D&D Initiative Tracker

How initiative works in fifth edition

Initiative is a Dexterity check. Everyone rolls a d20 and adds their Dexterity modifier, plus anything else that boosts initiative, such as a feat or class feature. The highest total acts first and the order runs down from there. Under the 2024 rules a surprised creature rolls initiative with disadvantage instead of losing its first turn.

Ties are where tables argue. The usual approach is that the GM settles ties between monsters, the players settle ties between their own characters, and the GM breaks a tie between a character and a monster. The tracker needs a fixed answer, so it breaks ties by the higher modifier, then alphabetically by name. If your table decides differently, edit one initiative by a tenth and move on.

The tracker preloads an example fight, a party of four against a pack of goblins and a hulking goblin boss, so you can press N a few times and see how it behaves before you clear it and add your own.

Running combat at speed

Most slow combat isn’t slow because of the rules. It’s slow because a player only starts thinking when you say their name. Two habits fix most of that:

• Announce three names each turn: who is up, who is on deck and who is in the hole. “Mira, you’re up; Bram on deck; Kesh after that.” The highlighted row plus the next two make that easy to read off the screen.
• Roll monster attacks and damage together. The dice roller takes a comma, so 1d20+4, 1d6+2 gives you both totals in one press.

When a player is still undecided after half a minute, have their character take the Dodge action and move on. Do it once, cheerfully, and you rarely need to do it again.

Lair actions and initiative 20

A common convention for monsters with lair actions is to give the lair its own slot at initiative 20, acting after anyone who ties with it. You can do that here by adding a combatant called Lair with initiative 20, a modifier of −10 so it loses ties, and no HP. It then gets a highlight and a reminder every round, which is the whole point: lair actions are easy to forget when the dragon itself is busy.

Group initiative for big fights

Rolling separately for twelve skeletons is a waste of a GM’s evening. Roll once per group of identical monsters instead: add one row called “Skeletons (6)”, give it the group’s initiative and track individual HP in the notes field. If you prefer separate rows, add them without an initiative and press R; the tracker rolls d20 plus modifier for every monster that doesn’t have a number yet.

Some GMs go further and use side initiative, where the party acts as a block and then the monsters do. It speeds things up and makes coordinated plays easier, but it makes big monster turns hit very hard. Try it for a fight against many weak creatures before using it against a boss.

Tracking conditions without slowing play

Every row has toggles for the full SRD 5.2 condition list: Blinded, Charmed, Deafened, Exhaustion (with a level from 1 to 6), Frightened, Grappled, Incapacitated, Invisible, Paralyzed, Petrified, Poisoned, Prone, Restrained, Stunned and Unconscious. A condition stays on the row until you turn it off, so the reminder sits right there when that creature’s turn comes up.

Two habits help. Check conditions at the start of each turn, because most saving throws to end an effect happen at the end of a turn and players forget them. And put durations in the notes field (“Hold Person, save end of turn, 1 min”), since the tracker doesn’t count spell durations for you. With 10 rounds to a minute, the round counter tells you when a one-minute spell runs out.

Keyboard shortcuts and saving

The shortcuts work whenever your cursor isn’t in a text field:

Everything is stored in your browser with localStorage, on that device only. Close the tab, refresh, come back after the pizza arrives; the fight, the round and the current turn are where you left them. Export as Markdown gives you a clean list of combatants, HP and conditions for your session notes. If the party needs someone to fight, the encounter generator builds a group from SRD monsters, and the encounter calculator checks whether it will be a fair one.