My Deluxe Character Sheet - please rate and critique!

[Herremann the Wise]

I gave it a 6 as it seems pretty comprehensive, although I had a couple of quibbles:
- I did not dig the format - word documents looks so... word documenty. However, given that it's about as good as a word document will most likely look, I thought it OK. (Personally I prefer Illustrator/Photoshop in terms of precision and clarity of headings, lines and placements. I have my own sheet but it is specifically geared around each character in my game - not with blank spaces.)
- The placement of things across the pages was a little clunky - very mix and match orientated. I prefer to see hit points on the front page beside the attribute scores. Personally I have the columns: attribute score, attribute modifier, ability damage (I prefer this separate), lethal damage, nonlethal damage, negative levels, then DR, Fast Healing, Resistances etc in a single column.
- In terms of weapons, I thought all was quite good except that the critical box should always be amongst the damage row/profile. The only other thing was ammunition, particularly for a bow specialist with up to six different types of ammunition. Perhaps having the ranged weapon at the very bottom with a special ammunition section moving grapple to the top?
- Equipment was OK but not enough room for everything. I would have a separate section for Magical Equipment that can be worn - according to slots. If you had a column for Equipment Worn (which includes the magical section) in one column, equipment carried in another (bigger column) and and third column for equipment stored, this would help in quickly adjudicating weight and encumbrance effects. While it is somewhat helpful to have a value column for items, I find this somewhat misleading for players (and it tends to have them unnecessarily competing against each other). I prefer a simple three "column" format: equipment, location and weight.
- I think the sheet would benefit from a character history page detailing classes chosen, hit points rolled, feats/skills selected etc. by level. Such a thing helps a player "plan" out their character if they are a player that likes doing stuff like that. For everyone else, it's a handy reference.

All in all though, I thought the sheet pretty good.

Best Regards
Herremann the Wise

 

[Aust Diamondew]

An area showing what is equipped to each body slot would be good.
Instead of having such specifiec weapon slots have more generic ones and simply have a melee/ranged/grapple boxes.

Better than the one in the back of the PHB though. Little work and it could be very good.

 

[Nyaricus]

thanks for all the votes, fedback and chatter folks. I am really happy that I am getting some good quality feedback. 6 years of play testing this hset in one form or another has given me this - but sometimes even a cursory look is really important for impressions on something. Generally, I am just glad it is being reasonably well received, or at least having fair, level-headed reveiws. Thanks, again. And please excsue the immensely long post.

That's a great effort.

Why, thank you

I've spent several hours in front of Word trying to create something similar, but with little success. I rate it 9.

This took more than several - possibly 20-30 hours updating from version 2-to-3 and I dont even know how long since I took Axiems sheet (which is an old one my old DM found on the web) and updated it to 3.5 after some good use in 3.0.

The AC, languages, and ammunition sections are first-class, and I like the way you've classified the melee weapons.

Thanks. The weapons in particular were something I really wanted to format like that (having 2H, Primary Hand weapon, Off-hand weapon and Ranged), so to make it fool-proof. One thing I am now considering, with the addition of the 'Alternate Weapon' slot is to divy up ranged weapons into Projectile and Thrown, which I think would add to the utility of the sheet.

It seems the stat numbers get cut off at the bottom unless I reduce it 6-point, which makes it tiny. Perhaps squeeze down the "Skill Points (max/min)" box and give the stats some vertical breathing space.

Which stat numbers are you referring too, sorry? For some reason I am not getting the reference here

I'm an encumbrance fascist, so I'll divide the inventory into "on person" and "in container", and I always like body location slots (worn on head, feet, chest, fingers etc).

One thing I have long wanted to do in have the inclusion of a "Body Slot" picture with all the (11?) body slots on it, and enough room to fill in what they are. Somehting like Diablo II's inventory page, one could say. Personally, I like to do a little drawing with my characters equipment on it, with weights and everything.

And what's the "entangling weapons" business?

That would be my own Weapon Groups system, which I haven't checked to see if it survived the crash. I'll do an update ASAP, so check out House Ruels or the link through my sig for my Tasty Bits thread and check out the old version (which is not nearly as good).

If I trusted someone I don't know enough to download a potential virus, I would take a look.

Suit yourself man - a few (free) virus/adware/spyware scanners from www.pcworld.com could prolly help you if you think you need extra security. Thus far, no complaints on that part, and we've had more than 150 downloads in total from ENnies. Besides, I'm really paranoid

I gave it an 8.

Thanks! Glad I have a fan (or two)

* I especially liked the expanded slots for knowledge, craft etc.

Yeah, another thing I've noticed on many-a-character sheet, so I rectifyed that problem, and then some

* the addition of languages is a nice touch

Thanks, I think there should be a good reservoir of pre-explained stuff on any character sheet, so this was an important aspect.

* the flavour text under each heading gave me a chuckle.

I tried to get clever with the 3rd version, so glad I gave you, like, 2 seconds of amusment.

* Kudos for adding the turning check table.

ANOTHER major overlook on many sheets. If that's right there, I think it makes turning/rebukign undead that much less scary, and more approchable. It allows you to get more familiar with it.

My major gripe with the sheet is the same gripe I have with just about every 3.x sheet; it's too damn large! I come from the old school D&Ders... you know, the ones that had all pertinent character information on ONE piece of paper. With the way the system is these days, it's just not possible. Even the Blue Rose sheet is at least two pages...

It isn't possible, which I agree is a gripe of mine - although it gave me a good excuse to use Delux for the name of this sheet I remember when we used to use looseleaf in '99, when we started with AD&D and didn't know Thac0 from a Ormyrr

It's also a sort-of-a theory of mine that this character sheet is 4 pages because I pre-stae so many things. Stuff like having every language listed (well, that I'm aware of) and all the weapn groups does tend to take up a lot of space over 3 pages.

But I digress. For the sheer amount of stats and information that 3.x throws around, you cover all the necessary bases and then some.

Another agreeance here. I really tried to look at the ruels, other shetes and take what I felt needed to be included in then end, I had a 4 page-long character sheet in front of me.

A few suggestions:
* Your space for Feats/Abilities is HUGE. You might be able to get away with half that space and squeeze in a "summed up" version of combat stats for quick reference.

Well, the reason it is so big is that characters can sure begin to have a huge list of stuff to keep track of. Blackrat piped in with 19 or 20 feats for a level 20 fighter, and thats not including some other important info you might want to put there (especially if you are a monster-race PC). I know it's a bit of a space-filler, but as for combat, I kept all the combat stuff on the combat page - where it fits lieks a glove, especially after Blackrat's prompt to add in another weapon slot.

I like it overall rated it a 7. I do wonder why there are so many slots for the Appraise and Survival skills. Is that a Forgotten Relams thing?

Survival, per the SRD, gets a +2 synergy bonus with 5 ranks in Know: dungeoneering, thus I stuck in that extra line. Also, I notice that survival on the planes gets +2 from Know: the planes, so I'll add that in a future update. Appraise is like that because (house rule I make my players take it indidvually, with synergies witht he appropriate craft and profession skill. Also, you might note that dwarves get +2 for Appriase checks for only metal and stone, thus I think that is a reasonable house rule.

The comments under each of the main headings, while some are witty, I would get rid of to increase the font size of the headings themselves.

Well, the subtitles/comments are new to the 3rd version of my sheet, but my players found them funny, so they are staying in my versions - however if you so wish to change this in a version you create, more power to you

I hated it, because its in DOC format!

Your opinion buddy, but I posted a link to the microsoft word 2003 free veiwer, which is open to everyone (who uses a microsoft OS, of course). Don't ahte the child, ahte the maker

I dont want to use this fileformat because its not open for everyone.

again, it is open if you have a MS OS, but if you don't, then I have no control of it.

If you convert your document to PDF, i will give it a second chance.

Well, Open Office (one of those DOC programs you don't seem to like) has an 'export to pdf' function, but OO itself mucks wiht the formatting of it, so that isn't an easy option for me :\

I voted a 6. I think your layout is fine but your page 2 would be my front page.

print that bad boy off, and switch the sheets around

My only negative reaction is that it is not easy on the eyes. That might be due to it not being filled out but may be ok when it is.

I viewed using Open Office so that might have something to do with it.

I agree: this looks terrile in OO. MSWV03 is a great improvement on this.

Not very helpful to me as I don't used Forgotten Realms. The list of languages are not helpful as I do not use any of those languages.

The only thing really Realms-specific is the languages, and those are easily-enough edited out and replaced with you own. I just have that as a basis because when not playing in my homebrew, that is the staple world in my game - and it was the flagship world for 3.0 as well. YMVs, obviously - buts that's okay

For me, info like hit points, AC and saves are a must on the first page. If you deleted the Max Skill Points and Noteable Skill Mods boxes and replaced them with AC, HP and saves that would be cool -even shortening the special abilities/feat list would help.

Again, I think that for all that it's worth in time, it's better to jst have one page for combat stuff. Otherwise, it starts to look really cramped on the first page, and I can't extrapolate on all the minuatae that I have for this sheet.

The list of proficiencies is odd... I guess I'm just used to writing my proficiences in the feats section.

yeah - I even sometimes slip up when playing and list them in the feats section too. Mainly though, I think this only adds to the sheet, and as usual this is easily edited out and replaced with the MESSy(stem) [that's the Martial, Exotic Simple System]. Just use the rest of the spaes for Exotic weapon profs for a space filler

But it's still a good job overall. Definetly useable and nice that it is a .doc file and can be easily moved around with little work. Skills on the front page is a must, and feats/special abilities is good too.

Thanks for all the compliments, and the fair reveiw

If I played in the Realms I'm sure it would be much more appreciated.

For D&D period, this can be used IMX. The only that gets changed in my homebrews version is a different languages section.

I voted 4. I think the quality of the formatting looks great, but the placement and choice of elements wasn't to my taste.

In my own mind the majority of a character should fit on 1 page. Something for quick, easy reference.

The only problem is that, IMX, alot of important details get lost, and the sheet can't be made "for everyone". I can upload Axiems 3.0 version into a new thread, and post another poll if I really want to shoot that down - it's hayday is long over

A 2nd page would probably work better as a combat page. Found yourself in combat? Flip the sheet over. ALL the combat stats are there. The basics: AC, HP, spell DCs, weapons, armor, etc. But with an entire page more is possible: multiple weapon options, common combat tactics, battle yells, and whatever other little notes.

Wait: isn't that what I did? Not sure of the point here

Personally, I think everyone needs a journal or master item & info log too. This could be done as a multiple 3rd sheet template. I'd include: a long list of NPCs known, Places visited or known, contacts & followers, interesting bits of info discovered, basic equipment is here, and magic items, weird items, gems & jewelry, any items not with the character including homes, castles, and mounts. Basically, anything that would probably be remembered by the character, but forgotten by the player between sessions. Also familiar/companion stats could fit, but maybe not.

Well, I personally create a journal logs for each session which the players can easily reference, so this generally isn't an issue for me. I just think that a character sheet is more for the crunch and less for the fluff. All good ideas, however Thansk for the feedback.

6.

I like the layout, and how much material it includes, but there are three reasons I will not use it as-is or tweak it for my own use:

okay, shoot!

1. The mix of text boxes & body text is awkward.

How so?

2. If one does not have the Ringbearer font, one gets some pretty odd-looking text. Note that if you made it a PDF, you could embed the font so this wouldn't be an issue.

Sorry, my uberness is at a loss as how to do this, so this is not something I can do :\

3. It doesn't calculate anything. I may as well use the WoTC-published character sheets if I have to do all the math myself.

Sorry: I never sold it as self-calculating, and there are no plans to haev a version (done by me) which features this. Also, you'd have to go through alot of paper to re-print this off for when stuff like soemthing as insignitifgant as Buls Strength affects you. Personally, a pencil and a caculator are all I need to add.

Otherwise it's bitchin', though.

Thansk man

Cheers!

Same to you: cheers!

The one thing I would kill are the supposedly funny descriptions for each category. I personally do not find them funny, nor are they of any use. They just take up space, which is at a premium on any character sheet.

Oh well, I guess I can't win over everyone As said before, increasing the font size might be a good idea for some, so why not try that out instead? Personally, fitting another line of skills on Page 1 is not my idea of getting a 'premium' experience with a Char sheet over a few free laughs.

I gave it a 6 as it seems pretty comprehensive, although I had a couple of quibbles:

Go for it! I can take it

- I did not dig the format - word documents looks so... word documenty. However, given that it's about as good as a word document will most likely look, I thought it OK. (Personally I prefer Illustrator/Photoshop in terms of precision and clarity of headings, lines and placements. I have my own sheet but it is specifically geared around each character in my game - not with blank spaces.)

Yeah, its a word doc, but not much I can do with that, as I don't have any of those programs mentioned :\ I just try and do what I can in word

- The placement of things across the pages was a little clunky - very mix and match orientated. I prefer to see hit points on the front page beside the attribute scores. Personally I have the columns: attribute score, attribute modifier, ability damage (I prefer this separate), lethal damage, nonlethal damage, negative levels, then DR, Fast Healing, Resistances etc in a single column.

Well, it was more "hmmm, where will this fit when push came to shove. Version 2 to 3 had tons of changes, and one was placement of most things. Combat, in my sheet, got it's own page, so that's the final call.

- In terms of weapons, I thought all was quite good except that the critical box should always be amongst the damage row/profile. The only other thing was ammunition, particularly for a bow specialist with up to six different types of ammunition. Perhaps having the ranged weapon at the very bottom with a special ammunition section moving grapple to the top?

I know, and there isn't much I can do for spacing, other than making the boxes 1x1 in stead of the current 2x2 size and have it that way. As I said to Blackrat I find that this cause this info to get ost in my group, but it may appeal to a wider audience.

- Equipment was OK but not enough room for everything. I would have a separate section for Magical Equipment that can be worn - according to slots. If you had a column for Equipment Worn (which includes the magical section) in one column, equipment carried in another (bigger column) and and third column for equipment stored, this would help in quickly adjudicating weight and encumbrance effects. While it is somewhat helpful to have a value column for items, I find this somewhat misleading for players (and it tends to have them unnecessarily competing against each other). I prefer a simple three "column" format: equipment, location and weight.

you know, this isn't a bad idea. I could further divvy ths up to "Stored" and "On Person" This is something which hasn't changed since Axiems sheet, and probably isn't the best system - so I'll look into your fair suggestions and se what i can incorperate. Thanks - that was a great help for me

- I think the sheet would benefit from a character history page detailing classes chosen, hit points rolled, feats/skills selected etc. by level. Such a thing helps a player "plan" out their character if they are a player that likes doing stuff like that. For everyone else, it's a handy reference.

Personally, this is something which I don't think belongs on a character sheet proper - but in all fairness, I had a 'HP rolled" section on page 1, before making "Skill Mods" and "Skill POints" larger and adding in "Player Name" (something I've been meaning to do) on it. This is somethin which I agree is very useful - denoting LA, Racial HD, and different classes. Again, somehtin which I think is useful, but don't, ATM, have enough room to fit in... Hmmm....

All in all though, I thought the sheet pretty good.

Thanks you for the fair reveiw

Best Regards
Herremann the Wise

Same to you

 

[Agent Oracle]

Voted 8.

The Sheet is almost perfect. it's detailed, complete, and easily modified (thank you for not locking it down as a PDF). Now, given these details, there are a few gripes. First and foremost, the AC / Saves / Hit points belong on the front page. if you arrange it as a collumn instead of in rows, you could have replaced the skills page with the combat information for equally quick reference.

That said, it IS a great design for printing out and fully detailling a character. Well played.

All

 

[Nyaricus]

Voted 8.

Thanks

The Sheet is almost perfect. it's detailed, complete, and easily modified (thank you for not locking it down as a PDF). Now, given these details, there are a few gripes. First and foremost, the AC / Saves / Hit points belong on the front page. if you arrange it as a collumn instead of in rows, you could have replaced the skills page with the combat information for equally quick reference.

Again, it is in my opinion that combat stuff needs to be on one sheet. The only truely elusive part of the 2nd page is Saves, but it was necessary due to spacing issues, and a reasonable amount of appropriateness.

That said, it IS a great design for printing out and fully detailling a character. Well played.

Thanks you for the compliment. I am currently incorperating a few of the suggestions (specifically: getting rid of "Alt Weapon" and "Ranged" and re-naming them "Projectile" and "Thrown", adding in survival: the planes, fast healing in the Health section, and reformatting the equipment section to incorperate Herremann the Wise's excellent "On Person/Stored --- name/location/weight" idea fpr equipment) and working to make this sheet even better than as-is.

 

[Nyaricus]

An area showing what is equipped to each body slot would be good.

working on a rough version which at least distinguishes between "on body" and "stored". Although a proper picture with slots would be optimal, IMO.

Instead of having such specifiec weapon slots have more generic ones and simply have a melee/ranged/grapple boxes.

Really? I think having everything spelled out in black and white is great and a very useful tool for anyone.

Better than the one in the back of the PHB though. Little work and it could be very good.

Thanks and thanks

 

[GuardianLurker]

Voted 3.

It's DOC, and I'd rather PDF.

It's obviously for your houserules (multiple Appraise slots and "speed") which makes it less generally useful to me.

There are some obvious space wasters -
there's no need for a fully detailed flat-footed and touch AC line; technically you don't even need those if you have the AC break-down
Most PCs will only use a language or two from your list; save space and just supply a few blank lines.
Ditto for your proficiency slots.
Many of the "fill-in" slots are overly large (in terms of space consumed) without being comfortable to write in. In many cases, they'd be better served by "folding" them into another area.

There are some things I do like:
non-lethal damage
notable "*" mods

Serviceable, and for your group, I'm guessing more than adequate, but far from "deluxe". I prefer Mad Irishman's and Ema's.

 

[Nyaricus]

Voted 3.

Alrighty then

It's DOC, and I'd rather PDF.

see, why is this honestly such a big ol' deal for people. I linked microsoft word veiwer in the first post to top it off. :\ That is really getting discouraging if people keep voting it based on the file format its saved as :\

It's obviously for your houserules (multiple Appraise slots and "speed") which makes it less generally useful to me.

well, multiple appriase slots already have a place in D&D (though I am genuinely embracing this), and speed is easily edited (remove one box, rename the note over it "base speed" and let'r rip).

there's no need for a fully detailed flat-footed and touch AC line; technically you don't even need those if you have the AC break-down

Well, this is a character sheet I created with noobs in mind, thus I found it important to have the coimplete break-down for AC. Heck, I'm almost at the point where AC is going to be re-named 'Defense' in my games, to avoid confusion

Most PCs will only use a language or two from your list; save space and just supply a few blank lines.

again, this is for noobs and those who want to know what options are open to them. These are all easily-referenceable lists which I think are indispensable - for any player for that matter.

Ditto for your proficiency slots.

pretty much the same comments as above.

Many of the "fill-in" slots are overly large (in terms of space consumed) without being comfortable to write in. In many cases, they'd be better served by "folding" them into another area.

any particular exmples of this?

There are some things I do like:

okay, now we get the positive stuff

non-lethal damage

yep, another useful tidbit which comes up enough to warrant having it's own area.

notable "*" mods

pardon?

Serviceable, and for your group, I'm guessing more than adequate, but far from "deluxe". I prefer Mad Irishman's and Ema's.

Well, it's had 6 years of play testing, so I'm pretty happy with where it is. There have thus far been some great suggestions in this thread, and more than adequate encouragements.

 

[Mean Eyed Cat]

Hey Nyaricus, I really liked the character sheet. I gave it a 9. Of course, I may be a bit biased because I'm a FR junkie, but I do like the layout, the complete breakdowns, and the humorous subtitles Good job!

The only drawback (and the reason I gave it a 9) is that now I have to buy some B size paper so that I can print them out.

 

[Hairfoot]

I hated it, because its in DOC format!
I dont want to use this fileformat because its not open for everyone.
If you convert your document to PDF, i will give it a secound chance.

DOC format is the reason I like it, and isn't DOC transferable between platforms?

I say that because, although many RPGers are either IT professionals or skilled computer-users, I'm a point/click dummy and I prize digital tools which are simple to use.

I have seen too many programming errors in things like this to trust the auto-calculating character sheets.

QFT, and thanks for the margin tip.

On an etiquette note, why is the OP being savaged for offering us a game tool we can take or leave? Constructive criticism doesn't mean tearing someone down for creating less-than-perfect freeware.