Tony Vargas
Legend
Try being killed by a sharp rock. No, not as an improvised weapon, just sitting there...
D&D 5E 5E - Curse of Strahd - It's a Meat Grinder for my group
Wuzzard
First Post
Ran CoS for nearly a year. Not a single PC death. A fallen PC during combat once in a while, but no deaths. Amber Temple was roughest.
Sent from my iPad using EN World mobile app
Sent from my iPad using EN World mobile app
Argyle King
Legend
Amber Temple is the only part I remember being particularly tough.
The end fight against Strahd was seemingly the easiest part of the module for the group I played with.
The end fight against Strahd was seemingly the easiest part of the module for the group I played with.
I only had two deaths when I ran it, both very early in the campaign. Two PCs, third level, decided to sneak away from the party and take out the pie lady at the windmill on their own. Needless to say, it went badly. The other PCs wisely spent a half hour casually looking for them and then moved on.
One had encountered her in the original town, selling her pies. He followed her around for awhile, spotted her taking "payment". He decided, in a pique of heroism (his original concept as he explained it to me was a serial killer - I actually expected him to attack her then) to make her return the child.
The other pc was a paladin with the evil oath from the dmg which I allowed in a weak moment. I don't think he really wanted to be evil; he just wanted the powers. At the windmill they had discovered the evidence of what they were doing outside but didn't really know what was going on. They fought inside the windmill, the Paladin dropped and the rogue had a choice. He could have Dashed and moved 90 feet away in which case I was going to let him get away, lesson learned. Or he could do what he ultimately did: use his bonus action to hide, sneak attack, then move 30 feet out the door. So she moved to the door, magic missiled his butt, dropping him. The end.
Up to that point they had both said they were sure that she was more powerful than she let on so I call it suicide.
One had encountered her in the original town, selling her pies. He followed her around for awhile, spotted her taking "payment". He decided, in a pique of heroism (his original concept as he explained it to me was a serial killer - I actually expected him to attack her then) to make her return the child.
The other pc was a paladin with the evil oath from the dmg which I allowed in a weak moment. I don't think he really wanted to be evil; he just wanted the powers. At the windmill they had discovered the evidence of what they were doing outside but didn't really know what was going on. They fought inside the windmill, the Paladin dropped and the rogue had a choice. He could have Dashed and moved 90 feet away in which case I was going to let him get away, lesson learned. Or he could do what he ultimately did: use his bonus action to hide, sneak attack, then move 30 feet out the door. So she moved to the door, magic missiled his butt, dropping him. The end.
Up to that point they had both said they were sure that she was more powerful than she let on so I call it suicide.
Wepwawet
Explorer
I'm running CoS, players almost 5th level and I haven't had a single death yet 
However in the Death House I did pull some punches, didn't run the exit as written (those blades didn't make sense at all), and in the dungeon i made the creature concentrate the attacks on the character of a player who came only to the first session and never returned (I didn't want to have a DM controlled PC around). Unfortunately the players gave him a healing potion before he even had his first death save.
After Death House I stopped pulling punches but they've been careful and good.
However in the Death House I did pull some punches, didn't run the exit as written (those blades didn't make sense at all), and in the dungeon i made the creature concentrate the attacks on the character of a player who came only to the first session and never returned (I didn't want to have a DM controlled PC around). Unfortunately the players gave him a healing potion before he even had his first death save.
After Death House I stopped pulling punches but they've been careful and good.
Celebrim
Legend
If you don't pull your punches as a DM, the 1e Ravenloft module is more lethal (IMO) than Tomb of Horrors. I wouldn't therefore be terribly surprised if the 5e module is also a meatgrinder, although the 5e version offers the possibility of avoiding Strahd long enough to out level him - at which point he'd probably go down like a chump. Your group however appears to have brought more than half of their problems on themselves by not respecting the module.
Even if you out-level Strahd, the castle can wear you down, at a certain point you won't be able to leave, his henchman is a beast, and good luck taking a long rest in his house. If he wants you dead, and he is played smart, I don't see how a reasonably sized party can win really.
Except by getting really lucky and finding his coffin very quickly.
Celebrim
Legend
Ahh... so then it plays a lot like 1e. So imagine all of that, and then on top of it, in 1e AD&D, because his level drain, the longer you took the weaker and more defenseless your party got. A party of that level couldn't actually counter level drain. He could employ hit and run tactics against an opponent, and always recover faster than they could.
Crikey, so many PC's dead from random encounters... I enjoy the occasional random encounter, and they don't have to all be pushovers, but your write-up makes the campaign seem... pretty random. I'm sure it's not, just the way it's presented. Most important question - are your players having fun?
Anyway, in our game (which @pukanui was playing in), we actually did have a few fights which as DM I'd say were potentially quite dangerous, but with a group of experienced and smart players, and the odd bit of good luck, none were fatal. For example in Death House the players avoided all side-trek opportunities to get themselves killed (there are many), and the shambling mound was killed very quickly due to good PC builds with good tactics and plain old good luck. Early on a large group of Ghouls could easily have been deadly, but my dice ran cold and I only got to kill an NPC ('follower' of a PC). Baby Lsyaga's hut is way over powered, but a PC got super-lucky and pulled the gem out, disabling it, before it got to kill everyone who couldn't get out of its ridiculously big reach (by this stage, everyone else was running away). Looking for the Saint's Bones, six vampire spawn was crazy hard, we only had 3 players but they had luck with Turn Undead and they had acquired help from Iznek and some town guards, so I only killed most of the guards before the PC's eventually won through (it was tough). The Amber temple, early on, was a potential meat-grinder, but devil's sight on a PC warlock, and some decent scouting etc from two, made it manageable. Overall, I took every opportunity I could to kill NPC's, in preference to killing PC's - one player in particular bore the brunt of this and enjoyed it a lot.
Overall, I killed plenty of NPC red-shirts, which was part of the 'theme' I was aiming for. I killed a few PC's, two in one fight where everyone ran away rather than fight to TPK, where I first gave Strahd the kind of allies and tactics that showed he was actually a credible threat. But yes, overall most of the fights in my game were quite manageable for my group, I didn't want to run a complete meat-grinder, I was looking for some interesting role-play, which we certainly got, and some opportunities for the PC's to be tested but not wiped out just because I could. By the time they got to the castle, they did feel it had been 'easier than expected', but I think they had selective memory - they remembered the easy fights, the ones where luck favoured them, the ones where Strahd got hammered easily and he didn't live up to expectation... but they didn't remember so much, or maybe even realise, the ones where if my dice fell slightly differently, or their tactics were not so sharp, just how easily things could have turned out differently.
Certainly I thought "cat and mouse" is a great way to approach the campaign as a DM - Strahd will play with his new arrivals as long as possible, but killing them all isn't really much fun for anyone... Once the PC's get to the Castle, the gloves should come off more, but overall it really depends on what you want to achieve - an endless supply of new PC's arriving doesn't really make much sense to me, and while some players might well enjoy a meat-grinder challenge not all do - in my game we lost two PC's (one player moved cities, one PC turned evil and joined Strahd) - by that stage, my plan was to use the vast cast of NPCs already introduced, to fill the ranks with replacements; for example the player whose character (willingly) turned evil, took over Rictavio/van Richten, made a character sheet based on that, and played him as his PC; if I needed it, I would have done the same with Ezmeralda (player creates a PC based on the NPC).
Anyway, in our game (which @pukanui was playing in), we actually did have a few fights which as DM I'd say were potentially quite dangerous, but with a group of experienced and smart players, and the odd bit of good luck, none were fatal. For example in Death House the players avoided all side-trek opportunities to get themselves killed (there are many), and the shambling mound was killed very quickly due to good PC builds with good tactics and plain old good luck. Early on a large group of Ghouls could easily have been deadly, but my dice ran cold and I only got to kill an NPC ('follower' of a PC). Baby Lsyaga's hut is way over powered, but a PC got super-lucky and pulled the gem out, disabling it, before it got to kill everyone who couldn't get out of its ridiculously big reach (by this stage, everyone else was running away). Looking for the Saint's Bones, six vampire spawn was crazy hard, we only had 3 players but they had luck with Turn Undead and they had acquired help from Iznek and some town guards, so I only killed most of the guards before the PC's eventually won through (it was tough). The Amber temple, early on, was a potential meat-grinder, but devil's sight on a PC warlock, and some decent scouting etc from two, made it manageable. Overall, I took every opportunity I could to kill NPC's, in preference to killing PC's - one player in particular bore the brunt of this and enjoyed it a lot.
Overall, I killed plenty of NPC red-shirts, which was part of the 'theme' I was aiming for. I killed a few PC's, two in one fight where everyone ran away rather than fight to TPK, where I first gave Strahd the kind of allies and tactics that showed he was actually a credible threat. But yes, overall most of the fights in my game were quite manageable for my group, I didn't want to run a complete meat-grinder, I was looking for some interesting role-play, which we certainly got, and some opportunities for the PC's to be tested but not wiped out just because I could. By the time they got to the castle, they did feel it had been 'easier than expected', but I think they had selective memory - they remembered the easy fights, the ones where luck favoured them, the ones where Strahd got hammered easily and he didn't live up to expectation... but they didn't remember so much, or maybe even realise, the ones where if my dice fell slightly differently, or their tactics were not so sharp, just how easily things could have turned out differently.
Certainly I thought "cat and mouse" is a great way to approach the campaign as a DM - Strahd will play with his new arrivals as long as possible, but killing them all isn't really much fun for anyone... Once the PC's get to the Castle, the gloves should come off more, but overall it really depends on what you want to achieve - an endless supply of new PC's arriving doesn't really make much sense to me, and while some players might well enjoy a meat-grinder challenge not all do - in my game we lost two PC's (one player moved cities, one PC turned evil and joined Strahd) - by that stage, my plan was to use the vast cast of NPCs already introduced, to fill the ranks with replacements; for example the player whose character (willingly) turned evil, took over Rictavio/van Richten, made a character sheet based on that, and played him as his PC; if I needed it, I would have done the same with Ezmeralda (player creates a PC based on the NPC).
LexStarwalker
First Post
The encounter with all the blights at the Wizard of Wines winery almost resulted in a TPK with my party. They underestimated the blights and didn't think to try to get in the winery until they were surrounded, and it was too late. As it was, a couple PCs went down, and the only way that they survived was that the rest got into the winery, and members of the raven cult showed up and started shooting at the blights with crossbows. It was pretty touch and go for a while.
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