Encounter help

[Ronnocius]

How difficult would a single orog be for a 1st level party of 5 to defeat, assuming the party is at full fighting capacity? What about an orog and two orcs, if the party had a chance to use stealth?

[Avonar]

An Orog can make 2 Greataxe attacks per round, each dealing 1d12 + 4 damage. Because of this it is entirely possible that he can drop two level 1 characters to 0 each round. Add in the 18AC and 42HP, I don't see them winning unless you have a group of spellcasters with lucky rolls.

For reference, in Yawning Portal there is an encounter with an Orog and 2 Orcs designed for four level 3 characters and that is a decent fight.

[Townopolis]

If the party can't (or won't) kite the orog, they're toast. If they can, they will eventually take the Orog down unless he can pin them down; most likely, the only way he can pin them down as written is if he downs a PC with his javelins, and the party isn't able to get that character back up and nobody can carry the downed ally while still moving faster than the Orog.

To even things out a little bit, you can replace the Orog's full plate armor with something else. An Orog wearing ringmail, scale, or breastplate will go down much quicker than one in plate, which will allow the party to work through his HP pool faster. If the party has lots of room to maneuver and stealth advantage, an Orog in scale and 2 orcs might be okay. If they have only one of those things, don't include the orcs. If they have neither, an Orog in Ringmail and possibly using a greatclub instead of a greataxe would be as tough as I'd go.

Unless you want to TPK the party, then go nuts.

[Unoriginal]

Unless the PCs are somehow staying at a distance and keep attacking while avoiding getting downed by the javelins, I wouldn't bet for the PCs' survivals at level 1.

[TrinculoLives]

It really is best to avoid any monster of CR 1 or higher when setting up combats for first-level adventurers.