We ran a short scenario with the first time D&D player last night. He had a 3rd level dwarf cleric who likes to brew his own beer. He was 3rd, not 1st, because I'm introducing him into the campaign Thursday and the party is 3rd. And about to level to 4th, but i'm keeping him at 3rd i think. Actually, i'll ask you guys, it is better to keep them all the same level?
Anyway, we just did 3 short one-on-one fights. First a ruffian, then a will-o-wisp, then a demon. This was just to show him basics of attacking and movement and opportunity attacks. The will-o-wisp i told him up front that it was an undead, and had that cool PF miniature of the will-o-wisp. Well, he latched onto that word undead and turned the dang thing immediately, and as it was fleeing, at the very END of its move about 100 feet away, he hits it with an upgraded guiding bolt and damn near destroys the thing in one hit. Well, he loved it. Now, i did dish out a lot of information about the wisp, i had the MM cracked open and i explained to him saves, attacks, stats, defenses and immunities, and how this would NOT normally happen in-game, that it would be a "trial and error" process to even know that his magic would work on the monster (i.e. he should not have known it was undead).
The demon was fun. And WAY overpowered, it was CR 11 and waiting for him inside a tavern. The dwarf managed to throw himself over the balcony, twisted a foot at the bottom and hustled into the bushes to hide.
