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!

 

[FallenWyvern]

Hey! I'm the guy who makes the DND Monster Maker. Easiest thing to do for most people is just click the download. If it doesn't run, there's two things that are needed to get it running which are linked on the page. That's all above the picture and below that are the various updates I've done to the application. If anyone needs help with it, I'll gladly assist (best way to get me is at http://thegeniusinc.com/contact-us/)

 

[Trickster Spirit]

Kobold Fight Club's at the bottom of the "Out Now" list at this time, and since I don't see any update timestamp, it looks like it's been there since the beginning. I, too, am glad it's not being overlooked

Huh, can't believe I missed that, and the Android spellcards right above it to boot.

Glad to see a repository of things like this - hey Morrus, forgive me if something like it is already lurking somewhere in the various resources pages, but any chance we could get a fixed "5E resources" repository? Something a bit more permanent than a news article that can be updated over time, like the Release Schedule link up at the top right?

(I've also always been a fan of those "50 Homebrew Resources for Your 5E Campaign" collection new posts, I know there's the Databases to upload our own homebrew content to, but another thing I'd love to see is an ENWorld curated list of all the other various fan-created 5E resources across the interwebs.)

 

[Morrus]

Glad to see a repository of things like this - hey Morrus, forgive me if something like it is already lurking somewhere in the various resources pages, but any chance we could get a fixed "5E resources" repository? Something a bit more permanent than a news article that can be updated over time, like the Release Schedule link up at the top right?

That's just an article, too - it just happens to have a link to it up there! I struggle a lot of scene space up in that navigation area; it's too crowded already. But if this list ends up getting comprehensive, I'll do something like that.

 

[kelnas]

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?

 

[dpmcalister]

For Android I prefer 5E Spell Book https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.analogcursor.spellbook&hl=en_GB (it's also available for iOS and Windows Phone as well according to their website: http://analogcursor.com/spellbook/)

It doesn't have any spells at first - you're just buying the empty shell coded ready - but you can import the spells from this Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/33i1hd/5e_spell_reference_mobile_app/

As requested. It's $0.99/£0.79 for each version.

 

[Nikosandros]

Right here on EN World we have the fantastic Forged Anvil, which is an awesome auto-calculating character sheet. Some time ago, I needed to quickly create a bunch of 10th level characters and the process was very easy and straightforward.

 

[SailorNash]

I'm using the Lion's Den Fight Club app for iOS. Loving it so far. Haven't done as much with the Game Master one, but the former was well worth the price.

 

[jrodder]

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.

 

[daplunk]

Found these also. Very useful.

D&D 5e Online SRD Database: 5esrd.com/home
Online Spellbook: dndns.azurewebsites.net/

 

[pepticburrito]

Im hoping someone releases a spell book app, similar Spellbook Master for PF, its handy having all the 5e spells handy on my iPhone for cons and running games.

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.