Halloween '18 Edition of Official D&D 5E Rulings By Tweet

Months have passed since I last compiled official rulings on D&D 5E rules via Crawford's Twitter. Lack of rulings hasn't been an issue. I just haven't blogged about them. Instead of random rulings, I plan on lumping them according to a theme. Since Halloween is days away, the theme for the latest installment is Halloween.


Anyone who's glanced at Appendix N knows the works of H.P. Lovecraft inspired Gygax. As did the works of A. Merritt. Horror is an entrenched element of D&D. What separates D&D from those sources of inspiration is the protagonist have a chance, eventually, maybe, to defeat the horrors. The downside is some of those horrors... become mundane... as a result. Another thing is Dungeons & Dragons has evolved to the point where PCs could become the source of the horror as well, ie Necromancer & Warlock.


As such, I ignored anything from a PC perspective. If the ruling pertains to warlocks or necromantic powers, not included here. Furthermore, as much as I like Lovecraft, his influences aren't used along their original horror roots. Ergo, only mainstream Halloween monsters will be referenced here. Like vampires, werewolves, zombies, and the like.


So here ya go:


Levels don't influence stats of Animated Dead - The dreaded Necromancer casts Animate Dead on the corpses of a level 0 peasant and a level 20 fighter? They both rise and use the stats of a normal zombie. So no worrying over the 20 hit die zombie!


Vampire bite is unlikely to tranform during combat - Here's clarification stating hit point max must be reduced to zero before transformation occurs. Combat must really be proceeding poorly in an unorthodox manner for the victim here...


Reincarnate can't be used on undead - You encounter an undead creature. Hey, wouldn't it be cool if I cast Reincarnate on the undead creature? What will it come back as? DM: Spell fails. Undeath changes creature type. Depending on how other bring-back-from-the-dead spells work, this ruling may nullify them as well.

What if you really want to bring a zombie back to life? True Resurrection is the solution. Normally, I am used to Crawford referencing the books themselves. This particular answer is found within the errata.


Is tracking a vampire in mistform to its lair and staking it the only way of dispatching it once it becomes mist? - Many times Crawford will say 'read the text' but by using jargon.


What comes first? The vampire's bite or the grapple? - No, a vampire doesn't automatically hit if their grappling their target. However, the bite comes after the grapple.


What happens to Vampire Spawn when the Master is Destroyed - We destroyed the Master Vampire? All the Vampire Spawn go poof, right? No. They become free-willed, full-fledged vampires now. An instance where targeting the Big Bad right away may not be the best strategy...


Dead and Undead Attuning Items - Dead is a condition. Undeath is a creature type. So yeah, the vampire can attune magic items.


There ends the Halloween edition of Official D&D 5E Rulings By Tweet.


Happy Gaming and Halloween is four days away!