Comments and questions on 3.5 from a Newbie

[sniffles]

I agree.
I just feel an obligation to build the best character I can, using what I know. I have taken the role of student on this thread (and other threads too) and a student is required to make the best effort he can. If he does not, he wastes his time and the time of his instructors (and, he flunks the test. )
Yeah, I'm trying. I end up with this stack of books open on my desk. Sometimes books sit on books, open. Other times they are on the floor, or in my lap. It's a scene straight out of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, where Buffy, Giles, and the group are doing intensive research on vampires/demons/otherworldly monsters/Glory.
Which is why I make such ridiculous mistakes as forgetting that you only do 1/2 strength damage on your off-hand. I'm so focused on the tree, that I can't see the forest. Ah, the joys of PRACTICE (practice means, you just know such things as that automatically.)

That's not a ridiculous mistake - I ran my fighter for several levels with the wrong damage bonus written on his sheet for his off-hand weapon!!

I feel it's audacious to the point of ridiculousness for me to create a 9th level character, yet you saw Gwendilyn at 9th level. That's because she was a hypothetical character only. I wouldn't actually sit at a game and play her. I haven't earned that right. That right comes through play.
If that sounds phony, when I started this game in the late 70s, a friend accidentally left me a 5th level canned character. I thought he had given me a big gift. I actually called him to thank him for the enormous gift. None of my characters had progressed past 1st level (most, had died in their first encounter.)

Yeowch!!

Now, you know about my high level character, Edena the cleric. But you don't see me trying to create him. Not even at 1st level. That's for the good reason I can't create him at 1st level: I would dishonor the character if I tried. Until I learn how to create clerics properly, I would not so dishonor Edena the cleric as to try to create him!
As for creating him at his high level, that will never happen. Not, at least, until I have throughly mastered the epic rules and played a number of characters of 40th level or higher. In other words, not for a long time.

Anyways, it is my job to create the best characters I can. If I fall short, and they are still playable, that's good. But I'm wasting your time (in reading my posts) if I don't do my best, to create the best characters I can. It's not about min/maxing. It's about effort and work. Lots and lots of work.

But first and foremost, it should be about fun!!