How do you guys handle custom enemies and npc stats, powers, and loot? On the loot end of the question, what kind of equipment drops would be good for first level characters? Simple +1 weapons/armor?
Thanks in advance
If your budgets tight, get a month subscription and grab the offline builder, as you don't require a Insider account to keep using it like the online builder and the compendium. If you can afford a full year, it's worth it for a DM to get access to everything without having to keep buying certain books. You'll save in the long run on that front as well.
As for the weapons and armor question, all magical EQ that provides an enchantment bonus is divided in levels of 5s. 1-5 is a +1, 6-10 a +2, and so on. If the treasure guide your using (which can be found in the DM Guide or the Rules Compendium) says to only give them a certain level or lower of EQ for their level, then that will determin what type of bonus is approriate for them.
Hope this helps. Happy Gaming
This gives you the core maths for monster creation, so that you can take existing monsters and easily level them up or down; change their roles; or change their type (solo, elite, minion etc). So, for example, if you want your PCs to face an ogre at L1, you could take an Ogre Savage from the MM and convert him into a L2 Elite. You can 'reskin' existing monsters too - so maybe you end up using the Dwarf Hammerer stat block with a few tweaks as the head cultist's half-ogre bodyguard for example. This is a core DMing skill to develop, and you'll probably be surprised at how quickly and easily you can do it once you've had a bit of practice.