What to throw at new players

[AspectOfNihil]

I have convinced some of my friends who have never tried dungeons and dragons of any flavour to give Pathfinder a shot. I am planning on running a few small introductory rounds in before we start on an adventure path in order to give them an idea of what to expect, maybe bring them up to level 3, max.

However as I have been playing for a few years and tend to enjoy higher powered campaigns I have kinda maybe sorta lost sight of what constitutes 'easy'

I was thinking Kobold warriors or something to that effect, so I can introduce traps and dungeon layouts to show that the dungeon is more than just the creatures inside it, but it's still all spitballing at this stage.

Can anybody help me with ideas of good monster/dungeon styles that wouldn't result in room 1 TPK for brand new players?

[denthor]

Caves of Chaos

Oh sorry that was way to cliche

Give them a base for operation. So that they have somewhere to safely restore, plan and get NPC help.

Make sure that the monsters do not follow them and attack. Limited numbers maybe an Ogre as the big bad.

Make sure that traps are not deadly just delay tactics Paper boulder by the kobolds that rolls towards them and is full of bees. Should be the hardest trap for hit points

Giant rats

Orcs that have a guard maybe sleeping

If you want a hard encounter lizard men in swamp.

If you want to scare them a Medusa that could be an ally or an enemy depending on how they act.

A priest for the finally with skeletons for undead

I threw lion at my party of three they took it out in two rounds color spray three hits while stunned CR 4

[Tuvarkz]

Orcs are a bad idea, a good roll and they'll probably insta KO a 1st level character, or heavily injure a second level one (Who mind you, could actually also get killed).

[AspectOfNihil]

Yeah, I'm trying to stay away from any of the heavy hitters (Gnolls, Orcs, Lizardfolk for AC), I'm leaning more towards small humanoids or simple undead to get them more into the mechanics of the fighting rather than pushing their combat limits.

Denthor, I'm liking some of situations you're mentioning though (Frenemy, setting the PCs up to ambush etc), I'll try and implement some of them in the campaign.

[Randomthom]

For brand new players the whole game can be very overwhelming. I'd suggest pre-generating some simple characters, even cliché ones, dwarf fighter, elf wizard, halfling rogue etc. Give them a quick personality 'cheat sheet' with a few quirks etc. then assign them randomly. Run them for just one session and explain to the players that you will be doing this, you could even kill them off in spectacular fashion with whatever big bad you'll be pitting them against when they roll up their real first characters.

Try to introduce them to all types of attack (vs Ac, vs touch AC, vs FFAC, vs CMD, vs F/R/W) and to a few social situations. Try to design your first session to include the use of a few skills with an obvious choice and a few with options (e.g. diplomacy vs. bluff).

[Florian]

I have convinced some of my friends who have never tried dungeons and dragons of any flavour to give Pathfinder a shot. I am planning on running a few small introductory rounds in before we start on an adventure path in order to give them an idea of what to expect, maybe bring them up to level 3, max.

Can anybody help me with ideas of good monster/dungeon styles that wouldn't result in room 1 TPK for brand new players?

"Easy" is relative.

Single enemies are always easy because of the difference in the economy of actions. You can always just zerg a single enemy and be done with it.
Enemies based on NPC classes are also good cannon fodder. They can be made to look threatening, but their combat ability is lousy.
Mixed groups give the players a feeling of having accomplished something, actually give good EXP and make for good low-level encounters.
Consider 3x Human Commoner lead by 1x Ranger or 2 Zombies led by a Wizard w/o too offensive spells or 2 guard dogs and 2 Warriors.

That kind of encounter looks challenging, but with one-shootable enemies, they´re over pretty quick.

[Slapstick]

While combat is a cornerstone of RP'ing, I usually try to avoid too combat-focused adventures when starting a new campaign or group. It's easy to kill off a PC at lvl 1, and they might not think to make good use of tactics but just blunder into a kobold nest and subsequently find themselves at the bottom of a pit with a dozen reptiles laughing at them. I slide into more combat-focused adventures around lvl 3 when they have a bit of gear and access to lvl 2 spells.

I think puzzle-esque adventures are a good start, because it get's people talking, not just rolling dice. Here's a few things I've run in ultra-condensed form:

a) Characters start with connections to the thieves guild, and one of their fences has been murdered. Find out why before the law enforcement, and avoid getting caught. This will involve them visiting some interesting sights in the city, such as the merchant quarter, docs and ships, brothels, inns, and whatnot. Fighting can involve getting mugged, hired muscle trying to stop them, rival gang, rats in an abandoned warehouse, etc. Lot's of options, and encounters spread out between talking points.

b) A local sea-captain has been contracted/appropriated to go pirate-hunting and he's put out a notice for extra crew to anyone who can convince him that they're useful. First "encounter" would be for each of the character to convince the captain that they're skills are awesome before getting admitted, and that's how they meet. The ship sails off to a known pirate-haven, fights and captures a pirate ship on the way, and arrives in an almost destroyed pirate ship. Now they have to find out who the pirate captain is, probably by bashing in some skulls, visiting a hot voodoo priestess, tracking through a monkey-infested jungle, etc. etc.

c) (this group was all related, something I've found really helpful for natural group cohesion): They played in a northern setting, and were heading home for a family reunion. Instead they found their family farm recently burned to the ground, father and mother killed, and a notice that their family is banned from the kingdom at the pain of death. Now they have to find out why, go connect with old family friends, stay off the main roads, and stay alive. Encounters range from animals in the forest, the Jarls guards, etc.

To summarize: For new players I've always found it really helpful to make sure the goal of the adventure is not that something needs to be dead. It's that something needs to be resolved. Commoners with weapons, animals and the occasional roaming humanoid monster is plenty dangerous and exciting at first.

[Garktz]

I started playing about 4 years ago, had a 1 year campaing, then, with same DM and new players (also 1 time playing d&d) went on and played the age of worms ap.
To my experience, the 2 chapter of that ap, 3 faces of evil, might be the best idea to give new players a taste of d&d.
It has a mine, where there is a cult going on so 1° you need to infiltrate said mine and then, fight the 3 "faces of evil" inside said mine with each face having its own chuch/lair/hole separated from the rest.
I remember one with undead and a few humans leading them, straight forward combat, nothing complex but funny
Second one was a maze with a wizar.s lab at the end. The maze was populated with kobold esque bird looking creatures (kenku?), was really fun, ambushes, traps, illusions and a wizard as bad guy at the end
And 3 one was a cave (vertical combat withh different levels and such) really fun to navigate and few but strong hitting monsters (trogs? not sure about this one)...
I remember it was really fun chapter, social skills or stealth to infiltrate the cave, a lot of different type of enemys with different tactics and a nice bbeg at the end wich, wasnt specially hard but felt super rewarding killing it...
I strongly recomend you at least taking a look at it, at least for ideas if not to play it, but, in my opinion, it.s a wonderfull initiating dungeon at i believe its designed for level 2-4 characters, so are not level "boring" one pc.s
(I find lvl1 being the most boring thing ever and lvl 2/3 depending on class, when you start getting a feeling of your class)

[Jay R]

New players often don't expect traps at all. If you use traps, make sure that the first one or two are obvious.

One good way to introduce the idea is to have an expended trap be obvious. After they walk by a corpse who was cut in two yesterday by a whirling blade, they may get the idea that traps exist.

[vasilidor]

the problem i have with traps is it forces them to play a rogue. I myself have no problem with playing a rogue, but no one should be forced into any given role.

[Kelb_Panthera]

the problem i have with traps is it forces them to play a rogue. I myself have no problem with playing a rogue, but no one should be forced into any given role.

Not so, without a rogue in the party traps can be used as attrition ammo. Forcing the party to fight something akin to a midboss or even the BBEG at less than full capacity can make the victory that much sweeter.

[Nibbens]

The PF goblins were almost made for this. They're quirky, funny, but downright savage when the PCs are done laughing, which could work well for introducing new players to the game.

So you get some laughs, a good lesson in D&D combat basics and all around feel good-ness at the table. Then, let it dawn on them that not only will goblins eat rocks and dirt and each other, but also humanoid babies as well. After they've gotten used to/settled into the system of combat and got their laughs out the way, make the PCs hate the goblins oh-so-much by having them... do something. Before you know it, you'll have brand new players who are drooling on themselves waiting for the next adventure. :)

[johnbragg]

You might give this thread a look.

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?480735-Here-s-some-****in-D-amp-D-Minimalist-Roleplaying-and-****

Random chargen, so killing PCs isn't as big a deal as it could be.

[atemu1234]

Kobolds and Goblins at first. Maybe an Elf Warrior or two.

[Barstro]

If your goal of this first bit is simply to introduce the game, I suggest;

1) Characters of third level or so. First level is kind of boring, has few options, and runs the risk of a bad roll TPK
2) YOU create the characters. This is just introduction, so there is no reason to have characters that the players are attached to. This also gives you the ability to make a well rounded party so people can see how different roles interact.
3) Let Make someone die. Players need to see that there are consequences for actions and being unprepared. Killing off a starter character that they are not invested in (see #2) is not a cruel way to demonstrate that lesson.
4) Have a bit of roleplaying involved before the fighting. Give the opportunity for certain clues that could help in the fight so they can understand how to get prepared instead of just skipping the story to get to the action. This might be a lesson already taught in today's video games.

If your intent is to actually start a long campaign, then ignore 1-3.