Text says this is an encounter designed for one to five characters of level one, but based on the number of monsters, their CR, and calculating in Combat Encounter Difficulty on page 82 of the DMG, and factoring in the trap this encounter seems to me to be a little on the easy side of easy, and with the monsters all bunched up in one area if the PC's win initiative it could be over before all players have a turn. I would recommend planning on one monster per PC for this adventure, and spreading them out. Conversely two of these monsters might be an OK encounter for complete newbie players.
The text says there are two monsters marked with X's on the map. The map has four X's. For the tactically minded the X's are not placed inside a square rather, kind of haphazardly splashed around a small 10x10 area. As previously noted it would be better to spread the monsters about a bit, and clearly mark which square they reside in, not an intersection of four squares, or on a line between two squares.
The trigger plates for the traps suffer from the same misalignment as the monster locations do.
The number for one of the pit traps is mis-located onto a chest.
I would suggest spending a bit more time on map drawing and correctly locating markers on the map.
There is nothing terribly compelling about this encounter, nothing beyond "hey there is an open door, lets check it out!" but this would be fine as a very early introduction to what its like to play an RPG as it contains elements of combat, traps, and exploration. If had some complete player newbies to the game I would consider using this as an intro encounter after fixing the aforementioned issues.
There is zero history which could be a plus or minus depending on if the DM feels like completely improvising on the spot or has an idea where this might fit into the ongoing game or what the game could be. Personally I would have liked to have seen a bit of history. What are the names of the interred? Surely they have some kind of marker, such as Here Lies Sir Robilar Pray He Ne'er Rises. If they don't have names why? might there be some indication they are buried as unknown soldiers, or are they cursed to be unnamed because they contained a heinous act.
All in all it seems to me the publisher put about 10 minutes of work into this. Maybe I should not complain because its a free product, but if you are trying to entice me to buy something you need to dangle a nice tasty carrot, not a worm ridden apple.
Rating: [3 of 5 Stars!] |