Something Essentials won't solve (DDI rant) and proposals for new char. sheet format

Ok, as the title implies, this is something of a character generator/DDI rant, but bare with me.

I only recently picked up DDI and I've now made a number of characters in the 1-18 level range. The software is slow and eats my fairly new computer, but I'm fine with that. It's slow and hangs for short times on occasion, and I'm okay with that. But the output is very difficult to actually use. And that's a problem. I know most of you can use it. Heck, I can use it. It's just annoying from time to time to see unarmed attack numbers on powers that don't have attacks, or seeing other random things that don't make sense. Plus it lacks things like a listing of your various resistances (which get fairly common at higher levels for some builds).

But the biggest problem is that it's just so busy with stuff you don't need and occasionally lacking important information. I'm including a single monk power card from my level 6 monk. It's something of a mess (I can't figure out how to inline it, sorry) in that it lists a whole bunch of attack options I'll likely never use but leaves out the target of the move power.

I find it nearly impossible to use these power cards at the table and others I play with seem to either do okay with them or can't use them at all.

If WoTC is going to attract people to D&D with the essentials line, they need to clean up the character builder (and lots of other parts of DDI, but they are less important).

I personally don't care for the cards nature of the character generator output. I used, and liked, cards for the Bo9S, but here they seem too much with too many details. I'd prefer a simpler, check-box based design that actually figures the math and fixes the wording (I really don't like things like "5 plus your wisdom ability modifier (+4)", or "half your strength ability modifier (+5)"; just say 9 or 2.

I'm curious A) if people tend to agree that the character format scares people away and B) what folks think would be optimal for a character sheet. I'm including a sheet I built for that same monk as my thought of the _direction_ WoTC should go. Simpler to use, probably harder to generate when you start to look at the details.

Thoughts?

Everything about the generator's power card design is wrong. I mean seriously, field labels AFTER the information from the field? An asterisk next to a little icon to show the attack type? That ENTIRE BLOCK is worse than worthless, because it means that necessary information is obscured.

I really don't understand why they didn't just use the exact layout that they have in the books.

When I first started playing, I used the Character Generator's sheets and cards because it seemed easier to do so. With leveling up and more play, however, I ended up writing down my own sheet and making my own power cards because I could arrange things in stuff that makes sense to me. Everyone I play with writes their own, too- both to save on printer ink and to have their character's info in a format that makes the most sense to them, personally.

I like the way your version of the character sheet presents info and powers. It's just a personal preference of mine to have power cards instead of ticky boxes- it's easier for me to put cards in a pile of "used" and "not yet used" rather than tick off used and erase the tick mark when after a rest.

Three of my five players use the CB sheets, and they have all the problems mentioned in the OP. The one player who uses a one-page summary sheet similar to the OP's PDF is the player who is fastest in taking his turns and most effective in using his powers.

The main difference between my player's sheet and the OP's is that the former classifies powers by action type (with the frequency then included as a detail in one of the columns). This helps a lot with managing his own action economy, especially as he has a large number of interrupts.

@brehobbit
Character sheets that Character Builder prints out are highly customizable.
Right-clicking on power card, choose customize and tick the weapons that you want to see at that power.
Same goes for Attack Workspace, Damage Workspace and Basic Attacks.

Always active resistances are listed at the Hit Points column on first page, right below the "Death saving throw failures". Remember that you have to equip items to make them show their bonuses in character sheet.

I like the power summaries, but you probably should add some more info there. You're missing keywords for example, which makes it pretty hard to see how do powers interact with certain items, class features, resistances, feats, etc.
And it might be better to order them by action type instead of daily/encounter/at-will, because this will make it easier for beginning player to see their options each turn.


I like power cards because they (usually) contain all relevant info. Fixed layout does use lot of extra space in case of simple at-will powers, but does come in handy with some more complicated class features or dailies.
Monk Full discipline powers don't work well with them though, as they're basically 2 powers condensed into one.
Meaning that they'd really require different design with either 2 separate cards/descriptions, technique used by Compendium, http://www.wizards.com/dndinsider/compendium/power.aspx?id=7450
Same probably goes for Wardens forms too.


@Saeviomagy

As far as power card design goes, I think it's actually pretty good when you consider that most people will be using them multiple times.
Which means that field description after the field is not nearly as bad thing as you make it sound.

The "attack type is marked by asterisk" is plain false accusation, because right next to it is the Attack type written in plain english AND the asterisk is only used to mark Melee ranges. All other types have number on them.
That marking is really only used as quick reference.
Also the entire block has ALL relevant data written on black on white background, whereas all field descriptions are on colored background, making it easy to parse quickly. At least for me.
(Note: I can't remember if I had issues parsing power cards at first, it is very much possible that I've just learned the layout well enough to read them quickly).



fake edit:
Took me so long time to write this post that others have already posted some of the things mentioned in here.

We have our issues with the CB, but they're minor. All my players use CB-generated sheets at the table and seem very happy with them. I can imagine though, that if many of the program's flaws happened to come together on certain classes, that it would start to get very annoying. Perhaps Monk is that class.

I've found that I highly prefer doing my character sheets the old fashioned way as opposed to using CB. While I do not have DDi, I have tried using CB via a friend's subscription. 4E is simple enough that I really didn't feel that it was really all that much faster to use CB, and -for me- I found that it was easier to catch mistakes I made than it was for me to catch mistakes CB makes due to how things are shown when looking at CB.


As for the power cards, I've said elsewhere, and I will say again that low-tech options can sometimes be the best. You can buy a pack of index cards from WalMart or any variety of other discount stores for less than a dollar. I usually write my powers on index cards; when writing them manually, I can arrange the information in a way which makes things the clearest to me. I've actually gotten to the point where I don't even need my character sheet most of the time if I have my cards.


Another good idea is to take your character sheet and place it inside of a plastic page protector. Then, when it comes time to keep track of HP, bonuses, and various other things, you can simply write on the page protector with a wet erase marker. The only time you ever need to write on the actual sheet or erase things from it is when you level up, gain new powers, or your equipment changes. This helps to keep a character sheet clean and readable for longer. Dry erase works too, but I prefer wet erase because there's less chance of accidentally wiping information off of your sheet by touching it.

brehobit said:

, but bare with me.

Click to expand...

I am sorry, sir, but I categorically refuse.

As for the OP, yes, the DDI sheet I have seen leave a lot to be desired. Especially the text summary ones. I think having them more customizable is a good goal.

Even though I love the idea of using power cards, I'd prefer if the CB had the option to display powers like in the new monster statblock (as the MM3), on a list format, with Standard, Move, Minor and Triggered actions sections.
Just a thought.

The CB sheet is customizable, to a certain extent, but I would like to see further customization options. For example, the CB arbitrarily assigns feats and class abilities to the field at the bottom of the power card. I'd like to be able to edit that field to add or remove things from there. I'd also like to be able to remove extraneous or erroneous entries from a card (an unarmed attack bonus on Inspiring Word, for example). I would also like to be able to edit the languages field and probably a host of others I'm forgetting right now.

Not sure what any of this has to do with Essentials (as in the thread title)...?