Conditions are the status effects of Dungeons & Dragons: being knocked prone, frightened, grappled or poisoned. Each one changes a few rules for the creature that has it. This cheat sheet follows the SRD 5.1 (2014) rules; the full text of each is in our compendium.
The ones you will see most
- Prone: you are on the ground. You can only crawl until you stand up (which costs half your movement). Your attacks have disadvantage; attacks against you have advantage from within 5 feet and disadvantage from farther away.
- Grappled: your speed is 0. It ends if the grappler is incapacitated or something pulls you apart.
- Restrained: speed 0, your attacks have disadvantage, attacks against you have advantage, and you have disadvantage on Dexterity saving throws.
- Frightened: disadvantage on ability checks and attacks while you can see the source of your fear, and you can’t willingly move closer to it.
- Poisoned: disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks.
Seeing and hearing
- Blinded: you can’t see and automatically fail checks that need sight. Attacks against you have advantage; your attacks have disadvantage.
- Deafened: you can’t hear and automatically fail checks that need hearing.
- Invisible: others can’t see you without magic or a special sense. Attacks against you have disadvantage; your attacks have advantage.
Out of action
- Incapacitated: no actions or reactions.
- Stunned: incapacitated, can’t move and can barely speak; you fail Strength and Dexterity saves, and attacks against you have advantage.
- Paralyzed: like stunned, but you can’t speak at all — and any hit from within 5 feet is a critical hit.
- Unconscious: you drop what you hold and fall prone, fail Strength and Dexterity saves, attacks against you have advantage, and hits from within 5 feet are critical hits.
- Petrified: turned to stone. You are incapacitated, resist all damage, and fail Strength and Dexterity saves.
Mind and body
- Charmed: you can’t attack the creature that charmed you or target it with harmful effects, and it has advantage on social checks with you.
- Exhaustion: comes in six levels that stack — disadvantage on ability checks, then half speed, then disadvantage on attacks and saves, then half hit point maximum, then speed 0, and level 6 is death. A long rest with food and drink removes one level. (The 2024 rules simplify this to a penalty on d20 tests per level.)
Tracking conditions at the table
The free Initiative Tracker lets you tap a condition onto any creature and read its rules in one click, and Roleplayer character sheets track conditions, exhaustion and death saves for players. Our guide to how initiative works covers the rest of a fight.