Starting experience points.. why?

I am a new player and am a little confused why it lists characters as having starting experience points... can you spend them to buy skills or is this purely for later use?

This is to represent the warriors with better profile acquiring experience before they became part of the warband. The reasoning behind it is to stop them from advancing really fast and thus being a lot better than the rest of the warband.

You can't use those XP for anything.

you mark off the exp on the chart before the first game and no advancements are gained as Elia already said its to counter out their better stat profiles at the beginning.

EDIT: IF the original poster, or anyone else wonders why the XP can seem arbitrary they are not alone in this and can consult the chart below. Otherwise the OP has been fully answered by the other users above.

Though some of them are direly off. If properly balanced they should be:

Merc Champions: 4xp
Witch Hunter Priest: 8xp
Witch Hunter Hero: 4xp
Sister Superior: 4xp

Asp wrote:

Though some of them are direly off. If properly balanced they should be:

Merc Champions: 4xp
Witch Hunter Priest: 8xp
Witch Hunter Hero: 4xp
Sister Superior: 4xp

Oh, come on! Is this really necessary? This really doesn't belong here.

I agree with cianty, this isn't really necessary, it's not a very big change and these already start with some good starting stats, so they deserve their normal starting xp I think.

gilzenaar wrote:

I agree with cianty, this isn't really necessary, it's not a very big change and these already start with some good starting stats, so they deserve their normal starting xp I think.

That's not the point. I'm not questioning the correctness of Asp's critique on the core rules. I am questioning the adequacy of the critique in a simple rules question thread by someone new to the game. I can't think of anything more likely to put me off of a new game than people chiming in to claim the rules are bad when I'm just wondering about some basic game mechanics.

So please let's reserve these kinds of threads to the questions asked in the initial post. The game is far from being broken (especially at the core) so there's no need to post your personal "fixes" here.

cianty wrote:

gilzenaar wrote:

I agree with cianty, this isn't really necessary, it's not a very big change and these already start with some good starting stats, so they deserve their normal starting xp I think.

That's not the point. I'm not questioning the correctness of Asp's critique on the core rules. I am questioning the adequacy of the critique in a simple rules question thread by someone new to the game. I can't think of anything more likely to put me off of a new game than people chiming in to claim the rules are bad when I'm just wondering about some basic game mechanics.

So please let's reserve these kinds of threads to the questions asked in the initial post. The game is far from being broken (especially at the core) so there's no need to post your personal "fixes" here.

Kay srry, misunderstood you a little

gilzenaar wrote:

Kay srry, misunderstood you a little

No problem at all!

all I can say is that I would wish that someone told me what I just told Rhandolph in this thread 9 years ago.

but it is a matter of taste. I have edited my post to clarify. and I will follow guidelines of mods/admins, of course

I have to side with Asp, in the fact this forum does not have a different section for 'Rule FAQ" and "House Rules"; they kinda fall under the same umbrella. (Assuming he signifies his suggestion as a 'house rule', or his own humble opinion.)

Although, I personally think that the EXP starting rates are fair at their starting points. (If I was to change anything at all, it'd be the Witch Hunter heroes... they start with the same exp as a Merc Champion, but with 1 less stat. Even without it, it's hardly a deal breaker.)

If you look at the way the check boxes are set up for experience you'll notice that the bold "advancement" boxes come less frequently the higher your experience goes. This allows new or inexperienced heroes to advance quickly and catch up somewhat to more experienced characters.

Yeah, that's why the young bloods always have such poor stats compared to the other heroes: because they have the capacity to catch up quite quickly after a few games in.