Combat at the table
The action bar (the D&D hotbar and the one for other systems), turn-based initiative, dropping and driving tokens, HP and conditions — the whole turn on the map.
Roliando's Combat mode takes the fight to the map: tokens on the grid, turn-based initiative, and an action bar to attack, cast spells and move. This guide is for the GM who runs it and the player who acts on their turn.
Two bars depending on the system
Roliando has two combat bars, and picks one on its own based on the token's sheet:
- D&D uses a BG3-style hotbar with your whole character, in tabs by type: Weapons / Cantrips / Spells / Features / Items / Basic, plus fixed Conditions and Turn. The action economy is still visible: each icon's border is amber if it uses your action, blue if it's a bonus action and violet if it's a reaction, and each tab lists them in that order. The layers button at the end of the tabs switches to grouping by economy (Action / Bonus action / Reaction); it’s remembered per device.
- Every spell, feature, feat, metamagic, maneuver and invocation has its own icon (game-icons.net), so you can tell them apart without reading the name. If a module's creator uploaded an image for that entry, theirs wins.
- The rest of the systems use a bar with tabs by economy (Action / Bonus / Reaction / Free) or by category (Weapons / Powers / Traits / Other), as defined by the system's creator.
On both bars, at the end of the tabs:
- Aa shows the name under each icon; for a quick look, hold Alt and let go.
- The magnifier (or the / key) finds an action across all tabs: type, pick with the arrows and Enter uses it.
- The star is Organise: tapping an icon pins it to Favourites, shown as the first tab. Dragging an icon onto another moves it there. In D&D it's saved on the character sheet; in other systems, in your browser.
Starting combat (GM)
- Set up the scene: background, tokens, fog (see the other VTT guides).
- Start turn-based combat rolls initiative and starts the order.
- Roll creatures rolls for your monsters and NPCs all at once.
- Each player rolls their own (see below). You can edit any value by hand and move someone up/down in the order.
At the top you see Round N and the active turn. You advance with Next turn (and Previous turn). To close it, End.
On your turn (player)
When combat starts you see a "Combat started" notice with the Roll initiative button (d20 + your modifier). Once it's your turn, you act from the bar:
- Economy: the Action, Bonus and Reac. pips show what you have left; they are spent on their own when you act. You can set the Roll mode (N / ▲ advantage / ▼ disadvantage).
- The usual actions are one click away: Dodge, Dash, Disengage, Help, Ready, Use an Object, Hide, Search and Shove each have their own icon in the Action tab, after your weapons and spells, with no menu to open. Several apply their effect (Dodge gives whoever attacks you disadvantage and gives you advantage on Dexterity saving throws, and spends your action); the ones that depend on the GM are announced in the chat.
- Same in Bonus (Extra Attack, Cast a cantrip, Hide, Drink a potion, Disengage) and in Reaction (Opportunity attack, which rolls your melee attack against the enemy you target, and Readied reaction).
- Right-click on any of those actions (or long press on mobile) shows the rule for the edition you're playing and what Roliando does for you: whether it applies the effect and spends the economy on its own, or only announces it to the chat for the GM to resolve. From there you can send it to the chat to explain it to the table.
- Confirm players' effects (Table rules, custom systems): the player's bar still calculates, but damage, healing, conditions and fields that land on other tokens wait in a GM panel, where they apply or discard them one by one or all at once. What players do to themselves goes straight through. For very narrative games.
- Attack: click the weapon → tap a token on the map as the target → you see Hit / Miss / CRITICAL! → Roll damage (it's subtracted from the target's HP on its own).
- Cast: choose the level and Target, Heal, Area or Summon, depending on the spell. If the target (or the point of the area) is out of the spell's range, you get a warning and can cast it anyway. Height, Distant Spell and Spell Sniper count; and a touch spell also reaches from your familiar (Find Familiar) if it's within 100 feet of you.
- Move: drag your token; squares are deducted on their own and reset at the start of your turn. Highlight range shows you how far you can go; Stand up if you're Prone.
- End turn passes to the next one.
Roliando handles the D&D details: Extra Attack, Divine Smite, weapon masteries (Topple, Push...), Concentration (with its saving throw on taking damage), Death saving throws at 0 HP, and prompts for the defender's Reaction or Legendary Resistance when they come up.
Saving throws
When a spell, a feature, a custom action, or a creature forces a save, each target rolls against the DC and the damage is applied on its own: full on a failure, half (or none) on a success. If a creature's attack carries a separate save ("Bite… and a DC 13 Constitution save or 2d6 poison"), the hit applies its damage and then the target saves against the rest.
By default saves roll themselves and the d20 shows up in the chat. If your table would rather have each player roll their own, the GM turns on D&D settings → Rolls by hand → Saves: each player gets a card in the chat with their save, the DC and what's at stake, and rolling it applies the result. The GM's creatures still roll on their own.
Tokens
- Add: the "Tokens — add or drag" panel has Players, NPCs, Bestiary, Library and Other tabs. Drag a sheet to the exact square or click Add to place it in the first free spot. In the Bestiary you can filter by CR (from/to) and by creature type.
- Drive: drag the token across the map. In combat, movement is deducted on its own and the path walked this turn stays drawn with what was used and what is left.
- Monster movement: in the monster bar, the footprints tile shows the squares it has left, with Reset and Dash. In Table rules the GM can turn on "GM tokens also respect movement": their tokens can't go past what they have left (hold Alt when dropping to move anyway).
- Select: a click (or a tap) on a token selects it and brings up its action bar: the monster's, or the character's if you control it (the GM, anyone's). A click on empty ground lets go of it. A double click (or double tap) opens its sheet or its statblock, just like See sheet in the token menu.
- Several at once (GM): Ctrl + drag on the ground draws a box, and Ctrl + click adds or removes a token; the selection bar shows up (number, hide, add to combat…). On mobile, long press a token to add it to the selection.
- Rather have a click open the sheet, as before? Settings → Accessibility → Clicking a token on the map.
- Token menu (right-click / long press): See sheet or See statblock, color and image, facing, size, and (the GM) visibility, the light it carries and vision.
HP and conditions
- HP: on monsters/NPCs they are adjusted from the token menu with −5 / − / + / +5 (a player character's HP lives on their sheet).
- Conditions: in the token menu, the Conditions section applies conditions with a tap: Blinded, Poisoned, Frightened, Restrained, Grappled, Stunned, Paralyzed, Unconscious, Petrified, Prone, Invisible, Charmed, Slowed, Harried, Weakened.
- Each condition has its icon, and it appears over the token, in the Combatants strip and on the sheet, always with the same drawing. The colored ring says how serious it is (red = you can't act, orange = you can't move, amber = worse rolls, blue = stealth, violet = mind control). Four fit; if you have more, the last one is a +N and the rest are in the tooltip. They are sorted by importance, so whatever keeps you from acting always shows.
- Active effects (Guidance, Bless, Shield of Faith...) go in their own row, right above, with a green ring if they help you and red if they hurt you, and with the icon of the spell that put them there, the same one you see on the bar of whoever cast it.
- The GM sees a green halo around tokens marked "in combat": those are the ones that will enter when initiative is rolled.
Vehicles and anchored tokens
- Vehicle (token menu → settings, GM): a boat, a cart, an airship. It is drawn below creatures, can be stepped on, and anyone you drop inside it climbs aboard: moving the vehicle moves all its passengers. Moving someone out of it gets them off. It is still a token with HP, AC and a statblock: it can be attacked and sunk like any other.
- Hull: a vehicle is shown with its top-down art and its real size (a keelboat covers 4×12 squares). Pick the art from the included boats, sailing boat, barges, raft and carts, or use the token image; adjust width and length and rotate it 90°. When you drag it, whoever is aboard moves with it live.
- Vehicles from the books (Saltmarsh ships, Spelljammer vessels, Avernus infernal war machines…) come in as statblocks: hull with AC and HP, parts as traits and weapons as attacks. Placed on the map, they are already vehicles with their hull.
- Anchored to: any token can travel with another one (a familiar on a shoulder, a rider). Pick it in the token settings; it lets go when you move it out of its carrier.
- Mount: token menu → Mount… and pick your mount (a creature larger than you that you control; the GM, any). You move to its square and travel together; in combat it no longer says the square is taken. Dismount leaves you on a free square next to it.
Systems that aren't D&D
On the bar of other systems, each action is defined by the creator: it can roll against a defense, a DC or an opposed roll, apply damage, healing or a condition, spend from a pool and respect damage reduction, type effectiveness or margin bands. Type effectiveness is resolved on its own on a hit if the system has a type table and the target carries its types (super effective, not very effective or immune); if not, you choose on the hit. All of that is set up in the Combat tab of the builder (see that guide).