Starting Below First Level
At the same time that I was crafting the basis for my new campaign, the new Dungeon Master
’s Guide was being developed. A concept that caught my eye was the new "NPC class" designation for non-adventuring characters.
This gave me the idea of having the PCs in my campaign begin their careers as non-adventurers. This fit well with my desire to have the PCs begin as relatively young (16 or 17 years old for the humans).
At first I thought I’d simply have each character begin with a single level in one of the NPC classes. But then I realized that not only would this make for an unbalanced start (the expert and warrior are significantly superior to the other classes), but the adept really made a poor starting point for would-be spellcasters.
So instead I decided to make the PCs effectively "half-level" characters. I took each class and pared its abilities down slightly, making it a shadow of its 1st-level equivalent. Essentially, this "half-level" variant looked much like the "Apprentice-Level Characters" presented in Table 2–22 of the Dungeon Master
’s Guide (which didn’t exist at the time). Characters did not receive the normal first-level feat, but did receive full normal racial benefits.
This is what each of the "half-level" starting PCs looked like:
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Aethelred, half-level rogue: base 3 hp, +1 base Reflex save, 16 skill points (plus Int bonus times 2), proficiency in light armor and all simple rogue weapons. |
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Beran, half-level ranger: base 5 hp, +1 base attack bonus, +1 base Fort save, 8 skill points, Track feat, proficiency in light armor and all simple weapons plus one martial weapon. |
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Druga, half-level ranger: base 5 hp, +1 base attack bonus, +1 base Fort save, 8 skill points, Track feat, proficiency in light armor and all simple weapons plus one martial weapon. |
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Duran, half-level cleric: base 4 hp, +1 base Fort and Will save, 4 skill points, proficiency in light armor and simple weapons. Can cast 3 orisons per day. |
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Jarvis, half-level fighter: base 5 hp, +1 base attack bonus, +1 base Fort save, 4 skill points, proficiency in light and medium armor and all simple weapons plus one martial weapon. |
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Seth, half-level rogue: base 3 hp, +1 base Reflex save, 16 skill points (plus Int bonus times 2), proficiency in light armor and all simple rogue weapons. |
A seventh character existed at this time (the half-elf bard Adarrial Smythe, "man of renown"), though due to the player’s employer relocating to Connecticut, the character was initially set up as an occasional guest star and thus didn’t undergo the "half-level" conversion.
These half-level characters needed a mere 500 XP to advance to 1st level, at which point they got the rest of the typical first-level character’s goodies.
The "half-level" start created a strong sense that these were in no way "heroic" characters at the start of the campaign. Indeed, their first "adventure" was merely a trek into the snowy woods to retrieve some lost horses. Along the way, the heroes encountered some goblin hunters (foreshadowing the events of Sunless Citadel) and Beran bravely went toe-to-toe with a hungry wolf that had downed one of his comrades. Heady stuff for a bunch of non-adventuring, barely armed teenagers.
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