D&D 5E Curse of Strahd spoiler-filled general discussion

[MonsterEnvy]

There is no issue with the tiger. It's to trained to find Evil Vistanni who are the agents and spies of Strahd. He plans to use the tiger to find Strahd's spies.

Also yes the party may investigate the tiger, but they are going to leave it in it's cage almost always. Plus there are too people watching the wagon.

 

[evilbob]

It's to trained to find Evil Vistanni who are the agents and spies of Strahd.

I'm not sure you can train a tiger to only kill the "evil" vistanti, as opposed to the neutral or good ones. I mean, at the very least, it will also attack and try to kill Ezmerelda if she's with the group. Also, "find" isn't what the tiger is used for - "kill" is what the tiger is used for. Killing random people who might happen to be evil is not a lawful good way to go about things, at least in my opinion. Fighting evil in open battle is one thing, but unleashing a wild animal that may obey his commands and may only kill the "right" "bad guys" is entirely another. It's like a comic book villain plot line: it's so convoluted there's no way it would actually work.

Also, maybe some (most?) groups will leave the tiger in its cage. I think most would also try to interrogate the owner of the wagon, which would almost certainly lead to him leaving the town, since he will feel that his disguise is in jeopardy. Either that, or he'd have to convince the PCs that his plan to unleash a tiger on random people wasn't evil and get them in on it.

Either way, it's still very clunky.

There are several backstory pieces that look more and more clunky the more I read them. Why didn't the angel kill Strahd? I mean, "he thought it'd be hopeless" is REALLY stupid. They didn't really have a reason, in my opinion. The whole Amber Temple and the dark powers is clunky (defining the dark powers was a bad idea from the beginning). Every time you read "and then all the good people in location X went mad and killed each other" is really clunky. Most of the book holds together well - the Baba Lysaga thing is a little thin but at least it holds together, for example - but sometimes it just doesn't work. Why would the mad mage make himself mad? Especially since curing his madness suddenly makes him just fine again? That's another example of someone who just goes insane for basically no reason - "because it's hopeless," in this case, except of course when you cure him, in which case he's totally hopeful again. Just like the whole tiger thing: just clunky. Sure it will work if the party is going quickly or they think they haven't seen the big picture yet, but if they actually stopped to think about it, they'd realize it was just nonsense.

 

[evilbob]

I mean, here's a thought: maybe the castle (or Strahd's tomb at the least) is unhallowed against celestial creatures. That keep the angel from confronting him because he can never actually win since he can never keep him from regenerating in his coffin. Also, maybe Strahd never told the angel he was the one who helped with the experiments. Maybe that's not the best fix but it still make more sense than the angel just giving up because he sort of sensed it was futile.

Maybe the mad mage didn't make himself mad, maybe Strahd inflicted him with a long-term madness somehow. That would explain both why he's still mad and why he feels hope again when he's no longer mad. Just throwing stuff out there.

 

[evilbob]

Here's another minor plot hole: if the players take Strahd to 0 HP in Krezk, for example, they win. Or the Amber Temple. Or the druid hill. Or really anywhere that's more than 8 miles from the castle: Strahd's mist form only goes 20' per round, and he only has 2 hours to get back to the castle. Even generously giving him a "fast" pace that's still only 4 miles an hour. This wasn't as big of a deal in the previous adventures because the land of Barovia was smaller, but adding a lot to the map also stretches the limits of what Strahd can reasonably influence.

 

[Dragoslav]

Here's another minor plot hole: if the players take Strahd to 0 HP in Krezk, for example, they win. Or the Amber Temple. Or the druid hill. Or really anywhere that's more than 8 miles from the castle: Strahd's mist form only goes 20' per round, and he only has 2 hours to get back to the castle. Even generously giving him a "fast" pace that's still only 4 miles an hour. This wasn't as big of a deal in the previous adventures because the land of Barovia was smaller, but adding a lot to the map also stretches the limits of what Strahd can reasonably influence.

Does that include him using his action to Dash reach round? Not sure if it makes a difference, but it would double his "safe" range.

Is this adventure okay for a group of 3 PCs of the expected level range? I figure I might need to reduce the size of some later encounters (or not (evil grin)), but what about the big man himself? I have read comments saying he is too easy, but a smaller group is more likely to suffer from all rolling poorly in one round, less flexibility. So Strahd would either be a reasonably tough challenge or way too hard. I don't think I would want to increase the party's level higher than 10 - I'd rather tweak Strahd to lower his CR slightly.

 

[Daern]

I think 3 characters is fine. They just need to be extra sure to get things like the Sunsword and Holy Symbol. In the meantime make Strahd extra arrogant and smug.

 

[Daern]

I had another thought: Using Death House as a hook.
The House could be in a normal town. Within could be a letters that tell of Barovia (an abbrieviated Tome?) and how to get there, perhaps a black sapphire provides a link, or the ritual is actually a ritual of Summoning the Mists of Ravenloft.
Or maybe a Vistani caravan visits the group afterwards, mentioning mysteries discovered in the Death House.

 

[evilbob]

Another minor plot hole: the Krezk couple had their four kids die from "illness." Meanwhile they have a magical pond out back that cures any disease. *facepalm*

(To be fair, it only works "the first time" someone drinks from it, but STILL. That's pretty lousy. I'd probably change it so they died of things that weren't diseases.)

 

[77IM]

By "illness" do they mean "bite marks on the neck?" Or some other similar "illness" that a pond can't cure...

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Another minor plot hole: the Krezk couple had their four kids die from "illness." Meanwhile they have a magical pond out back that cures any disease. *facepalm*

(To be fair, it only works "the first time" someone drinks from it, but STILL. That's pretty lousy. I'd probably change it so they died of things that weren't diseases.)

Not really at all. The it only works the first time thing is a good reason why their kids all died.