Ok I got this from my mom for christmas.
I have begun reading through it and here is what I have to say.
Negative
-Having to rewrite what an average intellegent creature knows as to why he is marching out to the middle of nowhere? Even if he gets it completely wrong he should have some idea.
-Why there is no logical reason for a one way opaque wall of force in an obscure section of the dungeon but the doors work fine for no reason other than playability. (oh wait it's magic, well then who created the magic and for what purpose) it's cool but again no one bothered to make sense of it.
-Having to rewrite how xp is awarded rather than the adventure being written with the rules in mind (It goes without saying that if the xp awarded in a section by CR is wrong then the tresure awarded by CR is going to be wrong too but this is not addressed and I can only hope the amount of treasure per section is correct for the suggested wealth of character at level x)
-Being told that druids only work in forests rather than sugessting the idea of using Gray Druids.
-Being told to not allow basic spells rather than adapting monsters to their use or even adapting the dungeon to thier use. Heck I would rather have seen sections of the dungeon where certain spells failed to work than being told as a GM to tell a sorcerer he can't have the spell. (yes a gm's job is to say no, but it's designers job to design with the rules of the game in mind. )
-Dealing with the prescense of wizards by saying they get hosed and suggesting a core class not be used , rather than having the dungeon provide caches of scrolls, a reclusive wizard mentor who just wants to do his resarch but loves to trade spells, providing a single new spell (I mean you could have refrenced a AEG book and stated a subsitute if you don't have that book. heck the suggested spell could have been in a web enchancement.)
-I agree with the idea of not having children around to slaughter, it's cool, but again AEG failS to address the logic of it. We dont' want children! Ok, so the dungeon prevents breeding makes sense, but we have poplulation problem then. The dungeon does not let a creature die of old age, disease and minor injury can be dealt with by a few low to medium level clerics in a single section. And the major population that revitalizes it when it dwindles can come from outside sources like the derro and the elves. It may not be perfect but you at least attempt to have some suspension of disbelief.
POSITIVE
-Encounter conditions: this section inspired me to come up with encoutner conditions of my own.
-Room layouts: I like it so much I will probably write any room I ever create in this format and wish the industry as a whole would follow it.
-Scaling: what is really excellent about this is that the scaling is always some thing that you can do on the fly, it's not add a template or advance the creature to HD X.
-Story by region: Other than Region A every story in the dungeon is original and very dramaitc.
-Role-play: I love that monsters will sit down and have a chat with you, they are treated with having the intelligence they possess.
-Action: not all of the action in the dungeon comes down to combat, I like the idea of chase sceens and leaping over rivers of lava etc...
-3 years of gaming: I will have a ready to play game for the next three years that I can spend my time tweaking, cheering, and complaining about
