Dungeons & Dragons Leans Into 3rd Level as New Starting Place for Most Campaigns

Dungeons & Dragons wants most players to start their new campaign with 3rd level adventurers. Wizards of the Coast is rolling out previews of upcoming rules changes to the 2024 Core Rulebooks for Dungeons & Dragons. While not a full edition changeover, the rules update feature numerous quality-of-life improvements and changes, including to character progression. Notably, all 12 classes in the new Player’s Handbook gain their subclass at 3rd level, which is a change to 5 of the classes. While the move was made to standardize class progression, it also pushes another intended play model – that most Dungeons & Dragons campaigns should start at 3rd level. 

Speaking in a video posted last week, D&D lead rules designer Jeremy Crawford talked about how the new Player’s Handbook makes it easier to start campaigns at higher levels. “Throughout the chapter it goes even further than making a character at first level; it also provides rules for making a character at higher levels,” Crawford said. “We really want people to embrace this idea we’ve talked about throughout Fifth Edition that if you’re playing with a group of experienced players and you want your brand new party to hit the ground running as a group of adventurers, we encourage you to start at 3rd level not 1st level.” 

On a functional level, starting at 3rd level has always made sense for 5th Edition rules. Not only did all classes receive their subclass by 3rd level, players also generally had enough resources to have options in combat and could survive an unlucky critical hit from a low level opponent. 

One question is how Wizards of the Coast will approach future campaigns if they’re looking to start most campaigns at 3rd level. Most adventures published Wizards of the Coast start at 1st level, although some campaigns like Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden and Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus usually have “intro” chapters that players can skip to dive into the heart of the campaign adventure at 3rd level. Because Wizards of the Coast typically makes adventures for players of any experience level, it’s likely that they’ll continue to have these introductory chapters designed to ramp up players who want that low level play experience. 

You can check out the full list of known changes to the Dungeons & Dragons ruleset here.