Character Building

So some of you might not know, but I play Dungeons and Dragons. A new campaign is starting at my school, and I was working on building my character today. It really helped my perspective on character building on a whole - I mean, I'm going to be stuck with this chick for a while, so I might as well like her, and build her as well as I can, in both ranks and her story.  Since I'm playing a human bard, there are things that I have to work with - the bard can do magic, but only a certain amount and in certain ways and stuff, and the human has a lot of adaptability, but isn't perfect.  There are certain languages she can't speak because she's a human, but she might be able to learn them because she's a bard, and she travels a lot.
So, how does DnD character building relate to the character building of normal building, including non-fantasy genres?

Though it may be really annoying, you could look up the character sheets for DnD and just look them over.  Though a human bard is not going to be built the same as someone from "The Devil Wears Prada," both of them need to be built well.  DnD has Skill lists that certain classes can do - look those over, modify them to fit your genre, and think about it.  You don't have to roll for Charisma, Intelligence, and Strength, but think about what alignment they might be if they lived in the DnD world.  If you aren't familiar with the alignments, look up alignment memes in any image search engine, and you'll be able to find one that has various characters for each - there's one where Superman is Lawful Good and the Joker is Chaotic Evil.  Additionally, tvtropes.org has a good explanation of them (just be wary: that website is very like Facebook: it can suck you in.  The difference is, you'll figure out different archetypal things, whereas on Facebook you're just watching other people's drama unfold).
Anyhow, that's all I have for today.
Have fun!