I've always seemed to do very well just by following the treasure-per-encounter chart. I include all expendables in those numbers. After particular stretches of adventuring I'll often check out where they're at and consult the treasure-by-level chart, providing some big hauls soon thereafter if they need some catching-up.
If you are new at GMing and the players are also new, I would start with some really basic monsters for the first fight. Rather than drow, who have various innates and abilities, try humans or goblins, as there are less things to keep track of. Even HP and attack rolls can be surprisingly complex to keep track of if you are new to the game.
I would also add an encounter at the start in the inn/hiring office / wherever the characters are meeting up where they can talk to each other and a NPC or two. That way they can roleplay, exchange names and get into character together before any fighting starts.
Maybe give them the briefing (go to the mine and rescue prisoners), then give them a chance to:
go and buy any equipment they think might be useful
Ask around for rumours about what is in the mine
Scout out the entrance and see who is going in and out
Finally, it's one of the golden rules of GMing, that your paty will try and do something that's not in your plan, be it going in the wrong direction, fighting the wrong people or wilfully misinterpreting your clues. Be prepared to improvise!
You might want to mix things up a little bit, as having multiple encounters of <humanoid with a weapon> in a row can get repetitive.
One really important note about your cleric - unless you want to kill the party, do not channel negative energy to harm. Against a low level party, 2d6 area damage is a lot, Will save or no. 2 failed saves in a row can be death and a lot of hard feelings.
The Core Rule Book explains how to properly balance an encounter based on the number of players at the table. If you haven't read it, it is well worth going over.
One thing I try to do in my games: when handing out loot, mix in the occasional item that has no real game benefit but can make a fun roleplaying item.
As an example, what's more interesting: 100 gp of common gems, or an hourglass with sand that falls up instead of down? 20 platinum pieces, or a small picture frame that displays a looping image of two kittens playing together?
Don't go too crazy with this, since it's more work for you to track what these items are worth. But as the occasional insert, it can work well for a variety of reasons. First, it rewards a player who put actual ranks into the Appraise skill. Second, players will love them and probably end up keeping a few for fun. Finally, they act as a great way to quickly adjust the party's wealth by level. If your party fighter is 1,000 gp under his expected wealth, add that much to the value of one of his unappraised items and have the next shopkeeper offer to buy it from him. The rogue happens to have too much wealth by level? Turns out nobody will buy his special items for more than a few coppers. The party loot value can be dynamic based on their individual needs.
I suggest getting rid of XP entirely right from the start.
This may strike you as odd but listen to your players... Many is the time that I have altered my game plot because one of my players said something like... "You know I bet it's the Duke behind it all, he's a Wizard and would gain the most by the Kings death (BTW: It's always the Wizard :)" When really your plan was for it to be the minister he screwed over UMDing a wand.
If what they say makes you think... Damn I should have thought of that... steal it and claim it was always your plan :)
No really if you listen to your players your bound to have a good sense of what they are enjoying and what they aren't. Work with them not against them... and sometimes stick to your story it's good to remind them they aren't always right.
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Keep in mind that at first level, PCs can be very squishy. Like, single crit can bring them from full HP to negative hit points and dying.
At first and second level I suggest being a little over-generous with curative potions for this reason. Even if the group ends up with a healer, early levels drain a party's resources fast.
I second Alientude's suggestion of varying foes, and GM1990's of not using Drow yet. Most people know of drow, and that they're pretty bad dudes. A bunch of level 1 drow warriors is not really in keeping with that. So if you want to use "Bad humanoid race wielding weapons" as a strong motif, I'd suggest something else. Orcs are iconic AF, but maybe too overdone?
Going out on a limb, I'm going to suggest Mites. They're small evil Fey with an affinity for vermin. Think smaller, uglier, blue goblins. You can use them with a few different weapon types as generic foes. Throw a low CR bug or two for another encounter. Put a mite or two on top of a beetle, and you've got a differently flavored mounted fighter.
Mites can even befriend swarms and use those. (Though, be careful with swarms; they can suck if the party isn't ready. Highly recommend using a swarm of tiny creatures, so weapons can still do damage).
Then for the big bad, you can differentiate him from the others. Make him medium, give him a recognizable class, or some such to identify him as badder than his brethren. Or, maybe this is where you put a drow in; as the boss man/envoy to the smaller creatures. That way you can set the tone that the drow are running things, instead of doing the dirty work themselves. Drow are haughty; they'd prefer to have their slaves and minions do the lion's head of the fighting before they ever step in.
Besides, the mites are evil underground creatures anyhow, so you don't need to really change anything theme-wise.
RE: treasure charts
Following the "Treasure Value per Encounter Table," you get a general idea how much treasure should accompany each encounter. They have it broken down for each advancement track, too, so however you're doling out XP you're covered. For a party at level 1, Medium XP, the average treasure received in an encounter is 260 gp.
Not every encounter will lead to treasure, of course. If you want to give bigger rewards for an encounter it's easy to balance that by providing less treasure elsewhere. PC's might face an NPC carrying 750 gp worth of equipment, for example. Later, however, an encounter might present animals or oozes of some sort that do not carry any treasure at all. Or they might gain XP via a social encounter, and no treasure. So it averages out over time.
One (obvious) thing I often like to do, especially with dungeon delves and the like, is include a larger horde, say with the BBEG. Or a big item of much greater value. So if I have a big mountain of treasure at the end, I'll give a little less along the way to it.
Following the "Character Wealth by Level" chart, you get a general idea of how much wealth--money, items, weapons, everything--a character should have at each level. So by level two each member of the party should have about 1,000 gp of stuff. So as you're going you can plan your treasure accordingly, so that the encounters it takes to provide the XP to hit Level 2 also provide the money/items to hit 1,000 gp at level 2.
So at level 1 or 2, even maybe 3 or 4, items like you're talking about probably wouldn't be appropriate for PC's to have. They simply cost too much--meaning the items are likely too powerful. As the PC's advance and become more powerful, you'll be able to let them acquire more powerful items.
My single biggest piece of advice is to ditch XP entirely for so many reasons. Just level them up at campaign appropriate times. You will save yourself a lot of trouble.
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My single biggest piece of advice is to ditch XP entirely for so many reasons. Just level them up at campaign appropriate times. You will save yourself a lot of trouble.
This is probably good advice. It saves a whole bunch of math and effort. Plus, frankly, xp adds little to the game. I mean, some people like adding it to their sheet, I guess, but from that perspective you could just do what PFS does and give 1 XP a session, with three equaling a new level (or pick whatever numbers suit your fancy).
Basically, the xp rules nas they stand are really complicated for little gain. I haven't used them personally in years. I recommend ditching them.
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4 mites is a CR 1 encounter. A CR 1 encounter is designed to use up ~1/4 of the resources of a group of 4 level 1 PC. A challenging encounter is usually one that has a total CR of 1 or 2 higher than the level of the PCs.
I like to use XP not as a tracker to the PCs next level-up, but as a scale of how challenging an encounter should be.
A CR 1 creature is worth 400XP. A mite is a CR 1/4, worth 100 xp, so 4 mites is a CR 1 encounter.
A CR 2 encounter is worth 600 xp, so 6 mites.
CR 3 is 800 xp, 8 mites.
And so forth. The total XP of an encounter should be adjusted based on number of players. Suppose a 5th person joined the group before we got started. Now a CR 1 encounter, per the bestiary, is less challenging to the party than it was before.
The CR system is based around 4 PCs, but it's fairly simple to adjust it up. First, figure out what you want the CR of the encounter to be. For this example, we'll use a CR 2 encounter. Tougher than CR 1, but still totally manageable for level 1 PCs.
A baseline CR 2 encounter is worth 600xp. Divide that by 4. This gives the xp per player. In this case, 150xp. Now, multiply that by the number of players. 150*5=750. So to make a balanced CR 2 encounter for 5 PCs, we have to budget 750 XP. Using just the mites, it'd be 7 or 8, depending on if you want it a bit easier or a bit tougher.
Mixing in monsters of differing CRs makes this math easier, and it makes the encounters more dynamic.
When designing encounters, having one very high CR monster isn't usually as good as having a few lower CR ones. 4 PCs v.s. 1 monster will almost always have the PCs win pretty easily simply do to having 4 times the number of turns in which to do things.
As a random note: An encounter with a CR of the PC's level +4 is very very tough. PC level +4 gives the PC's ~50% success rate, assuming they were fully healed, so you probably don't want to make encounters that tough, except maybe the final boss of an entire campaign.
Back to the mites: don't forget that they have a small amount of damage reduction that the PCs almost certainly can't overcome at this level. The DR/2 gives the mites an effective HP just below the goblins or drow. They ARE easy to take out, but it's an introductory kind of low level encounter.
I'd probably do ~6 mites in an encounter by themselves. They won't have much of a chance of winning, but they'll probably do some damage and take a few rounds to go down.
If you're interested in more about encounter design, I'll link you THIS ARTICLE It goes in more depth of encounter design, XP budgeting, and why a single big bad evil guy is generally a poor encounter.
Sorry for the wall of text; I just got inspired to type out a bunch of stuff. Must be the caffeinated tea. ^_^
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@Marvin Ghey
Hm, I see what you mean. I will see what other loot I can give, that is more appropriate. The only thing tho, is that the items aren't gamebreaking. Goggles of night gives you darkvision (ok, maybe thats a little op) and circlet of persuasion will maybe inspire them to rp more. Maybe I will lay of the big loot for a little while after this session, to balance things out!
A circlet of persuasion won't encourage more RP, it'll encourage someone to be a bard and rofl-stomp social encounters.
Here's an example of a level 2 half-elf bard with 18 charisma (16+2 racial).
Diplomacy/Sense Motive = 15
Versatile Performance (Oratory) -> use Perform (Oratory) in place of Sense Motive/Diplomacy.
Breakdown Skill Focus (Oratory) (from half-elf) -> +3
class skill +3
ability bonus +4
Circlet of Persuasion +3
Ranks +2
While that can easily be pushed higher, and you shouldn't penalized for specializing (other than having glaring weaknesses), should your party realize how useful such an item is it's very easy to take advantage of. There's a reason it costs 4500g.
Especially if someone knows about it and advanced, or just happens to make a charisma based character. It applies to concentration checks. It applies to init checks if someone takes Noble Scion of War at level 1. I'm sure there are other things it apply to but I can't think of anything offhand.
Lots of good advice here. Don't feel like you have to give too much loot. Not every encounter needs a monetary reward also agree that the circlet of persuasion could be swapped out for something - maybe multiple less expensive items.
One thing I have found very agreeable is to up the HP by adding con score instead of con modifier at 1st level. It usually adds 75-125% HP which becomes less relevant as characters get more powerful but keeps them alive when a lucky damage roll from an Orc can take a character out in one round.
We started it as a test after a couple of players died. We've kept it up for the last 8 years and never looked back!
A couple of quick thoughts:
1. If you have a group of humanoids fighting the PCs, only use the same gear for each of them if they are part of a highly organized and well-paid fighting force. This might be true, but if it's not, things will be more interesting if you mix and match a bit.
2. Along the same lines, what's wrong with human NPC enemies? It's not difficult to make them interesting, even without much role-play... Different tactics + personal features = interesting. Further, and no offense, but how did a group of disgruntled and/or scheming nobles seem come to employ a group of Mites of all things? Or drows for that matter? If you are looking for an organized, non-human force, I highly recommend hobgoblins. Alternatively, a hodge-podge of brigands of various core races would work fine otherwise.
Here's my point.
"The Bully"
A bald, greasy looking heavy set man slams his tankard testily onto the table, his snarl revealing several crooked yellow teeth beneath a bushy unkempt mustache.
Tactic: Verbally challenges his opponent, favoring the first PC into the room. Closes quickly, and subdues his opponents with his Sap.
Equipment: Hide Armor, Sap, Whip, Dagger, 25 silver pieces.
AC: 14 (+4 Armor), FF 10, Touch 10
Atk: +3 Sap 1d6+2 [Nonlethal]
Saves: Fort +3, Ref +0, Will -1
Skills: Intimidate +7
Feats:Weapon Focus (Sap), Intimidating Prowess
Stats:Str 15, Dex 11, Con 12, Int 8, Wis 9, Cha 10
"Twin Subduers"
The long, hooked noses, disheveled red hair, and ugly grins on this pair gives them the appearance of two crazed weasels.
Tactic: The pair moves into position flanking their target, both using combat expertise if the opponent is heavily armed. Once both have taken their move action, one attempts to trip the target, and the other beats the target down if they succeed.
Equipment: Studded Leather, Whip, Dagger, 25 silver pieces.
AC: 14 (+3 Armor, +1 Co. Exp), FF 10, Touch 11
Atk: +2 Sap (1d6+2) [Non-lethal]
Saves: Fort +2, Ref +0, Will -1
Feats: Combat Expertise, Tandem Trip
Stats:Str 14, Dex 11, Con 10, Int 13, Wis 9, Cha 8
"Corrupt Militia"
This middle-aged man in a soiled and tattered tabard blanches as he peers over his shield, and his mustache twitches nervously.
Tactic: Fights defensively, attacks the badly wounded first.
Equipment: Parade Armor, Heavy Wooden Shield, Morningstar, Dagger, 5 silver pieces.
AC: 18 (+3 Armor, +3 Shield, +1 Dodge, +2 F.Def., -1 Dex), FF 14, Touch 13
Atk: -3 Morningstar (1d8)
Saves: Fort +3, Ref +0, Will +0
Feats:Dodge, Shield Focus
Stats:Str 10, Dex 11, Con 12, Int 11, Wis 10, Cha 9
"Grinning Knave"
The young man straightens up from his place against the wall, and draws his sword with casual swagger.
Tactic: Targets a lightly armored martial first, challenging them to "face him." Fights defensively after losing his Panache point, flees if given the chance.
Equipment: Leather, Rapier, Dagger, 2 gold pieces
AC: 13 (+2 Armor, +1 Dex), FF 11, Touch 11
Atk: +2 Rapier (1d8-1) [18-20/x2 Crit)
Saves: Fort +2, Ref +1, Will -1
Feats:Weapon Finesse, Amateur Swashbuckler (1/1 Dodging Panache)
Stats:Str 8, Dex 13, Con 11, Int 10, Wis 9, Cha 14
"Chaser"
This man has a thick scarf wrapped and hood around his head, revealing only a pair of deep set eyes.
Tactic: Wordlessly throws a bolas at the easiest target. Readies a throw against an arcane spellcaster if he can. Once he runs out, he enters melee with his kukri.
Equipment:Studded Leather, Bolas x3, Kukri, 15 silver pieces.
AC: 15 (+3 Armor, +2 Dex), FF 13, Touch 12
Atk: +3 Bolas (1d3) [10 ft., Trip (+3), Nonlethal]
Atk: +1 Kukri (1d4)[18-20/x2]
Saves: Fort +3, Ref +0, Will -1
Feats:EWP Bolas, Agile Maneuvers
Stats:Str 10, Dex 15, Con 12, Int 10, Wis 9, Cha 8
I would suggest loot wise get rid of the breastplate, googles of night and circlet of persuasion. They are way too good for low level players. Worst case scenario (and optimally) you have to imagine the possibility of players selling that gear and gaining +8000gp to a level 2 player's stash is EXTREME.
Replace one of the drops with a wand of cure light wounds with 20ish charges, maybe a few alchemical drops like sun rods, tangle foot bags and alchemist bombs. Scrolls of xyz spells. Basically expendable objects that can really turn the tides of battles but generally considerably expensive for low level players to buy.