Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
White Dwarf Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Nest
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
EN Publishing
Twitter
BlueSky
Facebook
Instagram
EN World
BlueSky
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Twitch
Podcast
Features
Million Dollar TTRPG Crowdfunders
Most Anticipated Tabletop RPGs Of The Year
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
ShortQuests -- Pocket Sized Adventures! An all-new collection of digest-sized D&D adventures designed for 1-2 game sessions.
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Do You Start At Level 1?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="kigmatzomat" data-source="post: 9871605" data-attributes="member: 9254"><p>{deity} no. We start at 1st level once, maybe twice, each edition. </p><p></p><p>After that its usually 5th, 9th, or 11th. Part of that is that we have a "20 year veteran soldier" as equivalent to 4th level fighter. This is our threshold for "stops a goblin horde with numerical advantage", yours may vary. </p><p></p><p>Which gets to the crux, where any adventure the locals need outside help, but have access to veteran troops, means the PCs need to be 5th+ to be a reasonable choice. "Ooooh, fireball! None of our wizards can cast fireball! Surely you can defeat the dread beast!"</p><p></p><p>We also have "prologue" sessions for higher level games. Build the PC at 5th, run one short adventure with a boss battle. Level to 7th, repeat. Level to 8th, repeat. Congratulations, you're freshly 9th level, have established some group tactics, have had a chance to settle into the character, set up some NPCs and established a feel for the setting. Its 4-5 sessions and well worth it.</p><p></p><p>This does mean that if PCs visit the "border town settled by military veterans" that anyone described as "grizzled" can go toe to toe with a 4th level PC. The grizzled librarian can't cast <em>Fireball</em> but he's got a few AoE spells and might be able to Jedi Mind-trick the PCs and the grizzled priest can materialize {deity}'s displeasure in weapon form along with radiant blasts. Which is why its a border town, so any neighbors know they have to fight past a town full of violence if they want to invade.</p><p></p><p>It also applies to any elf who looks old enough to drink as well. Starting a barfight in the elven lands is a Bad Idea, as in our worlds the vast majority of NPC elves spent their 13th and 14th decades in the army learning how to survive to their 60th decade. 20 years isn't a big deal to an elf. Those 1st level PC elves are either in their 10th-12th decade, weren't raised in elven lands, or somehow avoided the cultural norms.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="kigmatzomat, post: 9871605, member: 9254"] {deity} no. We start at 1st level once, maybe twice, each edition. After that its usually 5th, 9th, or 11th. Part of that is that we have a "20 year veteran soldier" as equivalent to 4th level fighter. This is our threshold for "stops a goblin horde with numerical advantage", yours may vary. Which gets to the crux, where any adventure the locals need outside help, but have access to veteran troops, means the PCs need to be 5th+ to be a reasonable choice. "Ooooh, fireball! None of our wizards can cast fireball! Surely you can defeat the dread beast!" We also have "prologue" sessions for higher level games. Build the PC at 5th, run one short adventure with a boss battle. Level to 7th, repeat. Level to 8th, repeat. Congratulations, you're freshly 9th level, have established some group tactics, have had a chance to settle into the character, set up some NPCs and established a feel for the setting. Its 4-5 sessions and well worth it. This does mean that if PCs visit the "border town settled by military veterans" that anyone described as "grizzled" can go toe to toe with a 4th level PC. The grizzled librarian can't cast [i]Fireball[/i] but he's got a few AoE spells and might be able to Jedi Mind-trick the PCs and the grizzled priest can materialize {deity}'s displeasure in weapon form along with radiant blasts. Which is why its a border town, so any neighbors know they have to fight past a town full of violence if they want to invade. It also applies to any elf who looks old enough to drink as well. Starting a barfight in the elven lands is a Bad Idea, as in our worlds the vast majority of NPC elves spent their 13th and 14th decades in the army learning how to survive to their 60th decade. 20 years isn't a big deal to an elf. Those 1st level PC elves are either in their 10th-12th decade, weren't raised in elven lands, or somehow avoided the cultural norms. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Do You Start At Level 1?
Top