How to Make a D&D Character Sheet

Making a 3rd Edition or 3.5 Edition Character Sheet

• 1

  Create a spot for you basic character description. This should include lines for your character's name, your name, the character's alignment, patron deity, race, gender, height and weight. You will also need a spot to list your class and how many levels you have earned in that class.

• 2

  Create a block for your character's statistics. Write or type the letters STR, DEX, CON, INT, WIS and CHR in a vertical column. They stand for strength, dexterity, constitution, intelligence, wisdom and charisma. In front of each of those letters, you will put your total score for each statistic. On the right side of those letters, you will want to list modifiers that caused those stats to change from your base rolls (such as bonuses because of race, level or equipment). Then create a box showing what modifier each of your stats gives you. For example, if your score is a 14, your modifier will be +2. See the "3rd Edition Player's Handbook" for details on how to determine your statistics and what the modifiers are.

• 3

  Create a spot on your sheet to track hit points. You will need a spot to record your maximum hit points, your hit dice (what type of die you roll to determine your hit points) and a spot to record damage.

• 4

  Create your combat statistics block. This area will need to include your armor class, weapons used, initiative, savings throws and attack rolls. Your armor class statistics for 3rd Edition will need to include your touch AC, AC when flat-footed, maximum dex bonus, armor check penalty and arcane spell failure. Some people also choose to put their spell resistance and damage reduction in this block. Your initiative should include any modifiers from dexterity or feats. Savings throws need to include the base roll and any modifiers from spells, equipment, statistics or race. Your damage rolls need to have space to record melee, ranged, grapple and any special modifiers from equipment, feats or levels.

• 5

  Create a spot for skills. You can either list all of the skills or only those skills in which you have purchased ranks. Once you have listed the skills, you need to have room next to the list to record whether each is a class skill or cross-class skill. Then record how many ranks you have put into the skill, ability modifiers and any miscellaneous modifiers. Add all those up and record the total ability score.

• 6

  Create a spot for equipment. This portion of your character sheet needs to list all of the equipment your character has. It also helps if you include its weight and how many of each item you have. Leave extra room on your sheet to add items to this list as you adventure. It is also helpful to have different types of equipment grouped together. You may want to put all foodstuffs and basic adventuring gear in one column, magic items in another, potions in yet another. You will also need an area to keep track of money. Divide money into platinum pieces, gold pieces, silver pieces and copper pieces. These are typically abbreviated as pp, gp, sp and cp.

• 7

  Designate a place to record experience points. Many people choose to put the target experience points to achieve the next level as well as record the current experience level and any experience awards.

• 8

  Record special abilities and feats. These special abilities may come from race, class or specific adventure-related changes. You will also need to record your feats.

• 9

  Designate an area for class-specific needs. Spellcasters will need spell sheets that list how many spells they get per day, what spells they know (for arcane casters) and an ability to keep track of what spells have been cast each day. Divine casters will need to record their domains, and all casters will need to record their save difficulty class numbers. Clerics and paladins will need to record their turn-undead information. Barbarians will need to track how many times they have raged and how long each rage lasts.

Making a 4th Edition Character Sheet

• 10

  Create a spot for you basic character description. This should include lines for your character's name, your name, the character's alignment, patron deity, race, gender, height and weight. You will also need a spot to list your class and how many levels you have earned in that class.

• 11

  Create a block for your character's statistics. Write or type the letters: STR, DEX, CON, INT, WIS and CHR in a vertical column. They stand for strength, dexterity, constitution, intelligence, wisdom and charisma. In front of each of those letters, you will put your total score for each statistic. On the right side of those letters, you will want to list modifiers that caused those stats to change from your base rolls (such as bonuses because of race, level or equipment).

• 12

  Create a spot to record hit points and related stats. In 4th Edition this includes maximum hit points, second wind, death savings throws, healing surges, surges per day, surges used, bloodied and action points. Some players also have a spot near their hit points to mark conditions such as stunned or sickened.

• 13

  Create a spot to record reactions. Record such things as initiatives, speed, passive insight, passive perception, immunities and resistances.

• 14

  Record defenses and attacks. Create a bloc to record information such as armor class, fortitude save, reflex save and will save for the defenses statistics. The attack section needs to have lines to record your weapon, the to-hit bonus, the strength or dexterity modifier, proficiency, feat enhancement and the damage that can be done.

• 15

  List the skills available and have a check box to mark whether your character is trained in those skills. There are far fewer skills in 4th Edition, making it much easier to just list them all on the character sheet. Mark the ability modifier that affects them and leave room for any miscellaneous notes that you need to make about the skills.

• 16

  Record any race features, class features, proficiencies or other notes.

• 17

  Make an equipment list. The equipment list also needs a section where you record what you currently have equipped in each "slot." For example, the "head" is one slot on which you can wear a single helmet, crown or other headpiece. You will also need a spot to record treasure.

• 18

  Record feats, languages spoken and experience points earned.

• 19

  Create a page for your power index. This sheet will record the number of powers you have and break them down into at-will, encounter, daily and utility. You may also wish to record information about a ritual book, how many pages have been used and what its cost is. Many players either purchase or create cards that help them track their powers and all of the specific information needed for each power.