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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hussar" data-source="post: 5705792" data-attributes="member: 22779">MerricB's point about level expectations is spot on.  If you run that encounter in 3rd edition, for example, that's an ECL 4 encounter.  By expectation, that should mop the floor with a 1st level party.  Conversely, in Basic D&D, this is a pretty standard encounter for a 1st level party and the party shouldn't suffer any casualties.  Ditto for 1e.I mean, in 1e, for example, the fighter types and cleric should be running around a 2-3 AC (banded and shield is certainly plausible at 1st level).  The orcs are using longswords, so, against that AC, they have a -1 to their attacks and a 19 (I think) THAC0, meaning they only hit about 10% of the time.  You'd probably expect 1 orc to hit per round.  Meanwhile, the much larger party expectations of 1e (6-8 characters) means that they are likely hitting about 4 times per round, likely killing 2 or 3 orcs every round.Compare to the 3e group where you have only 1 fighter and cleric (expected).  At best, they're killing 1 or 2 orcs every round, at best, and the orcs are hitting about twice as often and twice as hard with each hit (2d4+4 damage/orc with a +4 attack vs 1-8 damage/orc with no attack bonus)So, when people talk about being able to run these kinds of adventures on the fly with no adjustment, I really just can't see how.  The monsters in 3e are so much more powerful than their 1e counterparts and the characters actually aren't that much more powerful at least in the single digit level ranges).  In 4e, depending on the level of the encounter, I'd say that would be 8 minions, or possibly the 9hp orc would be some kind of brute with 7 minions.  Now it's a 1st level encounter with no problem.</blockquote>

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