Some onths ago I posted that I was planning to design a new character sheet for 5e, to finally get to a point where I'm happy with the sheet I'm using. (I've seen a lot of variant sheets in the interim, but none have really hit the spot. So I've concluded I have to do it myself.) Of course, time being in short supply, I then did nothing about it until very recently.
With the start of the new year, I finally made time to start work on the project, and that started by making a crucial decision - rather than design a new sheet from whole cloth I would take the existing official sheet, fix what I see as the weaknesses, and go from there. The reason for that was simple: although I felt the existing sheet was badly flawed, I did really like the graphical design of the sheet. So a modification rather than a redesign should give the best of both worlds.
That redesign started with the spell sheet, which was actually split into two: a sheet for 'minor' spellcasters (anyone of up to 10th level, but also Paladins, Rangers, Eldritch Knights, Arcane Tricksters, and Warlocks of any level), and a sheet for 'major' spellcasters (high-level Bards, Clerics, Druids, Sorcerers, and Wizards). The first of these then had space for more spells at each level and, crucially, a box specifically for spellcasting traits. I completed those two sheets quite quickly, and am very happy with the results.
Next was the 'back' of the main character sheet. This contains character details such as backstory, portrait, faction sigils, and so on. Updating this sheet was mostly about moving things around. I've removed the individual spaces for things like hair and eye colour, in favour of a general "Appearance" box (so that if a player wants to carefully detail eye colour, for instance, but doesn't care about hair, they can use the space accordingly). I've also added a largish box for roleplaying notes, intended to include whatever details of Alignment, Traits, Ideals, Bonds, Flaws, Oaths, Pacts, or whatever else the player cares to note. Otherwise, it's just a case of shrinking some boxes, expanding others, and shifting things around. It didn't take long.
But the bulk of the effort was always going to be the 'front' of the main character sheet. And this is the stage that's currently in progress. I now have a 'final' design in mind, so mostly I just need to work to get it done...
I mentioned a "controversial choice". One of the things I have done with the sheet is to remove the individual spaces for Skills. The reason for this is that I intend to shuft my play away from asking for "a Perform check" and towards "a Charisma check, where your Perform proficiency applies". By rights, this is the way 5e is supposed to operate, but it's largely obfuscated by that box. So, if it works out, it will be great.
My fear, of course, is that it won't work out, and I'll end up defaulting to skill checks. In which case the revised sheet will be less good than it really should be. So I may end up having to do another redesign. But I can't know that until I try it.
All that said, I think the revised sheet remains at least a month away from real use - even when I have the final page designed, I still need to convert the source files back into PDF (actually two PDFs: one containing all four sheets, and a spellcaster sheet for use by multiclass characters), then turn those into fillable forms (and then auto-calculating fillable forms).
Still, it's good to have made so much progress, and to find myself in a place where I might actually be happy with the character sheet I'm using!
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