I’ll admit that the character sheet cards Wizards provided look great, but other than the aesthetic quality, the cards are terrible. They provide the absolute bare minimum detail required to play the characters. Some might even argue that they don’t even contain that much.
I’ve been running a table this season with four players who are new to 4e D&D. They’ve picked up on the basics of the game quickly enough but they are having great difficulty understanding exactly what their characters can do. Without the full character sheet it’s not clear why certain bonuses or penalties are applied. There are also a lot of errors on the cards so that doesn’t help matters.
One of the biggest hurdles I’m facing as the DM is regarding skills. During every encounter the PCs have made numerous skill checks. Some are required for the ongoing skill challenge and other are needed during combat (Athletics, for example). I’ve explained to the players that every character has 17 skills. But with only three or four listed on their condensed character sheet they don’t know what all of the skills are nor do they have any idea what their scores are in each skill.
Of all the problems with the pre-generated characters this seemed to me to be an easy one to fix. Using the character builder files we already created, and faking the other two in order to get accurate skill cards, I’ve put together one sheet that includes skill cards for all six of the pre-generated character. Players and DMs can download the file, print copies before your next game, and just like that the players have a list of every skill their character is capable of performing.
| D&D Encounters Dark Sun Skill Cards
Skill Cards Level 1 (jpg)
Skill Cards Level 1 (tif) Skill Cards Level 1 (png) |
In two weeks when the PCs advance to level 2, I’ll update these numbers and provide a revised file with the new skill values. But for now, these cards should help through the remainder of chapter one (encounters 1-5).
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View Comments (4)
Thanks! I had no idea these other skills were available for Encounters.
Is there by chance a PNG or GIF version of that? It would print out a lot cleaner.
@Chris
I'll upload a .png later tonight.
Zoink! Thanks for going to the work. I have to be honest, I will tell a player that unless they have the skill, there is a +0 to the roll - ability modifiers be damned! Of course, if the player is knowledgeable and/or insists I will allow the usual modifier, but frankly, it is a lot quicker the other way: "well, its not on my list so here goes" rather than "...um...um...um."
Does that make me evil? Drop in the bucket.At least now when a player questions what his other skill modifiers are, I can supply these, thanx a mil.
@panzerleader
For experienced DMs and players the skill cards probably aren't necessary, but for the players new to 4e I felt it was important that they realize what their options truly are. The fact that many of the skills have a 0 modifier shouldn’t be a deterrent since most of the DCs are 10 which gives the PCs a 55% chance of success.
@Chris
I’ve added .tif and .png files as promised.