brehobit said:
OK,
Trying to build a 16th level fighter. Dude, it's a killer. I think even once I know what I'm doing it would take more than an hour.
Certain types of casters used to take that long, but not so much for fighter-types.
We need software badly. DDI seems a bit too much. Has anyone started on a project on their own yet?
Mark
This is a joke, right?
I don't even
have the books, and I think I could whip up a 16th-level fighter in 20 minutes. Follow the following steps:

Choose Race & Class. Pick a Paragon Path.

Determine ability scores as for a 1st-level PC. Increase 2 abilities by the number of Stat increases you get.

Choose your trained skills.

Pick 10 feats, or 11 if human (if there are any fighter bonus feats, add those). Up to 10 (those picked at levels 11, 12, 14 & 16, and 6 retrained feats) can be Paragon Tier.

Choose your powers: 2 at-will, 4 encounter (One from your Paragon Path and 3 others of Levels 13, 7, 3), 3 Daily (levels 15, 9, 5), and 5 utility powers (one from your Paragon path and 4 others of levels 16, 10, 6, 2).

Choose whatever standard adventuring gear you want from the tables in the Player’s Handbook. Choose one 17th-level, one 16th-level, and one 15th-level magic item. In addition, you have 5,000 gold pieces to spend on other items, rituals, and so forth.
Plug in the numbers. Now you're done.
Does that really take
that long? The hardest part is choosing the powers that match your concept. But it seems like it would be pretty quick to me. I could probably do it faster than I was able to type this post explaining the process.