Welcome to the Wizarding World!

This campaign uses all the core mechanics and rules of D&D (5e 2014), but is adapted using Wands & Wizards, a published homebrew add-on system, which I have then readapted to enable character creation and management in DnD Beyond.

Differences from 5e

All DnD spells, potions and magic items, as well as most feats, are replaced by Wizarding World alternatives (all of which can/will be DnDBeyond home-brewed).

Perhaps the most significant differences from 5e come during character creation, which is (for obvious reasons of faithfulness to the WW universe) greatly restricted vs 5e (see table below)

These notes, and the associated Site of Many Things (where you are most likely reading this) attempt to collate and publish these variant and house rules for players ahead of Session Zero.

Character Creation in this campaign...

In order to make the most of the WaW mechanics whilst still using DnD Beyond to manage characters, this campaign puts all players into a single human house of Hufflepuff (race/species) and drops the 'casting styles' entirely (Wands and Wizards: 'WaW'), and instead all players will use the original core DnD Sorcerer class.

Subclass selection is still available, with players choosing a speciality from the various Schools of Magic. This unlocks some unique spells (only available to students of that school) and may help to inform players' back stories or in-campaign choices.

In order to make varied and interesting characters, players will still have a choice (at Level 3) between metamagic options as well as the opportunity to earn the metamagic feat (and learn two more metamagic options) as your school career progresses. Additionally, Homebrew Backgrounds will exist (which in turn inform the The Wand Chooses the Wizard process to develop a character's Ideals, Bonds and Flaws) and over time customised Feats will be introduced and can be earned or learned.

Character Creation Conversion Table

Skills

Some skills have been added, removed, or replaced to better represent the skills used in the wizarding word. The skill conversion table (perhaps useful to print out or copy?) can be found on this page here (1.2.1 Skills).

Levels vs Hogwarts Years

A character’s early levels can be associated with the magical abilities acquired through different years of school.

Levels 1-2 correspond to average first-year students, just being introduced to schools of magic. Level 3 is second year and level 4 is third year, and at this point, they have learned to exercise some control over their magic. The threats they face are relatively minor, usually only posing a danger to other children or small villages.

Level 5 will typically be covered in the fourth year. Fifth year students are levels 6-7, while sixth-year students are levels 8-9. This is when young witches and wizards really come into their own, learning powerful spells and abilities from their school of magic and becoming capable of facing dangers that threaten adult wizards.

Seventh year students are level 10 while Hogwarts graduates and the majority of adult wizards are levels 11-12. Only well-practiced wizards reach levels 13-16, like Aurors, Hogwarts teachers and members of the Order of the Phoenix (back in the Second Wizarding War). These characters have reached a level of power that makes them special even among wizards, confronting threats to whole regions or wizard academies.

At levels 17-20, characters achieve the pinnacle of their school of magic’s features, becoming heroic (or villainous) archetypes in their own right. The fate of magical governments or even the entire muggle world might hang in the balance during their adventures.

Spells

The entire DnD 5e Spells list is redundant in this campaign. Instead, students will learn from the Wizarding World spells list in a manner similar to that of the Wizard class in DnD 5e, except instead of spending gold to copy scrolls, you will attend lessons, learn and practice spells and - dice Gods permitting - learn to cast them at will, at which point they would be manually added to your Known Spells.

Each year there is a set curriculum of core spells you will be taught, but you may also be able to self-teach (or at least try to) extra-curricular spells. These are all broken down on the main Spells Listing page.

Potions

Potions are a much bigger thing in the WW vs DnD 5e. Each school year you are taught a standard curriculum of potions, with the opportunity to research, experiment and potentially create your own Extra-Curricular Potions.

As this will be a predominantly (perhaps entirely) adult-player campaign, love potions are permitted (though they are not taught at Hogwarts in usual lessons) but any sexual encounters will likely not trigger at all until characters reach a certain age and even then will always 'fade to black'... The prospect of describing a sex scene in detail to my friends is not one that appeals to me as a DM. That much at least is the same as standard DnD 5e.

Each potion has a defined Ingredients List, and the school will provide a small amount of ingredients for core curriculum potions. For additional supplies or Extra-Curricular Potions, players may be able to buy, find, forage, recover from creatures or steal the necessary components. Higher level potions require higher value (and harder to acquire) components.

Items

Most of the mundane items from DnD 5e will still apply in this campaign, however most (perhaps all) DnD magical items will be replaced by Wizarding World homebrew alternatives. As items become known about or discovered they will gradually appear on this list of all known items.

Armour

In the Wizarding World, mundane armor is useless against spells. The best way to survive a duel is to avoid being hit. A number of cloaks do exist however that can offer some additional protection or boons.

• Winter Cloak. One of the required supplies for attendance at Hogwarts, this heavy winter cloak keeps its wearer quite warm in cold, snowy winters. A winter cloak helps conceal a duelist's intended movements from their opponents, but the weight and bulk can be a hindrance.

• Silk Cloak. All of the concealing benefits of a cloak with none of the unwieldy bulk, a silk cloak is the preferred travel wear of experienced duelists. The smooth and lightweight material allows for a full range of movement and nimbleness.

• Shield Cloak. Popular in times of war and always in high demand among Aurors, a shield cloak is a standard silk cloak that's been enchanted with the Protego charm. While nowhere near as effective as the actual Shield Charm, the enchantment provides minor spell resistance that can make the difference between life and death.

• Demiguise Cloak. A demiguise cloak is a rough cloak woven with a thick silvery-white fiber. The outer layer is made from the hair of a Demiguise, a rare and elusive magical creature from Asia with the ability to turn invisible at will. The cloak functions as perfect camouflage from all angles, but when the wearer moves, there is a perceptible delay before the cloak matches its new surroundings. In combat, this often gives its wearer a visible but blurred appearance.

• Disillusionment Cloak. Created by weaving Pellucidi Pellis and a few other enchantments into a silk cloak, the disillusionment cloak has no delay, functioning as an effective invisibility cloak. However, in a certain light, an onlooker may be able to see a slightly distorted outline of the cloak's shape. In combat, it's quite effective, but as with any invisibility cloak, the wearer becomes partially visible if they open it to cast a spell.

Wealth, currency & coinage

Family wealth determines starting equipment for first year students (see 06.2 Starting Equipment. Weekly/monthly allowances may be given to students from standard or wealthy families.

Currency rules from Wands & WIzards have been replaced by a simplified decimal system (that DnD Beyond can more or less manage). The original rules are provided here as an optional ruleset players can choose to adopt (and manage outside of DnDBeyond)

Official (Wands & Wizards) Rules (NOT IN USE)

Optional Coinage
Wizard money can often seem strange and incomprehensible to Muggles, so they may be more comfortable using terms they're familiar with, like gold pieces. However, it's actually not too hard to keep straight the values of the copper, silver, and gold coins issued by Gringott’s, when you convert it to Muggle value (United States Dollars are used in the following examples).
The copper Knut is the smallest denomination. 29 Knuts make one silver Sickle. 17 Sickles (or 493 Knuts) make one Galleon, the large gold coin. Approximately speaking, one Knut is worth one nickel ($0.05), which means a Sickle is $1.45 and a Galleon is $24.65. A Gringott’s Standard ruby is worth 20 galleons (or $493).

Simplified Currency (for D&D Beyond) (IN USE)

gp=Galleon
sp=Sickle
cp=Knut

Exchange rates: 100 knuts = 10 sickles = 1 galleon