Well. he could've used some vacation and sick days, and come out ahead.
Seriously, JRR, I'm glad you've found out that 3.5 didn't work for you. Nobody needs to play a system they find crappy.
For me, if I were making a D&D character using all the available supplements out there, it WOULD take a very long time. With a Hackmaster character, if the GM allows the Hack- classes (kinda like prestige classes), it could take slightly longer, but using just the core stuff, there aren't that many choices, same as in 2nd edition AD&D. As someone said, it's all front-loaded, so once you've locked down stats, race, class, and quirks/flaws, then the rest is just "add more levels." You'll pick up some stats here and there, but there's no qualifying for Prestige classes, etc.
In the same vein, if you are just using the core 3rd edition D&D stuff, the choices are a lot simpler, too. I've written down a 5th level D&D cleric inside of 20 minutes before, from start to finish, spells picked, etc. But then, I know the rules, have most of the formulas kicking around inside my head, and could probably reconstruct the majority of the class and race choices from the PHB just from memory, because I know the formulas they used.
