Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 king_nate Mar 10, 2009 8:11:20	This is from my Blog on enworld.org which can be found by following the link in my sig. Thought I would add it here as well since more people check the forums out more than the blogs. Creating 0-level rules for 4e. In creating these rules, I looked at the different 0-level rules created for previous editions for inspiration. I didn’t like how, in all the rules I looked at, that the rules were a completely different set of rules used just for 0-level characters and that it didn’t feel like the D&D game from 1st Level and on. I wanted to create rules that made 0-level characters play the same way as any other level characters in 4e just with more limitations, and without the DM having to keep track of an alignment table or which weapons you have swung and how many times you swung it. Why play a 0-level character? Because there are some great roleplaying opportunities with a 0-level character that you truly cannot have with 1st Level characters. Here are a few reasons to start players at 0-level; Extremely new player: This person has never played and RPG of any kind. They don’t even know what RPG stands for. By starting this player at 0-level you limit their choices in combat and don’t overflow them with multiple at-wills, encounters, and dailies. You teach them the basic a little bit at a time. Backgrounds: Maybe you have some free time on your hands before the campaign starts but a player really wants to play. You can create his character as a 0-level and you guys go through his background getting him to the place he starts in the campaign. This will give him a whole lot more detailed background and might even spark a few other ideas for the campaign as you play. Nostalgic “Feel”: Remember the days when the starting characters were so weak that a scratch from a housecat could kill them? Well 4e 0-level characters are not that weak but playing them will remind you of the days when your characters were truly scared to go into that dungeon. What do the players get for playing a 0-level character? The game usually starts players at 1st Level, as heroes ready to save the world. Starting out as 0-level will make the campaign longer, taking longer to reach 30th Level, gives the players less powers than if they had started normally. Not to mention that characters can die really easy as 0-level characters. It is suggested that players willing to go through with the 0-level start should receive something a little extra upon reaching 1st Level. Fitting within the current guidelines of the character advancement table in the PHB, we will add to the 1st Level Ability Score section a +1 to all ability scores for reaching 1st Level. Note: According to the PHB page 11, when you round down you must end up with a whole number. Now the smallest whole number you can have is 0. So the number that is half of 0-level is 0.
#2 erk_ Mar 11, 2009 10:25:01	At a brief lookover, not bad. For the sake of combat/gameplay not being too repetitive, I'd suggest: -0th level characters get a second at-will power from the class, but it is only useable once per encounter, and/or -0th level characters get an encounter power from the class, but can only use it once per day.
#3 king_nate Mar 12, 2009 3:21:00	At a brief lookover, not bad. For the sake of combat/gameplay not being too repetitive, I'd suggest: -0th level characters get a second at-will power from the class, but it is only useable once per encounter, and/or -0th level characters get an encounter power from the class, but can only use it once per day. Thanks for the suggestions, these are things you can do if you add these rules to your campaign. These ideas do however go against the concept I had when creating the rules. One of my ideas was to ease new players into the game without changing how the game is played. If you look at the 0-level character, when he advances to 1st level he gains a bunch of new abilities, just like any other level in the game. With your suggestion some abilities he already has now change the way you use them, which is something that doesn't happen at any other level in the game. This may confuse some new players and they may expect this to happen again when reaching 2nd level. So I want to try and keep everything uniformed and working the same from level 0 through 30. I understand your reason for the suggestions to reduce repetiviness, however you can always, as a DM, set the encounters up in a way that encourage players to use other abilities instead of just their at-will power. i.e. grapple, bull rush, charging, or use of the enviorment. You can even suggest these actions to the new player as a way to teach him more about the game without overwelming him. Thanks again for the suggestions.