D&D 5E What Do You Think Is Essential in a Bare-Bones Character Sheet?

[overgeeked]

Name and a description is all you need.

 

[DND_Reborn]

Name and a description is all you need.

LOL I guess you won't be voting much, then?

 

[Scars Unseen]

College Ruled or narrower. Wide ruled paper doesn't give me enough lines to fit what I need without having to use multiple sheets of paper.

 

[DEFCON 1]

As a DM who has players who forget all the time much of the features and abilities they have, as well as spending inordinate amounts of time flipping through their Player's Handbook to find the spell descriptions of the spells they are thinking perhaps they want to cast... an essential character sheet to me actually has everything mechanical of all that stuff written down front and center. Including even more esoteric things like magic weapon functions.

A character sheet that has only enough space to write down the phrase 'Second Wind' in a 'Features and Traits'' section but doesn't actually tell you what Second Wind does is pretty much pointless in my opinion. Because a player's eyes will just gloss over that phrase if they don't already have it memorized as a thing they should be doing. They usually will need to also see words like 'hit points' and 'heal' and 'bonus action' underneath the name to catch their eye fast enough to read the ability and then they will realize that this 'Second Wind' thing is actually something useful they have and that they should be using. And hopefully this all happens on other people's turns so they are ready to go when their spot comes up.

 

[MarkB]

Marker pens. You can't write easily in pencil on bone.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

I answered for a paper sheet. An electronic sheet requires more "slots".
(I can just write stuff like how many death saves I've failed on a paper sheet, and that isn't needed most of the time, but an electronic sheet has to have that.)

 

[TwoSix]

Funny, I kinda feel the opposite. Between the tight range of ability modifiers, universal proficiency progression, and generally small number of character build decision points, I feel like I could get away with just a piece of scratch paper to record those ephemeral values like current HP, XP, HD, spell slots, etc. and maybe a set of spellbook cards and keep the rest in my head no problem. My players are always impressed by the fact that I can guess their modifier to a roll so reliably while they have to check their sheets, but like… If I know what class you’re playing I can probably guess what ability scores you prioritize, and if I know what level you are I know what your proficiency bonus is and how many ASI levels you hit, so the only thing I have to guess at is if you have an applicable proficiency or not. And if the party picked you to do a thing, it’s probably because you are. So, yeah, I don’t feel like it’s that impressive to know offhand that your 5th level rogue has +7 to hit with their rapier, or that your 8th level cleric’s spell save DC is 16.

To clarify, you're arguing for a sheet to purely track down session ephemera (like hit points lost, spells used, etc), and keeping the rest of your build in the head? I can definitely see that; I can generally play my character without a reference sheet (with the exception of tracking spells for high level casters) for exactly the reasons you mention.

I suppose you could just tell/email the DM your level-up choices if the DM is uncomfortable with you playing something they can't see.

 

[R_J_K75]

Name and a description is all you need.

Then this would be my character sheet.

 

[overgeeked]

Then this would be my character sheet.

”Yeah, well…that’s just, like, your character, man.”

 

[steeldragons]

I mean - and I voted for several more criteria than this, but - honestly, for any dice-based conflict resolution game, all you need is HP and AC. Or, that is, what number does the opponent need to "hit" you and how many times can you be hit.

Everything else is window dressing. You can be HP/Health/Hits: 10. AC/Defense/Overpower: 15. Boom there's a game. You can SAY you're an elf with a bow or a human knight or a wizard throwing fire or an orcish brute or whatever.

Get hit 10 times? You dead. Hit the other guy 10 times? They dead.

Winner takes the treasure/rescues the innocent/saves the day.

Dress it up with dungeons and castles or space stations and ray guns or pirate ships and muskets...it's all the same.