D&D 4E 4E with the wife & kids

[Dannyalcatraz]

Gaming 4Ed with wife & kids?

That's an awful lot of Controllers.

 

[Pseudopsyche]

2) After the goblin fight, I decided to half the hit points for standard+ monsters. The first fight was against 3 minion goblins and a goblin skirmisher (forget the name).

I'm not surprised you decided to cut the hit points. For a party of 2-3 PCs, a standard monster probably has the "grind potential" of an elite monster facing 5 PCs, and presumably an elite monster against 2-3 might invite grind the same way a solo would against 5. I suspect this effect is part of the reason the DMG2 recommends using more monsters of lower levels for small groups. For example, for three 3rd-level PCs, five 1st-level monsters is a 3rd-level encounter.

Of course, when your PCs are level 1, the only official monsters weaker than a standard level-1 monster are minions, which may not provide the same degree of satisfaction. I've always wanted to try leveling monsters down to level 0 and level -1. For a typical 1st-level base creature, removing two levels is probably roughly the same as what you did, setting the HP to the creature's Con score, while also decreasing the attack bonus and defense scores a bit to make the PCs a bit more "heroic".

 

[jcayer]

My 6, going on 7 year old reads better than most kids(3rd grade+ level) and has decent math skills. With regards to math, it's simply that it takes her longer to do it.
I did step down the rules a bit and also want with AD&D so she wouldn't have to use a power every turn.

One of the things I've noticed, and it has been commented on here several times is kids don't immediately try to kill things. They're happy to talk through it and try to find a peaceful way out.