Dungeons and Dragons

Summary
Dungeons and Dragons is the epitome of roleplaying. It is a complex fantasy game that involves choosing a class, race, and battling monsters. There are no cards, or a board, instead the game consists of die rolling, and a sheet of paper with your statistics. There are no instructions, instead, one must read The Dungeons and Dragons Player's Handbook.

Dungeons and Dragons (Also known as D&D) revolves around a system of icosahedral or 20-sided die used to make things like ability checks, saving throw, and attacks.

5th Edition
5th Edition is the newest edition in Dungeons and Dragons with a giant overhaul of the rules.

Abilities
Much of what is done in the game is determined by your character's six abilities: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. Each ability has a score which is recorded on your character sheet. Each score has a modifier.

How to Generate Ability Scores and Modifiers
There are 2 main ways to generate an ability score. The first way is to use a pregenerated set of numbers, usually 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, and 8, which you then assign to each of your skill and add racial bonuses. The second way is to roll 4 six-sided die and take the highest numbers rolled and add those up to get one of your scores. You then assign each of the scores you rolled to a skill and add racial bonuses. Modifiers can be calculated by subtracting 10 from the score and then dividing by 2 (rounding up) or by using the table in the Player's Handbook.

Races
There are 9 races listed in the Player's Handbook. These races are Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Halflings, Dragonborns, Gnomes, Tieflings, Half-elves, and Half-orcs. Some of these races have subraces like Rock Gnomes and High Elves. You do not have to use these races and instead could use other options listed in other D&D books.

Elves
Elves are another of the common races. Elves tend to reach maturity around 100 and typically live to about 750 years. Elves range from under 5 feet to 6 feet tall and usually are slender. Elves have 3 subraces and gain the following benefits:


 * Your Dexterity score increases by 1
 * Your walking speed is 30 feet
 * You have darkvision for 60 feet
 * You have proficiency in the perception skill
 * You have advantage on saving throws against being magically charmed and you can't be magically put to sleep
 * Elves don't need to sleep. Instead, they meditate deeply remaining unconscious, for 4 hours a day.
 * You can speak, read, and write Common and Elvish.

High Elves
High elves are one of the subraces of elves. They are also known as gray elves and valley elves in Greyhawk, Silvanesti in Dragonlance, and the sun elves in Forgotten Realms. As a high elf you gain the following racial benefits:


 * Your Intelligence score increases by 1
 * You have proficiency with the longsword, shortsword, shortbow, and longbow.
 * You know one cantrip of your choice from the wizard spell list
 * You can speak, read, and write 1 extra language of your choice

Wood Elves
Wood elves are one of the subraces of elves. They are also known as wild elves in Greyhawk and the Kagonesti of Dragonlance. As a wood elf you gain the following racial benefits:


 * Your Wisdom score increase by 1
 * You have proficiency with the longsword, shortsword, shortbow, and longbow
 * Your base walking speed increases to 35 feet
 * You can attempt to hide even when you are only lightly obscured

(Dark Elf) Drow
Dark elves are the final subrace of elves. Dark elves tend to live in Underdark and as such have sensitivity to sunlight. Most Drow worship the Spider Queen Lolth. Most drow that worship Lolth tend to an evil alignment. As a dark elf you gain the following racial benefits:


 * Your Charisma score increases by 1
 * Your darkvision has a range of 120 feet
 * You have disadvantage on attack rolls and on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight when you, the target of your attack, or whatever you are trying to perceive is in direct sunlight
 * You know the dancing lights cantrip. When you reach 3rd level you can cast the faerie fire spell once with this trait and you regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest. When you reach 5th level you can cast the darkness spell once with this trait and once and you regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest
 * You have proficiency with rapiers, shortswords and hand crossbows

Humans
Humans are one of the most common races throughout most D&D settings. Humans tend to reach maturity in their late teens and live less than a century. Humans normally are around 5 to 6 feet tall and weigh 125 to 250 lbs. Being a human gives you the following racial traits:


 * Each of your ability scores increase by one
 * You can speak, read, and write Common and one other language of your choice
 * Your base walking speed is 30 feet

Using variant human traits you gain the follow racial traits:


 * 2 different ability scores of your choice increase by 1
 * You gain proficiency in 1 skill of your choice
 * You gain 1 feat of your choice

Artificer
A class that only appears in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, the Artificer is focused on making magic items through the infuse ability.

Barbarian
The Barbarian tends to deal lots of damage and have a decent amount of hit points.

Bard
The Bard is a class focused on performances usually through instruments.

Cleric
A class that worships a god, each to their own god, usually focused on healing.

Fighter
An all around fighter.

Monk
Monks traditionally use no weapons and instead use their hands to attack. The can cast spells through ki.

Paladin
Almost a mix of a barbarian and a cleric, paladins worship a god and heal, but are also heavy hitters with lots of hit points.

Ranger
A ranger is a class that is usually focused on survival in the wilderness.

Rogue
Rogue is usually a class focused on stealth.