D&D General What character sheets do you use and what do you put on them?

[cbwjm]

When I was playing 5e, I tended to use dndbeyond for the functionality of easily being able to look up a spell description. For a lot of other versions of DnD though, I just use a google document with all the details, and paper to track my hit points.

 

[overgeeked]

A 3x5 card. Even a spellcaster should be able to fit on the front and back. If it can’t, it’s too complicated.

 

[Li Shenron]

I'm curious to know if you use the official character sheet, a third party sheet, D&D Beyond's online sheet (with PDF download?), or your own custom sheet?

Also, how much detail do you put on them? The full text of your abilities? The name of the ability and the source page number? Something else?

I modified the official character sheets and have been using my own version since then. I shared them here:

Resource icon

Quickstart 5e character sheet (beginner friendly)

Jul 3, 2017

This is my first attempt at a simplified 5e main character sheet (derived from the official WotC 5e

• Li Shenron
• D&D 5th Edition Character Sheets

I can't believe to notice now that they've been downloaded 9k times I wonder how many people really used them though...

 

[Li Shenron]

I use the base character sheet, but then end up typing up my own one-page character summary listing Actions, Bonus Actions, Reactions, and prepared spells/abilities by type (AOE, attack, debuff, heal, etc.).
The greatest failing of the WOTC character sheets is the lack of clear categorization for Action, Bonus Action, Reaction abilities.

Exactly.

It's a very common mistake to categorise by source instead of usage. It makes it only slightly easier in the design or level up phase, while categorising by usage makes it much easier during the game, which happens much more often than levelling up. It doesn't matter if one ability comes from class, race of feat once it's on your character sheet.

 

[DragonLancer]

There used to be a site... unfortunately I lost the name and link when my PC died a couple years ago... that created customizable character sheets for Pathfinder and D&D 5. It was a really good site and the character sheets were perfect. Just wish I could remember the name of it.

 

[el-remmen]

There used to be a site... unfortunately I lost the name and link when my PC died a couple years ago... that created customizable character sheets for Pathfinder and D&D 5. It was a really good site and the character sheets were perfect. Just wish I could remember the name of it.

Something like this? Character Sheet Online, Web App for All Role-playing Games

Just a quick google, I have never used it - but I am interested in the idea!

 

[DragonLancer]

I found it... Dyslexic Character Sheets

Not 5E unfortunately, although I could have sworn it was.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

We've been playing online for years now, and we used the printed out PHB sheets, as well as the online sheet on Roll20 while we were using it.

For gear and party notes I had a shared spreadsheet. Each character had a page with spots for their various bags and pouches, and all of their gear and it's weight was tracked by the sheet. The front sheet gave combined values for the whole party, so we could see how much total cash we were hauling around (and how much of each coin type), as well as rations and healer's kits (for healer's kits dependency optional rule). Finally, extra sheets at the end were for notes and rumors.

Now that we've moved the campaign to Foundry VTT, it's pretty much just all in there, though I'm using a module for a character sheet that works better for me than the default D&D one. No more need for physical sheets. We do currently lose out on the combined party wealth and consumables info, but it's worth it to have one less program open.

I would be concerned about not having hard copies, but the way that Foundry works means I can easily make backups, keep them anywhere, and I don't need any sort of subscription to access them, so that makes it much more comfortable.

 

[luiscla27]

I’ve just joined enworld to share tool I’ve made that allows you to fully customize the dnd beyond character sheet layout.

Im exited to share it as it seems there’s no other tool like it. btw, it’s free and open source, take a look!!

• GitHub repo: GitHub - luiscla27/beyond-print-enhancer: This tool transforms the interactive, tabbed D&D Beyond character sheet into a condensed, printer-friendly format. It solves the problem of "hidden" content in tabs (Actions, Spells, Equipment) by expanding them into a single fully customized layout view.
• Quick video demo:

 

[Lanefan]

I'm all about paper sheets, but while I used to handwrite everything I now find typing the info into some Excel forms I made up (one for each main class group) gives a far more consistent and readable result when printed out...let's just say people have sometimes told me a successful saving throw is required in order to read my writing.

That said, my character sheets run a minimum of 4 pages, growing as the character's career goes along.

Page 1 - main info
Page 2 - magic and mundane items, equipment, and gear
Page 3 - xp tracking
Page 4 - finances and money

"Pages" 3 and 4 can eventually become multiple pages each. Prior versions of the sheet are kept attached to the current one, in order to check in case there's a transcribing error (not at all uncommon!). End result for a long-running character is that it eventually becomes a character duotang rather than a sheet.