I've been DMing my first ongoing D&D 3.5 game. We've been playing together weekly for about a year. We lost a player to real life responsibilities and have another interested in joining the game. The party all started together at level 1 and are now up to level 9, the new player has never played before and intends to play a magic user of some sort.
I am considering starting him at level 1 so that he can learn the ropes like the other new players did, having a smaller number of spells to mess with, etc., and also adding the responsibility of keeping the weaker character alive to the rest of the group. But I would likely have to nerf their opponents to keep from constantly killing the new guy, or keep their encounter levels the same and the new guy just gets killed. If I leave the encounter levels where they are, the level 1 player will level up pretty fast.
I don't think the other players would necessarily care that the player didn't earn his stripes or whatever, so I could just stick him in at a higher level.
Is there any kind of rule of thumb for what level to grant new players?
Best Answer
Large Level Gaps Are Bad
Here's the problem. You have a level 9 party. They're probably fighting stuff somewhere around their power level. If you throw a level 1 character into that, they are both highly ineffective (anything with a save will be made, few spells, limited ability to contribute), and absurdly fragile (very low HP, lower saves, probably limited money for gear unless you give them level 9 equivalent treasure).
That combination just doesn't work in 3.5. An experienced player can maybe make it work by knowing all the tricks to get the most out of their tiny allotment of level 1 spells. A newbie will not, and one mistake will get them killed. They do not have a margin for error, and as a new player they need a margin for error more than anyone else.
As the DM, you'd have to avoid trying to kill that character. You can't even do things like throw fireballs around with your NPCs, because a single one anywhere near that character and it's dead.
You could tone things down instead, but then the level 9 characters will steamroll over everything and not be challenged. That's also bad.
Given that, your best bet is to start the new character at level 9.
Mentorship
You and the other players will have to help mentor your new player. That goes with a level 1 character, and it goes with a level 9 character. The main difference is that the level 9 character is going to have more abilities, and some margin for error (a single melee attack won't kill a level 9 character very often).
Your new player will need help building a character, picking gear, learning what their stats mean, when to use skills, and so on. You and the other players can help with that in the first couple of sessions, mostly by helping with character creation, answering questions, encouraging questions, and offering hints and suggestions.
Gradual Spellbook Additions
Since your new player wants to play a spellcaster, the real overwhelming thing is trying to master the spell system and the large spell list. That's where you can help.
Shrink the list. A lot. Start the player off with a pared down spell list, where you pick out a handful of essential spells. If the player wants to, let them look through the book and pick out a few more that sound interesting. Don't give them 100 spells to start. Use a much smaller number (under 30).
As the player starts to grasp things in future sessions, start adding spells. For a Wizard this is easy, as you can say what's in the spellbook initially, and you can introduce spells to add to it later. For a Divine Caster, you may just have to explain why you want him to focus on a smaller set of spells initially to get the hang of it, and that the other ones are available if he wants to use them in the future.
I know when a friend of mine played a caster for the first time (a Cleric, which is a great class), we sat down together and built a "typical daily memorization list". Those were the spells he'd prepare each day, normally. He could make additions or changes if events warranted it, but I built the first list with him and he didn't have to try to figure out what spells were must have on his own. It made trying to figure out what to cast at first a lot easier for him, because that list is much shorter.
For a spontaneous caster, you can handle it differently depending on the class. Something with a fixed list like Beguiler you can treat like a Divine Caster: shorten the available list up a bit initially, and then add spells back as the player starts to get the hang of it. For Sorcerer where you have to pick the spells you will use forever... well, I'd pick an initial list of spells, and then give the new player the option to swap them out later if he decides he wants something else. Sorcerers already have this option every even numbered level, but he will have missed some chances to do it by starting at level 9 and by not knowing what to pick initially. You can be a bit more flexible with the swapping rules by allowing one time swapping of any spell that he came into the game with, so he can customize his character once he understands how it works.
So Which Spellcaster Should He Be?
You mentioned spells, but not which class he's going to play. If he's already picked a class to play, great! If he hasn't picked a class yet, I have a couple of recommendations.
Druid and Wizard are both great classes, but they're also harder to play and may not be an ideal choice for a new player. That's not to say he can't play them, because he can. He'll just need more help:
My Rule of Thumb
There isn't an official rule of thumb. Mine (and it seems to be pretty common amongst players I know) is that the party should be the same level unless there is a good reason why they're not (someone spending XP on item creation feats for example). If a new player joins, I put him at the same XP as everyone else, and try to keep treasure from being too different (though the new person may start with a bit less, as I typically give new players standard wealth from the DMG).
Level is one of those things that can make someone horribly ineffective if you set them back too far. They can make that up by being more optimized than everyone else is, or know how to use their abilities more successfully, but the game in my experience just works better when party members don't have level gaps between them.
A small gap is one thing, but a level 1 new player in a level 9 party is just unworkable.