Ruleset: Level 1 Adventures

Today, we’re going to talk about running a Level 1 game, and how to increase the odds of party survivability to what I consider to be one of the most controversial levels in 5e.

Because a player’s hit points are so low, the dice have a lot of sway of when someone will be knocked out or not.  A successful hit with high rolls on the damage dice can easily lower someone’s hit points from max to unconscious in one hit - and that’s not even considering Critical Hits.

Yet, you don’t want your Level 1 party to fight negligible encounters - this is a system of heroics - which you can’t get from fighting rats and bats.

For this, I’ve created a ruleset specifically for Level 1 adventurers. There are two ways you can adjust this ruleset, and you can even use both methods if you really want Level 1 to be a breeze.  The two approaches effects either the enemies your party faces, or a boost to the players themselves that can also provide an easier difficulty through the lower levels (1-4).

Weaken Enemy Probability

This solution provides a boon to your party while they are Level 1, and doesn’t alter gameplay beyond this level.  In addition, this speeds up combat slightly because of fewer dice rolls.

When your Level 1 party faces off against a creature with a CR of 1 or lower, that creature has the following alterations.

• All attacks deal minimum damage. For example, a Goblin’s Scimitar normally deals 1d6+2 Slashing Damage on hit.  With this ruleset, Goblins only deal 3 points of damage with their Scimitar to a Level 1 Player.
• All save-for-half effects become save-for-none.
  • This is important for particular wacky creatures introduced during Level 1 adventurers.
    • For example, in Phandelver and Below - the party can stumble across a CR ¼ Giant Poisonous Snake in the first dungeon.  This creature’s bite is devastating:  1d4+4 piercing damage on hit with a DC 11 Con Save. On failure, the target takes 3d6 poison damage (Yikes!) and on success, the creature still takes half as much damage.
    • Even with this ruleset, the danger is still present.  A successful hit, followed by a successful save deals 5 points of piercing damage from the bite.  While a successful hit with a failed save deals 5 Piercing Damage and 3 Poison Damage, which can still knock unconscious lower hit point characters.
• OPTIONAL: Level 1 Party members are not susceptible to Critical Hits.
  • This is marked optional because some tables may opt for Critical Hits to still present themselves as moments of danger.
  • If you still want Critical Hits to be present in this system, you can do one of the following:
    • Add proficiency bonus to flat damage for Critical Hits (Goblin Scimitar now deals 5 points of damage on Crits).
    • Double minimum damage (Gobliin Scimitar now deals 6 points of damage on Crits).
      • Be Mindful of damage bonuses with this.  A creature with a high enough damage bonus could make this devastating.

Increase Level 1 Hit Points

This system allows you to make the Level 1-4 experience easier by adding an additional hit dice of hit points to characters.  At Level 5, the bonus hit points becomes only a minor boon, and at Level 11, it’s no longer noticeable.

There are two ways you can go about this:

• Add +1 Class Hit Dice. Sometimes the most simple solution is the correct one.  Level 1 characters start with 2 Hit Dice instead of 1, doubling their hit points at this Level.
  • If you want this to make Level 1 easier, but not change up the balance for higher levels, you can have players skip their increased hit points at Level 2.
• Add +1 Hit Dice depending on Background.  This variation is more fun, and makes Backgrounds even more impactful.  As GM, you can determine what background offers to what class.  For example, a Scholar Background may only offer a up a d6, while a Pirate Background (Sort of Rogue in nature) grants a d8.  A Blacksmith, or Soldier background would grant a d10 for it’s hearty nature.

As with all toolsets, feel free to alter as you need to with how your table prefers to handle their difficulty.  Discuss with table members what direction sounds the most fun, and carve out your adventure!

-Brett