New Campaign Idea- Feedback Appreciated

[Kormydigar]

I am starting a new campaign in the near future. I am setting the campaign in Greyhawk and beginning it with a bit of a twist. All PC's in the game will begin play as a 1st level commoner, expert, or aristocrat. The background will be that the PC's are all young teens who are leaving thier old lives behind and looking for something different, and have all boarded the same ship. I am using my own custom point buy system with this. The PC's will do an initial point buy, I will run the intro adventure, and then the PC's get more points to buy additional stats as they take thier first level of an adventuring class. Since the three starting classes are not really equal, I will vary the point buy pool depending on the class chosen. Commoners will get the most points, experts get a middle range, and aristocrats get the fewest points. For those familliar with the adventure, I will be running a version of the classic "Treasure Hunt" as the beginning of the campaign. I have discussed the idea with my players and they seem excited to try it. I will be altering the RAW with some house rules. I do not plan on penalizing the players because of thier humble beginnings. When a PC takes his/her first adventuring class level, then all the skill points are available as if the non-adventuring class was not taken (otherwise rogues would really suck).
To balance this a little, the initial skillpoints for the PC's will be just the ones gained "at each additional level" to represent the fact that the PCs are not yet adults. Some other house rules I will be using includes giving out additional feats, and giving an ability point every even level. There will be fewer magic items available in this game although the ones that do exist will be very nonstandard and more powerful than the traditional ones.

Thoughts? Opinions? Concerns?

 

[AntiStateQuixote]

If I might make a suggestion . . . when the characters "level up" to gain their first adventuring class level let them drop the NPC class level. Just replace it with their new level instead of having them stuck with the NPC class level forever. Start them with -500 XP or some such thing to represent gaining 1st level of an adventuring class at 0 xp.

As an alternative: I seem to remember "partial class levels" in the DMG . . . maybe 3.0. The system was designed to allow PCs to begin with 1/2 level each of two classes to represent a multiclass character at 1st level. Take the same concept, but only give them a single "partial class level" and let them get the full class level on reaching 0 xp.

Otherwise, the idea of very humble beginnings leading to a life of adventure . . . yeah, that's cool.

 

[Kormydigar]

If I might make a suggestion . . . when the characters "level up" to gain their first adventuring class level let them drop the NPC class level. Just replace it with their new level instead of having them stuck with the NPC class level forever. Start them with -500 XP or some such thing to represent gaining 1st level of an adventuring class at 0 xp.

As an alternative: I seem to remember "partial class levels" in the DMG . . . maybe 3.0. The system was designed to allow PCs to begin with 1/2 level each of two classes to represent a multiclass character at 1st level. Take the same concept, but only give them a single "partial class level" and let them get the full class level on reaching 0 xp.

Otherwise, the idea of very humble beginnings leading to a life of adventure . . . yeah, that's cool.

Thanks for the feedback. I thought about that idea myself. I was planning on having them keep the level of non-adventuring class so they could enjoy the benefits of it throughout thier career. A wizard starting as an aristocrat with 8hp and armor/martial weapon prof. is pretty cool. There is also the point buy differential to consider. The guy stuck with a level of commoner gets more stat points so nixing the class after 1st level would mean everyone would choose commoner.

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

No problem with letting them keep their NPC level, just keep in mind that when judging encounter difficulty that a COM1/ROG1 is not as capable as a ROG2, etc. Your mages are going to be a level behind in spell progression, for example, from where you might expect them to be for a given EL. As with most things, multiclassing hits the casters the hardest.

 

[Kormydigar]

No problem with letting them keep their NPC level, just keep in mind that when judging encounter difficulty that a COM1/ROG1 is not as capable as a ROG2, etc. Your mages are going to be a level behind in spell progression, for example, from where you might expect them to be for a given EL. As with most things, multiclassing hits the casters the hardest.

Thanks for the thoughts I had planned on ignoring thier 1st level almost completely when judging encounter difficulty. I will be using a goal based XP system only moderately using CRs as presented. As for multiclassing, I am pretenting thier 1st level doesn't exist for multiclass rules purposes.

 

[FrostedMini1337]

Can't remember the site, but there was an awesome website that provided rules for being a level 0 character. For example a barbarian got all his skill points, but could only Rage once ever until he got his character level. Bards could only use bardic music twice or something. It was pretty sweet. Wish I could find it...

 

[Kormydigar]

Can't remember the site, but there was an awesome website that provided rules for being a level 0 character. For example a barbarian got all his skill points, but could only Rage once ever until he got his character level. Bards could only use bardic music twice or something. It was pretty sweet. Wish I could find it...

Thanks for the tip. I shall try to google it and see what I get.