Starting at 0 level

[mattcolville]

Are there any rules for beginning PCs at zero level?

I thought there were some in the old hardcover Greyhawk book, but obviously those are no longer relevant to the new system.

The PCs begin as commoners, basically. Peasants. And the first adventure is where they decide what their career path with be. In a skill-based game this would be easy, but with D&D it's more difficult. I thought about making them 1st level commoners and then replacing that class with their PC class, but that presents some problems and the players aren't going to be happy being 2nd level with one level of commoner.

Any help?

 

[Thanee]

There was an AD&D adventure once, which did this.

Of course, there are no rules for this, but you could make them all commoners or experts or warriors and then let them go towards becoming their class of choice (replacing the NPC class level) in two steps, where the first is using the apprentice level rules from the 3.0 DMG and the second is actually aquiring their first "real" level.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Crothian]

I use the apprentice rules from the 3.0 DMG. I've found that it works really well.

 

[Khayman]

Why not use the NPC classes? Just treat them as favoured classes for everybody (i.e., no XP penalties for multiclassing down the road).

If you're worried about calculating XP with averaged levels that include a weaker NPC class, you could treat the NPC classes as counting less towards the character's level. This is already done for calculating an opponent's CR. Apply it to the players, and NPC class levels could be reduced by 1 (to a minimum of 1). That way, a single level of Commoner won't penalize players down the line.

[BTW, In one campaign I run, the standard PC classes are prestige classes, available at 3rd level. No complaints from players but (a) this is specific to a low-magic historical campaign and (b) it applies to NPC's as well.]

 

[Fester]

In direct answer to your question: no, there are no official rules that I know of for starting at level 0. I believe AD&D used to have some such rules, but I can't remember them.

From a game point of view, I just wouldn't do this, unless the player asked for it for role playing reasons. Firstly, these are NPC classes and not intended for PC use and, secondly, will consume the valuable resources gained at first level. A human commoner becomes a rogue... sure, but those 8(+Int)*4 +4 skill points a 1st level rogue would get are no longer available. Now that's gonna hurt. Spell casters will always be one CL down and a cleric will be 3rd level before they ven get a +1 BAB... not to mention a fighter and barbarian will loose their max hit points etc.

If you want to go this route, I'd personally use experts or aristocrat (at least they don't totally suck like the peasant does). But, personally, I just wouldn't bother.

[Edit: I'd totally forgotten about potential multi-classing penalties ]
[Edit: 100 posts! yay! - does that mean I'm not a lurker anymore?]

 

[Thanee]

[Edit: 100 posts! yay! - does that mean I'm not a lurker anymore?]

It means you have 100 posts now. Congratulations!

@Crothian: But he wants to start before the PCs aquire a class, so that wouldn't really work, as you have to decide on a class already to use the apprentice rules.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Brisk-sg]

Are there any rules for beginning PCs at zero level?

I thought there were some in the old hardcover Greyhawk book, but obviously those are no longer relevant to the new system.

The PCs begin as commoners, basically. Peasants. And the first adventure is where they decide what their career path with be. In a skill-based game this would be easy, but with D&D it's more difficult. I thought about making them 1st level commoners and then replacing that class with their PC class, but that presents some problems and the players aren't going to be happy being 2nd level with one level of commoner.

Any help?

A 1st level commoner gets +0 BAB, and +0 to all saves, 1d4 hitpoints, and 2+Intx4 skill points per the DMG.

What I would personally do is give everyone one level of Commoner as a FREE class. In other words, the level of commoner doesn't count toward their character level. All they are getting out of it is 1d4+Con Mod HP, and 2+Int Mod x4 skill points.

When they level up to a PC class they will be 1 Commoner/1 PC Class, but count their total character level as 1 and consider their HD as 1 (instead of 2). This should not greatly affect the balance of the game and will make low level casters more survivable due to the extra 1d4 hp.

 

[thalmin]

I'm restarting my campaign, and the players will be starting at 1st level slaves (similar to commoner). They will get their first feat at first adventurer level. The 4X skill points apply at both slave and first adventurer level, though +INT x4 will apply only once. They will end up with an extra d4 hp, 8 extra skill points (one time), and one more rank possible in their skills. We will get to play out how they became adventurers.

 

[sledged]

2+Intx4 skill points.

I'd feel really gypped.

 

[mattcolville]

What if they got the commoner's first level skill points, AND their first PC classes first level skill points?

Alternately, what if instead of 2+Int*4, they got a fixed amount, like 4 or 6.

Sounds like something I could benefit from putting some thought into and writing up my own rule for. Maybe what's needed is a special 0 Level Class. Like a commoner, but with fixed skill points.