delericho
Legend
So what prompted this generosity on the DM's part? I pointed out that our party of 5 level one and level 2 characters had faced five CR 2s, which is a formula for a TPK, even if the "CR2s" aren't from MM III.
He questioned that, so I counted them off: Two at the entrance and three inside with no recovery time in between.
Ah. It's worth noting that two separate encounters like that, even with no chance to rest between them, is still easier than a single encounter with all five creatures at once. That's an EL 4 encounter followed by an EL 5, rather than being a single EL 6/7 - two "very difficult" encounters rather than one "deadly".
It's also worth noting that the structure of the expected "adventuring day" changed over the course of 3e's lifespan - when the edition was first launched it was assumed parties would face four "challenging" (EL = party level) encounters per day, but it was quickly discovered that parties would instead nova in one or two encounters and then rest (the 15-minute adventuring day). Consequently, the trend was very much towards fewer, much tougher encounters.
(And it's also true that the escalation in CLs in later volumes of the MM was in response to greater optimisation amongst PCs as the edition went on - and in particular the adoption of the policy that PCs could, and would, buy their magic items, rather then find random items as they adventure. Of course, this has the effect of making CRs totally, rather than just mostly, useless. )
So, actually, it doesn't seem quite as awful as previously appeared to be the case.