The new edition has plenty of new options to try out, including several new races and a couple new classes. For my first character, I've decided to create a Warlord. Warlords are strategic fighters who use their combat expertise to help coordinate their allies in battle.

I have a vision of a short, runty kid, who's maybe not the most charismatic person you've ever met, but who's whip smart and will maybe talk your ear off if you give him the mistaken impression that that's okay.

I'm going to make him a Half-Elf because Half-Elves have cool rules in the new edition that let you multi-class for free.

I'm going to name him Wilfred Door. "Wilfred" because I can call him "Wilf" for short, which is apparently a British thing, if the latest season of Doctor Who is to be believed. And "Door" because I like incongruous last names.

(If Wilf was raised by his Elven mother, maybe all he knows about his dad is that he was an adventurer and his last name was supposedly "Door." As Wilf seeks out his father, that might turn out to be his real last name, or it might turn out to be a clue. I like seeding hooks early.)

First thing to do is to create ability scores. In the new edition, they don't recommend rolling, as it leads to unbalanced characters. Instead I use the "point-buy" method which lets me spend 22 points across the six ability scores, with each point costing a different amount.

I want Wilf to be very smart, pretty strong, sort of tough, sort of agile, sort of observant, and not particularly charismatic, so I make his stats Strength 14, Constitution 12, Dexterity 13, Intelligence 16, Wisdom 13, and Charisma 8.

Flipping over to the Half-Elf write-up, I see that being a Half-Elf also gives you an automatic bonus of +2 to Constitution and +2 to Charisma, bringing me up to s14, c14, d13, i16, w13, c10. Power gamers will tell you that this is poor planning. I should have played to my race's strengths, putting my top scores in Constitution and Charisma, but I think I a good concept is worth more than the +1 or +2 bonus I'd get from maximizing.

Flipping through the first chapter, I see that we're meant to pick alignment at this point. Is Wilf good? Evil? I choose "unaligned" as a reflection of Wilf's youth and self-absorption. Does this make me Emo?

I jot down the rest of the benefits for Half-Elves: languages (Wilf will speak Dragon!), skill bonuses (he is diplomatic and insightful), the multi-class ability (to be determined later), the ability to take human and elf racial feats, and a bonus to companion's Diplomacy roles. ("Wait, wait, wait! What Oragh meant to say was...")

Over to the Warlord pages now. I jot down my weapon and armor proficiencies, my defense bonuses, and my hit points and "healing surges". I can take 26 points of damage as a starting character, and I can take an action to "heal" 6 pts. 9 times a day. That's a big jump from the last edition, where starting characters tended to top out around 10 hit points, and everyone relied on spellcasting Clerics and magic potions for healing.

In the new edition, "healing" is less about magical cures and more about "Suck it up, soldier! There's a war on!"

And my character has that in spades.

I get four skills to choose form a six skill list: I take Athletics (cause he's tough), Diplomacy (to go with the half-elf skill bonuses), Endurance (see Athletics), and History (cause he's smart).

Other abilities include granting all Wilf's allies in close range a bonus to initiative, and an ability to use his healing surges to "heal" others. ("I said, get on your feet!")

I also choose the "Tactical Presence" ability that lets Wilf grant a bonus to allies when they use their "action points", which are special points that characters use to... well... get more actions.

Now comes the tricky part: Powers. Wilf gets two "at will" powers, one "per encounter" power, and one "per day" power. I also get to select an extra-power from another class, because I'm a half-elf.

I choose Walord powers that are Intelligence-themed to back up my concept: "Commander's Strike" as an at will (let's an ally take another swing), "Walord's Favor" as a per encounter (gives an ally a bonus to his next attack), and "Lead the Attack" as a per day (gives everybody bonuses against a target enemy). I choose "Wolf Pack Tactics" as Wilf's second at will (gives allies a free movement), just 'cause it sounds cool.

For my multi-class power, I flip straight to the Wizard section and pick "Scorching Burst," which will be a neat trick to pull out once an encounter. No doubt something Wilf picked up from his Elven mother.

Next up, I get to pick one feat. There are a lot of good ones, but I decide to double-down on my multi-classing and choose the "Arcane Initiate" feat which lets me choose another Wizard spell and gives me the Arcana skill. Since I've already got a fire power, I decide to balance it out with "Ray of Frost."

Everybody starts with 100 gold pieces worth of equipment. I decide to buy Wilf Hide Armor (not as good as Chain, but it lets me add Wilf's Intelligence to his Armor Class) and a light shield. I choose a Flail as his weapon, because it's hard to go wrong with a chain with that ends in a heavy spiked ball. I also pick up a Sling and some sling bullets, in case Wilf needs to fight at range.

I buy him the standard "Adventurer's Gear" package, pay a little more for the "good rope," a climber's kit, a lantern, and throw in a wand -- even though it doesn't really do anything for him -- because I'm running out of things to spend money on. Everything left is either two expensive or not particularly worth it, so I pocket the last 18 gold to cover in game expenses.

After that, just some quick math, and I'm done. It's taken me just over an hour to finish him up, but I stopped for a while to watch Verdict, with Dan Abrams.

Here's the character sheet in PDF:

• Wilf.pdf