Castle Whiterock Questions: first level

[Fizban]

Yeah, no. Unless the first thing on the next page is "so now that the PCs have been captured" because the module expects them to lose, that fight is bogus.

One thing that might have come up to be aware of is initiative. A lot of DMs (and modules) seem to think that just because you think someone isn't hostile, they get a surprise round if they attack you. This is not true: initiative in 3.5 is based on hostility and sight. If you have line of sight and they suddenly turn hostile, you all roll initiative, no surprise rounds. I mention this because not only is this encounter far too much, but it's also pulling the "social ambush" tactic and most likely expecting a big gain.

Another thing to check again is what the module is written for. I've noticed that some are written for parties of *six* PCs, and fail to mention this anywhere other than the intro where it's easily missed. Further, there are some which will be labeled like "for 1st-3rd level characters," but they're actually written for 2nd level characters and they just put 1st on there because "hey it's not like one level is that huge a difference you could totally play this at 1st". And of course, some writers get real caught up under the fact that they know exactly what the PCs should do and rate based on that challenge, rather than what the PCs could or will actually do based on what they've actually written (even in 5e they're still doing this).