Don’t let yourself believe that there isn’t a bunch of awesome dnd-related apps for dnd just because the game is labeled a pen-and-paper or tabletop role-playing game, and is traditionally played using very few digital tools.
In fact, more and more tools are being developed and used during sessions all the time. Some of them are official apps developed by companies, while others are fan-made sheets, apps, or websites that have spread across the community like wildfire.
Today we’re taking a look at some of the best apps for anyone who enjoys playing Dungeons and Dragons. The types of applications will vary from app to app to create a list with diversity. You’ll find interesting apps in this list regardless of whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned player.
Without further ado, here’s the list!
D&D Beyond
- Suitable for: Beginners and seasoned players alike
- Available on: Browser
- Price: Free
- Top features: There are multiple tools that I think are very useful but I’d have to say the character creation tool for beginners
Yes, I’ve included the most obvious piece of software for Dungeons and Dragons ever in the list. The official app for Dungeons and Dragons isn’t a hidden gem in any way, but it’s still one of the best apps for players and Dungeon Masters alike.
The app can be accessed both online and offline, which makes it incredibly convenient if you’re traveling and want to enjoy some role-playing on the go or in a remote place where you don’t have access to a stable network.
The app helps you with character creation and has all of the information about the game collected in one place. Beginners will benefit from creating their character using the D&D Beyond app as it offers ways to facilitate the process of creating a character – which can be frightening to some.
The app has dice rollers, character sheet reviews, and multiple options to adjust and manage combat, health, spells, and more. You’d think a resource like this would cost a dime but the truth is that the app is free of charge.
DnD 5e Database
- Suitable for: Dungeon Masters and Players
- Available on: App store and Google Play
- Price: Free
- Top features: Information about classes, races, backgrounds, feats, deities, domains, and much more.
DnD 5e Database is a phone app that provides the player with a comprehensive guide for the 5th edition of Dungeons and Dragons. The database will ensure that you have information about races, classes, rules, spells, game mechanics, items and equipment, monsters and other creatures, and a lot more – right in the palm of your hand.
The app itself is easy to navigate through its minimalistic and user-friendly interface and it contains a lot of information for both players and Dungeon Masters, making it an incredibly useful resource for anyone who’s looking to access rules, player tools, such as character sheets, and more!
The developers of this app have also released a bunch of other apps for Dungeons and Dragons that are targeted towards specific parts of the game, such as dice rollers, character sheets, and spellbooks – but this one is the one that covers the most ground in one single app.
From character creation to rules to information about deities to dice rollers, this app almost has it all.
Some items and things might be missing. I’ve been looking for a couple of items that I use frequently but haven’t found them. Hopefully, you’ll find everything you need.
mRPG
- Suitable for: Anyone
- Available on: App store and Google Play
- Price: Free / Contains ads / In-app purchases
- Top features: Very user-friendly interface
mRPG is a chat app developed for role-playing games that allows you to play RPGs with your friends anytime and anywhere. The app is perfect for groups that want to play together but don’t close to each other.
Furthermore, the app provides remote groups with more than just the ability to communicate. The app comes with a platform to play on, dice rollers, character sheets, the ability to create macros, and a looking-for-group function that helps players find and join groups.
When you create a campaign, a link is created that can be shared with players you want to invite to the game. You can also open up the campaign so anyone can join the game. Truly a great app for remote sessions, or for the person who wants to play casually throughout the day.
Feudz Dice Roller
- Suitable for: Anyone
- Available on: App store
- Price: $0.99
- Top features: Simple but sleek dice roller
If you ask me, Feudz is the most complete dice roller app you can find for Dungeons and Dragons. The app comes with all types of dice that the game could ever require, and in addition to that, the game also comes with coin flippers and the ability to calculate complex formulas.
Feudz will also take care of all the mathematics, leaving you with more time to focus on the combat and your character instead of handling numbers.
Equations can be solved directly from the app with no more than a few taps. This dice roller is definitely a must-have for those who’re only looking for a dice roller app.
DnD 5e Character Keep
- Suitable for: Dungeon Masters
- Available on: App store and Google Play
- Price: Free / Contains ads / In-app Purchases
- Top features: Simple way to store information about your character and keep it updated throughout the campaign
The Character Keep app is the perfect app to keep track of your character’s stats while also giving you a handbook, spellbook, inventory, an assisted level-up, and a character creator tool.
The swiss army knife of Dungeons and Dragons is easy to manage and navigate, but the app isn’t entirely free as some of the functions are premium functions, which require you to pay in order to use them.
DMDJ
- Suitable for: Dungeon Masters
- Available on: App store and Google Play
- Price: $6.99
- Top features: The level of customization for all types of sounds
I never thought an app designed to play music could have such an impact on our Dungeon and Dragons sessions but DMDJ is truly a tool that takes it to the next level. This app will help you create the perfect atmosphere playlists for your campaigns regardless of the setting.
Setting background music for your campaign is, without a doubt, one of the best things you can do to improve the experience and make it easier for players to immerse. The app comes with different categories of sounds, such as Town, Nature, Dungeon, Battle, and Special.
Within these categories, you’ll find additional sounds that can be adjusted even further. For instance, in the Town category, you’ll find background sounds from marketplaces, taverns, stores, and much more!
You can also adjust the intensity of the sound, which is incredibly cool because you can use the same sound to mimic a crowded tavern and a calm tavern by just switching the intensity.
NPC For Hire
- Suitable for: Dungeon Masters
- Available on: App store and Google Play
- Price: Free / In-app Purchases
- Top features: Aside from the fact that it generates a toon in seconds, I’d have to say it’s the giant collection of different portraits.
Have you used up all of your imagination on creating NPCs and have none left to use? Sometimes, you’ll find it hard to come up with ideas for interesting NPCs for your campaigns. Forcing the creation of these NPCs can be time-consuming, and frustrating and might also impact the quality of the character.
This is where NPC for hire comes in. The app creates complete NPCs for your campaign, and the character has a solid backstory, a set of items, a hand-drawn portrait, and more! As a Dungeon Master, you’ll have an easy time creating and managing your NPCs.
You can also save your NPCs for future use. The app isn’t free of charge, but it doesn’t cost more than $5, which makes it cheap for a group to buy collectively. It’s totally worth it as you can spawn an NPC out of nowhere if you suddenly get the urge to add some spice to your story.
5th Edition Spellbook
- Suitable for: Dungeon Masters and Players
- Available on: App store and Google Play
- Price: Free / Contains ads / In-app Purchases
- Top features: The ability to create a spellbook for each player as a Dungeon Master so you can reference it throughout the campaign.
This app is designed to help players and Dungeon Masters to keep track of their spells, their range, damage, duration, saves and attack rolls, and special effects the spell may have.
I consider it one of the better apps for players who play spellcasters and Dungeon Masters, as it makes it very easy to keep track of every spell in the game. Remembering what every spell does is nearly impossible in the beginning, and to be frank, it’s quite hard to do so later on too (If you ask me).
You can sort the spells by type of caster if you’d like to browse a certain class’ spells. You can also create your own spellbook containing spells of your choice, which is quite awesome as you’ll have all the relevant spells compiled in one place.
Having a spellbook is good for the caster – but even better for the Dungeon Master who can create a spellbook of spells that the entire party likes to use frequently. That way, the DM can simply reference the spellbook to double-check the spell when it’s being used.
You can also modify the existing spells or make homebrew spells on the website and import them into the app if you wish too, which is quite awesome!
Mapkeeper
- Suitable for: Dungeon Masters / The Party
- Available on: App store and Google Play
- Price: Free
- Top features: Only the parts you’ve explored are shown
Mapkeeper.net is a free tool that provides players with maps created in a hand-drawn style that shows players and Dungeon Masters what’s left to explore in the dungeon.
Once the party has entered a room, cleared it, and leave it, the map will show that the party has explored that room. This way, you don’t have to keep track of where you’ve been and what’s left to explore. This will come in handy for dungeon-intense campaigns.
Spotify
- Suitable for: Anyone
- Available on: App store and Google Play
- Price: Free but you’ll have ads if you don’t upgrade to premium
- Top features: The sheer volume of different tracks available
If you’re already paying for Spotify and don’t want to spend more cash on DMDJ, then you’ve got a bunch of playlists that you can use to create the perfect ambiance for your campaigns. Spotify has thousands, if not millions, of background sounds for different types of environments.
You’ve got all types of sounds, ranging from game soundtracks to nature sounds.
ChatGPT
- Suitable for: Dungeon Masters and Players alike
- Available on: Browser
- Price: Free
- Top features: Endless amount of ideas can be generated from ChatGPT
You’ve probably heard of chatgpt as it was mentioned everywhere when it was released at the end of 2022. Essentially, chatgpt is an advanced AI that can assist you with anything you can come up with. It has been used to write code, articles, schoolwork, books, outlines, and so forth.
When I found it, I immediately started using it to create character ideas, campaign ideas, names for cities, NPCs, taverns, and much more. Once you start using it you’ll find an endless supply of great ideas for all aspects of Dungeons and Dragons.
Game Master 5th Edition
- Suitable for: Dungeon Masters
- Available on: App store and Google Play
- Price: Free / Contains ads / In-app Purchases
- Top features: Supports the Dungeon Master tremendously by gathering everything in the same place and tracking it
Here’s an app that’s designed to facilitate the campaign for the Dungeon Master, and it does so very well. You’ll find plenty of features in the app that take some of the pressure of being a Dungeon Master.
Instead of solely relying on your own imagination and understanding, you can now depend on the app to make the process of preparing and running a campaign easier. I’ve found that the app helps me focus on the important aspects of the game, rather than the small details that I like outsourcing.
Seasoned Dungeon Masters will probably be well off without the app (still worth it though) but new Dungeon Masters will absolutely benefit massively from this app.
In the app, you’ll find a Combat Tracker, Encounter Builder, DM Screen, Campaign Creator and Manager, and Dice Roller. You can also upload images for different landscapes or maps for dungeons. Additionally, the app comes with a comprehensive compendium of rules, and information about items, classes, races, and more.
The app is free to download but you’re limited to one campaign with three encounters if you’re using the free version. If you’re serious about being a Dungeon Master, I think you should opt for the premium version.
Loot Generator
- Suitable for: Dungeon Masters
- Available on: App store and Google Play
- Price: Free but you will see ads
- Top features: Simple interface that anyone can navigate. Ability to generate both items and spells.
Sometimes, when I’m a lazy Dungeon Master, I rely on my toolkit to do part of the job for me by generating content for the campaign. This can be generating maps, dungeons, characters – and loot.
There are plenty of loot generators available online, but I’ve been using this one lately and I think it’s one of the most complete yet basic loot generators out there. You can generate individual items or a myriad of treasures for your campaign in just a few seconds.
Additionally, Loot Generator is able to generate spells. All you have to do is input what class you’re playing and the app will generate fitting spells. The app’s interface is incredibly easy to navigate, which I prefer over complicated apps that overwhelm beginners at the first glance.
Donjon
- Suitable for: Dungeon Masters
- Available on: Browser
- Price: Free
- Top features: You can generate just about anything. The city generators, for instance, include NPCs and notable places to visit, which the Dungeon Master can build ideas from.
Donjon is a platform that hosts a plethora of different generators, ranging from general name generators to more specific generators like sci-fi world generators, then there’s everything in-between. You can’t miss with Donjon. There’s something for everyone.
When generating your cities, taverns, and so forth, you can tell the generator the size of the town, the culture, the races living there, the kind of environment you want, if the city should have a wall surrounding it or not, etc.
The app then generates an image of the city, the names of the different districts, and a bunch of information about the town, such as the population, the type of government that rules the town, notable places that one should be wary of, NPCs, and then additional information about each district and what you might find there.
Now, as I said before, Donjon can be used to generate plenty of things, and you’re in no way limited to only generating cities, it’s only what I used as an example here.
Donjon is a web-based application and can be accessed from any type of device that is connected to a network.
Hex Kit
- Suitable for: Dungeon Masters
- Available on: Browser
- Price: $15
- Top features: Easy-to-use hex map creator. Nice-looking tiles with a bit of variance.
Hex Kit is a downloadable program that is used to create hex maps. Hex maps are used a lot in hexcrawlers, where you explore a map tile by tile. This was the standard for DnD back in the day, but is not used as often today.
Hex Kit has a fantastic design, both practically and aesthetically. All the tiles are handmade by the creator, and the program is incredibly easy to maneuver.
You can randomly generate maps, edit them, or create maps from scratch. The process goes something like this:
- Select size for your map (12×12, 16×16, and so forth)
- Randomly generate a map or start adding tiles of your choice
- Label tiles based on what they are in your adventure
There are more functions in the program, of course, and it¨s flexibility in this sense is another reason why it’s something that you should take a look at if you like hexcrawlers.
FAST Character
- Suitable for: Beginners
- Available on: Browser
- Price: Free
- Top features: Simple character creation tool
Fast Character is a website that lets you create a character from scratch, in a hurry. It’s not that the level of detail is lacking or anything, but the website is just really convenient for making characters.
As soon as you go to the website, it provides you with a character creation menu where you get to fill in all the essential stuff for a new character.
Fast Character uses information from the core DnD books as well, which is nice.
Essentially, Fast Character lives up to its name. Do you need to make a character in a hurry? Is a friend spontaneously sitting in at the upcoming session? I’d recommend using Fast Character.
Dafont
- Suitable for: Dungeon Masters
- Available on: Browser
- Price: Free
- Top features: Cities can be viewed in 3D
Dafont isn’t an app per se, but a database of different fonts. This can come in very handy if you want to design something that is written in a DnD language.
For example, the websites include complete alphabets for Davek, Rellanic, Barazhad, and Iokharic. Incorporating these into your sessions can be a really cool way to spice up your games.
You can simply download them from Dafont and either use them digitally or print them out for other creative uses.
Foundry
- Suitable for: Players who prefer to play online / are distanced from their group.
- Available on: Browser
- Price: $48
- Top features: The software is awesome. The design is amazing. The ability to have everything in the same place and visualized on the screen is great.
Foundry is an all-in-one software (virtual tabletop) for those who want to play Dungeons and Dragons online. You can host a game that others players can access through a web browser. If you visit their website you’ll see that their art style and interface are beautiful!
Foundry has everything you’ll need to make the experience as seamless as possible, and I know it gained a lot of attention during covid when it was in it its beta phase. The software is now released and available for purchase.
There’s a demo available on their website, where players can access the software to see how it works before purchasing. In order to do so, select Player 2-10 and use the password “foundry”. The game in the demo is Pathfinder but it still shows the capabilities of the software.
You’ll find maps, combat information, spellbooks, ways of communicating with other players, loot information, dungeons, cities, and so much more. If you’re serious about using Foundry, you should probably skim through the introduction to get an understanding of how it works.
The app is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.
Medieval Fantasy City Generator
- Suitable for: Anyone
- Available on: Browser
- Price: Free
- Top features: Cities can be viewed in 3D
We’ve already talked about an app that generates cities and maps – Donjon, but I still think Medieval Fantasy City Generator is worth mentioning as part of the collection. Our last entry in the list is an app that does exactly what it says; it generates a medieval fantasy city for you.
Cities can be exported as JSON and opened in City Viewer to view them in 3D. Our group has a monitor on the wall next to us where the Dungeon Master can display images. Being able to see the cities your party is visiting in 3D is really cool. Strongly recommend!
Cities will be named and a couple of districts will be generated along with a map of the city. If you ask me, this is the better option for the Dungeon Master who wants to generate a city and then populate it him/herself.
The maps are sleek and the cities come in various sizes, with some containing upwards of 12-15 districts.
Thank you for taking the time to plow through this chunky piece of text. I hope you’ve found something of value – and if you know of any apps that you think are an amazing addition to your D&D arsenal, please let us know so we can check them out and maybe add them to the list.