Introduction
Maybe you’ve been playing for a while and you’ve grown tired of starting at level 1 and fighting rats in tavern basements. Maybe you’re starting at high level in a new campaign. Maybe one of your party’s characters was tragically lost with no hope of returning, and thus needs a replacement.
In such cases, starting above 1st level means that you’ll want the character’s gear to reflect that they’re higher level and that they’ve accumulated some treasure in their prior adventures. A 10th-level character with the same starting gear as a 1st-level character can be frustrating, especially if they need things like full plate armor of you’re using magic items in your game.
In this article we’ll discuss how to handle the specifics of starting above 1st level, including building new characters, equipping them, and introducing them to the party.
Keep in mind that your Dungeon Master have thoughts on everything in this article. Discuss this article with them before you show up with a character who doesn’t fit your DM’s expectations for the game.
Table of Contents
Building a Character
Building a character above 1st is similar in many ways to building a 1st-level character, but a few additional considerations can to make sure that your character is rules-legal and that they’re ready to play alongside characters who have been played for a while.
Character Stats
Characters above first level should be built one level at a time, and advanced just as you would while playing a character. A character’s class at 1st level is especially important because it determines many of their proficiencies. Remember that multiclassing into a class awards different proficiencies than taking that class at first level.
Keep careful note of the level at which you make decision points like spells known and warlock invocations to avoid accidentally having more higher-level options that a character of your level should. If you need to use Ability Score Increases to qualify to multiclass into or out of a class, you’ll need to know when in your career to qualify to do so.
Also keep careful track of when you retrain any decision points (spells, etc.). Many classes offer the option to retrain decision points at certain levels, allowing you to trade previously-selected options for new options. This can allow you to trade a low-level spell known for a higher-level spell known, but since you can only retrain this way at certain points (typically when you gain a level or get an ASI from the class) there is a finite number of times you can trade options this way.
Backstory
Players should put more thought into the backstory of a high-level character than they should for a 1st-level character. On top of all of the personal history which a 1st-level character has, higher-level characters typically also have some adventuring under their belts.
Some inspirational questions: Where has your character gone? Who have them met? What have they done? Who have they done it with? Do they have a reputation? Why aren’t they in an adventuring party already? How did they get here? Do they know the party already? If so, how? What do they gain by joining the party?
Belongings
Characters accumulate a lot of stuff over time, and starting with the same gear at level 1 and level 11 feels very wrong.
Attrition Rate of Consumable Items
The table below lists all of the items and wealth accumulated by a character, but a character in play will almost certainly have fewer items and less wealthy because consumable items (potions, scrolls, etc.) get used and wealth gets spent on things like food and lodgings.
To account for these expenses, I recommend awarding roughly 90% of the accumulated gp and half of the accumulated consumable items (round in favor of giving players more items to account for permanent minor items). These are merely suggestions and aren’t reflected in any official rules text, and I encourage you to deviate from those numbers if you disagree with them.
Character Wealth By Level
This table is a replacement for the Starting Equipment table on page 36 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide (affiliate link). That table doesn’t distinguish between levels within a tier, doesn’t differentiate major and minor items, and gives players far fewer items and far less gold than they should have based on the treasure tables in both the Dungeon Master’s Guide and in Xanathar’s Guide to Everything.
The accumulation of wealth below is based on the calculated number of encounters and the average rewards for those encounters as described in my Practical Guide to Campaign Planning, and the items are the summation of items per player per level described in the Campaign Skeleton table in the same article. If you haven’t read the article, it attempts to approximate and average when players will receive magic items. Over the course of a campaign, items of various rarities will often be distributed over several levels rather than everyone getting one permanent item of whatever rarity at the same time, as the table below might imply.
The table awards magic items based on averages, so parties which have been playing from level 1 will may have items of higher rarity several levels before they appear in the table below. For example: parties are expected to find one Legendary item between levels 11 and 16 (see Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, Magic Items Awarded by Rarity), but the table below doesn’t grant a legendary item until level 19. If your DM (or maybe you’re the DM) looks at this table and says “this looks like too many items”, remember that slightly more than more than half of characters played from level 1 will actually have more magic items than listed in the table, especially if you use the “Adjusted” columns to account for attrition of gold and minor items.
The “Adjusted” columns assume that roughly 10% of the character’s wealth has been spent and half of their minor items have been used/lost. See “Attrition Rate” above. These adjustments are merely suggestions.
The table does not include the character’s starting equipment. To account for starting equipment, you can either use the starting equipment described by the character’s class and background, or you can use the Starting Wealth By Class table on page 143 of the Player’s Handbook (affiliate link).
What are Minor and Major Items?
While never explicitly stated in the Dungeon Master’s Guide, Xanathar’s Guide to Everything details the concept of Minor and Major Magic Items. Minor items are usually consumables, but also include staple items like bags of holding, magic horseshoes, mithral armor, some utility items like Goggles of Night, and all Common items. Major items are permanent items that you’ll often use in combat or other life-threatening situations like disarming traps.
When selecting minor items as a player, I recommend making roughly half of your minor items (round up) consumables. It’s easy to fall into the temptation of taking only permanent items, but that puts you well ahead of the expected number of permanent magic items, and if you’re on this page your DM is already being very generous by not making you take the inexplicably small number of items suggested in the DMG.
Wealth by Level Table
| Level | Wealth in GP | Items | Wealth in GP (Adjusted) | Items (Adjusted) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0 | Starting Equipment | 0 | Starting Equipment |
| 2 | 100 | 1 Common Minor | 90 | 1 Common Minor |
| 3 | 200 | 2 Common Minor | 180 | 1 Common Minor |
| 4 | 400 | 3 Common Minor | 360 | 2 Common Minor |
| 5 | 695 | 1 Uncommon Major 4 Common Minor | 625 | 1 Uncommon Major 2 Common Minor |
| 6 | 2,170 | 1 Uncommon Major 5 Common Minor | 1,950 | 1 Uncommon Major 3 Common Minor |
| 7 | 4,735 | 1 Uncommon Major 5 Common Minor 1 Uncommon Minor | 4,260 | 1 Uncommon Major 3 Common Minor 1 Uncommon Minor |
| 8 | 8,405 | 2 Uncommon Major 5 Common Minor 2 Uncommon Minor | 7,565 | 2 Uncommon Major 3 Common Minor 1 Uncommon Minor |
| 9 | 12,060 | 2 Uncommon Major 5 Common Minor 3 Uncommon Minor | 10,850 | 2 Uncommon Major 3 Common Minor 2 Uncommon Minor |
| 10 | 16,795 | 2 Uncommon Major 5 Common Consumables 4 Uncommon Consumables | 15,100 | 2 Uncommon Major 3 Common Minor 2 Uncommon Minor |
| 11 | 22,675 | 2 Uncommon Major 1 Rare Major 5 Common Minor 5 Uncommon Minor | 20,400 | 2 Uncommon Permanent 1 Rare Major 3 Common Minor 3 Uncommon Minor |
| 12 | 33,470 | 2 Uncommon Major 1 Rare Major 5 Common Minor 5 Uncommon Minor 1 Rare Minor | 30,000 | 2 Uncommon Permanent 1 Rare Major 3 Common Minor 3 Uncommon Minor 1 Rare Minor |
| 13 | 44,550 | 2 Uncommon Major 1 Rare Major 5 Common Minor 5 Uncommon Minor 2 Rare Minor | 40,000 | 2 Uncommon Major 1 Rare Permanent 3 Common Minor 3 Uncommon Minor 1 Rare Minor |
| 14 | 55,270 | 2 Uncommon Major 2 Rare Major 5 Common Minor 5 Uncommon Minor 3 Rare Consumable | 50,000 | 2 Uncommon Major 2 Rare Major 3 Common Minor 3 Uncommon Minor 2 Rare Minor |
| 15 | 74,980 | 2 Uncommon Major 2 Rare Major 5 Common Minor 5 Uncommon Minor 4 Rare Minor | 67,500 | 2 Uncommon Major 2 Rare Major 3 Common Minor 3 Uncommon Minor 2 Rare Minor |
| 16 | 103,640 | 2 Uncommon Major 2 Rare Major 5 Common Minor 5 Uncommon Minor 5 Rare Minor | 93,000 | 2 Uncommon Major 2 Rare Major 3 Common Minor 3 Uncommon Minor 3 Rare Minor |
| 17 | 140,840 | 2 Uncommon Major 2 Rare Major 1 Very Rare Major 5 Common Minor 5 Uncommon Minor 5 Rare Minor 1 Very Rare Minor | 126,750 | 2 Uncommon Major 2 Rare Major 1 Very Rare Major 3 Common Minor 3 Uncommon Minor 3 Rare Minor 1 Very Rare Minor |
| 18 | 178,550 | 2 Uncommon Major 2 Rare Major 1 Very Rare Major 5 Common Minor 5 Uncommon Minor 5 Rare Minor 2 Very Rare Minor | 160,700 | 2 Uncommon Major 2 Rare Major 1 Very Rare Major 3 Common Minor 3 Uncommon Minor 3 Rare Minor 1 Very Rare Minor |
| 19 | 233,270 | 2 Uncommon Major 2 Rare Major 1 Very Rare Major 1 Legendary Major 5 Common Minor 5 Uncommon Minor 5 Rare Minor 3 Very Rare Minor | 210,000 | 2 Uncommon Major 2 Rare Major 1 Very Rare Major 1 Legendary Major 3 Common Minor 3 Uncommon Minor 3 Rare Minor 2 Very Rare Minor |
| 20 | 290,295 | 2 Uncommon Major 2 Rare Major 1 Very Rare Major 1 Legendary Major 5 Common Minor 5 Uncommon Minor 5 Rare Minor 3 Very Rare Minor 1 Legendary Consumable | 260,000 | 2 Uncommon Major 2 Rare Major 1 Very Rare Major 1 Legendary Major 3 Common Minor 3 Uncommon Minor 3 Rare Minor 2 Very Rare Minor 1 Legendary Minor |
| 20+ | 357,125 | 2 Uncommon Major 2 Rare Major 1 Very Rare Major 1 Legendary Major 5 Common Minor 5 Uncommon Minor 5 Rare Minor 3 Very Rare Minor 2 Legendary Minor | 320,000 | 2 Uncommon Permanent 2 Rare Major 1 Very Rare Major 1 Legendary Major 5 Common Minor 5 Uncommon Minor 5 Rare Minor 3 Very Rare Minor 1 Legendary Minor |
Introducing the Character
How to introduce new characters to an existing party generally requires some discussion with your table, and I recommend having that discussion before you start a campaign (see my Pre-game Survey).
If you haven’t had that discussion already, try having it now. Almost every game I’ve ever been in has just dropped new characters into the party with little further fuss, but your group might prefer to do a bit more storytelling and they might actually grieve the loss of a previous party member.
