What level to start at....

eris404 · May 8, 2005

Hey all,

I will be starting a new D&D campaign, soon I hope, with five players. Two of the players are very casual gamers, two are newer-ish players, and one has been gaming for a several years. The newerish players have a good grasp on the rules already, however.

I haven't run a game in a while, so I'm a bit rusty and have been waffling back and forth on what level to start them at. A very low level might be good since it will give me a chance to warm up and give the newer players a chance to learn the rules. Also, our group tends to like the character development that happens when characters start at a low level together. Another great bonus is that I found some really fun adventures that are 1-4 level in Dungeon (though those could always be adapted to a higher level if need be).

There are drawbacks to this, of course. The game sessions may be infrequent (once a month or so) and the characters could be stuck in the low levels for a while, which can be frustrating for players. Also, many of these players play in two campaigns that are low level right now (2nd level and 5th level I believe) and I don't want them to be bored.

So, I have a couple of ideas. I was thinking either starting them at 3rd level (a good compromise low level that would give them a few more options and abilities) or start them at a higher level (8th-10th). What do you think? Any drawbacks or options that I'm not considering?

MonsterMash · May 8, 2005

Personally I really prefer to start at 1st every time out, but 3rd is a good compromise as its not massively powerful, there aren't huge feat trees that people can spend ages building, but characters are much less prone to one hit kills.

Gruns · May 8, 2005

1st level for me. But...

I like starting at 1st level, but running a quick, low combat, roleplay-heavy adventure that leads to level 2. And then another mostly roleplay adventure that grants exactly lvl 3. At this point the PCs should be able to survive that lucky whack with an orcish axe and avoid the 1 hit death that is a problem with level 1s.
So I sort of start at level 3, but the character feels more complete then if I had said "roll up a level 3". And also, feats have to be taken in order this way, but that's a minor thing.
Later!
Gruns

MadMaxim · May 8, 2005

3rd level sounds fair. Clerics and wizards start getting useful spells at that level, but everyone isn't too powerful to begin walking around with magical weapons and the like. This is actually my preffered starting level when running campaigns. It also gives the players a better chance to work out a decent backstory describing their experiences. For example, I've always thought it sounded weird that a 1st-level fighter could be a veteran of several battles, yet he hasn't become any more powerful...

The Human Target · May 8, 2005

From the description of your group, I'd say start at 3-5. Enough power to have some good times, but not so deep into things that some of them could get confused or swamped with options and powers they don't know how to use. I'd also say use a fixed hitpoint variant, since they won't be leveling up a ton. Well, I really recommend using it all the time any, but in these circumstances I would for sure.

Crothian · May 8, 2005

Start at first but advance them fast like a level per session. It allows them top build the character over time andf get to play at different levels.

IronWolf · May 9, 2005

I agree with Crothian. Start at 1st, but accelerate the advancement for the first few sessions. If you are a bit rusty starting at 1st may help you out and after those first couple of sessions you should be ready for the mid-level stuff.

eris404 · May 9, 2005

Great replies! I do like the idea of starting them at 1st level but advancing them quickly (one level per session) - it's sort of like role-playing out the backstory for the characters, having them meet as young people, becoming friends and getting into trouble, etc. This could be really neat and the players might like this a lot. You've given me stuff to think about.

Thanks!

Telas · May 9, 2005

Ditto to the start-em-at-first, advance-em-rapidly chorus. Maybe 150% XP for the first two levels...?

As an old-school gamer, I've found that I tend to be very conservative with XP past 3rd level, generally handing out about 1/2 - 2/3 of "by the book" XP. I don't understand how a character can take years to hit first level, then hit 9th in under a year. But that's just me, your mileage WILL vary.

Telas

Steel_Wind · May 9, 2005

You might consider starting the Clerics at 3rd, Wizards at 4th and the fighter/paladin/ranger/rogue types at 2nd.

Make sure you break down your XP points properly when awarding them so those at a lower level get more.

The above balance features:

A wizard who won't die in a heartbeat and has some access to 2nd level spells of use like Scorching Ray and Web right off.

The cleric has a few more patch em up spells to keep the adventure moving along and has enough hits he can fight if pressed.

The fighters - at max hits or near that have a good chance to develop along nicely.

The party is at a power level where the 1-4th level adventures work well. The party hits the ground running and play is a little faster and a touch more forgiving than pure 1st level.

I used that above starting level IMC for a reason. There is no magical healing at all (DragonLance WotL era). Wizards of High Sorcery could take the test at 4th so I did not have to interrupt the campaign flow to accommodate the Test. I just ruled the player had already taken it.

2nd level fighters & rogues kept things nicely in balance, challenge wise.

I moved the PCs to half experience points at 5th. This keeps the players longer in the mid-level range where I prefer the party to be - and it permitted the fighters to catch up to the Wizard and narrow the gap a little faster (full XP at 2nd-4th, half for the Wizard at 5th tends to do that).

You'd be surprised how well this has worked so far. Everyone has something to contribute out of the gate - which is a real problem with 1st level wizards.

At the same time, the average party level and effectiveness means that adventures aimed at starting levels are still a challenge without any substantial rewrites.

Even now after 15 sessions, the Knights tend to dominate play in combat (knights at 6th, Wizard just hit 7th). Sure the Wizard is the hvy artillery, but the machine guns still do the most damage and control the combat flow.