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Hi everyone

I will become a DM for the first time in a few weeks, and I'm pretty nervous. My only D&D experience is as a player for 4E about a year ago, and I felt like I could take on the role of DM for my friends in the most recent edition. I had a few general questions I wanted to ask the community:

-During combat, do players make saving throws? Anything like armor saves or avoiding attacks? The rules make it sound like if you're attacked and the enemy makes their hit roll, you have to take the damage. I see some references to saving throws, but I just want to clarify. I know that outside of combat, if you fall into a trap for example, you make some kind of throw (like strength or dexterity.)

-Do the XP enemies have have to be split between the party members evenly or do they all get the same amount once the encounter is over? Example, if you fight a monster that has 50xp and you win the encounter, do you split that 50xp into the number of the party, or does everyone get 50 points regardless if they killed the monster in question?

-How do damage types apply during and out of combat? So if someone is hit with an acid attack, does the acid damage them outside of combat?

I hope I was clear enough with the questions. Feel free to reply for any clarification! Thank you!

Certain spells and abilities require saving throws to avoid or mitigate the effects, eg being hit by fireball gives a DEX saving throw to take half damage if passed. Armour and avoiding damage doesn't really crop up though certain classes like rogues can do so. For xp not too sure I've never done working xp always just assign level ups at the end of session, though I do think that it is divided between all players in the encounter. For the type of damage the type only comes into affect if a creature has a resistance or vulnerability to it. Eg with acid damage unless its an effect that continues from a spell or ability it won't cause any extra damage unless there vulnerable to it.

Players make saving throws when they are subject to effects that allow them. They roll a d20 and add their bonus.

XPTS are split among the party. The DM can award more XPTS for things other than killing monsters.

Download these PDFs to get more answers :http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/basicrules

They are cut down versions of the printed books. Also grab the SRD here http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/systems-reference-document-srd

Most important thing for a DM to know: The players are NOT the DM's opponents. The game should never be DM versus Players. Second most importantly, say Yes a lot to player questions-- except those asking for undeserved shinies

Piggy backing off this: This is a great quick rules sheet for you and the players (if you give it to your players, only give them the first two pages).

http://swshinn.com/dnd-5e/rules-summary/