The 5e Character Sheet Sucks, So I Fixed It

After my DM Quest group finished our first campaign a couple months ago, I decided to stop using D&D Beyond and play my next campaign on a paper character sheet. I had always used real dice, but from what I remembered, the paper character sheet from 5.5 was much better than the old one, and I was excited to have a more tactile experience playing D&D.

I was wrong. All the official character sheets are terrible! And the ones other people make are too fancy and still miss what makes a character sheet useful!

As usual, it's up to me to fix the problem.

Differences from 5e to 5.5

As I tried out the new character sheet with my new character, I noticed some of the changes Wizards had made. Among them are:

• No more personality traits, ideals, bonds, or flaws. Since these are no longer in the PHB, that made sense, and honestly, having those on the front page was never necessary.
• Ability scores are divided out. Instead of being on their own, ability scores are divided out and organized individually by the score itself, modifier, and saving throw. Instead of being in one alphabetical list, the skills are separated into these ability score areas.
• Spell slots are all together in one place. This makes it easier to see which spell slots you have, and the longer list lets you organize your spells how you want without having a bunch of unnecessary sections for levels you don't have.

For the most part I liked these changes, except for the ability score division thing. I soon realized that my brain finds it 50% easier to scan a list of skills for the right modifier instead of (1) scanning the ability scores, (2) remembering which ability score is matched with that specific skill, and then (3) scanning that ability score skill list for the right modifier.

But looking at the sheet, I realized that there were redundant areas on the sheet I would rarely if ever use, the existing sections weren't in a very intuitive order, and some aspects of player characters were completely missing.

My goals with the new sheet

Space on a character sheet is precious. Character sheets are references for finding out what you need to know when you need to know it, so there's no reason to put things on the sheet that the player will always already have in mind or that they'll only need to look up in the book once or twice a campaign. I wanted to make a sheet that was:

• Relevant. There's no reason to put anything on it that is either true or not, such as weapon proficiency. Every class can wield simple weapons now, and if you're a martial class, you can wield martial weapons. Binary characteristics like this can be easily remembered.
• Organized. I don't want to have to scan a sheet looking for relevant information, so everything should be organized logically. For example, resistances should be next to the hit points section, since your resistances will affect how many hit points you lose.
• Convenient. I used the DND Beyond character sheet because it was easy to reset my skills after a long rest and keep information like Darkvision and sorcery points handy. Why can't these be added to a paper character sheet too?

What I took out

There are some things no D&D character sheet needs, and it surprises me that after 10 years Wizards still put them in. When designing my own sheet, here's what I omitted:

• Heroic Inspiration. There's simply no need for this. Either you have Inspiration or you don't, so there's no need to have an entire mini-section to determine that. Give your player a "Heroic Inspiration" token to hold and then give back to you once they spend it. Having it isn't a core characteristic of their character.
• Death saving throws. Getting downed in D&D is for the most part somewhat rare, and when it does happen, you don't need a whole section on the hard copy of your character sheet to track your successes and failures. You're not going to forget! Rolling and tracking your death saves is all you do for those rounds!
• Armor and weapon proficiencies. I can't imagine anyone ever forgets that their wizard can't wear heavy armor or that their fighter has proficiency with martial weapons. That's something that you internalize as you design your character, and I doubt anyone needs a character sheet to remind themselves.
• Experience points. I just use milestone advancement instead of experience points, but even if I did, I feel like erasing numbers in the thousands after every section is messy, and the space can be better used. I did make the "Level" section pretty big though, so it could still be used for XP if you wanted it to.
• Electrum coins. They're stupid. 

I also took out half the lines for the weapons and damage cantrips section. Any player who uses more than 2 or 3 types of attack doesn't need this type of minimalist sheet.

What I changed around

I felt that the DND Beyond character sheet's organization was much more sensible than the official paper character sheets, so I based my organization of things like the horizontal ability scores around it. I also made these choices to make the character sheet more intuitive:

• Proficiency bonus is now by the Level field, since they both have to do with experience.
• Since hit dice are almost exclusively spent outside of combat, they are taken away from the combat section and put up in the corner. I also gave them more space so you can draw little boxes to fill in for each hit die instead of writing out how many max and how many spent.
• Hit points are organized like on DND Beyond—that is, with current on one side and maximum on the other like the division equation they are. I'm still scratching my head at the weird layout of the hit points section in the 5.5 sheet.
• Features, traits, and feats are all in a single section instead of being divided out. More on that in the next section that I'm excited about!
• Inventory/equipment is on the front main sheet, not on the back. As a player, I want to know what items are at my disposal during combat, not just outside of it. I made the section small, but that's because the "Attacks" section already lists your weapon items, Armor Class lists your armor, and there are other fields you can sort your items out through, as explained below.
• Languages are brought to the front as well. It gets lost being squeaked into the back like that.
• Size is put up by Character Name. Your size never changes, so it shouldn't be front and center along with stuff like Armor Class and Initiative.

Also, I tried to make each section subtly distinct visually so that it's easier to associate different shapes with what you're looking for. The proficiency bonus field is diamond-shaped, so whenever you refer to proficiency bonus in your features and traits, you can draw a diamond to represent proficiency bonus!

✨What I added!

Now for the good part: adding in what character sheets have been lacking all along, things that make me look forward to organizing my sheet and eliminate so much annoyance! Based on my goals and how players play, this is what I added:

Player Sheet

• Class Power! Finally you can track infusions, rages, bardic inspiration, channel divinities, wild shapes, second winds, superiority dice ki points, lay on handses, psionic dice, favored enemies (I guess?), sneak attack damage, sorcerer points, eldritch invocations, or subclass-specific resources, along with any relevant DCs! Why has this never been on a character sheet before?
• Features and traits sorted by recharge! The features and feats and stuff are now organized by whether they are always available (passive), rechargeable after a short rest, or rechargeable after a long rest. This way, whenever you take a rest, you can simply refer to that section to know which things you regain. This also lets you save space in the Features & Traits section for things you need to remember in every combat!
• Bonus actions and reactions! Now you can know (just like on DND Beyond) what bonus actions and reactions you have to choose from during combat, since they're on their own section.
• Armor type. Now you can list your armor type (plate, chain shirt, leather) right under Armor Class. I also made the AC section big, so you can squeeze in alternate ACs you might have, like after casting Shield or when wielding an actual shield.
• Artisan's tools field. I added this to the Skills section, since whenever I have to use tools in game, it's taken a lot of mental energy to remember what the modifier is. This might be variable depending on the character, but for rogues, it's a great place to always have (Dexterity) Thieves' Tools ready to go.
• Passive Insight. I placed this along with Passive Perception, and I think Passive Insight is actually more important, since making active Insight checks rarely makes sense. I make my players call for Charisma checks on my NPCs contested against their Passive Insight.
• Darkvision. You can put your darkvision range here, as well as any other senses like blindsight if you have it.

Spellcasting Sheet

Spellcasters can print this on the back of their player sheet and have their spells ready to use. The slots are all ready to trace with pen and fill in with pencil, and the spell save DC and attack bonus is right up at the top.

At the bottom, I put in a field for spell components, to expand upon the inventory section for both consumable and non-consumable spell components, and a "Magic Notes" section for any extra information you might need when going over your spells.

Roleplaying Sheet

The back of the player sheet (if you're not a spellcaster) is the roleplaying sheet. I reserved this page for taking notes and keeping track of things that are only useful outside of combat. Also, stuff like alignment and character appearance are here since they're not used all the time. I organized this page with the following sections:

• Backstory Key Facts. Here's some advice you can have for free: you don't need to write down your character's entire backstory, especially from level 1. You just need to list facts about it that you need to remember. Stick to these simple facts and let the details evolve as you roleplay your character and talk to the other characters around a campfire, and your character will come alive without the confines of a rigid storyline.
• Quests & Goals. A great place to write down quest hooks and details that you need to remember about quests from session to session. Keep these goals short and sweet, like a to-do list. You can write down more notes on a separate piece of paper, but these will help you stay on track.
• Character Development. Whenever you discover something about your character or when your character has a life-changing experience or realization, jot it down here! The most interesting characters are dynamic ones who take a life of their own, and this helps you keep it straight.
• Rumors & Mysteries. Did you hear about the name of a strange person or a rumor about an adventuring location? Did you find a password written in an old tome but not know what it opens? Jot down notes about them here, then research them during your character's downtime or follow the threads later. Your DM will love you for remembering details he or she hints at.
• Trophies & Other Items. Every time you finish a dungeon or defeat a boss, collect a trophy so you can remember your victory and write it down here. You can also use this box for notes about complex magic items or anything else you may need to pore over between combats or sessions.
• Enemies. Here you can write down the enemies you've defeated, notes about weaknesses, or faction details. This was actually the last box I added to the page and I'm still not 100% sold on making it dedicated to enemies. We'll see if this changes as I try it out through the campaign.
• NPC Notes. Here you can add all your notes about benefactors, patrons, and anyone else you'll be interacting with more than once throughout a campaign.
• _______. A big empty box for miscellaneous notes! Dedicate it to whatever you find useful. So far I've used it to list the names of my character's expansive family so I can remember them, but the sky's the limit here. Comment below if you end up using this sheet and tell me what you use this section for.

Download it here!

To maximize the usefulness of this character sheet, use checkboxes next to your traits and magic items that have charges, and place info close to the mechanics it affects. For example, my farmer character has the Tough feat, which increases hit points on level up, so I put that information next to "Level" instead of under Feats. That way, I'll see it every time I go to update the level so I won't forget.

📋Download it here!

Playing D&D should be fast-paced and fun! There's no reason to seek specific parts of a character sheet or have wasted sections that are never used. I hope you enjoy this sheet, and please let me know in the comments if you have any feedback!