It would be really terrific if the player got (4 - level) XP. Those first few stat points are important, and it's easy to place them badly, but since the PC only can get XP by combat, it can really cripple you out the gate. OTOH, you can always throw a slave in the library to knock out those first few levels in a jiffy.
If that's intentional and thematic, I'm down - the idea of a slavemaster being carried by their slaves in the early game is pretty cool, too. But I think this is a good idea, since it would only help a little, and only for the first three levels.