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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Calzone" data-source="post: 5080615" data-attributes="member: 87629">I've found that with a small group (~2-3), you really don't have a large enough XP budget to make really interesting encounters at first level without a good chance of TPK. I run a game for two players, and I started them out at level two to give me a bit more XP to play with and give them a bit beefier characters. They are both strikers (1 barb, 1 sorc/bard MC), so I watch out for controllers and soldiers. Controllers because they can easily shred what little party dynamic there is, and soldiers because, well, they live forever and aren't fun to kill. I've found that brutes, artillery, and minions are good though, because they are easy to hit, go down pretty fast, but pack a whallop. That said, I'm leery of throwing much over level+2 at the party. Higher level enemies mean harder to hit ones, which can be devestating if a daily or couple of encounter powers miss. Also, largish groups (5+) of non-minion monsters can wreak havoc even if the individual monsters are the same level or slightly lower than the PCs, due to action economy. For their most recent adventure, I've paired them with an NPC swordmage and given them a couple of healing potions each so they can tackle bigger fish, so we'll see how that goes. Lastly, remember that encounters can be challenging even if there aren't a lot of monsters or high level ones. Add a time limit or environmental hurdles (tight spaces, a cunning trap, maybe "don't let them raise the alarm"). Send several small waves back-to-back, or maybe deny them a short rest here and there, too; With stuff like this, even level or level-1 encounters can bring some tension to the table.</blockquote>

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