Anyone glanced at the new Character Sheets on the WotC site?

[Ironclad]

Don't like it... Don't like it even more cos it isn't writable... Don't like more than more cos it doesn't auto-calculate...

 

[Klaus]

I was saving this for a future BattleBox or somesuch, but I'd rather make it available now. Attached is a character sheet intended to be printed sideways on a Letter or A4 page, front and back, then folded in half. It has room for Action Points, Reputation, Contacts and Traits (from UA). Familiars and Animal Companions go into the class-by-class Spell Sheets available for download at www.fierydragon.com (go to Products, then BattleBox: Core Fantasy Set).

Opinions are welcomed!

 

[Staffan]

Klaus, your sheet looks neat, but it suffers from the same problem as many others: too little space for feats and special abilities.

 

[Klaus]

Klaus, your sheet looks neat, but it suffers from the same problem as many others: too little space for feats and special abilities.

Noted.

It does offer space for Racial Features and Class Features on the front page, along with space for 14 Feats and Special Abilities. I could expand it to 20, if I remove one of the weapons.

 

[Mark CMG]

Klaus, your sheet looks neat, but it suffers from the same problem as many others: too little space for feats and special abilities.

Personally. I only need room for the names of feats and special abilities. Once you begin trying to include enough room for the descriptions of feats and special abilities, the ability to keep it down to a single sheet (front and back) while maintaining a legible font size is lost, IMO.

 

[Klaus]

I agree. I try to add room for the name and possibly a reference page, like PHB87 or somesuch.

One thing I did with this sheet that I've never seen in other sheets was to add a Class column to the Skill section. You don't mark Class or Cross-Class, but rather a letter or two marking which class(es) have that skill as a class skill. So a Fighter/Mage would mark "F" on Climb, Jump and others, mark "M" on Knowledge, Concentration and Spellcraft and "FM" on Craft.

I also added space to note Condition, if your character is Nauseated, Blind, Staggered or whatnot.

 

[Mark CMG]

I also added space to note Condition, if your character is Nauseated, Blind, Staggered or whatnot.

I like that idea. May I borrow that for the next time I upgrade my own sheet?

 

[hexgrid]

For those of you who say the new sheets are ugly, what do you mean by this?

I've just re-looked over them, and they still just look like character sheets to me. The design is simple, and has little embellishment, but I'm just not seeing the ugly.

 

[Klaus]

I like that idea. May I borrow that for the next time I upgrade my own sheet?

Sure, Mark!

 

[Staffan]

Personally. I only need room for the names of feats and special abilities. Once you begin trying to include enough room for the descriptions of feats and special abilities, the ability to keep it down to a single sheet (front and back) while maintaining a legible font size is lost, IMO.

I don't know. The UCS manages to fit in 38 rows for feats and special abilities, plus five for racial abilities. It doesn't have the psionic skills, but it has eight blank skill rows (plus four knowledges and three performs).

Stuff that's on the UCS:
Basic character description stuff (like class, age, race, hair, etc).
Ability scores (base score/modifier, temp score/modifier)
HP (with die types, DR, nonlethal damage, and SR)
AC (including boxes for armor, shield, Dex, Size, Natural Deflection, and two Misc) followed by Flatfooted and Touch AC.
Armor/Protective items breakdown, four rows worth of type, bonus, MaxDex, Check penalty, Spell failure, speed, weight, and special properties)
Saves (including boxes for up to four classes, ability score, magic, and two misc)
Initiative (Total = Dex+Misc)
Attack bonuses for Melee, Ranged, and Grapple, with boxes for multiple attacks, class base (up to four classes), ability, size, and three misc.
2x19 rows for feats and special abilities, plus five wider rows for racial abilities.
All the PHB skills (with four rows for knowledge and three for perform), with boxes for total, ranks, stat, and two misc.
Weapon/Armor proficiencies (checkboxes for Simple and Martial weapons, plus Light/Medium/Heavy armor and shields, plus three rows for specific weapons)
Weapons, five rows of enhance, misc, total, 2nd through 5th attacks, damage, crit, range, type, size, and notes.
Ammo, three sets of name + 20 boxes.

(Second page)
Equipment, three columns of 14 rows (item, location, weight)
Movement (walk, hustle, run)
Lifting (over head, off ground, drag/push)
Encumbrance (light, medium, heavy, with the modifiers for each)
Money/gems
XP (total and next level)
Languages (four rows)
Turn undead (check modifier, times per day, and "damage")
Spells (0th through 9th level, with spells known, save DC, spells per day, bonus spells)
Notes, 2 columns x 38 rows, plus one column with 17 rows (below the spells, so it might be supposed to note spell stuff).

So far, this sheet has provided all the space I need for any character. Maybe I just write really small, but I haven't had any problems reading the stuff on the sheet either, even when it's printed at 92% size (to fit on an A4 page rather than that oddball format Americans use).

It saves some space by having a single row for each weapon, rather than the three rows plus labels used by Klaus' sheet (and the sheet in the PHB). It also doesn't have any room for animal companions, which is totally OK by me - most characters won't have any of those (only druids, rangers, paladins, and some wizards/sorcerers), and I'd rather use a special sheet for those rather than trying to squeeze it into a regular sheet. It also doesn't have any special place to put Rage, Psionics, or Domains - all of that goes onto the Feats/Special abilities section.

The one thing I do wish it had is item slots, but the loss of those is quite bearable, given the copious amount of "flexible" space on the sheet.