The inaugural encounter of the game I intend to be a chance for the players to start getting a feel for their characters in play, as well as highlight the dangerous nature of the area around Briarridge. It is going to be a classic “bandits attack”, and I am most likely going to tell the players, “You'll be able to take an extended rest after this, so fell free to drop dailies.”

As an encounter to ease them in, it is level 1, consisting of a desperate bandit boss (level 1 skirmisher-leader), two desperate bandit archers (level 1 artillery) and eight desperate bandit scum (level 1 minion, I may have four players and drop them to six scum, between a level 1 and 2 encounter, but lots of minions should still make it easy). While it is a lot of enemies on the field, the minions will get swept sway in pretty good order. The main synergy is the boss's don't let them win that easily! power, which will allow him to direct an ally to make a basic attack whenever a PC drops one or more bandits. Since it is an opportunity attack, the boss can only use it once per PC turn, regardless of how many bandits are dropped.

For the map, I'm planning on using the map from Keep on the Shadowfell, for the initial “kobolds ambush you on the road” encounter. It's the same concept, and allows me to use a map I already have. Being desperate bandits, I'm not giving any treasure as part of this encounter.

I foresee two potential troubleshooting issues. First, if the players try to talk the bandits down, I may turn that into an impromptu skill challenge. Second, the bandit scum can daze when they attack with combat advantage. That's a lot of potential dazes that can go out. I'm not too worried, as the minions will be going down fast, so it will be tough for them to get many combat advantage situations. Still, I may change the effect to weakened for a turn anyways. I'm still thinking on that. If it looks like it's being too much of a pain at the table, then I can also change it mid-encounter (little do the players realize the stat block was supposed to say “dazed or weakened”!).

And now, some desperate bandit stat blocks: