Jul 28, 2021 3:50 am
Hey!
I know a lot of people prefer to use DnD Beyond to create characters rather than the GamersPlane character sheet because it automates so much of the creation, making it dead simple to create characters.
Personally, I find DDB sheets frustrating because they don't include anything more than the 5e System Reference Document rules, requiring you to buy the books AGAIN in digital form. While I certainly don't condone piracy, I've always hoped there would be a better way of creating characters.
I wanted to share some easy character creators that I find don't spoil the fun of buying the books and leafing through them.
Chicken Dinner Point Buy Calculator
I use this constantly, especially when helping people create characters for the first time. You can put in your race or subrace and you're off to the races. It will also let you use custom rules if you so desire, and has a tab for referencing the PHB point buy rules. Very easy to make adjustments to a character during creation.
GSheet v2.1
This is what I prefer to create full-blown character sheets on. It's modeled after the PHB's character sheet, but automates all the math and fills in much of the information for you. It takes a few minutes to verify you're not screwing up the Google Spreadsheet formulas (don't put the number in the wrong place) but does a good job of showing you that you messed it up. Hover over certain boxes and it will instruct you where to put your various scores to avoid messing it up. There are seven tabs along the bottom with further information, and it's easy to create custom values so you can reference them in your main sheet.
NOTE: It has most of the subclasses and races, but I don't think they've included the books released this year. You won't find the Fighter's Rune Knight subclass available in the Subclasses lower tab, for instance.
NOTE 2: This isn't 100% automated, it just makes it very easy to create a sheet without paying extra for digital content. You will still need to buy the PHB or other books to know what goes in each available space. For instance, it doesn't give you a list of Battlemaster maneuvers or explanations of which spells you can choose. It WILL give you, say, a dropdown list of all the weapons and auto-populate that weapon for you with proper bonuses and damage. Handy!
Fight Club 5e (cell phone app)
This is where I store all of the most up-to-date information on my characters. Again, very simple to create characters, and I found it to be easy to learn. I often play PbP games on-the-go, and while the GamersPlane character sheets are wonderful, they're not optimized well for mobile. This also allows me to use my phone for in-person games instead of having a character sheet. It doesn't come with a completely custom dice roller, but if you tap most boxes in your character sheet, it will roll using those bonuses for you. It also contains a metric ton of good reference information. What does that spell do again? You can look it up here. A free app for Android or Apple.
NOTE: The same developer also created a DM's app called 'Game Master 5e' that I often use to help prepare for and run sessions.
NOTE 2: This only comes with the SRD information standard. You can either enter in other information manually or import compendium data.
That's all I've got, other than a hundred different bookmarks with obscure tables I'll never use. Do you have any good shortcuts to help games run smoothly in 5e or other games?
I know a lot of people prefer to use DnD Beyond to create characters rather than the GamersPlane character sheet because it automates so much of the creation, making it dead simple to create characters.
Personally, I find DDB sheets frustrating because they don't include anything more than the 5e System Reference Document rules, requiring you to buy the books AGAIN in digital form. While I certainly don't condone piracy, I've always hoped there would be a better way of creating characters.
I wanted to share some easy character creators that I find don't spoil the fun of buying the books and leafing through them.
Chicken Dinner Point Buy Calculator
I use this constantly, especially when helping people create characters for the first time. You can put in your race or subrace and you're off to the races. It will also let you use custom rules if you so desire, and has a tab for referencing the PHB point buy rules. Very easy to make adjustments to a character during creation.
GSheet v2.1
This is what I prefer to create full-blown character sheets on. It's modeled after the PHB's character sheet, but automates all the math and fills in much of the information for you. It takes a few minutes to verify you're not screwing up the Google Spreadsheet formulas (don't put the number in the wrong place) but does a good job of showing you that you messed it up. Hover over certain boxes and it will instruct you where to put your various scores to avoid messing it up. There are seven tabs along the bottom with further information, and it's easy to create custom values so you can reference them in your main sheet.
NOTE: It has most of the subclasses and races, but I don't think they've included the books released this year. You won't find the Fighter's Rune Knight subclass available in the Subclasses lower tab, for instance.
NOTE 2: This isn't 100% automated, it just makes it very easy to create a sheet without paying extra for digital content. You will still need to buy the PHB or other books to know what goes in each available space. For instance, it doesn't give you a list of Battlemaster maneuvers or explanations of which spells you can choose. It WILL give you, say, a dropdown list of all the weapons and auto-populate that weapon for you with proper bonuses and damage. Handy!
Fight Club 5e (cell phone app)
This is where I store all of the most up-to-date information on my characters. Again, very simple to create characters, and I found it to be easy to learn. I often play PbP games on-the-go, and while the GamersPlane character sheets are wonderful, they're not optimized well for mobile. This also allows me to use my phone for in-person games instead of having a character sheet. It doesn't come with a completely custom dice roller, but if you tap most boxes in your character sheet, it will roll using those bonuses for you. It also contains a metric ton of good reference information. What does that spell do again? You can look it up here. A free app for Android or Apple.
NOTE: The same developer also created a DM's app called 'Game Master 5e' that I often use to help prepare for and run sessions.
NOTE 2: This only comes with the SRD information standard. You can either enter in other information manually or import compendium data.
That's all I've got, other than a hundred different bookmarks with obscure tables I'll never use. Do you have any good shortcuts to help games run smoothly in 5e or other games?
Last edited July 28, 2021 7:05 pm
