D&D Tools Mega-Guide. Characters to Quests, NPCs to Dungeons

The Mega-Guide with combined guide from several previous articles. Charac

5E Tools Guides - tools full guide | dm's guild | gen guides list

Disclaimer. I'm an affiliate for DM's Guild and I also create a lot of products with random tables on DM's Guild..

Starting Points

5th Edition is the most recent version of the most popular roleplaying game in the world. There are other versions still played, including many rebuilds of the older versions with the OSR (Old School Revival) games.

The tools here are specific to D&D, and many to 5e in particular.

And there is also a guide of PDFs with random tables at DM's Guild.

July 2024: added Adventures section, new tools and started tidy-up.

Random PDFs at DM's Guild

If you like random tables in pdf format then the DM's Guild has a few choices.

The Random Dungeon Room Generator has rooms and chambers covered.
For more on doors you can try Deadly Dungeon Doors with tables including wooden, exotic, door traps and oddities
A Pay What You Want option is Random Encounters Expanded with 76 pages of statted encounters, with options for different environments.
For cities look for ideas in Waterdeep: City Encounters.
The most popular one I've written is 200 Non-Combat Encounters
If you want to try solo adventuring then the Solo Adventurer's Toolbox is for you.

Characters

Bely Orcobble, Coda Weathershadow, Cone Forestden, Hilel Springden, Per Daleleaf

...halfing names from the Name Generator tool (under npcs in the filter) at Dungeon Master's Vault. It also has names for adventures, cities and continents.

Characters start with names, and one of the best known places is Fantasy Name Generators, which has names by DnD race. You can find them on one page with Kassoon.

Then Codex Nomina is a site dedicated to names, with an impressive selection at their D&D Names Generator . There is a community that helps with picking and adding names.

For a character in a hurry then Fast Character gives a full character sheet. You can specify race, class, level and more.

D&D characters need trinkets so go to the 5e Trinket Generator at donjon. Or

DM Heroes has a portrait generator with the core races of 5e and which can be edited

Pets are a source of fun for many groups and there is a guide for pet generators or I have a D&D pet tool at Chaos Gen. I've built a D&D trinket gen with themes at Chaos Gen.

Some characters can be customised by class.

Plot Hooks by character class at D&D Flavor Generators (example is for a fighter).

For Barbarians I can offer up barbarian names
For Bards here's a random quip generator or a musical instrument generator. If you feel a song coming on look at 100 Bard Songs. Plus a bard name generator
For Clerics how about a local random god to follow. Or the Cleric Name generator
For Druids start with druid names. There are 100 druidic treasures. Druids with companions can look at the guide for pet generators.
Fighters might benefit from a Nickname
Monks could have their own martial arts style and a monk name generator
For Paladins maybe a local random god to follow. Or the Paladin Name generator. For higher levels there is are 100+ paladin magic items
For Rangers fantasy name generators has a host of pets scroll to the bottom to find them all. Or look at the guide for pet generators. There is also a ranger name generator
Rogues like tricks and gear so 100 magic items for a rogue will be of interest. And some rogues may enjoy the Bandit name generator or the broader rogue name generator
For Sorcerers of a wild bent there are extra wild surges
For Warlocks there are some patron contract tables and a witch/warlock name generator. Warlocks with companions can look at the guide for pet generators
For Wizards there is a wizard name generator. For spells there are spellbooks or more spellbooks

For Characters during a campaign, you might go carousing generator at donjon, find yourself running a business (also donjon) or wandering what to spend gold pieces on at Chaos Gen.

Dungeon Generators

Hazard: Brown mold (Frigid temperature. DC 12 Con, 4d10 cold damage, half on save. Immune to fire, causes it to expand. Destroyed by cold)

... from the hazards part of the Random Dungeon Generator at Kassoon. You can tinker with areas such as the Dungeon Start, doors, contents, random hazards and random traps.

Starting off is a generator using the tables from the Dungeon Master's Guide at Chartopia. It has filters

Next is a dungeon map and dungeon room generator from donjon, one of the most recommended tools around. Onto Traps which every dungeon needs. Donjon has a trap generators which gives 10 traps each time with filters for level and danger.

OMGM has a trap generator with details of trigger, save DC, how to spot the trap or the trigger

Another generator from 5nddnd will tell you if a door is locked or trapped.

For dungeon encounters Kobold Fight Club has an option for selecting "Dungeon" as the environment as well as several other encounter filters.

Treasure and Items

Strange Kris of Barbs. Weapon (Dagger), uncommon (requires attunement)

Treat this as a +1 weapon when attacking Aboleths and other creatures from the Far Realm. After an attack roll, the bearer may use their reaction to add 1d4 to the damage roll and take 1d4 damage.

From the Weak Magic Items for 5E Generator by Len Pelletier

Redkat's Treasure Generator has more detail on the items and art and includes a variety of mundane items. Donjon has a treasure generator by CR, and Mithril and Mages has a similar one with the option of more details for gems and art.

For Magic Items, Donjon has a magic item generator with filters by rarity and type.

If your players favour convenience then try the 5E Magic Shop or a second version which includes description and location.

A variety of weird magic items can be found, from potions of gelatinous transformation to the prismatic blade.

For individuals then take a look at the individual monster tables of Lady Tiefling for Giants, Hags and everything else D&D

And last is a generator for drawing cards from a deck of many things... from Mithril and Mages

NPCs

Imloth: Female Elf Rogue, LN. Str 7, Dex 15, Con 10, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 9. Imloth has brown hair and green eyes. She wears studded leather and wields a shortsword. Imloth is cursed with delusions, and is searching for a divine relic which can break the curse.

From the NPC Generator at Donjon , creating several at once.

For an NPC with a detailed description try NPC Generator. It also has traits, ability scores, a plot hook, physical features and religion. And lots of opportunity for customisation

NPC tool at TotalPartyKill gives stats, skills and personality traits. The NPC Generator at DM's Vault has a summary, description and stats. A nice touch is a short descriptor for each stat explaining the value (constitution: 18 robust). The NPC generator at negatherium also has detailed appearance, personality and an adventure hook as well as a basic stat block.

For a more stat block with a templated approach rpgTinker will let you customise by NPC type, race and attribute array. Templates include combat, spellcaster and non-combat options.

The NPC Generator at 7Tools lets you choose from many heritages, generating character details that tie into the other generators of the site.

DND Speak also has d100 tables of shopkeepers and merchants, interesting pirates and hosts for a night's stay. The Quick NPC Generator(one of mine) at Chaos Gen gives name, physical trait and a bit of personality.

Finally for a randomly generated monster try Darehart's Monstrous Codex

OMGM has a great NPC Generator.

Adventures

Cook’s Utensils | Food is a delight to Belch, who wishes to savor every odd taste he can find. If the party promises to bring him back the grossest, weirdest innards of a creature, he will share his favorite recipes with them!

from 100 Quests involving Toolkits from Dnd Speak. Similar ones include 100 City Quests and 100 Morally Ambiguous Side Quests.

Whole adventures aren't easy to generate, or at least coherent ones!

If you're looking for one shots for dnd at Chaos Gen (one of mine) is D&D One Shots generator, with a couple themes to choose from

7 Tools also has a Quest Generator, where the details can be further generated / expanded.

Encounters

If you are looking for combat encounters start with Donjon's elegant encounter generator or the more builder-styled Kassoon's combat generator.

Kobold+ Fight Club is my goto place for filtering monsters and it also features a random encounter feature.

I've got a 5e Encounter Generator from Chaos Gen with options for combat and non-combat and gives extras like location and activity. Dnd speak has a whole list of d100 encounter tables.

Then 7Tools has an Encounter Generator with Challenge, environment and encounter type. Plus a Monster Generator for something unique.

For a randomly generated monster try Darehart's Monstrous Codex. For Ravenloft there is a Curse of Strahd encounter generator.

Lastly I've created a slew of simple D&D encounter tables.

For a D&D Tavern, OMGM has an Inn Generator with several filters.

Theros

Start with names from the Ancient Greek-ish Name Generator at springhole.net

Names are so important for characters and fantasy name generators has a whole page of Magic: the Gathering names useful for Theros. Of note are those for gorgons, sphinxes and giants

For Humans there are Ancient Greek names and MTG-themed names.
For Centaurs there are general centaur names and more MTG themed ones.
For Leonin there is a cat-person ideas generator
For Minotaurs you have MTG-themed names , greek-influenced names and ones from various fantasy sources. There is also a pair of horns generator and a minotaur characters idea tool
For Satyrs there is a satyr and fauns name generator
For Tritons there are MTG merfolk names. Also with a bit of adaption a mer-tails generator could work

Omens and oracles are a big part of life with the gods. Prophecies are all around, with prophecies with the option of scrambling the words, several short ones or character foretellings (one of mine). There is a name generator for prophets too.

Also covered are superstitions, omens & portents, riddles and a riddle maker (no answers though).

Seas and islands are a big part of Theros and there is a separate guide on Sea Tools. Masks are prominent in Thoros lore and there is a costume masks generator, replacing modern materials with wood, ceramic or metal.

and I've got a Theros Trinkets Generator

For PDFs

Trinkets of Theros is a pdf with 100 trinkets on DM's Guild
Gray Merchant of Asphodel has loot and merchant tables
Lastly Encounters in Theros has random tables for City, Wilderness, Mountain and Watery environments.
Last is my own Trinkets of Theros of 80 trinkets with Creation Tables for hundreds more.

Ravenloft

Another resource for Ravenloft is the Generators Guide for Horror.

One of the first themed adventures for dark fantasy was Ravenloft, which grew into a setting and has returned for fifth edition with Van Richten.

For new ideas try 100 new darklords and domains.

You might want some names for Ravenloft or Goth sounding vampire names.

For 5e support take a look at 100 horror trinkets or spooky trinkets

You might find a use for a deck of Tarot Cards

Curse of Strahd is the best-known vampire adventure for fifth edition

To support it there is collection of tables from Curse of Strahd, a Curse of Strahd encounter generator and a Fortunes generator for different setups of Curse of Strahd

For more vampire specific tools try vampire descriptions with magical abilities, vampire names, Graveyard Names

For PDFs

For random tables in pdf format there is a DM's Guild collection of extra encounters for curse of Strahd
Next are a series of random tables for gothic horror - Ravenloft Tables
Last are two of mine, Spooky Encounters and Spooky Trinkets