At some point in your Dungeons & Dragons 5E career, you’re going to be asked to make an attack roll. Every single class has the potential to attack and deal damage. But, some types of attack are flat-out confusing. Let’s go over them all and learn how to calculate attack bonus 5E.
5e Race Bonuses
How to Calculate Attack Bonus 5e
Your attack bonus is not too difficult to calculate by default. It goes like this:
“Yer late, elf!” came the rough edge of a familiar voice. Bruenor Battlehammer walked up the back of his dead foe, disregarding the fact that the heavy monster lay on top of his elven friend. In spite of the added discomfort, the dwarf’s long, pointed, often-broken nose and gr. Ability Score Increase. Your Strength score increases by 1. Necrotic Shroud. Starting at 3rd level, you can use your action to unleash the divine energy within yourself, causing your eyes to turn into pools of darkness and two skeletal, ghostly, flightless wings to sprout from your back. On the other hand, the 3e Player’s Handbook didn’t even have the Bonus Types section—the only mention of bonuses stacking or not stacking was in the combining magical effects section (that part that 3.5e has on page 172 and that refers back to 171), where stacking racial bonuses were not mentioned. At some point in your Dungeons & Dragons 5E career, you’re going to be asked to make an attack roll. Every single class has the potential to attack and deal damage. But, some types of attack are flat-out confusing. Let’s go over them all and learn how to calculate attack bonus 5E. How to Calculate Attack Bonus 5e.
Attack Roll = Ability Modifier + Proficiency + Enchantment/Item Bonus + Class Features
Most of the time, you’ll only have to worry about Ability Modifiers and Proficiency.
Dnd Races With Dex Bonus
How Can I Increase My Attack Bonus?
What your attack roll hinges most on is that ability modifier. That’ll change based entirely on the weapon you’re using. In general, if your weapon is either strictly Ranged or has the Finesse quality, you’ll use Dexterity. Otherwise (melee or thrown weapons without the Finesse quality), you’ll use Strength. That means thrown weapons use Strength unless they are also Finesse.
Unlike older editions, spells now use their Casting Ability Score to calculate attack rolls. That means that a Wizard casting Firebolt adds their Intelligence modifier to their attack roll (back in the old days, it was Dexterity!).
Boosting your Ability Modifier is therefore one of the easiest ways to get your Attack Bonus high. Make sure you find ability boosting items, gear, and Tomes to get it as high as possible!
Proficiency modifier increases just by leveling up, but be warned; You only add your proficiency modifier if you’re proficient with the weapon used. A Wizard doesn’t get to add their Proficiency to Greatsword attacks unless they got proficient from feats or racial features. Make sure you have proficiency, either from class or race, before using weapons, since proficiency is such a major boost to accuracy.
In almost all cases, you’ll find enchanted weapons scattered along your quest. These bonuses go from +1 to +3, and augment both your attack and damage rolls. If you have a weapon with a numerical bonus, that means you just add that to the attack roll. Easy as pie! If you’re a spellcaster, there are a few magical items that boost your spell attack rolls – the Wand of the War Mage is the most popular, able to increase to +3 and attunable to all magic users. There’s a few other magic items that are more useful, but more specific to classes that they can attune to.
Finally, there are class features. There aren’t too many class features that boost your attack rolls, but they’re there. A bunch of features add dice to attack rolls. Bardic Inspiration is one of the most popular – and powerful – ways to get a bonus to attack rolls. The Battle Master can add similarly sized dice to their own rolls, and the Wild Magic Sorcerer can do similar things to Bardic Inspiration… But with tiny dice. So does Guidance, a spell on a few lists.
The Archery Fighting Style adds a flat +2 to a Fighter or Ranger’s attack rolls with a ranged weapon. The War Cleric and Oath of Devotion can use their Channel Divinity to get huge bonuses on attack rolls for a short amount of time.
Then there’s the “enchant my weapon” effects. Some classes can use an ability to enchant their weapon, giving it a magical bonus to attacks. These don’t stack with normal enchantments. The Kensei Monk and Forge Cleric have access to this without using magic. Paladins can use a 3rd level spell – Elemental Weapon – to do so. Wizards have access to Magic Weapon, which – shockingly – gives a weapon a magic bonus.
Racial Bonuses Dnd 5e Spell
Wrapping Up the Attack Bonus Guide
Unlike older editions, 5e runs off the idea of “bounded accuracy.” There’s just not many ways to boost your attack bonuses compared to older editions. If you want to be more accurate, consider ways to gain advantage on your attack rolls instead. There are a ton of ways to do that, and the d20 you roll will almost always influence your attacks more than your modifier will.
Need more 5E Content? see our guide on how to level up in DND.
Race/Ancestry options for Dungeons and Dragons 5e from Elemental Evil Player's Companion, Volo's Guide to Monsters, Player's Handbook, Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide, and Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes.
Racial Bonuses Dnd 5e
Race | Subrace | Ability Bonuses | Size | Speed | Features | Languages | Notes | Source |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Aarakocra |
| Medium | Walk 25, Fly 50 (no medium or heavy armor) | Common, Aarakocra, Auran | EE 5 | |||
Aasimar |
| Medium | Walk 30 | Common, Celestial | Resistant to necrotic & radiant damage. Light cantrip. | VOLO 104 | ||
Protector |
| Flying 30 when Radiant Soul | Transform to sprout wings for 1 minute and Deal extra radiant damage equal to level | VOLO 105 | ||||
Scourge |
| Transform to unleash searing light to damage yourself for 1 minute and all around you 1/2 level, and Deal extra radiant damage equal to level | VOLO 105 | |||||
Fallen |
| Transform to frighten those around you and Deal extra necrotic damage equal to level | VOLO 105 | |||||
Bugbear |
| Medium | Walk 30 | Darkvision 60 and Powerful Build | Common, Goblin | Proficient in Stealth, Surprise Attack. | VOLO 119 | |
Dragonborn |
| Medium | Walk 30 | Breath Weapon | Common, Draconic | Damage resistance of dragon ancestor type | PHB 34 | |
Dwarf |
| Medium | Walk 25 | Darkvision 60 | Common, Dwarvish | Advantage and resistance against Poison damage | PHB 20 | |
Gray Dwarf (Druergar) |
| Darkvision 120 and Sunlight Sensitivity | Undercommon | Enlarge, invisibility once per long rest | SCAG 104 | |||
Hill Dwarf |
| PHB 20 | ||||||
Mountain Dwarf |
| PHB 20 | ||||||
Elf |
| Medium | Walk 30 | Darkvision 60 | Common, Elvish | Proficient with Perception | PHB 23 | |
Drow (Dark Elf) |
| Darkvision 120 and Sunlight Sensitivity | PHB 24 | |||||
Eladrin |
| Seasonally changing personality traits and flaws, 30ft teleportation 1 / rest with seasonal effect | MTOF 61 | |||||
High Elf |
| 1 of choice | PHB 23 | |||||
Sea Elf |
| Swimming 30 | Amphibian | Aquan | Proficiency with spear, trident, light crossbow, and net. | MTOF 62 | ||
Shadar-kai |
| Cantrip of choice from chill touch, spare the dying, or thaumaturgy. Teleport 15 ft 1/rest. | MTOF 62 | |||||
Wood Elf |
| Walking 35 | Hide behind anything natural | PHB 24 | ||||
Firbolg |
| Medium | Walk 30 | Detect Magic or disguise self 1/r. and Powerful Build. | Common, Elvish, Giant | Limited communication with beasts and plants. | VOLO 107 | |
Genasi |
| Medium | Walk 30 | Common, Primordial | EE 9 | |||
Air Genasi |
| Levitation once per long rest | EE 9 | |||||
Earth Genasi |
| Pass without trace once per long rest | EE 10 | |||||
Fire Genasi |
| Darkvision 60 and Fire Resistance | Produce flame, burning hands once per long rest | EE 10 | ||||
Water Genasi |
| Swim 30 | Acid Resistance and Amphibious | Shape water cantrip, create or destroy water once per long rest | EE 10 | |||
Gith |
| Medium | Walk 30 | Common, Gith | MTOF 96 | |||
Githyanki |
| 1 of choice | Proficient in 1 skill or tool of choice, proficient in light and medium armor. Mage hand cantrip. Jump and misty step once per long rest | MTOF 96 | ||||
Githzerai |
| +1 to AC in light armor or unarmored with no shield. Mage hand cantrip. shield and detect thoughts once per long rest | MTOF 96 | |||||
Goblin |
| Small | Walk 30 | Darkvision 60 | Common, Goblin | Proficient in Stealth, Surprise Attack. | VOLO 119 | |
Goliath | Medium | Walk 30 | Powerful Build | Common, Giant | Shrug off some damage, proficiency in Athletics | VOLO 108 | ||
Gnome |
| Small | Walk 25 | Common, Gnomish | Advantage on all saves against magic | PHB 36 | ||
Forest Gnome | PHB 37 | |||||||
Rock Gnome | Advantage on History checks with magic, alchemy | PHB 37 | ||||||
Deep Gnomes (Svirfneblin) | Darkvision 120 | Undercommon | Advantage on Stealth in rocky terrain | SCAG 115 | ||||
Halfling |
| Small | Walk 25 | Common, Halfling | Reroll 1s | PHB 28 | ||
Ghostwise Halfling |
| Telepathy | SCAG 110 | |||||
Lightfoot Halfling |
| Hide behind Medium or larger creatures | PHB 28 | |||||
Stout Halfling |
| Advantage and resistance against Poison damage | PHB 28 | |||||
Half-Elf |
| Medium | Walk 30 | Darkvision 60 | Common, Elvish, 1 of choice | Proficiency with 2 skills of choice | PHB 39 | |
Half-Drow | Choice of Drow Magic or the elf trait Keen Senses in place of Skill Versatility | SCAG 116 | ||||||
Aquatic Half-Elf | Swim 30 | Choice of elf trait Keen Senses in place of Skill Versatility | SCAG 116 | |||||
High Half-Elf | Choice of High Elf’s Elf Weapon Training or Cantrip, or the elf trait Keen Senses in place of Skill Versatility | SCAG 116 | ||||||
Wood Half-Elf | Choice of Wood Elf’s Elf Weapon Training, Fleet of Foot, or Mask of the Wild; or the elf trait Keen Senses in place of Skill Versatility | SCAG 116 | ||||||
Half-Orc |
| Medium | Walk 30 | Darkvision 60 | Common, Orc | Proficiency in Intimidation, Relentless Endurance, Savage Attacks | PHB 41 | |
Hobgoblin |
| Medium | Walk 30 | Darkvision 60 | Common, Goblin | Proficient with 2 martial weapons and light armor | VOLO 119 | |
Human |
| Medium | Walk 30 | Common, 1 of choice | PHB 31 | |||
Variant Human |
| Choose a feat and Choose a skill to gain proficiency with | PHB 31 | |||||
Kenku |
| Medium | Walk 30 | Common, Auran, Speak only using Mimicry | Proficiency in 2 of: Acrobatics, Deception, Stealth, Sleight of Hand | VOLO 111 | ||
Kobold |
| Medium | Walk 30 | Darkvision 60 | Common, Draconic | Pack Tactics, Sunlight Sensitivity | VOLO 119 | |
Lizardfolk |
| Medium | Walk 30, Swim 30 | Bite and Hold breath | Common, Draconic | Proficiency in 2 of: Animal Handling, Nature, Perception, Stealth, Survival | VOLO 113 | |
Orc |
| Medium | Walk 30 | Darkvision 60 and Powerful Build | Common, Orc | Proficient in Intimidation | VOLO 120 | |
Tabaxi |
| Medium | Walk 30, Climb 20 | Darkvision 60 and Claws | Common, 1 of choice | Proficiency in Perception and Stealth | VOLO 115 | |
Tiefling |
| Medium | Walk 30 | Darkvision 60 | Common, Infernal | PHB 43 | ||
Asmodeus Tiefling |
| This is the default Tiefling in the PHB as well. | MTOF 21 | |||||
Baalzebul Tiefling |
| Thaumaturgy cantrip, ray of sickness and crown of madness 1/lr | MTOF 21 | |||||
Dispater Tiefling |
| Thaumaturgy cantrip, disguise self and invisibility 1/lr | MTOF 21 | |||||
Fierna Tiefling |
| Friends cantrip, charm person and suggestion 1/lr | MTOF 21 | |||||
Glasya Tiefling |
| Minor illusion cantrip, disguise self and invisibility 1/lr | MTOF 22 | |||||
Levistus Tiefling |
| Ray of frost cantrip, armor of Agathys and darkness 1/lr | MTOF 22 | |||||
Mammon Tiefling |
| Mage hand cantrip, Tenser’s floating disk and arcane lock 1/lr | MTOF 22 | |||||
Mephistopheles Tiefling |
| Mage hand cantrip, magic missile and web 1/lr | MTOF 22 | |||||
Zariel Tiefling |
| Thaumaturgy cantrip, searing smite and branding smite 1/lr | MTOF 22 | |||||
SCAG Variant Tiefling | Choice of Devil’s Tongue, Hellfire, or Winged features to replace Infernal Legacy | SCAG 118 | ||||||
Triton |
| Medium | Walk 30, Swim 30 | Amphibious | Common, Primordial | VOLO 117 | ||
Yuan-Ti Pureblood |
| Medium | Walk 30 | Darkvision 60, Poison immunity, and Magic Resistance | Common, Abyssal, Draconic | Poison spray and animal friendship (snakes only) cantrips, suggestion 1/lr | VOLO 120 |