How to Use The New Roll20 DnD 2024 Character Sheet

The updated version of Dungeons & Dragons is upon us. Whether you call it DnD 6E, DnD 5.5, One D&D, DnD 2024 or something else entirely, the new Player’s Handbook is already on some shelves. The DnD 2024 Player’s Handbook brings changes to each of the game’s classes although the bones remain the same as Fifth Edition. This means that the 2024 DnD character sheet looks very familiar but comes with a few key tweaks. 

The Roll20 character sheet revamps the look of the digital DnD character sheet. But what changes does DnD 2024 bring, and how do you use them on your Roll20 sheet? We broke down the important parts here so you can learn quickly and get back to rolling dice.

Use Your DnD Character Sheet Anywhere 

Thanks to the Roll20 Characters function, players can use their sheet outside of the virtual tabletop. To use your Roll20 DnD character sheet, head to the “Tools” tab and click on “Characters.” Through Characters, you can create and open a sheet as its own tab for use in home games, theater of the mind, or other styles of play. 

You’ll notice that the Characters menu breaks down your available sheets by game. In this case, DnD 5e and DnD 2024 are separate entities. Click on DnD 2024 to get started. You’ll have two choices: create your own character or use one of several Ready-To-Play characters.

How To Create A DnD Character On Roll20 

When you’re in the Characters menu and click on DnD 2024, you’ll see a big red “Create My Own” button. Click on that, and you’ll be sent to a blank character sheet. Here you’ll see that the Roll20 character sheet for DnD 2024 consists of several boxes. Each box provides you with a question mark and cog wheel on the top right corner. The question mark tells you what game rules each box is meant to display. The cog wheel allows you to alter the box. 

Using the cog wheel to manage each box is the digital equivalent of filling out your paper character sheet. You need to have the rules on hand to guide you through character creation, assigning numbers to your Ability Scores, writing items into your inventory, and so on. The benefit to this approach is that you have total freedom to tinker with your character sheet. You’ll find new options that not even D&D Beyond has, such as a drop down window for displaying walking, flying, swimming, and climbing speeds separately. 

At the very top right of the whole character sheet is a “Manage Sheet” icon. This gives you even greater control for advanced options like auto-rolling damage or subtracting for Great Weapon Master. However, this feature is currently unavailable as it’s still in testing. So is the Builder function. The Builder will likely be a guided, step-by-step character creation tool much like the already available Charactermancer. 

Using A Premade DnD 2024 Character On Roll20 

If you need to jump into a one-shot quickly or just want to play around with the new DnD character sheet, you can click on one of the premade characters. Roll20 has several character sheets prepared for various classes, species, and levels. When looking at one of these, you get a sense of how the 2024 DnD character sheet works. 

For instance, you can simply click on a certain ability score, skill, or spell to roll the needed dice. 

These rolls automatically calculate your various bonuses. All of these results are kept in your “Roll Log” which you can access at the top of the sheet next to your avatar. You can use the Roll Log to further interact with your roll, such as to roll damage for a successful attack or read the full description of a spell. 

Much of your time using the sheet will probably be spent on the large bottom left window. This is the window that contains your combat actions, skills, inventory, spells, feats, features, and notes. It’s worth going through each of these tabs to see what they can do. Much of it is understandable upfront; you can click on spells to use them and find your magic item attunement slots in the inventory. But each tab also has its own sub-menus. 

Many tabs will have a red plus sign icon. This is how you add more things like items, feats, and combat actions to your lists. The “Manage Spells” button is found within the “Spells” tab, which naturally lets you swap spells or do things like add spell slots should your DM introduce a homebrew bonus. The possibilities of these tools will expand in time, but for now the premade characters provide a solid idea of how you’ll be able to control your sheet. 

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While Roll20’s DnD 2024 character sheet is still a work in progress, it already shows an ambitious attempt to merge beginner-friendly displays with the customization Roll20 is known for. You’ll have to mess around with it to see if it fits your playstyle. The good news on that front is that Roll20 Characters is free! So give it a shot and see how it compares to D&D Beyond, Foundry, or good ol’ pen-and-paper in your eyes.