Building a Character, Part 5: Filling in The Character Sheet (LINK TO 6)

The very top of your page is where you put all your basic character things: name, class, level, background, race, alignment, experience points, and your IRL name

On the far left of your page is where you fill in your Ability Scores you rolled the four d6s for and the stat's modifier. The modifier is "Score" minus 10, divided by 2. Round down if you get a fraction.
It doesn't matter which box you use for the Ability Score and which you use for the mod. It just has to make sense to you.

To the right of the Ability Scores we've got Inspiration, Proficiency Bonus, Saving Throws, and Skills.

Inspiration comes from above and beyond role-playing and is awarded at the DM's discretion. You can mark it in that box, put the dice you're awarded there, or just ignore it entirely.

Remember all the talk about Proficiencies while you were creating your character? Here's where it comes into play.
Your proficiency bonus is determined by level. For example, levels 1-4 is a +2 bonus. Check page 15 of the PH5e or whatever page your class starts on for the rest of the levels.
You're going to want to write down your current bonus in that box, and then use the bubbles to the sides of the Saving Throws and Skills to remember what you have proficiency in.

Now, Saving Throws and Skills are both filled in with the indicated modifier, plus your proficiency bonus if you have it in the related Ability Score.
For example, if you have +2 proficiency in Dexterity and a 5 for your DEX mod, then you'll have a 7 for your Saving Throw and any Skill with "(Dex)" to the right.
If you don't have proficiency in Dexterity and a 5 for your DEX mod, you'll write down 5 for your Saving Throw and DEX Skills.

In the upper middle of your sheet, you'll have these seven boxes.

Armor Class, or AC, is how high something has to roll to hit you. It's the same as a DC except for a creature or person.
Your armor class when not wearing actual armor is 10+Dex mod.
Your armor class when wearing armor is listed on page 145 of the PH5e.

Initiative, or how fast you react when combat begins, will be your DEX mod.
(There are ways to increase this number in game, but that's for another post.)
When you get into combat, you'll roll a d20 and add this number.

Your Hit Point Max is how much health you have. Each class starts with a different amount of health.
For example, a wizard begins at 6+CON mod. Check the Handbook for your specific class.
"Current Hit Points" is just a handy place for you to write how many points you have at that moment.

Temporary Hit Points come from spells. They aren't "real" health, just a sort of buffer between whatever's hurting you and your actual HP.
If you were to have 7 Temporary Hit Points and took 10 points of damage, your actual health would only go down 3.

Hit Dice are the dice you roll at each new level to gain more health. Let's take the wizard again. A wizard will roll a d6 each time they level and add their CON mod to determine how many HP they add to their max hit points. So a wizard would write down "d6" in this box.

Finally, Death Saves.
Whenever you start a turn during combat with 0 HP, you make a Death Saving Throw to see if you get better or worse.
10+ is a success. 9 or below is a fail.
On your third success, you become stable and there are a few ways you can get HP back.
On your third fail...you die.
This box keeps track of your successes and fails to see what you get to first.
Let's hope for success or that someone will heal you up.

This is where you keep track of your weapons, attack bonus, and the damage your weapon does.
Attack bonus is the mod associated with the weapon plus your proficiency bonus. When you roll a d20 to hit a creature, you add this number.

Let's take a longsword.
"Name" will be "Longsword" or whatever you call it.
"ATK Bonus" will be STR mod or DEX mod (+ proficiency if you have it)
"Damage/Type" will be 1d8+mod, slashing

The weapons section, pages 146-149, will tell you what mod to add. If it's unclear, your DM can let you know.

Passive Wisdom is 10+ perception skill
Other Proficiencies & Languages lets you keep track of stuff you know
Equipment is a place to inventory your items
CP, SP, EP, GP, PP are Copper Pieces, Silver Pieces, Electrum Pieces, Gold Pieces, and Platinum Pieces. This is the in-game currency.

The top four boxes are places to put your personality traits you determined or rolled for.
"Features and Traits" is where you put racial and class bonuses such as dark vision or an extra attack.

These boxes are more character info, check your race's section in the Handbook for an appropriate height and weight range.

Character Appearance is a space you can put a more detailed description or even a picture if you feel like it.
Allies and Organizations are people and sets of people your character is loyal to, or hates if you want to keep track of those.
Symbol is for any organization with an emblem you want to keep track of.

Some DMs ask you to have a backstory, others not so much. This is just a place to write out where you came from, why you're adventuring, and what your personal goals are.

Additional Features and Traits, in my experience, has been used mostly for class features that didn't fit in the front box or needed a more elaborate description and thus more room. You can use this for personality, too, if you're into that aspect.

Treasure is a place to inventory the stuff you pick up that isn't gold/copper, etc. Magic carpets, gems, magical playing cards, and things go here. It's also a handy place for healing potions if you find yourself needing a lot of those.

Now, for magic users!

Your spell casting class is either your race or class depending on which gives you your magical abilities. For example, Tieflings' race gives them certain abilities, and so does the Wizard class.

Your spell casting ability is the Ability Score you use for your spells. Your class section will tell you which Score to use. So here you might write "INT-16."

Your spell save DC is what other creatures roll against to see if they save themselves from your spell.
 The DC is this is 8+proficiency bonus+ability modifier.

I didn't bother putting the whole page here because it basically looks the same but with different numbers
Cantrips are the spells you can use over and over again, and you list them in that section.
Every other section has a number 1-9. This is the spell level your spell can first be cast at.
  This is different from your character level.

 First level spells can be cast at first spell level or above, second level spells can be cast at second level or above, and so on. Casting them above makes them stronger in various ways depending on the spell.

 Each spell level has a number of spell slots, which is how many times you can use a spell at that level.
For example, you might have 2 first level spells but 4 second level spell slots. This means you can cast those two spells a total of four times combined. If you cast a second level spell at the third level, you use one of the third level spell slots.

In the mini boxes in the section, most people write how many slots they have in the smaller box and tally how many they've used in the larger.

 Some classes have to "prepare" spells to use that day, they usually mark those with the bubbles to the left of the spell name.

Spell slots are replenished after Long Rests (in-game downtime/sleep of 8 or more continuous hours).

That's it for filling out your character sheet for the first time. The final part in the Building a Character series will be Part 6: Level Up!