There is a tendency to look at a weapon skill at 90% and think “my gosh that MUST be higher than 3rd level”, forgetting that is only your chance of not missing and that the opponent still gets all their defensive responses – parry/dodge, AP, etc.
A 3rd level fighter has about a 50% chance of doing damage to a level appropriate guard or hobgoblin with decent armor. There’s no parry no AP, etc. Assume the NPC has 13 hit points. That means its probably going to take 4 attempts to take down that NPC in a one-on-one fight.
An RQ character with a 90% sword up against a typical guard is going to hit 90% of the time, but 60% of that time their foe is going to parry. Assuming 12 pt sword or shield and 3 points of armor, that will stop cold the average attack (1d8+3+1d4 – I gave them 2 points of Bladesharp just because).
So the RQ character with 90% is going to do damage about 36% of the time (actually 38% of the time with Bladesharp). But if they do damage, they’ve got a better chance of getting a limb down to 0 HP. So it is still probably going to take at least 3 or 4 attempts to take down that NPC in a one-on-one fight.
So our 90% RQ character is around 3rd level. But wait you tell me, they have magic! And that might make a significant difference – but of course 3rd level is when our fight subclass abilities unlock. But maybe we might say our RQ fighter is a little bit more powerful than a 3rd level fighter. Maybe.
By 5th level, our D&D5e character is likely more powerful than our RQ character, unless we managed to get a Humakti with a perfect storm of abilities, magic, and gifts. Which is fine – then it is probably the same.
So again most starting RQ characters are probably 3-5th level equivalents.
Now of course things don’t match up precisely. But if you want to think what a RQ starting character can generally do in DD5e terms – lets say you want to adapt what you thought was a cool 5e adventure for your RQ game – then saying they are 3rd or 4th level is probably fair.
The goal for many character is to go from being an expert at one or two things to being an expert at four or five things (the requirement to be a Rune Lord). Or raising your POW to near species maximum while having a load of Rune points. Getting there opens up all sorts of options and power that characters don’t get until then.
Note that a 100% skill means you succeed pretty much all the time in what you are trying to do in a stressful situation.
So if we want to compare to the real world, a marine qualifying as Expert on the current ARQ) is 90%+ at their Rifle (you can actually work out their skill based on the expectations which is pretty cool). Now that’s probably the top 25%-30% of marines nowadays.
Or think of someone who has achieved their black belt, etc or for a professional litigator, Orate of 90% is probably pretty reasonable.
So is it fair to have starting characters be allowed to start as skilled as the upper third of the US Marine Corp or the top 1 in 5 Army soldiers? In my opinion, absolutely – I figure a Humakt initiate OUGHT to be there.
So RQ lets a character start as an expert in a skill or two. To me that’s fine – no odder than saying a character could start out as someone in the top third or top fifth of soldiers.
I’d say an Olympic athlete is far above that, and effectively in Rune Lord territory.
An appropriate foe for a Rune Lord is going to have some pretty impressive defences. You might be surprised how rare even a Rune Lord actually lands damage there.
So really the question is – is it legit to say I want to play a pro (if not Olympic class) athlete? Or someone who is in the top fifth or top third of marksmanship in the Army or Marines? Or someone whose bow skill is comparable to my wife’s?
Now to me – the answer is yes. These are all the sorts of people that could go on to do extraordinary things in 10 sessions or less.
Think of it like starting off as Conan in the Tower of the Elephant or Fafrd in Ill Met In Lankmar. Or starting out as a mercenary in some ongoing war. Those aren’t Heroes – any more than the roughly 50,000 Marines who currently wear the Expert badge are. They are experts at their skill or two.
That conforms to a lot of literature as well – Conan, Fafhrd, Soloman Kane etc, where the protagonist is described as being an expert at their key skill in their first adventure. Although in truth, all those characters are well above 90% on their first adventures. This is the area where a character is skilled enough to do crazy adventures but the prospect of death is always there.
Now there are people out there that love playing low-level or unskilled characters and working their way up from being teenagers to heroes. But I’m going to tell you – most people don’t have the time. They want to dive in, play the game, and get right into the action. People have a lot more time to read about Rand al’Thor going from zero to god than they do to play it out.
Plenty of people like starting from humble beginnings and working their way up. But it is not the critical mass of players out there.
Nor do I consider starting as an unskilled character a better or worse way of exploring the setting. It is a more TIME INTENSIVE way of getting there though.