As new players, our team of 3 heroes is Leoric, Jain and Grisban.

They are getting badly beaten by the overlord. Is this group ok as things go for new players or is there any potential problems?

What classes?

There are a lot of people on this forum who are more experienced than me, but I would say Syndrael>>>Grisban.

Jain and Leoric are good, definitely.

I see you have no healer- would one of you consider doubling up so you guys can include a healer character?

Again, there are a lot of people here who are more experienced at the game than me, but I would suggest those two things in general.

What campaign is it?

(edit: these are general suggestions. I don't know how exactly you guys are getting beaten (smack down or getting blocked all the time), what your strategy is, what campaign, etc)

Heirs of blood.

Ill ask about the classes, its actually a family member who has started playing and im asking on her behalf. Im pretty new myself too so cant really advise.

Okay! Heirs of Blood is a really good campaign overall, but it can go into a downward spiral for the heroes if "Blood Will Tell" is played. That one's rough even if you have a lot of experience at the game, and leads right into "Rise of Urthko", which we house ruled a few times and it was still very hard.

Agreed- it's more about classes than it is about heroes (though heroes make a difference). Leoric the Necromancer is a whole different ballgame than Leoric the Runemaster, especially for a new player (as is a Knight compared to a Berserker.)

From the hero selections, it sounds like they're playing with the base set alone. I'd recommend (to give the heroes a boost) they see what Knight, Runemaster, Wildlander plays like. They can keep the same heroes.

also, how is a party of 3 players v overlord on difficulty balance than say 2 or 4? I recall a thread talking about it a while ago but cant find it.

Ill ask what classes she has.

In general, 3 heroes favor the heroes in a campaign against a human Overlord.