Introduction: Welcome to Adventure

Source: Player's Handbook (2024), p. 4

Are you ready to embark on fantasy adventures with your friends? Dungeons & Dragons invites you to play imaginary adventurers who delve into dungeons and other perilous locations together, face fearsome foes such as dragons, and build friendships forged amid fantastical dangers.

Fueled by imagination and rules, D&D invites you to adopt a fantasy persona—a mighty Fighter, a cunning Rogue, a faithful Cleric, a magical Wizard, or something else—and then solve problems, fight monsters, and visit wondrous places.

There's no winning and losing in D&D, at least not the way those terms are usually understood. Together you and friends create an exciting story of adventurers who confront perils. Sometimes an adventurer might come to a tragic end. Even so, the other adventurers can search for powerful magic to revive their fallen comrade, or the character's player might create a new character to carry on. No matter what happens, if everyone has a good time and creates a memorable story, they all win.

What You Need

Here's what you need to play D&D with one or more friends (a typical group has five people):

• Dungeon Master. One person takes on the role of the Dungeon Master (DM), the game's lead storyteller and referee. The DM creates adventures for the players' characters, who navigate its hazards and decide which paths to explore. The DM also narrates what they experience and plays the friends and foes they meet along the way. Even though the DM challenges the adventurers, the DM always strives to delight the whole group.
• Players. Each player creates an adventurer who teams up with the other players' adventurers. Working together, the group might explore a dark dungeon, a ruined city, a haunted castle, a lost temple, a lava-filled mountain, or another location described by the DM. The adventurers also solve puzzles, talk with other characters, battle fantastic monsters, and discover magic items and other treasure—all while supporting each other's fun.

You also need these resources, either in physical form or on DnDBeyond.com (https://www.dndbeyond.com/):

Player's Handbook

This book is your essential reference for the game's rules, and it guides you through making an adventurer of your own.

Dungeon Master's Guide and Monster Manual

The first of these books guides the DM through creating and running adventures, and the second holds hundreds of monsters to fill those adventures.

• Dice. You need a set of polyhedral dice (shown in chapter 1). You can find dice like these in game stores and from online retailers. Dice-rolling apps are also available.
• Character Sheet. To keep track of important information about your character, you need a character sheet, which can be as simple as a piece of paper you write notes on or as feature-rich as a digital record (https://www.dndbeyond.com/characters).

The DM might also find these accessories useful:

• DM Screen. Many DMs like to use a screen to shield their notes and dice rolls from players. It's bad manners to peek over the screen!
• Miniatures and Battle Grid. Some DMs use a battle grid and miniatures to run combat encounters, since they help everyone visualize the action. A battle grid can be anything marked out in 1-inch squares, from disposable sheets of paper to poster maps. And miniatures range from simple tokens to detailed figurines. Online maps and miniatures are also available, including on DnDBeyond.com (https://www.dndbeyond.com/games).

Using This Book

Here's what you'll find in this book:

• Chapter 1 Playing the Game. The first chapter explains the fundamentals of the game, with examples to help you understand how to play.
• Chapter 2 Creating a Character. Chapter 2 walks you through the steps of character creation.
• Chapter 3 Character Classes. Characters' capabilities are largely determined by class, such as Fighter or Wizard. Chapter 3 offers twelve classes to choose from, along with forty-eight subclasses.
• Chapter 4 Character Origins. Background and species are key elements in defining a character's origin, which further shapes the character's abilities beyond the choice of class. Background and species options are presented in chapter 4.
• Chapter 5 Feats. The feats in chapter 5 are special features that characters gain as part of their background and class.
• Chapter 6 Equipment. Armor, weapons, and adventuring gear are found in chapter 6.
• Chapter 7 Spells. This chapter contains descriptions of the spells that spellcasters can cast.
• Appendix A The Multiverse. Here you'll find an overview of the magical multiverse where D&D adventures take place.
• Appendix B Creature Stat Blocks. This appendix brims with game information for creatures that certain characters can befriend or transform into.
• Appendix C Rules Glossary. The game's main rules terminology is summarized in this appendix, making it an invaluable reference during play.

Worlds of Adventure

The worlds of D&D glimmer with magic, monsters, and spectacular adventure. Launching from a foundation of medieval fantasy, these worlds soar with possibilities beyond those of our reality.

D&D worlds exist in a multiverse and are connected to one another and to other planes of existence. Some of the worlds have been published as official D&D settings, including the Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance, Spelljammer, Planescape, Dark Sun, Eberron, and Ravenloft settings. Alongside these worlds are thousands more, created by generations of D&D players for their own games. Amid the richness of the multiverse, you might create a world of your own.

The worlds of the multiverse share characteristics, but each world is set apart by its own history and geography. Your DM might set a campaign on one of these worlds or on a world of their own invention. Because there is so much variety among D&D worlds, check with your DM about the world of your upcoming adventures.