[Cerek the Barbaric]

Well, that explains a little bit of the situation anyway.

A 1st level is going to have a DEVIL of a time surviving in a level 5-6 dungeon. And, if you multi-class, you will NEVER catch up to the rest of the group.

Man, your DM should cut you some slack and let you create a character that's at least 4th level or so. Even if you don't get any magic...at least you would have a chance to survive to find some.

If your character is more than 2 levels lower than the rest of the party, you will have a HARD time surviving. This is true until you break 20th level or so...after that it kinda evens out.

For example, Cerek was a 1st Edition Barbarian from the Unearthed Arcana. I maxed his CON, so he had a tremendous number of hit points. He always traveled with a Ranger that I created at the same time. The ranger had 18 STR & CON and straight 17's in everything else (absolutely BEST stats I ever rolled).

So, BOTH of these guys were very tough. When they were around 13th level, I brought them into a game being run by one of our group that was a 20+ level dungeon. I figured their hit points and combat skills could "cover the gap".

WROOOOOOOOOONG!!!!

Our first encounter were some modified skeleton warriors that were super tough. My two characters double-teamed ONE skeleton and did a little bit of damage....then the skeleton attacked. After ONE attack, the barbarian and ranger had just enough hit points left to run for the door at max speed and find a cleric.

We were pretty useless for the rest of that encounter. Now, the rest of the dungeon wasn't AS bad, because these were monsters my buddy had "beefed up". Against the ordinary Monster Manual varieties, we did OK. Still, there was an OBVIOUS power difference in the characters.

I don't want to create any trouble, but it sounds like your DM either has it in for any character YOU create....or he is good friends with the players whose characters have "miraculously" survived so far.

Whatever the case, he doesn't sound as if he is treating ALL the players fairly, IMHO.

It may just be time to look for a new group if possible.