Having trouble finding low level encounters

[keterys]

Honestly low level is a little sparse without diving into higher level monsters. In addition to just lowering the levels of monsters, adding templates, and making your own monsters (DMG172-185), I've done up a few things for addressing the gap at low level, such as
rules for monsters below 1st level
converting much higher level normals to elites 4 levels lower
and converting much higher level elites to solos 5 levels lower

Combine your options and you get a much wider range of options. Cheers.

 

[Turtlejay]

I felt 1st level was a little weak, too. We started our campaign at 2nd. Then I felt that 2nd level was a little weak. I think once you get into mid Heroic levels your options really open up. Consider that the DMG has rules for raising or lowering a monster's power level by 5 levels. Once you hit 6th level you can fight monsters of 1-11th level altered to fit 6th. This is in addition to the party being able to handle monsters of up to 2 or 3 levels higher. So, yeah, 1st level is sparse, but in a few levels you will be able to chose from a huge portion of the MM, and reflavoring is your friend, as is Asmor's monster creator.

Jay

 

[mattdm]

Monster Manual II could help to address this by including 0th-level monsters.

 

[arcanaman]

when it comes out that would be nice

 

[keterys]

I don't believe MM2 actually has level 0 monsters, does it? Ie, that's just wishful thinking?

Oh, and I'm very in favor of just always starting at 3rd level. Utility + 2nd encounter leads to much richer character options, and you've got a ton more challenge options.

 

[Jhaelen]

Monster Manual II could help to address this by including 0th-level monsters.

In a way there are already level 0 monsters: level 2 minions.

So, there's even level -1 monsters: level 1 minions

 

[keterys]

Rod of Reaving begs to differ on that score There is a big difference between minions and not, even if the xp might add up.

 

[fba827]

Well, a couple points to remember (some of which have already been said)
1) back of the MM, the index
2) encounters can vary in level for difficult so have some level 2 and 3 encounters mixed in for climactic battles
3) traps, obstacles, and skill challenges can be encounters as well
4) 4e combat focuses greatly on tactical movement, so vary up your combat terrain to make the fight be more focused on the terrain (pits, uneven ground, walls, difficult terrain patches) rather than on the monster
5) make up your own monster using templates and DMG p42
6) reskin existing level 1/level 2 monsters (take a goblin, call it a feral ape but use the same goblin stats, just describing it differently)
7) take a higher level monster and delevel it (similar to creating a monster but some work already done, just need to adjust defenses, attack, and damage according to dmg p42)
8) minor quest and major quest rewards - while not encounters in of themselves, if you include some minor quest in the first or second encounter then the PCs will be out of level 1 that much faster for you to have a greater variety of monsters to dip in to.
9) I am sure there are other ideas (some probably listed above, some will probably be added by other people) but that is all I can think of all off the top of my head right now


some of these things depend on how much time you have so not all options are necessarily vaiable for you.

 

[malraux]

Yeah, always remember that the de-leveling rules mean that you can have monsters from party level - 5 to PL +5 without much trouble.

 

[ObsidianCrane]

I'm actually curious about something that the OP didn't spell out. Why are you having troubles finding low level encounters?

Are you struggling with monster variety by type? That is do you find the basic choices of goblin (all types) /kobold/orc/gnoll/animal to limiting?

Or are you struggng with finding mechanical variation? That is are you looking for more variety in mechanical choices than what the low level creatures offer?

Or are you looking for more creatures of level 1 or lower? That is are you looking for more Level 1 creatures or even Level 1/2 creatures?

If its the first one its all about taking the mechanics you like and giving the creature a new description.

If its the second one you will need to do more work yourself, drawing inspiration from the MM and PHB to build your own creatures while you wait for the next MM. Though the Compendium will offer some new choices you do need to be carefull with the RPGA content, some of it is to weak (yet to run into to strong).

If its the last its a concept/paradigm thing. If you want to consider the new monster's level as a 3.X CR, the new level divided by 4 is the old CR effectively. So a level 2 goblin is a 3.x CR 1/2 goblin. So what this means is that a first level party should be fighting groups of level 1 and 2 creatures with an occasional level 3 monster thrown in.

Now as others have mentioned you can make more monsters by deleveling higher level monsters. However its worth noting that the more levels you take away (or add) the more problems that can occur with balance. It seems that +/- 1 or 2 levels is fine, take more than that and you might need to adjust the damage dice as well.

Finally the need for "more" monsters is greatly alleviated by considering the story of your game. If the PCs are tangling with a goblin tribe they should be mostly fighting goblins for the narrative of the adventure to make sense. Having 10 different monster types (by fluff not mechanics) will rarely make sense in context of a story, so mostly I find its a matter of looking for mechanics for variety to make the fights interesting without breaking the context of the story.

There are tricks to remember, like the first encounter in my first adventure featured orcs and goblins. The pcs learn the goblins are local, and the orcs are regional. So the orcs likely bullied the goblins. The second encounter was a goblin patrol, which included dire rats, so the pcs learnt the goblins trained rats like dogs. That meant later I had a reason for having a room full of rats, and another with orcs. The only encounter not foreshadowed was the guard constructs, and that was explained by defeating them and discovering what they guarded.