D&D 5E Curse of Strahd Suggestions for a 2-Person Campaign

[WarpedAcorn]

If you're going to have a Paladin as the DMPC, just bear in mind that even though they will probably have a higher Charisma than the Druid, they should still take the back seat when dealing with NPCs in social situations. Settle for providing advantage on social interaction checks occasionally.

Oh yeah, that goes without saying. As much as I enjoy talking with myself, the Paladin will pretty much only talk with my GF's character (who actually has considerably high Charisma thanks to super stats). But I hadn't thought about the Paladin giving her Advantage...I like that idea!

 

[WarpedAcorn]

I finally got my copy of Curse of Strahd in today and have been reading some of it here at work. I think one I would like to do that might make things more cinematic is to have more than one Ally. There are a lot of potential Allies in Barovia, and it would be neat to try and get all of them to work together to take Strahd down. I'll have to read more, but so far this seems like something that would be fun.

 

[hbarsquared]

If she likes horror, you might want to go the route of "everyone keeps dying" for your DMPCs. Keep them disposable, with minimum stats. Not necessarily even character classes, just NPC stats with personality characteristics.

So her druid would be one of six, and the others deop like flies. Throughout the campaign, she gains new allies, but they keep dropping, too. By the end, it's her (the obvious protagonist in this horror movie) against Strahd.

 

[WarpedAcorn]

We finally ended up getting our little 1-on-1 game going last night. After waking up in the mists, her Druid set out. I had a small encounter with Skeletons on the road to introduce the DMPC, and of course I scored a critical hit on my DMPC and she was bleeding with 2 failed Death Saves against her by the time the Druid finished off the rest of the Skeletons. This became a recurring theme for the night.

We did run the Death House intro, and we stopped right when characters get 2nd level before heading into the Basement. I left most of the House in tact as per the module though. The Animated Armor was tough, but my GF used Thornwhip smartly to repeatedly pull it off the Balconey and let it drop to the first floor. It took a few tries but she got it. I did modify the Spectre though. I had it step out of the mirror in the nursery and described it very menacingly, so my GF decided to leave the room ASAP and shut the door (I didn't have the Spectre follow). When she found the Nursemaid's bones in the Attic I had one of the white sheets over a mirror ripple and blow out suddenly, and she once again ran out of the room. At this point she was covering any mirror she saw with sheets. =)

After we stopped I asked her about it and she said she REALLY liked it so far and was having a lot of fun. She feels fairly certain her character is going to die though, and we laughed at how she has created an awesome character but the absolute worst for a Gothic horror setting. She is playing an absent-minded manic and ultra upbeat Gnomish Druid who talks non-stop. Its a hilarious mismatch for Curse of Strahd, but I also love she is enjoying it and that this is her second ever D&D character.

 

[Quickleaf]

Thanks guys!

Since she is new, I don't want to dissuade her from playing a Druid if that is something that has caught her eye. I like the ideas about reskinning magic items (especially plot important ones) so they will work for her character. I plan on having the starting DMPC (not sure if she will live through it all) be a Paladin. I like the idea of having any support NPC just fighting over to the side and letting my GF have her own little fight that will determine the greater outcome. I will try that out for a bit and see how it works out.

I've also heard prior to this about skipping the Death House scenario. I'm hesitant on doing that, but I may tweek it. Firstly, I don't want her to start off at 3rd Level without a little bit of work (her Rogue in another campaign is almost 2nd). Also, after reading through Death House, the concept of it is something I KNOW she will enjoy.

Death House will require heavy editing to be survivable by a single 1st level PC. Even for a party of five it’s a meat grinder. That’s actually part of what prompted me to write The Beast of Graenseskov (link in sig); I felt there should be a more story-focused low-level introduction into Curse of Strahd that wasn’t so deadly & offered ways to “win” without necessarily resorting to combat.

That said, I think you could play up the haunted aspects, maybe borrowing from Pathfinder’s haunt rules & creating a list of tasks to accomplish in Death House to end the haunt. The one thing I’d absolutely get rid of or drastically change is the shambling mound (IIRC) in the basement; I’ve seen and heard many parties dying there.

 

[WarpedAcorn]

Death House will require heavy editing to be survivable by a single 1st level PC. Even for a party of five it’s a meat grinder. That’s actually part of what prompted me to write The Beast of Graenseskov (link in sig); I felt there should be a more story-focused low-level introduction into Curse of Strahd that wasn’t so deadly & offered ways to “win” without necessarily resorting to combat.

That said, I think you could play up the haunted aspects, maybe borrowing from Pathfinder’s haunt rules & creating a list of tasks to accomplish in Death House to end the haunt. The one thing I’d absolutely get rid of or drastically change is the shambling mound (IIRC) in the basement; I’ve seen and heard many parties dying there.

So we finished Death House this past weekend. And my GF decided to fight the Shambling Mound despite my most horrific and dangerous description of it. She did not feel like retreating was an option. And here's the thing...she beat it. But only just BARELY.

Honestly I was SHOCKED. So for reference here was the scenario. As special rules I provided higher than normal stats, so she had that going for her. I also stated that she would get Max HP at each level. But she was only a level 2 Druid, so that's still 20 HP. The DMPC was a Paladin 1 / Celestial Warlock 1 (with Polearm Mastery). So between the Bear attacks, Polearm Attacks, and Hellish Rebukes, they did a crapton of damage. Eventually they fell back (Disengaged) and since they moved better than Mound they got 1 round of ranged attacks. My GF used one Healing Word to get the DMPC back in the fight after she was knocked out (GF was knocked out of Bear form prior to this).

Now, behind the DM screen...I did not pull any punches, but I did separate them. I attacked both targets instead of focusing one. But I did not fudge any dice rolls until the very end. The round order was Jax (Druid), Shambling Mound, Aerith (Paladin/Warlock). One crit by the mound knocked Jax out of Bear form, but she had another use. Jax also got a lucky crit early on and did about 30 damage in one round. Aerith got very lucky and managed to land both Polearm hits consistently. The only thing I fudged was at the end. The Mound was down to 12 HP and I rolled...x2 20's, critting both players. Jax had 2 HP and Aerith had 6. Technically that's a TPK, but for as close as they were to defeating it and as close as they were to defeat...and the fact that there was only 2 of them, I called it a pair of misses. Aerith was able to do 14 damage during her turn. I debated on fudging that roll and let Jax get the final hit, but it was a literal 50/50 for her to hit it with her Scimitar, and the killer DM in me couldn't fudge 2 rounds in a row with the Mound.

But I was still super impressed that they did as good as they did. Moon Druids are no joke (and we all know Polearm Mastery was stupid good). Although they did BARELY make it out of the House. Jax was a little more nimble and got out, but Aerith took too much damage on the last Scythe Trap and fell (Jax was able to stabalize). So I was ok with those 2 sitting in the middle of the street with no resources, no HP, and barely having escape Death House. =)