Disclaimer: I havent thought this through to any significant degree. My mind just happened upon the idea and I thought I'd explore it.
Just had a wierd kind of epiphany. The thing I like about the palladium system is that basically though character creation on the front end is a horrifyingly long winded task... it basically gives you all of your abilities up front. Nearly every skill... every trick... is completely valid right from level 1... you're levels are simply your abilities becoming more reliable or more potent... so the longer the campaign is the more time you have to fiddle with everything your character brings to bear upon the world... maximum versatility right out of the gate.
One of my big pet peeves as a habitual caster is that by the time you unlock a cool ability, the campaign is probably over. Capstone ability may be some outlandish reward for having survived a long campaign, but its kind of a BS reward because you'll never actually get to use it. Whats the point really...
Even fighters and monks. gunslingers... everyone talks about how 'this class really opens up at level so and so... which means theres sometimes a rather lengthy period of time where you're basically 'sucking' under the pretense of 'earning your way to being cool'... I hear tons of arguments about 'feat taxes'... which would still have to be paid, but the reward is that the cool thing you're grinding for you no longer have to wait for it to kick in until the campaign is already over... What then?
The inverse of that focus of course is that in order to be cool, theres a significant amount of actual game time where you have to suck... Philosophically I rail at the idea that you have to 'grow' into your abilities because the opposite is true. Until you've grown into those abilities... theres a big chunk of the game where the options you have chosen for your character simply aren't available even to you.... So while I think theres a whole slew of mechanics written in that if offered earlier to a class are already built to 'scale' in a way that at first level they wouldnt be very powerful, (you'd have the full gamut of feats and class options and such right out of the gate...) some of those abilities might just be kinda paltry at first level...
What if you got a 20th level characters worth of feats and class features and attribute bonuses packed into a level 1 character... Natural armor bonuses and hit points are tied to level (and maybe monk's hand to hand damage?) are tied to level but everything else right there out of the gate at level 1.
I'm interested in particulars here. Not generalizations. I'm not interested in 'so you're giving wizards 4 ninth level spells at level 1... clearly that blows'... I want specifics...
A 1st level wizard could cast a wish... Except he needs 25000gp to do so... and first level characters dont have that kinda money... That kinda thing.
I could go digging through 20 books right now looking for powerful stuff that would still be powerful at first level if offered that early... But this is a big community and everyone knows their particular baliwick better than I probably do...
Presuming you still had to wait for wbl and level based hit points... If your character had gotten all of its powers including level based attribute bonuses and feats and grit and ki and spells per day and spells known and yadda yadda... every class ability all the way to level 20 but instead got them all at level 1...
At the end of the day no matter how powerful you are and how many abilities you have, at the end of the day you're still operating with a middling armor class and a first level set of hit points for the time being... what you GET though is all those options that you'd normally have to sit around for 12 levels dreaming about.
What stuff could you have done at level 1 that would be 'unfun levels of power'
The first thing that would have to 'not follow the new rule explicitly would be stat bonuses for pets.
Giving a 1st level character an eidolon with all of the attribute bonuses of a full blown 20th level eidolon or a druid with an animal companion with 20th level stats wouldnt work...
Since both of those things are essentially built around staying relevant mostly due to stat boosts... so instead they have to wait for their hit points and stat boosts until the character actually hits that level...
But feats and traits and evolutions could all be available right outside the gate. Just not hit points, natural armor bonuses, str or dex bonuses... hmmmm.
That doesnt sound horrifying to give to first level characters... what else we got...?
Well, all I can say is that if you like rocket tag, might as well turn it up to 11, right?
In all seriousness, no. I like that something more concrete than save DCs and hit points differentiates a neophyte from a master.
Yeah. Like I say. I'm not particularly interested in any responses that are 'generalizations of how bad an idea it would be' or 'that you dont like it'.
That kind of post doesnt help me explore the idea at all.
I'm looking for what the technical specifics would be that would make it suck.
You say rocket tag so hopefully you've got something particular in mind... I agree I hate rocket tag so we've been toying with ac as dr...
Sure sure suddenly we have haste available to parties at first level... But at first level it only lasts for one round...
First level caster throws chain lightning woo!!! it does... d6... then bounces to... 1 more target.. for 1 more d6... Not really feeling the game breaky there...
What you thinkin about in particular that is 'rocket taggy'
I admire your crazy.... Been thinking about the same thing except with Rolemaster.
Ah. here's a nice example. 7th level cleric spell 'destruction'... 10 points of damage per level sounds pretty tame... but if they fail their save they take 10d6?
Heheheeheh.
That would have to be rewritten to 'd6 per level on a failed save'
Easy peasy.
Create undead could give you a ghoul at first level... thats not entirely bad...
Create greater undead giving you a shadow at first level might be bad...
The dominate spells might be bad... They're relatively protected simply by having a saving throw (and saves vs 1st level characters isn't too hard)
But a lucky 1st level caster could find himself surprisingly in control of something pretty substantial for a whole day...
Earthquake of course adjusted for scaling damage would clean it up nicely...
Elemental body spell power would have to remain tied to actual level...
Elemental swarm would be a bad one... first one I'd have to be like mmmm. no. It has no 'scaling nature' and no pricegate...
No saving throw on enervation makes it pretty dangerous no matter what level we're talking about... I'd probably still allow it but its kinda like a first level disintegration ray whose only 'challenge' is the requirement to hit the thing you're shooting at. Deadly one this...
Forbiddance damage scaling with level would clean it up and be quite fun I think.
Form of the Dragon same as elemental body... I can see this theme playing out with all the 'polymorph' type spells...
Basically, here's the problem: The Paladin is heavily dependent on bonuses. He needs BAB, Paladin level for smite damage, lots of hit points, magic weapons and armor and two good save progressions. All of these come only from level and most of them cause him to gradually pull ahead of other classes, who have slower progressions across the board and significantly more serious class features to make up for it.
Meanwhile, the sorcerer has just acquired the keys to the kingdom. He's already got all his features, which pull significantly ahead of the paladin's by 20th level. You need some particular spell? He probably knows it and can cast it spontaneously. He can summon monsters far more powerful than himself. Even the Paladin, the master of saving throws, cannot hope to save against his high level spells. He may not have many damage dice, but he can empower and maximise them, hit stupendously large areas, use any energy type to avoid resistance, cut straight to high dc save-or-lose effects and follow any of these tricks with a quickened spell.
Now, this might be solvable and there are ways to make it more manageable. For instance, you could cap feats class features at 8th, 10th or 12th level, declaring that characters start with every feature they'd get up until that point and will never gain any more. You could also convert to a Caster Level based spell DC system. Adding in the various base mythic abilities designed to protect characters also sounds good.
There's also another, smaller problem with this idea: Casters will still "really open up" once their caster level increases enough for their durations to matter, and martial classes will do the same once they become more able to keep up with the summons and the save DCs.
Yeah. Like I say. I'm not particularly interested in any responses that are 'generalizations of how bad an idea it would be' or 'that you dont like it'.
That kind of post doesnt help me explore the idea at all.
I'm looking for what the technical specifics would be that would make it suck.
You say rocket tag so hopefully you've got something particular in mind... I agree I hate rocket tag so we've been toying with ac as dr...
Sure sure suddenly we have haste available to parties at first level... But at first level it only lasts for one round...
First level caster throws chain lightning woo!!! it does... d6... then bounces to... 1 more target.. for 1 more d6... Not really feeling the game breaky there...
What you thinkin about in particular that is 'rocket taggy'
Off the cuff:
1. Save or die. As a high-level example, every 1st-level wizard can cast weird as their opening spell in a fight. It's kind of like a normal 1st-level wizard being able to potentially end a fight with sleep, only it actually kills the targets on a failed save, has a good chance of killing 1st-level targets on a successful save, and has no hit die limitations.
2. Every 1st-level cleric or oracle can more or less spontaneously cast any 7th-level wizard spell in existence without preparation or arcane caster levels at the cost of a 9th-level cleric slot. Using miracle in this fashion has no costly material components (unless the duplicated spell has them). Who knew Schrodinger's Wizard was a cleric...! (They can do the same for 8th-level cleric spells.)
3. Druids. Storm of Vengeance does not give two rabbit pellets what level you are; it will wreak, well, vengeance regardless.
4. Various you're-screwed-even-on-a-successful-save spells, like suffocation.
5. Shapechange. Now you're a big honking dragon for the next ten minutes. Enjoy the 12d8 breath weapon of your choice in addition to all those wonderful natural attacks.
I could go on for a long time here.
Is this the kind of game you want to play, the D&D equivalent of a toddler wielding tactical nukes? The whimsical side of me can certainly see the appeal. But it wouldn't work terribly well unless you really, really like launching glass cannons out of glass cannons at other glass cannons. I'd be amazed if any character ever survived to reach 2nd level.
While I appreciate your advice, I'm fully not interested in your tone...
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I'm Currently working on a similar Idea, for me it this:
Everything in the game can be broken down into 2 things:
A Feat progression or tree
or
A Skill Progression
Basically anything that gives a one time static bonus is the equivalent of a feat, and prerequisites for the feat can be determined by when a character gets that specific ability.
Anything that has a per level progression becomes a skill.
In my system there will be no classes, anyone can buy any feat they meet the prerequisite fore, and any skill they have the points for.
The crux of this system is that I have to completely can the current magic system's spell progression rules and spells. The come up with something new, and balance it for game play against non-magic user characters. This is the most difficult part of the project. the next most difficult is the Cataloging of all current class abilities and codifying them as either feats or skills under the new system. The last step will be reviewing the existing skills and feats and modifying them as needed to operate within the other necessary changes.
This system will still require a certain degree of gating, characters need to be able to learn new things as they go along, but it will allow everything they learn early on to retain relevance as they level up.
That... is not similar to this at all. Are you in the right thread?
@Mortum Paladin mechanics I'm gonna have to dig into specifically. I have played a paladin once in 30 years. Our group doesnt tend to use them so its one of the many areas its not easy for me to see 'off the cuff' where bad stuff might happen. Essentially the idea that all the classes 'really open up' right away is exactly the kind of game i'm thinkin about... So i'm calling that a good thing in this particular thought experiment.
@blahpers
1. Still too general. Trying to narrow it down here
2. Oddly I am actually kinda ok with a cleric being able to do miracle and raise dead at first level... That does change the nature of the game but i'm not sure it does it on a toddler level as you characterize... Call it what you like... It indeed might kinda be what I'm going for.
3. Finally something specific. You're right. This here is one of the spells that even if you scaled down the damage it's pretty damn impressive. What i'm not looking for is for this thing to be your excuse for a dismissive and unhelpful toddler remark. Thanks for finally joining the conversation... if you want to keep posting lets remember not to be a jerk next time. Super thankies.
4. Suffocation doesnt really suck. low level its 3 rounds... Mass suffocation lasts 1 round for level, which for a 1st level person. Is only one round...
5. already addressed shapechange. Any of the 'change your form spells I'd need to examine a little deeper. Totally right about it.
@master of shadows Yeah. Time gating is going to be some of the trickier bits to this... Like dragon form... the lowest level of it is a time gate so its clearly not meant to be given to low level characters, and the whole point of my exercise is trying to flip that on its head...
Giving them the ability to change into a medium dragon is far too powerful for level 1. Mitigated a tiny bit by a duration of 1 minute per level doesnt seem like doing enough... thats till a minute of a first level character as a medium dragon... Perhaps the idea then is that I'd need to include the smaller dragon types. first level character could change into the youngest dragon type available and see how that math looks...
Shapechange sort of combines all of the 'change form' spells into its most prevalent problem, and ups the ante by being 10 minutes at level 1... so it is in fact dialing the problem with these spells up to 11. Thinkin bout how i'll have to handle it.
Things like 'flesh to stone' or 'curse' seem like a bad thing to give a first level character until you realize its mitigated by the ease with which those spells can be repaired as well, so theres a bit of a tradeoff...
So far i'm still feeling pretty comfortable with most of those 'save or sucks' simply because saving against a first level spell is pretty darned easy and the results so far have been mostly reversable with more spells that will suddenly be 'handily available'...
Cool cool.
@shadowcatx not suuuper worried about summon monster 9... for a first level we're talking about only 1 round in duration... A storm giant for 6 seconds isnt striking me as 'oh noes' quite yet... I may change my mind.
As mostly a caster its easier for me to see the places where spells can get me into trouble, I'm not so familiar with some of the martial classes...
I'm wondering what kinds of things a fighter or a rogue with all his feats could come up with every single round to see if he's a 24x7 engine of destruction all of a sudden. If he is, then a 6 second storm giant seems no big deal. If he cant, then maybe a 6 second storm giant needs to be dialed back a bit.
Things like monks damage continuing to be level gated as I mentioned above...
Packing all the stuff from 20 levels of zen archer into first level. Is that still super deadly? Does it make a 6 second storm giant seem silly by comparison or does reducing its levels mean its flurry of arrows is now a shot or two... These are classes I dont see enough to know how it would change things...
Diggin it so far.
These spells aren't first level though. They are 9th level. Saving against them is just as difficult at level 1 as it is at level 20.
As for the paladin, you misunderstand why I brought him up. It's not about him specifically, he's just one of the most extreme cases. All martial classes and especially the monk suffer the same way. You are giving out all the features but none of the base progressions, which unbalances the game because some classes depend on features more and some depend on base progressions more. That's why I only discussed him in relation to the sorcerer, who falls firmly into the other camp.
You've also misunderstood what I was saying about classes opening up: I'm trying to tell you there will still be so level above 1 where each class realises its true potential. Your rule does not eliminate that problem at all.
EDIT: If the wizard has effectively limitless spells and uses one to summon every round, he can summon a creature with the same kind of crazy abilities as the fighter AND the base progressions the fighter is still missing every single round. How many storm giants could a tricked-out fighter with one hit die survive in a row? Zero, if he loses initiative, that's for sure.
greater demiplane... not too bad. still price gated. doesnt bug me too much.
greater teleport? Kinda ok with this one too. I know a lot of pathfinder gms that just start hating the game the second this becomes available. Dont happen to be that kinda gm myself.
imprisonment... hmmm. still has to pull off an actual touch... and i'm starting to see what you guys mean about the save for a 9th level spell being bad even at first level... Have to give these things some thought... Thankya!
energy drain is indeed one bad mama... I think its problem is that '9th level save at first level problem' so i'll put it into that 'thought bucket'
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These spells aren't first level though. They are 9th level. Saving against them is just as difficult at level 1 as it is at level 20.
Yes I am in the right thread, My point is the projects are similar in that a lot of things need to be rethought, and some of the solutions I'm using may be relevant. In a skill based magic system for example, you side step the quoted issue. Spells don't have levels and save DC's are based on the casting skill.
In my case the Saves became defenses similar to the 4th edition mechanic. Every magical spell cast is a skill check which is both a concentration check, and an attack roll.
Druid: elemental swarm.
Ninja'd by post what... 8? Thank you though!
I am indeed thinking a paladin gets all of their smites and mercys all at first level... That sort of thing... I'll admit I say that without knowing much at all about smites and mercies though. Things like paladin's aura of righteousness happening at 1st level sound just peachy to me...
Holy champion on the other hand, heheheh. gets a bit raucous... Dr 10 at level 1 is pretty impressive... while maximized channeling might still be ok being that the channels would still be level scaled. I wouldnt even say it becomes 'irrelevent in the face of clerics being able to raise dead at first level' since not every party would necessarily have a cleric...
I wont deny what i'm talking about is a huge paradigm shift in the nature of the game...
first level paladin curing stun? I'm ok with that...
you have to understand I am entirely looking for the kind of game that plays like a 20th level game at first level to a significant degree. I know the idea will be hugely unpopular to folks who start hating the game the second teleport starts to be an option. I just dont happen to be that guy.
I'm not looking at this from the standpoint of being a player who wants to munchkin murderhobo... I'm coming at the idea from the standpoint of a gm, because thats mostly all I ever do. I'm looking at how bad it would be to gm a game if I implemented these changes and deciding if there are tricks players would pull out that wouldn't make the idea salvageable.
For some gms a first level character teleporting isnt any fun to run. For those that are still riling and seething, again I'm not really asking for 'iz broke, end of line' or 'don't like... banhammer on the idea, goodbye' kind of posts...
There are for sure some folks who hate the game past level 8, which is why we have things like e7... That works for them. I'm the opposite guy. I'm trying to see if I could put together a thing that works for people who hate not having the last part of a feat tree or a high level spell until the game is over and it ceases to matter.
If they are ALL available at first level he would simultaneously cure stun ... And also five more from that list with every lay on hands.
Yep. I think i'm cool with that.
Even in palladium, casters don't start with all spells at first level.
They chose them as they go, depending on level.
Even in palladium, casters don't start with all spells at first level.
They chose them as they go, depending on level.
True enough. Cant say I ever really liked the magic system in palladium but its a valid point. There is a black market class that can get access to a 15th level spell at first level though. I used to think that a character had to be 10th level to get a 10th level spell, but thats actually not true... I was quite shocked the first time it came up. Its true for some classes, but not true for some others... Quite a surprise, but a surprise I kinda liked actually. Part of what got me thinking abotu this idea in the first place.
Capstone abilities are some of the best places i'm finding to think about how the game would change... a first level summoner suddenly becoming able to 'twin eidolon' does indeed sound horrible, what with first level eidolons seeming so powerful for the early levels...
But if thats suddenly not entirely true... they are powerful compared to a first level fighter with a handful of feats... are they still powerful next to a fighter with ALL of his feats? I'm not so sure anymore...
The higher level I got with my summoner the less relevant in combat the eidolon seemed, so while 'flesh to stone' sounds like a horrible thing to give a first level pc, simply having a first level cleric along could remove that problem just as quickly as it arose.
I'll admit anyone who shies away from the game past level 8 is definitely going to have their mind blown at giving all that power to a first level character.
Holy champion and perfect self seem pretty good to me... dr 10 chaotic is pretty powerful. Clearly its the monsters that will suffer most with this kind of power being bandied about. Characters given these abilities so early would made their CR (or functional APL) seem significantly higher...
Weapon mastery capstone... Pretty cool actually. Might start to be getting to the point where things get dangerous for the concept. If a fighter chose stunning critical as one of his feats with automatically confirming criticals... That would start to get a little silly.
First level paladin can cure it out of hand. Doesnt help out the random beastie much though.
Wonder if requiring them to still have to roll for the stun would be too much or too little. Hmm. Only mitigating factor there seems to be the fort save on the stunning critical feat... Hmmm.
Powerful? Yes. Something tells me that it still doesnt come close to mitigating the popular argument that casters are too powerful and fighters are not... But I dont want to start down the path to that conversation so soon.
Right now one of the 'big bads' on my list is timestop...
If a first level wizard can stop time for 2-5 rounds and in that time cast a bunch of other crud... fixing the saving throw problem might bring that back down to reasonable levels might make it ok...
What I'm seeing looking at this is a set of four simple obstacles:
Full casters will gain more than other classes while martial sorts gain less, since they need BAB for their iterative attacks and thus their damage, gain more numbers when leveling up etc but get less of the stuff you're handing out at 1st level to compensate.
Everybody gets all their offensive abilities but none of their hp or save progressions, so no printed monsters make sense as opponents and battles against classed npcs will never least more than a round, one way or the other.
Some abilities just scale differently to others because they're not all designed to make sense at a variety of levels. Characters who have abilities that remain crazy at low levels will make the rest irrelevant.
The above problems all encourage playing high initiative nova mage characters, because if any enemy who poses a genuine threat gets to act, there's a significant risk of most or even all of the party dying outright, so even within the classes that are favoured by this rule, you'll see a much narrower range of builds. This will be true even if your players don't optimise, because characters with no spells or low initiatives simply won't last long enough to make an impression.
I do think that theres another significant hurdle to these ideas that relates to powerful abilities too...
While I'm thinking about making these changes from the standpoint of giving people the *option* of doing some of the things they rarely get a chance to do... on the other hand there are certain players when given a powerful option will use it to the exclusion of everything else... I know plenty of players who, when told their first level character could cast 10 fireballs at level 1 would put the brakes on practically every other aspect of the game...
Giving a player 1 first level fireballs is pretty much the same thing as handing him a particle beam rifle with 10 shots in the clip... so that 'idea' is a very palladiumizing thing and I wouldnt inherently call that a broken thing. The thing in palladium that makes it not broken is sure, you *could* go around shooting everything you meet in the face, but you dont... so the question I guess is ... why dont you?
Wouldnt be fun and your campaign would be much shorter if you did... The increased mortality factor that 'everyone can return fire at that level and you wouldnt last long' is a deterrent... You never hear in palladium "I would never let anyone come within 400 feet of me and I would fireball everything I came across"... Not a hard problem to mitigate from a rules standpoint but a VERY hard problem to mitigate from a roll your eyes this is silly standpoint... A rifts player shooting everyone he meets would meet the same kind of death that a wizard who fireballs everything he meets would achieve. One of the things palladium does have going for it is that its not very hard at all to put together the ability to soak up some decent damage at low levels... So thats kind of a thing.
The other problem is that such thinking immediately brings to the surface what kinds of powers only 'seem like they would be fun, but in fact... aren't.... It sure sounds like a good idea to automatically confirm all your criticals... But how long would that really stand up to long term play before people are just like mmmm. I never really cared that much for such a thing as I thought I would.
Thats probably a more significant trouble than a lot of the mechanics i'm looking at.
Actually I'm pretty sure the mechanics problems are so bad they'll make half the table completely useless because they can't so much as blink before the other half has won the encounter, and there'll be an average of about 1 tpk per session if you fight npcs with the same benefits.
I don't think auto-confirming crits will have a chance to get old.
Boring though it sounds, you might be better off just starting at level 8 or so and running a mythic campaign.
all summonings can be bad, even at 1 round. More for a summoner, a 1 minute gated or summon IX can be bad.
And hope you will limit multiclassing, as 1 level dip will be a full class abilities dip.
all summonings can be bad, even at 1 round. More for a summoner, a 1 minute gated or summon IX can be bad.
And hope you will limit multiclassing, as 1 level dip will be a full class abilities dip.
I dont think i'd run it that way. one level dip in paladin wouldnt get you 20 levels worth of paladin class abilities.. A one level dip in wizard would get you a first level spell, not 'the ability to cast all spells'...
2.5E's Spells & Magic had an optional rule for "Exceeding the Spell Level Limit" that allowed learning and casting of spells 1 or 2 spell levels higher than those normally available to you. That would be a nice compromise. Perhaps combine with ritual casting variant rules, i.e. higher cost in casting time, money and/or XP. This would limit combat application but nicely support the classic apprentice-tries(and probably botches)-a-summoning-ritual trope.
Spells & Magic also had an optional rules for "Casting Spells For Greater Effect" btw. Both where part of an optional spell point system.
Actually I'm pretty sure the mechanics problems are so bad they'll make half the table completely useless because they can't so much as blink before the other half has won the encounter, and there'll be an average of about 1 tpk per session if you fight npcs with the same benefits.
I don't think auto-confirming crits will have a chance to get old.
Boring though it sounds, you might be better off just starting at level 8 or so and running a mythic campaign.
You're probably right. Seems like this might be too huge of a change when all I'm really interested in is playing the higher level game more often. I guess its really an issue of some abilities being made available earlier wouldnt be a big deal at all, while other abilities shouldnt be made available ever...
A wizard capstoning 'I never die of old age' could happen at any time and not have a negative impact on the game.... A fighter confirming every crit has a huge effect on the game at any stage. While on the one hand some capstone abilities mean so little when the games over as soon as they arrive, on the other hand clearly not all of them are the kind of thing that would be a good idea to have running 24x7
While 'chain lightning' might scale quite nicely at any level, for other things in the system the quite opposite is true.
You could always try mythic gestalts if you want more power and abilities. That would probably be awesome.
Maybe what you'd really want would be not to Palladiumize Pathfinder, but to Mutate and Mastermind it. (Caution: Green Ronin has come out with another edition of Mutants and Masterminds since the time I last gave it more than a cursory glance.) Mutants and Masterminds lets you buy Skills, Feats, and Powers (and gain extra points by taking Disadvantages) -- you can't get everything at 1st Level, but you could get anything that you could pay for that would fit within your Power Level, and the default Mutants and Masterminds starting Power Level is in the range 8 - 12, at which you can buy almost anything, although not everything at once. I don't know if it is corporately possible, but I think that a teamup between Paizo and Green Ronin to do the next edition of Pathfinder could be awesome.
Mutants and Masterminds isn't the only game to start at default Level > 1, nor is this limited to non-Fantasy games. Supposedly Dark Sun (2nd Edition -- never got a chance to play that setting) did this, starting everybody off at 5th Level. WarCraft III (the real-time strategy game, not its successor World of WarCraft) started Heroes at nominally Level 1, but a Hero at Level 1 had roughly 1/2 the Hit Points of a Hero at Level 10 (the cap), and did more roughly 1/2 the damage per shot, and at Level 1 you could buy 1 Level of any Hero Class Ability except the Ultimate (which required Hero Level 6), so Level 1 was a good bit more than 1/10 of Level 10. WarCraft III also had (maybe even invented?) a mechanic for Level 1 characters to use Teleport without it breaking the game -- more on that in a bit.
Now, while some things would break the game at Level 1 (hence WarCraft III having a class of Ultimate abilities requiring Hero Level 6 of 10), not everything that is High Level in Pathfinder/D&D would. So an in-between approach would certainly be in order, especially if put on a chassis like that of Mutants and Masterminds. Some Level 9 things in Pathfinder actually wouldn't be as bad as they sound, with moderate tweaking. I'll pick Wish as an example since that one was highly dreaded above: Wish actually has most of the mechanics already built in to keep it in line with what should be possible at Level 1, PROVIDED THAT you only make other spells available at Level 1 when they can be scaled or tiered, like the Summon Monster and Summon Nature's Ally series -- that is, you get access to the Summon Monster or Summon Nature's Ally series at Level 1, but you need to scale up to summon the really powerful stuff (although I like the idea posted above from D&D 2.5 to allow you to push the limits at some risk). Now, think of what Wish does, with just a little bit of rewording using the scaling suggested by the relation of Wish (Spell Level 9) to Limited Wish (Spell Level 7) to convert it into a Wish series.
Duplicate any Sorcerer/Wizard spell of at least 1 Level lower, provided the spell does not belong to one of your opposition schools.Duplicate any non-Sorcerer/Wizard spell of at least 2 Levels lower, provided the spell does not belong to one of your opposition schools.
Duplicate any Sorcerer/Wizard spell of at least 2 Levels lower, even if it belongs to one of your opposition schools.
Duplicate any non-Sorcerer/Wizard spell of at least 3 Levels lower, even if it belongs to one of your opposition schools.
Undo the harmful effects of many other spells, such as Geas/Quest or Insanity, as long as they are at least 2 Levels lower.
High Level Wishes may grant a creature a +1 Inherent Bonus to an ability score. Two to five Wish spells cast in immediate succession can grant a creature a +2 to +5 inherent bonus to an ability score (two wishes for a +2 Inherent Bonus, three wishes for a +3 inherent bonus, and so on). Inherent Bonuses are instantaneous, so they cannot be dispelled. Note: An inherent bonus may not exceed 4 Levels below that of the lowest Level Wish spell for a single ability score (so a minimum of Wish V is required for this application), and inherent bonuses to a particular ability score do not stack, so only the best one applies.
Remove injuries and afflictions, provided that they are caused by a phenomenon equivalent to or less than a spell at least 3 Levels below that of the Wish. A single Wish can aid one creature per Caster Level, and all subjects are cured of the same kind of affliction. For example, you could heal all the damage you and your companions have taken, or remove all poison effects from everyone in the party, but not do both with the same Wish. (Might want to incorporate a Caster Level check mechanic into this application.)
Revive the dead. A Wish can bring a dead creature back to life by duplicating a life-restoring spell of at least 2 Levels lower, or at least 3 Levels lower if such spells belong to one of your opposition schools.
Transport travelers. (Redacted due to Teleport rework -- see below.)
Undo misfortune. A Wish can undo a single recent event, provided that the event was equivalent to a spell at least 3 Levels below that of the Wish. The Wish forces a reroll of any roll made within the last round (including your last turn). Reality reshapes itself to accommodate the new result. For example, a Wish could undo an opponent's successful save, a foe's successful critical hit (either the attack roll or the critical roll), a friend's failed save, and so on. The re-roll, however, may be as bad as or worse than the original roll. An unwilling target gets a Will save to negate the effect, and Spell Resistance (if any) applies. (Might want to incorporate a Caster Level check mechanic into this application.)
Now add a scaling of cost so that Wish 0 has no material component, and Wish I through IX (and even beyond) scales in a way such that characters capable of casting without using the D&D 2.5 Level-pushing mechanic would have a reasonable probability of being able to afford the material component, but generally not want to except in an emergency. Wish 0 would be the more prosaic name for Prestidigitation; Wish I would be a powered-up Prestidigitation and be able to duplicate a variety of Cantrips in case of emergency; higher Levels of Wish would go up from there according to the rules Paraphrased and Tweaked above. Note that this would work just fine for Spell Levels > 9 as well -- nothing breaks as long as the balance of other spells (including other ranked Spells such as the Summon Monster and Summon Nature's Ally series) is kept in line with their Level.
With respect to Teleport breaking things, this could be fixed using larger tweaks, of which the WarCraft III approach is a good example. In WarCraft III, you couldn't just blow your nose and Teleport anywhere -- you had to have at least a friendly unit to Teleport to, and in the case of the Town Portal Scroll, you could only target it to a spot within a certain distance of one of your (or an ally's) Town Halls or upgraded versions thereof. The Town Portal Scroll was expensive enough (except for the first, which was free) that you would generally only want to use it in an emergency, but not so expensive as to be unaffordable for frequent emergencies. The Staff of Teleportation was cheaper and could be used unlimited times but with a substantial cooldown, and only required a friendly or allied unit, but only transported the Hero. Staff of Preservation and Staff of Sanctuary could be used by a Hero to transport a non-Hero unit unlimited times but with a substantial cooldown, but only transported them to your nearest Town Hall or upgraded version thereof (if you didn't have one, these had some other rule that I never figured out for figuring out which of your buildings to transport the unit to). Mass Teleport, which was like the Staff of Telportation but cost Mana and also transported a moderate-sized army, was the Archmage's Ultimate Spell (required Archmage Level 6). All of these Teleports also had a range limited to that of the Map (conceptually within a few miles of a settlement, although for technical reasons less than the equivalent of a mile) -- considerably more than Dimension Door, but less than D&D/Pathfinder Teleport. A few units and Heroes also had a short-ranged Blink ability that was actually more like Dimension Door, but without the inability to act for the rest of a Round -- you could use this ability to shift suddenly to any point in range that you could see, but it wouldn't work if you were Entangled or Ensnared, and the range was much less than that of the other Teleports. The story line had Teleports of greater range than the above, but these were not done in-game, instead appearing in cut scenes when seen at all.
Other high Level spells that would be game-breaking at Level 1 would need similar adjustment and/or limitation to higher Levels, but as with the Wish and Teleport examples above, not all of the ones that are currently non-scaling would be impossible to tweak in the required way.