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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 6820880" data-attributes="member: 1210">First, if the 1st level pc is missing a bunch or doing significantly less damage than the high-level guys, why would the helmed horrors spend their attacks on him instead of a greater threat? But even if they do so, sometimes taking damage and soaking up a hit or two for the team is the way a pc contributes. Don't forget that that 1st level pc may well have a better chance to hit than the numbers suggest. Advantage, bless, etc are all things that will help him out a bit. And I'll reiterate that any party with a cleric and mixed level pcs ought to look at how awesome aid is for that kind of situation.But looked at through a slightly broader lens, that pc can contribute in any number of ways other than just attacking. He can get in there and dodge, hoping to soak attacks that way. He can use the Help action to aid another pc. He can try to achieve a strategic goal, if the encounter has one ("we can't leave until we destroy the gadget/pull the lever/open the gates/whatever"). Hell, he can even try negotiation if he wants... but if he sticks to just "hit it with my weapon", he can still contribute in most cases.But let's step back and look at it through a slightly broader yet lens. Your question assumes that every encounter is going to be a balanced-for-the-party kind of encounter. In a sandbox- which, to be clear, is the perfect kind of game for ES@1, and it might work far less well in a more story-oriented game- this isn't the case. Those helmed horrors are only in places where they make sense to be, not anywhere the party happens to go. If the area has 1d4 griffons as the most common random encounter in the mountains, when that encounter comes up, it's 1d4 griffons whether it's a lone 1st level pc or a party of ten 20th level characters. And a key element of sandbox play is the ability of the pcs to make judgement calls about what danger/reward level they want to face, at least to a limited extent. In other words, if the party is full of low-level pcs, they are perfectly able to pursue some lower-level challenges for a bit while the lower-level guys catch up a bit.And I'm going to add one final level of 'step back and broader'. In my game, as is the case in many sandbox campaigns, the players sometimes end up with multiple characters. They can thus reconfigure their party between adventures; there's no reason that the new 1st level pc has to be with the highest level pcs out there; in fact, there has been one time when a player made a secondary character both because he wanted to try out a fighter because he didn't want to be the sole high (6th IIRC) level pc in a party that was otherwise 1st and 2nd level. So I guess the answer to your question is- In the specific example you cite, the pc can still contribute through dealing damage (and not being the likely target of attacks), the Help action, by attracting attacks while Dodging, and possibly in other ways; but that's not a super likely encounter for a 1st level pc to face.</blockquote>

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