How to run a combat with the tracker
- Add the party. Type each player character’s name, pick Player character and add their initiative bonus, hit points and Armor Class. Leave Initiative blank if they will roll their own dice, then type the total they call out. Characters made with the 5e character sheet in this browser come in with one tap from From character sheet.
- Add the monsters. Type a generic name such as Goblin, set How many to 4 and you get Goblin 1 to Goblin 4. Hit points take a number or dice:
2d6gives the average (7, rounded down like a stat block), or tick Roll hit point dice to roll each one. With One initiative roll for the group they all act on the same count. - Start combat. Anyone without an initiative gets a d20 plus their bonus, the order sorts itself, and round 1 begins with the highest count highlighted. Next turn moves down the list and starts the next round at the top.
- Track the fight. The current combatant opens by itself and scrolls into view under the turn bar, which stays at the top of the screen: type an amount and press Damage or Heal, add conditions, tick Concentrating or Readied. Name and stats are under Edit details; tap any row to open it.
- Show the players. Player view: new window opens a board for a TV or a second screen that follows every click; Player view: full screen puts it on this screen.
Initiative and ties
Each combatant’s initiative is a d20 plus its initiative bonus, highest first. When two totals match, both System Reference Documents leave the order to the table: the GM settles tied monsters, players settle tied characters, and the GM decides between the two. SRD 5.1 (the 2014 rules) adds an option: everyone tied rolls a d20 and the highest goes first. The tracker’s default is the common house rule of the higher Dexterity modifier first, then a d20 roll-off, and it shows the roll-off so nobody has to take it on trust. Change it under Rules and settings, or pick I’ll order them and use Act before and Act after on tied rows.
Lair actions are a generic option: Add lair action (20) puts a row on initiative count 20 that loses every tie, which is how the lair actions of SRD 5.1 (the 2014 rules) work; SRD 5.2.1 has none, so use it only if your table plays with them. Write what happens in its notes.
Delay, ready and reactions
Delay turn takes a combatant out of the order; it waits under Delaying until you press Act now, when it acts right away and keeps that new place in later rounds. Readied action and Reaction used clear by themselves at the start of that combatant’s next turn, and the tracker tells you when a readied action ran out unused.
Hit points, temporary HP and concentration
Damage comes off temporary hit points first, then hit points; healing never goes above the maximum and never restores temporary hit points. Temporary hit points don’t stack: Temp HP replaces the old value, so type the higher number if the creature keeps its old ones. A monster at half its hit points or fewer is marked Bloodied, and monsters at 0 are skipped in the order (turn that off in settings). Player characters at 0 keep their turn for death saving throws.
When a concentrating creature takes damage, the row shows the Constitution saving throw it needs: DC 10 or half the damage, whichever is higher, up to DC 30 under the 2024 rules. Dropping to 0 hit points, or a condition that includes Incapacitated, ends concentration.
Conditions that end on time
All 15 SRD conditions are in the list, each with a short summary that follows the rules you choose (2014 or 2024; Exhaustion differs the most). Give a condition a number of rounds and choose whose turn counts it down: the creature’s own, or the caster’s for effects that last “until the end of your next turn”. A condition added during that combatant’s own turn doesn’t count the end of that turn, so 1 round lasts through its next turn. When the count reaches zero the condition is removed and the tracker says so. Made a mistake? Previous undoes the turn, including anything that expired, and keeps what you changed since.
Tips for the table
- Tick Hidden from players for an ambusher that hasn’t been spotted yet: it takes its turns but stays off the player view and out of shared links.
- On a laptop, the arrow keys and Page Up / Page Down step through turns, so a presentation clicker works too.
- Save the encounters you prepared under Saved encounters. A fight stopped mid-round reopens on the same turn next session.
- Need dice for everything else? The dice roller rolls any notation; for the battlefield, print hex map paper.
Privacy and the rules content
Everything runs in your browser and encounters stay on this device. A share link holds only what the player view shows. This is an independent, 5E compatible tool built from the System Reference Documents 5.1 and 5.2.1 (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0, attribution under the tracker), with no monsters, art or content from other books.