How many pages does it take to keep track of your PC's abilities?

[Jedi_Solo]

Not sure exactly what you are asking by 'PC's Abilities'. The paper to cover "What do I have left in the day" is quite small. What all that stuff does and affects is quite large. Here is the library that I use at the table:

4 pages of character sheet (2 double sided). Could condence it down but I want larger than 2 point font.

1 page for Stats/skills/AC/Attacks and the like
1 page for Feats and the like (could easily cut this out but then I'd have 3 pages and a blank page - so why bother?)
1 page for equipment - what equipment slots are filled, what is in my potion belt, what scrolls do I have, etc
1 page for Magic Items In Depth: what the items do, how many charges are left on the wands and the like.

My grimoir - A binder that has a cheat sheet of ALL my characters spells (Bard) that lists range, duration, target and the like. This has expanded to a couple of pages at higher levels. Then a full text version of the spells as seperate sheets in the binder as well so I don't need to carry 3 bajillion books with me.

1 page tracker of (un)used abilities: what spells have I used, which 1/day abilities are unused and the like. This is actually half the size of my character sheet paper and I only use one side for any given adventure.

That is three sheets of paper (some double sided). Not counting the note cards to keep track of hit points (they last longer than sheets of paper in this aspect) or the cards that I have started to keep up with the buffs that I have to attack and damage (I keep forgetting the +1 attack from Haste).

Yes, I take up a decent portion of the table. At 20th level I have a lot of material to keep track of. Next campaign I'm playing a fighter.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

Depends on how long I've been playing the character type, and how many "followers" I've got.

For instance, for my Fighter 2 / Rogue 4 pirate-type character, I've got the front and back of a normal 2-side character sheet and one additional page of gear. This additional page is also where I keep track of HP. For in-between adventures, I've got the Excel spreadsheet where I allocate feats, etc., and the spreadsheet where I keep track of loot (which, eventually, gets printed out to become the "additional page of gear," above).

For his combat modifiers, I've got "TD: +6 AC", "FD: -4 AB, +3 AC" and "CE" written near his combat section, for Total Defense, Fighting Defensively, and Combat Expertise (near which I place a d6 turned to the appropriate amount) to keep those in mind. On his skill side, I've got a couple other notations near the end of each skill line (like "+12 with ER" next to Jump, for when I'm Expeditiously Retreating).

Because I know the Trip mechanics by heart, that's all I need to play this character.

Contrast this with the character I developed for the one-off I played this weeked, a Fighter 2 / Paladin 4.

He had the same double-sided character sheet and page o' gear. On his character sheet, near the combat section, I had two spaces marked as "CE" and "PA" for d6s, used to keep track of Combat Expertise and Power Attack, respectively. Near his HP total, I have "+12 for DV," near his Speed section I have "+10' for DV," and near his Jump modifier I have "+4 for DV" to immediately remind me of the bonuses accrued when he uses Divine Vigor (a feat I'd never used before).

He also had another double-sided character sheet for his heavy warhorse. The horse's gear appears on the Ftr / Pal's gear sheet, so that adds no additional pages.

He had one page worth of spell-book, but I ended up just writing the particulars of his one spell on the page described below.

Because this was the first time I'd seriously played a riding-based and undead-turning character, I added another page. This page had a summary of:

1. The Ride skill
2. The Turn Undead mechanics
3. His riding feats (Mounted Combat, Ride-by Attack, and Spirited Charge)
4. His Paladin abilities

So, for my "advanced" character, I used 6 sides of paper, twice as much as used by the character I know better.

 

[Particle_Man]

3 for non-casters, 4 for casters. PLus a "Scrap" sheet that I use and throw away, to keep track of what my combat numbers are right at the moment with various spells, situations, etc., affecting the character.

 

[Thanee]

Two with equipment.

Bye
Thanee

 

[shilsen]

2 pages. 1 for all the main stuff and a 2nd for (a) List of spells known/prepared if a aspellcaster and/or (b) a list of the stat changes for certain modifications that may come up in play, like stats while raging for a barbarian, stats with a commonly used set of buffs, or a particular combination of combat maneuvers, etc.

 

[Bad Paper]

One side of one page for the half-orc barbarian 11, thanks.

I have one of those 11x17 two-sided WotC pages filled out, but I refer to it at the beginning of the session, scribble what I need on some notebook paper, and then stash that original. By the end of the session, the notebook paper is messy as hell. Rinse and repeat.

 

[Pielorinho]

Lemme see:
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Character stats, skills, feats, saves, equipment, etc.: 1
Character spells: 2-3 (landscape, includes one-line descriptions of how each spell functions; also includes one-shot items and items with charges or daily uses)
Animal companion: 4
Wildshape forms: 5-10
Shapechange forms: 11-12
Creatures summonable through Summon Nature's Ally V-IX, augmented with Augment Summoning Feat: 13-23 (roughly speaking--I haven't counted these).

Sometimes I love playing a druid and sometimes I hate it.

Daniel

 

[sniffles]

I typically use a 3-page character sheet for all my characters. If I'm playing a caster I'll have a few extra pages for my spell lists. I usually avoid things like wild shape or Power Attack because I don't want to add complications.

I do like to make a printout of my character's specific feats so I don't have to get the book out if I need to clarify something. And I've been thinking of doing something similar with some combat maneuvers like disarm and sunder. But I wouldn't use those pages all the time, so I don't know that I'd count them as an integral part of the character sheet.

I'm also in the process of converting my equipment list to Paizo's Game Mastery item cards.


I've got a friend who worked out a whole spreadsheet for his character's attack bonuses with Power Attack and barbarian levels.

 

[Driddle]

Four or more sheets of paper filled with notes seems excessive for a tabletop game. Might as well play a computer game and let the machine keep track of the database.

 

[shilsen]

Four or more sheets of paper filled with notes seems excessive for a tabletop game. Might as well play a computer game and let the machine keep track of the database.

You forgot to add "to me" after "seems excessive" and "I" before "Might".

I don't think anyone here would say that you're not free to play a computer game if that suits you. Similarly, as long as other people are fine with playing a tabletop game with that many sheets of paper for their PCs (as evidently, the people posting in this thread are), that's not a problem for you, is it?