Harnessing AI To Help Create a Custom D&D Character Sheet
Are you rolling up a new character for your Dungeons & Dragons game? You can use AI to help you develop a unique and personalized DnD character sheet!
AI tools like ChatGPT and DALL-E can turn your creative directions into compelling images and stories. You can provide instructions, details, reference images, and story ideas to help these tools create new flourishes for your character sheet.
For example, AI can create stunning and dynamic character profile images that you can update as you level up. You can also prompt the AI to help develop character backgrounds, flaws, goals, associations, and any other enhancements you'd like to add.
In short, AI tools allow you to level up a basic DnD character sheet.
The Basic DnD Character Sheet
A DnD character sheet is a page or two that lays out all your character's traits, abilities, and background elements. You'll need to create one if you're a beginner to the game, a returning player, or just rolling up a new character for a new campaign.
The basic character sheet from Wizards of the Coast uses a straightforward format with a place for all your character's stats and characteristics. You can certainly start with this standard option, which is free and easily accessible.
The minimalist style of the basic Wizards of the Coast sheet lends itself to customization with the right tools.
Customizing Your DnD Character Sheet With AI Help
Character sheets typically have a spot for your appearance, which is simply an image you create or choose to represent your character. So, when you build a “Female Elven Ranger” character, for example, you can also create or find an image to depict her.
Many options are available for finding or creating your portrait. We will discuss using visual AI tools, which are among the multiple online visual character creators.
We will use ChatGPT and DALL-E for our examples, but many AI tools have similar functionality.
The customization of your DnD character sheet with AI is simple:
- Use Graphical AI to Generate a Character Image: Visualize and describe the image you want to see for your D&D character, then let AI create it.
- Use Text AI for Character Ideas: You can work with AI to develop interesting backgrounds, names, group affiliations, flaws, and goals for your character.
The descriptions you provide to the AI are known as a prompt. Visual and text-based AI tools will try to create the image or story based on your prompts. You can then adjust the prompts based on the results until you are satisfied with the outcomes.
While AI imaging technology is advancing rapidly, the prompts you use are still the key to getting a satisfying result. Open AI suggests being “specific, descriptive, and as detailed as possible” for the best outcomes.
You can search online for inspiration on D&D images for many examples of professional and amateur works.
You can see the artwork common to this genre and use those visuals to craft prompts based on your chosen themes.
Note that with specific artists, OpenAI seeks to protect individuals' work from being co-opted by their AI tools. For example, when I prompt DALL-E to generate a red dragon in the style of Jeff Easley, I get the following result:
“Since Jeff Easley's latest work was created after 1912, I'll focus on capturing key aspects of the general D&D art style rather than his specific style.”
It will still create an image for me, but it may be outside Easley's style.
AI Image Prompts To Consider
First, let's give you some basic style terms to work with as a starting point:
- Vivid or natural
- Fantasy art style
- Gothic images
- Medieval settings
Next, some descriptive adjectives:
- Majestic, bold, powerful
- Contemplative, calm, serene
- Rugged, weathered, haggard
Using terms like these will help the AI determine your expectations.
ChatGPT is a text-based AI tool. It is now integrated with DALL-E, an image-generating AI tool. This integration gives you a more conversational approach to building what you want.
To begin, log in to ChatGPT and type in a prompt for what you're looking to create. If you can't think of something, ask ChatGPT for help with an image prompt.
Remember to be descriptive. “A bold male dwarven fighter with a long red beard, a gleaming sword, and a round shield. He stands in a deep mine lit with torches” is typically better than just “male dwarf fighter.”
Here's an example prompt I used for an image of a wolf:
Create an image of a majestic wolf howling at a giant moon prominently in the background with a night sky. The setting is a mystical forest with trees silhouetted against the moonlight, and the wolf is standing on an outcropping of rock.
Once you see the result, you can tweak the prompt by suggesting simple changes. For example, you can try:
“Can you make the wolf's fur white instead of black?” or “Use a more realistic art style.”
Using a Reference Image for the AI To Interpret
Finding compelling reference images is an excellent way to get a great result. If you find an image with a style you like, use the following simple process to have ChatGPT help you create a new image based on your reference.
This process involves showing an image to ChatGPT and generating a new result:
- Upload Reference Image: On the Chat bar, click the upload button and select the image you want to use as a reference.
- Describe Changes: Tell ChatGPT how you wish to modify the image. Be clear about what elements to change. For example: “Please give the character an ornate silver shield.”
- Receive Prompt: ChatGPT will provide a detailed prompt based on your description. Modify that as needed to get a comprehensive description for DALL-E.
- Generate Image: ChatGPT will use the prompt to create a new image with DALL-E.
- Repeat if Necessary: Look at the new image to see if it meets your expectations. From here, use a conversational approach to tweak the image to what you want.
Using Text AI to Enhance Your DnD Character Sheet
While AI can be hit or miss with generating compelling stories or narratives, it is helpful for ideation. There are areas in which you can use text-based AI for your custom character sheet:
- Name Generation: “Can you come up with a list of five names suitable for a male dwarven cleric in a D&D campaign?”
- Background Hooks: “Can you come up with a good background for a female dwarven cleric for a D&D campaign? The background should focus on an interesting note about her past and be no more than two or three sentences.”
- Flaws and Aspirations: “Can you think of one main flaw and one aspirational goal for the dwarven cleric?”
ChatGPT will remember what you've been discussing so you can flesh out your character in a conversation. If it comes up with something you don't like, try to be more specific or ask it to try again.
Customized Character Sheet Options
It's time to combine your unique AI-generated art and content with a character sheet.
While you can work off the basic character sheet from Wizards of the Coast, countless custom versions are available from third parties and individual creators.
These include class-based character sheets, hand-drawn versions, beginner or kid-friendly sheets, and sheets with larger font sizes for people with trouble reading small text.
When you are sorting through your options for custom D&D character sheets, remember that there will be other elements you can add to it, the most important of which is your character portrait, image, or avatar.
Here are some of the variations of custom character sheets:
Class or Lineage-Themed Character Sheets
The significant benefit is a sheet with a spot to note your class's features. For example, there would be a section for your Rage statistics if you pick a Barbarian-themed character sheet.
You'll also typically get some stylized graphical cues that fit your class, such as an instrument for your bard or a holy symbol for your cleric.
Of course, you can always add some of your own images to customize your sheet further. Here is where an AI image tool would be helpful, which we covered above.
There are also race or lineage-specific character sheets that range from the more common fantasy-style races like Dwarves and Elves to some exotic and rare lineages like Dragonborn or Tieflings.
Race-based D&D character sheets can include your innate racial traits and features, for example, an Aracockra's flight or a dwarven resistance to poison.
Hand-Drawn or Artistic Style Themes
These DnD character sheets consist of various art and visual styles. You can find dark and brooding gothic themes or character sheets with cute and happy themes.
You might be drawn to a design featuring magic with mystic runes on the borders or swirling magical forces in the background. Here again, you can use AI to create any visual additions you would like to see.
Visualizing Your D&D Character
As you build your D&D character, you will better understand who they are shaping up to be. Further personalize the character sheet with your portrait, which visually represents the character you're building.
Expand your options with AI or other tools we've mentioned here. Sort through tools and images to find a style that appeals to you. For example, you may prefer a fantasy art style, or perhaps a more realistic image works best for your tastes.
Once you have a style and tool that you like, you can customize your portrait to fit your vision of the character.
Your Custom D&D Character Sheet: Putting It All Together
The goal is a character sheet that looks complete, unique, fun, and cohesive.
You've picked a standard or custom character sheet as your base. To that, you added the AI images that you visualized and described with prompts. You also worked with AI to come up with the character's name, background, story arc, flaws, goals, and other notable traits.
Remember that you can keep updating your character sheet as you play your campaign. If you get a new, fun magic item or level up, ask AI to update your character image to reflect it.
Have fun with your D&D character!