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Hi Ara --
Here's my 2 cents -- remember this is opinion only (even if there's a few years of playing experience in which I made that opinion - I also had different players).
First up, according to the rules, a "standard" encounter for your party *should* be CR 1/2 - about 200XP. Your guys should be able to handle a bunch of those in a day without depleting themselves too badly. However, single foes are rarely challenges because a party (even with 2 members) get more actions and can do fun things like flanking. That's why a single orc (who can be double-teamed) is less of a challenge for a party of 2 or more than 2 kobolds would be, even though the 2 kobolds are worth the same XP. However, I would also point out that Orcs aren't CR 1/2 - they're 1/3. At 200XP, you can afford a single Hobgoblin. (or a creature with 1 pc level)
However, as the GM table indicates -- you can scale up the challenge by going up the list. Now, to be fair, you're in a slightly weird position because the scaling wasn't really designed for a party with an APL of 1/2, but the same rules hold (more or less). I'd say treat 300XP as the usual APL+1 (Challenging), 400XP as +2 (Hard) and avoid the whole idea of "epic" until your guys get some levels. Also, remember that swarming works both ways -- so 400XP worth of kobolds will have a strong advantage over your guys unless they can bottleneck them in a hallway or something.
In terms of making them more likely to survive, I would recommend a higher point-buy than usual (25 is probably a good idea) at character generation -- and then it's a matter of what they're playing class wise -- because that's going to control what they can face. For instance, two fighters are good at dealing damage, but can't do much when they start taking damage. A single damage-inflicting trap could really ruin their adventuring day. I might also recommend encouraging one of them to play something like a druid or summoner to get an extra body into combat.
Beyond that - I would make them follow the standard starting rules - and then you can feed them a few bonuses as part of the RP/set-up for the job. For instance, if the town smith is implicated, he could find a Masterwork weapon. If the priests are, he could give them a potion or two, or maybe a partially-depleted wand of CLW (assuming someone can use it).
One good "starting" idea - especially for a small group - is to have the party "rescue" a captured support-character with levels. For instance, if you find a L2 or L3 bard who was ambushed at night by goblins who now want to eat him - well, he won't have his gear anymore - so he's not going to be super-helpful in combat, but he can inspire and cast buffs/heals. This gives them a friendly NPC contact for later, also - and the bard might, for instance, be the one who ids any items they find.
However, you asked about "fun" encounters, so I'll give you a few ideas of relatively-low CR things that can be fun (and offer more variety than "Oh, look, kobolds again!").
- The skeleton and Zombie templates can be applied to anything that used to be alive - this includes small-size and tiny-sized animals. This lets you fill your encounter budget pretty darn well and can be creative. (Also, if you have a cleric, swarm them with a few rounds of 1/2 or 1 hd skeletons and watch him smile as he channels them into ash). [You could then have a skeletal champion controlling the lesser undead, or a low-level priest/adept as the "boss" in the area]
- Putting Mites in a cave (instead of Goblins or Kobolds) is usually a nice switch, but still very level-appropriate - they're low CR on their own and weak - sort of like kobolds, but also have a wee bit of Damage Resistance (which tends to surprise people) -- and intelligent, so their leader could have a level or two (ranger with a gnome hate, for instance, would be very appropriate).
- Animals and some of the magical beasts are taken as "pets" by intelligent creatures - and the Young Creature template can really help you out here by nerfing something into a level-appropriate encounter.
For instance, for the "big" fight at the end, you could use your 400XP to give a CR1 hobgoblin (L2 fighter, instead of L1 base) a "pet" that's a Young Dire Bat or Cave Fisher.
Ultimately, the sky's the limit -- just remember that there's only 2 of your guys and to try to avoid letting them get swarmed.
Tilnar - thanks! Your reply is awesome and exactly the kind of practical advice I'm looking for.
I've played D&D 1e for years but never played more modern versions - and now I'm GM'ing. So it'll be a challenge.
As for the classes, I know my friend pretty well. I think he's going to opt for a Fighter-type and a Cleric. Although the druid is tempting, my buddy REALLY likes having as much healing as possible.
I really like your encounter ideas. Nice idea about using an Adept with some low level beasties, or the Hobgoblin with a young cave fisher. Nice!
Clearly, I need to spend more time in the appendices of the Bestiary looking at templates and such!
Well, if you get a cleric, then you can certainly take advantage of their undead-burning ways. :) The biggest recommendation I can make that Wands of Cure Light Wounds are your (well, their) friend. :)
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First, you should talk to your player. Both of you need to remember that not every encounter has to be about killing something. I played in a campaign with a 2 character party, both rogues, and we had alot of fun with stealth and traps without actually fighting. The best encounter of the whole campaign was in the second session, when while searching the sewers for a rival gang's hideout, we stumbled over and accidently freed a mummy. We were only level 3 (started at that level) and could not hope to fight it. So we ended up leading it on a chase through the sewers, into traps and creatures we had avoided on the way in and finally trapped it between a sewer grate and a caved-in tunnel. The encounter was way beyond us as a combat, but was not unbeatable when we realized we did not have to kill everything.
That reminds me, consider starting your characters above level one. I alway felt that characters were not ready to leave their teacher's apron-strings until at least level 3.