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

[RCanine]

Last encounter was incredibly rough - the DM decided to restart the encounter after killing 2 players.
He said milestone XP was not permitted via the recent season 4 document so we went into the last encounter all level 1.

/facepalm

This is EXACTLY why milestone XP is vitally important to this adventure.

 

[Z. H. Darkstar]

/facepalm

This is EXACTLY why milestone XP is vitally important to this adventure.

At least to Death House it's important. The rest of the book can be handled with the high frequency of Random Encounter checks while traveling.

 

[Z. H. Darkstar]

I played for the first time last night and we had 2 paladins, 1 cleric, 1 rogue, 1 ranger and 1 bard besides my fighter. I did see something that I am now planning on meta-gaming. This is the stupidest bunch of characters I can imagine. I think everyone had INT as a dump stat.

My new plan is to go fighter 2 and then the rest into wizard and readjusted my stats for that. I still plan on playing him as a fighter with a GFB glaive, since my character did stick his hand into some green flame to see if it was real. Still not sure on that. I for the most part don't plan on attack damaging attack spells, just control and protection spells, which is why I am considering Abjurer spec.

You're going to need Spell Sniper to use GFB with the glaive's full reach, otherwise you can only use it against those within 5' of you.

 

[Pauper]

You're going to need Spell Sniper to use GFB with the glaive's full reach, otherwise you can only use it against those within 5' of you.

Also keep in mind that there are a lot of ways a creative DM can shut this down, starting with simply not putting enemies adjacent to each other. (Since that's also the default tactic to slow down Hordebreaker rangers and similar builds, it's not an unusual DM tactic.)

Not saying it's a useless spell, but its not nearly as exploitable as some seem to think.

Edit: Also, if you take Spell Sniper rather than Guardian (or whatever the 'extended AoO' feat is), the bad guys will just ignore you in preference to your squishier teammates -- caveat emptor.

--
Pauper

 

[Z. H. Darkstar]

Also keep in mind that there are a lot of ways a creative DM can shut this down, starting with simply not putting enemies adjacent to each other. (Since that's also the default tactic to slow down Hordebreaker rangers and similar builds, it's not an unusual DM tactic.)

Not saying it's a useless spell, but its not nearly as exploitable as some seem to think.

I was simply making sure that Knight_Marshal was aware of how BB/GFB works with reach weapons. Even though the weapon may have 10' reach, the spells only have a range of 5'. Spell Sniper is what's needed for those who want to use those spells at the same range as their reach weapons.

I agree that creative DMs can easily shut down GFB with tactical positioning, that's why my build focuses more on using BB.

Edit: Also, if you take Spell Sniper rather than Guardian (or whatever the 'extended AoO' feat is), the bad guys will just ignore you in preference to your squishier teammates -- caveat emptor.

--
Pauper

If you're referring to either Polearm Mastery or Sentinel, both of those feats are also ones that cause DMs to ignore your character over the squishies. I know that because that's how I handle PCs with those feats at my tables.

It's a good thing that we don't use flanking rules in AL, otherwise that would take away the DM's primary defense against such characters. Although, that would also allow us to take advantage of other tactics, pun totally intended...

 

[Knight_Marshal]

Couldn't the GM just shut down BB by not having the mobs move?

Thanks for the heads up about GFB.
The loss of the HP after 2nd level has me thinking seriously about a shield and warcaster and either dueling or defense.

 

[RulesJD]

Couldn't the GM just shut down BB by not having the mobs move?

Thanks for the heads up about GFB.
The loss of the HP after 2nd level has me thinking seriously about a shield and warcaster and either dueling or defense.

Character takes Mobile feat, Cunning Action rogue, Swashbuckler, whatever.

Runs up, BBs the enemy, Disengage and move back out of enemy range. Sure you can just not move, but then your just watching the enemy die.

 

[Z. H. Darkstar]

Character takes Mobile feat, Cunning Action rogue, Swashbuckler, whatever.

Runs up, BBs the enemy, Disengage and move back out of enemy range. Sure you can just not move, but then your just watching the enemy die.

That's when the enemy switches to their ranged option, if they have one. That or they ready actions to attack when the Booming Bastard gets back within range.

 

[RulesJD]

That's when the enemy switches to their ranged option, if they have one. That or they ready actions to attack when the Booming Bastard gets back within range.

Which cancels multiattack, so that's still generally going to be fine. Plus, most enemies ranged is far weaker than their melee.

 

[Jabborwacky]

Probably cleric, bard, or druid with a focus on spell casting. The choice comes down to party makeup, but the idea is to make sure there is some redundancy in restorative magic to avoid getting locked down with curses. A smart vampire or werewolf might try to dispose of an obvious healer type, inflict the rest of them with his/her curse, and then play a game of cat and mouse until they turn.

Edit: Well, that might be a bit extreme, but some characters are worse threats to the party than Strahd, and I want to see my team survive to the end.