Introduction
This page collects the D&D 5e (2014) Dungeon Master's Guide tables you actually reach for mid-session, pulled out of the chapters they're scattered across and organized by task instead of by chapter order. Setting a DC, judging an encounter's difficulty, tracking travel time, running a foraging check, or reading an NPC's starting attitude all live on this one page so you don't have to flip between Chapter 3, Chapter 5, and Chapter 8 while five players wait on you.
Keep this page open during a session. For the reasoning behind these numbers - when to call for a check at all, how combat and social scenes resolve differently - see the full Running the Game guide; this page assumes you already know when a roll is warranted and just need the number.
Ability Checks, Attack Rolls, and Saving Throws
Call for an ability check when a character attempts something with a real chance of failure and a real consequence for failing. Call for an attack roll when a character or creature tries to hit something that could dodge, block, or take cover. Call for a saving throw when something bad - a spell, a trap, a monster ability - happens to a character and the character has a chance to avoid or reduce the effect.
Once you've decided a roll is warranted, set the DC from the Typical DCs table rather than inventing a number on the spot.
Typical DCs
| Task | DC |
|---|---|
| Very easy | 5 |
| Easy | 10 |
| Moderate | 15 |
| Hard | 20 |
| Very hard | 25 |
| Nearly impossible | 30 |
A character with a 10 in the relevant ability and no proficiency succeeds at an easy (DC 10) task about half the time. A moderate task usually needs either a higher score or proficiency to be reliable; a hard task typically needs both. DC 25 is rough for anyone below roughly 10th level, and DC 30 is close to impossible for most characters at any level - even a 20th-level specialist with a 20 in the relevant ability and proficiency still needs to roll a 19 or 20 on the die.
Hot Take: Stay inside the 10-20 band for almost every DC you set yourself, and treat 25 and 30 as narrative endpoints rather than tools you reach for to make something feel epic. The book's own math shows a DC 30 check fails a maxed-out 20th-level character on all but two rolls out of twenty - if a task needs to be that close to impossible, the answer the table is giving you is usually "this shouldn't be a check," not "this needs a bigger number."
Contests: when two creatures directly oppose each other - one hiding while another searches, two people arm wrestling - compare their ability checks against each other instead of against a fixed DC. Pick which ability each side uses; they don't have to match (a hiding creature uses Dexterity against a searcher's Wisdom).
Saving throws: Strength resists being physically moved or bound. Dexterity dodges area effects. Constitution endures disease, poison, and similar drains on vitality. Intelligence resists illusions and logic-based mental assaults. Wisdom resists charm, fear, and willpower attacks. Charisma resists possession and effects that would strip away a creature's identity or banish it to another plane.
Advantage and disadvantage at a glance: grant advantage when the environment or a creature's own cleverness improves its odds, or when a prior action (its own or an ally's) improved the situation. Impose disadvantage when the environment or circumstances work against the creature instead. Advantage and disadvantage always cancel out rather than stacking, so once both are in play you don't need to keep counting reasons on either side.
Building and Judging Combat Encounters
This is the encounter-math toolkit: work out how tough a fight is before you run it, or spend an XP budget to build one at the difficulty you want. For the adventure that the encounter sits inside, see the full guidance on designing the adventure itself; this section only covers the math for one fight at a time.
Step 1: Find each character's XP thresholds. Look up each party member's level in the XP Thresholds table below to get four numbers - the XP totals that mark the boundary between easy, medium, hard, and deadly for that one character.
XP Thresholds by Character Level
| Level | Easy | Medium | Hard | Deadly |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 25 | 50 | 75 | 100 |
| 2 | 50 | 100 | 150 | 200 |
| 3 | 75 | 150 | 225 | 400 |
| 4 | 125 | 250 | 375 | 500 |
| 5 | 250 | 500 | 750 | 1,100 |
| 6 | 300 | 600 | 900 | 1,400 |
| 7 | 350 | 750 | 1,100 | 1,700 |
| 8 | 450 | 900 | 1,400 | 2,100 |
| 9 | 550 | 1,100 | 1,600 | 2,400 |
| 10 | 600 | 1,200 | 1,900 | 2,800 |
| 11 | 800 | 1,600 | 2,400 | 3,600 |
| 12 | 1,000 | 2,000 | 3,000 | 4,500 |
| 13 | 1,100 | 2,200 | 3,400 | 5,100 |
| 14 | 1,250 | 2,500 | 3,800 | 5,700 |
| 15 | 1,400 | 2,800 | 4,300 | 6,400 |
| 16 | 1,600 | 3,200 | 4,800 | 7,200 |
| 17 | 2,000 | 3,900 | 5,900 | 8,800 |
| 18 | 2,100 | 4,200 | 6,300 | 9,500 |
| 19 | 2,400 | 4,900 | 7,300 | 10,900 |
| 20 | 2,800 | 5,700 | 8,500 | 12,700 |
Step 2: Add up the party's thresholds. Total each column across every character in the party, and count any sidekick traveling with the group as a full character in this total. Four 3rd-level characters, for example, add up to a medium threshold of 600 XP and a hard threshold of 900 XP. Keep these four totals handy; they apply to every encounter in the session.
Step 3: Total the monsters' XP. Add up the XP value printed in every monster's stat block for the encounter you're building or judging.
Step 4: Apply the Encounter Multiplier. More monsters mean more attacks landing on the party each round, so a group is more dangerous than its raw XP total suggests. Multiply the monsters' combined XP by the value below for the number of monsters involved.
Encounter Multipliers
| Number of Monsters | Multiplier |
|---|---|
| 1 | x1 |
| 2 | x1.5 |
| 3-6 | x2 |
| 7-10 | x2.5 |
| 11-14 | x3 |
| 15 or more | x4 |
Adjust for party size before applying the table: with fewer than three characters, bump up to the next-highest multiplier on the table (a single monster becomes x1.5); with six or more characters, drop to the next-lowest multiplier (a single monster stays x1, but fifteen or more monsters drops from x4 to x3). Don't count a monster whose challenge rating sits well below the rest of the group unless it meaningfully adds to the difficulty.
Step 5: Compare. Match the adjusted monster XP against the party's four thresholds. The highest threshold the adjusted total clears sets the encounter's difficulty. An adjusted value of 1,000 XP against a party with a hard threshold of 825 and a deadly threshold of 1,400, for instance, makes for a hard encounter.
Worked example: four characters (three 3rd-level, one 2nd-level) have a combined hard threshold of 825 XP and a deadly threshold of 1,400 XP. A fight against one bugbear and three hobgoblins totals 1,000 raw monster XP; with four monsters in the mix, the x2 multiplier adjusts that to 2,000, which clears the deadly line and warns you the fight is more dangerous than the raw numbers first suggest. Trim it to one bugbear and one hobgoblin (an adjusted total closer to 700) to land it in medium-to-hard territory instead.
Building on a budget: work the same math in reverse: pick the difficulty you want, note the party's threshold for it, then spend that XP budget on monsters whose adjusted total lands at or just under the number. A single CR 3 monster worth 700 XP, or a pair of CR 1 monsters worth 200 XP each (adjusted to 600 XP total at the x1.5 multiplier), both fit a 550-to-825 medium-to-hard budget.
The Adventuring Day: assuming average luck and roughly two short rests spread through the day, most parties can handle six to eight medium or hard encounters before needing a long rest. More easy encounters stretch that further; more deadly encounters shrink it. The Adventuring Day XP table below estimates the adjusted XP total a character can absorb across a full day.
Adventuring Day XP (per character)
| Level | XP | Level | XP |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 300 | 11 | 10,500 |
| 2 | 600 | 12 | 11,500 |
| 3 | 1,200 | 13 | 13,500 |
| 4 | 1,700 | 14 | 15,000 |
| 5 | 3,500 | 15 | 18,000 |
| 6 | 4,000 | 16 | 20,000 |
| 7 | 5,000 | 17 | 25,000 |
| 8 | 6,000 | 18 | 27,000 |
| 9 | 7,500 | 19 | 30,000 |
| 10 | 9,000 | 20 | 40,000 |
Add every party member's value together for the party's total adventuring-day budget. This is a planning estimate, not a hard stop - characters who blow past it don't hit a wall, they just run low on hit points and spell slots, which is the intended pressure the rest system is built around.
Multipart encounters: when enemies arrive in waves rather than all at once, judge each wave as its own separate encounter for difficulty purposes. A party can't take a short rest between waves, so Hit Dice and short-rest features stay unavailable until the whole sequence ends. As a rule of thumb, if one wave's adjusted XP alone exceeds a third of the party's adventuring-day budget, the full multipart fight is tougher than the sum of its individual waves suggests.
Modifying difficulty on the fly: bump an encounter up one step (easy to medium, for instance) for every situational drawback the party has that their enemies don't - being surprised while the enemy isn't, fighting an enemy with cover the party lacks, being unable to see the enemy, taking ongoing environmental damage the enemy is immune to, or being stuck in a position (hanging from a rope, mid-climb, restrained) that badly limits mobility. Drop the encounter one step for every matching benefit the party holds instead. A benefit and a drawback on the same side cancel out.
Terrain that earns its keep. A fight in an empty room is a math problem; a fight with terrain is a scene. Look for features that pose risk to both sides equally (a frayed rope bridge, patches of green slime), features that add elevation (pits, stacked crates, balconies, ledges), features that force movement (a chandelier to cut down, kegs of oil, a whirling blade trap), enemies positioned somewhere hard to reach so ranged characters have to move to engage, and monster types that work together instead of fighting as a uniform group.
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Exploration: Travel Pace, Visibility, and Tracking
Map Travel Pace: use this table to translate walking speed into map distance at whatever scale you're tracking, whether that's a dungeon corridor or a kingdom-spanning road trip.
| Map Scale | Slow Pace | Normal Pace | Fast Pace |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dungeon (1 square = 10 ft.) | 20 sq./min. | 30 sq./min. | 40 sq./min. |
| City (1 square = 100 ft.) | 2 sq./min. | 3 sq./min. | 4 sq./min. |
| Province (1 hex = 1 mi.) | 2 hexes/hr., 18 hexes/day | 3 hexes/hr., 24 hexes/day | 4 hexes/hr., 30 hexes/day |
| Kingdom (1 hex = 6 mi.) | 1 hex/3 hr., 3 hexes/day | 1 hex/2 hr., 4 hexes/day | 1 hex/1.5 hr., 5 hexes/day |
A party moving at a normal walking pace covers about 24 miles in a day.
Magical or non-walking travel: a creature moving via a flying speed, or a speed granted by magic, an engine, or wind or current, doesn't follow the normal-pace assumptions above. Convert its speed directly: in 1 minute, it covers feet equal to its speed times 10; in 1 hour, miles equal to its speed divided by 10; for a full day of travel, multiply the hourly rate by the hours traveled (typically 8). A fast pace increases that daily rate by one-third; a slow pace multiplies it by two-thirds. A 300-foot flying speed from a spell like wind walk, for example, covers 30 miles in an hour at a normal pace, or 240 miles across an 8-hour day.
Visibility outdoors: on a clear day, characters see about 2 miles in the open, or 40 miles from atop a mountain or tall hill. Rain cuts that down to 1 mile; fog cuts it to somewhere between 100 and 300 feet.
Tracking: a character following tracks makes a Wisdom (Survival) check, with the DC set by how well the ground holds a trail. No roll is needed when tracks are obvious, such as an army on a muddy road.
| Ground Surface | DC |
|---|---|
| Soft surface, such as snow | 10 |
| Dirt or grass | 15 |
| Bare stone | 20 |
| Modifier: each day since the creature passed | +5 |
| Modifier: creature left a trail such as blood | -5 |
A new check is required after finishing a short or long rest, when the trail crosses an obstacle that shows no tracks (a river, for instance), or when weather or terrain shifts enough to change the difficulty. Grant advantage when more than one set of tracks is being followed, or impose disadvantage when the trail passes through a well-traveled area. A failed check loses the trail; finding it again takes 10 minutes in a confined space like a dungeon, or 1 hour outdoors.
Foraging, Food, and Water
A character can forage for food and water while the party travels at a normal or slow pace, making a Wisdom (Survival) check against a DC set by how abundant food and water sources are in that region.
Foraging DCs
| Food and Water Availability | DC |
|---|---|
| Abundant food and water sources | 10 |
| Limited food and water sources | 15 |
| Very little, if any, food and water | 20 |
Each foraging character in the party makes a separate check. A failed check finds nothing. On a success, roll 1d6 plus the character's Wisdom modifier for pounds of food found, then roll again the same way for gallons of water.
Food and Water Needs (creatures other than characters): standard character food and water requirements are in the Player's Handbook; mounts and other creatures scale by size instead. Water needs double in hot weather.
| Creature Size | Food per Day | Water per Day |
|---|---|---|
| Tiny | 1/4 pound | 1/4 gallon |
| Small | 1 pound | 1 gallon |
| Medium | 1 pound | 1 gallon |
| Large | 4 pounds | 4 gallons |
| Huge | 16 pounds | 16 gallons |
| Gargantuan | 64 pounds | 64 gallons |
Wilderness Navigation: unless the party is following a clear path, the navigator makes a Wisdom (Survival) check against a DC set by the terrain to avoid getting lost. A slow pace grants a +5 bonus to the check; a fast pace imposes a -5 penalty. Having an accurate map, or a clear view of the sun or stars, grants advantage.
| Terrain | DC |
|---|---|
| Forest, jungle, swamp, mountains, or overcast open sea with no land in sight | 15 |
| Arctic, desert, hills, or open sea with clear skies and no land in sight | 10 |
| Grassland, meadow, or farmland | 5 |
A failed check means the party travels in the wrong direction without realizing it. The navigator can try again after the party spends 1d6 hours working its way back on course.
Environmental Hazard DCs
A handful of common wilderness and adventure hazards come up often enough to be worth a single lookup table instead of re-reading the full hazard descriptions mid-session.
| Hazard | Check or Save | DC / Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Extreme heat (100°F+, no drinkable water) | Constitution save, once per hour | DC 5 for the first hour, +1 per additional hour; failure gives one level of exhaustion |
| Frigid water (immersion past Constitution score in minutes) | Constitution save, once per extra minute | DC 10; failure gives one level of exhaustion |
| Quicksand escape (self) | Strength check | DC 10 plus feet already sunk |
| Quicksand escape (pulling out another creature) | Strength check | DC 5 plus feet the target has sunk |
| Razorvine contact (first time on a turn) | Dexterity save | DC 10; failure deals 5 (1d10) slashing damage |
| Slippery ice (moving onto it, first time on a turn) | Dexterity (Acrobatics) check | DC 10; failure means the creature falls prone |
Medium or heavy armor, or heavy clothing, imposes disadvantage on the extreme-heat save. Creatures with resistance or immunity to the relevant damage type, or ones naturally suited to the climate, automatically succeed on the heat and cold saves. High altitude (10,000 feet or higher) doesn't force a check on its own, but it doubles the effective travel time for any creature that needs to breathe, until that creature spends 30 or more days acclimating.
Social Interaction: NPC Attitude and Reactions
Every creature the party talks to starts with an attitude: friendly, indifferent, or hostile. A friendly creature wants the party to succeed and usually helps without a check unless real personal risk is involved. An indifferent creature might help or hinder depending on what benefits it, and always needs a successful Charisma check before it does anything the party asks for. A hostile creature opposes the party's goals - sometimes openly, sometimes through slander and scheming rather than violence - and needs one or more challenging Charisma checks before it does anything helpful at all; a sufficiently hostile creature might refuse to be swayed by any check.
Once the conversation reaches the point of an actual ask, call for a Charisma check - Persuasion, Deception, or Intimidation, depending on how the party played the scene - and compare the result against the DC for the reaction the party wants.
Conversation Reaction
| Creature Attitude | DC 0 | DC 10 | DC 20 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Friendly | Does as asked, no risk or sacrifice needed | Accepts a minor risk or sacrifice | Accepts a significant risk or sacrifice |
| Indifferent | Offers no help but does no harm | Does as asked if no risk or sacrifice is involved | Accepts a minor risk or sacrifice |
| Hostile | Opposes the party's actions, possibly taking risks to do so | Offers no help but does no harm | Does as asked if no risk or sacrifice is involved |
A creature's attitude can shift up to one step during a single conversation - hostile to indifferent, or indifferent to friendly - if the party says or does something that lands with what that creature actually cares about. The same conversation can just as easily push the other direction on a bad gaffe or insult. Other characters who contribute something useful to the conversation grant the character making the check advantage; a character who says something counterproductive imposes disadvantage instead.
Bottom Line
This page exists so you're not flipping between three chapters mid-session for a number you need right now. Typical DCs and the encounter-math tables see the most use at most tables; foraging, tracking, and travel pace matter most for wilderness-heavy campaigns; the Conversation Reaction table is the one to keep open any time a scene turns into real negotiation instead of flavor talk. Keep it bookmarked next to your notes rather than memorized - that's exactly what a reference page is for. For building a companion NPC that fights, casts, or scouts alongside the party (and counts in the encounter math above), see Sidekicks. Return to the Dungeon Master Guides hub for the rest of the 2014 DM-facing library.
