Level Up (A5E) Sharing Advanced 5E's Encounter Building Rules

Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition has robust encounter-building rules designed by monster-math guru Paul Hughes of the BlogofHolding, probably one of the world's foremost experts on the math behind monster stats. Those rules are equally valid for O5E (original 5E) games, so we thought we'd share them here. These guidelines can be found in the Level Up core rulebooks, available from our website.

Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition (A5E)

Are you ready to level up your 5E game? Welcome to Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition, the standalone 'advanced 5E' backwards compatible tabletop role playing game. Level Up is a deeper, more flexible enhancement of the 5E ruleset which you know and love. If you love 5E but would like a little more...

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In the rest of the Monstrous Menagerie, Paul redesigned every monster from the Monster Manual, making them more interesting, ensuring that the Challenge Rating math was correct, and adding a ton of useful GM tools. It's a fully-illustrated 540-page book crammed full of useful information, tools, and monsters!

 

[Helena Real]

Thanks for sharing this! I'm getting more and more interested in the Monstrous Menagerie from what I've seen. Any chance to get a copy over at Roll20? That it'd be awesome!

 

[jedijon]

Wizards of the Coast is really allowing a game with 5E in the title? You’d think that given the reliance of this name on the prior existence of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons that it would be real important for them to provide some more distance—and a real open/shut case.

 

[dave2008]

Wizards of the Coast is really allowing a game with 5E in the title? You’d think that given the reliance of this name on the prior existence of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons that it would be real important for them to provide some more distance—and a real open/shut case.

Technically 5e is not called 5th edition, we just call it that.

It is just Dungeons and Dragons:

 

[Waller]

Wizards of the Coast is really allowing a game with 5E in the title? You’d think that given the reliance of this name on the prior existence of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons that it would be real important for them to provide some more distance—and a real open/shut case.

Yeah they should totally not let Vampre have a 5th Edition either! I’m pretty sure WotC owns the number 5.

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[Uta-napishti]

Wizards prohibits third parties who accept the OGL from using "Dungeons and Dragons" anywhere on the product, even the normally commercially OK statement that your product is "compatible" with D&D. If it wasn't explicitly prohibited by the OGL to call products "Dungeons and Dragons Compatible", then no one would splash the 5E and that silly "with the world's oldest roll playing game" etc... on everything. Under the OGL it's our only way to show what RPG ruleset it should be played with / who should buy it.

If you made a compatible product without having to accept the OGL ( Not use any text that is copyright wizards - no classes, no spells, no abilities, no monsters, no rule text), then you could under competition law fairly say "Dungeons and Dragons Compatible" in a subtle and non-trademark infringing way (no logos for instance). But since the chance that Wizards would take legal action would be much greater than against an OGL publisher, most folks have based their business on the safer option.

There are folks who probably can point out finer points I have missed.

 

[Morrus]

Wizards of the Coast is really allowing a game with 5E in the title? You’d think that given the reliance of this name on the prior existence of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons that it would be real important for them to provide some more distance—and a real open/shut case.

I wouldn't think that, no. I would think that we are, and have always been, fully compliant with the Open Gaming License.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Wizards of the Coast is really allowing a game with 5E in the title? You’d think that given the reliance of this name on the prior existence of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons that it would be real important for them to provide some more distance—and a real open/shut case.

I'd think that people making professional 3rd Party material would look into that sort of thing and know a lot more about it than I do.