Welcome!  Happy to have you here!  Pull up a chair, crack open the books, and get ready to brainstorm!

Starting level: 16 (yes, you read that right!)

Allowed Books: All official published sourcebooks/supplements (homebrewed content only allowed on an especially rare basis; expect the answer to be "no" about 99% of the time).

Race/class restrictions: none.  For any non-Core options, please at least reference the source you're pulling them from so that I can reference it more easily.

Alignment restrictions: no Evil, please.  They may not all be traitorous murderhobos, but they still make life harder.

Stats: Roll 4d6 drop lowest, re-rolling 1s, 8 times and keep the best six.

Gear: 20k GP for assorted gear and goodies.

Magic Items: still finalizing this, so don't go plotting out an entire grab-bag just yet!  You can assume you'll have at least 2-3 items of Uncommon or better rarity as a general guideline.

Anything I missed: Just ask if you've got a question!

Starting magic items:

I've seen what the DMG recommends, and I've actually played.  Guess which way we'll be going!

You may each have the following:

5 common, 5 uncommon, and 5 rare items that must be either consumables (potions/scrolls) or highly situational gear that may be useful at times (and able to be used in ways that'll surprise the hell out of me), but are generally of limited usefulness outside of a particular situation.

You can also have 2 uncommon and 2 rare items of any sort, reflecting years of spoils of war.

AND you may give me a list of 2-3 items to be your spoils from defeating Necrosil.  Be careful what you ask for...you just might get it, and all the plot headaches that some along with it!