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Yesterday I had the pleasure of having five new players show up to our regular Pathfinder Society games. My co-GM and I decided we had better make sure everything was on the up-and-up (since three of the new players were teenagers) and lo and behold, out of five new characters, all five had fundamental problems with their initial build. Build points for attributes was easily the number one issue (ranging from 18 build points to 25), followed by favored class bonuses (or lack thereof), incorrect skill point assignments, and lack of defined features/feats (such as not specifying a school for spell focus). Nobody was deliberately trying to break things as all were honest mistakes, but it is worth noting that those mistakes were there and some were pretty significant. Basically they were the types of mistakes you'd expect those not as familiar with Pathfinder as the rest of us (or really familiar with 3.5) to make.
Also of note. One of the players was using PCGen to build his character. This character had just as many problems as the players who made their characters by hand. Additionally, one other player had mis-information about his weapon from Hero Labs on his sheet (he's reporting the bug don't worry). So it's goes to say, even if they're using programmatic methods of building their characters, mistakes happen.
Since I'm guessing that contrary to the OP Guide, a lot of GMs don't remember to do that regularly with their reoccurring players (I know I don't), I'd suggest that you at least do it for every new character/player showing up. It gives them a chance to ask a few questions too right off the back and make sure that when GM B asks to see a character sheet, they don't discover eight sessions later that they've had problems all along.
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Book keeping can be an issue. Yes - with new players I like to have added time and talk it through - ideally ahead of the day they play. Off course - this only works in a home game.
I'm suprised about the PCGen and Herolab issues. I guess one big problem I had with PCGen was that I couldn't find the specialisation school when I made my first character. If you click on wizard on the first page you are out of luck as you can't add it later.
Removing levels and adding them seems to confuse it as it now things I have a 24 point buy and loads of skill points not assigned.
I'm sure if I start clean from the start it should be fine. At least when I added my wives character for her I 'found' some 7 additional HP. She was a fifth level fighter by then. So even with older characters it can help to check them occasionally.
So all in all I found once you work out how to use this programs they seem in most cases more accurate. But if you do something wrong from the start it can go badly.
Thod
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Basically they were the types of mistakes you'd expect those not as familiar with Pathfinder as the rest of us (or really familiar with 3.5) to make.
Last weekend I corrected a player using 3.5 D&D's 4x skill points at first level instead of Pathfinder RPG's +3 to class skills.
I've also had to correct a player who applied both 3.5 D&D's 4x skill points and Pathfinder RPG's +3 to class skills to the same character. I began to suspect when his character seemed to excel at just about every skill check the scenario threw at him!
Honest mistakes to be sure. Old habits die hard.
Cheers,
DarkWhite
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With the luxury of a co-GM a solid double check looks achievable. It is harder as a solo GM, though checks when things look odd are always in order.
Along the same lines I have had players hand me chronicle sheets with their details written in pencil. So potentially they could have rubbed the details out leaving a GM verified sheet. I doubt they were intending to cheat, but I have always penned over key items to be safe.