Character sheets come in many shapes and forms. People have their favorites, whether it’s the official sheet or a fan-made sheet. I thought I would run down my favorite 4e character sheet. You are guaranteed to know your character intimately by the end of this process.
First and foremost I make my character in the D&D character builder. This is by far the easiest and most efficient way to make a character in 4e. Each option available for every selection is shown and with a few clicks you can make a full character. I’m an analytical person and a bit of a power gamer at heart so generally I enjoy character building. Clicking options in the character builder takes time. I generally take somewhere between 1-2 hours to complete this step. At the end of the process I have a character that is table ready and can be printed. This is where most people stop. They do not look at the character between creation and play session and consequently do not know the character very well.
The problem is I hate the official 4e D&D sheet, it’s a design mess. I’ve been playing 4e for five years and I still can’t find things on the sheet easily. My favorite sheet is the form-fillable Kiznit’s Dungeons & Dragons 4e character sheet. A quick Google search will pull it up. I deleted the power card & folder pages from the template copy as I do not use them. Now transcribe all the character information from the official 4e sheet to the Kiznit sheet. This is a great time to double check all the math, unfortunately the character builder does make the occasional error. Transcribing and checking the information will make you very knowledgeable of the character and its mechanics. I also delete the third page if my character does not use rituals. Kiznit sheets leave plenty of room to put in background notes and combat notes such as what the PC’s feats do.
Sometimes I stop here. I pdf print the official power/item cards and tack them to the back of the Kiznit character sheet pdf and I’m finished. Other times I decide to make my own power cards. This is usually the case when it comes to psion characters, printing three power cards per at-will attack power is ridiculous. I jump over to DNDItalia’s Power Card Generator. You can easily fill out the power cards, save the file for editing at level up, and print them to pdf. They look great and offer a few background options to suit different tastes. This is also an AWESOME resource if you’re a DM and want to make professional-looking custom powers for your players. Unfortunately it is a little labor intensive the first time. Subsequently you should only need to add 1-2 powers at a time to the saved file.
After I have my Kiznit sheet completed and my power cards added to the pdf file I am ready to print. I print my Kiznit sheet in landscape with two pages to a printed page. It makes the sheet a little harder to read but now it is only two sheets I can easily flip front and back for reference. I then print the power/item cards as normal, 3×3 block, nine to a page. This helps minimize the number of sheets I need to flip through. A non-ritual caster level 1 PC can easily fit in one sheet protector front and back.
Sheet Protector 1 Front: Kiznit Pages 1-2
Sheet Protector 1 Back: Kiznit Pages 3 (if needed), or Power/Item Cards 1-9
Sheet Protector 2 Front: Power/Item Cards 1-9, or Power/Item Cards 10-18
Sheet Protector 2 Back: Power/Item Cards 10-18, or Power/Item Cards 19-27
If you complete the process in full you have double checked all the math and regurgitated every facet of your PC. This process, while labor intensive, nearly guarantees you have the best grasp of your PC and its capabilities compared to anyone at the table. Not only that but you will gain much insight into how the mechanics of 4e work.
