D&D 5E Best VTT for automating 5e combat

[MNblockhead]

After nearly half a year of heavily testing most of the major VTTs available (Roll20, d20pro, Fantasy Ground Class & Unity, Astral, MapTool, and Foundry), I settled on Foundry. I don't regret it, as it is a great VTT with an active moding community that let's you add all kinds of cool features not in the base product.

But the one area where I would like better functionality is with combat automation, especially applying area of effect saves and damage to a group of combatants.

The 5e system for Foundry is actively being developed and constantly improving and there are a number of third-party mods you can apply to the base came to help with combat, so I hope that it won't be long before the combat features for 5e are as impressive as the rest of the product.

But I'm interested in what other DMs running games in VTTs feel about the combat automations in other systems? I know that some VTTs have cool graphic effects for spells and such (I think Foundry with some mods is the best in this area). But I'm more interest in 5e RAW compliant automations for group saves, applying damage, tracking conditions, tracking spell times, etc.

My thoughts, focusing on 5e RAW:

Fantasy Ground Classic - If you get all the rules material, and invest the time to get over the learning curve, and run an adventure prepped for FGC, I think it wins hands down. I don't know how difficult it is to home brew monsters, etc., but I suspect it is about the same as most VTTs.

d20pro: by far my favorite experience for running combat in a VTT. It is intuitive and fun. But seems best for one on one. Also it doesn't have all the published WotC material, so there would be more data entry involved, even if you only use WotC monsters or only ran WotC adventures.

Roll20: I don't have much experience with Roll20 as a DM. I don't recall there being much automation in the game I've joined as a player, but am not sure if that is a limitation of the tool or because the DM didn't use them.

MapTool. You can automate almost anything but it requires a lot of customization and time to create macros, enter data, etc. I've used MapTool heavily but never bothered with automations.

I don't have enough experience with other VTTs to discuss their automation abilities.

 

[GuardianLurker]

Fantasy Ground Classic - If you get all the rules material, and invest the time to get over the learning curve, and run an adventure prepped for FGC, I think it wins hands down. I don't know how difficult it is to home brew monsters, etc., but I suspect it is about the same as most VTTs.

Pretty much. It's actually fairly easy to home brew monsters. The only real negative is the fact that you have to be very specific in your language to get the automation to kick in. And there are some effects that are just un-automatable. And some of those "only-manual" effects are pretty basic and common, unhappily. Though Smiteworks has been reducing that number slowly.

 

[tsodge]

I've used roll20 (complex and expensive if you want automation IMO) and I'm now using foundry, mostly so that when I'm working on my game I'm also learning JavaScript. Plus it was a 1 off purchase (I'm hosting it on a free AWS instance, I've run it from a low spec laptop on poor internet at home too, it works perfectly, just slow to load a new map as it has to load from the DM computer to each persons browser.

It can feel like lot of work to go through all the foundry community modules to find your setup, but I've got everything working now: you target an enemy and roll an attack, AC determines hit/miss, DMG applies. Or roll an aoe and it makes you place a template on the map, then targets the tokens in the template for a saving throw, calculates pass or fail. damage applies either after DM/player prompt or auto, can also be applied afterwards with a right click (double DMG half or normal). Most of those bits are optional settings, lots of configuration available.

I have about 50 modules installed totally so I'd have to go through and check which ones are doing what, but I think the combat automation is just 2/3 of them (erm... Let me Roll That For You and Enhanced Combat if I was to guess). You can do really fancy things with Triggerly if full automation is your goal (mine is, I'm currently working on some procedural map building tools for foundry )

 

[Oofta]

I don't find tracking combat attacks and damage all that difficult. I have to do it in a tabletop game, is it really much different for an online game? In other words, how much time and effort are you taking to get it all to work when I've always just kept track on a whiteboard?

I use Roll20 with Beyond20, Roll20 is just for maps. My players and monsters can use DndBeyond to make all of their attacks or roll manually if they want, I just have to manually track HP. So if you want something that tracks everything, cool. I just don't see that much of an advantage.

 

[MNblockhead]

I've used roll20 (complex and expensive if you want automation IMO) and I'm now using foundry, mostly so that when I'm working on my game I'm also learning JavaScript. Plus it was a 1 off purchase (I'm hosting it on a free AWS instance, I've run it from a low spec laptop on poor internet at home too, it works perfectly, just slow to load a new map as it has to load from the DM computer to each persons browser.

It can feel like lot of work to go through all the foundry community modules to find your setup, but I've got everything working now: you target an enemy and roll an attack, AC determines hit/miss, DMG applies. Or roll an aoe and it makes you place a template on the map, then targets the tokens in the template for a saving throw, calculates pass or fail. damage applies either after DM/player prompt or auto, can also be applied afterwards with a right click (double DMG half or normal). Most of those bits are optional settings, lots of configuration available.

I have about 50 modules installed totally so I'd have to go through and check which ones are doing what, but I think the combat automation is just 2/3 of them (erm... Let me Roll That For You and Enhanced Combat if I was to guess). You can do really fancy things with Triggerly if full automation is your goal (mine is, I'm currently working on some procedural map building tools for foundry )

I'd be interested in learning more about which modules you use for combat. The first time I ran a game in Foundry I had to switch to MapTool for a large combat because Foundry became unresponsive. So I disabled most modules and have have just re-enabled the most useful to me and it has been stable since. I have Let Me Roll That For You active, but not Enhance Combat. I need to play more with modules to find the right balance of functionality and performance. Would rather not have to deal with it. If there were a stable Foundry module or system for D&D 5e that I could just buy and have work, I'll do it in a heartbeat. For example, I pay for patreon subscription for Virtual Tabletop Assets so that I get the awesome D&D Beyond integration it supports, which means that anything I have in DDB can be used in Foundry.

 

[MNblockhead]

I don't find tracking combat attacks and damage all that difficult. I have to do it in a tabletop game, is it really much different for an online game? In other words, how much time and effort are you taking to get it all to work when I've always just kept track on a whiteboard?

I use Roll20 with Beyond20, Roll20 is just for maps. My players and monsters can use DndBeyond to make all of their attacks or roll manually if they want, I just have to manually track HP. So if you want something that tracks everything, cool. I just don't see that much of an advantage.

I get where you are coming from. I pretty much only use VTTs for maps, FOW, and line of sight. I also like the template tools for measure cones, radius, etc. for spell effects.

But when you have a large number of combatants, it takes a significant amount of time to calculate areas of effect.

Currently, stats, HP, and initiative are tracked in the VTT because it saves time setting up for combat. It is also nice for tracking conditions, which is so/so in the VTT. Paper is actually easier for tracking conditions TBH, though it is nice to at least have a graphic marker for the condition applied to tokens.

But where a VTT SHOULD be a massive help is rolling saves and damage for multiple creatures, e.g., resolving fireball saves and damage. I should be able to just draw the template and have the saves rolled and the damage rolled and applied automatically. It would make a real different to the combat experience and I would happily pay for any stable module that did it correctly and easily.

 

[LordEntrails]

Fantasy Ground Classic - If you get all the rules material, and invest the time to get over the learning curve, and run an adventure prepped for FGC, I think it wins hands down. I don't know how difficult it is to home brew monsters, etc., but I suspect it is about the same as most VTTs.

Yea, creating custom NPCs is easy in FG. Yes you need to get the automation verbiage correct, but usually all you need to do is copy and existing NPC and change what you want. Don't imagine that is much different than any other VTT.

I'm now using foundry, mostly so that when I'm working on my game I'm also learning JavaScript. Plus it was a 1 off purchase (I'm hosting it on a free AWS instance

See, I don't get that. How many folks actually want to have to run an AWS server to run their VTT? And if you don't, then you got to worry about port forwarding and everything else. I just don't see how Foundry is a VTT for the masses.

 

[Ovinomancer]

I don't particularly want automation at the point of play. Having things be automated means both I and my players lose a feel for how things are going or to exclaim over a big (or small) roll or to interject with a special ability at an opportune moment. I do like automation in the sense of macros to make rolls, because that makes it about as easy to roll on the VTT as it does IRL, instead of making a player type out a roll command or fiddle with a menu selection to roll the right dice. But, at that point, it's about it.

Of course, I started running online back in the late aughts on Gametable, a now defunct VTT that had, as you might expect, very limited tools. Still, you could draw more easily on that than you can on Roll20, so it did do some things better. So, I had my expectations and approach formed in an environment where a dice macro was the top end of available automation.

EDIT: huh, not as defunct as I believed. It's apparently been recently renamed and had a webpage sprucing by one of the community leaders in the old forums. Neat. GamenianTabele

 

[MNblockhead]

See, I don't get that. How many folks actually want to have to run an AWS server to run their VTT? And if you don't, then you got to worry about port forwarding and everything else. I just don't see how Foundry is a VTT for the masses.

You don't have to. There are a couple of companies that provide Foundry hosting. I use The Forge, which I'm very happy with.

With the Foundry, I pay a one-time $50 fee for the license. I can run it from my computer, I can chose to host it in on rented server/VM, or I can use a specialized hosting provider. And I can move my license if I'm no longer happy with my hosting provider or want to save money and run it from my own computer. If you are one of the non-technical "masses" you can use a third-party hosting provider like The Forge. If you are more technical, you have the option to host it yourself and have full control over the power and configuration of the system hosting your instance.

I agree that it is not as user-friendly as Roll20, but I don't find it any more complicated than Fantasy Grounds, d20pro, or TableTool and it is much easier to extend the feature set with modules than with any other VTT I've tried.

 

[Oofta]

I get where you are coming from. I pretty much only use VTTs for maps, FOW, and line of sight. I also like the template tools for measure cones, radius, etc. for spell effects.

But when you have a large number of combatants, it takes a significant amount of time to calculate areas of effect.

Currently, stats, HP, and initiative are tracked in the VTT because it saves time setting up for combat. It is also nice for tracking conditions, which is so/so in the VTT. Paper is actually easier for tracking conditions TBH, though it is nice to at least have a graphic marker for the condition applied to tokens.

But where a VTT SHOULD be a massive help is rolling saves and damage for multiple creatures, e.g., resolving fireball saves and damage. I should be able to just draw the template and have the saves rolled and the damage rolled and applied automatically. It would make a real different to the combat experience and I would happily pay for any stable module that did it correctly and easily.

Well, in my super-awesome-yet-to-be-released VTT everything would be linked and simple because I agree. If I'm not making a bunch of house rules, I should just be able to plug in monsters, have my players maintain their PCs and off we go*. Some animation would be awesome as well.

In the meantime I do use templates in Roll20 now and then, and it has markers you can put on icons. I'm just glad I figured out how to set up maps, vision and line of sight. With the link to DndBeyond saves and what-not are just a click away.

But a guy can dream, I suspect we may have a complete package that actually works in a couple of years.

*as long as I can override anything at any time if I want because I don't want to always put in custom logic for special situations.