A good first encounter for 4E noobs?

[ExploderWizard]

How about you lead off with a couple of wolves in what seems to be just hungry predators. It's dark and with only the firelight to see by, it's not until a couple rounds into the fight that they get a chance to make a Perception check to notice...the wolves have collars!

An instant later a goblin arrow zips out of the darkness at them as the pair of dismounted wolf-riders attack! Given a chance, one of the goblins will dart into the camp and grab one of their backpacks and run away. If the wolves are still alive then the goblins can whistle for them and then ride off into the night.

This encounter would establish several things:
There are wolves around here.
The goblins use them as mounts.
The goblins are bandits and raiders who are more than willing to attack even heavily armed groups travelling on the roads.

And those goblins probably have a lair around here somewhere...

OK this encounter has "winner" written all over it. Just be careful about how many combatants you send out against a party of 3. For this reason I think designing your own encounters will be better than using material that is published for a larger group.

Party makeup will be a big factor in what types of monsters to use. I would try and find out what classes the PC's are as soon as you can. The same encounter can be a breeze for one group and a boring slugfest that never ends for others. Post again when you know the character classes and I'm sure you can get very specific help.

 

[malraux]

I'll caution against going over the xp budget by much for a new to 4e group with only 3 players. IME, it takes 2-3 sessions of play before everyone groks how to play; that is, understands not just the basic "I roll d20 and add this number" but how their class works with the other classes to best advantage.

 

[MrMyth]

2 Wolves and 2 Goblin Cutters would add up to 300xp, and thus fit in as a standard encounter. To match the suggested scenario, just give the Goblin Cutter's a ranged weapon - use the same stats as their melee attacks, just make it Ranged 10, and it should work fine.

The only thing of note here is that the wolves are the real threat, as the goblins are minions - but there can be fun had with that as well, I'm sure.

 

[Mercurius]

How about you lead off with a couple of wolves in what seems to be just hungry predators. It's dark and with only the firelight to see by, it's not until a couple rounds into the fight that they get a chance to make a Perception check to notice...the wolves have collars!

An instant later a goblin arrow zips out of the darkness at them as the pair of dismounted wolf-riders attack! Given a chance, one of the goblins will dart into the camp and grab one of their backpacks and run away. If the wolves are still alive then the goblins can whistle for them and then ride off into the night.

This encounter would establish several things:
There are wolves around here.
The goblins use them as mounts.
The goblins are bandits and raiders who are more than willing to attack even heavily armed groups travelling on the roads.

And those goblins probably have a lair around here somewhere...

This is really nice and I think I'm going to use something very similar, although customized to my campaign. I'll use the same wolf attack scenario, but rather than noticing that they have collars, first there is something Wrong about them, second they have some kind of rune branded on them. Then, rather than goblins showing up, they are called away by a distant ominous voice, and the PCs see a human-like figure against the moon on the horizon, who disappears with the surviving wolves (if the PCs don't run).

Even though it is extraneous to the specific quest they are on, it sets up a connection with a later plot thread, which I like because it leaves it open-ended.