I ran Sunless Citadel right after 3e first came out, for five players -- two had played quite a bit of AD&D2e, 3 hadn't played any kind of D&D in 7+ years, and I hadn't played any D&D in over a decade. The characters were:
Half-elf ranger
Half-elf rogue
Half-elf sorcerer
Dwarf cleric
Dwarf fighter
Gnome bard (NPC)
They had just the right amount of problems; less, really, since their attributes were rather impressive (I'm so nice, I didn't throw a fit if they rolled up a few sets & picked one
).
The rogue got filth fever from dire rats on the stairs. The entire adventure, the rogue had horrible luck fighting rats. They kicked her ass, basically. The players (and the GM
) still joke about her and rats.
They managed to KO the dragonpriest, with a lucky hit from a battleaxe, some sneak attacks, & a well-timed use of the potion of fire breath they'd found (I screwed up on the potion, too, and only let the sorcerer get one blast of fire breath from it). Having realized that the thing didn't regenerate fire, they poured oil on it & lit it.
The quasit knocked one person in the pit, and fled.
The mephit got off to an impressive start with its breath weapon, but then the sorcerer hit it with a
magic missile; somebody else critically hit it, and did much more damage than its DR could stop; and then a
ray of frost finished it off. It was sad, really.
They negotiated with the kobolds, clawed their way into the goblins' area the hard way (i.e., through the caltrop hall), freed Erky & immediately started accepting his clerical assistance, managed to subdue Calcryx, & returned him to the kobolds.
They were pretty good about stopping to rest -- they left the citadel two or three times, and holed up in the dragonpriest's area once. They had a suitably tough time with Belak & co, but persevered and survived.
Given that my group switches back & forth between multiple campaigns (plus, I slowed advancement slightly), those characters are now barely getting to seventh level. They are actually back at the Sunless Citadel now -- fighting the kobolds (the queen's 8th level, there's a vampire kobold cleric, a half-dragon kobold rogue, and assorted nasties).