[Pathfinder] Is this encounter too much/too easy for 4 lvl 1 characters?

[EisenKreutzer]

I'm putting together an early encounter for my next campaign, possibly the very first combat encounter. I'm not much of an optimiser, and I am kind of terrible with mechanics, but I am determined to learn to master the art of building challenging encounters.

I wanted to use some of the Feats made available in the Advanced Class Guide, since they seem much more interesting than the standard Cleaves and Power Attacks of the Core book.

I ended up with an encounter consisting of one Orc Barbarian 2 and two standard Orc Warrior 1's. The Barbarian has the Blood Vengeance Feat and the Orc Favoured Class option giving him 1 additional round of rage per level, while the Orc Warriors have the Sympathetic Rage Feat to buff them up a bit.
I noticed that the Barbarians str and con get some significant boosts this way, ending up with +6 to str and con once one of the Warriors fall while he Rages. I also gave him a bone breastplate (AC +5) and a light wooden shield, giving him an AC of 17, and armed him with a masterwork terbutje (1d8 19-20 x2) since it's a stone age campaign setting.
The two warriors will be similarly armed, but other than the weapons and Feats, they are identical to the Bestiary Orc.

So, is this too much?
Too little?
I have no idea what classes my players are going to pick, but since they are all familiar with Pathfinder I'm assuming they will make competent characters (though I don't think we'll see anything close to the levels of optimisation common to this board).

Would the average lvl 1 character survive this encounter? Does it need to be harder or easier?

[emeraldstreak]

I've seen 4 lvl 1 characters defeat a Shambling Mound in Kingmaker random encounter, but they were experienced players.

So it greatly depends on the party. If you have at least one player who knows how to counter high damage melee at lvl 1 you'd be fine.


PS. The levels of optimization on this board for 3.5 are not possible in PF. It simpy lacks certain powerful shticks.

[Psyren]

This is hard to answer in a vacuum because how hard a fight is depends not just on the monster, but on the party, the savvy of the players and the terrain. For example, nothing you listed suggests the orcs would be any less susceptible to a reflex save, like Entangle or Grease. And to power up your "chief orc" requires killing one of his cronies, but if they go after the lunkhead first then his feat will be about as useful as fiberglass boobs on a Prius. And do they pop up on the party right in melee range or charge range, and if the latter what's the terrain like so they can do that, and if they start far away can the party feather them with arrows before the guy can rage to begin with etc.

In short, way too many variables here. My advice is to just run with it, and if it looks like the party's in trouble have a passing elf ranger and his wolf companion fire an arrow from the trees or a tanglefoot bag or something.

[Fosco the Swift]

While much of it is based on the characters and players you get, a little guesswork and estimating won't be too far off. Let's assume this is the party (as generic as possible)

Fighter: HP about 14 and Str 20
Wizard: Universalist School with Magic Missile prepared and 6 HP
Rogue: HP 9 and has Rapier with Weapon Finesse and a Dex of 18
Cleric: 10 HP with Healing and Good Domains

Let's go with a Lucky(ish) Initiative:
Fighter
Rogue
2nd lvl Orc Barbarian (Named "Boss")
Wizard
The two 1st lvl Orc Barbarians (Named Orc 1 and Orc 2)
Cleric

The Fighter moves up and swings at the biggest thing there is: Boss. If he has Weapon Focus on his Greatsword he has a total of +7 to hit. About a 50% chance against Boss. He hits this time and deals (2d6+7) damage, so 13. Boss has about 28 HP(12+4+6+4+2) so he's down to 15. The Orcs are side by side so the rogue can't flank easily and acrobatics successfully through the Orcs (move action) and sneak attacks Boss. With the flank, he hits for (1d6+1d6+1), so 7. Boss is at 8. Boss's turn, he attacks the Fighter while Raging. His attack is about +9 (+2+5+2) and hits the Fighter. (1d8+7) so about 11. That leaves the Fighter at 3 HP. Believing the Boss is nearly dead, the Wizard Magic Missiles he Boss for (1d4+1) 3 damage. The Boss is still alive at 5 HP.
Cutting this hypothetical encounter short, it seems that the Boss will Most Definitely survive at least two rounds. Even if all the characters attack the Boss, he will probably survive. If they attack the other Orcs, they could probably kill them but then buff the Boss even more. The likely end leaves at least one character dead or unconscious. So a well played encounter would be at least slightly challenging for this group.
This seem a fairly reasonable assumption?

[EisenKreutzer]

Thanks for the analysis! It looks like your projection of a possible outcome is in line with what I want to achieve for this encounter, which is good to know.