This page contains materials specific to playing the D&D 3rd Edition game. Many items here are distributed under the Open Game License, and are compatible with most d20-based games.

Documents

Class Spell Lists
Ready-to-use spell rosters for each of the core character classes. Includes abbreviated descriptions, components, difficulty classes, and so forth. Create personalized spell lists by copying in domains, or removing those spells missing from a wizard's spellbook. Separately, I also have a master spell roster available here. Microsoft Excel Document.

Monster Monograph
Statistics blocks for every monster in the Core Rules! Includes abbreviated details for common special abilities like poison, disease, breath weapons, and so forth -- it's almost 70 pages of statistics blocks, in Rich Text Format. In addition, the same monsters are available in an abbreviated "QuickStats" spreadsheet, here; a Microsoft Excel Document.

Summon Monster Statistics
A collection of statistics blocks for all the core creatures that can be conjured by the various "Summon Monster" spells (generally used by Bards, Clerics, Sorcerers, and Wizards). Runs 19 pages long; in Rich Text Format. You may also wish to consider the same list of creatures in the shorter "QuickStats" format, here; a 5-page Microsoft Excel Document. Or, as a third option, summoned monsters in a template suitable for business-sized cards from an office supply store, here; a 16-page RTF document.

Summon Nature's Ally Statistics
This document collects the statistics blocks of all the creatures that can be called upon by the various "Summon Nature's Ally" spells (generally used by Druids and Rangers). It's 12 pages long; in Rich Text Format. Alternatively, you may prefer using the same list in the shorter "QuickStats" format, here; a 3-page Microsoft Excel Document. Or, summoned allies in a template suitable for business-sized cards from an office supply store, here; a 12-page RTF document.

Thumbnail Rules
This is a short summary of rules I find helpful to keep on hand during play sessions. (Along with photocopies of "Combat Basics" on PH p. 117 and the "Quick Reference Tables" on DMG pp. 247-253.) In Rich Text Format.

Math Formulas
A compilation of mathematical formulas derived from the D&D rules. You may find these useful when working on a spreadsheet or programming tool. A 2-page RTF document.

More Open Gaming Documents
An expanded list of reference sheets for your gaming needs, including handy lists for races, classes, skills, feats, languages, diseases and poisons, traps and hazards, wilderness encounters, and more. Additionally, all of the Excel spreadsheets above are made available as open-format text files. Click the link above.

Editorials

Miscellaneous D&D Discussions
Discussions, analyses, and critiques of the current D&D 3rd Edition game rules -- many of which are mathematical or statistical in nature.

Frequently Asked Questions

Interaction of Armor, Spells, and Items
I've noticed that on a number of online message boards, the same questions about how various protections combine or accumulate are repeated on nearly a daily basis. This page attempts to explain the general rule concisely, with official page references, and useful examples.

What is the "Caster Level" of a Magic Item?
This article details the surprising confusion around what the listed "caster level" of a magic item really connotes. Includes references, quotations, and links to all the relevant parties, and a FAQ at the end treating common points in the argument.

Can I Make a New Magic Item?
There are a lot of D&D players who believe they can always invent their own new magic items for their characters. This page reminds them why that's not the case unless their DM is making exceptions for their characters.

Images

Generic Counters
Generic counters for almost all the different sizes of monsters. Use these if you're tired of hunting for just the right exotic miniatures or card counters.

Floor Plans to "The Keep on the Borderlands"
Complete floor plans to all the buildings inside D&D Module B2's "The Keep on the Borderlands".

Monster Icons at Scale
This page presents a selection of flat, top-down images at the correct scale for many D&D monsters (particularly the larger types based on real-life animals and creatures). I've found them to be quite useful for monsters that would otherwise require large and expensive miniatures, but are rarely used.

Secure Shelter Foldup Model
Does your party use the 4th-level wizard spell leo's secure shelter much? Then you might find it useful to cut out & set up this scale model of the "sturdy cottage or lodge" that they camp in every night.

Spell Areas on a Grid
This article analyzes the spell-area determination rules in the DMG. It clarifies and suggests several options, and (best of all) provides spell templates in a ready-to-print format for use in any game.

Gelatinous Cube
How to make the best "gelatinous cube" monster for your game.

Rules Alternatives

Environmental Risks
This paper makes environmental dangers -- falling, drowning, heat & cold, starvation & thirst -- more perilous (and yes, realistic) than in the core rules. The general strategy is to make damage dice cumulative per increment. It also documents that this was Gygax's original system for falling, disposed due to a typo in the original Player's Handbook. These rule guidelines are usable with any version of D&D or AD&D.

Games and Competitions
This short paper presents a suggestion on how to handle in-game contests, competitions, and games. It includes a new suggested Knowledge skill and specific strategy details for characters playing chess.

Battlesystem d20 Conversions
Conversion rules for using either edition of the Battlesystem mass combat rules with the current edition of D&D.

Superheroic d20 Characters
This is a primer on what the d20 system statistics look like stretched to their wildest limits, as perhaps for a superheroes-type game. Includes suggestions on how to convert abilities from the Marvel Superheroes game to D&D 3rd Edition.

Marvel Superheroes d20 Characters
Now that there is an official d20-style superhero game, here is a recommendation for how to start converting official Marvel Super Heroes characters to the Mutants & Masterminds game system.

Wild West d20 Characters
Here sits a short paper on how to interface the current D&D system to the 1979 edition of the Boot Hill game. Just in case you were wondering.

House Rules
The "house rules" used in my personal campaign.

Settings and Campaigns

The Gods of Greyhawk
Here I have a set of short writings summarizing and organizing the different ethnic pantheons in TSR's Greyhawk campaign. This was inspired by canonical 1st Edition AD&D sources, but should certainly be relevant to 3rd Edition play, in which Greyhawk was re-established as the default D&D setting.

The History of Greyhawk
This page includes a pair of articles drawing conclusions about the history of TSR's Greyhawk campaign, especially with regard to the nonhuman races. Again, these writings hold scrupulously to the original printing of the Greyhawk setting.

Software

Open Gaming Combat Simulator for Windows
This is a tool that I was aching for over a long time. What it does is automatically simulate several thousand combats with any monster you enter, and evaluate what level of NPC fighter would be evenly matched against it. You can use this as a very fast and accurate starting point for CR evaluations of new monsters that you create. OGCombatWin only evaluates raw attacks (melee or ranged), against as many opponents as you'd like. It doesn't handle any spells, magic, or special abilities, so you'll still need to evaluate or playtest to come up with hard CR numbers (usually more devaluation is needed at higher levels). Try it, it's fun! Full source code available further down on this page. (Version 1.01.)

NPC Generator for Windows
This program automatically creates NPCs, for practically any race or class in the 3.0 core rules. The original version was written by Jamis Buck, to which I've made some modifications (mostly in the formatting of the stat blocks). You can see Jamis Buck's web-enabled version here, or Andragor's 3.5 version here. I like it because it's fast and a small download, but it may not be as fully featured as some other programs -- for example, it does not automatically equip the NPCs with gear. For that, I use a gear-generator Excel spreadsheet by Sean K. Reynold, which I have also modified and included in the zip file above. See below for source code to the NPC generator.

MonStats for Windows
This command-line program creates summarized D&D (3rd Edition) monster statistics. It outputs text files with either full descriptions, abbreviated statistics blocks (for use in adventure text notes), or short tab-delimited notes (which can be pasted into the "QuickStats Spreadsheet", above). As input, it takes a text file containing a full monster description in the d20 format -- for example, you can download digital versions of all the Monster Manual creatures here and then paste particular selections into a text file for processing by MonStats. It can also automatically apply some creature templates to the processed monsters. Run in the console with the help flag (/?) for exact information. See below for the source code (in case you want to tailor the program to your exact needs).

Source Code

Open Gaming Combat Simulator Source Code
Source code to the OGCombatWin program above, with VC++ 6.0 workspace files.

NPC Generator C++ Source Code
Source code to the NPC Generator program above (original by Jamis Buck), with a VC++ 6.0 workspace. Also includes code and makefile for a web-enabled version which I have not maintained or tested.

MonStats C++ Source
Source code to the "MonStats" monster statistics processor, available for Windows above.

Dice C++ Source
A standard RPG dice-rolling class.

Tables C++ Source
A module for handling d20-system-style tables of any sort (as seen in D&D 3rd Edition). Intended to be compatible with the text table format as seen in the official System Reference Documents (SRD), seen here.