Personally... I'd say that if you weren't going to start at 1st level, then your best option would be to start at 4th level. Reason being... that is the point where you gain your first two stat increases, your half-level is now based at +2, and you also have 2 encounters, a utility, and a daily to use, along with 3 feats. Everyone can start out balanced across the board from each other.
If you give a starting range of 1-3... those folks who start at 3 will be slightly overbalanced compared to everyone else as soon as they reach 4th (what with the stat increases and such). They might also choose to fudge things a bit by suffering through the first few months with an odd main stat or two, knowing they will get to 4th quickly and bump it up... as opposed to those start at 1 and will usually choose to overspend on their main stat since they are going to have to live with that choice for over a year. This allows the 3rd level starters to squeeze more points into the lower stats for pre-req purposes to gain certain feats to begin with that the 1st level starters probably wouldn't get to have or probably reach.
But perhaps this doesn't bother anyone else? It's not a huge deal by any stretch... I just know for me, the best starting levels for new games are 1, 4, 8, & 11, because that hits many of the best benchmarks of the heroic tier.
If you give a starting range of 1-3... those folks who start at 3 will be slightly overbalanced compared to everyone else as soon as they reach 4th (what with the stat increases and such). They might also choose to fudge things a bit by suffering through the first few months with an odd main stat or two, knowing they will get to 4th quickly and bump it up... as opposed to those start at 1 and will usually choose to overspend on their main stat since they are going to have to live with that choice for over a year. This allows the 3rd level starters to squeeze more points into the lower stats for pre-req purposes to gain certain feats to begin with that the 1st level starters probably wouldn't get to have or probably reach.
But perhaps this doesn't bother anyone else? It's not a huge deal by any stretch... I just know for me, the best starting levels for new games are 1, 4, 8, & 11, because that hits many of the best benchmarks of the heroic tier.