D&D 5R: Grappling What Are The Rules Anyway?

 Grappling, in my experience, has long been a mess as far as the rules go.  It's just been hard to remeber the rules and to use them at appropriate times.  Often it is easier to just swing a weapon at a target rather than use the sometimes amazing grappling technique.

In D&D 5E 2014 (known as 5E to me), there was an opposed challenge to start a grapple which repeated.  No big deal other than having to figure out what ability each particpant was using make a pair of rolls add mods and compare.  Well that's all changed in D&D 5R 2014 (known as 5R herein).

D&D 5R: Drawing & Stowing Weapons -- Dueling and Two Weapon Fighting Simultaneously?

In an earlier post, Four Attacks per Turn at Level 5. Yes! Really?, I looked at the hash that the 5R rules created with two weapon fighting.  This is a related, but much simpler topic: How does drawing and stowing weapons work and can a character benefit from dueling feat (use only one weapon) and Duel Wielder / Two-Weapon Fighting Style in the same round?

I'll gather the rules snippets that apply and link a relevant video but first, I'll get to the conclusion and an example. 

TLDR: Each attack can be accompanied by stowing -or- drawing a weapon (two with two weapon fighting feat) before -or- after the actual attack. It is possible (and bizarre) for a character to benefit from who has the Duel Wielder / Two-Weapon Fighting Style and the Dueling feat in the same combat round.

D&D 5R: Four Attacks per Turn at Level 5. Yes! Really?

 It appears that Wizards has managed to make a real hash out of two weapon fighting in the 2024 rules.  I'll link some relevant videos that discuss the issues, gather the rules snippets that apply and give my understanding of what they mean, especially (and likely only) to my table below. 

TLDR: It seems possible for a character who has the Dual Wielder Feat and is using light weapons to attack twice with what used to be referred to as an off-hand weapon. 

Alustriel’s Spells

Homebrewing 5R Versions

There used to be a number of spells included in D&D that are credited to Alustriel.  I’ve become interested in them as I am setting up to run an Edge of Ruin campaign.  I’ll be using these spells as “name drop” opportunities for the pre-game that one of our players is running for us (I get to play, yea!).

I found homebrew versions of each of the below spells on DnDBeyond.  All but the first can be traced to 2e sources.  I don’t know where the first came from. The spells and sources for the most recent official versions I could find are:

Spell Name	Lvl	School	Edition
Alustriel's Electric Strike	C	Evocation	Strictly home-brewed no canon source
Alustriel's Banner	1	Illusion	2e  Wizard's Spell Compendium Volume One
Turtle Soup	1	Evocation	2e Wizard's Spell Compendium Volume Four
Alustriel's Fang	2	Alteration	2e  Wizard's Spell Compendium Volume One
Alustriel's Mantle	4	Abjuration	2e  Wizard's Spell Compendium Volume One
Alustriel's Improved Mantle	7	Evocation	2e  Wizard's Spell Compendium Volume One
Alustriel's Sword of Stars	7	Evocation	2e  Wizard's Spell Compendium Volume One.
Alustriel’s Queenmantle	9	Abjuration	2e Dragon Annual #1, Gem of the North, pp. 59-60