D&D 5e Conditions Cheat Sheet: All 15 Conditions (SRD 5.2)

A condition is a one-word label for a state that changes what a creature can do: Blinded, Grappled, Prone, Stunned. The fifth edition rules have fifteen of them, and every one is short — but at the table the questions come in the middle of someone's turn. Does Prone give Advantage to the archer? Can a Stunned creature still move? Which of these break Concentration? This page answers those in one place.

Below is a cheat sheet of all fifteen conditions in the 5E System Reference Document, each with its effects, how it ends and what usually causes it, linked to its own page in Nat20's 5E SRD. After that: a table that groups conditions by what they do to a roll, Exhaustion in detail, how to track conditions in Nat20's free initiative tracker and in a live session, and one combat round with three conditions running at once, with the tracker state after every turn.

Which rules this sheet follows

The effects below are the SRD 5.2 rules — the 2024 revision of the fifth edition rules and the version Nat20's 5E SRD ruleset is labelled with. One caveat, stated plainly: Nat20's condition pages currently carry the older SRD 5.1 (2014) text, as checked on November 2, 2026. For nine of the fifteen conditions that makes no practical difference. Six play differently; their cards are marked "Changed in 5.2", and the table further down puts the two versions side by side. If your table still plays the 2014 rules, read the SRD 5.1 column.

Every card links its Nat20 entry. The links in the text go to the spells and monsters that cause each condition; spell entries on Nat20 use the SRD 5.2 wording, and monster entries carry SRD 5.1 stat blocks, so a monster's DC or duration can differ from the 2024 version of the same creature.

The cheat sheet: all 15 conditions

Tap a name to jump to its card. Each card has its own anchor, so you can link a player straight to the rule — #prone, #grappled — when the question comes up.

What each condition does to a roll

Most rulings come down to four questions: who has Advantage, who has Disadvantage, can it move, and does it automatically fail a save? This table answers them across all conditions at once. It is also how conditions stack: a creature that is Paralyzed is Incapacitated too, so anything that keys off Incapacitated — a broken Concentration, a grapple ending — applies.

* Frightened only while the source is in sight; Grappled only against targets other than the grappler.

Two rules decide what happens when conditions overlap. First, a roll is never affected by more than one Advantage or one Disadvantage, and when it has both they cancel out: one d20, no matter how many sources there are on each side. Second, a condition does not stack with itself. Being Poisoned twice is being Poisoned; the two effects that caused it may still end at different times, so track each source. Exhaustion is the exception — its levels add up, as the next section shows.

The "within 5 feet" lines matter more than they look. A Paralyzed or Unconscious creature turns every melee hit into a Critical Hit, which doubles the damage dice. Against a character at 0 Hit Points, a Critical Hit is also two failed Death Saving Throws instead of one. That is why "Unconscious" is the most dangerous condition on this sheet.

Exhaustion in detail

Exhaustion is the only condition with levels, and the one SRD 5.2 changed the most. Under SRD 5.2:

• Each time a creature gains Exhaustion, its level goes up by 1. At level 6 it dies.
• Every D20 Test — ability checks, attack rolls and saving throws — is reduced by 2 times the level.
• Speed is reduced by 5 feet times the level.
• A Long Rest removes one level. At level 0 the condition ends.

So a character with a Speed of 30 feet at Exhaustion level 3 takes −6 on every D20 Test and moves 15 feet. A fighter who normally hits on an 8 now needs a 14. Under the 2014 rules, the same character would have Disadvantage on ability checks, attack rolls and saving throws, and half Speed — Disadvantage on every roll instead of a flat number.

Two more differences from the 2014 table: SRD 5.1 halves the Hit Point maximum at level 4, which SRD 5.2 does not, and SRD 5.1 removes a level on a Long Rest only if the creature has eaten and drunk.

Where Exhaustion comes from

None of the monster entries in Nat20's 5E SRD inflicts it; the sources are the environment and the body. SRD 5.2 lists them as hazards:

• Extreme cold (0 °F or lower): a DC 10 Constitution save at the end of each hour, or gain a level. Resistance or Immunity to Cold damage means an automatic success.
• Extreme heat (100 °F or higher, without drinkable water): a Constitution save at the end of each hour, DC 5 for the first hour and 1 higher for each hour after, so the fourth hour is DC 8. Medium or Heavy armor gives Disadvantage on it.
• Dehydration: drinking less than half the water you need for a day means a level at the day's end. Malnutrition: eating less than half your food means a DC 10 Constitution save or a level; eating nothing for five days means a level, and another each day after. Neither can be removed until you drink or eat a full day's amount.
• Suffocation: after holding your breath for 1 + Constitution modifier minutes, you gain a level at the end of each of your turns. Every level gained this way goes as soon as you can breathe again.
• Deep water: after each hour of swimming in water more than 100 feet deep, a creature without a Swim Speed makes a DC 10 Constitution save or gains a level.
• Frigid water: after as many minutes as its Constitution score, each further minute in freezing water needs a DC 10 Constitution save, or the creature gains a level.

Greater Restoration removes one level. Track Exhaustion as a number next to the character's name, not as a chip with a duration: it lasts until a rest, not for a number of rounds.

SRD 5.1 compared with SRD 5.2

These are the conditions whose rules changed between the 2014 text, which Nat20's condition entries show today, and SRD 5.2. Surprise is not a condition, but it is listed because the 5.2 Incapacitated and Invisible conditions now refer to it.

The Grappled change is the one most tables notice. In SRD 5.2 a grapple is an Unarmed Strike: the target makes a Strength or Dexterity saving throw (its choice) against a DC of 8 + your Strength modifier + your Proficiency Bonus, and it escapes by meeting or beating the same DC. A level 3 fighter with Strength 16 has a DC of 13. Under 2014 rules it was an Athletics check contested by the target's Athletics or Acrobatics, rolled again for each escape attempt.

Tracking conditions at the table

A condition is easy to apply and easy to forget. Three things need writing down: who has it, what caused it (the source matters for Frightened, Charmed and Grappled), and when it ends — a round, the end of a turn, or "until a save succeeds". The guide to tracking initiative covers durations in rounds; conditions add one wrinkle, because many of them have no fixed duration at all.

In the free initiative tracker

Nat20's free initiative tracker runs in the browser with no account. Here is exactly how it handles conditions:

• A condition is free text — there is no preset list of SRD conditions. You type a name of up to 30 characters and a number of rounds from 1 to 99. That means you can write the source in the name: "Frightened (Ghost)".
• Each creature can carry up to 12 conditions, shown as chips on its row with the rounds left.
• A condition loses one round at the end of the turn of the creature it is attached to, and disappears when it reaches 0. Added on that creature's own turn, the current turn counts as the first round.
• Clicking a chip removes it — what you do when a save succeeds or the creature stands up.
• Everything stays in your browser; nothing is sent anywhere.

Every condition needs a number, so give an open-ended one the longest it can last and remove it when it ends early. Prone ends when the creature stands up on its next turn, so 1 round is right. A 1-minute effect is 10 rounds when it was applied by someone else before the creature's next turn, and 11 when you add it during the creature's own turn. A spell that ends on a successful save, such as Hold Person, gets the spell's maximum and a note like "save end of turn".

In a live Nat20 session

The combat tracker inside a session works differently, and the differences matter when you run a fight online:

• The GM adds a status effect to a combatant with a name and a number of turns. It is free text too; there is no list of conditions to pick from.
• Effects count down once per round, for everyone at once: each time the last combatant ends their turn and a new round starts, every effect loses 1 and those at 0 are removed. They do not tick at the end of the affected creature's own turn, as in the free tracker.
• The GM clicks an effect to remove it early.
• Players do not see status effects. On their screens they see the order, the round, whose turn it is and the Initiative values, can enter their own character's HP, and see a health bar per combatant when the GM shares the combat card — but no conditions. Say them out loud when they happen, and remind the player at the start of their turn.

Because the session counts per round, a 1-minute effect entered as 10 during round 1 disappears as round 11 begins. If the creature it is attached to acts in round 11 before the effect's source does, it is still affected on that turn; enter 11 when that is the case, or keep the remaining rounds in mind.

Worked example: three conditions in one round

A party of three level 3 characters — Kira, a fighter; Bram, a paladin; and Odo, a cleric — clears a ruined chapel where a Goblin Boss and two goblins have made camp. On the first round the chapel's Ghost rises. The monster numbers are those of Nat20's 5E SRD entries: the Ghost has Dexterity 13, 45 hit points and a Horrifying Visage with a DC 13 Wisdom save; the Goblin Boss has Dexterity 14, Wisdom 8 (a −1 save) and 21 hit points; each Goblin has Dexterity 14 and 7 hit points.

Initiative: Kira 19, the Ghost 16, the Goblin Boss 14, Bram 13, the two goblins 11 (one roll for both), Odo 7. The GM types them into the free tracker in that order and presses "Start combat". Three conditions will be in play:

• Frightened, from the Ghost's Horrifying Visage. It lasts 1 minute, and the target repeats the save at the end of each of its turns. Kira fails, by 2 — failing by 5 or more would also age her 1d4 × 10 years. Kira acts before the Ghost every round, so her ten turns from round 2 to round 11 all fall inside the minute: entered as 10.
• Prone, from Bram's Shove. It has no duration; the goblin will stand up on its own turn, so it is entered as 1. Bram's Shove DC is 8 + 3 (Strength 16) + 2 (Proficiency Bonus) = 13.
• Paralyzed, from Odo's Hold Person on the Goblin Boss — a Humanoid, so a valid target. The spell is Concentration, up to 1 minute, and its DC is 8 + 3 (Wisdom 16) + 2 = 13. The boss repeats the save at the end of each of its turns. The boss acts before Odo in round 11, so it gets ten turns inside the minute: Paralyzed is entered as 10 on the boss, and the spell itself as 11 on Odo's line, added on his own turn.

Here is every turn of round 1 and the start of round 2. The last column is what the tracker shows after the GM presses "Next turn" to end that turn, with the rounds left on each chip.

Four things to notice in that table:

• The Prone chip cleared itself. Entered as 1 during Bram's turn, it ran out at the end of Goblin 1's turn — the turn the goblin spent half its movement standing up.
• Frightened did not tick until Kira's turn. It was added on the Ghost's turn and only loses a round when Kira's turn ends, so it still read 10 for the rest of round 1.
• Advantage and Disadvantage cancelled. Kira attacked a Paralyzed target (Advantage) while Frightened with the Ghost in sight (Disadvantage), so she rolled one d20. The hit was still a Critical Hit, because the target was Paralyzed and she was within 5 feet. Kira could reach the boss because it stood on the far side of the chapel from the Ghost — Frightened stops her moving closer to the Ghost, not moving at all.
• The saves are on the GM, not the tracker. The tracker does not roll Kira's or the boss's repeat saves. When the boss succeeded, the GM removed both chips by hand: Paralyzed on the boss and Hold Person on Odo. Had the Ghost broken Odo's Concentration with its 17 damage, the same two chips would have gone then.

Run in a live session instead, the same three effects would count down at the top of each round rather than at the end of each creature's turn, and Kira's player would not see "Frightened" on her screen — the GM says it.

Seven tips for running conditions

• Write the source next to the condition. Frightened only bites while the source is in sight; Charmed only protects the charmer; Grappled ends if the grappler is Incapacitated.
• Mark "save at end of turn" instead of counting. Hold Person, Blindness/Deafness, Power Word Stun and most monster effects end on a save, not on a timer. Ask for the save when the creature's turn ends.
• Concentration is the off switch. If a condition comes from a Concentration spell, check Concentration every time the caster takes damage: DC 10 or half the damage, whichever is higher. In SRD 5.2, an Incapacitated caster loses Concentration on the spot.
• Look for the bigger condition. Paralyzed, Petrified, Stunned and Unconscious all include Incapacitated, and Unconscious includes Prone. Rule on the bigger one and the smaller follows.
• Remember immunities. The Ghost in the example is immune to Charmed, Exhaustion, Frightened, Grappled, Paralyzed, Petrified, Poisoned, Prone and Restrained. Check the stat block before a player spends a spell slot on it.
• Say conditions aloud in online games. Players in a Nat20 session cannot see status effects, so announce them when they land and when they end.
• Keep the cheat sheet one tap away. Bookmark this page or send a card's link to the player whose character is affected; the rule is faster to read than to argue about.

Where to go next

Conditions are one column of a combat tracker; the order is the other. Read how to track initiative in D&D for the turn order, ties and surprise, and how to speed up D&D combat for the pauses between turns. Then try the chapel fight in the free initiative tracker.

Licence

This work includes material taken from the System Reference Document 5.2 ("SRD 5.2") by Wizards of the Coast LLC, available at https://www.dndbeyond.com/srd. The SRD 5.2 is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The SRD 5.1 comparisons summarise material from the System Reference Document 5.1 ("SRD 5.1") by Wizards of the Coast LLC, also licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.