What sort of character will you build for Curse of Strahd?

[Tyranthraxus]

Curse of Strahd is just over a month away and Ive already been formulating some character concepts.

Perhaps not surprisingly , I have scheduled Suits in the Mists locally and notice on the 2 tables I already have 4 Paladins?

Does anyone else have any idea what they might want to play? (keep in mind the players guide is not released yet.. this is character creation as we currently know it)

 

[Mirtek]

None. I'll already have too many really. I don't need a 5th character (I had one for all of LG and 2 for all if LFR), especially a throw away (2 of my current 4 are already sort if throw away, I am just not a multiple character guy).

I'll pass S4

 

[Coredump]

Right now I am leaning towards an Arcane Cleric....but I may change.

Also not sure if I am running CoS or not, if so I will need a second new PC.

 

[Steve_MND]

I'm sure I will make something, if someone decides to run them, but like Mirtek, Season 4 is likely to be a pass season for most of us due to the risk of taking an existing character into the storyline with such a small playerbase as our local area.

That said, I'm not surprised with the large number of paladins -- a martial character specifically tooled to fight undead and evil? That's the low-hanging-fruit/hedge-your-bets character concept for Ravenloft. That said, something tells me that the Mists would probably have some tricks up its sleeve for dealing with the forces of Righteous Good, so that choice may not be as effective as some might think.

 

[ArlenFrostlockes]

I am leaning heavily towards Paladin. Not because of what setting or adventure we are playing, because I really really enjoy playing this editions version of Paladins. I have 3 paladins already one a dragonborn Vengeance oath, one a Half Elf Ancient Oath, and one a Human with oath of the crown. Removing alignment restrictions and the introduction of oaths has opened all sorts of opportunities and creative back stories for me to play around with. Second choice would be an Eldritch Knight as I really like the Cantrips provided by SCAG. As for race, I am going to wait until the adventure book releases to determine .

 

[ArlenFrostlockes]

I'm sure I will make something, if someone decides to run them, but like Mirtek, Season 4 is likely to be a pass season for most of us due to the risk of taking an existing character into the storyline with such a small playerbase as our local area.

That said, I'm not surprised with the large number of paladins -- a martial character specifically tooled to fight undead and evil? That's the low-hanging-fruit/hedge-your-bets character concept for Ravenloft. That said, something tells me that the Mists would probably have some tricks up its sleeve for dealing with the forces of Righteous Good, so that choice may not be as effective as some might think.

I fully expect that this will be the case. Makes sense to have the mists mess with Paladins. But , you no longer need to be
"good" to play as one. perfectly logical to be lawful evil on the vengeance path. That being said, My DM seems to remember that there was some shennanigans played by the plane against Paladins in the original release. Do not know the truth of that as I did not play the campaign back then.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I suspect we will see lots of clerics, paladins, and rangers with favored enemy: undead. Hopefully some of said clerics actually use healing spells (odd, but I’ve noticed at cons very few tend to do so).

For my part, I’ve made a rogue (also, not on the poll list options), with an eye towards the Mastermind path. I haven’t seen that many traps or locked doors in AL play, so I’m probably going to focus on the sneak and smooth-talking bits.

 

[Steve_MND]

I suspect we will see lots of clerics, paladins, and rangers with favored enemy: undead. Hopefully some of said clerics actually use healing spells (odd, but I’ve noticed at cons very few tend to do so).

Probably the same reason why people tend not to play healers as often in MMOs -- everyone always expects you to heal them, no questions asked, immediately, regardless of what stupid thing they did, and if they die, it's obviously your fault anyway.

 

[ArlenFrostlockes]

Probably the same reason why people tend not to play healers as often in MMOs -- everyone always expects you to heal them, no questions asked, immediately, regardless of what stupid thing they did, and if they die, it's obviously your fault anyway.

Back in the days I played EQ2 as a raid tank, the rule was heal the tank and let others lay where they lie. If your tank knows how to play and is geared well enough, it would be rare for another class to fall without them doing something silly to cause it, like blowing a high damage spell or ability before the tank has gained sufficient aggro.

 

[Steve_MND]

If your tank knows how to play and is geared well enough,

That's the important line right there. Not hard if you're gaming with people you know and trust, but when it comes to completely random parties put together -- such as PUGs or, in tabletop terms, convention tables -- it's often not even worth bothering to risk it, because you never know who you're gonna end up sitting with.

I'm sure as heck not going to spend hundreds of dollars traveling to a convention just to hear some socially-inept goofball with only a vague understanding of his character and a folder at home containing fancfics he wrote of every other player's characters in his home game sit there with a confused look on his face and complain to the rest of the party why they aren't helping or at least recovering his corpse after he willingly and knowingly walked through a still-present blade barrier twice.

And why no, I'm not making that story up for the sake of hyperbole. I wish I was tho.