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What each guide is for

The hit point guide is the long version: what the pool means, how level 1 differs, and which bonuses stack. How to calculate hit points is the arithmetic, including the 27 and the 305. The 2024 hit point guide is about what stayed and which old checkbox to leave off. Read that before you tick Hill Dwarf on a new character.

The point buy guide is the cost table. The method comparison is when not to use point buy. Tough builds are sample arrays, not a requirement. Species covers toughness, temporary hit points, and damage reduction that is not the same thing. Origin feats separates Tough from feats that do not change the maximum. Ability scores is the modifier math. The Astral Self notes are one subclass, Wisdom-first, d8 hit die, and not a 2024 reprint we invented.

Page 2 holds the guides that are not about the core tabletop loop: eDPI, Palworld, Pokemon GO, Blooket, numerology, socket colors, and a 2024 Halloween retrospective. Reviewed 20 October 2026.

A reading order if you are new

Start with ability scores if the modifier math is fuzzy. Then read which method fills the six boxes, then the cost table. Only after the scores exist is it worth reading the hit point arithmetic and the longer guide. The 2024-specific warnings, the species notes, the origin feats, and the sample Tough arrays are refinements. They assume you already know that level 1 takes the maximum die and that Tough is 2 hit points per level.

The Astral Self article is optional. It is one subclass, not a chapter of the rules. Skip it if nobody at the table is playing a monk. Do not read the page-2 guides as if they modified the hit point total. An eDPI, a breeding power, and a name chart do not belong on a character sheet. They are here because the addresses already existed and the math is still worth doing in public.

Every guide on this index was reviewed on 20 October 2026. The byline is DND 5E, the desk name from the previous version of the site. If a sentence and the matching calculator disagree, trust the calculator's level lines and write to us. The index itself is not a calculator. The tools are linked from each guide and from the directory.

Dates and bylines

The review date on each guide is 20 October 2026. That is the day this set of pages was checked against the calculators, not the day a game studio published a patch. If a guide and a tool disagree after that date, the tool is the thing to rerun, and the guide is the thing to correct. The byline stays DND 5E so the old author archive still points at a real desk name. It is not a pen name with a fake hometown. Page 2 is the non-tabletop set. Do not skip it if you came for eDPI or breeding power, and do not expect it to change a wizard's hit points.

Internal links in these guides point at a tool or at another guide that continues the same argument. They are not a block of every URL on the site. If a link is missing, the directory is the full list. Search in the header uses the same titles. It does not search the open web.

Use the header search if you know a word and not the title. It matches the guide titles and the tool names on this site, and it does not leave the site. Ten guides are on this page because a short page is easier to scan than one endless list. The date under each guide is 20 October 2026, the review for this rebuild. If a later patch changes a game, the matching tool page says which number you should type yourself.