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Message: <blockquote data-quote="overgeeked" data-source="post: 9092159" data-attributes="member: 86653">It's not either, or. You can hang in the middle between those extremes. Up the drama and the horror.You and I have opposite ideas of what's boring then. That sounds like it would be an amazing and tense running fight. Keeping the players on their toes, scared to split up, and unable to rest. I mean, honestly. Do what Strahd would do. Toy with them. He's a big evil immortal vampire darklord of Ravenloft. Let him act like it. If they want to confront him, he can hand them their collective butts, taunt them, and let them live. Show them they're beneath him and he's not worried about them. That's exactly what an overconfident braggart would do. Pure Strahd. Instead of killing one of the PCs, kill an NPC they care about. Vamp them and use them as an unliving shield. Taunt them with that NPC.Only if you make Strahd go for the TPK. He likely would let them live and taunt them the whole time.Yeah. All his stats are terrible. But with the action economy, he's getting trashed way easier and quicker than he should be.You're excluding the whole spectrum of options between those two extremes. Like toy with them. Make them hate Strahd. There's nothing that says there's one fight then it's over. No one would choose to stay and fight to the death. Play Strahd smart and like every gloating villain in every movie, taunt them, leave them alive, and have Strahd walk away because the PCs are beneath him. They can come back and try again when they're more powerful. Like they should.It sounds like your goal is to provide a good experience, a good story to your players. Great. So what's the difference between an anticlimactic fight they easily win and an anticlimactic fight they cannot possibly win? They're both frustrating and unsatisfying. So don't do either one. Ratchet up the tension. Inject drama and horror. Don't let them off so easily with a TPK. Or do and have them come back as vampires. Now they have all those powers too. Now the game is about breaking free.There's a whole universe of options between "boring easy win" and "boring TPK." You're the referee. Pick a different option.</blockquote>

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