Character Creation Time?

[cmanos]

20 minutes after I have a good solid character concept and background.

 

[Y.O.Morales]

1 week. I like to plan everything, search dozens of sourcebooks, see how this combines with that, and why the character has maxed out his ranks, etc etc... bla bla bla

 

[Rel]

Very interesting thread for the differences it points out. Last night we started a new campaign (one that I'm running) and I ambitiously asked for the players to make their PC's in 2 hours so we could play for the latter half of the night. Despite the fact that most of them had fairly firm ideas of what they wanted to play it took them every minute of that time to do it and one guy was still making his character as I told the party to roll initiative for the first encounter. And this was with me telling them not to bother with equipment aside from weapons and armor!

To top it off, I had even added the caveat that their characters were completely flexible until they made 2nd level so they could switch any stat, feat, skill points, equipment, even the whole character if they wanted.

I guess that our group is just VERY slow in making characters.

Oh, and these were 1st level PC's.

 

[IronWolf]

My creation times vary. I can do one in about 30 minutes if I just want a quick one. If it is one I intend to play and put some thought into I would say closer to two hours by the time I work out the background and think about it some.

 

[Jdvn1]

It normally takes me an hour, maybe more if I'm really spending time on it.

I wanted to see how fast I could make a character, though, and I've done it in under 10 minutes, by hand.

 

[Psychic Warrior]

For those that are saying 'a week' exactly how much time is that in hours? Since I doubt you guys are spending morning noon and night working on your characters I just wanted a more quanatative figure.

For me anywhere from 15 minutes for characters under 3rd level about 30-45 minutes for level 4th to 12th to up to an hour for a high level (13+) and important NPC. I've only made about 3 PCs under 3.x and they all started at first level and took about 45 minutes.

A lot of times, if I need an NPC for combat right away, I will just use the NPC stats from the DMG (3.0 perferred over 3.5 as they actually gave the 3.0 ones all of their equipment):/ )

 

[KB9JMQ]

Normally about an hour for a 1st Level 3.5E PC.
Which is waaaay to long.
It really ticks me off that the more forward we go with this hobby the harder it is to create a pc in the first place.
When I started DMing with the Red Box I taught my then 4 year old sister to play in about 15 minutes including generating a spellcaster.
Creating a PC with my six year old last month took an hour and we skipped buying equipment and handwaved "he has the basic stuff" just so we could get going, and that was for a simple human fighter.

 

[azmodean]

My experience is opposite what many people have said. If I'm making a PC to play, I can whip it out in about 30 min since I have a "stable" of character concepts floating around in my head at any time. On the other hand if I'm making a major NPC it typically takes me an hour or more since I generally have to start from scratch. Minor npcs range from 15 min to on the spot. As a rule of thumb I just double the BAB of any minor non-spellcaster and apply the typical class modifiers (sneak attack for instance). Spellcasters, no matter how minor take at least 15 min due to the spell list, and that is if they are extremely minor and low level.

I tend to agonize a bit over npc equipment, I want it to be more than just cash to the party, "Oh, another pair of ogre gauntlets, throw them on the pile." I'm currently trying to write some equipment guidelines for the different classes to speed up item selection. Something like "Fighter: 33% armor/shield, 25% weapon, 22% enhancement, 10% special, 10% expendable" I need to get another copy of vis studio so I can go back to working on my npc generator

 

[Wombat]

How long does it take to create a character?

As long as is needed, which varies heavily on the specific game, supplements allowed, background material, and knowledge of the characters of other players.

Anywhere from 10 minutes to a month.

 

[Ambrus]

For those that are saying 'a week' exactly how much time is that in hours? Since I doubt you guys are spending morning noon and night working on your characters I just wanted a more quanatative figure.

Well, it's hard to put a number figure to it really. I mean, a good deal of the time is spent just thinking it over. What skills do I absolutely need to make the concept work? Which skills would be nice but aren't really necessary? If I really need more skills then should I take a level of rogue? How would that affect my advancement and concept? Will it delay my entering a prestige class? Are my prerequisites all class skills? How many skill points can I afford to put into cross-class skills? Maybe a different sub-race will mesh with my concept better. Once I have some free time, I'll sit down and research the answers to my questions and scribble out a few builds. I said about a week, but honestly, I'll think about it for however long I have until the first scheduled session occurs making tweaks as I go. If I were to put it down to numbers, I'd guess anywhere between 10 and 15 hours. Could be more, maybe less. I don't really know.