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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 7706358" data-attributes="member: 4937">Let's assume both play as written.The key differences between the two are: 1) 'Hidden Shrine' has hideous time pressure.  In 'Hidden Shrine' you are under a horrific clock.  The poisonous gas will kill the whole party in a few hours.  You can't take a single rest.  You have to race to get out of the lower levels or you will die.  'Tomb of Horrors' has no time pressure.  You can explore, use spells, and rest and reset as needed.  2) 'Hidden Shrine' has vastly tougher monsters relative to party level.  The 'Will O' The Wisp' alone is more dangerous to a party of the suggested level than every single monster in Tomb of Horrors is to the party of its suggested level (sans Acererak, who is a special case) combined.  It's AC makes it almost unhittable.  It's electrical damage is brutal.  'Wisps' are one of the single most dangerous monsters in 1e AD&D.  To have one in 'Hidden Shrine' for low level poorly equipped characters is more brutal than anything in Tomb of Horrors, because there is just no answer to it.I have never seen a party make it out of 'Hidden Shrines' first section.  In my opinion, I could give a typical party the text of 'Hidden Shrine' and many would have a hard time getting out even knowing the whole module in advance.  It's that hard.   On the other hand, I wouldn't at all be surprised for even average parties to make it to at least the chamber of pillars in 'Tomb of Horrors' having no knowledge of the module, and it's pretty easy to describe how to 'beat' the module using a party of 1st level characters.  On a scale of difficulty, I'd put 'Tomb of Horrors' at a 8 out of 10, and 'Hidden Shrine' as a 10 (one of two I'd rate as 10's among published modules, the other being Ravenloft).</blockquote>

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