In the pre made characters for the 4e adventure Keep on the Shadowfell they only give each character about 3 at-will powers. reading through the PHB I find that most characters have about 4-6 at-will powers. It doesn't ever seem to explicitly say I have a limited number of powers but I can't tell for sure.
[RPG] do I only get a limited number of at-will powers
character-creationdnd-4epowers
Related Solutions
#3 - Players typically purchase their starting gear from the gold they are given at first level. The SRD has a great article on character creation, and equipment is under section 8. The gold you have listed is, according to the SRD, actually the average for each class. As a DM, you can choose to give them the average for first level, or make them roll.
It would be good for them to look at the pre-bought sets the describe, so they can understand what's typically needed. Once they get more comfortable, they may branch out according to how they like to play their character.
Of course, as the DM you may overrule this and force them to start with a certain set of items, or give them more gold, etc. Seeing as this is your first time playing, however, I highly suggest sticking to rules as written since this sort of overruling may very well have unintended side effects.
As an aside, wizards get so little at first level because they don't need (and cannot wear) armor, nor do they need expensive weapons like swords and bows.
[RPG] My players almost die in the encounters every time. Does this mean the encounters are too hard
Keep on the Shadowfell is balanced for parties of 5 players
The default party size for 4e is 5 players, and all the official modules are designed to be an appropriate challenge for a party of 5. This is not to say that the game won't work well with 3 players (my experience has been that it starts having trouble when you have 2 or less players or 8+ players), just that the amount of monsters you'll find in each fight are intended to be a typical challenge for a group of 5 players, rather than 3.
Keep on the Shadowfell is admittedly pretty poorly balanced, since it's the very first module ever produced for 4e, back before everything was really thoroughly playtested, so how close to ideal it is for a party of 5 is debatable; nonetheless, it was designed for 5. I highly recommend checking out the rewrite of KotS that Brian Ballsun-Stanton linked.
Regardless of whether you stick with the original module or switch to the rewrite, you're still looking at something built for 5 players, so the real question is how do you deal with that? I've got 3 possible approaches.
You can rebalance things for a party of 3 by removing approximately 40% of the XP worth of monsters for each fight; not 40% of the monsters, but 40% of the fight's total XP value worth of monsters.
If your players are happy with the current difficulty level, you can always keep going as things are. Later on your players may need to seek advice (the official 4e Character Optimization forum would be a good place) on how to keep their characters sufficiently capable.
You can compromise between approaches 1 & 2 by reducing the XP total for fights by 20%; this will balance things for 4 players, which should still be fairly challenging for a party of 3 but will also reduce the "almost dying every time" factor.
Best Answer
In most cases with powers, you have a limited number of choices (this is slightly different for the characters introduced in the "Heroes of" books, but even then you're limited).
Most classes can pick 2 at will powers- see the Character Advancement chart in the PHB on page 29, where it tells you what you gain, including 2 at-will powers.
In exchange for only getting a +2 to one stat, Humans can get an extra feat at first level and an extra at-will power, which is why you're getting 3 at-wills. Alternatively, Heroes of the Fallen Lands and Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms allow you to get Heroic Effort in exchange for the extra at-will. Heroic Effort is a No Action Encounter utility power, which lets you get a +4 racial bonus when you miss with an attack or a saving throw.