Dungeons and Dragons was what helped me get out of my shell after my friends moved away to college and university. As I started playing more with people, I realized how important I felt it was to have a properly filled out character sheet. Often feeling nervous that others may not care for my lack of knowledge on the topic, I studied as hard as I could to ensure that it was filled out properly. Those were back in the days of complicated systems like Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 and Pathfinder. Nowadays, the gaming paradigm has shifted from knowing everything to role-playing and I couldn’t be happier.
Still, I think back to what I would want to have had as a resource when I was getting ready for my first few games. Here I present: the Character Sheet Helper. Click below on the image for a section that you need help with, or click on the links below for assistance filling out your character sheet.
Class & Level
This is where you put your class and level. If you are multi-classing, you would put both classes and levels in here.
Class affects:
- Current Hit Points (max at 1st level)
- Hit Dice
- Proficiency Bonus
- Save Proficiencies
- Skills Proficiencies
- Other Proficiencies
- Equipment
- Features & Traits
- Attacks and Spells
Some classes affect:
- Armour class (AC) such as the barbarian or monk
- Speed, like the monk
Background
This is where you list your background from the background list.
Your background affects:
- Personality Traits
- Ideals
- Bonds
- Flaws
- Features & Traits
- Equipment
- Other Proficiencies & Languages
- Skill Proficiencies
Race
This is where you put your race.
Race affects:
Alignment
Alignment is a concept that helps guide character motivations by determining how the character falls on two axes: good/evil and lawful/chaotic.
The two axes are often plotted as a square called an Alignment Table.
It looks something like this:
A social media game where you tag people to show where they lie on the alignment grid.
The alignments are used as a guideline for how your character would act, but you should ask your DM how closely they follow this chart. Some don’t use the 9 alignment system, and some strictly adhere to it.
Glossary:
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Ability Scores:
Put the scores that you have generated in these spots along with their modifiers.
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Attacks & Spellcasting
This section is for writing commonly used attack modifiers, damage, and spell information.
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Armour Class:
(AC) represents how hard you are to hit with a physical or spell attack. This is determined most often by your equipment, but can also be determined by class.
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Death Saving Throws:
When you fall unconscious in battle, your DM may ask you for a death saving throw. Roll a twenty-sided die (d20) and if your roll is 10 or greater than gain a success. If your roll is less than 10, it is considered a failure. 3 failures result in death. 3 successes result in being stable and no longer at risk of dying.
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Equipment:
Equipment has two ways of being determined. You can either roll a random amount of gold determined by the class in the equipment chapter or pick from the starting equipment found under your class.
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Experience Points:
This is where you list how many experience points (XP) you have earned throughout this game.
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Features & Traits
Each class comes with it’s own features and traits that you’ll need to make notes of to play the game. This could be things such as how the barbarian’s rage works, how bardic inspiration works, or any other notes about the character that you feel would benefit it. Further features and traits are granted by your background and race.
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Hit Dice:
(HD) Hit dice are used on short rests to regain hit points. The number of hit dice are determined by your class and level.
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Hit Points:
(HP) Current HP is the total number of HP your character has at any given time. This is often displayed as a fraction out of the maximum HP. HP is calculated HD times current level (HD x level).
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Initiative:
Initiative helps determine turn order in combat. It is most often your Dexterity modifier.
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Name:
You can choose any name for your character. I’m quite fond of pun names, but check with your DM before solidifying it.
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Persona:
Made up of personality traits, ideals, bonds, and flaws, this section is meant to help provide inspiration on how your character would act. These are often created by the player or suggested by the Backgrounds section of the Player’s Handbook.
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Other Proficiencies & Languages:
The other proficiencies include things such as tool proficiencies, languages, vehicle proficiencies, etc. The class section of the Player’s Handbook will describe these. Like your class, your background and race also gives you skill proficiencies, other proficiencies, and sometimes languages to help define your character further.
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Proficiency Bonus:
Determined by your class level and found on your class table. For any skill, attack, or save you are proficient in, you add this bonus to your ability scores modifier.
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Saving Throws:
When you take your first level, you get two save proficiencies. These proficiencies are statically determined by your class.
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Skills:
You receive proficiency with skills after choosing from a determined list based on your class and a defined set of skills from your background. Skills in which you are proficient, you add your proficiency to your ability score modifier. If not proficient, it represents the associated ability modifier of the skill.
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Speed:
The Speed statistic determines how quickly your character moves in a round. This is often measured in feet and 5 foot squares.
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Temporary Hit Points:
Temporary hit points are hit points that are taken away before your real hit points are affected. These are often granted as part of a spell or class feature, otherwise this amount is 0.
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