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You are correct, there is no way for a level 2 and level 3 PC to play together (or any other odd level and the even level before it). They may have been trying to let people catch up when they released 11 1st-2nd level scenarios before the first level 3-4, and 9 3rd-4th level scenarios before the first 5-6 scenario.
That being said, it is now possible to create fresh characters of 3rd, 5th, or 7th level*. Of course, you take a hit to how many credits you start with, miss out on the unique options available from chronicles, and are starting with a blank slate when other characters will have a long history.
So for an event organizer, I reccomend trying to put on at least 8 or 9 level 1-2 scenarios before you put on the first 3-4 unless you have enough people to run a 3-4 side by side with a 1-2.
*The gear guidelines for 7th level PCs aren't on Lorespire yet because there probably won't be any 7-8 scenarios for nearly another year.
Edit: I got a little caried away and went on a bit of a rant about why I don't want to create characters above level 1 and hate the idea of feeling I need to in order to participate. But as soon as I finished I realized that could derail the thread, so I scrubbed it.
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You are correct,Thank you for this informative response. I was wishing I was wrong. I am unaware of what problem this new approach is solving.
According to Paizo, sticking to 2 level brackets with only 3 tiers of difficulty makes adventure writing a lot easier, and by extension cheaper. They also hope to avoid the sometimes disruptive play experiences where 4 level 4s have to babysit two confused, helpless level 1s or a Power built level 4 ends up stealing the spotlight from a bunch of lwvel 1s. Or a lone level 5 getting immediately turned into a pile of dust because the rest of party is level 8*
*substitute higher levels as appropriate. Being the level 9 in a party of level 12s in a number of scenarios is just asking for death, for example.
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I am unaware of what problem this new approach is solving.
Besides making them easier to write, balance, and cheaper to produce, there are several player facing benefits.
1. It's also easier for GMs, since you don't have to prep for high and low tiers. Which also means there are fewer pages to flip through when you only have one set of stat blocks per encounter instead of two.
2. Most near TPKs I've been in, we only survived because, at the last moment, when the GM realized they used the wrong tier stat block or had mis-calculated APL.
3. Playing the only 1st-level character when the rest of the party is 3rd and 4th-level isn't always fun.
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If your group only has one table, the problem is no different than only having a 4th-level character when the group is playing 5th + scenario. The quick solution for players are play a pregen to level up your character, or if you have time, make a 3rd-level character.
Venture-Lieutenant, Netherlands—Leiden
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I do wonder if it would have been easier if level ranges had been:
1-3 (centered on level 2)
3-5
5-7
7-9
etc.
By making all the tiers overlap slightly you'd be easing things. Also, you could assume a party of mid-level characters playing the normal difficulty. If you had mostly characters in the lower part of the range you could switch to the easy mode and if you had mostly higher level characters you'd switch to the harder mode.
