My adventures through Dungeons and Dragons while exciting have been few granting me through inexperience the position within any party that of a second rate player, often making trivial mistakes or miscalculations. I most humbly beseech you for your help using your infinite wisdom of the Dungeons and Dragons universe. Help expand my knowledge so that I may never taste the feeling over uselessness again, help expand my resolve so that I may succeed when others cannot.
-DeviantDragonfly
I have already beseeched Eldritch_Lord for help reguarding the matter and await their response, though I would like to beseech any of those willing to help me, as many of us have come to know there is strength in numbers.
Simply put my needs are more based off the game engine than that of actual role playing. Many of the problems I encounter are within character optimization and the mathematics behind character optimization. Many can play the game but very few can truly build a character, maximizing it's ever asset to the needs of the campaign, the DM, and the player. I would like help broadening my knowledge of building characters in order to perfect my game play. In order to for you to further help me I must explain that I have these last several months lacked the funds to purchase books for the fourth edition receiving only the Player Handbook II as an engagement gift for my fiance who believes the game is an utter waste of time and money, which to me make the gift ironic.
That'd be a start.
What class or role within your party are you playing?
Verily, on this day, Monday of the glorious month March, of the year of thine most righteous pantheon 2009, I do hereby confirm that I have answered the questions of the operative seeker of knowledge to the best of mine own ability.
For you, everything about the game is still new and mysterious. You have entered a world of magic and monsters -- these are the hallmarks of D&D. You (as a player) have a lot to learn, and this reflects in your new (low-level) PC.
A new player's first encounter with a troll is usually quite interesting. For the veterans, it's a fairly mundane procedure.
I suggest you simply learn-as-you-go.
Your group, however, might demand an optimized character, finely tuned tactics or in-depth knowledge. If this is the case, then I agree with whatever Kerrus wrote.
Have fun.
The third edition is characterized by a player's handbook that appears to be a tome of old, a brown cover with golden embellishments and an axe at the centre.
The fourth edition strips away the veneer of pretension and offers a simple logo and an eye-snaring piece of artwork involving a human female of wizardly bent and fantasy proportions alongside a menacing dragon-like humanoid in thick plate armor wielding an impressive and wicked sword.
When you build a character you have a lot of options (especially if you begin at a higher level) and it can seem like a lot to take in when wanting to optimize a character. But in truth you've got a big part down already since you've obviously had the "I think I made something wrong here" thought cross your mind. Otherwise you wouldn't probably make a thread about optimizing anyway.
What you need to do is define what you want out of the character, and just go through the options and weigh the options against each other. Optimizers might argue that there is more to it than that, and there is. Just not when you start out. The more you get accustomed to making the best choices, the more attuned you will get to seeing what is beneficial where and what feats and powers interplay with each other.
I assume you have your own phb, but if you don't. Get one. The character builder is great, but it doesn't show feats and such that you do not meet the requirements for.
Patience is key, young grasshopper.
I have partaken the fourth edition of Dungeons and Dragons.
Then, perchance, you may want to download the free trial version of the Character Builder. The Free version only goes up to level 3 on the classes presented, but it presents a good opportunity for you to quickly and easily compare and contrast options. It will provide you with hours of practice creating characters. A subscription for DDI for a month will allow you do download an update for the full version, which allows you to create characters from all the current sources to date and for all levels of play.
Anything beyond this requires a deviant mind and a college course in statistics.
Remember though, if your character is too powerful it becomes unplayable. But still it is fun to go in to the theoretical optimization forums some times.