This page is about playing Version 4.0 of D&D on Roll20.

Intro

The 4th edition of Dungeons and Dragons (hereafter referred to as 4e) is perfectly suited to being run on Roll20. With the emphasis of tactical combats and simple dice mechanics 4e is very easily adapted to playing on a virtual tabletop.

Macros and Attributes

The structure of rolls in 4e is very formulaic, which makes setting up a character's attributes and macros very simple. Below is a sample set of Attributes that can be used:

Attributes

For Bars:

Hit Points (26)
Healing Surges (4)
AC (15) <--Temp HP is also a good one for here

For Macros:

STR_MOD (2)
DEX_MOD (4)
CON_MOD (0)
INT_MOD (2)
WIS_MOD (2)
CHA_MOD (3)
Enhancement
Half_Level
Weapon_Proficiency (5)
Implement (Enchantment bonus of character's Implement)
Ranged_Proficiency (3) (Proficiency bonus of character's ranged weapon)
Init_Bonus (4) (for initiative rolls with the Improved Initiative feat)
Action_Points (1) <--this number changes so rarely it does not need to be a bar item-->

Useful Macros for Players

The following Macros utilize the above attributes.

Powers and Attack Macros

Melee Basic Attack
Macro name: "mba"
Invoked using: #mba
Macro Contents:
/roll 1d20 + @{STR_MOD} + @{Weapon_Proficiency} + @{Half_Level} + @{Enhancement} vs AC
/roll 1d8 + @{STR_MOD} + @{Enhancement damage}

Cleave
Macro name: "cleave"
Invoked using: #cleave
Macro Contents:
/roll 1d20+@{STR_MOD} + @{Weapon_Proficiency} + @{Half_Level} + @{Enhancement} vs AC /roll 2d6+@{STR_MOD} damage, plus @{Str_Mod} damage to one additional enemy

The idea is to give as much information about the attack as possible in the roll so you don't have to look it up during play.

Utility Macros

Initiative Roll
/roll 1d20+@{DEX_MOD}+@{Init_Bonus} &{tracker}

Useful Macros for GMs

As a GM properly utilizing macros can greatly speed up play. Below are some useful macros for GMs. First, however, some set up is required.

Tips for game set up

First, set up your monsters with character sheets like you would for player characters. Unlike player characters, they need significantly less detail.

For Bars

Hit Points (30)
Bloodied Value (15)
AC (15)

For Macros

Init (5)
Atk (6)
Dmg (1d6+5)

Now follow these steps to set up the monster sheet:

Choose tags for the monster. Typically all monsters should have at least the "NPC" tag so they can be easily distinguished from player characters, but using the creature type, level of the creature, role (soldier, brute, artillery, etc.), and encounter number are all useful tags so you can easily find the monster character sheets during play.
Create a token for the character and put the monster's hit points in bar 1, the bloodied value in bar 2, and the monster's AC in bar 3. This lets you easily reference these values during play.
Choose "Represents Character" under the token options and choose the character sheet for your new monster. Do not link any of the bars to attributes as this will cause reducing one token's hit points to reduce all similar monster's hit points. Useful Tip: By using the "Represents Character" option, you can now shift+double-click (or hold shift and click the gear icon) the token to open its character sheet, useful if you have many monsters.
Select the token, open the monster's character sheet, and click "Use Selected" under the default token option. This will allow you to drag copies of the monster set up for play onto the map at any time.

You are now ready to create some global macros that will speed up play.

GM Global Macros

Be sure to place these macros in your bar to speed up access. You can also choose to name them something short and use #init and #atk, for example.

Note:These macros make heavy use of the inline rolling system in order to reduce chat spam for GM monster rolls. You can simplify these by removing the "/emas @ selected|token_name} rolls" and the brackets and using /roll instead.

Global Initiative
/w gm @{selected|token_name} rolls [[1d20+@{selected|Init} &{tracker}]] initiative.
Note: The reason for using /w gm is to hide the initiative roll from the players. This is useful when you are rolling initiative for hidden monsters or ones in other nearby locations that the players haven't revealed yet. If you prefer to keep it out in the open, replace "/w gm" with "/emas"

Global Attack
/emas @{selected|token_name} rolls [[1d20+@{selected|Atk}]] to hit.
/emas @{selected|token_name} rolls [[@{selected|Dmg}]] damage.

Skill Macros

Using Macros and “Selected icon” for Character Skills and Abilities

Description:

All D&D 4 characters have the same list of skills. Instead of entering Abilites for each character for all skills, you can leverage shared macros. Players (including the DM) will need to click-select their character icon before using the shared macros.

This keeps the character sheet from being cluttered, and is less prone to error. My players don’t mind this, because they are used to selecting their tokens in order to get their token actions to appear.

Attributes:

Create the following attributes for each character (or better yet, one character sheet you later copy) and populate them with values.

Attributes for all characters

Level

Armor-Penalty

STR, CON, DEX, INT, WIS, CHA (In this example, these will have the actual ability score, not the modifier.)

Then, add attributes for all skills:

Athletics-trained

Athletics-misc

(Repeat for other skills)

Internal macros:

The following macros have no commands (e.g., /roll) so they don’t do anything interesting if called directly. They are meant to be called by other macros or abilities. To keep them from cluttering up auto-complete lists, you can begin them with an underscore.

Name: _Half_Level

Actions:

 floor(  @{selected|Level} /2  )

Show as Token Action: Leave unchecked