I think it is A. However, I don't know anything about modern D and D. When I was a kid I had a lot of the First Edition D & D manuals but nobody to play the games with. However, I would play through most of the modules that I could find on my own way into the middle of the night.

Yeah, i didn't get to keep the sheets but i know about what every character plays so i was going that route.

Thanks for the advice on numbers.  I definitly want to avoid what happened when another GM was playing last time.

4 Level 5's who were physical based vs 2 Black Pudding.

Opening encounter decimated and almost killed 2 of the people only won by mass sacrifice of creatures from a bag of tricks.

Basically tokenly went along after that till someone got knocked down, then they were stablized and we just let the evil bandits alone.

If I have the challenge rating thing right that was supposed to be a good match for an average level 8 party.  Rather then a level 4 party that was mostly physical and not min-maxed at all. 

That's a sad story. :'(

I'll have to recommend you Baldur's Gate then.

Beware CR though. It's good to a certain point but once you get into certain monsters (especially dragons), you'll find that they are very much under CR'd and are far nastier than they seem.

Thanks... I'll keep it in mind I knew they can be kinda loose. 

Just so i've got it right though...

CR -  5  = Party of 4 at level 5 right?

And that 2 monsters with a CR of 3 = CR 4 and not CR 6 right?

1 monster @ CR5 = EL5 = 4 PCs @ average level 5 should be able to handle it while expending 25% of their resources for the day (spells and the like).

2 monsters @ CR3 = EL5. There's a rule of thumb somewhere in the DMG about doubling the monsters adds 2 to the EL.

(EL = Encounter Level)