Can you talk more about zero level funnel for 5e? Or maybe I am assuming you were playing 5e.
Also, agree with you - no need for them to earn that xp. In fact, I wiuld just say “you gave 900xp, make characters as you like”. Gives them oppty to make multi-class if desired.
Sure, I got the idea when an old friend visited from out of down and ran a Dungeon Crawl Classics adventure. Each player is given four characters, none of which have class level. Just race, profession, and resources based on their profession. The idea is that the a number are likely going to die and of any survivors you select one to be your character going forward. I don't recall the specifics of all the DCC rules, as this was a few years ago.
What I did for my campaign, is that I used the rules from DDAL-ELW00: What's Past Is Prologue:
- The character has chosen a name, race, and background.
- The character has NOT chosen a class.
- The character has gear plus weapons, up to one common magical item, and proficiencies granted by their race and background.
- A level 0 character has 6 + their Constitution modifier for hit points, 1d6 hit dice, and no proficiency bonus. Weapon and armor proficiencies may be granted by race and background; those are fine!
- Upon hitting first level, the character will gain hit points to meet their chosen classes "hit points at first level." E.g., if the character chooses to become a fighter s/he will gain +4 hit points.
- Each player will roll-up four characters at session zero. We will roll up characters together. If you can't make the first session, you will just roll up a 1st level character and bring it to the next session.
I love this zero-level character-funnel mechanic. But for players who have a strong vision for their character, it may not be for them. But such players would also not like my current campaign which has an Obituaries list proudly displayed behind my DMs chair.
The players did pretty well on their first session and all had at least two characters survive. The other characters are basically kept "on the bench." Players can swap characters for different missions and to level them up, but most have settled on a favorite. Another rule in my campaign is that if a character dies, or if a new person joins, the new character is brought in at two levels lower than the lowest member of the party. Derived from that rule we also have any characters on the bench level up so that the lowest level character is no more than two levels below the next level.
Having multiple characters not only saves time if a character dies, but also allows more flexibility with downtime activities. In addition to downtime-activity found in the PHB, DMG, and Xanathar's, we also use Matt Coleville's
Strongholds and Followers. I also use a homebrewed faction/reputation system heavily influenced by ENWorld En5ider #256: Reputation Rules: Organization Dice. Downtime is kind of a mini game played by post between sessions or at the end of a session if we come to good point for the game to end but still have some time left in our session.
Note that I'm not running a typical adventure path or story-driven adventure. I'm running Rappan Athuk, a massive old-school inspired mega-dungeon.