Earlier today I checked out the multiplayer tab and got the prompted free starter party. There's been a server reset since then, and now I'm noticing that the party has all been deleveled to 1 and all their equipment dumped in my stash. Has anyone else experienced this? This isn't something that's supposed to happen, right? My acct name is also Funkula if any devs want to take a look at it.
You're currently looking at your single-player campaign keep, right? Pop back over to multiplayer and all will be as you expect. The two parts of the game are handled differently BUT share the same item pool. So in single-player, you advance from level 1, and may have one arrangement of equipment. In multiplayer, ALL characters are set to level 18, and you may have a separate arrangement of equipment. When you buy a starter pack, you are getting a group of "level 1 characters" with a multiplayer arrangement. They only look "level 18" because that's how multiplayer works. Thus, when you go into single-player, you see exactly what you are describing: the "real level 1" on those characters, and a pool of items waiting for you to equip.