Interesting thread.
I'm mostly in Bullgrit's camp -- the Tomb is vastly overrated, and statements that it somehow challenges the players' thinking abilities don't hold up to me.
As Bullgrit has pointed out, in some places the Tomb punishes you for persistence; in other places, it rewards you. In some places, it punishes you for searching thoroughly; in other places, it rewards you. In some places, the Tomb maybe sorta kinda gives you a clue (though we can argue about that); in other places, it leaves you completely to your own devices.
It's maddening. And maybe that's the way AcerGygax likes it.
= = =
A couple of points I remember from when I played this, back in the day.
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* One of my characters had a gem of true seeing, gained during a previous adventure. That item made the Tomb much easier.
(But, it's not like having it means I was a better player. It just means my DM was nice enough to lay the gem on me in a previous adventure.)
* We cast find the path, repeatedly. Our DM interpreted it fairly liberally, so we were able to avoid many of the traps.
* My wizard character used unseen servant and/or telekinesis constantly. I don't think we ever touched or manipulated anything by hand unless we had no alternative. I specifically remember using telekinesis to get the key-half out of the acid, after detect magic had revealed something was in there.
* But, lest you think the DM was too easy on us, my recollection is as follows:
1 PC lost part of an arm to the Great Green Face
1 PC lost all equipment to the misty archway trap
1 PC had his/her gender and alignment swapped and had to be put down (hey, he/she was evil, he/she attacked us)
I think someone got smushed by the juggernaut, but I vaguely remember we had some clever way around it.
And... all remaining PCs died to the demilich in the end. Our DM may have been generous in allowing us to get that far, but since we didn't have the right silver bullets prepared (and this was before MM2 existed), we were toast as soon as the skull rose up.
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