To the people arguing realism for a 1st level character joining the party:
Green soldiers were joining the fight because there were no more veterans.
"The people" would be me. Just one people here, so likely a very small minority view you probably don't need to worry about.
Anyhow, it's true, of course, that there were many veterans in World War II. The trouble is, the veterans already had assignments. Going back to my example of reinforcing the 82nd Airborne after D-Day, the actual choice was to use newly trained green paratroopers; your alternative could have been done, using only veteran Airborne troopers, but you'd need to cannibalize the 101st, or use British/Canadian/Polish or Para-Marines from the Pacific campaign. It could be done, but it wasn't an efficient choice, given the limited supply and the fact that the supply was already allocated.
My point is, you don't need to assume "absolute unavailability, anywhere in the world" to create the real world situation -- actual history -- that military replacements for combat losses are almost always green.
If you accept a parallel between D&D parties and military units in replacing combat loses, green replacements is the historically accurate "realistic" way to go.
If you don't accept the parallel, OK then.
If there're numerous level 2, level 3, level 4 people out there; too many to even notice all of them,
Nod, you've realized there's an assumption built into the "bring in experience PC's" mindset -- namely that PC's are a dime a dozen, not special. Like truck drivers with CDL's who are looking for some hours, not Harry Potter and Aragorn or any other "special" hero.
why not let someone start off at level 4? (or 1/2 the party level (whichever is lower, if you want to be harsh))
A) I don't like the campaign feel, because it assumes PC's are unimportant and not special. To use your words, "too many to even notice".
B) I don't like the narrative feel. You're short-circuiting the hero's journey to jump to the superpowered bits. Luke Skywalker is less interesting if he is introduced as a full Jedi destroyer of all who stand before. And a lot of high level replacements begins to feel like the party is a temp agency, rather than a band of heroes.
C) Cheapens experience of the other players, and cheapens the value of PC life. I like the idea that everyone has to pay their dues, and any experienced character is important and worth keeping around, rather than disposable whenever you get a new build idea.
It makes the first session slightly less of an exercise in futility. And it's much more realistic.
1/2 level actually makes a lot of sense. If your party is level 20, even if there're only 300 level 10 adventurers in the whole world, they'll ALL want to learn from you. If you're level 10, recruiting someone level 5 is easy. And it lets the player come up with their own story, rather than needing an excuse for the party to let them join.
Yeah, that does make sense. I'm not used to thinking about high levels. The "supers" feel and the accounting drag of all the rules bores me and my friends, so we've never played higher than about 12th.
