HYPERBOREA / class abilities: pointless metadata

**Posted by gizmomathboy** 3/17/2016 8:09 am

Since I don't have a track and swag to make for a certain gaming convention at the moment my brain is casting about for something to occupy it. That was partly the simplified character sheet excursion. As it happens during such projects my mind latches onto certain, mostly useless, ideas. Currently this is 2 things: class abilities and spells.

Not really anything useful but how many abilities each class has (and the 'optimal' amount of space for it on a character sheet) and the number of spells one can have and memorize (and the 'optimal' amount of space for it on a character sheet).

So, while the kids and I were busy with post adventure bookkeeping last night (I count it as "playing" D&D/AS&SH to do things like properly accounting XP and loot and such) :-) I thought I would get a rough estimate of the number of abilities each class and subclass has. This is rough because if there is a bullet point for it or a "sub-ability" like enumerating the effects of a Berzerkers Rage then I count it. Also, there are a lot of fighter subclasses.

Class : Number of Abilities
Fighter:5
Barbarian:17(2)
Berzerker:9(10)
Cataphract:8
Paladin:13
Ranger14(2)
Warlock:7
Magician:6
Illusionist:6
Necromancer:6
Pyromancer:7
Witch:10(4)
Thief:14
Assassin:14
Bard:17
Legerdemainst:17
Scout:14
Cleric:4
Druid:10
Monk:17(5)
Priest:5
Shaman:9
Numbers in parentheses denote a detailing of an ability that might need space on a character sheet

So that puts the median at about 13 with the mean about 11 or 12.

My sheet has space for about 20 so that's cool we can basically handle monks and not have a lot of wasted space for the others.

The spell navel gazing I'll leave for later today or another day.

**Posted by Handy Haversack** 3/17/2016 1:10 pm

Have you (as part of your quest) checked out Maezar's Character Sheet of Wondrous Automation? It autopopulates the class abilities when the class is selected, so it's pretty instructive in how to boil these down to a minimal character count.

I've found it to be great for pregens though we have drifted away from it in our regular game as it kind of relies on everyone knowing Excel well or my doing everything.

**Posted by gizmomathboy** 3/17/2016 6:43 pm

Handy Haversack wrote:
Have you (as part of your quest) checked out Maezar's Character Sheet of Wondrous Automation? It autopopulates the class abilities when the class is selected, so it's pretty instructive in how to boil these down to a minimal character count.

I've found it to be great for pregens though we have drifted away from it in our regular game as it kind of relies on everyone knowing Excel well or my doing everything.

I did for my online game. In fact one of my players thought they could do better and did something similar in LibreOffice.

As my current windmill I might also complete the roll20 ASSH sheet as well.

Once I complete my fillable pdf I might use it in an online character generation thing. I shouldn't search for some things and find out about Forms Data Format which means I can programmatically fill out the pdf.

I should probably stop digging this hole.

**Posted by lige** 3/17/2016 10:00 pm

I like it! I knew I liked playing a barbarian for some reason - it's nice to see the math to back it up.