Scruffy Nerf Herder's page

In Pathfinder, it could take me the better part of a day to make a fully fleshed out character of 3rd-level or higher, and maybe an hour or so for a 1st- or 2nd-level character.

In P2E, I find that, in my case at least, that hasn't really changed much (more on that below).

I'm curious to know what others' experiences with P2E character creation has been like.

1) How long does it take for you to build a 1st-level character?
2) How long does it take for you to build a higher level character?
3) Do you use online apps or other aids to expedite the process? If so, which ones, and how do they help?
4) What other notable experiences have you had with character building in P2E?

BELOW:
For me, I could probably flesh out a 1st-level P2E character in about an hour, with much of that time going into building the concept rather than the mechanics. Now that I've got a few characters under my belt, if I already knew what I wanted, I'd probably put out a 1st-level character in 10 minutes.

But I seldom actually do that. Instead, I like to see where a character can go, so I usually build at much higher level (5-15 generally) as it lets me better see what a completed concept might be capable of. This theorycraft is great for finding out what might be fun for me, or even help me come up with other cool ideas and combinations, but it's not fast. Building a high level character in P2E is a painstakingly long process for me, though no more or less so than First Edition.

I see tons of people throwing up seemingly quick character builds online, making it look quick and easy, but I've found that most are actually illegal if they aren't 1st-level.

I've found that, in actuality, there are SO many prerequisites on everything that I have to have spread sheets (such as this one for...

For me it's kind of a non-issue how long or short the character creation process is. I make solid builds but am not so concerned with power gaming that I need to be doubly sure it's the best build. Also I don't ever do one-shot campaigns and normally know well in advance when session zero is, so I take my sweet time creating a character.

In fact I take a lot of pleasure in this part of playing pen and paper rpgs so I normally think about it for a week or so, write a short two to four paragraph essay or two in there detailing the character's personality and background (if only for my pleasure alone, regardless of anyone being interested in reading it), and just generally enjoy coming up with something new. I can understand that there are different circumstances to different campaigns (being on a time crunch, etc.) and this kind of character creation isn't for everyone, but I'd recommend they try it at least once because it's a blast chewing on your ideas for a week or two and immersing yourself in a story before the campaign even starts.