D&D 5E A character sheet for Skills With Different Ability Scores?

Charlaquin · Jul 18, 2019

So, I’m a huge fan of the Skills With Different Abilities optional rule. I love being able to just ask for ability checks, and have my players chime in with Proficiencies they have that might be appropriate. But it feels like I have to fight the character sheet to do it.

Every character sheet - I’ve tried the various official options, tons of fan designs, and they all have the same problem: there’s always a little space next to the name of every skill to write in your total modifier for your Ability (Skill) check. Heck, most sheets go so far as to list the skills under the Abilities they’re usually tied to. These design features subtly discourage players from suggesting Proficiencies that aren’t associated with the Ability being rolled by default.

What I would really love to see is a character sheet that does away with the big ‘ol list of all the skills, with bubbles and blank spaces and all. I’d much rather just have a decent-sized blank or lined box, with a “Proficiencies” header and a bubble for Proficiency Bonus at the top. Then players can just list the Proficiencies they actually have in it. Skills, tools, languages, heck even weapons and armor. You’d think that would be an easy thing to find, but for the life of me I haven’t been able to.

Now, I know I can’t be the only DM who things this would be a huge improvement to the character sheet. Does anyone know of such a sheet and where I can get it? And if not, is this the sort of thing there’s demand for? Would anyone who makes character sheets be interested in tackling this?

DND_Reborn · Jul 18, 2019

At first I thought you made it something like this (I have a form-fillable pdf if you want) since the skills are not "linked" to ability scores:

But for what you want, I could have made it if you had asked a week or two ago before my trial ran out on my software LOL. If you want one to fill out by hand (how old school!) then I can easily make one for you. Just let me know.

Tales and Chronicles · Jul 18, 2019

I play without a list of skills (I call it free-form skills) and players can choose or create their own skill if they want at character generation. I call for ability test and the player can add their prof. bonus if they think they have a skill that can help in that matter. I'm currently working on 1-page playbook for each class, if you'd like to see; there's only a blank space to list all your skills.

I

robus · Jul 18, 2019

Here's my redesign of the front page to promote ability scores over skills:

Charlaquin · Jul 18, 2019

robus said:
Here's my redesign of the front page to promote ability scores over skills:

Perfect, this is exactly the sort of thing I was looking for! Thanks.

vincegetorix said:
I play without a list of skills (I call it free-form skills) and players can choose or create their own skill if they want at character generation. I call for ability test and the player can add their prof. bonus if they think they have a skill that can help in that matter. I'm currently working on 1-page playbook for each class, if you'd like to see; there's only a blank space to list all your skills.

This, although not what I had in mind, is very cool. Very PbtA.

Tales and Chronicles · Jul 18, 2019

Charlaquin said:
Perfect, this is exactly the sort of thing I was looking for! Thanks.

This, although not what I had in mind, is very cool. Very PbtA.

Yup, its a shameless steal. I'm a big fan of Beyond the Wall and Dungeon World, so since my table is full of new players, I wanted to give them a condensed character sheet with a focus on who their character is instead of the numerical values behind that character.

Thaevan · Feb 12, 2022

DND_Reborn said:
At first I thought you made it something like this (I have a form-fillable pdf if you want) since the skills are not "linked" to ability scores:

View attachment 107582

But for what you want, I could have made it if you had asked a week or two ago before my trial ran out on my software LOL. If you want one to fill out by hand (how old school!) then I can easily make one for you. Just let me know.

I know this is years old, but I quite like that. Do you still have the form fillable PDF by chance?