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Dungeons & Dragonsis accessible these days.
A darkness washes over the land as sickness spreads.
It’s time for plague Dungeons & Dragons.
Dead End Via Wizards of the Coast
Each one is explained and demystified for players who are new to the hobby.
So, the first one is an abbreviation and not technically an acronym.
Nonetheless, the sentence proves a point -D&D shortens and abbreviates many commonly used terms and phrases.
Healing Hand by Ralph Horsley
This value represents how hard it is for enemies to hit you in battle.
If an enemy’s attack roll meets or exceeds your AC, it’s a hit.
AE
Absorb Elements is a spell that lessens the damage from incoming elemental attacks.
Healing Hand by Ralph Horsley
It also stores some of that energy for your next attack.
There are some exceptions for Fighters and Rogues.
AoE
Area of Effect refers to a spell that affects an area rather than a single target or creature.
Art by Sidharth Chaturvedi
AoE attacks can often affect multiple enemies at once.
BBEG
Big Bad Evil Bad Guy is pretty easy to understand.
CP
Copper Pieces are the smallest unit of currency in-game.
Bronze dragon Runara Art via Wizards of the Coast
DC
Difficulty Class represents how hard it is to do something.
It’s a numerical value players must meet or exceed on a d20 to succeed in the task.
EP
Electrum Pieces are currency made from natural gold-silver alloy.
Astral Plane by Aleksi Briclot
One EP is worth 1/2 a Gold Piece.
HP
Hit Points are a measure of your character’s health and vitality.
When your HP reaches zero, you’re incapacitated and can potentially die.
IC
In-character refers to actions and dialogue made by your in-game character, as opposed to you the player.
LR
Long Rest restores Hit Points and spells in magic slots.
MAD
Multi Ability Dependent refers to classes that need high scores in more than one ability to function optimally.
Monks, Paladins, and Rangers are all MAD classes.
OA
Opportunity Attacks occur when enemies or player characters venture to move out of melee range without disengaging.
Opportunity Attacks use a reaction.
OoC
Out of character refers to anything you the player do as opposed to your in-game character.
(You may have seen this abbreviation in MMOs.
It represents how good you are at that particular skill.
PB increases as you level up.
RAF
Rules as fun refer to games where the rules exist to facilitate a fun experience.
RAI
Rules as intended mean the DM interprets the intention behind the rules and adjudicates accordingly.
Cheesing is often not allowed in RAI games.
RAW
Rules as written games use the rules exactly as they are printed.
DMs in a RAW game will often allow the player to exploit game mechanics and even cheese a little.
SAD
A Single Ability Dependent character only needs a high score in one ability to function optimally.
THP
Temporary Hit Points are hit points triggered by certain spells or abilities.
Because they are separate from your true hit points.
THP allows you to exceed your normal HP maximum.
TPK
A total party kill means everyone in your adventuring party dies, and the adventure ends.
Understanding the following D&D terminology can also help you get a deeper experience with RPG video games!
Astral Plane by Aleksi Briclot
Forget forgotten lore and foggy quests!
Up your D&D game with effective note-taking strategies.
