TEXT:  
   
   
  
  1 
  CREDITS 
  Designer: Laura Hirsbrunner 
  Editor: (If you have an editor, credit them here) 
  Art Director: (If you have an art director, credit them here) 
  Graphic Designer: Laura Hirsbrunner 
  Template: Simple Microsoft Word Template by Laura 
  Hirsbrunner 
  Cover Illustrator: Wild0ne, used under license. 
  Interior Illustrators: Seamless parchment texture by IcyCatElf, 
  handwriting by Nile, fountain pen by Andrys, paperclips by 
  Lars_Nissen, colored pencils by Padrinan, page decorator by 
  AnnaliseArt, used under license. 
  Special Thanks: Nathanaël Roux, whose fantastic InDesign and 
  Affinity Publisher templates set the gold standard for fifth 
  edition layout templates long before this one existed. 
  Playtesters: Andrew Bishkinskyi, Alex Clippinger, Sadie Lowry, 
  Joseph Meehan, Matthew Whitby 
   
   
  ON THE COVER 
  This is how you can give more information about your pretty 
  cover art and interior art, a la Wizards hardcovers. In this case, the 
  lovely typewriter photo was taken by Wild0ne. 
  To replace the picture inside the above frame (while keeping 
  the frame), click on the picture, then select the Picture Format 
  tab. Click Change Picture, and you can select a new picture to put 
  in its place. 
   
   
  Disclaimer: The designer of this template did not come up with a clever disclaimer, but felt obligated to format this template with it nonetheless. 
  DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, D&D, Wizards of the Coast, Forgotten Realms, Ravenloft, Eberron, the dragon ampersand, Ravnica and all other Wizards of the Coast product 
  names, and their respective logos are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast in the USA and other countries. 
  pp 
  This work contains material that is copyright Wizards of the Coast and/or other authors. Such material is used with permission under the Community Content Agreement for 
  Dungeon Masters Guild. 
   
  All other original material in this work is copyright 2020 by Laura Hirsbrunner and published under the Community Content Agreement for Dungeon Masters Guild. 
   
  
  2 
  TABLE OF CONTENTS  
  Credits .................................................................................... 1 
  Table of Contents.................................................................. 2 
  Using This Template ............................................................ 3 
  Quick Style Guide .................................................................. 4 
  Heading 1 ........................................................................................ 4 
  Heading 2 .................................................................................. 4 
  Samples to Copy.................................................................... 5 
  Sample Spell .................................................................................. 5 
  Sample Magic Item ...................................................................... 5 
  Sample Tables ............................................................................... 5 
  Sample Monster ............................................................................ 6 
  Sample Class .................................................................................. 7 
  Class Features .......................................................................... 8 
  Spellcasting .............................................................................. 9 
  Sample Sidebar ............................................................................. 9 
  Sample List .................................................................................... 9 
  Publishing Your Finished Document .................................10 
  Using Images ....................................................................... 11 
  Inserting Art ................................................................................. 11 
  Positioning Your Image ........................................................ 11 
  Image Effects .......................................................................... 11 
  Miscellaneous FAQ .............................................................. 12 
   
   
   
  
  3 
  USING THIS TEMPLATE  
  his document is intended to serve as a 
  simple template to format fifth edition 
  supplements in Microsoft Word. Before 
  using this template, you should complete 
  the following steps, or it may not work 
  correctly. The PDF included in your 
  DMsGuild download is a direct export of 
  this Word document, so you can see exactly how it should 
  look when you open the Word template. 
  INSTALL LATEST VERSION OF WORD 
  This template is designed for use with Word 365 or 2019 on 
  Windows 10. If using a previous version of Office or are on 
  a Mac, the template will likely still work, but your mileage 
  may vary. When you first open the template on an old 
  version, a few page elements may be in a different place 
  than in the sample PDF. However, as long as you do all 
  your layout on just one computer, and export the PDF from 
  it as well, it’s likely to work without issue. 
  Regardless of what version of Office you have, it’s 
  recommended that you install the latest Windows and 
  Office updates for it. Open Windows Update, choose 
  Advanced Options, and check the “Give me updates for 
  other Microsoft products when I update Windows” box. 
  INSTALL FONTS 
  All but one of the template fonts are licensed for 
  commercial use under the Open Font License. They must 
  be installed before opening this template in Word. The 
  fonts are all included in your DMsGuild template 
  download, or you can get them straight from Google Fonts: 
  • Merriweather (serif body text) 
  • Trirong (serif header text) 
  • Source Sans Pro (san-serif text) 
  • EB Garamond (cover title text) 
  • Alegreya Sans (cover subtitle text) 
  The drop caps font is free for commercial use, but you 
  will need to download it separately using the following 
  link, then install it: 
  • Royal Initialen (decorative drop cap font) 
  TURN ON BACKGROUND PRINTING 
  After finishing the above steps, open this DMsGuild Word 
  template. Next, you need to enable printing of background 
  elements (instead of leaving them out to save toner). If you 
  skip this step, your exported PDF won’t include the 
  parchment background, and will be white instead. 
  • On the File menu, click Options. 
  • On the Display menu, find Printing Options. 
  • Check “Print background colors and images,” click OK. 
  OPEN STYLES GALLERY 
  The text formatting in this document relies on Styles. Open 
  the Styles gallery by going to the Home tab, then clicking 
  on the pop-out arrow to open the Styles window: 
  After you do so, a floating Styles 
  box will appear that looks like this. 
  Drag it to the right side of screen to 
  dock it as a sidebar. Very important: 
  Before doing anything else, click on 
  the Options button in the Styles pane 
  and select the following options: 
  APPLYING STYLES 
  When using this template, do not format things manually, 
  except for when you need to do something that doesn’t 
  have a style (which will happen very rarely). Instead, when 
  you need to change the format of any text, select the style 
  you need from the Styles pane. The later pages of this 
  template contain many examples and instructions for how 
  to select and apply the correct styles to your document. 
  Only use styles that start with “5E,” the rest are Word 
  default styles that you can ignore. 
  The thing you’re most likely to need to manually adjust 
  is paragraph spacing, as you might find times you need 
  more space before/after a particular style than the style 
  automatically provides. To do this, go to Paragraph 
  Settings; you may need to change the points before or after 
  a particular paragraph, or to uncheck the box “Don’t add 
  space between paragraphs of the same type.” 
  USE PARAGRAPH STYLES TO BOLD/ITALICIZE 
  Rather than using the buttons on the ribbon (or Ctrl-B and 
  Ctrl-I) to bold and italicize text, you can assign character 
  styles to do the same. This may seem arduous at first, but 
  has three primary benefits: 
  • Keeps Word from creating new temporary character 
  styles for every style that you modify by bolding text. If 
  you bold a word without using the “*5E – CHAR BOLD” 
  style, Word will start showing a second “5E – CORE 
  BULLETS” style with the bold attribute added… and so 
  on for every single style you add bold or italics to. 
  • Makes it safer to apply paragraph styles to large blocks 
  of text without worrying about a particular word losing 
  its bolding or italicization. It’ll always keep that 
  character style on it once assigned. 
  • If you ever send your Word document to a layout 
  designer for professional layout in InDesign, it’s easy for 
  for them to migrate your text over to the final InDesign 
  layout and easily see how words should be formatted. 
  T 
  
  4 
  QUICK STYLE GUIDE 
  The above chapter title uses the “5E – HEADING CHAPTER” 
  style. To put an epigraph/quote at the beginning of a section 
  like this, you can apply the “5E – EPIGRAPH PARA1” style. 
  Note: If you’re not adding a second paragraph to your 
  epigraph, you’ll need to manually change the space after 
  PARA1 to 9 points—the default for PARA1 is to have no space, 
  allowing a second paragraph to follow immediately after. 
  If you add a second paragraph, format it with “5E – 
  EPIGRAPH PARA2” to properly indent the new paragraph.  
  —Epigraph Author, Epigraph Source 
  This paragraph uses the “5E – CORE BODY PARA1” style. 
  The paragraph following it uses “5E – CORE BODY 
  PARA2,” which is indented. Though this may seem 
  complicated, it keeps the first paragraph formatted 
  correctly, and distinct from later paragraphs. 
  After you’ve properly introduced your chapter, you can 
  launch into headings below. Note that to follow fifth 
  edition style, you should never use two headings in a row 
  without putting at least a bit of text between them. 
  HEADING 1 
  The above heading uses “5E – HEADING 1.” The current 
  paragraph uses more of “5E – CORE BODY PARA1,” and if 
  you added another paragraph here, it would use PARA2. 
  HEADING 2 
  After a heading comes more text. While you should 
  (almost) always proceed through headings in order, H1, 
  H2, H3, there is one exception: if you’re presenting a spell 
  or item statistics within an H1 section, it’s okay to skip this 
  H2 and go directly to H3. Otherwise, be sure to use it. 
  HEADING 3 
  Core metadata (for example, listing spell level and school, or 
  item attunement and rarity) 
  Core Hanging: This is a hanging indent; these are 
  generally used for lists of items. To make the section 
  before the colon bold, highlight it then assign the “*5E 
  CHAR BOLD” style. For an example of this in practice, 
  check out the PHB’s section on Dwarf Names. 
  Good for Spell Info: You can also use this style for things 
  like spell casting times. This style is also sometimes 
  known as “Core Stat.” 
  When Should You Use Hanging Indents? If your section 
  functions like bullet points except each “bullet” starts 
  with a bolded title, you should generally use hanging 
  indents rather than using inline subheads. On the other 
  hand, if you’re using the titles to split up sections that 
  would work better as a subheading of H3, that’s an 
  inline subhead—you can read more on those later in this 
  section. Note that lists with hanging indents should 
  almost always be preceded by a colon, just like bullets 
  would be. 
  Here we’re going to switch back to body text for a moment, 
  just for fun, then it’s onto the inline subheads. How do 
  those work? Good question. 
  This Is an Inline Subhead. We don’t need a separate 
  paragraph style for this—all that matters is that the first 
  line is indented, so we first use “5E – CORE BODY PARA2”, 
  then the first sentence/title is bolded and italicized, so we 
  highlight that title and assign “*5E CHAR BOLD & ITALIC 
  (INLINE SUBHEAD).” Yes, the style name’s a mouthful, it 
  gets the job done. 
  Inline Subheads Can Be Considered H4. In general, if the 
  content within it could work as another subheading (if 
  headings beneath H3 existed), it should go into an inline 
  subhead, which is sometimes informally known as H4. On 
  the other hand, if you have a section that functions like 
  bullet points except each “bullet” starts with a bolded 
  title, you should use hanging indents, not inline 
  subheads—you can read more on those earlier in this 
  section. 
  What Happens If You Need H5? If you’re already in an H4 
  section (aka an inline subhead), and need to nest yet 
  another heading beneath it… Well, generally, you 
  shouldn’t. Ideally, you’ll revise the section to make 
  everything at a higher heading level. However, sometimes 
  that doesn’t work. In that case, you can actually use the 
  hanging indents previously discussed to form what some 
  people call a “hanging subhead.” 
  This Is a Hanging Subhead. It uses the same “5E – CORE 
  HANGING” style as other hanging indents, but what 
  makes it a hanging subhead is that you italicize the 
  “heading” before the period. You also don’t necessarily 
  have to precede hanging subheads with a colon, unlike 
  most other instances of hanging indents. 
  An Example of Hanging Subheads. You can see an example 
  of a hanging subhead (H5) beneath an inline subhead 
  (H4) in the PHB under Rock Gnomes. There, gnomes are 
  given a choice of three devices they can create—those 
  are formatted using an H5. 
  How Do Bullets Work? Generally, if you have a bulleted 
  list but you want to give each bullet a title, it uses the core 
  hanging style instead. On the other hand, when you want a 
  simple list of bullets, just use “5E – CORE BULLETS.” Note 
  that bulleted lists should almost always be preceded by a 
  colon, like this: 
  • This is a bullet. 
  • Guess what? This is another one. 
  • And one more for good measure. 
   
  
  5 
  SAMPLES TO COPY 
  his section provides specialized text that you 
  might commonly encounter, designed for easy 
  copy-and-paste. You can create a drop cap, 
  like the one at the beginning of this paragraph, 
  by highlighting the paragraph you want to 
  apply it to. Next, click on Insert > Drop Cap > Drop Cap 
  Options, change the font to Royal Initialen, and change 
  “Lines to Drop” to 5. Finally, highlight the drop cap letter, 
  and change the text color to “Red, Accent 1.”  If the 
  paragraph you’re applying it to is italicized, you’ll also 
  have to toggle off the italics for the drop cap. 
  SAMPLE SPELL 
  This is a sample spell, formatted using this template so 
  you can see the text styles in action. Note: spells generally 
  use H3 even if they don’t have an H2 before them. 
  EXPEDITIOUS RETREAT 
  1st-level transmutation 
  Casting Time: 1 bonus action 
  Range: Self 
  Components: V, S 
  Duration: Concentration, up to 10 minutes 
  This spell allows you to move at an incredible pace. When 
  you cast this spell, and then as a bonus action on each of 
  your turns until the spell ends, you can take the Dash 
  action. 
  SAMPLE MAGIC ITEM 
  This is a sample magic item, formatted using this template 
  so you can see the text styles in action. Note that magic 
  items generally use H3 (even if they don’t have an H2 
  before them, as in this section). 
  BOOTS OF THE WINTERLANDS 
  Wondrous item, attunement (requires attunement) 
  These furred boots are snug and feel quite warm. While 
  you wear them, you gain the following benefits: 
  • You have resistance to cold damage. 
  • You ignore difficult terrain created by ice or snow. 
  • You can tolerate temperatures as low as −50 degrees 
  Fahrenheit without any additional protection. If you 
  wear heavy clothes, you can tolerate temperatures as 
  low as −100 degrees Fahrenheit. 
  SAMPLE TABLES 
  Tables use the “5E – TABLE CELL” paragraph style; for 
  headers, use the same style, but add the “*5E – CHAR 
  BOLD” character style to it. 
  There are two ways you can display tables, depending on 
  your needs. They can either be placed in-line with your 
  body text (as if they’re just another block of text), or they 
  can be placed in a text box (which allows them to float 
  freely so you can move them to different sections of the 
  page). This section contains samples of each for easy 
  copy-and-pasting. If you click on a table then go to the 
  Table Design tab, under Table Styles there is a “5E TABLE” 
  style that produces the alternating colored rows seen in 
  this section. 
  TABLE INLINE WITH TEXT—THIS MOVES WITH TEXT 
  TWO SIDE-BY-SIDE TABLES—INLINE WITH TEXT 
   
   
   
   
  T 
  Level 
  Max. CR 
  Limitations 
  Example 
  2nd 
  1/4 
  No flying or swimming speed Wolf 
  4th 
  1/2 
  No flying speed 
  Crocodile 
  8th 
  1 
  - 
  Giant Eagle 
  d100 
  Result 
   
  d100 
  Result 
  01-08 
  This is a result 
   
  59-64 
  This is a result 
  09-13 
  This is a result 
   
  65-74 
  This is a result 
  14-19 
  This is a result 
   
  75-78 
  This is a result 
  20-22 
  This is a result 
   
  79-80 
  This is a result 
  23-27 
  This is a result 
   
  81-83 
  This is a result 
  28-42 
  This is a result 
   
  84-85 
  This is a result 
  43-44 
  This is a result 
   
  86-92 
  This is a result 
  45-53 
  This is a result 
   
  93-94 
  This is a result 
  54-56 
  This is a result 
   
  95-96 
  This is a result 
  57-58 
  This is a result 
   
  97-00 
  This is a result 
  TWO SIDE-BY-SIDE TABLES—IN TEXT BOX 
  d100 
  Result 
   d100 
  Result 
  01-08 
  This is a result 
   59-64 
  This is a result 
  09-13 
  This is a result 
   65-74 
  This is a result 
  14-19 
  This is a result 
   75-78 
  This is a result 
  20-22 
  This is a result 
   79-80 
  This is a result 
  23-27 
  This is a result 
   81-83 
  This is a result 
  28-42 
  This is a result 
   84-85 
  This is a result 
  43-44 
  This is a result 
   86-92 
  This is a result 
  45-53 
  This is a result 
   93-94 
  This is a result 
  54-56 
  This is a result 
   95-96 
  This is a result 
  57-58 
  This is a result 
   97-00 
  This is a result 
   
  TABLE IN TEXT BOX—YOU CAN DRAG THIS AROUND 
  Level Max. CR 
  Limitations 
  Example 
  2nd 
  1/4 
  No flying or swimming speed Wolf 
  4th 
  1/2 
  No flying speed 
  Crocodile 
  8th 
  1 
  - 
  Giant Eagle 
   
  
  6 
  SAMPLE MONSTER 
  This is a sample monster, formatted using this template so 
  you can see the text styles in action. As long as you apply 
  all the styles to your monster exactly as in the sample stat 
  blocks, Word will automatically insert the red dividers 
  between sections; if you have red dividers showing up 
  where they don’t belong, double-check that all the Stat 
  Block Data lines use the “5E – STAT BLOCK DATA” style, 
  that the ability score names (STR/DEX/etc) use “5E – 
  STAT BLOCK ABILITY SCORE NAME,” and that the ability 
  score numbers use “5E – STAT BLOCK ABILITY SCORE 
  NUMBER.” 
  Single Column. The single-column monster stat block 
  uses a single text box and is very easy to work with—just 
  resize it as desired. 
  Two-Column. The two-column stat block is a little more 
  complicated behind the scenes, but you can use it much 
  like the single column. The stat block is comprised of three 
  text boxes. The first one is a full-width text box that 
  should have no text in it, and serves only as the 
  background. The other two text boxes have no background 
  or outline, but are set up right next to each other; when the 
  first one overflows, Word automatically puts the extra text 
  in the second column. Then, all three columns are grouped 
  together so that when you move one, they all move.  
  If your two-column stat block is longer/shorter than the 
  sample included, click once on the whole stat block to 
  select the group, then on the outline that appears, there 
  will be two different dots at the top and bottom—the outer 
  one refers to the group, the inner one 
  refers to the individual box. Click the 
  outer of the two dots to resize it to be 
  taller/shorter. If you try to resize and 
  only the background moves, not the 
  text too, you selected the wrong dot. 
   
   
   
   
   Stat block metadata 
  Armor Class 10 
  Hit Points 9 (2d8) 
  Speed 30 ft. 
  STR 
  DEX 
  CON 
  INT 
  WIS 
  CHA 
  10 (+0) 
  10 (+0) 
  10 (+0) 
  10 (+0) 
  14 (+2) 
  11 (+0) 
  Saving Throws enter here 
  Skills enter here 
  Damage Resistances enter here 
  Damage Immunities enter here 
  Condition Immunities enter here 
  Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 12 
  Languages enter here 
  Challenge 1/4 (50 XP) 
  Inline Subhead. The inline header has the bold/italic character style, 
  and this paragraph uses the “5E – STAT BLOCK BODY PARA1” style. 
  Rarely, you may need to have a second paragraph for a particular 
  monster feature; when you do, use the PARA2 style, which removes the 
  space before it and adds a first-line indent. 
  Spellcasting. The creature is a 1st-level spellcaster. Its spellcasting 
  ability is Wisdom (spell save DC 12, +4 to hit with spell attacks). The 
  acolyte has following cleric spells prepared: 
  Cantrips (at will): light, sacred flame, thaumaturgy 
  1st level (3 slots): bless, cure wounds, sanctuary 
  Multiattack. This continues using the same stat block body style as in 
  the previous section. 
  Really Big Stick. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 10 ft., one 
  target. Hit: 12 (2d6 + 5) bludgeoning damage. 
  Another Really Big Stick. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 10 ft. 
  one target. Hit: 15 (3d6 + 5) bludgeoning damage. 
  Legendary action instructions use “5E – STAT BLOCK BODY PARA1” just 
  as the text in previous section did. 
  Legendary Action. Be sure to use the “5E – STAT BLOCK HANGING” style 
  for your legendary actions, not the body style. And use the bold 
  character style for each one’s title. 
  Legendary Action. This is another legendary action. 
  Legendary Action. This is another legendary action. 
  Stat block metadata 
  Armor Class 10 
  Hit Points 9 (2d8) 
  Speed 30 ft. 
  STR 
  DEX 
  CON 
  INT 
  WIS 
  CHA 
  10 (+0) 
  10 (+0) 
  10 (+0) 
  10 (+0) 
  14 (+2) 
  11 (+0) 
  Saving Throws enter here 
  Skills enter here 
  Damage Resistances enter here 
  Damage Immunities enter here 
  Condition Immunities enter here 
  Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 12 
  Languages enter here 
  Challenge 1/4 (50 XP) 
  Inline Subhead. The inline header has the bold/italic character 
  style, and this paragraph uses the “5E – STAT BLOCK BODY PARA1” 
  style. 
  Rarely, you may need to have a second paragraph for a 
  particular monster feature; when you do, use the PARA2 style to 
  remove the space before it and add a first-line indent. 
  Multiattack. This continues using the same stat block body style 
  as in the previous section. 
  Really Big Stick. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 10 ft., one 
  target. Hit: 12 (2d6 + 5) bludgeoning damage. 
    
  
  7 
  SAMPLE RACE 
  This is a sample race, formatted using this template so you can 
  see the text styles in action. A race usually starts with an 
  epigraph to give flavor to the race. We’ll name our race the 
  Clippies in honor of everyone’s favorite Office companion. Use 
  the “5E – EPIGRAPH PARA1” style for this paragraph. 
  —Epigraph Author, Epigraph Source  
  After the epigraph comes a brief description of the race’s 
  background and lore, sometimes followed by more 
  sections of fluff. What would the Clippy race be like? It’s up 
  to you! 
  FIERCE WARRIORS OF THE OFFICE 
  You  can write as much fluff as you want about your new 
  race of Clippies! Once you’re done writing everything you 
  need to help players tell the story of a character of that 
  race, it’s time for names. 
  CLIPPY NAMES 
  Give the players a few examples of male names, female 
  names, and surnames (or whatever other names are 
  appropriate) for their new Clippy character. 
  Male Names: Name 1, Name 2, and so on. This line uses a 
  hanging indent. 
  Female Names: Name 1, Name 2, and so on. This line uses a 
  hanging indent. 
  Surnames: Name 1, Name 2, and so on. This line uses a 
  hanging indent. 
  CLIPPY TRAITS 
  And now it’s time to give the actual racial traits for your 
  Clippy race. This generally includes ASI information, age 
  range, alignment tendencies, size, speed, languages, and 
  any unique traits that members of this race have in 
  common. Sometimes you might add a subrace too. Notice 
  that we jump directly to inline subheads (aka H4), even 
  though there’s not an H3 in between. This is one of the few 
  times you should skip headers; usually you want to 
  immediately follow an H2 with an H3—but not for racial 
  traits! 
  Ability Score Increase. State here what ability scores 
  your race gets an increase on. 
  Age. What’s their general lifespan? When are they 
  considered adults?  
  Alignment. Do they tend to be good, evil, or fall 
  anywhere on the spectrum because free will is a good 
  thing? (Hint: free will is a good thing. Please don’t make 
  races that are innately evil!) 
  Size. What’s their height in IRL measurements, and are 
  they Tiny, Small, Medium, Large, Huge, or Gargantuan? 
  Speed. What’s their base walking speed? Can they fly, 
  swim, or climb? 
  Languages. What languages do they speak? 
  Unique Racial Traits. Every race has other neat things 
  they do. What neat things can the Clippies do? Your 
  imagination’s the limit!  
  Subrace. If you want to have more than one subrace of 
  Clippies, more power to you. 
  ADAMANTINE CLIPPY 
  Subraces generally are under an H3. Give a little more 
  information what your subrace is like. What makes 
  adamantine clippies different from their mithral kin? 
  Ability Score Increase. A subrace generally gives a unique 
  ASI that the other subrace doesn’t. 
  More Unique Racial Traits. What are neat things that 
  adamantine clippies can do? 
  MITHRAL CLIPPY 
  This is another subrace. What makes mithral clippies so 
  very special? What can they do? 
  Ability Score Increase. Once again, assign a unique ASI 
  for the subrace that’s different than the one you gave the 
  adamantine subrace. 
  More Unique Racial Traits. You know the drill by now. 
  Go write racial traits! 
   
  
  8 
  SAMPLE CLASS 
  This has samples of class/subclass features, formatted 
  using this template so you can see the text styles in action, 
  along with the class tables for easy copy and paste. 
  CLASS FEATURES 
  Use the following templates to format your class features. 
  HIT POINTS 
  Hit Dice: Use the “5E – CORE HANGING” style, bolding the 
  text before colon using “*5E CHAR BOLD.” 
  Hit Points at 1st Level: Same as above. 
  Hit Points at Higher Levels: Same as above. 
  PROFICIENCIES 
  Armor: Likewise, all of these proficiencies should use “5E 
  – CORE HANGING” style, bolding the text before colon 
  using “*5E CHAR BOLD.” 
  Weapons: Insert weapons here 
  Tools: Insert tool proficiencies here 
  Saving Throws: Insert saving throws here 
  Skills: Choose two from [list here] 
  EQUIPMENT 
  Equipment lists should use “5E – CORE BULLETS”: 
  •  (a) a wooden shield or (b) any simple weapon 
  • (a) a scimitar or (b) any simple melee weapon 
  • Leather armor, an explorer's pack, and a druidic focus 
  
  9 
  SPELLCASTING 
  This section is included to show how to format the 
  spellcasting ability lines, as well as bonus spells. 
  SPELLCASTING ABILITY 
  You can format the below spell save DC and spell attack 
  modifier lines using “5E – CORE SPELLCASTING 
  ABILITY.” 
   
  Spell save DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Wisdom 
  modifier 
  Spell attack modifier = your proficiency bonus + your 
  Wisdom modifier 
  BONUS SPELLS 
  If a subclass grants bonus spells, use the standard table 
  format, which is copied below for ease of use. It’s 
  recommended that you use an inline table, not one floating 
  in a text box, since these should always fall immediately 
  after the bonus spells section. 
   
  SAMPLE SPELLS TABLE 
  SAMPLE SIDEBAR 
  You can copy and paste the following sidebars or read-
  aloud text boxes. Within each box are examples of the 
  formatting used. Note that both boxes use the same 
  sidebar text styles; read-aloud boxes are formatted the 
  same way. 
  These are easily resized to be full-width or single-
  column, so this template doesn’t provide a separate 
  example of full-width sidebars. 
  SAMPLE LIST 
  Rarely, you may need to make a list that has two half-
  columns within the standard column. You can see this in 
  chapter 11 of the PHB, where it lists all the spells by class 
  list. The simplest way to create such a list in Word is to use 
  a table with two columns, a single row, and no borders or 
  shading. When you enter text, enter all of it within the 
  same row instead of splitting across rows, as follows.  
   
   
  You can also create single-column lists using the same “5E 
  – LIST ITEM” style within the main body of the document. 
   
  LIST TITLE 
  List item 
  List item 
  List item 
   
  Class Level Spells 
  3rd 
  spell name, another spell name 
  5th 
  spell name, another spell name 
  7th 
  spell name, another spell name 
  9th 
  spell name, another spell name  
  LIST TITLE 
  Lists should use “5E – List 
  Item” for a hanging indent  
  List item 
  LIST TITLE 
  List item 
  List item 
  LIST TITLE 
  List item 
  List item 
  LIST TITLE 
  List item 
  List item 
  List item 
   
  
  10 
  PUBLISHING YOUR 
  FINISHED DOCUMENT 
  After you’ve formatted everything the way you want it to 
  appear in the final PDF, here are the final steps you’ll need 
  to take to publish on DMsGuild! 
  CHANGE COVER IMAGE 
  If you haven’t already done so, take a moment to change 
  the sample typewriter cover to your own cover art. To do 
  so, click on that image on the first page. Once highlighted, 
  click on the Picture Format toolbar, then click Change 
  Picture. Browse to your 8.5” x 11” cover image and insert it. 
  Repeat the same steps for the back cover. 
  PREPARING PDF BOOKMARKS 
  If you’ve correctly used the styles in this document for all 
  your headers, your PDF will automatically include 
  bookmarks for everything you labeled with “5E – 
  HEADING CHAPTER,” “5E – HEADING 1,” and “5E – 
  HEADING 2.” Before exporting the PDF, you can check that 
  you did this correctly by going to the View toolbar, then 
  check the box for Navigation Pane. This shows you exactly 
  what will export to the PDF (however, note that the 
  Navigation Pane shows Header 3, while the PDF will not). 
  If something is showing up in your Navigation Pane that 
  isn’t actually a header and thus shouldn’t be a bookmark, 
  click on it, then change the text style to something other 
  than the 3 styles mentioned above. 
  If you have a header that is one of the above styles, but 
  you don’t want it to appear in the PDF bookmarks, you can 
  edit that after generating the PDF by installing the free 
  version of PDF-XChange Editor. Open your PDF in PDF-
  XChange Editor, then enable the bookmarks sidebar by 
  pressing Ctrl-B (or by going to View > Show/Hide > 
  Navigation Panes > Bookmarks). From there, you can edit, 
  delete, or create bookmarks; just be sure to save your 
  changes to the PDF when finished. 
  COMPRESS IMAGES 
  Depending on the resolution of the images you used, it 
  might make the final 
  PDF extremely large. To 
  reduce your file size, 
  click on one of your 
  highest-resolution 
  images in the Word 
  document, then click on 
  the Picture Format 
  toolbar that appears. In 
  the Adjust section, click 
  Compress Pictures to 
  open this dialog: 
   
  Be sure to uncheck the box for “Apply only to this 
  picture,” because you want Word to compress all your 
  images at once. Then select the maximum resolution you 
  want your images to have; 220 ppi is ideal for most 
  supplements, but if your final file size is prohibitively 
  large, you may want to reduce it to 150 ppi; this will reduce 
  image quality a little, but is still acceptable for PDF 
  supplements (Note: if you select a low-resolution picture, 
  it’ll gray out all the higher resolution options, even if you 
  have other images in the document that are that 
  resolution. Be sure to select one of your highest-resolution 
  images when you do this step, or it might restrict your 
  option to 96 ppi). Once you click OK, it’ll compress all your 
  pictures so none of them are larger than the resolution you 
  selected. 
  SAVING TO PDF 
  After you’ve finished the above steps and are ready to 
  publish your document, save a final copy in the normal 
  DOCX format (if you need to make updates later, you can’t 
  use Word to edit a PDF, you’ll need the original Word file). 
  Next, go to File, Save As, and click Browse. On the next box 
  that opens up, click the dropdown box and select PDF: 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  Beneath that, be sure 
  you select “Optimize for 
  Standard (Publishing 
  online and printing).” 
  Then click the Options 
  button, which will open 
  the dialog you see to the 
  right of this paragraph. 
  The most important 
  options to select are 
  “Include non-printing 
  information” (check all 
  boxes), “Optimize for 
  image quality,” and 
  “Bitmap text when fonts 
  may not be embedded.” 
  Do not check “PDF/A” 
  compliant! 
  Once you’ve set those 
  options, you can save 
  your PDF. It may take a 
  minute or more to 
  generate—don’t worry if your computer freezes for a 
  moment, it’ll eventually finish. 
   
  
  11 
  USING IMAGES 
  Adding art to your supplement is one of the easiest ways to 
  add polish. Here are some quick tips on how to make the 
  most of Word’s picture tools. 
  However, keep in mind that putting a lot of images in 
  your Word document will increase your PDF’s file size. You 
  may even experience some slowness while editing the text 
  within Word. Be sure to note the “Compress Images” 
  section on the previous page for instructions on how to 
  reduce your image file size before publishing. 
  INSERTING ART 
  You can drag and drop art from the Windows File Explorer 
  straight into Word, or click the Insert tab, then click 
  pictures. Once it’s inserted and you click on the image, 
  you’ll see a Picture Format toolbar appear. 
  POSITIONING YOUR IMAGE 
  For almost all art, you’ll want to change the Wrap Text 
  options to either Tight (wraps text around the shape of 
  that image), Top and Bottom (makes text skip the lines it 
  occupies), but otherwise lets you move it freely), Behind 
  Text (allows you to freely position anywhere, and makes 
  text appear in front of the image), or In Front of Text 
  (allows you to freely position anywhere, and hides text 
  behind it). 
   
  By default, Word tries to restrict your image to keep it 
  within the page margins. To place an image outside them 
  (as with a full-page-width image at the top or bottom of 
  page, as common in official sourcebooks), you can either 
  set it to appear Behind Text (which doesn’t wrap text), or 
  you set it for Top and Bottom wrap, then uncheck the box 
  for Move with Text (which allows you to put it in the 
  margins of your page, but still easily wrap text around it). 
  IMAGE EFFECTS 
  While Word isn’t intended for photo manipulation, there 
  are some basic effects it can add to your images. A few of 
  the most useful are demonstrated here, with examples on 
  the right of page. 
  PICTURE STYLES 
  You can select a wide range of Picture Styles from a 
  dropdown menu, including frames, drop shadows, and 
  faded edges. In addition, you can customize the styles by 
  opening the Format Picture dialog box (see red arrow for 
  where to click). 
  ARTISTIC EFFECTS 
  You can also do some quick “photomanipulation” to add 
  art filters to your pictures, though the options are far more 
  limited than a photo editor like Photoshop (paid) or GIMP 
  (free) would allow.  
  PICTURE STYLES: SIMPLE FRAME  
  PICTURE STYLES: DROP SHADOW: BLUR: 10, DISTANCE: 3 
  PICTURE STYLES: SOFT EDGE RECTANGLE  
   
  COLOR: SET TRANSPARENT COLOR  
   
   
  ARTISTIC EFFECTS: PAINT BRUSH  
   
  
  12 
  MISCELLANEOUS FAQ 
  This section includes miscellaneous tips and tricks to help 
  you get the most out of this template. 
  IMPORTING TEXT WITH OTHER FORMATS 
  If you copy and paste text into this template from another 
  document, it will likely import with different styles than 
  the ones you need to use. Good news, all of the right 
  template styles start with “5E” to make them easy to find. 
  You can make changes en masse to other styles that 
  come in with imported text: 
  • Click on a paragraph holding the text you need to 
  reformat—the Styles window will jump to that style. 
  • Hover over that style and click the down arrow next to it. 
  • Click “Select all # Instances.” When you do so, Word will 
  think for a moment, then highlight all the times in the 
  document that use that exact formatting. 
  • With all the text that needs to change highlighted, click 
  on the new style you want to switch it to—for example, 
  the “5E – CORE BODY PARA2” style. Word will switch all 
  that text to using the Core Body style with indented first 
  lines. After that, it’s easy to go through and change the 
  first paragraph of each section to correctly use the “5E – 
  CORE BODY PARA1” style without the indent, while 
  leaving the rest formatted with the proper indent. 
  HOW TO UN-ITALICIZE EPIGRAPH TEXT 
  If you have a style that applies italics (or bold) to a block of 
  text, but you need a portion of it to be formatted without it, 
  you can (counterintuitively) un-italicize it by highlighting 
  that text, then selecting the “*5E CHAR ITALIC” style. 
  This will reverse the italicization on that paragraph. For 
  example, this is useful if you need to un-italicize a word in 
  an italicized epigraph. 
  CHANGING FONT SIZE 
  The core body font size in this template is roughly 
  equivalent to that of a Wizards of the Coast hardcover 
  (even though this font is Merriweather 8 pt., this 
  particular font is larger than Bookmania 9 pt., the font 
  used in hardcovers). If you wish to increase the font size, 
  you can do so by right-clicking on the “5E – CORE BODY 
  PARA1” style and selecting Modify. On the Style Options 
  screen that opens, change the font size dropdown box to 
  9-point font, then click OK. This will automatically change 
  the Paragraph 2 style as well. You can change other styles 
  (such as sidebar fonts) the same way. 
   
  USING ON A MAC 
  This template has been successfully used on Word for Mac, 
  though files created using a Windows computer might 
  appear slightly differently on a Mac, and vice versa. You 
  can use either a Mac or Windows computer for your layout, 
  but it’s not recommended to work on the same file with 
  both systems and expect it to open with the same layout on 
  both—there may be minor shifts in image and text 
  placement. 
  For best results, install all Office updates before using 
  this on a Mac; to do so, open Word, then on the top menu, 
  click Help > Check for Updates. 
  Here are the known issues that beta testers have 
  intermittently seen while using Word for Mac: 
  • Hyperlinks and clickable Table of Contents don’t reliably 
  export (this is an overall Word for Mac issue, and not 
  something that this template causes). If your document 
  needs hyperlinks and they don’t export, consider 
  exporting final PDF using a Windows computer; 
  however, be sure the layout hasn’t changed when you 
  switch operating systems! 
  • In some versions of Word for Mac, sidebars have had 
  intermittently distorted text upon PDF export. If this 
  happens, you can try changing sidebar font to Arial. 
  • If you’re using this on a Mac and experience other 
  issues, please email me and let me know so I can add it 
  to the list (or try to fix it). 
  PARAGRAPH VS. CHARACTER STYLES 
  This template uses both paragraph and character styles. 
  Paragraph styles affect the entire paragraph, and can’t be 
  used to format just part of it. In contrast, character styles 
  allow you to apply selective formatting (e.g. bold) to just a 
  few characters if you wish, while leaving the underlying 
  paragraph style untouched. 
  You can easily identify which are which in the Styles 
  sidebar: the character styles are prefixed with an asterisk 
  and appear at the top of your style list. You can also 
  identify them by the icon Word displays to the right of that 
  style name. Character styles have an “a” icon, paragraph 
  styles have a “¶” icon. 
  SLOW PERFORMANCE 
  Depending on your computer, it may be slow to work with 
  a Word document that has a lot of pictures embedded (as 
  does this sample template). To work around this, don’t add 
  any pictures until you’ve finished writing & layout. 
  
  13 
   
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Dungeons & Dragons [multi]/5th Edition (5e)/3rd Party/DMsGuild/READ_ME_SECOND.pdf