It's also roleplaying wise... as with Maria/Daril, many roleplayers round up their characters as the adventure starts, so while first they could have some idea or direction maybe by level 3 they have changed entirely, so its sort of good idea to leave those choices for when the moment you know who is your character.<br/><br/>but I agree with Rikka, 1st level benefits are very small... but for a 1st level character it could be the difference between life or death... story and character wise I DO understand Daril's need (I have created in the past a similar character), the sword is a character itself, more a feature than a tool... it's not like Conan did in a series of comics that he used one sword per battle and then threw it away (even when he found a magic one), but in this case is a heirloom, a link to the character past and the future.<br/><br/>Years ago in a home campaign we tried an alternate set of rules for magic items (still 3rd edition, and we took it from Dragon Magazine) where we spent part of our own experience to level up special items usually one weapon and a set of armor, and not all of us, some wanted their full experience and they had no trouble just changing equipment, myself my character's sword had name, her father had handed it to her, I wasn't going to trade that for a generic +2 bastardsword (probably a holy avenger  >:) but that is another story  ;D )<br/><br/>Usually I would say that I had no trouble with the exchange of powers for that kind of cases... but considering the kind of story I doubt any lose of weapons is permanent (same reason I asked above if there was any change of getting "mending" as a free cantrip...  just to get my (and others) clothes back together :P)