Giving human's domain abilities

[trentonjoe]

I am going to start running a 1st level game and every character is an ECL +1 race. Except one. He is a plain jane human. I don't think this guy needs any improvement ( the human playing the character is a very good player) but I am concerned that he is being "cheated". There area thousand things I could give him but I was tossing this idea a round and wanted some feedback.

What if I gave him a domain? WOuld a human with one domain be an ECL +1 equivalent? I am thinking that this might be too powerful so I might only give him the spells through 3rd level.

Whaddya think?

 

[hong]

If everyone else is ECL +1 and 1st level, then the human should get to start as a 2nd level character. That's what ECL is for.

 

[trentonjoe]

I didn't want to do it that way. I like having everyone start at first level.

YOu're right though. Should this be in the House Rules forum? I think I made a mistake.

 

[Shaele]

Hong's suggestion is the "official" way to handle it, and I'd stick as close to that in spirit as possible.

Perhaps you can let the human player start at 1st and force the others to use the Apprentice rules from the DMG (effectively starting at zero level). Advance them lock-step with the other player, so they're hitting 1st level at the same time the human hits 2nd level.

 

[EOL]

I would take Hong's suggestion, but have him take a class other than the one he's going to go the distance in. So if he likes the idea of clerical spells give him a level of cleric, so he has a few more hit points and a couple of cleric spells, kind of a big deal in the beginning, but nothing to write home about at level 10. Or a level of sorcerer, gives him a couple of spells not to many hit points, etc. Of course one problem is that most of the ECL +1 races are pretty weak and he may end up out-shining the others for the first few levels.

 

[Crothian]

I didn't want to do it that way. I like having everyone start at first level.

YOu're right though. Should this be in the House Rules forum? I think I made a mistake.

WEll, if everyone else is playing ecl+1 raqces and has 1 class level, they are level 2. So, instead of starting them at level 2, start them at level one. Use the apprentice systerm found in the DMG for all the Ecl+1 people.

 

[Happiest_Sadist]

Give him +2 to one or two stats of his choice, or let him use 32 point buy instead of 25. Count this as ECL +1. He dosn't get any cool stuff, but he'll have better abilities versus everyone else.

Or just let him level up faster. If everyone else has an ECL +1 race, he'll hit 2'nd level in 1/2 the time as them.

 

[trentonjoe]

THanks for all the input. YOu all alleviated my concerns.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

I'd say either let them all start with 1000 XP, essentially giving the guy level 2, or let them all start with 0 XP, and everyone's level 1 (maybe go for the apprentice ruling). Do NOT give him anything extra!
The reason is that as soon as they get 1000 XP, he'll level-up anyway, but the others will still be 1st level (or become 1st-level, if you made them start as 0-level apprentices). From now on, he'll be one level in front, for the rest of the campaign. If you also gave him a domain, or more ability score points, he'll be stronger than the rest. Also, he WANTED to play human, and they don't get additional stuff. If he wants additional stuff, he's got to play a ECL race (Aasimar would be a good choice in this case, as they're cut out to be paladins)