I thank everyone for their responses. I'm glad to know that my reservations concerning the level gap was not unfounded, hopefully I'll be joining at level 18 to hopefully 20. It's possible my coworker just was wrong on the level of the other PCs. I've asked for an official starting level, and am waiting for the response.

@ Waddacku: I was wondering about power attack, most of my game experience is from 3.5/pathfinder which probably gave me an inflated estimation on the importance of power attack. I'm not sure how to get full plate prof since the feat requires st and con of 15. I could easily go con 15, int 16, wis 18 at first end up with c16, int 20, wis 22 and switch out power attack for unarmored agility. AC 34, a 3 point increase. I'm having trouble finding painful oath, I would gladly switch out a paragon feat for it, but I'm a little unsure what it does.