1st Level Encounters
Basically, I wanted all the first level encounters to be fun, have a good mix of combat, terrain, cover, concealment, minions and non-combat. The goal being to familiarize both DM & players with all the nuances of the 4th edition combat & non-combat encounter system. As well, I really wanted to utilize the slick tools now found in DMG & MM for designing encounters. I wanted balanced combats with multiple enemies. I used the treasure parcel design tools as well. I also added different elements of terrain, cover & concealment. I wanted them to reach level 2 having gotten a taste of everything.

Human Criminals (660 EXP, level 2 encounter)– The party has been told that their first challenge to prove themselves worthy of joining the Elite Party will be one of combat “How well do you fight alongside those you don’t know, when you have no reason to trust each other.” Their essentially brought bound & blindfolded to a clearing, more like an arena, where they are told they have 5 minutes to free themselves and prepare for battle. Not to pull any punches either as the humans they are up against are all hardened criminals that will be struck down one way or another, either in this combat or soon after. I didn’t want moral issues or RPG to be a factor in any early combats. I really am pushing just the learning experience. The clearing is 20 x 20 hexes. There is one tree in the center. There were 10 Human Rabble that charged their line, 1 Human Berserker that fought behind that front line, and a human mage that stayed by the tree for partial cover the entire battle. They were all dressed identically. I wanted them to see that there are now different builds for all the baddies, and then clothing may not be the giveaway, there will be other subtle differences. More importantly, I wanted them to learn about minions. They do steady damage but have only that 1 HP. When they are recognized in any battle, and they will be around for a while, they need to strategize accordingly. I played the baddies here, and every other time, as laid out under tactics in the MM. It became quite clear, even after just one combat, how important tactics & minion identification will be going forward. Reward – 1 Potion of Healing & 130GP
Cube Room (500 XP, level 1 puzzle) – The party has been told that their second challenge to prove themselves worthy of joining the Elite Party will be one of the mind “How well do you work together with those you don’t know, when you have no reason to trust each other.” This is a puzzle encounter. I will post this puzzle under its own header in greater detail. Basically, the party is thrown into a 20’x20’x20’ cube. There is a circular door in the center of all 6 walls with a plain wooden lever to the right of each one. In the corner of the first room are two 50’ ropes & two grappling hooks. There is a young boy in the center of the room, huddling & scared. Each PC is told up front a different clue from their patrons before any challenges begin. One was told to look for order, another was told to follow Roy and let Roy be his guide. The boy is Roy. They let him choose the first lever to pull. This opens the circular door next to it. All doors lead to the first room, where the levers are all of a different color. Roy, who has no idea why he is there, chooses the red one. When they all enter the next room, the room spins and revolves in a spiral upwards and then stops (This means success). For those as smart as the average bear, you can see that following Roy up to this point would net the same result as following ROY G BV. In the next room, Roy again wants to pull the red handle creating the obvious conundrum, which Roy are they to follow (Assuming the PC who rec’d this advice had brought it up for discussion with the party). At all times, they must go in order of ROY G BV. When they don’t they take 1d4 damage & a side effect (See Cube Room description for further details)
Anyway, the proper way to get through this room is ROY G BV. It took them a few hours and was a lot of fun as the party kept changing sides, deliberating, devising & redevising plans, etc… Reward – 1 Potion of Healing & 100GP. Bonus of 100 XP/PC if Roy survived. I know this is not encouraged by the DMG and I won’t do this at high levels, but as a PC I always liked little XP bonus’ for doing the right thing. Also, I was a little wary about the Level 5 Encounter I had planned as the last first level combat encounter. So I wanted them to get there as level 2 rather than adjust that encounter in any way.
On the way to the Goblin Lair (750 XP Level 3 encounter) – Read Thomas’ Fall for more details on this one. I took the Level 3 Goblin Encounter straight out of MM. This was in a 12 x 17 hexes clearing basically. Throughout the top left chunk of the map were trees that added elements of cover, concealment & hiding. This was a real challenge for the party. They all thought I was very adept tactically already as a DM. This was funny because that was never particularly the case for me as a PC. I just played each baddie the way the MM said to though. When this was done, they needed to get more info on how to get to the Goblin Lair. If they let one of the goblins survive, they would receive another 100 XP bonus for playing smart. They did, and this led to a level 1 Skill challenge. Reward – None.
Skill Challenge (500 XP Level 1 Skill Challenge, Easy-Moderate - See DMG p.79 Level 1 skill challenge – 4 successes vs. 2 failures. 500 XP for completion of Skill Challenge. 100 XP/PC bonus if they purposely left one alive for questioning) – Rather than re-invent the wheel, I completely bit from the DMG and used their entire layout for this skill challenge. They handled it well and got it, 4 successes to one failure. There was a bonus of +1 to all roles towards the end as one of the players used a creative idea so I rewarded it as the DMG advises to. Here is how I laid it out to them:
Step 1: Inform PC’s that if they capture a goblin that they are in a skill challenge to find out valuable info from their captive. Success means that they will learn where the lair is and have other questions answered, relevant questions. Failure means they’ll need to determine another way of finding the goblin lair
Step 2: Tell them it’s a social challenge so look to use social skills as a guide (I didn’t need to spell this out to them, but this means Intimidate, Bluff or Diplomacy)
Step 3: Have everyone roll for initiative and have them understand that they all participate in this challenge
Step 4: Inform PC’s about the 100 XP/PC bonus if they kept a captive alive on purpose. This is a one-time bonus to reward them for learning the rules and showing they have skills & not just brawn.
Bluff (Moderate DC-15) per DMG
Diplomacy (Moderate DC-15) per DMG
Intimidate (Moderate DC-15) per DMG
Insight (Moderate DC-15) Successes here don’t give the party any successes towards the challenge, but they will let them know to lean on Bluff/Diplomacy/Intimidate & give a +2 on all rolls going forward.
What the goblin tells them: Lair location – just 2 days travel from here, approximate numbers - about 20 goblins. They are also told that these things never end well and that if they hurry they may just save the lives of those held captive. Although there is a sacrifice that is scheduled for sunrise in 3 days. They need to hurry. He begs for his life. If they kill him or let him free, there is no penalty here, just a moral debate OK, so I added in a tad of RPG…sue me)
I was going to have the captured goblin feed them a little bit of info with each success but on the fly decided against that. Let the reward for a successfully completed skill challenge be all or nothing. I don’t want them thinking each step of the way that they can get skill challenges done 75% and be just fine with that each time. Also important is that this was designed before they posted the Errata to the table on page 42 of the DMG (Add Link Here). That would have made this much easier for everyone and going forward, I will be using the revised chart.
GOBLIN LAIR:
Rockslide & Combat (500 XP, Level 1 hazard & combat mixed encounter)– This was straight out of DMG. I have to say that the new trap mechanic is awesome, just totally awesome. Having the trap roll for initiative really makes it feel more like an encounter that affects everyone rather than a trap the rogue must deal with. Above the openings, hidden from view, were 2 goblin minions waiting to spring the trap. In front of each opening were 4 posts that really just created the area of effect for this rockslide. The new rules say to let the party know this info, so why not let the bad guys know this also. The minions were to wait for at least two party members to enter one area, and instead they all went in. The two that won initiative got out of the rockslide zone in time, but the others took damage with one even getting critted. But that’s okay, I hate the Warlock and his move 3 squares and get concealment ability…but I digress. Anyway, after springing the trap they headed inside. The area the trap hit became difficult terrain.
The other minion waited to spring the next trap but here is where I had to think on the fly. I figured the PC’s would go thru the next opening and then part 2 of the Rockslide would be sprung but only after they were inside the lair. They instead climbed up the slide of the cliff. I knew how the minions got in and out of the lair, but I now had to put these openings on the map. They chose to head inside that way so I added ladders to get down and opening large enough to squeeze through. I thought it was a smart approach so as the DMG says, I rewarded them with an alternate method of entering the lair. And now they still have a way out for later. So they climbed down the ladder and killed minion #1 easily. The second one was hidden but they did away with him as well. This was critical. I had planned on the minions getting these guys from behind during the next combat with the chokers and making things tough on the spell casters. Anyway, there are two double doors at the end of this room/cave opening. They went to listen at the door as all smart PC’s have done since Loverboy was tops on the charts, so I had two chokers waiting above the door for just such an occasion. They maintained their surprise when none of the PC’s passive perception allowed them to recognize the danger. Have you guys checked these Chokers out yet, man they are cool. They have an immediate interrupt power now where if they have an opponent grabbed, they can use their foe as a meat shield that takes the full brunt of the attack. You should have seen the looks on their faces when the Party’s Wizard shot a magic missile and it ended up dropping the party’s Warlord (Horribly named class by the way). They all thought it was one of the coolest things they had seen on game night in a long while. And now these guys are totally scared of all future monsters and even goblins. These battles have all been challenging.

More to come: