Level 7 is probably fine. It seems like a lot when you're low level, but after you gain a couple more levels it won't seem to matter much, especially as the gap in hard XP decreases. I just barely got my dwarf Throgrim to Kharanos (? I think it's right this time) and parked him in the inn to gain rested state. He's probably soaked in good dwarven ale by now.
I haven't asked my brother about it yet, but he's heading up to Canada with his wife for Christmas on Thursday, so he'll probably be somewhere between Idaho and nowhere when we start playing. That, and with the possibility of Tage joining the party, I figured it was a non-issue. Have we gotten a yes/no answer on that yet?
I was going over the dwarven Paladin talents, and as far as long-range planning goes, we'll want at least one of our Paladins to go to the top of the Retribution tree for Blessing of Kings. An additional 10% to all primary stats for 5 minutes is *very* good. The Retribution tree is tempting already for the Consecration area of effect attack already. The other Paladin should likely look at the Defensive tree for their primary investments for the improved Seal of Fury to help with tanking, and since with the sheer bulk healing we'll have available, we probably don't need anyone in the Holy tree specialization aside from a few pick-up talents. We don't have to follow that plan, of course, but it makes a lot of sense to me. I could probably be talked into doing either one.
Yes, I have been bored at work.
If you want to see what I'm talking about, the best talent calculator I've found so far (and the one I'm using) is at wowvault.ign.com. Their skills section isn't incredibly up-to-date...I've started going to
www.thottbot.com for that.
If people want to do more detailed party planning, we should probably start a new thread for it.