Any suggestions for using a tablet as a DMs tool for pen and paper

[Gryndle]

Heyas,
I am always looking for tricks and tools to help keep the game running smooth and combat fast as a DM. I run only a pen and paper game, but I have a shiny new tablet that I will be using for some sound effects, calculator and such. Are there any apps out there that the community would suggest to use?

[Demonslayer666]

I like RPG Roller.

But I use that on my phone and I only use it for lots of dice rolls, like fireball. I use my tablet to display pictures of NPCs and monsters to the players.

[MarkVIIIMarc]

I downloaded a copy of the Handbook on a Windows 10 tablet and race the DM to find rules answers....

A good editable PDF player sheet could be handy.

I have a spell book program on my big Android phone which is real handy.

There seem to be DM programs which randomly generate NPCs or bad guys.

[Gryndle]

what is the spellbook app you use? and do you know the name of the DM tool apps?

[MarkVIIIMarc]

The spellbook app I use is "spell book burned". Think I picked it because it had good ratings and wanted almost no permissions. It lets you search spells by name so you can see what any spell does pretty quickly. You can then favorite them into different books. I only use 1 book for my Bard. A really micro-managing DM could set up a book for each character in game and many Badguys.

Also on my phone I have 5e Cheat Sheet and Campaign Lab. Them I have not used as much. I can say they aren't running in the background all the time at least lol. One of them gave some CR difficulty information which seemed handy for a DM. That isn't me though so I dunno if it is necessary or which is best.

There has to be some tool to help with tracking initiative out there. Excel or an open office program would do no doubt but I always find myself wanting a real keyboard if I am doing alot of typing.

On my PC I have an old program called Vassal. It is a board game emulator with a couple neat tricks as I believe it can emulate fog of war and the like. There has to be a newer program which lets you map dungeons or towns on a tablet and only use the wipe off hex board for battles.

[MrMcBobb]

Fifth Edition Character Creator and The Spellbook are my go to apps. I've had a few spellbook apps and my favourite is just "The Spellbook" by Troublesome Apps. In my opinion it's the easiest to use and the least finiky but that could be because it's the first one I got so I'm just used to it.

I've had a few apps downloaded onto my tablet for DMing but I honestly still prefer pen and paper for most things, though a little whiteboard and some dry-erase markers are good for initiative tracking.

[GlenSmash!]

You could try the D&D Beyond beta. I've found it really easy to quickly look up monsters.

Also orcpub2.com has a great character builder.