Good points, Bullgrit. Maybe THIS is the best way to handle the Tomb?!
Keep in mind that the 14th level pregen Cleric can cast Find the Path, True Seeing, and Detect Traps. Those three spells alone will cut out a lot of the risk inherent in exploring the Tomb.
That's pretty much it. It breaks down like this...IIRC, there are no hard and fast rules. I believe the relevant section is page 97 of the 1E DMG. In general, the player rolls a die to search for secret doors. However, the DM has discretion to determine (a) what size die to roll, and (b) what target the player needs to roll on the die. The DMG also says it's acceptable for the DM to dispense with the die roll and make the players figure things out on their own.
I think the default is that non-elves find secret doors if they roll a 1 on a d6. But I'm not sure.
That's pretty much it. It breaks down like this...
And the DM has the option of bumping it up to a d8 or d10 for harder to find doors.
- Non-elf actively searching - 1 in 6 chance
- elf w/in 10' of secret/concealed door - 1 in 6
- elf actively searching, secret doors - 2 in 6
- elf actively searching, concealed door - 3 in 6