JVisgaitis
Explorer
Any chance of getting links to some of the sheets you are referencing? I'm working on one now, and I'm trying to find some good examples.
Requirements for the perfect character sheet
- Thread starter jeffh
- Start date
DungeonmasterCal
First Post
jeffh said:Two words - laser printer. It's much less of a concern for me.
4 words--Misallocation of company assets. I print everything at work.
I hate the black boxes most publishers put on character sheets. I want a sheet that includes all the skills from the PHB and the XPH at a minimum, with at least 6 blanks for other Craft, Knowledge, Profession, or Perform skills. I want places for optional rules (WP/VP, Armor as DR), I want space for multiclassing. I want enough room for all the feats and special abilities a character might have. I want more than one Misc Mod box.
The only printed sheet I use now are the blank ones 3e Profiler has. Beyond these, I go old school--college ruled paper and a number 2 pencil. I've yet to see a published sheet that has what I want most on it.
Eternalknight
First Post
Form-fillable and auto-calculating
Hrm... well, I'll preface by saying I run AD&D, 1.0, so no feats and such to clutter up the sheet. Second, I create sheets in Word, with nothing more complicated than a number of tables to arrange information in.
Top of the first page is a section with basic info - name, class, race, level, hit point, current GP, experience, experience needed for next level, a couple of other things. Generally runs about 1/3 of a page.
Next, an open area for recording damage and healing, and spells which affect being hit. For instance, a character who has 50 hit points, a Stoneskin running, was hit for 10 points and got a Cure Light Wounds for 5 points would look like this, with the first part being the only part saved on the document, the rest temporary (typed on the computer for the DM, handwritten on the player's copy):
50: [stoneskin] -10 +5
Next, what I call the 'combat chart'. This is a list of all the weapons the character commonly uses, with plus to hit (including strength bonuses, dexterity bonuses, magical weapon bonuses, and specialization/weapon of choice bonuses, etc.), then plus on damage (as previous), a note of base damage for Small/Medium creatures and for Large creatures, and rate of attacks, for each weapon. No looking stuff up or calculating, these numbers might change because of a Bless or Oil of Sharpness or some such, but 95% of the time, they are correct.
This is followed by a short section that lists the character's Armor Class, Front/Side/Rear, with the items causing it listed, like this:
AC: F: -2 S: -1 R:2
Full plate, dexterity +1, ring of protection +2
This generally fills the first page. The next few sections are tables for consumeable magic items like potions, scrolls, and arrows; then simple lists of permanent magic items, and a list of non-magic items. At the end of the sheet are the fairly static items like lists of proficiencies, languages, thief abilities, and a character picture if they have one.
Sheets tend to vary from character to character quite a bit, depending on class, powers, and how long they've played the character.
I quite litterally cannot conceive of a pre-created sheet that I could use. I've got all the stuff I need at the beginning, and since it's got (sortable) tables and such, I can easily rearrange things, Find things, and update as I need. Handwritten sheets... urg.
Top of the first page is a section with basic info - name, class, race, level, hit point, current GP, experience, experience needed for next level, a couple of other things. Generally runs about 1/3 of a page.
Next, an open area for recording damage and healing, and spells which affect being hit. For instance, a character who has 50 hit points, a Stoneskin running, was hit for 10 points and got a Cure Light Wounds for 5 points would look like this, with the first part being the only part saved on the document, the rest temporary (typed on the computer for the DM, handwritten on the player's copy):
50: [stoneskin] -10 +5
Next, what I call the 'combat chart'. This is a list of all the weapons the character commonly uses, with plus to hit (including strength bonuses, dexterity bonuses, magical weapon bonuses, and specialization/weapon of choice bonuses, etc.), then plus on damage (as previous), a note of base damage for Small/Medium creatures and for Large creatures, and rate of attacks, for each weapon. No looking stuff up or calculating, these numbers might change because of a Bless or Oil of Sharpness or some such, but 95% of the time, they are correct.
This is followed by a short section that lists the character's Armor Class, Front/Side/Rear, with the items causing it listed, like this:
AC: F: -2 S: -1 R:2
Full plate, dexterity +1, ring of protection +2
This generally fills the first page. The next few sections are tables for consumeable magic items like potions, scrolls, and arrows; then simple lists of permanent magic items, and a list of non-magic items. At the end of the sheet are the fairly static items like lists of proficiencies, languages, thief abilities, and a character picture if they have one.
Sheets tend to vary from character to character quite a bit, depending on class, powers, and how long they've played the character.
I quite litterally cannot conceive of a pre-created sheet that I could use. I've got all the stuff I need at the beginning, and since it's got (sortable) tables and such, I can easily rearrange things, Find things, and update as I need. Handwritten sheets... urg.
sniffles
First Post
I don't know where my fiancee got the sheets I prefer to use, but I'm overall quite happy with them. I think they may have come from the WotC site. I like it that the skill modifier total is on the left, right next to the skill name. I like having separate spaces for touch and flatfooted AC, and for grapple BAB. I like having armor/protective gear on the back, since I know what kind of armor my PC is wearing, and once that's calculated into his total AC I don't need to see it all the time. I like it that putting armor on the back of the sheet leaves more space for weapons.
But the sheet does have a few flaws. I don't need a spell section; even for spellcasters I don't keep that info on my character sheet, and the space provided is far too small. I need more spaces for Knowledge skills, and also for Perform. I'm playing a bard in one campaign and I want her to have multiple performance skills. She's only 4th level and I've already run out of space. Ditto her knowledge skills. It would also be nice to have some way to designate which skills are class skills for multiple classes; more than two classes and there's just nothing convenient. I usually do it by making a hash mark for one class in the check box, or an x if it's a class skill for both classes. But what if the character has 3 classes, or more?
I agree with jeffh about being able to separate hit dice for different classes; I usually write that up above the HD box, but I'd rather have a specific place to put it and track HP by class. I wouldn't mind a bigger box for tracking damage, either, perhaps something like the d20 Modern sheet my GM gave me, which I hate otherwise except for the handy huge box for tracking damage. I've noticed that because the space is so small on most character sheets, my fellow players usually track their damage on sticky notes. But sticky notes can fall off at the most inconvenient times, in my experience.
I wouldn't mind bigger space for weapon info, either. I'm running a fighter with Two-Weapon Fighting, and I need some extra space to track all his attack modifiers. I can imagine that if he had Power Attack it would be even worse. The section for equipment is similarly too small; there's really not enough space to write in the cost of any item that has a 3-figure or higher cost, and once you get to higher level PCs with lots of stuff you run out of room. Some place to check off perishable items would be good, too, similar to the ammo record. And I definitely agree with those who've complained of the feats section being too small, especially for fighters.
I like the black boxes with headings on the sheets I use; makes it easy for me to find the section I'm looking for. But they could probably by smaller, and perhaps not black, and would still work as well.
But the sheet does have a few flaws. I don't need a spell section; even for spellcasters I don't keep that info on my character sheet, and the space provided is far too small. I need more spaces for Knowledge skills, and also for Perform. I'm playing a bard in one campaign and I want her to have multiple performance skills. She's only 4th level and I've already run out of space. Ditto her knowledge skills. It would also be nice to have some way to designate which skills are class skills for multiple classes; more than two classes and there's just nothing convenient. I usually do it by making a hash mark for one class in the check box, or an x if it's a class skill for both classes. But what if the character has 3 classes, or more?
I agree with jeffh about being able to separate hit dice for different classes; I usually write that up above the HD box, but I'd rather have a specific place to put it and track HP by class. I wouldn't mind a bigger box for tracking damage, either, perhaps something like the d20 Modern sheet my GM gave me, which I hate otherwise except for the handy huge box for tracking damage. I've noticed that because the space is so small on most character sheets, my fellow players usually track their damage on sticky notes. But sticky notes can fall off at the most inconvenient times, in my experience.
I wouldn't mind bigger space for weapon info, either. I'm running a fighter with Two-Weapon Fighting, and I need some extra space to track all his attack modifiers. I can imagine that if he had Power Attack it would be even worse. The section for equipment is similarly too small; there's really not enough space to write in the cost of any item that has a 3-figure or higher cost, and once you get to higher level PCs with lots of stuff you run out of room. Some place to check off perishable items would be good, too, similar to the ammo record. And I definitely agree with those who've complained of the feats section being too small, especially for fighters.
I like the black boxes with headings on the sheets I use; makes it easy for me to find the section I'm looking for. But they could probably by smaller, and perhaps not black, and would still work as well.
Scotley
Hero
One innovation I saw that I thought was interesting was putting each ability score in a block along with the skills associated with it.
I'd like to be able to fill out and save my sheets on the computer, but print out a legible sheet for play.
How about putting each bit of information in a 'chunk' or box and you can just add the boxes you want. I assume that this would require some sort of xml or html format. I'm thinking sort of like the custom home pages you get at yahoo. You select the pieces you need for that particular character. Thus, you could add or leave out a section for spells. No animal companion? Don't check that box and it doesn't appear on your sheet. Let me move the 'chunks' around in the order that I like them. Make various options into 'chunks' so that you can pick the one's being used. You could have an 'untrained skills', 'all skills' or 'pick my own' skills box. You could have a box with 'race features' and 'class features' to pick from and speed things up.
Just my thoughts. I'm still questing for the perfect sheet and likely always will be.
A handy feature would be the ability to generate a subset of the information on the sheet automatically that mirrors the information on the Game Mechanics' Initiative cards.
I'd like to be able to fill out and save my sheets on the computer, but print out a legible sheet for play.
How about putting each bit of information in a 'chunk' or box and you can just add the boxes you want. I assume that this would require some sort of xml or html format. I'm thinking sort of like the custom home pages you get at yahoo. You select the pieces you need for that particular character. Thus, you could add or leave out a section for spells. No animal companion? Don't check that box and it doesn't appear on your sheet. Let me move the 'chunks' around in the order that I like them. Make various options into 'chunks' so that you can pick the one's being used. You could have an 'untrained skills', 'all skills' or 'pick my own' skills box. You could have a box with 'race features' and 'class features' to pick from and speed things up.
Just my thoughts. I'm still questing for the perfect sheet and likely always will be.
A handy feature would be the ability to generate a subset of the information on the sheet automatically that mirrors the information on the Game Mechanics' Initiative cards.
Mark CMG
Creative Mountain Games
Eternalknight said:Form-fillable and auto-calculating
I'm getting a lot of emailed compliments about the form-fillable sheet included in the Free Player Pack, though I stayed away from the auto-calculating functions for a number of reasons. They like the spellbooks, too.
Mark CMG
Creative Mountain Games
Ravellion said:
If you mean front and back, that was the goal I kept foremost when I put the CMG sheet together. I wanted a few things not on other sheets included, too, though, like room for a mount, a familiar, AND a cohort (or three such followers). I also wanted a spot on the front that included room for Action Points, Honor, Reputation, and Contacts (all of which are Alt Rules I happen to like). I also like it having a link direct to my website and a link to email my Customer Service handy. I'm thinking about adding a one-sheet expansion for more detailed Spell information tracking, although the room set aside on the main sheet is adequate for both spells and DCs and other misc spell info.
Eternalknight
First Post
Mark CMG said:I'm getting a lot of emailed compliments about the form-fillable sheet included in the Free Player Pack, though I stayed away from the auto-calculating functions for a number of reasons. They like the spellbooks, too.
Checking it out now.
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