Problem with pregenerated characters in one-shot

[Jon_Dahl]

I'm creating a very short one-shot adventure (4 to 5 hours max, the game will not continue from there).
The adventure is meant to be for four characters of levels 1 to 2. The pre-generated characters are:
Drow monk
Duergar fighter
Kobold cleric
Goblin wizard
Orc barbarian
Players choose their own characters. One of the characters will be unselected.

The problem is that I'm trying to balance the characters. Since drow and duergar have LA +2 and +1 respectively, I was thinking that the other characters could start at level 2, and the aforementioned two could remain at 1st.

I just created the characters, and there seems to a huge disparency with the characters. The 2nd level orc barbarian seems vastly superior to the 1st level drow monk.

I don't know what to do, since the drow and duergar do have neat special abilities and LAs +1 and +2 make them a 2nd and 3rd level characters, thus equal or better than the orc barbarian.

Any suggestions? Should I just make them all start at 1st or 2nd level, or should I respect LA and try to set the characters at the same ECL?

[Zombimode]

I would place all characters at the same level (not ECL). Then you could balance things with better builds for the lower ECL characters and/or better equipment.

For a one shot, it should work.

[Vanitas]

You could try using the lesser drow and lesser duergar variants.

[limejuicepowder]

It's important to know that not all LA was created equal. Drow in particular are among the more terrible of level-adjusted races, with their special abilities not amounting to more than a cute trick in the face of hit dice loss (and all of the things that come with it).

A decent guideline on LA: if the creature doesn't have the stat modifiers to at least partially make-up for the lack of hit points, BaB, saves, etc., the LA is probably not worth it; or, they'd better have some really nice racial abilities. Drow are definitely NOT in this category.

Further, you're giving the drow monk levels (something drow are not especially suited for, while orcs make very good barbs). Monks preform an overlapping role with a barb, except the barb is way way better at it. And the poor monk has less levels. Yeah, the barb is gonna look pretty impressive compared to that lowly monk with SR 12.

My recommendation, since you seem to be using only MM1, is to ignore LA. None of the LA +1 or 2 races in that book are especially awesome (most are actually terrible), and you can safely make characters with the same amount of class levels without making anything OP.

[Person_Man]

Having been to a lot of gaming conventions, my personal observation is that low level D&D is terrible for one shot games, unless the game focuses heavily on roleplaying and/or exploration. You have almost minimal resources, and those resources are dictated for you prior to getting to the game, and thus you have minimal choice. You're basically just showing up, grinding through a couple very boring or deadly combats, and leaving.

You may wish to consider making it a higher level game, and/or using Tier 3 or higher level classes, so that the players have more options.

[Invader]

Are you completely married to the races? Can you just use all non LA races instead?