Enemy Density in a Dungeon

[Unfortunate Son]

I am working on the most ambitious project of my GMing and building a multiple level dungeon that is four sheets of Graph paper per level. Sadly, not to familiar the Dungeon Crawl as a GM, and had a question on monster density.

The first level of the dungeon is populated by an Orc and Goblin tribe number just shy of 100. now, the main question I have is on placement of my cannon fodder.. err I mean Orcs and Goblins. The first encounter in the Dungeon is in an old sitting room with an Orc and two Goblins, with in the room next to this are four Orcs and 6 goblins. As you can probably guess, my question is on if this is too much. I intend this to be the first big fight, after clearing out the fort above the dungeon, but I'm worried on overwhelming my Players. Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated.

[Whiskeyjack]

What is the group composition and levels?

[Unfortunate Son]

We are starting at level One and the only confirmed character is the mage.

[kiralon]

Generally
I like to use 2 weak fighters for each pc fighter as this gives them the fun kills
plus 1 tough fighter per 2 pc fighters for the hard kill
then add a priest/shaman or bowman per ranged pc (ranged pc's usually includes wizards and warlocks as well).

If you aren't used to planning encounters have 2 backup plans for each encounter until you get the feel for your group, one for if the pc's are getting overwhelmed and one if the bad guys die too quickly.

Have general equipment figured for the enemy as well because often the pc's will go over the bodies with a fine toothed comb looking for loot.

However even the easiest of fights can go against the players. I once tpk'd the party (4 level 4/5 characters) with 12 lvl 1 no bonus goblins because my dice rolls were on fire and the party could barely muster a roll higher then 8, so you have to remember the random element as well.

[Unfortunate Son]

Thanks Kiralon. That actually helps a bit

[Library Ogre]

Also remember that hand to hand combat in PF is "swingy"... it can go for or against a side very quickly. A couple of criticals, or a flubbed defense roll and good damage, can easily push characters into more desperate situations.

[Whiskeyjack]

Mark makes a very good point. My son learned that this weekend. He's very fond of bragging about his Wolfen Mercs 60 SDC. Two hits (one a natural 20) quickly put him into his hit points lying stunned on the ground. He had enough support to make it out, so make sure you give an out for your level one characters.
With orcs, you could always have one of them decide it's an excellent time to eliminate a rival before running off to warn other of the intruders. Two bad guys out of action and now the group can hopefully pull themselves back together and prepare for the next assault.

[Veknironth]

Well, it seems my initial response to this never posted. I'll rewrite it.

The biggest consideration with enemies in a dungeon crawl is how to keep them all from being alerted. The group walking around in armor is probably loud. Any combat is going to be even louder. Metal clashing, yelling, heavy movement, someone raising an alarm, etc. will all alert anything within ear shot. There needs to be enough space between encounters to reasonably have the other encounters be unaware of what just happened. This is also true for timing as well. If the characters finish with encounter #1 and sit around for hours, the creatures in encounter #2 might move into the area of #1 by wandering, looking for comrades, or any other reason.

The best way to handle it so create an area and populate it and let the PC's figure out how to move through it. The most practical way is to have the different encounters separated by some means. Although, it can be a fun element to have the fight start as an easy victory, only to have additional forces respond to the ruckus and force the PC's to adapt.

Then again, we always played without SDC, so characters were much more selective in their fights.

-Vek
"I mess everything up with verisimilitude."