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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Keldryn" data-source="post: 4826537" data-attributes="member: 11999">I think that the old-school play technique of "hang around behind all of the tough characters and contribute in minor or nearly meaningless ways" would still work in 4e.  A 1st level PC doesn't need much XP to level up, and the character would probably catch up to the others relatively quickly, at least in the heroic tier.  Maybe give them a couple of higher-level magic items to help compensate; consider them family heirlooms and remove them from whatever treasure parcels are given out until they've been "paid off."I've never been a fan of this approach, and I was always allowing new characters (whether new players or replacing a character who died) to start at one level below the party average way back in 1e and BECM games.  A new player just trying out the game is likely to get extremely bored hanging around watching everybody else play for the first few sessions; I'd hate to have a potential new player give up on the game because they never had a chance to experience what gameplay was actually like.  But I've also lost much of my "make the players work for it" mentality as I've gotten older.  Back when we were all in high school and playing every week (or more often), I was often hesitant to "give away stuff for free."  Now that we're in our thirties, most of us married, some of us with kids, and all working full-time, we can actually get together once or twice a month to play and I want those sessions to have as high a "concentration of fun" as possible.  I don't want anyone sitting around without being able to contribute meaningfully for even one game session, as it seems disrespectful of that person's time to penalize him because his character died or he had to miss four sessions in a row because of family or work commitments.Not trying to get into wrongbadfun accusations here; I just really dislike the idea now.  I would question how it provides organic character and history building when the character will basically be going from a 1st-level nobody to a hero of the caliber of the rest of the party at the likely rate of one level every session (or two as he catches up).  There are already a lot of complaints about how quickly PCs level up in 3e and 4e and how it's not very believable for characters to go from peon to superhero in a year of game time; I find that starting at 1st level with a party of higher level PC and catching up strains the suspension of disbelief even more.</blockquote>

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