Character sheets layout
 

Hi,

I'm wondering if there is a way to get a nicer character sheet.

All the information is there, that's awesome, but I miss the layout of the original dnd sheets.


Regards,
Matthias

It is possible to make custom sheets apparently. I've no idea how to do it though. No one has tried for 5e to my knowledge.

Thanks for the reply.

To bad, maybe it's in the instructies?

According to this thread, as of April 2016 the ability to modify or create character sheet layouts was not available for 5e. No idea if it's been added since, but if you'd like to try you can check the various manuals and/or ask for assistance from the people in the Pathfinder section. I expect that the process would be similar if not identical for 5e.

That thread has nothing to do with Custom Character Sheets. Its true you can not modify the sheet that comes with HL in the "Print Preview" area. But the Custom Output was designed to allow the ability to make custom sheets.

See THIS post and thread for details. But yes like others have said its NOT a 5 minute thing to do. In no way is it point and click. You will have to learn XSLT.

Thanks for the info. Sadly I'm an idiot with things like XSLT.

Is there any reason why LWD would make this so difficult or why they don't make different sheets to select?

I don't think it's a case that they went out of their way to make it difficult. Just that it was an already difficult process that they left open for us to use. They could have locked it down I imagine. It would likely take a fair bit of time and resources to create something that would be considered user friendly.

As for why they are not available. I for one am not hanging for new sheets. Give me new content, more monsters, more character options, equipment, spells, mounts. These are the things I would like to see more of which means there are two things I personally hope they are doing...

1. Chasing a license with WOTC
2. Working with popular 3PP companies to bring us more content

I suspect a number of people would have similar priorities.

XSLT is a very popular and heavily documented scripting language. Thousands of sites can help with it including YouTube videos.

From that point of view LWD did not pick a difficult to use feature. They picked one that is the most common in the tech areas of software. Anyone that does almost anything with XML will have exposure to XSLT. So its a great concept I think when more of the forum users where IT people. Heck look at THIS post for a person that just did XSLT for Realm Works export.

I looked at "buying" software to help in making a point and click character sheet. Or spending the time to generate one. To custom make the software was into thousands of hour of coding. Never found a good solution I could buy.

I'm working on a custom character sheet for 5e but I can't seem to workout how to find some of the XSL values (specifically speed and saving throws). Can anyone point me in the direction of where I can find such values? Thanks.

Would love to help, but I have no idea.
But if you are finished, I'll be interested in buying it from you!

Not finished yet unfortunately. Don't worry about buying it though, I'll be offering it for free if I manage to get it all working. It would be easier if there were a documented list of XSL values for 5e though (unless there is and I've missed it).

Your best bet would be to do the custom output and select the "generic xml". I think that is what it was called as I am not near HL.

That will generate the full XML that you can then parse to see what is available or not.

Thanks. That's helped a lot. I've also tracked down the customoutput.dtd (it's not in the folder that the Help file says it is). Worked out the Saving Throw issue but trying to work out Speed now. The generic xml says:

<movement>
<speed text="30'" value="30"/>
<basespeed text="30'" value="30"/>
</movement>

but I can't work out how to convert that into xsl. I've tried all sorts of variants (like <xsl:value-of select="speed/@text"/>) but no joy so far.

I'm teaching myself XSL/XML for this project though so it's a bit of a learning curve ;)

Thanks again, much appreciated.

Its been awhile sense I have done much with XSL but it could be an xpath issue.

try:

FYI EightBitz on these forums got really good with XSL after making a Realm Work addon. He does not do much with 5e so most likely does not check this forum. But if you had specific XSL questions he "maybe" willing to help if you PM him.

He did not do much with HL XML so he can't answer HL questions keep in mind. :)

That worked perfectly. Now that I know you can "triple-stack" the path it should be a lot easier now. Most of it is straight forward, if trial and error. I'm not trying to make anything special, just a Hero Lab version of my DM's Old School style sheet.

A week on and I'm making some brilliant progress (even if I do say so myself ;)). I've attached the current version of my sheet. Everything aside from the character portrait within the shield is XML/HTML code (including the shield itself). It does mean that portrait pictures need to be a certain size (235x280 pixels) but that's a small price to pay I think.

I do have one current issue that I can't resolve though so hopefully someone can point me in the right direction. On the third page you'll see that this particular PC has 4x 1st-level and 3x 2nd level spell slots. I'd like to convert that to show boxes instead of the number four but I can't see how to convert the XML. I need to convert the count variable from a number into boxes:

Can anyone help please?

Also, once I've completed this, what's the best way of sharing it with the community?

Don't have an answer off the top of my head for boxes. But I can answer this.

We have two ways to go. One is to include your file directly into the GitHub community Pack. We can store it in a sub-folder allowing you to make changes and pushing those changes to GitHub. Then when I create a Pack release I can bundle your character sheet and it will be installed for everyone getting the Pack automatically.

We could also go with a totally separate download on the community server. This means its easier to push out fixes just for the character sheet without waiting for the next Pack release. On the downside it means gamers would need to download two things instead of just one.

I sort of like the first option for being easy and everyone getting a "complete" community Pack.

Thanks. I like the first option as well. Hopefully, once I've completed the sheet it won't need any updates but you never know ;)

I've not used GitHub before so I might have to pick your brains on that when the time comes if that's OK? Don't mean to be a pain as you have been very helpful.

BTW, if there is anyone else reading this thread, I'm open to feedback on the sheet as it stands (with the understanding that it isn't complete yet so some items might be on my "to do" list already).

Thanks again.

I don't immediately see anything else that needs updating on the sheet, but that's pretty meaningless. I have peculiar blind spots.

That looks great - much nicer than the default sheet already. Any word on when it will be available?

Shouldn't be too much longer actually. I've been using it in my home game and have been fixing the odd bug here and there. I think I might be ready to go to Open Beta (so to speak) when I get back from a convention next weekend).

So, how's the character sheet going?

Sorry, got completely side-tracked by Real Life (TM). I'll see about getting it added to GitHub.

Nice. I'm looking forward to it.

I have this added to GitHub for dpmcalister so it will be in the next release of the community Pack.

For those that are not use to "custom" sheets they work a little differently in HL. You go to "File->Save Custom Output" and then select the custom sheet you want to make use of. In this case it will be "DnD5e.info Custom Output". Once that is done HL creates a HTML file in the folder you select and will auto-open your default web browser.

To print you print using your web browser to any local printers. If you want to make a PDF of the character sheet I recommend many of the free PDF printers you can download from the internet. I use PrimoPDF to make the attached PDF example.

Thanks so much dpmcalister for this contribution!

I'm so keen to try this!

<redacted, missed full thread>

instead of making custom sheets we can simply use this website collected sheets http://dnd5echaractersheet.com/

I find Chrome's built-in Print to PDF works best for unknown reasons (probably my poor coding skills ;))

You're welcome. Thanks for the great community pack :D

Do any of those work with HeroLab? More choices are always great :)

It doesn't look to me that any of those PDF's could be used with Hero Lab. They just give you alternate paper sheets that you would have to complete yourself.

I got One list of Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition Languages so can any one confirm this list is original or fake

Hmm, I'm getting an error trying to use the DnD5e.info Custom Output, any ideas?

"An error occurred while transforming the input file: Unknown error!"

I just did a fresh install of the Pack and used the sheet to make a custom output without issues.

Have you tried different characters? You do have a default web browser configured correct?

I'm getting the same error message on my Mac, and I believe I do have the default Web browser configured correctly.

I have only tested on a Windows 10 PC using Chrome, Edge and Firefox (I found the best results using Chrome and its built-in Print to PDF engine). There could potentially be an issue with Mac, but unfortunately, I can't test in that environment and my XML knowledge is very basic (just enough to create the sheet itself).

Sorry it's not working for you, if someone else can help troubleshoot/provide an answer I'll gladly include the fix in the files.

Thank you for your work with this. I would like to use this with my party - they are all new to the game so I think this format is a little easier for them.

I have noticed something peculiar though - if you create a cleric and save the output - the cantrips are not shown in the spell book.

If I create a warlock they are so it looks like something that is particular to the cleric and the template.

I can overcome this by printing the normal spell book from Herolab but it's c a complication.

I have put some samples here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/dj8z0s0ssh...heets.zip?dl=0

If you unzip and look at the cleric (Rhys) the cantrips are not shown in the spellbook. I also included the PDF with the standard Herolab output.

Double Post

I'm on holiday at the moment without access to my laptop but I'll take a look when I get home for you.