Roll20 Character Setup

If you’re playing D&D on Roll20 (a web browser based virtual tabletop system), your Dungeon Master (or Mistress) will provide you with access to a form to use for your character sheet. He or she may want to install a character roller in the Attributes & Abilities tab of that sheet so you can record the rolls for your character’s ability score in the game’s chat log in a legible and easily located format.

Naturally, this begs the question: how does one enter a character rolling macro on the Roll20 D&D 3.5 character sheet? Here’s how a DM might do that:

1. Create a blank character sheet by going to the Journal and clicking the + Character button at the top.
2. Open the new sheet and enter the player’s name in the Player Name field at the top of the header.
3. Click the Attributes & Abilities tab at the top of the sheet.
4. Click the + Add button to the right of the Attributes header to add the following attributes, exactly as spelled (all in lower case) in boldface:
1. armorclass
2. clmod (needed for spellcasters only; set the current value to 0)
3. testmode (leave the current and max values blank for now and drag it to the top of the attributes list)
5. Click the + Add button to the right of the Abilities header to add a new ability.
6. Hover the mouse pointer over the newly created ability to display a small toolbar to the right of the new ability (usually this has a name like New Ability 0). the leftmost button on this toolbar looks like a pencil; click it to edit the new ability.
7. The display changes to edit mode with the cursor in the ability name field so you can change it. Name it Roll Character or something similar.
8. Below the ability name field is a big empty field for the macro to execute when this ability is run. Copy and paste the text below into that field:
&{template:DnD35StdRoll} {{spellflag=true}} {{name=@{playername}}} {{subtags=rolls a new character!}} {{notes=@{playername} rolls the following attributes; each of the six rolls is **4d6** with the lowest die roll discarded and the other three dice totaled: Rolls:[[ 4d6k3 ]][[ 4d6k3 ]][[ 4d6k3 ]][[ 4d6k3 ]][[ 4d6k3 ]][[ 4d6k3 ]]
9. When the above text is pasted, click the checkmark (✔️) button on the toolbar to the left of the new ability’s name to save it.

The macro above rolls a character’s abilities according to the standard method, but the roll calculations can easily be modified to other methods. For example, some DMs allow ones on individual dice to be rerolled to get better characters. That would be represented in the last line of the macro like so:

Other DMs may allow ones to be rerolled, but only once: if you roll a one on a die a second time, it remains a one. In such a case, the last line of that macro would be:

The dice rolling macro notation is capable of a great many things. See Macros on the Roll20 site for more details.

After the Player Has Chosen a Class

There are additional tricks that can be done after the player has chosen a class and race and distributed his six rolls to the attributes he or she wants.

Autocalculating Saving Throws

Every class, prestige class, and monster has either good or poor saving throws for each of the three save types: Fortitude, Reflex, and Will. Classes that have poor saves in a particular type will start with +0 at 1st level; those with good saves will start at +2. These can be automatically calculated by pasting the following Roll20 calculations into the Base Save column for each of the three types.

For good saves, use this:

For poor saves, use this:

With these in place, the base saves will be correct as long as the level1 field is correct for that class. The formalae have to be changed once a character reaches 21st (epic) level.

Autocalculating Base Attack Bonus

Every class, prestige class, and monster is assigned either a good, average, or poor base attack. In the first Base Attack field under the Stats subtab of a character sheet, you can have it calculate the base attack automatically by class (or classes, if the player multiclasses later) by pasting one of the three roll calculations directly into that field. These formulae change if a character reaches 21st level.

For classes with good base attacks (barbarians, fighters, paladins, rangers, etc.):

For classes with average base attacks (clerics, druids, monks, rogues, etc.):

For classes with poor base attacks (sorcerers, wizards, etc.):