Back in the day, when you wanted to play Dungeons & Dragons , it was all done on paper and with books. This was fun in its own way, but it wasn’t always easy.
Sure, there’s something authentic about picking up a book and looking up everything. It’s satisfying to use a pencil on paper, but it’s not the most practical.
Nowadays, the internet has created a wealth of tools that can make playing and DMing D&D so much easier and more pleasant. Of course, you need to know where to find these incredibly useful web apps, and that’s exactly where we come in.
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7.Tabletop Audio
Do you want to create a more enjoyable experience for your players while DMing? Tabletop Audio is a really cool tool designed to provide dungeon masters with thematic music for various parts of their D&D adventure.
The songs are original and ten minutes long, so they’re the ideal option. Need music that’s appropriate for crossing a swamp? It’s there. Group hanging in a tavern? Plenty of great tavern hits!
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6.Kanka
This is another DM-focused tool. It’s a fantastic way to keep track of your world and campaign in an organized way.
If you’re the type of DM who likes creating your own world that’s filled with characters, families, tribes, and tons of other details, Kanka is the tool for you.
Almost all of the features are available for free, which makes this an even better option.
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5.The Homebrewery
If you want to create monsters, NPCs, items, or even adventures that look like they were created by Wizards of the Coast, The Homebrewery is the perfect tool for you.
It uses simple markdown to format text and some interesting CSS to create sheets that look like they were pulled directly out of an official book.
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4.Kobold+ Fight Club
Kobold+ Fight Club is an incredible tool for dungeon masters who want to create fun and interesting encounters for their players.
You can tell the website exactly how many players and what level they are, and it will help make balanced encounters at varying levels of difficulty.
And once you have the encounters setup, you can use its initiate tracker to manage the turn order for both the enemies and players.
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3.donjon
donjon is one of the most feature-packed websites for RPG players and DMs. It has so many tools that we could do a whole article just covering what it’s capable of.
The website is packed with all kinds of random generators that both dungeon masters and players can use. You can generate dungeons, cities, NPCs, magic shops, and all sorts of other things that DMs don’t want to waste time coming up with.
Outside of the random generators, there are also spell lists, monster lists, magic item lists, an encounter size calculator, an initiative tracker, and so much more.
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2.Roll20
If you want to play D&D with people who aren’t close to you (or if you’re stuck inside) Roll20 is the perfect tool to use. It can be a little clunky when you’re first learning to use it, but once you get the hang of it, you can play Dungeons & Dragons with anyone.
And even better, you can play and DM for free, though there is a subscription that unlocks more features. It has character sheets, tons of assets, and even music that’ll make playing D&D online feel as authentic as possible.
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1.DNDBeyond
When it comes to useful D&D websites, it doesn’t get much better than DNDBeyond. It’s the official Wizards of the Coast D&D toolset and it lets you manage characters, rulebooks, encounters, and plenty of other cool stuff.
Additionally, you can actually use DNDBeyond’s character creation tools like a digital character sheet (it also works on your phone), so it really is the one tool you need a D&D player.
When you play D&D, you’re usually turning to the official D&D books to create your character. You might feel limited by these characters (though there are tons of official options).
If you’re looking to liven up your Dungeons & Dragons games with some craziness, you should check out the homebrew scene.
Once you dig into the world of homebrew classes, you might never play Dungeons & Dragons with just the basic content from the official books again. Here are some interesting homebrew D&D classes you should try in your next campaign!
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1.Necromancer
If you’re looking for a fun caster to play with some incredibly dark themes, then Necromancer might be the class for you. It plays a bit like a sorcerer, but it has more focus on enchantment spells.
The ability to hit an enemy and steal their health is both flavorful and incredibly powerful in a wide variety of combat situations. As they level up and gain the ability to animate the dead, things really get going—and the roleplay possibilities open up.
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2.Demon Hunter
For role-playing purposes, a Demon Hunter is a really fun class. You can come up with an interesting backstory for why your character is devoted to a life of hunting demons.
If you’re playing in a campaign that has a reason for demons to be a critical part of the game, you’ll have a ton of fun with Demon Hunter. It has some of the same spells as a Warlock, but with more than enough that makes it stand out on its own.
Related: What D&D class should I play?
3.Nomad
A Nomad doesn’t necessarily sound like the coolest thing to play in D&D, but the class actually looks quite solid. Their whole theme is about fighting dirty so you get a free disengage whenever you land an attack on an enemy.
This is extremely powerful for defensive purposes. Once you factor in the spellcasting abilities they get at later levels, the Nomad ends up being pretty cool.
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4.Gladiator
When you think of a badass who gets stuff done in combat, you probably think of a Gladiator. In terms of getting into fights, it’s not the most innovative class, playing like a hybrid of a barbarian or fighter, but the backstories you can create with them.
How did they end up being forced into a life of fighting? Do they enjoy it? Are they insanely smart despite being brutish and physically powerful? There’s so much fun you can have as a Gladiator in D&D!
5.Apocalypto
This is one of the most well-realized homebrew classes in D&D (outside of Matt Mercer’s classes that have become semi-official). The Apocalypto is literally a harbinger of the end of the world. The backstory ideas practically write themselves.
You get to start off with a badass steed right from level one. Who wouldn’t want that? You also get to choose a Path of Apocalypse, which means you pick from War, Pestilence, Famine, and Death. Everything about this class is badass.
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6.Blood Mage
In many RPGs, Blood Mages are the dark magic users who tap into the power of blood to create incredibly powerful effects. In D&D, that stereotype holds true, as they tap into their own vitality and manipulate it to their advantage.
They literally hurt themselves to kill their enemies. How cool is that? They get to tap into Warlock and Wizard spells, but with enough bloody modifications to make them their own. At one point, they can literally wear a suit of armor made of their own blood!
7.Witch
As you can probably guess, a Witch is a spell caster first and foremost. However, they also get a familiar to fight with at level one, which is quite powerful. They also get these crazy powerful ghostly bonds, which open up lots of fun builds.
And when you work on a witch’s backstory, you can have a lot of work with the fact that people tend to not be fond of them. There’s a lot of room to play around with your Witch, and that’s what D&D is really all about!
