D&D 5E Pre-generated characters - a character sheet format question

[Greenstone.Walker]

I've been putting together documents rather than character sheets, so I can space stuff out.

For example, see the attached document for a level 5 Fighter. Ignore the fonts - the print to PDF feature seems to have no embedded them properly.

One thing I'm still not sure on is listing "Arcana" or "INT Arcana". I often use skills with different abilities and I've struggled with players prewriting numbers (say STR Athletics +6) struggling when I ask for a "CON Athletics" roll. I'm also leaning against precalculating too many numbers as I want to teach new players how to play the game - it's a balance between too much info and not enough info on the piece of paper.

Lastly, we've had sessions where there hasn't been a PHB at the table, so I want fairly wordy explanations on the character sheet.

 

[MerricB]

Merric you can use my sheets to make some that look like the old pregen 4e encounter sheets

easiest thing is the copy the slide and edit away. I was going to make some generic ones for AL but never had the time to rip out the non-basic rules stuff, or create a template sheet.

Those are really awesome, although the colour will unfortunately not be in my printing budget - we will have some nice colour Very Simple sheets as well; this is an intermediate sheet I'm making.

Here's a fuller look at the design - although it is all still in flux.

 

[Sezarious]

Okay, for those who like Bonus Actions to be called out...

Your format from post 14 is my favourite. Seems really user friendly regarding skill roles. In fact, I'd use it at the table, it's awesome. Putting saves under there is great too. You've successfully reduced what would normally take up half an a4 page into about a quarter of a page.

 

[MerricB]

Not sure about this one, but it may be more readable...

 

[bedir than]

I like the proficiencies and saves underneath rather than beside the controlling attribute. I prefer 14 and then 24. To repeat what I said on twitter I love that you can condense the basics down to a single 3x5 card. I think that really opens things up for new players. It's easy to get overwhelmed with the ruleset.

 

[MerricB]

More formatting madness...

 

[Li Shenron]

I'm not, but it probably isn't applicable for these characters - just because they're first level and don't have that many action types. (And space is a factor!)

Well they are pre-generated PCs so you know exactly what are their abilities

I'm speaking only from my personal XP. In our current game we also had 1st level Basic pregenerate PCs, and we tried to use the official character sheets. The Cleric had Healing Word (bonus action) and the Wizard had Shield (reaction). The problem is that these are normally listed on another page i.e. on the spells page, so I thought that the Wizard in particular might miss the opportunity of using Shield on a reaction, because normally players start looking for spells to cast only when it's their turn. Therefore I decided to make these very visible on the main page, and also I put opportunity attack there because 2 players out of 3 had not played 3e/4e so they had no familiarity with the concept and this helped them remember they can use it. Healing Word was somewhat easier, if the player first cast HW then she would notice she can still attack, but the listing on the main page helped also when she first attacked, and then she was reminded she could also cast HW.

The idea is not about having a nicely comprehensive and structured presentation of everything you can do, but rather to help people remember a few things they may easily overlook. That's why you don't have to put everything there, and I specifically avoided putting all the possible combat actions, because I believe they would complicate the player's turn rather than simplify it.

By the way, if you are creating a single-page character sheet then all the spells are on the first page, so you probably don't need this at all. Maybe just add a visible symbol near spells that can be cast as bonus actions or reactions or rituals. For us the problem was all about having such spells on a separate page, which normally players tend not to look at unless it's their turn, and they have already decided to cast a spell.