You can already control the character with the buttons from NumPad! Give it a try! Just don't forget to toggle (or untoggle) your NumLock button.
I personally prefer the usual 123456 buttons above the QWERTY, as you can lay your fingers on all of the buttons at once — with NumPad buttons it is a bit trickier (at least for me). But one of our game designers is actually prefers NumPad buttons. Fortunately, you can try it both ways and decide for yourself ^^
Thanks for your feedback!