CLEARLY STRUCTURED Character Sheets for a perfect overview!

[lkwpeter]

CLEARLY STRUCTURED Character Sheets for a perfect overview!
http://fs5.directupload.net/images/user/160918/ooxi533x.jpg


Description:

I have created new character sheets for the 5th Edition of D&D. My intention was to create a balance between usefulness and design. After several sketches and revised versions my custom character sheets are finally done and come in different variants. Click this link for a small preview (http://imgur.com/a/hiXQF).


Page 1 (Standard) – For all classes.
Page 1 (Monk) – After several requests I created one with a special field for Ki Points.
Page 1 (Spells_v1) – Including an additional field for spell slots, spell attack modifier and saving throw. New design for better overview and more space for feats!
Page 1 (Spells_v2) – Also including spell slots, spell attack modifier & saving throw (old version).
Page 1 (Sorcerer) – After several requests this one comes with spell slots (new design) and has a special field for Sorcery Points. All together on one page for a better overview!
Page 2 (Standard) – Without spells. This one has space for your character’s personality.
Page 2 (Spells) – Including a spell list as well as an additional field for spell slots and spell attack modifier/saving throw.
Page 2 (Spells_XL incl. slots) – Larger spell list. Therefore less space for coins and treasure.
Page 2 (Spells_XL without slots) – Also larger spell list, but without spell slots.
Page 2 (Sorcerer) – If you play a sorcerer and want to have spells on the 2nd page this one is for you. Containing a special field for Sorcery Points!
Pages 1 and 2 are meant to be combined freely. Especially spellcasting classes will be able to decide whether they want to write down their spell slots on either side and how much space they need for their spell list.

All variants are available as "blank" PDF. In addition all character sheets come as MS Word documents and can be filled completely on PC! Comment: In MS Word it might look like some fields/gaps are not placed properly. Nevertheless the printed documents should show everything correctly. Make sure not to add additional rows using the tabulator key!


Download:

There are two versions of all sheets: English and German.

Character Sheets – ENGLISH – Download (http://bit.ly/2d3wsBT)
Character Sheets – GERMAN – Download (http://bit.ly/2cH5prY)
Character Sheets – ENGLISH and GERMAN – Download (http://bit.ly/2cYQCIB)

In case that you are German, you might also be interested in my "D&D Regel-Kurzübersicht" (http://bit.ly/2cMf6UI) . On 18 pages it includes RAW of the three main rule books as well as interpretations of the game designers. All in alphabetical order!

Have fun!

Peter

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Currently in progress:


Collecting suggestions for optimization. I will work on that as soon as possible. But give me a bit of time.
I am also working on a separate spell list.
More space for feats / less for armor pieces.
Extra scratch sheet for HP/Inspiration/spell slot tracking!
Extra sheets for half and quarter casters (like Rangers, Arcane Tricksters, Eldritch Knights)
Page 1 (standard) without special field (more space for feats)
Open Office support

If you have wishes/suggestions let me know!

[TheBirba]

These looks really nice, thanks for sharing!

[lkwpeter]

Thanks for your feedback. Happy to hear that. Have fun! :-)

[lkwpeter]

Made some minor changes. New version is online.

In progress:


Open Office support
Separate spell list
Extra sheets for half and quarter casters (like Rangers, Arcane Tricksters, Eldritch Knights)
Page 1 (standard) without special field (more space for feats)

If you have wishes/suggestions let me know!

[odigity]

Just saw this. Going through it with a fine-toothed comb to make suggestions (meant as a complement, since I wouldn't bother if it wasn't already pretty great):

1) I don't want to have to add my ability bonus and prof bonus each time I want to figure out my saving throw bonus. Could an additional set of boxes be added to pre-sum those two numbers?

2) One of my issues with the official char sheet is that it doesn't support multiclassing well (the Class field is super-short). I like that you made room for Class Archetype, which is an improvement, but it's still not well-suited for two or more classes.

3) This is a general design issue: I don't like constantly erasing and re-writing numbers on my char sheet, which is why I don't use fields like "Current HP" on the official sheet. I only put my max HP on my char sheet, then I use a sheet of scratch paper during a session to track all resource consumption (HP, Hit Dice, spell slots, short rest / long rest abilities, Ki points, Sorcery points, etc). Have you considered breaking out resource tracking into a separate sheet that can be tossed after each adventure?

4) Different classes use different HD size, so when I have a char that multiclasses, I end up having multiple pools of HD. For example, a Fighter 2 / Barbarian 5 has 2d10 + 5d12. I'm glad you chose to support that by offering two boxes instead of one, but it might work better to have a single larger box in case they have three or four different pools. (I would move "Current HD" to the resource tracking sheet.)

5) I like the the AC modifier equation, though perhaps replace the word "MISC." with an empty underline ("_______") so the player can fill in the source of their misc modifier (i.e. "Haste", "Shield spell", etc).

6) Thank you for not wasting space on "Passive Perception". I'm pretty lazy, but for frack's sake, not even Scott Kurtz needs to pre-add 10 to a number.

7) I like the Adv/Res/Imm box -- especially the convenient rules summary. Almost makes me want to ask you to design a one-page rules cheat sheet. :) (As someone pointed out recently in another thread, you could fit most of the important PHB rules onto a single page with a little effort.)

8) I like the Attacks box. I've always struggled to fit the range info on the official sheet, and 3 rows is rarely enough. I don't know that Weight is important enough to deserve space on page 1, though. Maybe save that for an Equipment section. I assume the bubbles on the left is to indicate proficiency, but I've never seen anyone both to write down the stats for an attack they're not proficient in.

9) I'm confused by the Defenses box. I assume it's for armor, but I rarely see chars who need more than two lines (armor and shield). I once knew a char who had two sets of armor that they'd choose between for the occasion, but that's a very exotic case. Again, not sure Weight deserves space on pg 1. Also, I'm not sure Max Dex and Stealth are worth having, either, since the vast majority of chars only have one set of armor, and have already put all the relevant details into the lovely Armor Class equation section near the top of your sheet. I think the whole Defenses box could be safely dropped.

10) The "Feats" section is oddly named, since the description below the title says it's for all class features & traits. Perhaps just rename it to "Features & Traits", since it's not limited to feats, and since features can come from race and background in addition to class.

11) A while back I made a custom char sheet that organized my features based on action type (free, action, bonus, reaction) since it makes easier to see what you can do in a particular situation. It worked really well. Of course, since your Feats section is currently free-form (just empty lines), I could easily do that myself by writing in sub-section titles, so you don't actually need to change the design to allow for that.

12) Nice to see Tools get a proper char. Tool use doesn't seem that popular in 5e (except thieves'), but maybe this will encourage people to think more about tools.

13) OMG, thank you so much for finally organizing the damn skills by ability. I normally like alphabetically ordering things, but in this case, ability groups makes so much more sense.

14) I like your attempt to tweak the sheet for different classes. I think a better way of organizing this is to leave the first page as standard for all chars, then have additional class-specific pages (which I see you've started to do).

[lkwpeter]

Oh man! Thank you for taking the time to write all your optimization thought down! That is REALLY a help and a great compliment as well!

I read through your points and find a lot of them really helpful and convincing. I will need to read through them again later, because they are so many. ;)

I think, I will definitely follow most of them to improve the sheet. Some will be easy to implement - others will need some more time. I will try to put those into practice first that are easier to realize. But first I need a few days for a break - maybe even one or two weeks. Because I spend so much time the last weeks for the sheets. Just wanted to say thanks for your detailed feedback! Very happy with it! :)

Peter

[odigity]

Oh man! Thank you for taking the time to write all your optimization thought down! That is REALLY a help and a great compliment as well!

I read through your points and find a lot of them really helpful and convincing. I will need to read through them again later, because they are so many. ;)

I think, I will definitely follow most of them to improve the sheet. Some will be easy to implement - others will need some more time. I will try to put those into practice first that are easier to realize. But first I need a few days for a break - maybe even one or two weeks. Because I spend so much time the last weeks for the sheets. Just wanted to say thanks for your detailed feedback! Very happy with it! :)

Peter

Glad it was useful. Take as much time as you want, I promise not to ask for my money back. :)

[lkwpeter]

Glad it was useful. Take as much time as you want, I promise not to ask for my money back. :)

Hehe...good to know. ;) Btw. I already created a rule overview/cheat sheet. Unfortunately it's in German (http://bit.ly/2cMf6UI). :-(

[d13]

Commenting for future reference.

Nice job, tho!

[Spore]

Great thing. Leave it for a German to structure and make things more efficient. :P

Meine Gruppe übernimmt den Bogen hoffentlich. Die normalen Bögen sind leicht verwirrend.
(My group adapts to the new sheets hopefully. The standard sheets are a bit confusing).

[Asmotherion]

What I would personally find usefull is a sheet for spells. Not just mentioning them, but a minor description, an entry for damage dice, components, casting time etc...

Also, nice joke, puting the symbol of chaos next to magic items... it can be chaotic indeed to keep booking them XD

good job in general.

[TentacleSurpris]

I think it needs a column for saving throw totals. Having the proficiency X next to the stat bonus is very brief and concise, but it means that you have to do the arithmetic at the table. Looking up 2 different values (stat value and proficiency value), adding them each to the die roll is more steps at the table than is needed. It slows down gameplay. Not by much, but by enough. And there are other bonuses (like a Paladin's own aura bonus) that can add permanently, and adding a third value will slow down gameplay even more if there isn't a Total column. Not to mention that a new player might not even remember they're supposed to add the proficiency bonus to the X saves in the first place.

I'm generally in favor of organizing skills alphabetically rather than by attribute. If you aren't sure what attribute to roll on a skill, you look down the chart by letter. If you do know which skill to roll, then the boxes become a bit superfluous. If a new player doesn't know where History or Persuasion is, he will read through up to 5 different lists and possibly get confused by all the different lists staring back from this white piece of paper. One list is better, IMO.

I also think that Spell pages should have room for concise descriptions of spell effects and page numbers for reference. nothing bogs down gameplay more than "what do my spells do? Let me look it up in the back of the PHB, wait guys, I'm deciding what to cast." Both novices and experienced players do this.

In general the design principle for a character sheet should be to "do all the work in advance so you don't have to do it at the table and slow down gameplay or make mistakes."

[TentacleSurpris]

More:

The current HP box needs to be bigger. This value will be written in pencil, erased, and rewritten sometimes 10+ times per session. on white paper, it will quickly get go grey and be worn out.

You have a huge heading for FEATS but no space to put feats. Class features go under there, but they aren't really feats, are they?

Inspiration is in a weird place. If it's tucked out of the way, players will forget they have it. Remembering to use inspiration is a thing in this game. It often gets forgotten at critical moments.

There is no line for subrace. Sure it could go on the Race line, but it seems like an omission.

Do you really need 18 lines for Languages and Other Proficiencies? I don't know how you get more than like 6 of these on a character.

Speaking of lines, those lines for class features are TINY! Who writes or reads that small?

Name is a TINY box, way off to the side. What if a character has a middle name or title? Doesn't fit. Not much fits in that box.

A useful feature that hasn't appeared on any sheet would be "Magic item attunement" to keep track of which 3 items are attuned at any time.

To sum up, this sheet needs a LOT of work before I'd replace the WOTC one with it.

[Mjolnirbear]

1) I don't want to have to add my ability bonus and prof bonus each time I want to figure out my saving throw bonus. Could an additional set of boxes be added to pre-sum those two numbers?
...
3) This is a general design issue: I don't like constantly erasing and re-writing numbers on my char sheet, which is why I don't use fields like "Current HP" on the official sheet. I only put my max HP on my char sheet, then I use a sheet of scratch paper during a session to track all resource consumption (HP, Hit Dice, spell slots, short rest / long rest abilities, Ki points, Sorcery points, etc). Have you considered breaking out resource tracking into a separate sheet that can be tossed after each adventure?
...

11) A while back I made a custom char sheet that organized my features based on action type (free, action, bonus, reaction) since it makes easier to see what you can do in a particular situation. It worked really well. Of course, since your Feats section is currently free-form (just empty lines), I could easily do that myself by writing in sub-section titles, so you don't actually need to change the design to allow for that.

...

13) OMG, thank you so much for finally organizing the damn skills by ability. I normally like alphabetically ordering things, but in this case, ability groups makes so much more sense.

....

I left out most of the quote, where either I agreed or did not feel strongly enough either way to comment.

1. I'd like to second this motion.

3. I hate eraser marks, and using scratch paper is something I'd never thought of, so awesome! That said, most people use pencil and eraser on the sheet for various things (treasure, temp status effects, etc) so might as well make it easier for them.

11. PLEASE PLEASE OH PLEASE. I'm the DM, and a massive rules nerd (a rules lawyer except easier to play with). But I play with some people who, even after two whole years of play, forget the various actions they can do. One currently has a champion, the simplest character I could devise, and she still forgets to use her feat, or to do things like dodge, or disengage. She's much better at roleplaying, thankfully hehe. Something like this would make it much easier for her to play, AND means I don't have to suggest her abilities to keep her from dying ("Cindy! Use your second wind!").

BUT... maybe just keep it to the new actions only that character gets, and keep most of the original actions on a generic sheet. Most people don't need Attack written down, and it would take up too much space. Just something they can fill in when they get something like Shield Master or Feather Fall or Hellish Rebuke.

13. I don't like this, actually, because I like to allow skills to go with different abilities (such as Int or Str instead of Cha for Intimidate). However, it's handy when needing to update your sheet, and is not otherwise important enough for me to care too strongly.



Thank you very much for these sheets. I'm looking forward to distributing them.

[lkwpeter]

Thanks for all the feedback (especially for those who took their time to give that much input. Thanks tentaclesurpris & Mjolnirbear)! Very glad about it! I am writing them all down to improve that sheet. Feel free to tell me everything you like/don't like!

I notice there are a lot of intersections. Some of them I was already thinking of (like HP tracking, saving throw proficiency and attunement). Maybe I will bring out two versions for skills (alphabetically and sorted by attributes). Give me some time!


More:
Inspiration is in a weird place. If it's tucked out of the way, players will forget they have it. Remembering to use inspiration is a thing in this game. It often gets forgotten at critical moments.

[...]

To sum up, this sheet needs a LOT of work before I'd replace the WOTC one with it.

Okay, so where would you put Inspiration instead? I always though the Talents & Feats section would be the perfect place for it, because you have a look on that section when you fight (and that's the same time you might need inspiration).

I will do my very best to optimize it and I am very happy about any improvement suggestions! But I am aware that there will be no sheet that will fit everybodys taste.



Great thing. Leave it for a German to structure and make things more efficient. :P
Meine Gruppe übernimmt den Bogen hoffentlich. Die normalen Bögen sind leicht verwirrend.

Thanks for the flowers! ;)

[CrazyCrab]

This is really neat, I think I'm going to give them out next time I DM.

One small request, any chance you make a variant with 'SAN - Sanity' Score in the ability scores table? I tried doing it myself, but for some reason I cannot edit it.
Maybe you can also make a version with 'HON - Honor' for people playing Eastern 'Samurai' campaigns, etc.

[odigity]

Okay, so where would you put Inspiration instead?

Inspiration comes and goes quickly, and as I said above, I hate putting things that get erased and re-written multiple times a session on the main page, but other players seem to prefer it.


Maybe I will bring out two versions for skills (alphabetically and sorted by attributes). Give me some time!

I cringe to think of the vast number of PDFs you will have to manually produce to please everyone, especially if you calculate the combinatorics for all possible variants, just from the ones that have been discussed so far.

What we really need is a website that lets you specify your preferences then click a button to automatically generate a PDF with your preferences.

Since I'm a web developer (Ruby, Python, JavaScript), and since you've inspired me with your designs, I'd be willing to do the software part if you do the design part. There's a great Ruby gem for producing PDFs. You could break up the the sheets into fixed-area sections, and break up the contents of the sheets into components that could be plugged into those sections.

It would be a hard design challenge, and we'd probably need a few skype calls, but once that part's done, the programming might not be too difficult. I'd have to review the capabilities of the Ruby gem to be sure.

[lkwpeter]

What we really need is a website that lets you specify your preferences then click a button to automatically generate a PDF with your preferences.

Since I'm a web developer (Ruby, Python, JavaScript), and since you've inspired me with your designs, I'd be willing to do the software part if you do the design part. There's a great Ruby gem for producing PDFs. You could break up the the sheets into fixed-area sections, and break up the contents of the sheets into components that could be plugged into those sections.

It would be a hard design challenge, and we'd probably need a few skype calls, but once that part's done, the programming might not be too difficult. I'd have to review the capabilities of the Ruby gem to be sure.

Hey man! That sounds like a pretty awesome idea! I'm gonna write you a PM.

[Mitth'raw'nuruo]

Very nice. The only thing that could make it better is if I could type in them. Because my handwriting is awful.

[lkwpeter]

Thanks! Have you tried the MS Word version? I am working on fillable PDFs as well. But that will need some time. :-)

[beargryllz]

My personal rule is that all the rules-relevant text must fit on one 8.5" x 11" page. All background, story, appearance, NPC names, quest information, and treasure is scribbled on the back of that page.