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After putting some finishing touches on the customized character sheet for my D&D Encounters druid, I decided to start from scratch for a paragon tier character. This time around, I decided to try an artificer. I have several campaign-related reasons for doing so, but I'll limit myself to sharing the aesthetic motivations: an artificer lets me keep space on the page for a familiar, and an artificer gives me an excuse for some faux-steampunk flourishes. The sheet for my druid worked, but it wasn't as pretty as I hoped.

The big challenge here was figuring out how to squeeze in all the powers and feats an 11th level character already has, while leaving room for the feats, powers, and traits that will accrue over the rest of the tier. Here's how it looks:

page one:

Taking a hint from the Essentials-style character sheet, I consolidated the ability scores and their dependent skills into the same space. I wanted to reserve some space for a character portrait this time; doing so inspired me to give the familiar a portrait spot as well. Considering this character follows the Familiar Keeper paragon path, it seemed appropriate to promote the pet visually. I used the chain border, rivets, gears, and Copperplate font to support the idea that this is a mechanically (if arcanely) inclined character.

As with my first customized character sheet, the far left and far right columns are designed to fold back. Doing so creates an 8.5 x 5 inch biographical page on one side, and a sort of dual-calling card on the other. Open up the calling cards,  and you see page two:

This character has 17 powers available, including her melee basic attack. I also wanted to leave room for the paragon utility and daily powrs to come. I struggled to find a mini-card design for a while, but ultimately fell back on the "monster block" as the most effecient way of presenting powers. I typed them all up in columns in Pages first, then pasted them into PhotoShop.

The combat support info condensed nicely, though I will probably tweak it to restore some room to "current hit points." I left some space here and there for writing in item powers-- this character in particular is likely to go questing for new toys with daily powers. I'd be just as happy, though, putting magic items on a separate list or using their cards from the Character Builder-- doing so would enhance their "item-ness" for me, if that makes any sense.

On the whole, I'm much more pleased with this character sheet than my first one. The process went smoother, too, though not faster. Still, that's motivation to look ahead towards a customized character sheet for the epic tier.