OK the explanation helps to see the problem a little more clearly. Back in the OP you said:
Three party members have never played D&D before so there was a lot of explaining at first. The 4th member played half a campaign 2 years ago, so she's rusty.
I'm not sure it is realistic to expect, with 4 of the 5 players being newbies or rusty, that they are going to, when faced with an encounter like this, figure out a good way to handle it. The most basic assumption is combat in D&D, and especially with new players, it is often all they think of for quite a while. There is a reason that early D&D was often played hack-n-loot style. It's not just because that's how the rules were written (although there was, of course, that). It's also because when meeting bad guys, drawing steel and killing them is the easiest thing to do, and it's the thing the character sheet is most explicit in telling you how to do. Negotiations, say, or puzzle solving, do not have the kinds of explicit rules that combat does. One does not (usually) roll for initiative during negotiations, or roll "damage" to the other guy's resistance to your position. It's not as clear what to do in these cases, other than "make a deception check," so players will often fall back on what is known and spelled out: combat.
Also as a first encounter, the players don't yet know how "lethal" your campaign is going to be. The experienced ones may have been in blood-baths like Tomb of Horrors was back in the day, and think that every encounter is liable to cause character death. You can say all you want verbally that your campaign won't be like this -- it simply takes time and an adventure or two for the players to take this to heart.
Knowing that you have new players, it might be advisable to go a little easy on them at first, just until they get their feet wet so to speak. Try not giving them such overwhelming-seeming odds at first. Give them some calmer settings for doing non-combat solutions, rather than a high-stakes crisis. Ease them into it.
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WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
I think even though backstories might sound really overwhelming, they might actually help you. It can help the characters feel more invested in themselves as people, instead of just stat blocks. You could also try the "okay, everyone pick one other character in the party. How did you know them before. What is your connection." Because it sounds like some of your issue is just that they haven't figured out how to bond.
Also, what about putting them through a legit dungeon crawl? Nothing super hard, but something where defeat monster=immediate loot? Also a good chance to give them some non-combat encounters.
I'm new, and have new players, and I know a lot of my first sessions were about 'teaching' them things, like how not to respond to an encounter with combat, about making friends with NPC's, about how being a little balsey pays off, that sort of thing. It seems to be working well.
But before all this, I think as others have suggested, that a group conversation is in order. I think that'll put you guys on the right track.
Good luck!
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OK the explanation helps to see the problem a little more clearly. Back in the OP you said:
I'm not sure it is realistic to expect, with 4 of the 5 players being newbies or rusty, that they are going to, when faced with an encounter like this, figure out a good way to handle it. The most basic assumption is combat in D&D, and especially with new players, it is often all they think of for quite a while. There is a reason that early D&D was often played hack-n-loot style. It's not just because that's how the rules were written (although there was, of course, that). It's also because when meeting bad guys, drawing steel and killing them is the easiest thing to do, and it's the thing the character sheet is most explicit in telling you how to do. Negotiations, say, or puzzle solving, do not have the kinds of explicit rules that combat does. One does not (usually) roll for initiative during negotiations, or roll "damage" to the other guy's resistance to your position. It's not as clear what to do in these cases, other than "make a deception check," so players will often fall back on what is known and spelled out: combat.
Also as a first encounter, the players don't yet know how "lethal" your campaign is going to be. The experienced ones may have been in blood-baths like Tomb of Horrors was back in the day, and think that every encounter is liable to cause character death. You can say all you want verbally that your campaign won't be like this -- it simply takes time and an adventure or two for the players to take this to heart.
Knowing that you have new players, it might be advisable to go a little easy on them at first, just until they get their feet wet so to speak. Try not giving them such overwhelming-seeming odds at first. Give them some calmer settings for doing non-combat solutions, rather than a high-stakes crisis. Ease them into it.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
I think even though backstories might sound really overwhelming, they might actually help you. It can help the characters feel more invested in themselves as people, instead of just stat blocks. You could also try the "okay, everyone pick one other character in the party. How did you know them before. What is your connection." Because it sounds like some of your issue is just that they haven't figured out how to bond.
Also, what about putting them through a legit dungeon crawl? Nothing super hard, but something where defeat monster=immediate loot? Also a good chance to give them some non-combat encounters.
I'm new, and have new players, and I know a lot of my first sessions were about 'teaching' them things, like how not to respond to an encounter with combat, about making friends with NPC's, about how being a little balsey pays off, that sort of thing. It seems to be working well.
But before all this, I think as others have suggested, that a group conversation is in order. I think that'll put you guys on the right track.
Good luck!