Last night a player commented: "Levels 1-4 are just training wheels. The game doesn't even start until 5th level. Unless you're playing D&D for the first time, you should just start at 5th level."
Now, she hasn't been playing for ages - probably just around 5 years. I would expect it to take longer than that to become that jaded to low-level play.
Do you agree? If not, how do you address this? Start at 5th level? Speed through Levels 1-4? House rules to give more power or better options?
Interesting. To me the first few levels are the most fun. Like
@dave2008 we added a level 0 (prologue) also just race and background, and enjoy the challenge low-level play brings.
Another thing is we slowed down advancement so we are in those low-levels longer. It takes us 25000 xp to reach level 5, for example.
Personally, I find higher level play a bit boring because there are too many powers and options for the players to use to solve problems instead of
playing them through.
A question for you
@Retreater is "how often are you playing levels 1-4 compared to levels 5 and higher"? If you barely get to levels 7+ before you start over with new characters, the player might become frustrated with that?
Also, a simple houserule (more part of our system) now that might appeal to your player is what I call "faster features". You remove the ASI's at levels 4, 8, etc. and slide up the table all the other features (just
features, not spells, etc.) so you have them all by level 15 instead of 20. Here's a sample for Fighter, with some new features I made up thrown in:
Without the ASI at level 4, for instance, Extra Attack is moved up into the gap from 5th to 4th level.