It's over! And boy am I glad! The adventure path 1 has come to an end finally. No more will I have to pick up my issue of Dungeon and read nearly six pages of character description for a twenty page adventure. No more kelubar demodands or 1/3 glabrezu/1/3 black Dragon,/1/3 tattooed monk sorceror's. I can almost cry.
I think the real weakness in the high level adventures presented in Dungeon (albeit mostly created by the 3.5 edition rules) is the length of the enemy descriptions. Mind you, these characters are really well crafted but I think about the old second edition rules and wonder could all this space be used for something as insignificant as plot or environment description. Creating atmosphere? And Dungeon is pressed for space as it is. That is why I am looking forward to starting anew with another adventure path from ground zero. Now there is lots of space for the environment and overall mood to be handled.And for authors to WRITE, up until, I guess, level ten. That's the thing about low level adventures in 3.5 rules. Arguably the best adventure in 116 is The Palace of the Twisted King. Why? Look at the atmosphere it creates. The other two don't touch it. Look haw much space is used in the enemy stat paragraph. Is there a correlation? Now, I know I will get heat from all the adventure path lovers out there but I for one would love to pick up a Dungeon magazine with three stand alone low level advetures. That is why I am looking forward to the next few magazines until AP2 shows up. And I will enjoy it until level ten.
I liked Palace of T.K. too; nice & creepy to keep players on their toes (+ 'target' got real paranoid after a bit, everyone else thought he was just goofing until too late). I also play mostly with relative rookies & like low level adventures... L1-L7 with lots of atmosphere (like the 'circus freak' one a few issues back). These can be pretty memorable and flow quickly (since I rarely get into 12 hr marathons anymore, or 3 - 6 days in a row @ 5 hrs ea..... aaaah the good 'ol days). The high level adventures are interesting to read and I do like to 'borrow' a few ideas / villains / encounters from them, scale 'em back & insert as 'adventure sidebars'; handy to have in stock for when party wanders way outside of my 'planned' adventure path... or for a "just a bad dream" solo session.