I explained how to use Character Mancer in a previous article. Since its inception, my players and I have used this tool frequently for many playtests, one-shots, and whenever we need to roll up new characters. We’re all seasoned D&D 5e players at this point, but the quality of life perks that come with using Charactermancer are always worth it to us.
In other words, you don’t have to manually enter all your level 1 spells, equipment, etc. Just click a few buttons and Charactermancer will import everything for you. That’s amazing. This gives you time to focus on what’s important, like finding the goofiest photo for your character token.
This latest update to Charactermancer brings two things to Roll20. The first is the addition of one of my favorite D&D 5e books, Xanathar’s Guide to Everything. Second, with Charactermancer Level Up, the long-awaited update to Charactermancer, you can now not only level up your character, but also create new level 1 characters.
Add sourcebook to overview
Anyone can use the 5e SRD for free in their compendium, but you can also purchase most D&D 5e sourcebooks to add to your or your players’ compendiums. You and your players can use this overview to drag and drop spells onto your character sheet, look up rules on the fly, and, of course, further automate character creation in Charactermancer.
Below is a complete list of books with character creation options available in Charactermancer that are currently available for purchase on Roll20.
Guildmaster’s Guide to Ravnica (GGtR) Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes (MToF) Player’s Handbook (PHB) Volo’s Monster Guide Xanathar’s Complete Guide (XGtE)
Roll20 provided us with a copy of PHB and XGtE to show you how easy it is to use Charactermancer Level Up with the help of the expanded overview.
The only thing missing is the Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide. It has much of its content reprinted in new releases. I’m not going to review this book too enthusiastically, but in my opinion I don’t really miss it all that much.
Share summary
You will be expected to share physical books with your group. Why not share your brief too? Depending on your Roll20 subscription level, you can play with up to 5 players (1 game), 30 players (3 games), or 75 players (5 games). You can share your summary.
This means that you really only need to own one Roll20 account at a time for all your friends to enjoy the book. You can pool your money to buy your DM a book as a gift, but you also get the benefit of being able to use the book yourself.
To share your overview with your players, first go to your game’s settings. Setting the outline is done just before selecting a character sheet template (see image above for reference). Select the (Yes) radio button to share your summary with players. Players will now have access to the same books as you in their own summaries.
Be careful which character sheet template you use. Custom sheets can have some overview issues.
I tend to prefer physical books, but having access to the compendium PHB and XGtE is very helpful. Simply search for rules and mechanics for instant reference while playing. You can also do this in-game as long as you have the book in your overview or have shared the book in-game.
How to use Character Mancer Level Up
I’ve already written an article about creating characters using Charactermancer. If you are interested in creating a character, please read that article before continuing.
Activate character mancer level up
For this article, I’ll be using the tiefling paladin Shivara again since I haven’t been able to play her yet. I’m tentatively planning to level her up to level 8 for an adventure where I want to use her. This means she gets a spell, chooses an archetype, and spends some ASI.
To start leveling up your character, simply open your character sheet. Next, click the “Launch Level+ Charactermancer” button in the settings menu. Please refer to the screenshot above.
This is the welcome screen for character mancer level up. Similar to Charactermancer’s character creation feature, all changes will be saved when you click the “Next” button. You can revisit these changes at any time while using Charactermancer, so feel free to play around with them before completing your level-up.
level menu
The great thing about Charactermancer Level Up is that you can do multiple level ups at once. At first, I was worried that I would have to repeat this process seven times. This was certainly a welcome feature.
If you haven’t already done so, you can roll your HP to choose your class archetype. I prefer to take average HP with leveling up, so I was glad to see that was an option as well. Shivara is a paladin, so he gets the archetype at level 3, so that’s what he’s doing now.
Depending on the books you own in the overview, you will see relevant information for the main classes on the right side of the screen. This is definitely helpful for new players and those playing unfamiliar classes.
This menu allows you to multi-class up to 3 times. If those lessons weren’t enough, you are a very brave person. I haven’t actually multiclassed this character, but I tried it for the sake of the article. As with the primary class, you can select a subclass archetype and roll its HP within this menu.
Function menu
Depending on the class you select, you may need to make several decisions in this menu. However, for the most part, most of this menu only contains information about the features you’ve unlocked in this level set.
As you can see in the image below, this also includes racial traits that you gain by leveling up. So in addition to all the fun features of a paladin, you also get two spells from the race.
All I had to choose from this menu was my class’s fighting style. This was done from the dropdown menu. When you select a feature, the menu updates and a description of that feature appears below the menu.
This is a great menu to spend some time getting familiar with all the new features. However, this menu doesn’t make much sense in terms of decision making or character building.
Ability value increase/special skill menu
Well, we’ve reached one of my favorite parts of leveling up: spending your hard-earned Ability Score Increments (ASI). The class determination determines the number and frequency of ASIs. For example, a level 8 paladin gets 2.
This menu is quite easy to use. Get one window for each ASI obtained in this level set. You can toggle between using the 2 points using the +/- buttons. You can put both of these points into one ability score, or you can increase two different ability scores by 1.
You can also opt out of ability score increases and choose feats instead. I was planning to get Great Weapon Master at level 8, but the tab for selecting feats was grayed out. According to the release notes, this is a known issue with Charactermancer Level Up. I hope it gets fixed soon.
For now, I added both ASIs to Strength. Later on, I might go back to Great Weapon Master and enter them manually instead of one of these.
spell menu
Last is the Spells menu. If your character is purely a martial arts class, you can skip directly to the review menu. Shivara isn’t, so it’s time to pick your level 1 and 2 spells!
As you can see in the photo above, all oath spells in the Oath of Conquest archetype are already selected and grayed out. My tiefling spells are also preselected. This is a nice little quality of life feature to avoid doubling up on spells.
All new spells will appear in green in the spell list at the top of the page. The text in the middle section of the window keeps track of how many spells you have left to choose from, which is very helpful.
Clicking on the gray information button next to a spell will display spells from that book in the Compendium in the right pane. This is very useful and probably my favorite feature for both new and veteran players.
Spend all the time you need choosing a new spell. It’s an important decision!
review menu
The review menu will show you how your character has changed after leveling up. I was surprised that only changes in Shibara’s class, level, HP, and ability values are displayed. It would have been nice to see all the abilities and spells she got in this menu as well, but pressing the “Apply Changes” button shows everything and updates the character sheet.
Your character sheets are now all up to date. You can now manually customize your sheet until the next time your character levels up. Don’t worry. All changes will be saved after your next level up.
conclusion
I was already a big fan of Charactermancer, which creates new level 1 characters. Charactermancer Level Up is another big step in the direction of making character creation and management more streamlined for Roll20 users.
Charactermancer is worth using even if you only have the free 5e SRD. You’ll still have to manually enter class features, spells, and character information that aren’t included in the overview, but it’s still a huge time saver.
My only complaint about Charactermancer Level Up is that you can’t add feats when spending ASI. However, Roll20 is aware of this issue and will fix it in a future update. Still, I’ll definitely be using this to level up my characters in the future.
