Your preference for how "fragile" 1st-level character should be

[JDJblatherings]

Great. When I'm playing "Mt. Everest: The Climbing", I'll make sure my character hires enough shirpas for the party. Likewise, when I'm playing "Cortez: Exploration for El Dorado", I'll make sure my PC hires sailors.

However, when I'm playing D&D, I'd like to stay somewhat close to the D&D fiction. Elminster doesn't have a gang of henchmen. Drizzt isn't being followed by hirelings. Raistlin Majere didn't have an entourage of low level NPCs with him all the time..

I'll leave Real Life to, well, real life. Characters in almost all of the D&D novels are self capable and I should be able to have a PC that is too.

There is the rub...D&D PCs aren't supposed to be self capable they are supposed to be part of a party.

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

There is the rub...D&D PCs aren't supposed to be self capable they are supposed to be part of a party.

Well, they are supposed to be self capable within the party. I mean, they work together to get to where they are going and succeed but they still are very capable.

They shouldn't have to hire extra people to go with them. If there's a mountain to climb they should all be able to do it, it might be harder for some than others, but possible. The wizard might need the climbing harness and rope to be able to do it while the fighter can climb with his bare hands. Or the wizard might just have to fly up while everyone else climbs.

The party consists of the players. With their powers and working together they should be able to accomplish nearly anything.

 

[Skaven_13]

What's heroic about killing big centipedes?

Well, it depends on what the big centipedes are doing. If you just wander into the forest and bash them on the head, then nothing about that is heroic. If a couple of big centipedes is snatching and eating sheep from farmer John's place, then killing the centipedes is, IMO, something that 1st level pc's could consider heroic.

I voted for fragile 1st level players as a DM, but I like fragile 1st levels as a player too, mainly because there is that feeling of accomplishment making level for the first time, but also for the "new adventurer" feel, and the fact that the party really needs to rely on each other in order to survive.

In the game I'm currently running, the party started out as 1st level, half way between 1st and 2nd, They met each other by joining a guild that sent them through a boot camp (climb that rock, test the endurance by running half the day, etc). By the end of the night, the party had the beginnings of working as a team, and earned the other half of the experience to 2nd level. Then their first mission the next night was escorting a merchant (fighting off goblins and their half-fiend bugbear leader). That worked out just fine for my game (until the monk couldn't roll over average for hit points for the next 4 or 5 levels).

 

[vulcan_idic]

My vote is the secret sixth option - Primarily Player - 1st level PCs who are neither fragile or tough, but somewhere in the middle, modifying exactly where between much by anticipated role.