D&D 5E Curse of Strahd - Finale Help - Spoilers

Sloblock

Explorer
Greetings all

so after many months of great adventuring we arrive at the finale. I have started piecing it all together but I need some help with finishing it off.

The 5 PCs ( Sorcerer, Cleric, Fighter, Warlock and Rogue ) are about to head into the Crypt area and then ultimately Strahd's Crypt. Team PC

Ricatavio, Esmarelda, Emil and the Tiger are out on the battlements fighting Strahd. Team NPC

The plan that they have formed is that whilst Team NPC fight Strahd in the open, Team PC will head to the crypt and salt and burn his bones. ( l lifted this from Supernatural TV Show ) Once the ritual is started I will have Strahd return to his crypt post haste, quite wounded he will then fight them in the dark crypt. At the same time trying to stop his bones burning up.

Does anyone have any advice on how they ran the fight in Strahd's crypt?

I am thinking of some hags/Elementals in there but not sure how it will all fit together.

Thank you in advance
 

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Voort

Explorer
What level are the party? How tough do you want the final battle to be? Have the PCs showed any weaknesses that Strahd would know to exploit?
 

Greetings all

so after many months of great adventuring we arrive at the finale. I have started piecing it all together but I need some help with finishing it off.

The 5 PCs ( Sorcerer, Cleric, Fighter, Warlock and Rogue ) are about to head into the Crypt area and then ultimately Strahd's Crypt. Team PC

Ricatavio, Esmarelda, Emil and the Tiger are out on the battlements fighting Strahd. Team NPC

The plan that they have formed is that whilst Team NPC fight Strahd in the open, Team PC will head to the crypt and salt and burn his bones. ( l lifted this from Supernatural TV Show ) Once the ritual is started I will have Strahd return to his crypt post haste, quite wounded he will then fight them in the dark crypt. At the same time trying to stop his bones burning up.

Does anyone have any advice on how they ran the fight in Strahd's crypt?

I am thinking of some hags/Elementals in there but not sure how it will all fit together.

Thank you in advance

Well for one thing Strahd is supposed to harass the party constantly throughout the castle before his final fight with them. From the sound of it you are not going to have him do this, so that is one bunch of his tactics gone.

Also this is massive weakness you added to Strahd just because you thought it was cool. (And which does not make a ton of sense. All of Strahds bones are in his body.) And I disapprove of it as you have a lot of agency away form Strahd and the party can now just force him to fight on their terms. Combined with the fact that you are going to have him return to the crypt wounded. (Which does not make a ton sense as he can regenerate really fast.) The fact that as well he is going to be trying to stop his bones from burning, along with being wounded means I expect the party to dispatch him before he has a chance to do anything, and the adventure turning into a massive anti climax. (I heavily just support revealing that his bones being his crypt was just a rumor he spread and is utterly false.)

Also I never ran the fight in Strahds Crypt the party beat him elsewhere in the place the fortunes of Ravenloft said he would be fought and made it to his tomb to stake him before the hour passed.
 
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Hawk Diesel

Adventurer
[MENTION=6706188]MonsterEnvy[/MENTION] I don't think you need to be so harsh. We know nothing of the campaign before this fight. Additionally each table is different. While you may disapprove of the stylistic differences, this may be quite appropriate to the OP's table. Personally, I think it would be a much more productive conversation of instead of bashing the OP, we trust that he knows what is fun for his table and either raise question to his choices (encouraging reflection on why he is running this way) or providing suggestions within the framework he has posed.

As to the OP, Strahd is smart, has had centuries to master his craft, and has the blessing of the Dark Powers of Barovia. I would recommend sprinkling in traps and illusions. Strahd likely knows that his bones pose a weakness. Either he would have multiple sets of bones in the room, guardians protecting them, illusions to confuse and disorient the players, or most reasonably a combination of all these things.

Another cool trick might be to have the bones themselves get up and fight should the party correctly guess the right ones. Think Freddy Kruger in Nightmare on Elm Street 3.

Finally, if you ran Death House, you could tie everything together with a call back to that arc. One of the players may have to willingly sacrifice himself, as the ritual calls for a willing innocent's blood to be spilled upon the bones to destroy them. And secretly, this may be the Dark Power's way to ensure that while Strahd is gone, they use the blood to steal away and corrupt the soul of the PC to replace Strahd.
 

Sloblock

Explorer
hello

they are all level 10, I was hoping to have the battle at just a little bit difficult.

The warlock is the most vocal about thinking strahd is weak and afraid of them.

The warrior was charmed previously by him and despite having the sun sword is wary of him
 


Hawk Diesel

Adventurer
Yeah I was a bit harsh. But I still do disapprove of the extra weakness given to Strahd.

Ok. I reread the OP. Nowhere did I find the OP asking for approval. I did see him ask for advice. And typically, advice is not really helpful if it is just "your plan is stupid" or "do better." Sure, you didn't say exactly that, but it was certainly the tone of your post.
 

DEFCON 1

Legend
Supporter
For one of my group's arrival to Strahd's crypt... here's the pertinent info I had to bear in mind when putting together what was happening:

1) Strahd would not be in his crypt when they teleported in.

2) The group would get into the crypt via the multicolored stone brazier system that would teleport them in. Thus they would not have to face the wight-exchange teleport trap outside of the tomb upon entering.

3) Strahd's three primary female brides all have their graves within his crypt. Thus they were all viable candidates for antagonists when the party arrived. (And I did in fact have them resting in their graves when they arrived, and rose to attack when their graves were disturbed.)

4) The party had already destroyed the castle's Heart previously, and thus Strahd did not have that extra pool of HP that the Heart would absorb for him when he took damage.

Some other important things my game had were that I changed how sunlight affected Strahd and all vampires while in Barovia. While sunlight would cause damage and prohibit regeneration... it could not kill a vampire outright. Once a vampire reached 0 HP (in whatever fashion, sunlight or otherwise) they would turn to mist and return to their grave, wherein they were paralyzed for an hour in order to begin regenerating. Only by staking a vampire through the heart while in their coffin in this state could you destroy it. Thus it was not required for the party to attack Strahd in his crypt directly, they could attack him anywhere and only after he turned to mist would they have to make their way to the crypt in order to destroy him permanently.

Besides the three brides who could easily have already been in the crypt when the party arrived, Escher and Rahadin plus the Barovian witches knew how the teleport brazier worked and could get to the crypt if needed, I had several Helmed Horrors that paced and guarded the crypts on the whole that could engage the party, and bat swarms and wolf packs were also available to arrive as necessary (the HHs, wolves, and bats would not trigger the wight-swap trap.)

I had established a pair of teleport braziers at both the Abbey of Saint Markovia and the Amber Temple that matched the one in the Castle, so I knew they would be using that to get into the Castle to begin with. It turned out that they chose to port directly into Strahd's tomb immediately as their entrance into the Castle, rather than either of the other two castle locations (the Library and tallest tower.) This kind of surprised me, because they knew they still had to acquire the Sunsword from within the Chapel on the first floor. As a result, the three brides were there and attacked them when they arrived (before using the alcove within the crypt to teleport out once they began getting hurt). Then most of the group left the crypt up the stairs to chase after them and thus triggered the wight-exchange trap for several of them, while a couple of the PCs followed the brides via the alcove teleporter. They all had to chase after the brides through the castle before the brides were able to alert Strahd to the group's presence. Needless to say they did not stop them, and thus Strahd was alerted and the crap then hit the fan. ;)

As far as what a fight in Strahd's crypt would be like... it would probably be like any other location. It's somewhat small and confining, no places available to hide (I personally wouldn't let the Rogue hide behind the stone slab on the far side of wherever Strahd is) and otherwise barren of items. So a fighter against Strahd there could be a little anticlimactic as was said above, especially if you have Strahd already having taken damage from the salting and burning of the bones. The biggest thing I'd say to remember is for Strahd to keep himself near the right teleportation alcove so that he could try and escape as necessary if the group really pounds him. Granted, his coffin is there so he'll have to come back to it eventually... but at least he could create a chase for the party to have to track him down to finally destroy him.

Hope that helped!
 

In my run of the module, I had the brides earth glide through the floor (I think I got this from V:TM) and, with surprise, reach up through the ground and (grapple checks successful - thanks advantage!) drag some of the PCs into the earth. This made the brides seem really scary for their actual power level and disrupted PC tactics. I nearly killed one PC until he realized misty step might be in order.
 

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