All characters in Pat's game start with 2501 XP and max hit points for their 1st hit dice roll. I was fortunate enough to roll a couple more 4s to go with the 1st, and adding it all together I have half-again as many hit points as my first (dead) cleric character.
HOWEVER, this one I've made every attempt to make as base and self-serving as possible, going so far as to draw inspiration from the works of Shakespeare (of course, some may remember that W.S.'s Falstaff failed to live to a ripe, old age...ah well).
Being a lightly armored thief, I fully intend to skulk in the back of the party as much as humanly possible. I mentioned before that Diomedes was my first attempt EVER at playing a cleric in any edition of the game. Well, Falstaff will be my first attempt at a thief character (bards...yes. thieves...no). I considered actually making more of a 2nd edition style bard (basically a thief with a ukulele), but decided I'd rather just have a fat "F" of an adventurer instead and the uke would simply be too ridiculous for words.
Not that Falstaff isn't plenty ridiculous on his own....