Excel Character Sheet....need opinions

[McClintock]

I am trying to create an Excel Spreadsheet - Character sheet, for two reasons. As an exercise in teaching myself Excel and to have a generic editable sheet for when people cannot show up to play. As an added bonus I am playing a Cleric/Ordained Champ/Sacred Exorcist and want a quick way to have my spells affect attacks, damage, ac and all the other stuff I need.

So, would you, if you were doing this, try to list all the core spells, creating if/then statements to apply them to their changes, which would then affect the character sheet as needed?

or

Would you get a list of "primary" spells that would be specific to me, yet generic enough that most PC classes could utilize the same said list?


Also, if you would like to see the file I have created, send me a PM and I will email you a copy, is in Excel 2003.

[SamsDisciple]

For how many spells and effects there are I wouldn't use if then commands as much but rather a vlookup and have the lists of spells with their effects listed to the side. You could then use if then statements to affect the main stats. I doubt that made any sense but there you go

[McClintock]

vlookup.... I shall look into it. Is it Excel or Visual Basic? Doesn't really matter I'll google-fu it and figure it out. Thanks for the idea.

[McClintock]

wow that's very cool, I can change whole sections of the sheet once I learn that correct way to use this. It will simplify many of the functions.

[dascarletm]

I made one not too long ago, when I get home I can see if I still have it. I tried to make it so that once you change the level in the level cell it would auto update most everything else (it was for a straight classed gestalt rogue//adept in E6).

Someone (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=259469) made a formula for finding your carrying weight in excel based off strength, that might come in handy

[McClintock]

DO you know if that takes into account, armor and size? I found a way to do it, but it required cross referencing 2 other tables. I also have it factoring in boots of speed/haste (if applicable).

[Heliomance]

I'd use HeroForge (http://www.nzcomputers.net/heroforge/default35.asp). It does pretty much everything you could possibly want an automatic character sheet to do, including a very long list of buffs you can apply.

[dascarletm]

DO you know if that takes into account, armor and size? I found a way to do it, but it required cross referencing 2 other tables. I also have it factoring in boots of speed/haste (if applicable).


I don't think it takes into account Size, but i think it is just a multiplier onto the value, so, for example you could just bracket that formula and multiply it by 2 for a large creature.

Armor shouldn't effect your carrying capacity (besides the fact that it has weight).

[McClintock]

I initially misread your post about that formula. What I meant was taking into account strength, weight, initial speed and enhanced speed does it give you a final adjusted speed?

It took me two days to figure out how to get all the variables to interact correctly, and I am still missing some I think.

[Icewraith]

The "easy"/"simple"* way would be to just have a column of buffs/debuffs/spells that you turn on/off by changing the value in the column from "0" to "1" or another number if the effect is variable (1d4 negative levels for instance)





*Easy in concept and explanation, but your formulas will be horrifically long and complex the more spells and effects you track. It might clean up considerably if you have a column for each stat (hp, ac, str, etc) and a controller column you control via 1 and 0. sumproduct(controller column, variable column) would work.

[McClintock]

Icewraith, that's basically what I have been doing up to this point, the problem comes in with non-stacking bonuses. I need to have a way to assign the correct bonus type to each buff then compare said buff to others of the same type taking only the highest.

I was thinking of getting a list of the most common spells a PC could have on them, create a Y or N statement that the compiles, compare and ultimately applies said bonus to stats, ac, attacks, damage, saves, skills, etc...

but what constitutes a common spell/circumstance? where does on stop? Core, splatbooks, dragon stuff, homebrew? How far does one go?

[Lightlawbliss]

I'd use HeroForge (http://www.nzcomputers.net/heroforge/default35.asp). It does pretty much everything you could possibly want an automatic character sheet to do, including a very long list of buffs you can apply.

in my experience, heroforge is great for low to medium optimization with few to no custom items/rules and little to no cheese. If you are getting into serious optimization, custom items and/or rules, and/or cheese: heroforge will cause more problems then it is worth.