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4e changes are many from the inclusion of dragonborn (draconic humanoids [[Older Than They Think|from a 3.5 splatbook]]), the mainstreaming of tieflings (humans with distant fiendish ancestry), the replacement of three classes with two new classes (and the reinstatement of those three classes in a ''second'' Player's Handbook), and much much more.
The fifth edition of D&D was made under the production alias of "D&D Next", as Wizards of the Coast seeks to revitalize the brand. In an effort to try and heal the divisions in the player community, they were actively soliciting players for ideas about the new edition, with plans for an open playtest (the problem here is that the crowd dissatisfied with 4e mostly long have left the 4e oriented areas, so it's an attempt to bring it back relying on it already somehow being back... not only they didn't exactly tried to meet it halfway, but rather removed more and more bits of the web community support).
In 2022, a new edition called "''One D&D''" was announced, promising compatibility with 5th edition (though never using the term "5.5" or "6th") with a few backported rules put up for playtest. In January of 2023, Wizards of the Coast attempted to force through an ''absurdly'' bad "revision" to the Open Gaming License, which in its very unprofessional and unlegalistic writing claimed to revoke the prior license (a claim the company had previously [https://web.archive.org/web/20211127200600/http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=d20/oglfaq/20040123f spent ''decades'' explicitly stating was impossible]) alongside provisions that users "agree to give [Hasbro] a nonexclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, sub-licensable, royalty-free license to use [your] content for any purpose" <ref>A clause ripped directly from social media terms of use and very out of place for a product sales contract.</ref> as well as giving Hasbro 25% royalties, and the ability to kill off any product without appeal by claiming it was in some way offensive. Naturally, this was not well received and united what seemed to be the the entire tabletop RPG industry, bar Wizards of the Coast and ''[[Critical Role]]'', in condemnation. Wizards of the Coast would respond in an unsigned "apology" by claiming it to be a draft (despite the document having explicit dates of enactment, and it leaking from an attempt to force companies to sign it, claiming they'd be even worse off in the general release version) and claimed that the clause granting them an unlimited license to use your work for any purpose wasn't an attempt to steal work. The "apology"'s refusal to actually back down on anything beyond the royalties and usurping ownership did little to calm things down. After facing mass subscription cancellations, Wizards of the Coast issued a second apology, nominally signed by a low ranking and extremely junior executive who had just created an account, which ''also'' refused to back down from its positions and promised a survey for the new draft document.
Issues with wildly different editions prompted the development of third-party adaptations. E.g. ''Castles & Crusades'' as D&D 2.99 without D&D 3 specific elements, or ''[[Pathfinder]]'' as "D&D 3.75".
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Whole libraries of novels have been published with D&D tie-ins, most of them linked to specific game settings such as the [[Forgotten Realms]]. While writing quality is inconsistent at best, and [[Executive Meddling]] is incessant, sheer quantity testifies to these novel lines' profitability. The best known novels are R.A. Salvatore's ''Legend of Drizz't'' series. In addition, IDW Publishing, famous for their ''[[Transformers]]'' and ''[[G.I. Joe]]'' comics, have obtained the license to [[Dungeons and Dragons (comics)|an ongoing series]] based on D&D - which have been [http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/04/20/dungeons-dragons-comic-idw/ well-received], mainly due to being written by the writer for [[DC Comics]]' ''[[Blue Beetle]]''.
For the animated series based on the game, see ''[[Dungeons and Dragons (animation)|Dungeons And Dragons]]''. There are also
Please note that, since this is a very open-ended game, with ''millions'' of people playing it in one form or another, you can find ''any'' trope if you look hard enough.
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{{tropenamer}}
* [[Always Lawful Good]]
* [[Bag of Holding]]
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* [[Detect Evil]]
* [[Dracolich]]
* [[Elemental Plane]]
* [[Exclusively Evil]]<ref>Formerly; the Trope name was originally Always Chaotic Evil.</ref>
* [[Failed a Spot Check]]
* [[The Face]]
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** 4th Edition's ''Player Handbook 2'' includes the decidedly feline-looking Razorclaw Shifter, descended from weretigers.
** The Tibbit race, which are Small humanoids with cat ears and markings as if their skin were fur; they can also turn into a full cats in the manner of a [[Were Cat]].
* [[Chaos Entity]]:
** The Slaad Lords are the ''de facto'' (given the nature of Chaos) rulers of their kind and of Limbo, the Plane of Ultimate Chaos. While all are embodiments of Chaos, Chourst is the Trope most of all; while the others are embodiments of some concept related to Chaos, he is the Lord of Randomness, representing pure Chaos.
** In the ''Elder Evils'' splat book, the Leviathan is a being created from "leftover" byproducts of the Chaos that created the the multiverse.
* [[Charm Person]]: The [[Trope Namer]]. There is a spell of that name that does exactly that. It used to work for up to a month per casting, depending on the intelligence of the person who was charmed.
** There are improvements, like Mass Charm. An if that's not enough, [[Forgotten Realms]] has Virus Charm spreading by touch from the primary target to several secondary targets, thus beguiling people too well guarded to be charmed directly.
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** 4th Edition gives a possible explanation for why Graz'zt is much more sane and more of a chessmaster than most over Demons (besides Dagon). {{spoiler|He used to be an Archdevil.}}
* [[Clipped-Wing Angel]]: Nightstalker's transformation, Tenser's transformation and [http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/spells/mentalPinnacle.htm Mental Pinnacle]. Exchange all of your quadratic wizard powers for a few of those of a lower level linear rogue/warrior or exponential psion. Mental Pinnacle can be good if (and only if) you fight someone that dumped charisma, the others... not so much.
* [[Commanding Officer Powers]]: ''D&D'' has had various minor abilities of this type pop up over the years, but has had a few instances of a class focusing on it.
** The Marshall class, introduced in Third Edition's ''Miniatures Handbook'', gains the ability to give allies within a certain distance of it non-magical boosts to various checks of the Marshall's choice and let allies move a second time a small number of times per day. Since these abilities are "'''Ex'''traordinary"{{sic}}<!--The system uses a bolded Ex as an abbreviation for Extraordinary abilities.--> and not magical, they function in Antimagic Fields and cannot be dispelled like spells can. Unfortunately that's ''all'' the Marshall does, having absolutely nothing beyond the minor bonuses they provide by simply standing there, making the class notoriously shallow and weak.
** Near the end of its life, Third Edition introduced the White Raven Tactics discipline, used by the Crusader and Warblade classes, in ''Tome of Battle''. Maneuvers from the discipline allow buffing allies and occasionally debuffing enemies when used in conjunction with the Warblade and Crusader's innate ability to hit things.
** Fourth Edition introduced the Warlord, which focused on abilities of this type, in place of the traditional Bard class, which claimed magical buffing among its [[Jack of All Trades|very wide]] portfolio and did not make the core rulebook this time. Aside from Fourth Edition's general design decision to make [[Hit Points]] a matter of morale as much as actual injury (allowing a Warlord to heal allies by shouting at them) and the plot implications of calling the class's role "Leader", Warlord's existence and abilities are actually one of the less controversial additions of a very controversial edition. Even after the Bard returned later on, Warlord's non-magical nature and secondary focus on hitting things allowed the two to remain distinct.
* [[The Corrupter]]: Pazuzu's specialty. [[Magnificent Bastard|Who said a Chaotic Evil obyrith can't be smart]]?
* [[Color Coded for Your Convenience]]: Dragons, some Sub-races, Gear, etc. This is a pretty common trope overall in this system. Even the ''planes of existence'' have this. Generally, planes with nice alignments have pretty colours; less pleasant planes tend to be black or blood-red. 4th Edition and Eberron decided that made the game too easy, so they did away with it.
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* [[Determinator]]: In all editions there are characters and monsters who can fight while at ''negative'' hit points, but it came up more frequently with 3rd's feats and prestige classes. 4th edition gives most Epic Destinies (and thus most level 20+ characters) a means to cheat death daily, either with instant healing, a sudden transformation (like into a platinum dragon or a spell-slinging spirit), or a simple self-resurrection seconds later.
** One Epic Destiny actually has a future version of your character appear to protect his past self.
* [[Disposable Bandits]]: Very common in low-level modules.
* [[Disposable Vagrant]]: Several adventures and supplements have examples of monsters that use this technique.
* [[Draconic Divinity]]: Most ''Dungeons & Dragons'' settings have a pantheon of dragon deities, generally including Bahamut and Tiamat. If any of these deities commonly worshiped by normal races varies.
** If one believes the most popular creation myth in ''[[Eberron]]'', the world was created by the three Progenitors Siberys (the Dragon Above), Eberron ("the Dragon Between" or "the World Itself") and Khyber ("the Dragon Below"), all of whom were/are dragons. Due to the non-provable nature of the divine in ''Eberron'' (a strong contrast to most other ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'' settings), if there's any truth to the matter is left to the Dungeon Master to decide, though there definitely is an alternate dimension of evil below Eberron if you go low enough, and a planetary ring of magically useful rocks if you go up enough.
*** The pantheons of the Sovereign Host and Dark Six have no fixed appearance (as the non-provable nature of the divine means every culture will vary wildly), but all The Nine and Six and One have some form of dragon on the list of how they're commonly depicted in-world. The dragons themselves believe the Sovereigns were powerful dragons who ascended.
*** Unlike most settings, Tiamat is "merely" a dragon-themed fiendish Overlord rather than a true deity. Since overlords are so puissant as to be undefinably powerful if unsealed, and fiend worshipers can get divine spells (as in ''Eberron'' those are powered by internal belief, not external divine power) the difference is largely pedantic. Bahamut is just a dragon-shaped constellation and largely exists in the setting only to have some explanation for the sheer amount of rules elements in third edition that included his name.
* [[Eat Dirt Cheap]]: A number of monsters have some form of this; gold dragons eat jewels, xorn eat rare minerals, and so on.
* [[Elemental Shapeshifter]]
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* [[Magic Knight]]: Many fighter/mage classes (or "Gish", as they're known in fan circles); including the duskblade, hexblade, and swordmage(from 4th Edition). On the divine side, there's the Paladin and certain cleric builds.
* [[Magic Music]]: Bards, who fight orcs with their magic-infused music.
* [[The Mindless Almighty]]:
** Banghtu, the orcish god of strength, has almost limitless physical might, but he's known for being woefully stupid. The ''Monster Mythology'' splatbook gives him an Intelligence Score of only 3 (putting him below most mortal ''children'', orc or otherwise). Naturally, he values strength and little else besides - he's also [[Undying Loyalty|completely loyal]] to his father Gruumsh, the head of the orc pantheon.
** Leviathan, one of the [[Eldritch Abomination]]s detailed in ''Elder Evils'', is an entity that took form from a leftover aspect of Chaos after it combined with Law during Creation. Best described as “mindless”, it is driven by little except raw instinct.
** [[Demon Lords and Archdevils|Juiblex]] is a grey area here. A powerful demon lord, it supposedly has an intellect and mindset that is [[Blue and Orange Morality|alien and incomprehensible even to other demons]]. Some sources rate its INT at 1 or even zero, portraying it as mindless, while others give it genius-level or even godlike Intelligence, stating it even knows the true names of [[The Old Gods|the most powerful obyriths]], using this knowledge to manipulate the Abyss itself. Whatever the case, Juiblex seems to have the simplistic mindset of the oozes and slimes it holds dominance over - it is concerned only with devouring, consuming, and destroying everything, barely even acknowledging mortal races. In fact, certain sources claim that evil cultists who worship Juiblex actually gain their divine magic from either [[God of Evil|Tharizdun]] or [[Eldritch Abomination|Ghaunadaur]], with some even suggesting that Juiblex is a lesser aspect of one of them. Possibly the most likely theory is that Juiblex does indeed have intelligence bordering on godlike, but only in regards to the Abyss and its history and denizens, and has no interest in anything beyond it.
* [[The Minion Master]]: You can use a summon spell for lots of little monsters instead of one big one, for example.
* [[Missing Mom]]: Bensozia and Naome to Glasya and Fierna.
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** Exists as a feat by the same name in 3.5, and a couple of others intended for large monsters in 3.0.
* [[Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards]]: First to third editions, averted in fourth. It was, at least in gaming, the trope creator, and many games based on or inspired by D&D suffered from the same issue. It was at its worst in 3rd/3.5 edition due to significantly lowered character mortality and rules specifically for starting higher level campaigns, leading to far more characters achieving high levels and thus encountering the issue.
* [[Literally Fearless]]: "Immunity" to fear is traditionally a class feature of the Paladin. ''[[Ravenloft]]'' makes it explicit that the Paladin isn't merely in control of his fear, but totally shielded from it. Accordingly it alters the class within the setting to only have protection from supernatural fear effects (meaning a paladin is still subject to intimidation, atmosphere, etc.) since one of the victims not having fear is a [[Story-Breaker Power]] for a horror setting.
* [[Loads and Loads of Rules]]: While this applies to pretty much every published RPG ever, the rules for early editions of D&D are rather lengthy. Worse still, most of these rules are poorly organized.
** To give some perspective, the rules for [[Grapling With Grappling Rules|grappling]] run a whole two pages in the 3rd edition [[Updated Rerelease|Rules Compendium]]. The rules for magic items weigh in at 5, and the rules for movement are covered by ''ten whole pages''. And then you have Polymorphing rules, which have been changed so frequently that you need to check the errata instead of the most recently printed book just to make sure you are up to date.
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* [[A Year and a Day]]: Multiple examples
* [[Your Mind Makes It Real]] for some spells, usually illusion spells with the shadow sub school. Although illusion spells with the shadow sub school still hurt you if you don't believe in them, just not as much, under normal conditions.
== Gaming ==
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* [[After-Action Patchup]]: Healing is generally concentrated after the battle.
* [[Apocalyptic Log]]: Multiple examples
* [[
**
** In the original ''Dungeons & Dragons'' boxed set (before they started getting edition numbers), the [[Powers That Be]] were referred to as Immortals, and the Master Set included a detailed procedure (which included tithes, research, meditation rituals) for an epic-Level hero to petition to join their ranks, which if accepted required a series of trials and tasks to prove their worth. The later Immortal Rules was a setting for those who had succeeded.
* [[Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence]]:
** In 4th edition, when your characters reach max level (30), the rulebooks encourage them to do this so you can start new characters.▼
** This was the ultimate goal in the last version of BECMI/Rules Cyclopedia-era D&D, complete with a ruleset for those that ascended. To ascend further, an ascended entity needs to max out his ascended level at 36, reincarnate himself as a level 1 character, ascend once again, max out the ascended level again, and proceed to ascend past some great barrier. The result is a character that cannot be contained by a D&D rulebook.
* [[Awesome but Impractical]]: The 3.X monk. On paper, you've got a monster ninja who can move faster than anything, run up walls, teleport, [[In a Single Bound|jump so far]] [[Not Quite Flight|he can effectively fly]], become completely immune to poison and disease, block and catch enemies, grapple and trip forever, stun or kill enemies with a single blow, punch through ''castles'', and [[Flight, Strength, Heart|talk to animals]]. In practice, he can't hit anything, and is ''squishier'' than [[Squishy Wizard|the wizard]] (
▲** In 4th edition, when your characters reach max level (30) the rulebooks encourage them to do this so you can start new characters.
▲** Sort of averted in 3/3.5 edition. Standard class progression stops at level 20, but the [[Epic Level Handbook]] contains rules for advacing beyond that, with no actual cap. The easy multiclassing in that edition also meant that you could simply add new classes and prestige classes pretty much forever. However, by this point game balance is pretty much non-existant so few games ever hit epic levels, and even those that do rarely go very far into them. Deities and Demigods allows your character to engage in this trope rather than just advance forever.
▲* [[Awesome but Impractical]]: The 3.X monk. On paper, you've got a monster ninja who can move faster than anything, run up walls, teleport, [[In a Single Bound|jump so far]] [[Not Quite Flight|he can effectively fly]], become completely immune to poison and disease, block and catch enemies, grapple and trip forever, stun or kill enemies with a single blow, punch through ''castles'', and [[Flight, Strength, Heart|talk to animals]]. In practice, he can't hit anything, and is ''squishier'' than [[Squishy Wizard|the wizard]] (Who gets lots of good buffs to avert that).
** Monks have excellent defenses against magic. They are inaccurate against hard targets but can deal extreme damage to [[Squishy Wizard|soft]] ones, and have excellent mobility to strike [[Squishy Wizard|vulnerable rear line targets.]] [[Scrub|Certain players]] just mistake them for a front line melee class.
*** Nah, they're still hopeless. The defenses against magic consist of spell resistance (against which wizards don't care due to no-SR spells) and good base saves (which meet no save spells). Wizards can fly, so that takes care of mobility. The end result consists of a class which is not competent to melee melee opponents and incapable of fighting spellcasters. Only good thing they do is possibly being a glass stunlocker. Maybe.
** 3.0/5 metamagic feats raised the power of spells but treated them as higher level, essentially making them more expensive to use. With very few exceptions, the result was actually slightly less powerful than just using a higher level spell. Several feats and classes reduce the cost of metamagic (Arcane Thesis, notably), making it capable of dealing several thousand damage per round with ease.
* [[Beat Still My Heart]]: Multiple examples{{context|reason=Such as?}}
* [[Beyond the Impossible]]: Pretty much the entire point of Epic Levels (i.e. level 21 and higher) in third edition. By [[Charles Atlas Superpower|training long enough]] and defeating enough monsters, any fighter or rogue or barbarians can attain a balance check high enough to walk safely upon clouds, or a tumble check high enough to survive re-entry into the atmosphere.
* [[Boring Yet Practical]]: Several, especially in ''Complete Arcane'', which (among other things) details how to counter casters. For example, the best defense against an invisible intruder? A dog.
** Of all the crazy stuff Gestalt can allow you to do, just adding Warblade or Factotum on the other half a typical Wizard build allows you to run almost anything off your intelligence.
** Of all the new tricks you can learn with a feat, Improved
* [[Charles Atlas Superpower]]: Every character with a few levels under his belt who does not use magic or obviously supernatural abilities. Having a 10 in all stats is defined as the human average in an ability score, and 18 as the strongest on earth. Since you can get an 18 in a stat at character creation if you're lucky, characters can go far and above the maximum human potential through levelling up.
* [[Combat Medic]]: Certain cleric or fighter/cleric builds could be like this; most Leader classes in 4th Edition function as Combat Medics by default.
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* [[Spoony Bard]]: Some base classes, many prestige classes (though many seemed better for NPCs than PCs)
* [[Weapons Grade Vocabulary]]: In the Fourth Edition of Dungeons and Dragons, bards have an at-will "spell" called Vicious Mockery, which inflicts damage and status effects. Some bard players will use insult generators every time they use this attack.
== Meta ==
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** The iconic Mind Flayer was inspired by the cover of [[Brian Lumley]]'s novel, ''The Burrowers Beneath''.
** In 3rd Edition, the [[Pirate]] [[Prestige Class]] is called the "[[The Princess Bride (film)|Dread Pirate]]."
** In ''Libris Mortis'', an example offered of a potential [[Soul Jar|phylactery]] for a [[Our Liches Are Different|lich]] is [[The Lord of the Rings|a plain gold ring with arcane inscriptions on the inside of the band]].
** Possibly overlapping with [[Continuity Nod]], the 3rd edition [http://ia600805.us.archive.org/zipview.php?zip=/25/items/olcovers54/olcovers54-L.zip&file=547531-L.jpg ''Player's Handbook II''] and [http://images.trollandtoad.com/products/pictures/128270.jpg ''Dungeon Master's Guide II'']{{Dead link}} covers feature artwork that could be called revamps of their [http://www.wired.com/geekdad/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/PHB-cover.jpg AD&D] [http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jekJFiEaILE/TtZgNQTfZmI/AAAAAAAAAWI/Hk1eAAuknB8/s1600/1E+Dungeon+Masters+Guide.JPG counterparts].
* [[Signature Device]]: The setting involves trinkets in this role - Some of them are magical, others not.
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