The Pathfinder Character Portfolio by Wicked “K” Games and Louis Porter Jr Design

     The worst reviewed character sheet from round 1 was LPJ Design’s Deluxe Pathfinder Character Sheet. It was advertised as a 19 page character sheet but was, in fact, 6 pages of character sheet, 12 pages of nonsense tokens, and the OGL. You can read that review elsewhere. I only bring it up because now I am looking at a 75 page PDF co-published by the same company. What am I about to dive into?
      It turns out, I dove into one of the most comprehensive collections of character sheets ever. The first six pages are different versions of the traditional front page, laid out in a variety of ways to cater to different players’ preferences. These are followed by various versions of a page for options and information, some of which tailor to casters, the rest do not. The next four pages confused me as it looked like four more first pages. Upon closer inspection, these were sheets for casters with a great deal of space for familiars and animal companions. The section to check off tricks an animal companion knows makes me want to play a druid. I have never been inspired to play a character by a character sheet before.
      This is followed by some comprehensive spell tracking sheets and a series of equipment tracking sheets with a very striking figure by Lauren Feehery illustrating which magic item slots are occupied.
     The above makes up the first twenty-eight pages of the file. It is followed by twenty pages of player and GM tools for tracking storylines, remembering important NPCs, locations, and events. Note pages, basically. They are not technically character sheets but they are certainly useful. Then, for some reason, we get more versions of front pages, information and option pages, caster pages, and equipment pages. Why these were not included at the beginning with similar pages is not clear.
     That is the Pathfinder Character Portfolio’s biggest problem. It is not clear, possibly because so many similar character sheets get overwhelming. I used sheets from the Pathfinder Character Portfolio to make my half-orc monk in my new home campaign. I could tell at a glance that the sheets filled different functions but it was hard to tell which sheet would be ideal. If an introduction explained what the designer intended each page to be and why the differences were chosen, picking a character sheet would be much easier. Along the same lines, there are several half-pages. After reading up on the character sheet I found out that they are so a player can mix and match page formations for his personal needs. Before I read that I assumed it was a big empty space for notes, and the document itself does not tell me whether I am right or wrong.
      There are two glaring design flaws that I have come across so far. Firstly, not every front page has a space for Hit Points. I feel this is one of the fundamental sections of a character sheet and its omission severely hurts my opinion of the Pathfinder Character Portfolio. Sure, I could just keep notes in the margin, but I should not have to. The point of a character sheet is to manage a character’s essential information, especially a character sheet that is for sale rather than available as a free download. Secondly, it is cramped. My handwriting is hardly big and I was running out of room filling in the sections. Not so much so that I couldn’t read what I’d written, but the space is tighter than it appears.
      I like this character sheet. Quite a bit, actually. Considering the options it provides and the combinations it covers, it is more like a character sheet kit. Wicked K Games has made their intentions known that they will update the PDF based on feedback. Hopefully after reading this review, they will see a few ways in which they can improve the Pathfinder Character Portfolio.
 

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