it as much anymore as I heard it in third and fourth edition where someone might might proclaim well my character can’t move right now and and I as DM might inquire well you’re not immobilized why can’t you move well if I move I will trigger it an opportunity attack and it’s like well that doesn’t mean you can’t move and so I understand often often people will state I can’t do X in it’s shorthand for it’s not optimal for me to do X the reason why I often though like to remind people that it is not actually a prohibition it’s not because I’m being a schoolmarm and want them to be correct no it’s because I want them to remember they have options again with my theme of following your bliss do what school do what’s fun remember just because you might have of some kind of you know hindrance in doing something it could turn out in a certain circumstance that accepting that hindrance and doing it is actually what’s going to get your character and your group to the finish line whatever the finish line is in the particular scene you’re in yeah and so it’s like it’s like just remember hindrance doesn’t mean prevention you can still do it and it could end up having a mighty payoff if you do well that’s the fun of the game – for me in some ways is just making that mental calculus of like well you know I want to do this action but it has a risk associated with it but I want to take that risk because that’s what this character would do at this moment or you know narrative Lee it makes sense to try to save my faun hero even though I know I’m gonna get bashed in the back of the head by the ogre who’s you know about to swing on me right you would do that and it’s a really elegant way that the rules say like well yes you can but there’s X that could happen and you know maybe it rolls a one alright and it breaks its club and everything is great after that yeah yeah you might survive the whole thing and if you don’t you have a great story to tell about your TPK which is true of every experience my 10 D&D please do have a good story yeah awesome well thank you for giving us this overview on weapons and some some misconceptions but also hopefully inspiring some folks to jump into characters that use weapons a little bit more and see that there’s a lot more versatility not to steal the property but you know there’s a lot of ways that you can use them in ways that aren’t just know bashing people oh man absolutely awesome thanks Jeremy how could people get in touch with you if they have additional questions I am at Jeremy e Crawford on Twitter awesome well thanks a lot and we’ll get to another sage advice one of these days I’d look forward to it awesome thanks bye everyone

Are the Greater Dragonmarks staying a part of Wayfinder’s guide, or getting removed completely?

August 14, 2026Zoltar Leave a comment

Are the Greater Dragonmarks staying a part of Wayfinder’s guide, or getting removed completely? Greater dragonmarks gave you additional spells. We moved the additional spells into the dragonmarks themselves.

— Jeremy Crawford (@JeremyECrawford) November 12, 2019

Essentials Kit: Why was it decided not to include that sidekick levels up to 20?

August 14, 2026Zoltar Leave a comment

Why was it decided not to include that sidekick levels up to 20? The characters in the Essentials Kit go up to level 6.

— Jeremy Crawford (@JeremyECrawford) November 8, 2019

Sure, but having bought the Essentials Kit for the sidekick rules it was quite disappointing.

Will the full rules be released elsewhere? We haven't announced anything, but I'd love to see the sidekick rules appear at some point in all their flexible glory.

— Jeremy Crawford (@JeremyECrawford) November 8, 2019

Can Dragonborn have tails?

August 13, 2026Zoltar 3 Comments

Pleading to higher powers.

Can Dragonborn have tails?

I say yes, see Arkhan the Cruel by @JoeManganiello @ChrisPerkinsDnD @JeremyECrawford @mikemearls #DnD

— Kristy 🔜 Animal Sidekicks on DMs Guild 11/4! (@Glassflippers) October 30, 2019

I think it’s up to your world & the DMs lore. In the dragon-centric home game I run, Half-Dragons & Dragonborn are the same & born of the Queen’s blessing & thus are related to dragons as are Draconic Sorcerers. I do give my Dragonborn/Half-Dragon NPCs more power to their breath.

— JOE MANGANIELLO (@JoeManganiello) October 31, 2019

…plus Draconic features… and that’s right, you guessed it, tails.

— JOE MANGANIELLO (@JoeManganiello) October 31, 2019

I love the idea of improving their breath weapons. I honestly wouldn’t mind if they could have their tail be an unarmed strike option with a damage boost. I only boost the NPC breath weapons in keeping with the established Half-Dragon stats. PC Dragonborns don’t get a boost or an extra tail attack. The tail and Draconic features are flavor only. BUT Perkins and I do agree that Dragonborn breath costs a bonus action not an action.

— JOE MANGANIELLO (@JoeManganiello) October 31, 2019

Customizing the look of your D&D character is a key part of the character-creation process (see PLAYER'S HANDBOOK, page 121). Check with your DM if you think a customization might go too far, but few DMs will object as long as a characteristic gives no new abilities. #DnD https://t.co/iVJgwKDzVJ

— Jeremy Crawford (@JeremyECrawford) October 30, 2019

If a huge creature fails it’s save and next round I cast fireball, will 27 cubes of web be in contact with the creature meaning the creature would take an additional 54d4 damage?

August 13, 2026Zoltar 5 Comments

@JeremyECrawford I was wondering if I have read the rules correctly re: the web spell. If a huge creature fails it’s save and next round I cast fireball, will 27 cubes of web be in contact with the creature (in theory) meaning the creature would take an additional 54d4 damage?

— Richard Sturk (@RichardSturk) November 1, 2019

A spell tells you if a creature's size is relevant. It rarely is.

When I'm the DM, I wouldn't be interested in size-based damage rules—no time for that. But I think it's great if a group loves that sort of detail and home-brews appropriate rules. #DnD https://t.co/RaoVqdYZcK

— Jeremy Crawford (@JeremyECrawford) November 6, 2019

D&D Sage Advice

Questions on Dungeons & Dragons answered by game designers

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I had to rule on if a corpse is “equipment” for the purpose of a druid’s wildshape merging the “item” into the new form

Today I received a message complaining that there was now a correct way to play D&D

So I’m a little confused on the Sidekicks UA, is that still playtest or is what made it into the Essentials Kit the final version?

Jeremy Crawford discuss of weaponry and improvised weaponry

Are the Greater Dragonmarks staying a part of Wayfinder’s guide, or getting removed completely?

Essentials Kit: Why was it decided not to include that sidekick levels up to 20?

Can Dragonborn have tails?

If a huge creature fails it’s save and next round I cast fireball, will 27 cubes of web be in contact with the creature meaning the creature would take an additional 54d4 damage?

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