There is nothing like teaching kids D&D to have some of the logical/nomenclature oddities in the game underscored. For example, the distinction b/w spell and character level. “I am now 3rd level so can I now cast fly!?” Nope. “Why?” Yeah. Reasons. This is a huge frustration for me when teaching new players. A new edition could expand spells into 20 levels… or it could crunch class progression into 10 levels. Both "easy" fixes with a lot of growing pains.
— James ☂️ Haeck (@jamesjhaeck) October 8, 2020
Easy fix – change Spell Level to something like Spell Tier instead.
At third level, you can cast Tier 2 / 2nd Tier spells.