Your Options For D&D 5E Electronic Tools

There have been unofficial resources for D&D 5E pretty much since the game was launched, but with the recent release of the 5E SRD under the OGL, some of the bigger players have jumped into the fray. From virtual table tops to character generators, the following software packages explicitly support D&D 5E. Other applications can be used with 5E, of course, but these ones are the ones which are explicit about it. For the moment I'm not including dice rollers or random generators, as there are just too many of those - they're a quick Google search away.

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[h=4]Out Now[/h]

• Fantasy Grounds. From Smiteworks, this virtual tabletop (VTT) is the officially licensed VTT solution for D&D 5th Edition. It also contains the 5E SRD in its entirely, as well as plenty of licensed D&D material, including the adventure paths (Tyranny of Dragons, etc.)
• PC Gen. Unofficial character generation software. It has a steeper learning curve than some other solutions, but it supports D&D 5E already.
• Beyond Tabletop. Calls itself "D&D 5E tools without the baggage". A web app which replaces maps and character sheets.
• OrcPub. An online D&D 5E character builder. It also has tools like a spell creator, class builder, and so on.
• Fight Club 5th Edition. A digital character sheet on iOS.
• Game Master 5th Edition. Also an iOS app, this app helps set up encounters, track initiative, and roll attacks.
• DM Minion 5E. Another iOS app, this lets you import and track initiative, hit points, conditions, etc.
• Next Turn. Another app, this combat manager tracks initiative, hit points, etc.
• D&D 5 Spellbook Cards. For Android, this contains all the spells from the PHB and Elemental Evil.
• Kobold Fight Club. A very slick web-based encounter builder.
• D&D Monster Maker. Download and install this software on your PC. I don't know much about this one except that the page talks about 64 C++ .net x86's or something but the screenshot has a nicely formatted monster.
• RPG Tinker. This is a D&D 5E NPC builder. Elect a template, attribute array, and hit dice, and it does the rest.
• 5E Spellbook. This is for Android. You have to add the spell data yourself, though.
• City of Brass. A campaign management suite with 5E-specific tools.

[h=4]Coming Soon[/h]

• Hero Lab. The popular character creation software, Hero Lab has been a staple for Pathfinder players for years. D&D 5E is coming to it very soon. Hero Lab is also an iPad app.
• Realm Works. From the same people as Hero Lab, this is a campaign management suite of tools.

[h=4]Other[/h]

• Not so much an app, but Dragon+ is WotC's mobile news app. You can use it to keep with (official) news.
• And don't forget EN World's brand new mobile skin which is designed to make browsing (unofficial) news easier. Just visit EN World on your mobile device to see it!

Know of any more? Let me know in the comments and I'll add it to the list!

 

[Remathilis]

I've been using the 'Fifth Edition DM Tools' on Android. 5 bucks, and imported all the monsters. I bet it will be outdated now that the whole licence thing has come down. Going to see many prettier apps and preloaded with goodies now I am thinking. Anyway, no super intuitive, but really useful to pull up your pre-made encounters, and generally do your bookkeeping for you right on your phone.

Also, DMDJ. (Via Amazon Store) Very fun to play with to create and manipulate sound ambiance during a game.

Do you have a link to the monster file(s), perchance?

 

[jrodder]

I'll have to check. I believe I did it via a Reddit post with the author posting about the app, and another guy did posted a file with the XML fixes to allow it to import. I bet I could just export from the app and you could use that, I am guessing that would be in violation of the WotC IP though, no? I mean, its a complete MM, I didn't have any moral problem with it since I own a physical copy. Maybe someone can post here about the ability to post or link to such a file?

 

[Queer Venger]

That was one of the first things I made when 5e came out. I created a 5e spell book database using Spellbook Master on OS X, bought the iOS app intended for 3.5/3.75, then transfered the database over.

I have little time for that, I will wait for this app to include the 5e spells, which I bet are coming as I type ;-)

 

[Simonb1]

Hi all,

I currently use Squire on Android.

Simon

 

[Remus Lupin]

City of Brass anyone?

https://www.cityofbrass.io

 

[Toxic_Rat]

The current version of pymapper (www.pymapper.com) has some 5E content available now, with updates for the 5E SRD coming very soon.

Pymapper is a tile-based map maker/game assistant.

 

[steppedonad4]

So Lonewolf are charging $20 USD to be able to use the free SRD content?

How generous of them.

 

[Remus Lupin]

Well no, just to use it on their platform. That said, as much as I love Herolab, Lone Wolf are serious masters of price gouging. Their licensing rules are absurd, and they will nickel and dime every. single. solitary addition to the core program. It's such a good app that I've been willing to shovel a lot of money at them, but I've about reached my saturation point, until they loosen up their licensing. There are cheaper options available. For example I've been using City of Brass lately for 5e and Pathfinder and loving it.

 

[Morrus]

So Lonewolf are charging $20 USD to be able to use the free SRD content?

How generous of them.

No, they're charging $20 to code all the material and the rules logic that makes the character builder work.

The good news is that if you don't think that's worth $20, it's perfectly possible to code your own Hero Lab data packages. You can take the SRD and do it yourself. I suspect you'd value that work at more than $20 though, were you to do it.

 

[Sir Brennen]

This would be more helpful if it included approximate price information (free, one-time and data pack costs, monthly fees, etc.). Any chance someone can add that info in comments to the extent they know it?

I can speak to the Lion's Den iOS apps - (Fight Club and Game Master). Both are ad supported freeware, with an option to upgrade to Premium to get rid of the ads. I just got he Fight Club 5E app recently, and the upgrade was about $3. The latest update included the SRD material (free), and it also supports fan-created data imports in the form of XML files (DropBox account required.) You can also create your own entries for just about everything.

I also have Fight Club 3E and Game Master 5E, which I've used a lot running a game. One nice thing is when you make dice rolls, the result is in a big font everyone at the table can read when I want to show them on my iPad.