Character sheet – Top half (Above the Fold) Contains all the information you typically need to reference during play.Character sheet – Bottom half (Below the Fold) Contains a list of all your Traits, Feats, Features and Proficiencies as well as all your armor, weapons, equipment, treasure and magic items – tracking your wealth and weight carried.Character SheetCharacter DescriptionSkills and AbilitiesWeapons and ArmorTraits – Feats – FeaturesInventory – Sheet 1Inventory – Sheet 2Inventory – Sheet 3Class Sheet
Download your free 8 page “D&D 5E Character Folio” HERE. Download complete box by box instructions on filling in the folio HERE. If you need more room for trait, feat or feature descriptions, a separate “Traits – Feats – Features” page can be downloaded HERE. Go to the “D&D 5E – Class Reference Sheets” page HERE to download your Class Reference Sheets. These were created to be companion sheets to the character folio.
This Folio provides you a way to track each entry on the first page “Character Sheet”. Everything on that page can be described and tracked on the following pages. This includes all the information required to come up with all the values and modifiers as well as information as to what character level you were when you received it and where it came form.
You can fill them out by hand. Although you will be missing out on the automatic calculations, if you choose to print out blank sheets and fill it all out with a pencil you can. The instructions walk you through every box with instructions on how to fill them by hand as well as on a computer.
It works for any race or background. You can use any home-brew race or background. It makes no assumptions based on race or background.
It works for any subclass. You can use any official class (including Artificer) but it makes no assumption regarding subclass, so you can use subclasses from any source or home-brew.
This works just as well for single class as it does for multi class. Most character sheets (including the previous ones I have made) that are made for multiclass are more complicated than necessary for a single class character. And those made for a single class don’t work at all for a multiple class character. I tried hard to make this one work for both and still remain simple for single class characters.
You can fold them or cut them in half. These pages are sized to print on 8 1/2” x 11” paper. There is a horizontal line in the center of each page. You can fold the page along this line, or cut the page in half along this line turning these into 8 1/2” x 5 1/2” sheets.
You can turn off the lines. On each page, wherever you can enter notes, there are lines you can use. These lines are on a separate layer for each page. If you are not filling these pages in by hand, you may want to turn off these layers. (How to turn layers off varies with the PDF viewer you are using – you can look up how to do that on-line.)
You also need a Class Reference Sheet. In addition to this Character folio, I recommend that you also use a separate sheet for spells and other information in regard to your specific class and subclass. I have created “D&D 5E – Class Reference Sheets” as a companion to the Character Folio. You can find them on the “D&D 5E – Class Reference Sheets” page HERE.
Quick Start I will soon be posting a set of ready to play first level Character Folios, one for each class.
Revision #1, 4/8/2023: Updated the Character Folio and the Instructions with corrections and minor revisions.
Revision #3, 5/3/2023: Minor revisions to the Character Folio. (Thanks to my subscribers Evocatas.)
Revision #4, 10/15/2023: Embedded fonts into the Character Folio. (Thanks to Brian Neubauer.)
I love your work on these and I’m really wanting to use them but, for some reason I’m missing some of the .pdf boxes for instance the speed and level boxes. Sure I can do that myself, But I’m wondering if there is something I’m missing. Either way, that you so much for making these.
No worries.
If you haven’t yet read the “box by box instructions” you should download and read them.
To address your specific questions: much of the information on the first page will be filled in for you when you enter the information on the other pages. You can think of page 1 as a summery of all your character’s information, where the other pages show all of the information in detail – showing where all the information came from.
For example; you enter your character’s speed on page 3 where, in addition to its walking speed you could also enter its fly speed, swim speed and even its burrowing speed should any of those apply, and it will only list on the first page the ones that aren’t zero.
Your Character’s level is also filled in for you on the first page after you select a class for LVL 1. As you advance in levels, should you select different classes for different levels, page 1 will enter the level you have for each of your classes in the classes box and your total levels in the level box. It then uses this information to fill in other boxes on page 1, such as “proficiency bonus”.
Let me know if you are having any other problems.
Okay, that really helped me a lot. Thank you. One last question; I wrote out the back story but the letters didn’t show up, it seems that I might be missing a font in my system. What is your recommendation?
additional information: I downloaded the .pdf to my computer and that is where it isn’t working. I just tried the in browser placement and it worked there. I still don’t know how to make it work in the adobe application, but it was interesting that it works in the browser and not in the app.
The font used there is ‘Arial” which has been included with all versions of Microsoft Windows after Windows 3.1. You may not have that font on your computer. This may be happening because the font used is not available on your computer and was not embedded in the document. I did not embed the font in the document because it would increase the size of the file and this is a font that most people have access to.
Normally, if the font isn’t available, it should substitute a similar font. I don’t know why that isn’t working on your computer.
Yeah, I thought it to be strange because most of the text works but when I type the background or backstory, it shows up in Japanese Kanji. I’ll see if I’m missing Arial though I doubt it cause I use it a lot in other things.
Yeah. I can’t get it to work. I’ve tried using other pdf software and of course that’s neither adding in other problems. Haha. I actually tried the program Ilovepdf (which I think you used to make it) and it wouldn’t give me the boxes.
Anyhow I’ve made the characters from in the website and it worked swimmingly there. But that means that any changes down the road I’ll have to rebuild the sheet every time.
I really do love what you’ve done and I hate the idea of bothering you with this but, I also think that if we figure it out we can get it dialed in.l for other users.
Thanks.
I embedded the fonts into the PDF file and updated the post.
Download the new one( dnd-5e-character-folio_v4.pdf ) and let me know if that fixed your problem.
I wish that I was able to say that it worked but alas, it still does the same thing. I’ve downloaded the fonts that you have used, just to make sure and that didn’t help either. I will make do, and I certainly thank you for trying to help. Everyone at the table has looked at these pages, saying “Wow, that’s a lot of info… but I love it!”
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Thanks for all those !
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Thank you very much for the comment, I am glad that you like them.
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I love your work on these and I’m really wanting to use them but, for some reason I’m missing some of the .pdf boxes for instance the speed and level boxes. Sure I can do that myself, But I’m wondering if there is something I’m missing. Either way, that you so much for making these.
LikeLike
No worries.
If you haven’t yet read the “box by box instructions” you should download and read them.
To address your specific questions: much of the information on the first page will be filled in for you when you enter the information on the other pages. You can think of page 1 as a summery of all your character’s information, where the other pages show all of the information in detail – showing where all the information came from.
For example; you enter your character’s speed on page 3 where, in addition to its walking speed you could also enter its fly speed, swim speed and even its burrowing speed should any of those apply, and it will only list on the first page the ones that aren’t zero.
Your Character’s level is also filled in for you on the first page after you select a class for LVL 1. As you advance in levels, should you select different classes for different levels, page 1 will enter the level you have for each of your classes in the classes box and your total levels in the level box. It then uses this information to fill in other boxes on page 1, such as “proficiency bonus”.
Let me know if you are having any other problems.
LikeLike
Okay, that really helped me a lot. Thank you. One last question; I wrote out the back story but the letters didn’t show up, it seems that I might be missing a font in my system. What is your recommendation?
LikeLike
additional information: I downloaded the .pdf to my computer and that is where it isn’t working. I just tried the in browser placement and it worked there. I still don’t know how to make it work in the adobe application, but it was interesting that it works in the browser and not in the app.
LikeLike
The font used there is ‘Arial” which has been included with all versions of Microsoft Windows after Windows 3.1. You may not have that font on your computer. This may be happening because the font used is not available on your computer and was not embedded in the document. I did not embed the font in the document because it would increase the size of the file and this is a font that most people have access to.
Normally, if the font isn’t available, it should substitute a similar font. I don’t know why that isn’t working on your computer.
LikeLike
Yeah, I thought it to be strange because most of the text works but when I type the background or backstory, it shows up in Japanese Kanji. I’ll see if I’m missing Arial though I doubt it cause I use it a lot in other things.
LikeLike
Let me know. If you can’t get it to work I can embed the font in the PDF file.
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Yeah. I can’t get it to work. I’ve tried using other pdf software and of course that’s neither adding in other problems. Haha. I actually tried the program Ilovepdf (which I think you used to make it) and it wouldn’t give me the boxes.
Anyhow I’ve made the characters from in the website and it worked swimmingly there. But that means that any changes down the road I’ll have to rebuild the sheet every time.
I really do love what you’ve done and I hate the idea of bothering you with this but, I also think that if we figure it out we can get it dialed in.l for other users.
LikeLike
Thanks.
I embedded the fonts into the PDF file and updated the post.
Download the new one( dnd-5e-character-folio_v4.pdf ) and let me know if that fixed your problem.
LikeLike
I wish that I was able to say that it worked but alas, it still does the same thing. I’ve downloaded the fonts that you have used, just to make sure and that didn’t help either. I will make do, and I certainly thank you for trying to help. Everyone at the table has looked at these pages, saying “Wow, that’s a lot of info… but I love it!”
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