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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 7520982" data-attributes="member: 1210">In my campaign, all pcs start at first level. Period. It doesn't matter what level the group is; new pcs start at level 1. This is a playstyle choice that is fully supported by both 5e as a system and my dming style. Now, this isn't how I ran it in 3e or 4e, because both of those systems had built the math to make that extremely untenable. But 5e has gone back to bounded accuracy, which is far closer to how the math worked in 1e and 2e, when I also held to this policy. This means that, just because a party includes high level pcs, that doesn't mean that every monster they fight will have a ridiculous AC that is unhittable by lower level pcs. Nor does it mean that every encounter that a party that averages level 12 needs to be with CR 12 monsters. So low level pcs can contribute to encounters that include high level pcs.  Now, of course there are high level monsters that can easily one-shot a low-level pc. So as a DM, you have to be judicious about using those encounters. But it is extremely rare that a group of any level encounters (for example) an adult dragon in my game, or a high level spellcaster, or a fiend who can cast fireball at will. You sort of have to seek those encounters out, or at least seek out an adventure that includes such monsters. And you usually have a clue that such encounters might be coming, if you seek out such an adventure. For instance, a party that is full of low-level characters ought to understand that a dungeon that nobody has returned from for the last two centuries is likely to be very dangerous indeed. I run a pretty sandboxy game, and one element- a very important element- of that is that the pcs usually have a fair amount of control over the level of risk & reward that they might face. I also have a strong element of "further from the city is more dangerous" going on, as well as "deeper into the dungeon is more dangerous". Neither of these is always true, but they are generally likely to be true.Most of the players in my game run different pcs at different times. Adventuring groups are mostly loose, with changing membership, and so most players have 'stables' of characters of differing levels. Among other things, this means that low-level pcs can usually find lower-level buddies to adventure with. So the bottom line is, new pcs are first level and usually have the gear of a normal starting character. One exception is when a pc is connected to another pc (e.g. the child of an existing pc comes of age)- that character might well start off with an inheritance, should the elder pc want to give him or her one. Another exception is if a player takes over an existing npc and it becomes a pc, though this is much rarer.</blockquote>

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