# Borealis Builder — Character builder for 5e

> Character builder for 5e (iPhone/iPad app by Alon Tevet.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/borealis-builder/id6829394992 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [Alon Tevet](https://appshunter.io/developer/6829394994)
- Category: Reference, Entertainment
- Price: Free
- Age rating: 9+
- Requires: iOS 15.0 · 45 MB
- Languages: American English
- Released: 2026-11-05
- Data updated: 2026-11-13

## What is Borealis Builder?

Borealis Builder is a free, open-source character builder for fifth edition tabletop roleplaying games. Build a hero step by step, level up from 1 to 20, track your sessions and print a clean character sheet. No account, no ads, no tracking: your characters stay on your device.

BUILD STEP BY STEP
• Choose a species or race, class, background, ability scores, languages, proficiencies, feats and equipment, in the order you would at the table.
• Roll your ability scores, use point buy or take the standard array.
• Level up from 1 to 20, with subclasses and multiclassing.

TWO RULE SETS IN ONE APP
• The 2014 rules (SRD 5.1) and the 2024 rules (SRD 5.2.1) are both included.
• Pick the rules for each character; a character keeps its rules all the way to level 20.

SPELLS
• Choose cantrips and spells for every caster, keep a wizard's spellbook, prepare the day's list and read every spell in full.
• Spell slots follow your levels, including multiclass casters and Pact Magic.

AT THE TABLE
• Track hit points, spell slots, concentration, resources, conditions and your own trackers on the Play tab.
• Short Rest and Long Rest are one tap away.
• Tap a number to see where it comes from.

CHARACTER SHEETS
• Create a PDF character sheet with stats, skills, attacks, features, spell pages and cards.
• Colour or ink-saving, fillable or flattened, Letter or A4.

YOUR OWN CONTENT
• Import content you own or are licensed to use: Aurora files (.xml and .index), .dnd5e character files, 5etools-format JSON, .zip archives and index links.
• See a preview before anything is installed. Files are converted on your device by plain parsing, with no AI involved.
• Homebrew sits in the compendium next to the included rules and can target either rule set.

YOUR DEVICES, NO CLOUD
• Send characters and content to your other devices over your own Wi-Fi by scanning a QR code. No cloud and no relay server.
• Characters are files you can copy, back up and share.

PRIVATE BY DESIGN
• No account, no sign-up, no ads, no analytics.
• Borealis goes online only when you ask it to, for example to update an index link you added.

FREE AND OPEN SOURCE
Borealis is free forever and licensed under MIT OR Apache-2.0. The same app runs on iPhone, iPad, Android, macOS, Windows and Linux. Help, source code and the community Discord: borealisbuilder.com

This app includes material from the System Reference Document 5.1 and the System Reference Document 5.2.1 by Wizards of the Coast LLC, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode). Borealis is an independent project. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by Wizards of the Coast, Aurora Builder or 5etools.

## Is Borealis Builder safe?

Not enough ratings yet to assess Borealis Builder.

## Is Borealis Builder legit?

Borealis Builder has limited verification signals. The AppsHunter Legitimacy Score for Borealis Builder is 58 out of 100 points across 7 verification signals from App Store and developer data.


## Version history (last 3 releases)

### 1.4.0 — 2026-11-12

Borealis 1.4.0 tracks hit points and hit dice on the Play tab, puts every setting in one window, learns to update itself, adds house rules to ignore feat and multiclass prerequisites, reworks attack editing and fixes the bugs reported on the Borealis Discord.

New in 1.4.0
• Borealis opens much faster when you have imported a lot of content. Loading no longer slows down with every imported book, and the loaded content is kept ready for the next launch. A large imported library that took over 10 seconds to load now takes about a second or less.
• Ignore feat and multiclass prerequisites. Two new house rules under Edition & compatibility let a character take a feat or a multiclass without meeting its prerequisites. Such picks are marked "prerequisites not met", and turning a rule off keeps them, marked invalid.
• Custom attacks can follow an ability. Tick "Calculate automatically", pick the ability, and the attack bonus and damage follow it like a weapon's.
• The inventory has Aurora's item menu. Right-click an item, or long-press on phones, for the item menu, including "Add to Attacks & Spellcasting" for weapons.
• Gear on phones: the inventory is its own sub-tab, beside Equipment and Additional treasure, and Gear opens on it once you carry items, so there is no more scrolling past the whole item list to reach it.
• One settings window. Application Settings now holds every setting: the Borealis settings that had their own window are tabs in it (Rules, Saving, Display, Content, Search, AI assistant, Phones, Devices, Updates), saved with Save and undone with Cancel like the others.
• Borealis can update itself on Windows, macOS and the Linux AppImage. From the next release on, the update notice has an Install and restart button next to Download, so there is no need to download each new version from the website. Nothing installs until you click it. The deb and rpm packages and the store versions update as before.
• Play: hit points, hit dice and amounts. Track current and temporary hit points on the Play tab (damage comes off temporary hit points first), spend hit dice to heal and get them back on a Long Rest by your edition's rules (a Short Rest offers them), and change any tracker or your hit points by a typed amount.
• Portrait library. Settings > Content has a Portrait library folder. Its images (PNG, JPEG, GIF and WebP, also one sub-folder down) show in the portrait gallery after your own, and picking one sets the portrait as browsing for an image does.
• Play: switch Rage on its own row. A state that has uses, such as Rage, now has its switch on its row under Resources, next to Spend, so spending a use and switching it on happen in one place.
• Obsidian vault notes. Settings > Content has a new Obsidian vault folder, and Start > Notes shows its notes. Read them as rendered pages (properties, links, embeds, tags, callouts, task lists) or edit their Markdown as is. Follow links, see backlinks, search by text or tag, and create, rename (with link updates if you agree) and delete notes. Borealis works on the files in place and never changes your .obsidian settings. If Obsidian or a sync service changes a note while you edit it, Borealis asks before saving.
• Obsidian notes on iPad and iPhone. Settings > Content > Obsidian vault opens the Files folder picker on iPhone and iPad: pick your vault in iCloud Drive, On My iPad or Obsidian's folder, and Start > Notes opens it in place with the same reading, editing, links, backlinks, tags and search as on desktop. Borealis keeps access after a restart; when Obsidian Sync or iCloud changes a note while Borealis was in the background, Notes reloads it, or asks before overwriting if you had edits.
• Obsidian notes on Android. Settings > Content > Obsidian vault opens the Android folder picker: choose your vault folder in the phone's storage, and Start > Notes opens it in place with the same reading, editing, links, backlinks, tags and search as on desktop. Borealis keeps access to the fol…

### 1.3.0 — 2026-11-06

Borealis 1.3.0 turns the Play tab into a full interactive sheet with dice rolls, lets a character keep several companions, adds A4 paper for the character sheet, and fixes the bugs reported on the Borealis Discord and in our first tester sessions. It also includes everything from 1.2.2, which was only released to the app stores.

New in 1.3.0
• The Play tab is a full interactive sheet: abilities, saving throws, skills, attacks and spells with their descriptions, ready to use at the table.
• Dice rolls on the Play tab. Roll buttons on abilities, saves, skills, attacks and spells, a roll menu for advantage and disadvantage, a result card and your recent rolls.
• Several companions. The Companion tab shows for every character and can hold any number of companions or pets, each with its own traits and bonuses.
• Rolled or average hit points for each level, chosen in the level menu.
• Choose how you generate ability scores on Build > Ability Scores.
• A4 paper for the character sheet. Settings > Character sheet has a Paper setting, Letter or A4. Until you pick one it follows your region: Letter in the US, Canada, Mexico, the Philippines and the other Letter countries, A4 elsewhere.
• Weapon Mastery explains itself. Each mastery choice says what you are picking, each weapon's card shows its mastery and what it does, and on phones every row shows the weapon's mastery.
• On phones, the rules-version sheet shows a short description of each version, so two versions of the same option can be compared.
• Each imported book has an edition: 2014, 2024 or Both editions. A Both editions book is offered to 2014 and 2024 characters alike. Borealis guesses the edition when you import: 2024 only when the book says so (its 5.5e mark, or its name or description saying 2024, 5.5e or One D&D), Both editions when it names both, and 2014 otherwise. Official books released on or after 17 September 2024 count as 2024. You can change any book's edition in the import preview or later on the Sources page; your choice is kept when you re-import the book.
• Help > Privacy Policy opens the Borealis privacy page in your browser.
• 5etools-format import wording. The import screens describe the data format and the kinds of links that work, and imported books show as "5etools-format: *book name*".

Fixed in 1.3.0
• Spell filters apply to the class whose spells you are choosing, also for single-class casters.
• Default sources: the sources you save as default now apply when Borealis starts and to every new character.
• Sub races from imported content. Tiefling sub races, and Human and Half-Orc variants, from imported books now appear on the built-in races, even when the core race file isn't imported.
• Character portrait. Clicking the portrait opens the portrait gallery, on phones too.
• Phones: item management. The equipment action bars stay pinned at the bottom of the screen while you scroll the item list.
• Next selection asks for the choice in front of you (for example Draconic Ancestry before Class) and scrolls to it; switching to another tab starts that tab at the top.
• Character sheet preview: page 1 no longer overlaps its HP, hit dice and death saves boxes, and Size and Speed fit. On phones, Generate Preview opens the sheet full-screen with Save, Share and Close; Share lets you print.
• Rage: switching Rage on uses one Rage, and it can't be switched on with none left. The same goes for any state that has its own uses.
• Phones: the status line no longer squeezes into a narrow column while a command runs.
• Weapon Mastery: a weapon chosen in one slot is no longer offered in the other, and the slots count as required choices.
• Magic Initiate spells can be chosen without a spellcasting class, and its spellcasting ability is asked on the Feats tab, before its spells.
• Help links. News, Releases, Support Page and the globe in the title bar open their pages in your browser.
• Empty Class list. A character gets only the classes of its own edition; an empty Cla…

### 1.2.2 — 2026-11-06

No release notes.

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## Related topics

[borealis builder](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/borealis-builder)

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