Sage Advice Compendium - Rules of Dungeons & Dragons (5th Edition)

Oct 6, 2026

Sage Advice Compendium compiles official Q&A interpretations for Dungeons & Dragons (fifth edition), including rulings authored by Jeremy Crawford, the lead rules developer. The document explains how changes are tracked through version updates and shaded inserts, and it references the core rulebooks: Player’s Handbook, Monster Manual, and Dungeon Master’s Guide, plus the Basic Rules and Adventurers League governance. It also provides errata links for corrected printings and outlines the approach behind RAW versus RAI to help DMs adjudicate and tune play.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryStory & Novel

FormatPDF

Pages16

Reading Time25 min

AccessFree to download

Rules References

Errata

Official Rulings

Compiled Answers

The Role of Rules

RAW and RAI

Sage Advice Compendium The Sage Advice Compendium collects questions and answers about the rules of Dungeons & Dragons (fifth edition). These are the official rulings of Jeremy Crawford, the game’s lead rules developer. The document’s version number changes when substantive additions or revisions have been to made to the text. The newest material appears in a shaded box like this one. Rules References The fifth edition of D&D has three official rulebooks, each of which was first published in 2014: • Player’s Handbook (abbreviated PH) • Monster Manual (abbreviated MM) • Dungeon Master’s Guide (abbreviated DMG) The free Basic Rules contains portions of those three books and can be downloaded here: [http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/basicrules](http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/basicrules) Play in the Adventurers League is also governed by the Adventurers League Player’s Guide. Errata Corrections have been issued for the early printings of certain fifth edition books and can be downloaded at the following locations. A corrected version of any of these books includes one of the following lines on its credits page: This printing includes corrections to the first printing. This printing includes corrections. Player’s Handbook (2014) [http://media.wizards.com/2017/dnd/downloads/PH-Errata.pdf](http://media.wizards.com/2017/dnd/downloads/PH-Errata.pdf) Monster Manual (2014) [http://media.wizards.com/2016/downloads/DND/MM-Errata.pdf](http://media.wizards.com/2016/downloads/DND/MM-Errata.pdf) Dungeon Master’s Guide (2014) [http://media.wizards.com/2016/downloads/DND/DMG-Errata.pdf](http://media.wizards.com/2016/downloads/DND/DMG-Errata.pdf) Hoard of the Dragon Queen (2014) [http://media.wizards.com/2016/downloads/DND/](http://media.wizards.com/2016/downloads/DND/)[ ](http://media.wizards.com/2016/downloads/DND/)[HotDQ-Errata.pdf](HotDQ-Errata.pdf) Princes of t he Apocalypse (2015) [http://media.wizards.com/2016/downloads/DND/PotA-Errata.pdf](http://media.wizards.com/2016/downloads/DND/PotA-Errata.pdf) Out of the Abyss (2015) [http://media.wizards.com/2017/dnd/downloads/OotA-Errata.pdf](http://media.wizards.com/2017/dnd/downloads/OotA-Errata.pdf) Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide (2015) [http://media.wizards.com/2017/dnd/downloads/SCAG-Errata.pdf](http://media.wizards.com/2017/dnd/downloads/SCAG-Errata.pdf) Volo’s Guide to Monsters (2016) [http://media.wizards.com/2017/dnd/downloads/VGtM-Errata.pdf](http://media.wizards.com/2017/dnd/downloads/VGtM-Errata.pdf) Official Rulings Official rulings on how to interpret rules are made herein the Sage Advice Compendium. The public statements of the D&D team, or anyone else at Wizards of the Coast, are not official rulings; they are advice. One excep tion: the game’s lead rules developer, Jeremy Crawford (@JeremyECrawford on Twitter), can make official rulingsand does so in this document and on Twitter. A Dungeon Master adjudicates the game and determines whether to use an official ruling in play. Compiled Answers Sage Advice answers that are relevant to the current state of the rules are compiled here. The Role of Rules Why even have a column like Sage Advice when a DM can just make a ruling? Rules are a big part of what makes D&D a game, rather than simply improvised storytelling. The game’s rules are meant to help organize, and even inspire, the action of a D&D campaign. The rules are a tool, and we want our tools to be as effective as possible. No matter how good those tools might be, they need a group of players to bring them to life and a DM to guide their use. The DM is key. Many unexpected things can happen ina D&D campaign, and no set of rules could reasonably account for every contingency. If the rules tried to do so, the game would become unplayable. An alternative would befor the rules to severely limit what characters can do, which would be counter to the open-endedness of D&D. The direction we ch

FAQs

What is the Sage Advice Compendium used for?

It collects questions and answers about how to interpret rules for Dungeons & Dragons (fifth edition), including official rulings.

How does the document indicate newer or revised material?

Substantive additions or revisions appear as the newest material inside shaded boxes.

What are RAW and RAI in the document’s rule interpretation approach?

RAW focuses on rules as written in context, while RAI focuses on the intent behind the rules as intended by the designers.

Oct 6, 2026

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