[RPG] Mechanically speaking, why does level 1 seem so different from level 2

Welcome to Rusty Dagger Shanktown!

What you have noticed is very widely commented upon—1st level is often called “rusty dagger shanktown.” It’s hyper-lethal, rather than the kind of heroic fantasy Dungeons & Dragons pitches itself as. It is very, very difficult for 1st-level PCs to actually really adventure at all. Many, many groups avoid 1st for this reason (many skip 2nd too, even though it is already dramatically different). Personally, I’ll include 1st level often, but the PCs basically always level-up to 2nd almost entirely on roleplaying XP.

Note that this isn’t unique to 3.5e; it goes back to the earliest days of D&D. Pathfinder, of course, inherited it from 3.5e (I don’t know about PF 2e). It’s also very much still true in 5e—after 4e actually managed to avoid it, which may mean that this is considered a “feature” by some, enough that Wizards of the Coast felt the need to restore it as part of 5e’s general “return to form” after the divisive fourth edition.

Anyway, the primary causes of rusty dagger shanktown:

Hit points

Almost anyone can one-shot almost any 1st-level character. It’s very, very easy to have 6 hp in a world where a decent, but basic, weapon’s base damage averages 7. Even smaller weapons can easily deal that much damage, either through luck or skill. We expect 1st-level characters to often go down in one hit.

A 2nd-level character can have nearly twice as much hp. Actually, could easily be twice as much, if they multiclass from a small-HD class to a large-HD class. That drastically changes the game, because suddenly you can feel reasonably confident that you aren’t going to just suddenly die before anyone can do anything. Healing actually becomes relevant, where at 1st it’s often too little, too late.

Notably, this only has this effect because damage doesn’t grow at the same rate. The base damage of weapons is fixed, and ability scores start at double digits but grow very slowly from there. That’s the biggest chunk of early damage for most characters. Even beyond that, a lot of damage boosts—inspire courage, rage, sneak attack—come at 1st anyway. And monsters tend to kind of mirror these trends.

So what ends up happening is that a 1st-level character can’t really take a chance in order to get something accomplished. A 2nd-level character can feel reasonably comfortable taking a chance at least once. That dramatically affects the style of play. At 2nd-level D&D literally feels like a different game. Really, it is a different game.

Wealth

Characters start with less than 200 gp worth of gear. That’s not enough for a masterwork weapon, not enough even for non-masterwork medium or heavy armors, definitely not enough for any kind of magic item beyond maybe an extremely basic consumable. No 1st-level character has even their complete basic kit yet.

The expected wealth of a 2nd-level character is 900 gp. That can afford masterwork armor of anything short of full-plate, and for many armors leave enough left over for a masterwork weapon. Most importantly, that is enough money for a party of 4 to trivially afford a wand of cure light wounds. A wand of cure light wounds is a game-changer. It means you can easily start every fight at full hp. And with 2nd-level hp, that means you can actually take a few risks.

2nd-level features

This varies considerably from one class to the next, but several classes get major class features at 2nd level. The paladin’s 2nd-level feature, divine grace, might be the single greatest class feature in the game (assuming we don’t count “spells” and the like as a singular feature). Rangers don’t get their combat style until 2nd. Bards get 1st-level spells at 2nd (though inspire courage from 1st level is probably more important). Outside of core, meldshapers don’t get any chakra binds until 2nd, which can leave them with zero offense at 1st. Swordsages don’t get Wis-to-AC until 2nd.

But plenty of characters are fine from 1st, so this can vary a lot.