Level 1 character vs level 13 character

[ExLibrisMortis]

Except none of that is what the OP listed. Here's the first sentence of the thread

And here is the OP's follow-up:

And to reply to Kelb, it was my friends idea to play a forsaker character to play in an upcoming level 13campaign. The whole argument came up because I was trying to dissuade him from doing that.

It has everything to do with Forsaker. Yes, VoP has its part, of course, but crucially we were discussing magic items all through the thread.

As for expectation management, the only reason that something won't work as the player expects it is if the DM is doing so intentionally. If the DM is following the rules for CR and is creating creatures with class levels using same-similar methods that the PCs used (elite array or same value point-buy), a Forsaker is going to do just fine.

That's just... so wrong. You're basically saying that anything is balanced if the DM is following the CR rules, and any imbalance/underperformance is the DM's fault, which is both inaccurate (the CR rules aren't precise, and some classes are just that weak, and sometimes player expectations really don't match the class' abilities) and completely unfair to the DM (who can't be blamed for bad class design or player expectations, and who may well be balancing to the rest of the party, with the Forsaker falling behind). It's shockingly naive to think everything will just be fine and dandy if you follow the rules and don't complain.

I am not familiar with Forsaker [...]

Perhaps you should read the actual class, then.