I hate level 1, stuff dies too often. Feels too kitey.
Seconded.
Level 1 is nothing more than gambling with a blank of a character.
[spoiler]Wizard: "I am a necromancer, practitioner of the dark arts, evil incarnate of free slavery."
Any_Class_Here: "Cool, what can you do?"
Wizard: "Umm. I can't do anything necro-like other than touch you in funny ways."
Bard/Cleric/Duskblade/Paladin/Rogue/Sorcerer: "I can do that too."
Barbarian/Fighter/Hexblade/Monk: "My uncle once did that, I hit him over the head with a stick afterwards. Wish I could talk about things more but I'm level 1"
RPer: "You don't need levels to RP a good character. Look at me I'm a fat & overweight old and retired champion sumo warrior."
DM: "There are rules for obesity and since you lack the trait you are not fat enough to look it. Also your monk level is too low so you need to note the aging bonuses & penalties for being old. And you are level 1, like just out of monk school to try wrestling for the first non-practice/rigged time in your life, so you were never a champion outside of scrubbing floors."
All: "Let's gamble on the d20 for auto kills and XP so we can be interesting!"[/spoiler]