Combat is where a tracker earns its place. If adjusting your character takes more than a second or two, you slow the whole table down and end up back on paper. The best HP and spell slot apps are judged almost entirely on speed and correctness under pressure.
What makes tracking fast in combat
- One-tap HP changes. Taking 8 damage should be a couple of taps, not a text field and a keyboard. Healing should be just as quick.
- Temporary HP handled correctly. Temp HP is a separate pool that absorbs damage first and does not stack. A good tracker models that instead of lumping it into your total.
- Full 5e death saves. When you drop, the app should track successes and failures, know that a natural 1 counts as two failures and a natural 20 revives you at 1 HP, and stabilize at three successes.
- Spell slots at a glance. Casting should be a single tap on the slot level, with used and available slots clearly visible.
- Automatic rest resets. You should not manually restore every slot and consumable. The app should know which reset on a short rest and which need a long rest.
Why rest logic matters
In 5e, a short rest and a long rest restore different resources. Some abilities and consumables come back on a short rest; spell slots for most classes only come back on a long rest. An app that tags each resource with its reset type lets you tap “short rest” or “long rest” once and have exactly the right things refill. Getting this wrong is a common source of accidental overpowered (or underpowered) characters, so automating it removes a whole category of table arguments.
How Adventure Codex handles it
Adventure Codex is built around fast at-the-table tracking:
- HP and temp HP with quick tap controls, and full 5e death-save rules including natural 1s, natural 20s, and stabilization.
- Spell slots and consumables shown as tappable controls, with a pip layout for small pools and a counter for larger ones.
- Rest buttons that reset short-rest and long-rest resources correctly, with a single-level undo in case you tap the wrong one.
- Cross-device sync, so the same character is live on your phone, tablet, and the web.
All of that is free forever, with no ads and no trackers. If your goal is to never again lose combat momentum to your character sheet, that is exactly what Adventure Codex is for.
Frequently asked questions
What makes an HP tracker good for combat?
Speed and correctness. You want to adjust HP in one tap, handle temporary HP separately, and track death saves with the real 5e rules, all without leaving your current view or doing math in your head.
Do spell slots reset automatically?
In Adventure Codex, yes. Spell slots and consumables are tagged as short-rest or long-rest, so a rest resets exactly the right ones. You do not manually re-tick every box.
Is HP and spell slot tracking free?
Yes. The full character tracker in Adventure Codex, including HP, temp HP, death saves, spell slots, and consumables, is free forever on web, iOS, and Android.