D&D 5e and 2024 on Roliando: what is automated

Guided creation with each edition's rules, a sheet that does the maths and combat rule by rule —saves, damage with resistances, concentration, reactions, creatures—, and what it does not do yet.

Roliando plays fifth edition natively, in both versions (the 2014 rules and the 2024 revision), and the game master can mix them at the same table. This page lists what the platform does on its own and what is still done by hand, so you can decide based on facts.

The rule we follow: if the engine can work it out, it does; if it can't, it says so. Everything the engine automates also works for community-made content, with no code.

Creating a character: step by step, rules included

Character creation is a guided path:

Class and subclass, species and background, from the edition you choose.
Ability scores by point buy, standard array, rolls or by hand, with the increases that the species or background grants depending on the edition.
Proficiencies and tools, choosing only among those your earlier choices allow.
The spells for that level, with the exact number your class can prepare or know.
Starting equipment, picked from the packages or bought with coin, and weapon masteries.

Each step only offers what the rules allow given your earlier choices, and you can't move on with a step half done. Levelling up follows the same path: what that level grants and the choices it brings. Multiclassing checks its ability score prerequisites.

The sheet does the maths

Modifiers, proficiencies, AC, initiative, carrying capacity, attacks with their hit and damage.
Spell slots by level, multiclassing included.
Feature uses that grow with level and come back on the right rest.
Hit dice kept separate by size when multiclassing.
Modes and stances (like rage) that affect rolls while they last: they grant automatic advantage or disadvantage (a “Berserker” that, while on, makes Wisdom saves with disadvantage), saves resolved by combat included.
Infusions and magic item plans, summons and animal companions that scale with whoever calls them.
PDF export of the sheet, and permission rules so changes that need approval go through the GM.

At the table: combat, rule by rule

Initiative and turns

Initiative is rolled and sorted automatically, and only tokens marked for the fight join it. Under the 2024 rules, surprise gives disadvantage on initiative to the surprised side only (the «Surprise» picker only shows in 2024 tables; in 2014 surprise does not touch initiative). Each sheet has an action bar showing what each option costs (action, bonus action, reaction), with the roll ready.

Attacks and damage

An attack is checked against AC, decides the critical and rolls each damage type separately. The target applies its resistances, immunities and vulnerabilities, and hit points go down in the right order: first whatever a ward absorbs, then temporary hit points, then the real ones. Character hit points are written on the server, so two hits at once never overwrite each other. At zero the character drops and death saves begin; healing resets them.

Saves and areas

Areas of effect are placed on the map with the spell's shape and size (cone, sphere, line, cube, emanation) and show exactly who is caught. Each creature gets its own saving throw card: players roll from their sheet and the GM rolls for their creatures, all at once if they like. The result applies full or half damage, the condition and its duration.

If the spell allows a new save at the end of each turn, it is asked for automatically.
If the condition ends on taking damage (magical sleep, for example), it ends.
Creatures with legendary resistance choose whether to spend it.

Concentration

Casting a concentration spell replaces the previous one. Taking damage asks for the concentration save with its DC already worked out, and if it fails, every effect tied to that spell ends.

Reactions

Reactions belong to whoever decides them. When an attack hits by a small margin and the target has a spell or feature that raises its AC (Shield, for instance), the prompt appears on that player's own screen. If they use it, the hit can become a miss, and their reaction and slot are spent. Opportunity attacks spend the reaction, and features that trigger on taking damage are offered at that moment.

Conditions, marks and what stays on the map

Conditions are applied with their source and duration, and end on their own when they expire.
Marks like Hex add their damage to each hit against the marked target and move to a new one with a bonus action when the first falls.
Spell after-effects are automatic too: Guiding Bolt gives advantage on the next attack against the target and is spent when used; Vicious Mockery, disadvantage on its next attack; Chill Touch stops it healing, and Shocking Grasp takes its reaction away.
So are buffs that don't touch a roll: Mage Armor and Barkskin change AC, and Fly, Sanctuary or Death Ward stay marked on the token with their duration.
Spells that leave a zone acting on its own (Spirit Guardians around the caster, Cloud of Daggers, Cloudkill, Insect Plague) place it on the map. On entering, or each turn inside, they ask for the save with its damage, and they go away with concentration.
Spells with several saves resolve the one that applies on casting (Earthquake asks for Dexterity to stay standing, not the Constitution save for concentration) and chain the next: whoever fails the Dexterity save against Whirlwind rolls Strength or is restrained.
Invisibility gives advantage on attacks and disadvantage to whoever attacks the invisible creature, and ends on its own as soon as it attacks or casts a spell. Banishment leaves whoever fails Incapacitated.
Spells that leave something on the map (a spiritual weapon, a wall, a zone) leave it there, and summons arrive with hit points and attacks calculated from whoever called them.

Creatures

Creatures cast their spells with their own slots, their recharges are rolled at the start of their turn, and their legendary actions are used and counted.

Your content, same engine

All of the above can be declared from the module creator without writing code: a homebrew spell with its save, damage over time and duration; a feat that grants resistance or advantage, that switches on and off like a mode with advantage or disadvantage on the rolls you choose, or that brings several actions of its own (a 1d100 roll and a cone roar, each with its own uses; the same goes for class, subclass and species features, backgrounds and items); a roll with its own result table ("1-50 nothing, 51-100 use the Roar") that, depending on the result, does nothing, shows a text, uses another action by its name or applies a condition, on its own or through a button so the player decides; a feature with uses by level; a subclass with its expanded spell list. What you create works on the sheet and on the map the same way as the built-in content.

The base compendium is the openly licensed content, with the real mechanics behind the text. Roliando does not sell rulebooks: anything that isn't open, each table brings for its own use.

What it does not do yet

Better to know before the session than during it:

Creatures do not have their own automated reactions yet: a creature that would cast Shield when hit does it by hand.
Spells with random or chosen effects (the layers of prismatic spray, the glyph of Symbol, the Reality Break table) resolve the main save, and the rest is rolled by hand.
A few spells with a very particular effect are applied by hand, such as Ray of Enfeeblement, which cuts Strength weapon damage. Moonbeam moves on the map, but its per-turn damage is still rolled by hand.
The odd feature with a very particular rule is not applied automatically. In that case the sheet shows it as text so the GM can resolve it, rather than making up a number.

To see how this compares with other virtual tabletops, the comparison puts it in a table, with what each one says about itself and the date it was checked.

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