Maybe I just had extraordinary experiences, but:
[Sblock]I have played almost every T2 mod twice and almost all with different DMs, due me only playing online on Roll20 and FG and the relative scarcity of available T2 mods and me having a level 9 Gauntlet and a level 10 Harper (other surely replayed them even more).
Order of the Gauntlet:
Mission 1, DDEX1-12
First time I was doing the mission, second time we happened to have no Gauntlet member in the party. Since the hags happened to have already captured the prisoner I was supposed to catch I just asked the if I could take him back to Phlan when I come back from the dragon's lair. And they just said yes, provided I do the little trade with them. And that was all. Since this trade thing is something the hags try to convince the PCs to do anyway even if no Gauntlet member is present, the special mission took no extra effort at all. Second round we attacked and killed the hags because of a disagreement. If a Gauntlet member would have been present, this would also have accomplished the mission for him, as the locked up prisoner would be ripe for the taking. So it seems as if fighting or trading are the same whether a Gauntet member is present at all and both accomplish the Gauntlet mission as a side effect without having any increased difficulty from it.
Mission 2, DDEX2-15
First time I was playing my Harper and tried the Harper mission (which I actually failed, the only failure to date I ever saw in a special mission, see later), but two Gauntlet PCs were present. Second time I was doing it with my own Gauntlet PC and annother Gauntlet member. In both cases the mission was basically an auto-completing cutscene. Before you enter the final "dungeon" a random NPC shows up from nowhere (yes, Gauntlet members are pre-warned he would show up and if you have played the right S1 mod (and remember him) he's not "random") and asked to accompany you. If you say yes he then automatically runs forward just before you start the first or second fight (depending if you go left or right first), talks to the evil lady and is killed. All in a "cutscene" and voila, mission accomplished. While the NPC doesn't show up when no gauntlet member is present, his presence required no extra effort at all in both play throughs.
Mission 3, DDEX3-09
The incriminatory documents you are tasked to find are found basically automatically while searching for the password to deactivate the guardian golems. Also played this with two different DMs and since in both cases at least one PC impressed the soldiers enough to hear about the passphrase the captain keeps in his bedroom, there was no detour needed to search for the Gauntlet document, since the party would have someone break in there anyway. If at least they would have been in a different room or actually require an extra, more difficult step after obtaining the password I could see the point. But no, they are actually found even before the password, since they are just lying openly on the desk while the password has to be extracted from under the mattress of the sleeping captain. Again I don't see any extra effort here. I go on a limb and say that just about every party hearing about the golems will go after the password anyway, thus accidentally accomplishing the Gauntlet mission on the way.
Harpers 1:
Mission 1, DDEX1-10
Extra encounter to kill Spernik. No issue here, except maybe that of the two times I did this, this encounter wasn't any more threatening than any of the other fightt in the adventure. I would even say it was easier than the preceding fight to take the prison courtyard.
Mission 2, DDEX2-15
Also played twice with two different DMs this is the one I actually failed with my own Harper, while the second time saw other Harpers complete it. Here I see how doing the Harper mission makes the battle slightly more difficult, but not by much. The first run we just had really bad luck that after the first round 2 of our party of 5 had failed two saves against the two gorgons and were petrified. With 40% of the party out and two very much alive gorgons threatening to recharge their breathweapons we just decided to nuke the room lest we all end as statues. Thus we burned the NPC we were supposed to identify and spare to a crisp alongside the gorgons and the mission was a failure. While the mission itself added no extra enemy to fight, it would have required us to pull our punches for a round or two until we had identified whom to spare. If we had not had such bad luck with the petrification saves (or maybe were highlevel enough to undo it mid-combat, but alas we all were just level 5), that should have been pretty easy. Second time the random roll said the informant was in the other room without the save-or-die monsters and we also had three Harper in the party, who among them easily got enough successes to spot the right NPC halfway through the second round. Mission easily accomplised. Of the six missions I attempted myself and all the missions I've seen others attempt, this was the only time I've seen a mission fail.
Mission 3, DDEX3-07
Not really an extra encounter, as you likely meet the drow even when no harper is present, but potentially an extra fight if a harper is present and your diplomacy rolls don't go well (I was lucky and managed to persuade every single drow follower and the mage in a string of 10+ rolls on a high persuasion warlock, so I didn't even have to fight the leader) but I concur that this once can easily lead to an extra battle just for the mission.
So in hindsight of the missions I have to do myself it's really the Gauntlet missions that stick out as being very easy to the point of auto-completing themselves. The harper missions all have at least the potential if not the requirement of an extra battle or make an existing battle slightly more difficult.
So did my DMs play out the Gauntlet missions wrongly? Were they supposed to be more difficult? I mean especially mission 2 seemed very strange. NPC shows up, you say yes, NPC gets himself killed in a "cut scene", mission accomplished without you having to do anything. Seems pretty fishy but after seeing it played out this way with two different DMs I just accepted it as how it#s supposed to happen.
Compared to what I witnessed a Zhent having to do for their special mission in DDEX2-14 (which I will definately not attempt with my Zhent (currenlty level 4) until he's at least level 8) the second gauntlet mission seems even more fishy for being so easy in comparision[/Sblock]
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