Early Versions of D&D Next Character Sheets

Gaming Tonic · May 28, 2012

This week everybody has been paying attention to What's Up With D&D? Not my weekly column here but the release of the D&D Next Open Playtest. If you are curious about how fast you can expect things to change and how dramatically during the D&D Next Open Playtest, then EN World may have a few answers. As most of you know I attended the D&D Summit in December at Wizards of the Coast. While at the event, I playtested a really early version of D&D Next. With my cell phone I managed to take several photos of my character sheet while everyone took a bathroom break (it pays to control your liquid intake). Sometime between the summit and the public announcement of the next edition of D&D, I asked Wizards of the Coast permission to show these to the fans. The time was not right at that point but I filed them away hoping to get a chance to share them later. The time is later and I have ever so graciously been allowed to not only show you my dwarf cleric from the playtest at the summit, but the character sheets from the Friends & Family playtest. By comparing these two against each other and the characters from the open playtest you can see how many things have changed already and the amount of changes you can expect to see in each new playtest packet. I have been sitting on these character sheets for months absolutely dying to talk with anybody about them.

Ichneumon · May 28, 2012

Hang on, the current versions of the character sheets don't have the Personality attribute. Roleplaying is obviously dead.

Kinak · May 29, 2012

Wow, lots of changes. Thank you for sharing it!

The weapon mastery might explain the odd die sizes. I'm curious to see exactly how that plays out.

Backgrounds and traits appear newer than I thought.

Also, had a good chuckle at 10' darkvision. Not that it isn't useful, just a totally different feel than what we're used to.

Cheers!
Kinak

Gaming Tonic · May 29, 2012

Kinak said:
Wow, lots of changes. Thank you for sharing it!

The weapon mastery might explain the odd die sizes. I'm curious to see exactly how that plays out.

Backgrounds and traits appear newer than I thought.

Also, had a good chuckle at 10' darkvision. Not that it isn't useful, just a totally different feel than what we're used to.

Cheers!
Kinak

Many things have changed. In my wildest imagination I dream that it was something I said in feedback that changed an aspect of the game. Backgrounds and traits are newer. I will be publishing a blog probably on my own site that will talk about many of the changes that we are seeing already between each of the playtest editions I have seen. I think it is awesome that we are seeing changes and that a metamorphosis of a game system is revealing itself before thousands of sets of eyes. Darkvision of 10' with overlapping low-light vision is perfect. I reveal too much.

Remathilis · May 29, 2012

I (almost) kinda like the character presented here in the old playtest.

Charisma/Maximum Henchmen brought a tear to my eye.
Glad Dodge/Mental AC went the way of the dodo.

I see a lot more 4e-isms in there too: implements (holy symbol proficiency), Rituals, etc.
However, the spellcasting section seems properly ripped from the 3e text. Some of those spells look more 3e ish as well.

Kinak · May 29, 2012

Gaming Tonic said:
I will be publishing a blog probably on my own site that will talk about many of the changes that we are seeing already between each of the playtest editions I have seen.

Let us know when you do! I know I, for one, would love to read it.

Cheers!
Kinak

GMforPowergamers · May 29, 2012

I wish the crit die would come back, and the weapon master gets explained more...

Serendipity · May 29, 2012

Ah - blocky, unattractive, and useless. It must be the official sheet.

TarionzCousin · May 29, 2012

Serendipity said:
Ah - blocky, unattractive, and useless. It must be the official sheet.

I suspect WotC does that on purpose to give the independent designers something to do.

Li Shenron · May 29, 2012

Very different from the current one!

I must say, from what I can guess just by looking at the character sheet, I like the current rules WAY more than this earlier version...