At the end of the very first dungeon my group of three players had gotten the right items in tandem to be unstoppable. Everything I throw at them they stomped to death, and even when I tripled the Giant at the end's health they ripped him apart in 3 rounds.

What do you guys suggest for game balance?

Thanks.

The first few quests are weighted in the heroes' favor. also, once gold items start showing up, it's all over but the crying. Your best bet is to do everything you can to crush them before that happens.

My advice is to play at least 5 more quests before trying to "balance" things.

And . . . oh yeah, read the FAQ several times.

Descent combat is fast and deadly, the first few quests are pretty easy on the heroes, and the overlord rarely wins in the last room. You're probably fine, but if you want monsters that take longer to kill, you could try Enduring Evil .

Are you using any of the expansions? I recently played the first quest with Wod, AoD and ToI and when I spawned Blood Apes I was really able to cut through the Heroes.

In part, the Heroes were new players and wasted a lot of time but they felt like they didn't stand a chance. Of course they did have a chance, they just didn't play very well (to no fault of their own).

Maybe read over the rules and make sure you're doing everything correctly. It's so easy to miss something because there are so many rules.

But as others have said... the first few quests are suposed to easy for the heroes.

Keep playing!