Should i have gotten a negative combat strength

[MunchkinMan]

I moved this question to its own thread. Please don't tack on additional questions to a thread unless the new questions is a follow-up to a response, or directly pertains to the original question. We ask that people do this, and not ask multiple questions in a thread, because it prevents issues with tangents within threads creating difficulty in finding responses.

As for the question: Yes, even though your actual Level can not go below 1, your combat strength (your Level + bonuses - penalties) can go negative. Since penalties affect your combat strength (and not your Level), the -5 penalty started you off with a -2 combat strength.