Starting level for one-shot introduction

[mpleg]

I'm looking to run a 4e one shot introduction for a bunch of 3.5 players (some with years of 3.x experience, some with only a few weeks) and am looking for advice on a starting level.

This is mostly a one shot to explore the system, so I don't want to start at level 1 where we wouldn't have magic items or many abilities to play with. On the other hand, I don't want to jump to high levels with all the possible complexity (especially if it resembles 3.5 high levels).

Any suggestions? Have people found a level sweet spot yet? I'm currently thinking 7 or 8, but don't have a lot backing that up.

 

[Lucas Blackstone]

I'd say level 5. You get a decent selection of powers by then and you can toss them some magic items as you see fit. There's a chart in the DMG that has magic items listed for characters beyond level 1. Just my opinion though. And it's not like 5 is too far away from 7 or 8.

 

[Rith the Wanderer]

I would tell you to reconsider level 1, not because I don't think your players could handle the jump to 5, but because you really need to get a feel for 4e before you understand the choices. Now this is only my opinion, but I think before you make most major choices you really need to run a few encounters to figure out the "feel" of 4e. I was really in the mindset of 3.5 (and so was at least one of my fellow players to a rather devastating effect to his character, even at level 1) when I decided on what I wanted to do with my character and after the second or third encounter I knew I was going to be changing a lot of what I was going to do with my character.

If you don't think this will be a problem feel free to start higher up, but be nice to your players, they may have some combinations that work a lot different now than they used to.

 

[Otterscrubber]

Level 1, trust me, that alone will show you the difference between 3.5 and 4e. In fact no other level will give you a more dramatic example of the difference if you ask me. And I think you'll like what you see.

 

[Lord Sessadore]

7 or 8 or 5 would all be good starting places if you want a good sample of the system, I think. As far as character creation goes, I've only done it a few times and already I can throw together a level 11 or whatever character in an hour or so (which is about 2 or 3 times as fast as I'm able to do with 3.5 - maybe I'm slow), so character generation shouldn't be that big of a chore.

I think getting used to their characters could take considerably longer though, especially with more powers. 5-8 is probably a good place to start, but not much higher.

 

[burntgerbil]

I would suggest first - really. I say so for all of the same reasons as above and also about the book. It has been said often that the new PHB plays much better than it reads - and it's going to take some doing to get the first few combats down. I really stress first, because as I read the powers at later levels, I was initially underwhelmed - I simply didn't understand them in comparison to 3.5. After playing some 4e now, I completely reconsider my first judgment and am picking out real gems that will be great later on.

Depending on your party, new players might not understand the greatness of forced movement, weakness and slow conditions - they seem underwhelming individually until seen in concert with a party that knows what it's doing - then they really shine. If you toss them a party at 7th or 9th level, they will have many more powers and tactics to keep up with - especially with magic items - than a 1st level party.

Get your hands on a copy of "Escape from Sembia" the DDXP mini-module. I have been reading over one and it makes a really good intro into 4E for both player & DM.