I don't. I use milestone leveling, and first and second levels are passed quickly. But I like to give players a chance of getting to know each other and role play their backstory.
Also, I have had players learn something in the first two levels about their characters and the campaign that caused them to change their archetype. This usually happens with newer players or a new world, but even veteran players have changed when they discovered the BBG, main story arc, etc. And I did it once also...😎
We started our campaign at level 2 in order to get everyone used to playing (lotta noobs) and not give so many options s that they would be overwhelmed. In general, though, it depends on the characters. If we're starting at everyone's origins and how they came together to adventure, then level one is grand. However, most games i've played/watched have characters with a modicum of adventuring in their past and met their party in happenstance, so starting everyone at lvl 3 makes sense their.
I love this place so far, as well. I'd wanna try and moderate if I had more time, but such is life.
Just occurred to me... If new players, I would never start above first. My campaigns tend to go long and even 40 years later, I remember my first character played 1 to 18/20. Would not want to chat anyone but starting at second...
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
--
DM -- Elanon -- Homebrew world
Gronn -- Tiefling Warlock -- Amarath
Slim -- Halfling Cleric -- CoS (future Lord of Waterdeep 😁)
Just occurred to me... If new players, I would never start above first. My campaigns tend to go long and even 40 years later, I remember my first character played 1 to 18/20. Would not want to chat anyone but starting at second...
I'm sure that works great if you have multiple players, but I've never been that lucky in any of my real-life games. 1st-level characters are extremely vulnerable to high damage rolls. A 1d4-1 monster (like an awakened shrub), with a crit and max damage, can come very close to killing a 1st-level character. Don't laugh--it happened the first time I ever used a CR 0 monster. Fortunately, the character in question was a human fighter with 16 Con and the Tough feat, so it didn't quite take out half his health in one shot. A high-Dex standard-array wizard or sorcerer would have gone down instantly, though.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
Just occurred to me... If new players, I would never start above first. My campaigns tend to go long and even 40 years later, I remember my first character played 1 to 18/20. Would not want to chat anyone but starting at second...
I'm sure that works great if you have multiple players, but I've never been that lucky in any of my real-life games. 1st-level characters are extremely vulnerable to high damage rolls. A 1d4-1 monster (like an awakened shrub), with a crit and max damage, can come very close to killing a 1st-level character. Don't laugh--it happened the first time I ever used a CR 0 monster. Fortunately, the character in question was a human fighter with 16 Con and the Tough feat, so it didn't quite take out half his health in one shot. A high-Dex standard-array wizard or sorcerer would have gone down instantly, though.
That shrubs max damage with a crit is 3+3=6. To outright kill a PC it would have to 1) drop the to zero hit points, and 2) still do additional damage beyond dropping you to zero to equal your max hit points.So a PC would have to have 3 hit points for that to kill them outright. Or I suppose a PC with 5 max hit points, who had already been reduced to 1 hit point, would die if hit with 6 hit points of damage. But I gotta think that's not a particularly common situation.
Just occurred to me... If new players, I would never start above first. My campaigns tend to go long and even 40 years later, I remember my first character played 1 to 18/20. Would not want to chat anyone but starting at second...
I'm sure that works great if you have multiple players, but I've never been that lucky in any of my real-life games. 1st-level characters are extremely vulnerable to high damage rolls. A 1d4-1 monster (like an awakened shrub), with a crit and max damage, can come very close to killing a 1st-level character. Don't laugh--it happened the first time I ever used a CR 0 monster. Fortunately, the character in question was a human fighter with 16 Con and the Tough feat, so it didn't quite take out half his health in one shot. A high-Dex standard-array wizard or sorcerer would have gone down instantly, though.
That shrubs max damage with a crit is 3+3=6. To outright kill a PC it would have to 1) drop the to zero hit points, and 2) still do additional damage beyond dropping you to zero to equal your max hit points.So a PC would have to have 3 hit points for that to kill them outright. Or I suppose a PC with 5 max hit points, who had already been reduced to 1 hit point, would die if hit with 6 hit points of damage. But I gotta think that's not a particularly common situation.
When you score a critical hit, you get to roll extra dice for the attack's damage against the target. Roll all of the attack's damage dice twice and add them together. Then add any relevant modifiers as normal.
If you get knocked out by a hungry monster and you don't have friends to chase it away, it's going to kill and eat you. I didn't actually say that 7 damage was going to kill, though. I just said that 7 damage was going to take out a very weak 1st-level character.
I misremembered the instant death rules, though.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
I cannot remember the last game that I was in with level 1 characters. I don't know if I have done a level 1 for maybe ten years. Everyone else always wanted to get in the thick of things and have some nifty abilities available. Had not even realized that this was the case.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
I’m not the best GM, but I usually start my characters at level 3 because of a few reasons:
1.) I personally find levels 1 to 2 to be too squishy. Sure, they’re beginner levels, of course you can’t take on even a Barbed Devil. But what if I want to get into the swing of the campaign with some decent CR 3 monsters? I can’t throw that same monster at them at lvl 1.
2.) I personally like to think of levels as the tiers described in the good ol’ Dungeon Masters Guide. At level 3, perhaps they may have been around a little, or they are just new to the field and had some time to prep. Perhaps it’s wrong, and perhaps it’s not an ideal way to run the game, but being able to pick your archetypes and flesh out your character there is an ideal for me.
3) in the exceptions where the campaign makes use of level 1-2 content or my campaign requires it, I am perfectly fine at starting at level 1 if need be.
Seems like its literal hell trying to just have a good talk about stuff nowadays.
On those who think Level 1-2 character are too frail to reasonably take on monsters, how about trying to use 4th Edition Hit Points instead? (It's a small rules hack that shouldn't require a Homebrew Forum post):
d6 Classes: 14 + Con Score HP at first level, +4 at every level up.
d8 Classes: 17 + Con Score HP at first level, +5 at every level up.
d10 Classes: 21 + Con Score HP at first level, +6 at every level up.
d12 Classes: 24 + Con Score HP at first level, +7 at every level up.
Hit Dice and short rest healing work as normal, but you get a number of extra hit die (of the highest type you have available) equal to your Con mod.
Start at level three?
I don't. I use milestone leveling, and first and second levels are passed quickly. But I like to give players a chance of getting to know each other and role play their backstory.
Also, I have had players learn something in the first two levels about their characters and the campaign that caused them to change their archetype. This usually happens with newer players or a new world, but even veteran players have changed when they discovered the BBG, main story arc, etc. And I did it once also...😎
--
DM -- Elanon -- Homebrew world
Gronn -- Tiefling Warlock -- Amarath
Slim -- Halfling Cleric -- CoS (future Lord of Waterdeep 😁)
Bran -- Human Wizard - RoT
Making D&D mistakes and having fun since 1977!
We started our campaign at level 2 in order to get everyone used to playing (lotta noobs) and not give so many options s that they would be overwhelmed. In general, though, it depends on the characters. If we're starting at everyone's origins and how they came together to adventure, then level one is grand. However, most games i've played/watched have characters with a modicum of adventuring in their past and met their party in happenstance, so starting everyone at lvl 3 makes sense their.
I love this place so far, as well. I'd wanna try and moderate if I had more time, but such is life.
#OpenDnD. #DnDBegone
Just occurred to me... If new players, I would never start above first. My campaigns tend to go long and even 40 years later, I remember my first character played 1 to 18/20. Would not want to chat anyone but starting at second...
--
DM -- Elanon -- Homebrew world
Gronn -- Tiefling Warlock -- Amarath
Slim -- Halfling Cleric -- CoS (future Lord of Waterdeep 😁)
Bran -- Human Wizard - RoT
Making D&D mistakes and having fun since 1977!
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
Tooltips (Help/aid)
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
Tooltips (Help/aid)
I cannot remember the last game that I was in with level 1 characters. I don't know if I have done a level 1 for maybe ten years. Everyone else always wanted to get in the thick of things and have some nifty abilities available. Had not even realized that this was the case.
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
I whole-heartedly agree.
I’m not the best GM, but I usually start my characters at level 3 because of a few reasons:
1.) I personally find levels 1 to 2 to be too squishy. Sure, they’re beginner levels, of course you can’t take on even a Barbed Devil. But what if I want to get into the swing of the campaign with some decent CR 3 monsters? I can’t throw that same monster at them at lvl 1.
2.) I personally like to think of levels as the tiers described in the good ol’ Dungeon Masters Guide. At level 3, perhaps they may have been around a little, or they are just new to the field and had some time to prep. Perhaps it’s wrong, and perhaps it’s not an ideal way to run the game, but being able to pick your archetypes and flesh out your character there is an ideal for me.
3) in the exceptions where the campaign makes use of level 1-2 content or my campaign requires it, I am perfectly fine at starting at level 1 if need be.
Seems like its literal hell trying to just have a good talk about stuff nowadays.
On those who think Level 1-2 character are too frail to reasonably take on monsters, how about trying to use 4th Edition Hit Points instead? (It's a small rules hack that shouldn't require a Homebrew Forum post):
d6 Classes: 14 + Con Score HP at first level, +4 at every level up.
d8 Classes: 17 + Con Score HP at first level, +5 at every level up.
d10 Classes: 21 + Con Score HP at first level, +6 at every level up.
d12 Classes: 24 + Con Score HP at first level, +7 at every level up.
Hit Dice and short rest healing work as normal, but you get a number of extra hit die (of the highest type you have available) equal to your Con mod.
Yep, to be honest, this is probably one of the best places to talk about dnd.
although, I have to admit I myself have exploded here once or twice
I did NOT eat those hikers.
also, the strength to starting at level three is the dm doesn't have to worry about one shotting people too much
I did NOT eat those hikers.