I’ve got PCGen, DMGenie, RPM, Excel spreadsheets, PDFs and a laser printer. Why would I want to spend the better part of ten quid on ‘deluxe’ character sheets? I have never, in all my eons of gaming, bought a pack of character sheets. Lined A4 will do fine, if necessary.
Anyway, I bought a pack on Saturday. Here’s what you get.
The sheets are protected in a card stock portfolio with full colour art depicting iconic heroes on the front and their nemesis (a balor) on the back. Inside, the portfolio’s sleeves are used to display PH Table 3-1: Base Save and Base Attack Bonuses and PH Table 3-2: Experience and Level-Dependent Benefits.
The pack contains a generic D&D character sheet and a d20 Modern sheet, both of which are four-sided, and one four-page sheet for each character class in the PH, with the exception of the sorcerer and wizard, who share a single sheet.
Each of the class-based character sheets is formatted with a banner bearing the particular class name, D&D logo style. Beneath that are spaces to record character name, player name, class and level, race, alignment, deity, size, age, gender, height, weight, campaign. Plenty of room is allowed for each entry, as they’re spread over three lines.
Below that, on the left side, is a neat stat array with all the usual columns; ability name, score, modifier, temporary score and temporary modifier. Reading right brings you to the AC tracker. Again, format is familiar: total, (10+), armour, shield, dexterity modifier, size modifier, natural armour, deflection modifier and miscellaneous modifier. Separate Touch and Flat-footed boxes complete the top row of boxes. On the right hand side of the page, above skills menu is a large Conditional AC Modifiers box.
To the left of that is the HP tracker, which has spaces for total, non-lethal and wounds/current hp. Beneath that is another box for tracking damage reduction. Under all of that you find the initiative field, which comprises total, dexterity modifier and miscellaneous modifier.
Then there’s the saving throw array. Columns are saving throw, total, base, ability modifier, magic modifier, miscellaneous modifier, temporary modifier and the relatively large, catch all, conditional modifiers box.
Working down the left hand side of the page you’ve got spaces for base attack bonus and spell resistance on the next line. Beneath these are grapple (with fields for total, base attack bonus, strength modifier, size modifier and miscellaneous modifier) and speed. Yep, speed has been kicked out of its old top right spot.
Five attack arrays, generic enough to cater for anything from natural to ranged attacks complete the left hand side of the first page.
The skill table completes the right hand side. Five point text is history. This table has room to breathe. It has all the usual columns, extra blanks for craft, knowledge, perform, profession and two completely blank rows. Each sheet’s class skills boxes are checked, as appropriate. I haven’t cross-checked them for errors. The boxes are unchecked on the sorcerer/wizard sheet.
The differentiation between the class sheets becomes more obvious with the next page. What the sheets have in common is ample room to record languages, wealth (not just in terms of coin but in gems, art and other items – there’s enough room in this section to carry a Monty Haul campaign), containers, possessions and carrying capacity. Here are the differences. Barbarians get to track carrying capacity while raging. Bards, clerics, sorcerers and wizards get to track charges and such of wands and staffs (bards and clerics get three entries, sorcerers and wizards get five). Anyone else with one will have to use their notes section to keep track.
A quarter of page three is reserved for general note taking. There are plenty of spaces to record feats, more so if the class gains a lot of feats (the fighter, for instance, has almost two sides of feat entries). There are two lines for each entry. Casters get a spells matrix, to record spell save, arcane spell failure, conditional modifiers, spells known, spell save DC, level, spells/day and bonus spells. There are spaces for speciality school and prohibited schools (two lines each). The ranger gets to record his daily spells selection here, also. Classes that benefit from familiars, animal companions and mounts will find they have the relevant entries to track every little detail of the critters, yes including tricks they’ve learned. Clerics are limited to recording spell lists for two domains but they could easily use the accompanying notes section to record any additional domains they get from a PrC. The rogue gets half a page summarising handy class skill DCs, from balance to use rope. The druid can record every detail of four wildshape forms.
Page four has a space top right where anyone with or without talent can draw a picture of their character. Alternatively, it’s a handy space for keeping pizza numbers away from campaign notes. Too small to use for mapping though, I think. There’s an experience tracker (with LA and ECL fields), numerous armour/protective items slots and comfortably large racial traits and class features sections. The barbarian’s rage tracker turns up here, as do the bard’s knowledge and song details (effects of which are printed in full). Clerics get their turn/rebuke undead gizmos, as do paladins (who also get a smite section). Rangers have a favoured enemies table.
There are spell sheets for every spell casting class in the PH, along with lists for magic using PrCs from the DMG. There are spell sheets for the cleric domains from the PH. The format of the lists depends on the class but there are fields to accommodate any entry you might want to make. At first, I thought these spell sheets would summarise each spell’s details. Instead, there is space for you to so do. This does make it easier to account for level-dependent and miscellaneous effects. Every class/level spell list has a couple of blank lines to accommodate homebrewers.
I don’t play d20 Modern so I have nothing to say about that sheet. The generic sheet combines the most logical features of the class sheets described above.
I actually like ‘em. Now, if only I could find the power supply for the scanner.