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Message: <blockquote data-quote="bgbarcus" data-source="post: 6584208" data-attributes="member: 6784891">I prefer to start new L1 parties in outdoor settings.  That typically gives them only one or two encounters per long rest as opposed to dungeons that can easily overwhelm low level parties.  The outdoor encounters also lend themselves to the waves of enemies mentioned earlier.  If two goblins is too easy, have a third start shooting arrows as it catches up to the two scouts.  Having the extra monsters attacking at range also leaves the door open for the party to flee as soon as the hand-to-hand fight ends.The other thing to remember is that losing a 1st-3rd level character is far easier to accept than a higher level character.  Those training wheels could easily prevent your players from gaining the experience they need to protect their characters at higher levels.  To mitigate the disruption of losing a character, I prefer to have each character hire a henchman early one, even at 1st level.  That henchman is run mostly as a second character by the player.  I step in if the henchman is being sent into unreasonable danger as cannon fodder or otherwise abused but that is very rare.  The players get to design their henchman so the NPC can be a ready replacement if the PC dies.  It also allows players who decide their original character isn't as fun as they hoped to retire that character and switch to the henchman without disrupting party continuity.  Such switches have happened three times over the last year in my campaign.</blockquote>

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