D&D 5E Curse of Strahd Party Composition Question

[Jaiken]

To add onto what people are saying, who did you draw for Strahd's Enemy/Fated Ally? Certain NPCs can be very useful, a burden, or a nice rounding out of party weak spots.

Is the party escorting Ireena? One idea might be to upgrade her to a Sidekick from Tasha's Cauldron of Everything. Give her the Spellcaster class and appropriate magic to fill up the party's weak points.

Did any of them get the silver weapon in Death House? The Barbarian and Ranger are going to need something to put a dent in the hide of werewolves if the party ever visits their den or encounters them in the wilderness. The Magic Weapon spell could be useful for this, but as a Warlock cannot learn it by default that's out of your hands.

Edit: I'd also recommend asking over at the r/curseofstrahd subreddit. They're a very useful resource for DMs of this campaign.

The party already met the werewolves and rolled a natural 20 to convince them to ally against Strahd. The Barbarian even got bitten by the alpha werewolf to become a werewolf himself.

As for Ireena, they have not seen her yet. Their ally is a Paladin in the village of Barovia looking for lost children.

 

[GuyBoy]

I’d go with cleric or paladin, though I played a bard in CoS and had a great time. There are a lot of social encounters.

 

[Libertad]

The party already met the werewolves and rolled a natural 20 to convince them to ally against Strahd. The Barbarian even got bitten by the alpha werewolf to become a werewolf himself.

As for Ireena, they have not seen her yet. Their ally is a Paladin in the village of Barovia looking for lost children.

Sounds like the Paladin is a homebrew result, unless you moved Sir Godfrey Gwilym out of Argynvostholt.

A paladin will definitely increase the party's combat potential if this one can Smite Evil. However, if they end up as the one doing much of the damage in combat, will the PCs feel overshadowed?

On the one hand, it does sound like your party has expertise in other fields; a fairy warlock can fly and likely has Eldritch Blast for long range attacks. And the Barbarian gaining lycanthropy will not have to worry about non-magical, non-silvered attacks, which massively increases their staying power in this module. But on the other hand, if your party is suffering from lack of damage and this is underwhelming them, then a burst-damage DMPC showing up may feel like a downer solution in a "oh yay, a character who is even better than us is along for the ride to show us how it's done."

But if the combat-effectiveness concern is purely on your side as DM, then it can be an ideal solution.

 

[Jaiken]

Sounds like the Paladin is a homebrew result, unless you moved Sir Godfrey Gwilym out of Argynvostholt.

A paladin will definitely increase the party's combat potential if this one can Smite Evil. However, if they end up as the one doing much of the damage in combat, will the PCs feel overshadowed?

On the one hand, it does sound like your party has expertise in other fields; a fairy warlock can fly and likely has Eldritch Blast for long range attacks. And the Barbarian gaining lycanthropy will not have to worry about non-magical, non-silvered attacks, which massively increases their staying power in this module. But on the other hand, if your party is suffering from lack of damage and this is underwhelming them, then a burst-damage DMPC showing up may feel like a downer solution in a "oh yay, a character who is even better than us is along for the ride to show us how it's done."

But if the combat-effectiveness concern is purely on your side as DM, then it can be an ideal solution.

It is sir Godfrey. I just forgot his name.
And thanks for your help.

 

[Libertad]

Happy to help! Curse of Strahd is an amazing adventure, I want others to enjoy it like I did.