Dungeons & Dragons Character Sheets Receive Updated Look For 2024

Dungeons & Dragons character sheets have a new makeover to release alongside the new rulebooks later this year.

By Hannah Adkins

Wizards of the Coast is releasing a new set of core rulebooks for Dungeons & Dragons this year, and along with these releases the official character sheet has gotten a makeover. Character sheets are a vital part to playing D&D, whether virtual through a service like Roll20 or the good old fashioned pen and paper route, and in an effort to improve upon going through skill checks, Wizards of the Coast have made one vital change to the sheet in order to make key information more accessible. You can check out the new character sheets below:

2024 dnd character sheets
(Photo: Wizards of the Coast)

The largest change of note is to move skills by splitting them amongst the boxes for each individual ability score, providing a straightforward categorization of the skills into the corresponding ability that it falls under. In the previous version of the character sheet all skills were listed together in a column beside the column for each ability score, in alphabetical order to make them easier to find. Whether or not this will be a well received change or not entirely depends upon the individual player's preferences, so it's likely to be fairly split – though the largest divide in my opinion would be between new versus returning players. 

If you've played Dungeons & Dragons enough times to have the skills and their corresponding ruling ability – such as Performance belonging under Charisma – then the new format of the character sheet will likely save you some time on each skill check, which ultimately add up throughout the entire adventure. If you're new to Dungeons & Dragons, however, it could be more difficult to utilize the new character sheet as players will have to do some searching rather than referencing the alphabetical list – though personally from an optimistic standpoint, I think this seems like a great way to encourage players to learn, and will hopefully encourage veteran players and DMs to aid in the process of falling in love with D&D! 

As for additional changes to the character sheet, the makeover includes the removal of backstory elements of flaws, personality traits, ideals, and bonds, instead giving one section to write the backstory and personality in whole, which doesn't seem like a major change in the slightest to me given that I've never seen anyone use them in a session I've been apart of. The sheet also provides attunement slots for magic items with slots for three attunements per character, and condenses spells onto the backside of the sheet into one section with most of the information repeatedly referenced during combat conveniently tucked into the top right corner. 

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It's clear that Wizards of the Coast is trying to provide a character sheet where players can fit as much – if not all – of the information on their character that is needed onto two sides in order to play the game with relative ease...at least in regards to what your character can and can't (or won't) do, and overall the new sheets seem like a streamlined version that will improve upon the D&D experience for returning players and encourage new players to learn. 

 If the newly redesigned character sheets seem like a good match for your gameplay style and you'd like to have some official copies for yourself, a pack is available for pre-order that contains 50 double-sided sheets and an illustrated folder for storage, with a September 17th release date. 

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