Making a high-level PC is hard!

[Kzach]

I'd have to strongly disagree on the difficulty of making a character.

Once you understand a few of the basics of the system and have made a few characters, making up a character is very quick.

I literally just put together a 20th-level rogue in about an hour or so.

 

[Jack Colby]

I'd suggest not writing everything down every time you make a character. Make a set of copies for the powers on cardstock or something, then cut them apart and you have instant power cards which can be reused for different characters.

 

[Surgoshan]

I wanted to get a feel for powers at all levels and how your options and character might evolve as he levels, so I took a rogue at level one and just leveled him up one level at a time, adding or changing powers and feats as I went. I had to do a bit of erasing as I took higher level powers, but it still only took me about two hours to get to level 30.

 

[brehobit]

I'd suggest not writing everything down every time you make a character. Make a set of copies for the powers on cardstock or something, then cut them apart and you have instant power cards which can be reused for different characters.

That would work, but you still have to write them up once. And I for one rarely play the same class twice in a year...

 

[Harr]

If the DDI database does include all the rules for published books, it will be a simple matter of copy-paste the text for each power, eliminating this whole thing.

To say nothing of if they ever actually make PDFs of the books available (or if you... you know )

 

[Family]

Having finally got my hands on the books our gaming group is coming over to make characters tonight. We have been running KotS pregens for several weeks now. I have made a MS Word character sheet that all really like.

It's one page, 3 columns, 1st is stats, 2nd is inventory, feats and features, and the 3rd column is for powers.

It has about 20% extra room right now, so notes taking will be easy.

I imagine at higher levels a dedicated second page will be used for powers.

And yes, a build can be quick but typing out the powers takes time, as does optimization.

We've penciled in 3 hours (more or less) tonight. I'm looking forward to it. And if they finish up early we might even venture forth into the keep for an encounter with the new party.

Oh, and we have a Cleric, Fighter, Rogue, Warlock, & a Wizard.

 

[NewfieDave]

The DMG specifically states that the majority of NPCs should be stated out using a class template and monster creation rules. You don't have to go into as much detail as you do with PC creation. They only recommend stating NPCs like PCs if they will be a recurring villain throughout the campaign.

 

[MrMyth]

Ok, now that I've seen the character sheet directly, I can understand why it took you so long! And major props - that is a nice looking piece of work.

That said, I don't think it is really a weakness of the system - you went well above and beyond what is needed to play the character in order to put together an (admittedly elegant and all-encompassing) character sheet. I imagine 3.5 characters would have taken just as long to type up (writing up all a fighter's feats and equipment), and probably twice as long to figure out the stats for - which is where the real work is going to be for the majority of people. (And let's not even consider statting up a wizard...)

That said, I suspect some things will speed up once you get used to the system, and can easily get accustomed to copy-pasting the relevant bits and adjusting them to each character's specific powers and abilities.

 

[DandD]

Doesn't the 4th edition Dungeon Master's Guide have a table to create higher-level PC's?

Like that one: "Starting at higher levels"
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/4ex/20080416a

Tells you how many and what level the diverse powers are, how many hitpoints you got, and so on. I think that should be in the DMG too.

 

[brehobit]

Ok, now that I've seen the character sheet directly, I can understand why it took you so long! And major props - that is a nice looking piece of work.

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Thanks!

And I'm not at all claiming this is a weakness of the system. I'm saying that I think software is needed to make this task easier. There is a LOT going on in 4e. More than 3e for non-casters IMO (less for casters).