Escape list markers at beginning of paragraph:
% pandoc -t markdown \* ok \+ ok \- ok 1\. ok a\. ok ^D \* ok \+ ok \- ok 1\. ok a\. ok
Here we don't need to escape because there's no space:
% pandoc -t markdown \+ok \-ok 1.ok ^D +ok -ok 1.ok
Also escape things that might become line blocks or tables:
% pandoc -t markdown \| hi \| ^D \| hi \|