Fantasy Grounds May 2026 Update: Better Exhaustion, Smarter Hit Dice, and NPC Dice Improvements
Fantasy Grounds continues its steady stream of 2026 improvements with the May 2026 ruleset update, which brings focused and practical enhancements to the 5E ruleset — along with general bug fixes across the platform.
What’s New in the 5E Ruleset
The update highlights three areas of improvement, all of them addressing real-world pain points for DMs and players running games on Fantasy Grounds:
Better Exhaustion Support
Exhaustion has long been one of those mechanics that exists in the rules but is awkward to manage at the table — especially on a VTT where tracking levels manually can be error-prone. This update improves how the 5E ruleset handles exhaustion levels, making it easier to apply, track, and remove exhaustion effects during play.
Hit Dice Recovery Roll Adjustments
A new set of HD effect tags has been introduced to support hit dice recovery roll adjustments. This means the ruleset can now better handle edge cases where hit dice spending should trigger modified rolls — whether that’s from class features, feats, or other effects that change how resting works.
For groups that use hit dice for healing during short rests, this is a welcome refinement. For groups that don’t, it’s background polish that means the system is more robust when you do need it.
Smarter NPC Dice Display
NPCs now automatically show the actor dice that will be used, based on ruleset definitions. If a custom override is defined, that takes priority — but in the default case, NPCs will display the correct dice without manual setup. This is a small but meaningful quality-of-life improvement, especially for DMs who run a lot of different NPC encounters.
Bug Fixes
As with every Fantasy Grounds update, a batch of bug fixes has been included. The specifics vary, but the pattern holds: steady, incremental improvements that keep the platform reliable for active campaigns.
The Fantasy Grounds Approach
What stands out about this update — and about Fantasy Grounds’ development philosophy in general — is the focus on practical improvements rather than headline-grabbing features. Better exhaustion handling won’t make splash pages, but anyone who has tried to manage exhaustion at the table knows how much it matters.
This is the kind of update that doesn’t demand attention but earns trust.