How to use a Character Sheet

How am I going to use a Character sheet for the Dungeons & Dragons? Can you tell me an instruxtions?

Usually this question would be asked in the general gaming forum, since Dungeons and Dragons is not technically a Text Based Role Playing Game, but a Table Top RPG. However your question does seem legitimate, so I’ll attempt to answer.

I’m not quite sure what the problem you have with the character sheet is, but I can’t give you instructions on how to use it unless I could see it. You see there are literally thousands of different character sheets out there for 3rd edition, and in 2nd edition there are literally tens of thousands of different forms. On the bright side, They all have pretty much the same info on them. Towards the top you will mostelikely find some blanks next to the following: Name, Race/Species, Sex/Gender, Hair Color, Eye Color, Height, Weight, Religion/God, and Alignment. Class will mostlikely be upt there too, but not necessarily. Rougly 3/4 of the sheet forms I come across also have a spot for the Player’s Name, right next to the Character’s Name.

For these Attributes you can just pull numbers off the top of your head, For Height and Weight I do suggest reading the charts available in the Player’s handbook, so you don’t end up with totally unrealistic Height/Weight Combo’s. Just use common sense for the most part. If a characters between 5 and 6 feet(roughly between 1.6 and 1.8 meters) tall, he’ll probably weigh about 150 pounds(roughly 60 Kilos). Add 20 pounds(roughly 8 Kilos) or so if he has really high Strength and Constitution. Subtract weight if Strength and Constitution are really low. There is a chart in the Player’s Handbook, so if all else fails refer to it.

Coming up with a Name is easy for some and hard for others, Picking a character’s race is one of the most important parts of the top of the page because race determines many things starting out, but race is not quite as important as class and alignment.

Alignment actually consists two attributes, there is first your social alignment, then there is your moral alignment. Social alignment is either Lawful, Neutral, or Chaotic. Moral alignment is either Good, Neutral, or Evil. This combination produces a possible Nine Alignments: Lawful Good, Neutral Good, Chaotic Good, Lawful Neutral, True Neutral, Chaotic Neutral, Lawful Evil, Neutral Evil, and Chaotic Evil. The Alignment of your character is important because many classes have various alignment restrictions. For example, Rogues cannot be Lawful or Good, but some DM’s allow players to play Chaotic Good Rogues. Palladins of most Deities, even some of the Evil Deities, have to be Lawful Good.

Class is Important because your character’s class determines close to all the abilities he has. The main four classes are Rogue, Fighter, Cleric, and Mage, but there are classes other than that, such as Barbarian, Palladin, Bard, Sorcerror, Monk and Necromancer(Not a common class, but I like to list it). Because different classes have different stats that they rely upon, you should actually put off selecting your class until after ability scores are assigned. Which brings us the Middle of the Page.

Often just below the Top section is the Section which contains all the juicy stuff. Almost always in the top-left-hand corner of the Mid section, listed from top to bottom are the Ability Scores. These are your main stats. Most gamers actually start their character off by assigning these numbers. They are Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Inteligence, Wisdom, and Charisma, usually in that order. To come up with those numbers is simply roll 6 numbers. There are various ways of rolling the numbers. The most common way is Roll 4 six sidded dice, reroll all 1’s and drop the lowest die. The result is, no score will be less than 6 or higher than 18 before racial addustments are made. After you have 6 numbers you decide what kind of character you’re going to try to play, then assign your highest rolls to the stats you need for that kind of character. After stats are in place you can fill in the saving throw chart. This is where 2nd and 3rd edition make their biggest divergence. In 2nd edition, you have about 4 to 6 different addustments for each stat, that you get by looking at a chart for each stat. In 3rd edition, you simply have one chart for all the stats that essentially reads, +1 for every 2 levels above 10 and -1 for every 2 levels below 11. Also, all the saves have been simplified to 3 saves, Fortitude, Reflex, Will Power. A combination of your class, and your Ability scores will determing your saves. Nearby, your should find your Hit Points, That is determined by your character’s Hit Dice plus his Constitution Bonus. Also you’ll find his Armor Class. That will be determined by a combination of Dexterity bonuses and Armor. After that, you have the matter of assigning feats and skills. You have a certain number of feats to assign and a certain number of skill points to buy skills with. These are mostly determined by a combination of class and intelligence addjusments.

Elsewhere there is the Equipment section. There you will list whatever weapons, armor, or items you have. This will be determined by what you "buy" with your character’s "starting Gold". You see the amount of Gold you start with will be determined by your starting gold minus the cost to buy your starting equipment.

Elswhere, mostlikly on another page, you will find spells. You will find one section for spells you know, one for how many spells of which level you can use per day, and another on what spells you have memorized.

I hope I gave you a good Idea of the Layout of a character sheet, but in order to really use one, you have to read at least the first 3 chapters of the Player’s Handbook of whichever edition you’re playing in.

I Hope I’ve helped you a bit.