Critique this character sheet

[Remathilis]

First: Click on this link and "save as" http://home.wideopenwest.com/~iferguson4394/remathilis35DnDsheet.pdf

Then, tell me the good, the bad and the ugly. What needs to be added, what needs to be ditched, and any layout switches that would make sense.

Some notes:

1.) the sheet is intentionally generic, despite the FR background. The only optional rules added are lines for personality/backgroud/afflilatios from PHB2 (which are generic enough to not need that book per se) and power points/psionics (one small section).

2.) I actually DON'T own Adobe, so I'm not sure what I can do beyond changing the layout. (I'm beta testing Publisher 2007 with save as pdf option)

 

[VirgilCaine]

Black and white. None of this sepia-colored crap behind the text, and the "boxes" for the hitpoints, etc., should not be reddish--they should be black and white, black and white. I don't like to waste ink.

More room for treasure. Lots more. Waaaay too small. You're going to be erasing and changing it a lot, so you want extra space if you screw up part of it.

I'm a packrat player, so I could probably fill up the first posessions column right now, and my character's only 3rd level.

Gear equipped is a nice touch, I like that. Helpful for 5th level plus character who'll have several booster items.

 

[3d6]

Unless you're providing free printing to the users, the color, patterened background has to go. Far to much ink. I'm not convinced that you need player, campaign, background, personality archtype, and personality traits sections. None of those have any game effect, do they? (I haven't looked through PH2 extensivly, so I'm not sure on that.)

I think the racial abilities section is too big; more than 10 lines seem excessive. I suppose if you're expecting this character sheet to be used by more complex characters (like a half-celestial dwarf) that space would be used.

I think I'd move the gear equipped section to the 2nd page and move all the magic/psionics stuff to the 3rd page with the spells/powers list to keep all the spellcasting/manifesting stuff in one place.

 

[VirgilCaine]

I think the racial abilities section is too big; more than 10 lines seem excessive. I suppose if you're expecting this character sheet to be used by more complex characters (like a half-celestial dwarf) that space would be used.

I play a dwarf, and I need that space. For humans and half-orcs, less might be okay, but the other races have lots of little bonuses you gotta put down.

 

[Staffan]

As others have said, ditch the background.

This is one of the few sheets I've seen with appropriate space for feats and special abilities.

Only thing that immediately comes to mind is that you've included "discipline" and "power points", but not the psionic skills.

 

[Agent Oracle]

Love page 3's little box for a mount / henchman / companion / etc. However, the brown background, loose it. We appreciate the thought, but black & white is just cleaner. Also, see if you can put in another blank skill section or two.

 

[Mercule]

I like the background. If it's not a pain, you might want to do a CharShtColor.pdf and a CharShtBW.pdf. If in doubt, though, backgrounds do take up a lot of ink.

It'd suck to try to use that with a multiclass caster, too. I tend to prefer dedicated spell sheets where I can list some info (range, target/area, save?, SR?, etc.) about the spell, so the list on p3 doesn't thrill me.

Posessions seems a bit limited, but I can't figure out how. It seems both too narrow and too few spaces, but I'm not sure.

Overall, though, it's an attractive sheet that looks better than 80-90% of what else is out there. It looks "professional", at the very least, which doesn't seem to be a priority for most people*.

*Minor gripe, not aimed at you: If I didn't care about the way the sheet looked, I'd be using notebook paper, not some cobbled together POS that happens to have labels for some things.

 

[Abe.ebA]

I think everyone's covered the big stuff. I'll just throw my hand in on more space for posessions. I usually end up moving on to notebook paper for jot down all my junk by 2nd or 3rd level and that's with listing weapons and armor on the front of the sheet. Also, I absolutely love the location list for magic items worn in all the slots. Brilliant. Wish I'd thought of it a decade ago.