YMMV / Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden

• Spiritual Adaptation: The writers explicitly admitted that the adventure is inspired by stories like Who Goes There? and At the Mountains of Madness.
• Squick: The final boss battle against Auril is essentially about beating up a woman until she's something called a "winter's womb". It Makes Sense in Context, but still. Yikes.
• That One Level: The Tests of the Frostmaiden, four challenges that are intended to be done all in a row with no breaks inbetween. While Test of Preservation isn't too bad (unless Test of Endurance is done before it), the rest are considered a complete unfair slog and generally one of, if not the, worst portions of the module by many. Most of the tests in some way take away the players' agency with no choice on their part. Worse yet, the game gives no indication the tests don't need to be done and the resolution as written if they aren't or are all failed (three of Auril's cultist just happen to arrive to look at the Codicil of White) is essentually a Deus ex Machina. There's a reason multiple guides exist solely for DMs to fix this portion of the module.
  • Test of Cruelty forces the party to commit evil acts or fail, no matter their character or alignment. For some parties, this Test is impossible to succeed in without breaking character.
  • Test of Isolation requires remaining in the same camp for six straight ingame days, during which if the party fails a saving throw, a party member is effectively removed from the game entirely for the rest of the trial, unable to do anything and just having to sit around while everyone else continues to play (something the module wants them to do). When they get back, a failed roll against a DC 15 Wisdom save results in a form of indefinite madness, which can permanently alter their character in a way that breaks what they were going for. It can be cured by Greater Restoration, but at the intended level, that's still several levels away.
  • Test of Endurance is likely the worst part of the Tests. It consists of a forced long march involving increasing levels of exhaustion that, as written, do not go away after the test, meaning not only can characters straight up die with no saving throw, if they do survive, they're basically completely crippled. With the number of saving throws required, it's almost impossible not to get hit with at least one. Magic cannot be used, meaning any spells the characters have to possibly counter this can't be used, leaving the party's fate entirely up to chance with no means of them doing anything to influence it. This means this challenge can easily result in a Total Party Kill with the players largely helpless to do anything. The anti-magic field covering the entire march means Revivify, the only resurrection spell available at the intended level, can't be used to bring them back at all (as with the Test of Isolation, this is several levels away from being able to get a revival spell that can bring them back, and depending on how long inuniverse it takes to reach that level, might be too late), potentially resulting in their character being Killed Off for Real with there being next to nothing they can do about it. If the DM is particularly cruel, they can have Auril return at that exact moment (which is one way the module has it scripted to possibly happen). Even if they don't do so and don't have to fight Auril, exhaustion requires a long rest to recover one level from, meaning the party has no choice but to wait up to five ingame days to recover from if someone got unlucky. The Test of Isolation, if the days are taken as long rests, could remove the exhaustion, but also makes passing the checks far more difficult and the game gives no indication that's the proper order.

---