What is different about the 2024 character sheets?

Question

Along with the recently released 2024 Player's Handbook, there are newly drafted pre-printed character sheets.

I’m interested to know what changes are necessitated by the rules update, and which aspects have been added or removed.

Answer 1

The most fundamental difference is that the character sheet is now 2 pages rather than 3.

As a TL;DR none of the changes are necessitated by rules changes from what I can tell (just renaming of some things and reorganizing otherwise). The following sections have been removed:

• Personality Traits, Ideals, Bonds, and Flaws section
• Fields for Age, Height, Weight, Eyes, Skin, and Hair
• Allies and Organization
• Additional Features & Traits (although there is much more space for these)
• Treasure

As far as I can tell, no full sections have been added but a number of sections have been improved with subsections and fields for better organization and readability.

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Now, let's go through each section on the original official 5e sheets one by one

Marketing Image Link to follow along

Page 1

Character Origin Details

• Name, class, background, and race have been moved from a full length top bar to the top left
• Race is now called Species
• A subclass field was added
• Alignment has been moved to the background and personality section found on the second page (discussed later)

Level and Experience

• The level field is now in it's own area on the top bar rather than being included in the class field
• The experience field joins it there

Armor Class and Hit Points

• The Armor Class and hit points have been moved from the middle column to the also join the top bar
• A Shield checkbox has been added to the Armor Class section
• Temporary Hit Points have lost their own section joining the Hit Points section
• Initiative and Speed remained in the same spot (discussed later).

Logo

• The "Dungeons & Dragons" Logo is moved from the top left to below the top bar
• There is no more stylized Dragon

Proficiency Bonus, Ability Bonus, Skills, and Inspiration

• These portions of the character sheet remain in the same place but have been reorganized
• The primary change is that the saving throws and skills have been moved under their respective ability scores
• Proficiency bonus is moved to the top left of this section
• Inspiration, now called Heroic Inspiration, is moved to the bottom right of this section

Equipment Proficiencies

• This section remains in the same place in the bottom left
• Armor, Weapons, and Tools are broken down
• Check boxes for Armor types are added
• Languages are moved to their own section on the second page (discussed later)

Key Traits

• Initiative and speed remain in the topmost bar right of the ability score section
• This bar is extended to include size and passive perception
• This extension is possible because the Personality Traits, Ideals, Bonds, and Flaws section is completely removed

Weapon and Cantrip Attacks

• With the HP section moved, the Weapon and Cantrip Attacks section is moved to take its place
• Like the Key Traits section it is extended to fill the space that the Personality Traits, Ideals, Bonds, and Flaws section vacated
• A notes section is added

Features and Traits

• With the Weapon and Cantrip Attacks section moved, the Features and Traits section is able to take up the real estate in the center of the page
• Equipment is moved to page 2 (discussed later) also freeing up more real estate
• The Features and Traits section is divided into Class Features, Species Traits, and Feats
• There is no longer an Additional Features & Traits field (on page 2 of the old version)

That concludes page 1; page 2 and 3 (character details and spells) of the old character sheets into one page:

Page 2

Granular Appearance Fields

• The fields for Age, Height, Weight, Eyes, Skin, and Hair are removed entirely

Appearance

• The Character Appearance section, now called Appearance, is moved from the top left to the top right
• The new section is considerably smaller than the old version

Backstory and Personality

• The Character Backstory is moved from the bottom left to just below Appearance.
• It's title is also adjusted to include Personality accounting for the lack of that field on page 1
• Alignment is added as a field in this section
• The new section is considerably smaller than the old version

Languages

• The languages are now in their own section beneath Backstory and Personality

Equipment and Wealth

• Equipment and Wealth are moved to the bottom right of page 2 from page 1
• Magic Item Attunement fields have been added
• Coins is now it's own section and is changed from vertical to horizontal
• There is no longer a Treasure section (on page 2 of the old version)

Allies and Organizations

• This section is not present on the new sheet

Spellcasting Class and Ability Details

• Kernelpanic in the comments provided a clean photograph of page 2 that shows these details are moved to the top left

Spell Slots

• These are now organized at the top of the spells section rather than being found in each section of spells

Cantrips and Prepared Spells

• Kernelpanic's image shows that Cantrips and Prepared Spells are in the next section taking up most of the page.
• This section is no longer organized by spell level
• There are fields for Level, Name, Casting Time, Range, and Notes
• There are check boxes for Concentration, Ritual, and Required Material (probably to indicate a focus won't work)