Harry Potter D&D

A flavor enhancer! No rule, spell, or ability changes.

Setting your campaign in the Hogwarts Founders (medieval) era is the easiest way to make the D&D setting make sense with Harry Potter lore.

I based this off of 5e, but this could be adapted easily to any edition. All the changes are cosmetic: renaming something or modifying lore. My goal was to allow the players to build characters from the entire PHB, and play pre-made modules

The Extinct Excuse

Assuming you’re playing in the founders’ era (1000 years before Harry Potter), if monsters and races in your campaign don’t show up in the HP books you can say that they’re extinct by the modern era.

Races

Play other D&D Races as-is using The Extinct Excuse.

The Goblin Problem

HP-universe goblins are similar to D&D dwarves, so a rename is easy. But, how to explain all the evil, dumb D&D goblinoids running around? My lore is: Some goblin societies collapse, losing their intelligence, becoming evil and aggressive. Their skin turns green and their eyes red. Whether it’s a curse or an illness, (or they dug too greedily and too deep), nobody knows, but it’s incurable. They’re called “Green Goblins” or “Groblins” for short.

Classes

If a player wants to be a Metamorphmagus (like Tonks), you could use a Doppelganger homebrew for their race.

Deities and Pantheon

The Harry Potter universe has no deities or pantheon. Magic is something you’re born with; it doesn’t come from another entity. Clerics and paladins use their power of belief to focus their magic, like wizards use a wand. Powerful magic happens when they believe truly, and failure happens when they doubt their beliefs. See the 5e DMG pg. 13 “Forces and Philosophies”.

This is totally optional, but I rewrote the Cleric and Paladin classes to remove references to divinity. For example, instead of a “holy symbol” they have a “devotional symbol”. Instead of Clerics picking a deity that has a certain divine domain, they would simply pick a “philosophy” (Knowledge, Life, Light, Nature, Tempest, Trickery, or War). PCs and NPCs can worship Tymora, Allah, piece of toast, or be an atheist and this would work. Here’s a quick guide to rewriting descriptions to fit the HP universe:

Planes of Existence

The HP universe seems to have only one plane of existence beyond the mortal plane, where souls go after death. See the DMG pg.44 “One World” or “Otherworld”.

Despite the lack of canonical otherworldly beings, Warlocks still have a lot of options. They could make a pact with an ancient dark lord, whose soul resides in a horcrux and knows forbidden dark magic. Magical creatures in the wizarding world have mysterious and unknown powers. They could make a pact with the “king of the centaurs” or the flobberworms. A pact with a dragon would work too.

Monsters

As-is. These appear both in HP and D&D. Basilisk, Centaur, Cockatrice, Chimera, Ghoul, Griffin, Hippogriff, Imp, Manticore, Merpeople, Pixie, Salamander, Sphinx, Unicorn, Werewolf, Yeti

HP pets and non-aggressive creatures (1 hit point, no abilities): Golden Snidget, Mooncalf, Niffler, Owls that deliver messages, Puffskein, Pygmy Puff

Dragons

Parseltongue is Draconic.

D&D Dragons are intelligent beings and modern-era HP dragons are simple beasts. If you’re playing in the Hogwarts founders era, you’ve got a thousand years to settle the difference. My lore excuse is: the metallics will sacrifice their lives so that chromatics lose their intelligence, language, and powers. Some metallics survived to the modern era but they’re less… shiny.

Names

Spells

Lore: Why are spells different?

Harry tumbles back into time, and when he lands, most of the spells he knows don’t work! Welcome to level 1.

J.K. Rowling hasn’t said anything about how spells are created, which I’m using to my advantage. My lore: Spells have to be created before being used. You can think of it like a magical operating system. Creation of spells “patch” the OS, and add or change features. Harry Potter is using the 1990s OS, but in the medieval OS, Expelliarmus doesn’t exist yet and Accio is so different, he’ll have to level up and re-learn it.

Renamed spells

Items

Galleons, Sickles, and Knuts are made of gold, silver, and copper respectively. Use D&D value and exchange rates. Original HP exchange rates are ridiculous.

As is. These items are in both HP and D&D.

Cloak of invisibility, Broom of flying

NPC and Town Names

Harry Potter has a distinctly whimsical feel, with lots of play on words  and alliteration.

• I used this page to inject some pureblood family names into my campaign.
• I used this generator to get some quirky British-sounding town names.