Best AI Tools for D&D in 2026: A Guide by Task

For D&D prep, I’d start with ChatGPT or Claude. Give either a scene you’re stuck on, a rough NPC, or notes that need sorting. You can try both for free, and you’ll learn more from revising one piece of prep than from comparing their model names.

Other jobs need different tools. Finding the rule you half remember, keeping track of a promise from six sessions ago, and drawing a map with usable doors are separate problems. A chatbot that writes a convincing tavern description may still invent the rule you ask about next.

There are eight entries here, grouped by task. ScryRPG publishes this guide and appears in it; the other products are linked to their own documentation and pricing. Access details were checked on September 11, 2026.

What to use, by job

1. ChatGPT and Claude: work through a prep problem

“Write me an interesting innkeeper” is an easy request to answer badly. You’ll get a name, a secret, and enough backstory to bury the thing you needed for tonight: how this person deals with the party.

Give ChatGPT or Claude a situation with something at stake:

The innkeeper has been extending credit to the local miners. The mine has closed, and the party wants rooms on credit too. Give me three ways she might respond. She needs the money, but she grew up with these people. Keep each response to two sentences I can say at the table.

Now you have something to judge. Does she sound like someone who lives in this town? Would your players argue with her, help her, or try to cheat her? Keep the response that makes you want to play the conversation. Rewrite the parts you wouldn’t say aloud.

Both assistants can work from campaign material you provide. For an ongoing game, keep a short brief with the party, current location, unresolved trouble, and house rules. ChatGPT Projects can keep related chats and source files together. Update the brief when the situation changes; a larger pile of old notes can leave the assistant choosing between contradictory versions of events.

Be more suspicious when you ask for mechanics. Specify your edition, supply the relevant text when you have it, and check the answer before using it to settle a ruling. The same goes for a generated stat block. A plausible name and a tidy layout tell you nothing about whether its damage is reasonable. Our encounter balancing guide covers what to check.

The ChatGPT and Claude free plans are enough to try this. Compare their answers to the same prep problem before paying for either.

2. Gemini Notebook, formerly NotebookLM: find the passage

Google renamed NotebookLM to Gemini Notebook in July 2026. Its useful feature for D&D remains the ability to answer from your sources and link to the supporting passages.

Put the rules documents you’re using in a notebook, together with a clearly labeled house-rules file. Ask a narrow question: “What ends this condition?” or “Where does this book explain travel pace?” Open the citation and read the surrounding paragraph. A sourced answer is easier to check, but it can still omit an exception.

Keep editions separate. If you put the 2014 and 2024 versions of a rule in the same notebook, an answer can quote a real passage from the wrong book. Give each notebook a title that names the edition, and tell it which source takes precedence when your house rules disagree.

Campaign notes work here too. You might ask what the party promised the ferryman, or which sessions mention the abandoned mine. It can also summarize the notes or help develop an idea from them. For the ferryman question, require a passage from the notes. You want the promise the players made, not a plausible new one.

There is a free plan. Start with a small set of documents you know well enough to catch a wrong answer.

3. ScryRPG: keep the party’s records together

A week after the session, someone asks who took the silver key. The recap says the party found it. A player’s sheet says nothing. The Discord conversation has moved on to scheduling.

ScryRPG combines shared inventory, character records, shops, loot, and lore with an AI familiar the party can talk to together. The familiar can use those records and help with campaign actions, with access governed by party permissions. Players can use the campaign through the web app and Discord.

Someone still has to record that the rogue took the key. An assistant with access to your inventory will still give a poor answer if nobody updates the inventory.

Try it if keeping sheets, loot, and party knowledge in agreement is a recurring problem. If your shared document works and you only want an occasional NPC idea, you may have little reason to move. ScryRPG has a free plan; it is a campaign manager, so you’ll still need a separate battle map or VTT for moving tokens around.

4. Friends & Fables: play with an AI game master

Friends & Fables is for the evening when you want to play and nobody wants to run. Its AI game master, Franz, leads a text-based adventure with characters, game mechanics, and a virtual tabletop.

You can use it for solo play or invite friends. Before building a whole world, play a short adventure and see how the conversation feels. Try an unexpected approach to an obstacle. Disagree with an NPC. See whether the responses give you enough to work with, and whether everyone enjoys taking turns through text.

A group that enjoys a human DM’s improvisation may miss being able to catch their eye, interrupt a villain’s speech, or make a joke that changes the encounter. Another group may happily trade that for a game everyone can join as a player. That preference matters more than the length of the feature list.

The free plan allows campaigns with up to three players and limits daily turns. Check the party size on the plan you choose; a free trial with two friends doesn’t establish what it will cost to bring your whole group.

5. ElevenLabs: prepare the voice before game night

ElevenLabs turns written dialogue into speech. Give it a short message from the lich behind the sealed door, an intercepted dispatch, or the oracle’s answer. Those are good candidates because you know the words before the session starts.

A conversation is harder. The players will ask something you didn’t prepare, and generating each reply while they wait adds an awkward pause. I’d use a recording to introduce the voice, then speak the NPC’s replies myself.

Keep a copy of the text, the selected voice, and the finished audio together. Listen through the whole clip before game night. A strange pronunciation of the villain’s name is funny once; it can become the only thing anyone remembers about the reveal.

The free plan includes 10,000 credits per month. Those credits pay for generation, so several attempts at the same line can use up more of the allowance than the final recording suggests. Test one scene before budgeting for a cast of recurring voices.

6. Archivist: recover what happened last session

A recap that says “the party explored the ruins and defeated the guardians” has lost most of what you’ll need next week. Who spoke to the prisoner? Did anyone agree to return? Who picked up the sealed letter?

Archivist works from Discord recordings, uploaded audio, transcripts, or notes. It produces recaps and campaign records you can search and ask questions about. This is worth a look if reconstructing the session has become a job of its own, especially for a group that plays far enough apart to forget details.

Get everyone’s agreement before recording. Then use a session you remember well for the trial. Compare the recap with what happened, paying particular attention to names, promises, and items changing hands. Players discussing a plan is different from the party carrying it out, and a summary that merges those two can send your next session in the wrong direction.

Archivist lets you edit its summaries and entity descriptions. Do that review before circulating the recap. If you spend longer repairing it than you would have spent writing a few useful notes, keep your session-notes template.

Its 30-day trial includes two sessions. Ongoing use requires a paid plan; the entry plan is $10 per month for one campaign and four sessions. Count your sessions before choosing a tier.

7. Midjourney and Gemini: portraits worth keeping

For a new NPC, a portrait can settle details you hadn’t decided: age, clothing, bearing, how carefully they present themselves. Once the players have seen it, that face becomes part of the campaign.

Gemini is a useful starting point for creating an image and revising it through conversation. You can give it a reference, change the clothes, or ask for a different setting. Image generation is included in its free plan, subject to limits.

Midjourney is another option when you want to spend time on the look of the art. Browse its examples for a style you like before subscribing. Its plans are paid subscriptions; you don’t need to buy one just to discover that Gemini’s output suits your table.

For a recurring character, test the difficult part early. Make one portrait, then try to put the same person in a winter coat, at a feast, and after a fight. Compare the face, scars, jewelry, and equipment. If the scar keeps changing sides, choose a single portrait and reuse it. Players can imagine a change of clothes.

Save the final image outside the chat. Keep the reference and prompt too, but don’t assume they’ll reproduce it exactly months later. For a campaign’s central cast, commissioned portraits or an artist’s character pack are also worth considering, especially when a particular person’s style is part of what you want.

8. Dungeon Alchemist: build a map you can run

Dungeon Alchemist fills rooms with walls, doors, lights, and furnishings as you draw them. You can then move objects, change the room, and export the map for print or a VTT. A tavern kitchen can have counters and cupboards without you placing each one from scratch.

Despite its place on an AI tools list, it uses procedural algorithms and assets made by paid artists, not generative AI. It belongs here because automatic map preparation is a common reason DMs go looking for AI tools.

The room still needs your attention as an encounter space. Check whether a Large creature can reach the party, whether a doorway creates a tedious bottleneck, and whether there is room for anyone to take cover. A beautifully furnished room can be miserable to fight in.

Test a small export in your VTT before making the whole dungeon. Check the grid scale and any imported walls and lights from a player’s view. Export and import support varies by tabletop; follow its setup instructions before assuming that what you see in the editor will behave the same way at the table.

Dungeon Alchemist is a one-time purchase for Windows, macOS, or Linux. Its library gives the maps a consistent appearance, but it also limits what you can build from the supplied objects. If your adventure needs a very particular ruined ship or impossible staircase, check the available assets before committing to it.

A few questions before you add another tool

What is the best AI tool for a new DM?

Try ChatGPT or Claude with a small prep task you can judge: an NPC’s response, rumors for a town, or a shorter version of your notes. Keep a rulebook open for mechanical questions. Learning what to reject is easier when the request is small enough to read carefully.

Are there free AI tools for D&D?

ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini Notebook, Gemini, and ScryRPG have free plans. ElevenLabs offers a monthly credit allowance, and Friends & Fables limits free play. Archivist offers a trial; Midjourney and Dungeon Alchemist require payment. The table above separates those options because a trial won’t cover a continuing campaign.

How much time does AI save on D&D prep?

Count the correction time. If a recap takes five minutes to generate and twenty to fix, it has cost you twenty-five minutes. Compare that with the notes you would have written yourself. Voice clips and portraits can also expand to fill an evening if you keep chasing a better version. Set a stopping point before you start.

Can these tools work together in one workflow?

Yes. For example, you can draft an NPC in a chatbot, check a rule in Gemini Notebook, and save the finished scene in your usual campaign notes. Copy over only what you’ve decided to use. If you keep revising three different copies of the same NPC, you’ll eventually run the wrong one.

Try it on the next session

Choose something you still need for the next game: a recap, a room, an NPC. Use one tool to make it, then close the tool and run from what you saved. After the session, ask whether that prep was useful and how much work it took to get there. You’ll have a better basis for choosing a subscription than another evening of reading feature lists.