Hi,
Sorry to be daft, but I have not figured out how the spells section works in the character sheet. The table is clear. However, how do the series of 9 little checkboxes work ? I suppose that on the lines we write the known spells. Or is it to indicate which spells are ready ?
Thanks.
Typically it is used with a pencil to check what you have memorized for the day. Then erase them when you cast them.
On a side note not sure if you are using a character generator or a hardcopy of a blank sheet. But PCGen lets you setup lists of spells that you would have memorized in different situations ie Underground, Wilderness, Undead etc.
I still cannot figure out how this works. If we write on the lines known spells (not memorised, only known ones) then how do you use the checkboxes to represent the memorised ones ? We must do it the wrong way I guess...
Typically it is used with a pencil to check what you have memorized for the day. Then erase them when you cast them.
It is mostly used in our group by the wizard. Here's a really rough example of how it would go:
Wizard knows 6 first level spells, but can only cast four of those on any given day. He decides he wants one use of Mage Armor, two uses of Magic Missle and one use of Grease for today, and puts one check, two checks and one check beside those spells respectively. Then, when he uses the Mage Armor before he goes in to fight the goblins, he erases that check mark. After using the Grease to prevent the li'l buggers from charging the party, that check mark gets erased. So, glancing at his sheet, he knows he still has two uses of Magic Missle left before he's out of power for the day.
Make more sense?
The character sheet in the Beta book works differently for different classes.
Up above the spell list, is a place to record how many spells of each level you get per day, how many bonus spells, what their save DCs are, etc.
Down below, you list your individual spells.
Druid/Cleric:
You already know every spell in the book. You have no need to track what spells you know. However, you do need to track which of those spells you have prepared for this day. Let's say today you prepare 3 first level spells (e.g. Command, Bless, and Sanctuary), then you would write just those three spells on your sheet. You can either erase them as you cast them, or just put a checkmark next to them so you know they've been cast (I like the checkmark because tomorrow when I prepare the same 3 spells, I just erase 3 little marks rather than writing them in again).
Note: if you prepare the same spell more than once, list it more than once.
Wizard:
You don't know every spell, but your spellbook will very quickly become too large to track on this sheet. Heck, I have a 4th level wizard in one campaign I'm playing in. He started with 7 1st-level spells, learned two more at 2nd level, and found 5 more in a spellbook when we found a long lost wizard's library. That's 14 1st-level spells - there is no room to write 14 spells in the space provided for 1st-level spells.
Sadly, this means wizards need to track their spellbooks elsewhere. Scratch paper. I use a simple spreadsheet I whipped up.
The rest works like the cleric/druid. You prepare specific spells in the morning, so write them in the space provided, then put little check marks next to them as you cast them.
Sorcerer/Bard:
The easiest of the bunch. You guys only know a tiny list of spells, so you can write them in the space provided and never need more space; this becomes your permanent list of spells known. But, since you spontaneously cast any of them as needed, you use the little tick-boxes at the top of each level to check off one box each time you cast a spell of that level - you're the only two classes that need the little tick-boxes. So if you can cast four 1st level spells, each time you cast one you check off another box until 4 boxes are checked off.
I also recommend crossing off, with something a little more permanent than a checkmark, the boxes you cannot use. For example, fill them in solid. So, for my example sorcerer who can cast 4 first level spells, since there are 9 boxes for 1st level spells, at the start of your day, the last 5 of them should be filled in solid, indicating you cannot use that many spells, leaving the first 4 boxes empty, indicating you can cast 4 spells of this level but have cast none so far.