A New PC Joining the Party Should Be What Level?
A new PC joining the party is a fairly common occurrence. Maybe a new player is joining the group or perhaps a character has died and that character’s player wants a new character. Often, there is a question of what level to make the new character.
The question comes up for two primary reasons:
- A sense of owing the other characters some advantage because they played in the other games.
- The idea that earlier adventures shape the personality and background of the character. Since the character won’t have these played out, the character should have less experience.
But a character should start as the same level as the other characters. Doing otherwise is a disservice to all the characters. If the character starts even just a level behind the others he will be less effective in combat and other encounter types. (This is particularly true if the character is a class that is average in many things but not great in any one thing like a bard or to a lesser degree a paladin or ranger.)
This ineffectiveness makes the experience less fun for that character’s player because his spells aren’t nearly as useful or he can’t go to the front lines and fight nearly as well as the other characters. Essentially the best he can do is augment other characters’ abilities using things like inspire competence or spells that give the others an extra bonus.
The character’s ineffectiveness also makes things more dangerous for the rest of the party. The encounters may be designed for a certain size party of a certain level, but having one character who can’t pull his weight means the others need to step up or else.
In any case the lower level character will also gain roughly the same experience points (barring some individual XP bonuses) as the others even though he likely did less. This may seem unfair to some. Also he will be less likely to earn those individual XP bonuses because he’ll have fewer powers, lower skills, or fewer spells. In time, this could leave the character further behind.
So it is in everyone’s best interests to start the new character at the same level as the existing characters. If you are concerned about having a fully developed character, the GM and the player should sit down together and work out a more detailed background. The GM and player could even sit down and do a mini one-on-one adventure or more than one if time permits.
A corollary to this overall point is a GM shouldn’t let the players vary in level too much. This issue may occur due to varying individual XP awards or more likely if you choose to not grant (or diminish) XP to characters whose players do not attend a game session. Hopefully over time this evens out.
It may be ok to have the characters be one level out of sync, but a GM should revise his policy before it gets out of hand or else the same issues mentioned above will be problems in these circumstances. If a GM sees this as an issue, consider lowering the individual XP awards or awarding full XP to characters of missing players. Perhaps have a player whose character is ahead of the others play an NPC for one session and say the missing character is doing research or on some private quest.
Our house rule is that new characters start one level lower than the party average.
What used to happen is that a new character would join the party and be just as powerful as those who played the same characters since the beginning of the game. The players who managed to keep their characters alive were getting discouraged and tired of being over shadowed by the new recruits. Some players make new characters every time another new book comes out, others join mid-campaign.
I think you should just go with what works best for your group, for mine it is one level lower.
That (one level lower) is exactly what I used to do in my campaigns (still do, just don’t run as many campaigns, play more). However, I had a couple relatively newcomers to the group and they complained vehemently (sp?) about the ‘disadvantage’…. ergo, I started giving a choice….. either you can start one level lower (bottom of xp spread) OR you can start out with nothing… just clothes on your back and basic adventuring gear….. no magic items, no spell books, no holy symbols, nothing more than basic. The ‘reason’ was you were mugged, ship wrecked, left for dead (and looted, btw), or something.
This wasn’t to punish so much as to make them less willing to throw their lives away needlessly. Also, to clarify, this wasn’t for people just joining the campaign (they were given mid-level of the average and a comprable amount of magic/special gear), it was only for people who died in play.
I say do whatever works for your group.
However, as a DM I always start new PCs at 1st level and let them get XP and items just like everyone else did over the course of the campaign. I believe each player should have to earn whatever his or her character character has and not just be given anything.
The BIG advantage that the 1st level character has is that he or she makes some fairly powerful “friends” early on that can help them out (AKA: THE OTHER PCs).
Also, having varied levels in the group adds variety, and you know that some monsters always go after the most powerful looking character first, and other monsters go for the weakest. In either situation, the 1st level PC can still have loads of fun, either by taking pot shots at the monster as it pounds the powerful PC or by running from the monster that is chasing them and getting it into position for the more powerful PCs to hammer it.
My rules are as follows:
If a character dies, and the player wasn’t looking for death, the new character is the same level as the average party level.
If a new player joins, the new character is one level lower than the average party level.
If a player just re-rolls, or their character in any way looks for death (jumps off a 10,000 foot cliff, tracks down an ancient red dragon and challenges it to a duel of honor, etc.) the new character starts at level one.
Revision: If a character dies, and the player wasn’t looking for death, the new character is the same level as the character that died.
If a character dies because the player was not being stupid but was playing true to the character, then it falls to the DM (me) to decide.
It really depends on the type of game you want to run. In my game I’m more concerned with the character’s story. You start at the level of the party (I give party XP not individual) and need to have a suitably detailed background for a character of that level. At 1st level you can come from a village and have maybe one or two NPC’s in your background, by 8th level you should have a fairly detailed story, significant NPC’s (including perhaps a nemesis) at a build in greater quest.
new players join 1 level lower than the lowest level.
If a player role-plays an excellent death they keep the same EXP.
Any player that allows their character to be tortured to death starts 5 levels lower (nobody wants to be tortured)
As for different level players, eventually players miss games and fall behind so it is up to them to play smart. You lose a bit of realism if everyone is at the same power level all the time.