D&D 5E Aasimar too potent for Curse of Strahd?

[Mercule]

The CoS adventure has a blurb that effectively discourages non-human PCs. I'm actually fine with human-centric, but still wanted to give my players some options for races that could pass as human. I ended up picking* half-elf, tieflings (that look like the old, planetouched version), and aasimar.

The feature I'm concerned about, with aasimar is the innate daylight spell. Part of me figures it's no worse than a pure Cleric of equal level, but another part of me doesn't like that it's so prominently called out.

So, should I be concerned?

* If anyone cares, I actually broke races into three levels. Those listed above are "Open Access" and could easily pass as human. "Restricted" races include elves, dwarves, changelings, and half-orcs. Discouraged races are gnomes, halflings, and warforged (because, really, a sentient golem isn't that weird in Ravenloft). Other races are "Prohibited" but I'd listen to concepts.

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

Its worth remembering that the light produced by the Daylight spell is not sunlight. Effects that produce actual sunlight will specifically say so.

 

[MrHotter]

I think that you should only limit races if they are limited in your campaign world. While the only non-humans in Barovia are elves, the people drawn in from the fog can be from any world. The locals have probably seen some pretty odd creatures, and even humans from outside worlds would stick out unless they adopt some local attire and pretend to be depressed.

I still like the idea of the party being human-centric (just for the gothic horror feel instead of the fantasy adventure feel), so I like that you are talking to the player about it and giving them options.

 

[Gardens & Goblins]

I'd discuss with the player a world/realm of evil, and how a character formed from good, might attract a fair amount more of attention than one who was not.

A shining light in the darkness and all that.

Of course, if they're playing a Fallen Aasimar then.. well, I'd have Team Evil try their best to recruit them!

 

[Mercule]

I think that you should only limit races if they are limited in your campaign world. While the only non-humans in Barovia are elves, the people drawn in from the fog can be from any world. The locals have probably seen some pretty odd creatures, and even humans from outside worlds would stick out unless they adopt some local attire and pretend to be depressed.

I still like the idea of the party being human-centric (just for the gothic horror feel instead of the fantasy adventure feel), so I like that you are talking to the player about it and giving them options.

This is going to be run as a stand-alone campaign (well, that's the plan, but it could change). The "starting" world is vague and implied.

One of the weaknesses that the group identified in LMoP/PotA was that there was very minimal group/character development -- players had a hard time remembering character names, even after 18 months of play. So, we're going to do a Session 0, tonight, to create characters that intentionally work together. I'm going to borrow some of the tricks from Fate on character building and pretty much replace the listed background traits (Bond, Flaw, etc.) with Aspects from Fate. The actual arrival to Ravenloft will be entirely narrative and "real" play will commence inside the borders of Barovia.

The restrictions on race really aren't strict restrictions. They're me acting as DM to help the players come up with characters that will work well together and give the best experience from the published adventure. If someone really gets it in their head that they want to play a yodeling dragonborn bard, I'll push back and explain why it's a bad idea, but it'll be the group's decision. OK. I might actually say "no" to that, but only because I can't see a scenario in which it plays out well and in the spirit of the adventure the entire group has agreed to and feel that it would only serve to disrupt the table.

 

[Savage Wombat]

In the Ravenloft campaign setting, paladins came with the drawback that the Darklord of the domain automatically sensed the presence and location of the paladin. One can easily justify this applying to Aasimar.

You could even get most of the benefit of this just by implying to the players that this rule might be in effect.

 

[Remathilis]

Aasimars are supposed to have a "angel guide" who gives advice to the fledgling aasimar. It would be a great hook that when the aasimar PC is drawn into the mists; the dark powers send an emissary to continue to "consul" the aasimar in the guise of his former angelic guide. Of course, the guide would slowly try to corrupt the aasimar towards evil and dark deeds ("kill the werewolf, lest his evil spread. You cannot cure him of lycanthropy!").

 

[Mercule]

Aasimars are supposed to have a "angel guide" who gives advice to the fledgling aasimar.

Where is that tidbit?



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[flametitan]

Where is that tidbit?



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Volo's Guide to Monsters has a very different Aasimar from the DMG.

 

[hastur_nz]

As long you everyone know they are playing Curse of Strahd, and have some vague idea of what that might entail, I'd just let the players be whatever they want to be. After all, they are going to be outsiders, drawn in, who have a chance of defeating Strahd - if they were all plain humans, they might as well be locals...

Personally, I ended up with a couple of human PC's, a Goliath, a Gnome and a half-elf-drow. The half-drow, looked a bit like a dusk elf, so I tried a couple of tie-ins there but they were not a main feature. The Goliath was a local, a 'monster of the forest' that the player created a background etc for to explain how he started to help the natives (he found the inactive hilt of the sun sword, got it re-forged, and it made him do 'good stuff' - he then had to find a way of actually making it the sun sword). The gnome, I decided was an orphan 'returning home' - later they found she was a mutant offspring of the barbarians and druids on Yester Hill. They were all easily motivated to 'follow the story', even if it was simply to 'escape back home'.

Anyway, I suggest you always try and let the players know something of the campaign, then let them play what they want; you can all have fun working out how it all makes sense as you play the game.

Note how the campaign is actually quite varied, it isn't all about fighting undead, vampires etc. Sure, a Cleric can be handy for the times when you do face a lot of powerful undead, but in reality that's only a very small part of the campaign; every type of race and class can find many useful things to do at various times. Barovia, as written in Curse of Strahd, is a pretty weird place, so a group of weird PC's is nothing out of the ordinary, in fact at various points it's advantageous if the players don't get too carried away with killing everything that looks and/or acts like a 'monster' (they could easily kill pretty much everything that moves).