Is there anything useful missing from the DnD Essentials character sheets?

Question

I'm trying my hand at character creation with Essentials, and I have both the original 4E character sheets and the Essentials character sheets. I was wondering if some stuff left over is actually useful, like the Passive Insight / Perception boxes, the Attack and Damage Workspace, or the Death Saving throws box, etc.

Second part: is there something you find useful and is missing from both sheets? I know there are other questions asking for different recommendations for character sheets that, e.g., group attack and defense items together or do some other niceties (I've even answered one of thośe questions), but this is a simpler doubt: I don't want to stray much from Essentials for my first campaign as DM.

Answer 1

The passive checks are easy to calculate and only of interest to the GM, so I wouldn't consider it a useful addition to a character sheet.

The Attack and Damage workspace is useful for helping you calculate totals, but not often useful in game. Keep it on a separate bit of paper.

Death Saving throws don't need to be tracked long term. They only matter during a single encounter. I'd track them with counters.

As for anything else … there is usually something that would be a useful addition, but what that something is usually depends on the specific character. Happily this is handled nicely by the essentials character sheet — it has decent sized margins that have enough space to jot down notes near whatever other part of the sheet they apply to.