Storing characters

## DiceCloud

### About DiceCloud

DiceCloud is a service that allows you to store and organize your D&D 5e characters.  It supports the entire SRD, as well as creating custom features and abilities.  The focus is on organization.  Where a normal character sheet has things grouped into boxes with large areas to put features all bundled together, DiceCloud separates each feature into its own contained box, and allows you to add bonuses and effects that those features give.  This means if you want to know where your character is getting bonuses from, you can click on it and it will tell you each place that is affecting it.

While DiceCloud can be used to manage your character during a session (tracking hit points, conditions, etc), for the purposes of this document we’ll consider it only for managing your character as a whole and that it will not be used for live updating during a session in Averoth.

### Websites

DiceCloud’s main website is at https://dicecloud.com. It’s free to use, and can use Google Sign In for your account. While it does not have a mobile app, the site is mobile friendly.

One shortcoming of DiceCloud, especially when new, is setting up your first character.  There are examples you can use and edit, but it’s nicer having things prefilled for you.  You can use this site to do that!  https://andrew-zhu.com/dnd/dicecloudtools/autochar.html.

It does require your DiceCloud API key.  Sign into DiceCloud, and in the top left click on your UserName.  There is a field for API Key, and the first time you open the page there is a Generate button (after that, the button changes to show, as below):

Copy and paste that API Key to the API Key field in the Autochar site, fill in your details, and magic!  Lots of your character is already made.

Another useful site is https://github.com/ThaumRystra/DiceCloud/wiki/DiceCloud-Helper-Equations.

This site is full of formulas for various fields that automate things for your character - like spell slots!  It tells you where to put the formula to make use of it.

### Overview

Your character sheet is broken down into 6 different tabs:

#### Stats

This tab highlights your characters stats.  For the most part, there isn’t anything you add or change here - not even your attributes.  Clicking on things here tell you where the modifiers are coming from.

#### Features

The features tab is where all of the pieces go that come from your race, background, and class.  It’s also where you put in your base ability scores.  It’s important to note that base ability scores are before racial bonuses!

#### Inventory

As the name implies, this is where you add items that your character has.  You can create different groups and organize it how you want, and you can specify what you have equipped.

#### Spells

Any spells that your character knows can go here - and you can create different groups to store them in, in case you multiclass or have racial spells.

#### Persona

Your persona is details about what makes your character, your character.  Things like your personality traits, ideals, bonds, flaws, and background go here.

#### Journal

Finally, you have the journal. This is where you detail the experiences your character has had, what race they are, and what class(es) they are.

#### Using

DiceCloud is about editing features and adjusting them.  Let’s start with your base ability scores.  When you create a new character, the default is every stat has a 10 in it.  You go to the Features tab, click “Base Ability Scores”, then click the pencil icon to edit them.

This changes the window to edit mode, and you’ll be able to adjust details about it.

In this case, the “features” of your Base Ability Scores sets the base values for each of your stats.  If you click the pencil icon next to one…

You’ll see that all you have to do is adjust the “Value” field at the top, and it will change it accordingly.  Just click the back arrow after editing and you’re done with that ability, and click the checkmark on the top right of the Base Ability scores popup once you have them all done!

The next part is working with racial features in the Journal tab, click your race.  Here, you should be setting things like your racial stat increases, base walking speed, languages, and proficiencies.

Continue to do this for each specific area of your character, such as Persona for background where you can set any proficiencies and languages you gained from it.  The same then applies for features your character has - things gained from your race, background, and class that have separate information to them.  Such as a dragonborn’s breath weapon or resistance, an Outlander’s Wanderer feature, a paladin’s divine sense, or adding in stat increases or a feat from leveling up.  All of these go into the Features tab - and if it’s not there when you created the character, just click the + icon in the bottom right to add a new Feature, filling in the details and adding in the effects/proficiencies as appropriate.

When you gain a level, you add that level by one of two ways in the Journal Tab. If you’re simply adding another level to an existing class, click the class in the Journal, edit it, and then change the level.  Depending on how you have things setup, you may have to manually add in the hit points (such as if you are rolling for hit points), or adjust the hit points value if you don’t have a formula setup.

However, if you’re adding a new class because of multiclassing, there is a small + sign next to your level.

Click that plus sign to add a new class - but you will need to add everything in yourself.

A final note about organizing things in DiceCloud - it orders things by color.  When you edit something, there is a paint bucket icon.  Clicking that lets you change the color of the feature that you’re editing - which makes it easy to group features by where they come from, such as making everything from your race one color and things from a class a different one.

### Sharing

In the far top right of your character, there are the triple vertical dots indicating more options.  If you click that, you get a menu, and just click Share.

By default, anyone with the link can view the character.  That means if you want someone to look them over, just copy/paste them the URL and they can take a look at things.  They can’t see any formulas that you have entered - just the final details on everything.  If you don’t want that, you can change it so only people you specify can view it.

You can then also share the character - giving view or edit access - with specific people, using either their email address or their DiceCloud username.

### Integrating

You can integrate your DiceCloud character with Avrae, making rolling checks, saves, or looking up character information even easier.  This is a very quick, easy setup, requiring only 2 steps!

1. From the sharing menu (above), grant Edit access to the username avrae
2. Copy your URL, and send Avrae the command (replacing url with the URL you just copied)

```
!dicecloud url

```

If you update your character, such as from a level up, just send avrae the command

```
!update

```

and Avrae will reach out to DiceCloud to fetch the latest information.

If you have multiple characters integrated with Avrae, you can manage them with the !character command.  Swap between by using part of the character’s name after the command, such as !character dire