Playing Dungeons & Dragons can mean having to keep track of a lot of information, whether someone is acting as the dungeon master or a player, and like the common saying, there is always an app that can help. Tabletop roleplaying games (TTRPGs) include lots of stats, rules, character designs, lore, and plenty of math during the game and even away from the table. Parties can focus more on the adventure at hand when they make use of some of the various mobile apps that exist.




As complex as DnD can be for both experts and beginners, it can become overwhelming for everyone. Luckily, there are a host of helpful and often free mobile apps for players to build and track their characters and to support their overall gaming experience. Whether a spellcaster needs a better way to find what spells are available or a party needs a simple way to communicate plans, these apps can make everything that goes into a game of DnD much more streamlined to quickly get back to the fun.


15 5e Bestiary (Free)

The Dungeon Developer, Only Available From Google Play

A stat block for a lich in the 5e Bestiary app next to artwork of a lich from Vecna: Eve of Ruin.


5e Bestiary isn’t the only app that makes it possible to access information and stat blocks for DnD 5e monsters, but it’s refreshingly free of fat for those who want to get straight to the point. With an interface that mimics the official layout of stat blocks in the Monster Manual, 5e Bestiary covers all monsters that are available in the System Reference Document for 5e. This leaves out a good chunk of monsters that appear in the Monster Manual and elsewhere, but it’s enough to keep any dungeon well-supplied.

The 5e Bestiary app will be of greater use for Dungeon Masters than for players, so it isn’t one that every DnD fan necessarily needs to download. Metagamers looking to learn about foes they haven’t yet fought could still get a good bit of knowledge out of it, of course, but it’s often more fun to embrace the unknown.


14 Pocket Bard (Free, Offers In-App Purchases)

Available From App Store & Google Play

A screenshot of the Pocket Bard music app for tabletop roleplaying.

Music and ambiance can be a huge part of the DnD experience, helping to immerse the party in the world of the game and make the environments feel alive. Although it’s easy to have a good time in DnD without any background noise, it’s one of the things that can help turn a good session into a great one, and it might even help players stay on track rather than devolving into too much table talk.

Pocket Bard makes it easy to play appropriately themed music and soundscapes without having to scour YouTube and Spotify for good options. Building a rich fantasy library in Pocket Bard can take some investment, but there are useful core options available for free within the app.


Michael S Wu, Available From App Store & Google Play

A screenshot of the Game Master's Toolkit 5e app showing options to generate random D&D elements.

Hand-crafting detailed, well-considered characters, locations, traps, and more can be one of the great joys of being a Dungeon Master, but the crunch of time can sometimes necessitate a turn away from that approach. When improvisational skills fail, a long-time standard has been grabbing ideas from random generation tables in books, something that happens to translate especially well to app form.


The Game Master’s Toolkit 5e includes generation options for everything from magic items to cities, along with some helpful features like a dice simulator and mini games. It might not be the best method of crafting the main story of a DnD campaign, but it could be a good way to fill out a quest board when the party takes an unexpected turn into a new city or have a few random encounters on hand.

12 Calamus – A TTRPG Map-Maker (Free, Offers A Subscription)

TrapStreet Studios, Available From App Store & Google Play

Calamus D&D App showing a dungeon map created in the software.

When working on a PC, there’s no shortage of applications for making DnD maps, but the market is significantly drier on mobile. Without many options on the table, the obvious choice is Calamus, which can produce some pretty nifty maps and is generally easy to use for even inexperienced Dungeon Masters. It’s also possible to host games and move tokens in the app, so it can be used in place of actual printouts in tabletop play.


That being said, there’s one big caveat for Calamus. Although the app can be downloaded for free, a lot of useful features are locked behind a subscription fee. Those who would rather pay once or not at all might do better to look at desktop applications, but anyone who wants to make maps on the go might want to at least consider the potential value of Calamus as an alternative.

11 Obsidian (Free)

Dynalist, Inc, Available From App Store & Google Play

A promotional image of the note-taking app Obsidian being used on a Mac and a phone side-by-side.

Many of the best apps for playing DnD are highly specialized tools, but it’s also important to cover some basics. Players and DMs alike benefit from taking notes, and ideally, it should be possible to record them quickly without creating a disorganized mess. In this regard, Obsidian is a great option, helping to keep track of details while being intuitive enough to avoid disrupting the flow of gameplay.


Obsidian is convenient to use on the go, but it can also be powerful as a desktop option. Community plugins make it possible to turn it from a straightforward note-taking app into something specifically geared for DnD without requiring users to put in all the hard work of shaping it to that purpose themselves.

10 D&D Spellbook 5e (Free)

Jonathan Carifio/Carifio24, Available From App Store & Google Play

DnD Spellbook 5e app by jonathan carifio screenshots

Keeping track of spells in Dungeons & Dragons can be tricky sometimes, but with the D&D Spellbook 5e app, all the spells and information on spell slots and more are quick to access through searching by name or filters with a variety of options. The app contains spells from many common sourcebooks including the Tal’Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn, Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, and more.


To make it even better, D&D Spellbook 5e is free and does not have any ads. It might not currently be up to date with every spell in the 2024 Player’s Handbook, but it’s a resource that will work just fine for any game.

9 The 20 – D&D And RPG Companion (Free, Offers In-App Purchases)

Sir Yorgan, Only Available From Google Play

Two promo images for an app called The 20 - D&D and RPG Companion showing the app running on a tablet.


The 20 – D&D and RPG Companion combines several useful DnD tools for players to access in one place. The helpful app provides customizable character sheets with advanced modifications, a slew of dynamic feats and traits, a comprehensive spell book, player groups, dice, inventory, and more. Even initiative tracking and dice rolling can be managed with the app, and everything can sync up easily with party members.

8 NPC For Hire (Free, Offers In-App Purchases)

Knights Of Vasteel, Available From App Store & Google Play

While NPC For Hire will certainly be most useful for dungeon masters to have on hand during a DnD session, players can find it pretty useful as well, particularly when designing a new character. The app is designed to help people quickly pull up randomized names, portraits, and backstories for a variety of types of NPCs instantly. There are 58 human portraits included in the free version, with other races able to be purchased.


7 MapKeeper.net (Free)

Ingo Kiem, Only Available From Google Play

A MapKeeper app logo is seen

Knowing which areas of the map are left to explore is paramount for DnD players’ ultimate success. A handy app for DMs and players alike is MapKeeper, a free tool that reveals hidden maps for TTRPGs.

For those who love hand-drawing maps but dislike covering the areas players have yet to reach, the app solves the problem immediately. For players, this is especially helpful during combat, as the app allows them to enter a combat room, leave, and continue mapping the room while saving the location in the app.


6 mRPG (Free, Offers In-App Purchases)

GlueFields, Available From App Store & Google Play

An mRPPG chat icon is shown

Teamwork is critical to any successful DnD campaign, and that can’t happen without good communication. The mRPG chat app is an ideal way of talking with other players remotely while playing online. The app provides a platform, dice, and character sheets as well as the ability to search for, join, or create a campaign. Players get full control of their character sheet, enabling them to customize who they want to be in the game and can speak as themselves or as the characters they’re assigned, which offers extra input many DnD apps don’t.


5 Feudz Dice Roller ($0.99)

We Do Nothing, Only Available From App Store

A Feudz Dice Roller app logo is shown

For a dice-rolling app, Fuedz Dice Roller is hard to beat. Loaded with every type of DnD dice as well as a digital coin flipper, the app even allows for complex dice formulas to streamline the accuracy and calculate precise move sets.

Fuedz Dice Roller can be used on an Apple Watch as well.

For players in combat, this helps avoid distractions and maintain optimal pacing. It’s also great for those who want to focus on the game rather than doing complex math on the fly as it promises no more than three taps to calculate the most advanced dice rolls.


4 D&D Session Assistant (Free, Offers In-App Purchases)

Veit Apps, Only Available From Google Play

A D&D Session Assistant app page is seen

As its name suggests, D&D Session Assistant is an app to help players navigate through every aspect of the game. Aside from being able to track important character information including spell slots, health points, and more, players can change values instantly and save vital information in one easily accessible place.

While some of the in-app purchases in D&D Session Assistant can get pretty steep, the wealth of knowledge and know-how it provides to both experts and beginners alike may pay off.

The app also includes 4e and 5e character sheets, a spellbook, a spell list, feats, and features to keep players equipped with all the necessary resources for playing DnD. The style isn’t glamorous, but it certainly gets the job done.


3 Fifth Edition Character Sheet (Free, Offers In-App Purchases)

Walter Kammerer, Available From App Store & Google Play

Keeping track of multiple pages of character sheets for DnD can be burdensome at times, but the free app Fifth Edition Character Sheet can easily store all the necessary stats and character information on a mobile device. Although there are a lot of alternatives in this particular genre, this one works wonderfully, and its outdated appearance belies an excellent user experience.


The app will automatically calculate ability modifiers, AC, and more and keep track of hit points and damage. There is also a basic character creator that can help players roll a basic, first-level character in seconds.

2 Trello (Free)

Trello, Inc, Available From App Store & Google Play

A Trello app shows D&D characters

For both DnD players and dungeon masters, being organized is vital to a successful campaign. While it’s not intended for DnD specifically, the project management app Trello is an outstanding option for keeping a player’s vital stats, sheets, dice, items, gear, and more all in one easy-to-navigate place.

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Trello employs an open storyboard illustration design that gathers information in one easily accessible location. Once PCs, NPCs, locations, quests, and magic items are added, the app collates the info and displays it on a storyboard that can then be adjusted to a player’s liking. The app stores several storyboards and allows users to alter the lists within each storyboard to remain as orderly as possible.

1 D&D Beyond (Free, Offers In-App Purchases)

Wizards Of The Coast, Available From App Store & Google Play


It’s impossible to exclude D&D Beyond, the official app for DnD that can be accessed online and offline, making it ideal for any player or DM. In addition to creating characters, reviewing character sheets, and reading DnD books, players can roll digital dice right in the app. A great tool to navigate the initial steps of character creation, D&D Beyond is the digital equivalent of all the Dungeons & Dragons game books and guides. The app also allows players to adjust combat options, manage health, cast spells, and more. Best of all, the app is free and updated often.

Sources: Apple App Store (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11), Google Play (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14), NPC For Hire, mRPG, Kammerer Software, Trello

Dungeons and Dragons Game Poster

Dungeons and Dragons is a popular tabletop game originally invented in 1974 by Ernest Gary Gygax and David Arneson. The fantasy role-playing game brings together players for a campaign with various components, including abilities, races, character classes, monsters, and treasures. The game has drastically expanded since the ’70s, with numerous updated box sets and expansions.

Original Release Date
1974-00-00

Publisher
TSR Inc. , Wizards of the Coast

Designer
E. Gary Gygax , Dave Arneson

Player Count
2-7 Players

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