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Message: <blockquote data-quote="MostlyHarmless42" data-source="post: 7055857" data-attributes="member: 6845520">In my game I currently have a paladin of the Morning Lord who started out as an Oathbreaker and is now Oath of the Ancients (after much deliberation between all three phb oaths, I am tying his nature shift into being attuned to the megaliths near the windmill). I also have a storm cleric of Thor and a knowledge cleric of Amaunator. The former is likely to get an equivalent of When before the campaign is over and the latter just signed up for an eye of venca (albeit slightly nerfed as I don't like how the boons/detriment work with artifacts).Needless to say, the party is well equipped to fight undead. To help put with this, I have done a couple things. First, I've given Strahd a certain eye and apendage hating magic sword in his armory as a response to the player opting to use it on him. Second, I've let slip in the past that Strahd would be sort of responding to them. They know he likes to toy with his prey and I warned them going in making a straight "anti-undead" party would mean he's more likely to rise to their challenge and take the kid gloves off. Since then, I've played him ruthlessly. Remember that a fair fight with Strahd is a dead vampire. He knows this. Strahd is a hit and run type of fighter, have him bring minions, or lure the party into them as he "runs away", or ambush the party as they wander around, charming the fighter and disappearing without them even realizing it, or fireball in and then flying away as a bat. It's about wearing them down, which *will* add to the sense of dread as party resources dwindle. My last encounter with them had the party capable of dealing nearly 80+ damage a round to him with radiant every turn (the sunlight and sacred flame). The party is 6th level and only has the symbol so far. The trick is to use the terrain and his legendary actions/saves. Have him move very often. Sunlight and spirit guardians doesn't help if he moves off his turn out of them, and said movement doesn't provoke. Strahd is VERY fast if he wants to be. I had him fight them in the monastery, and gas form up the chimney to recover, only to come back full health in a few rounds. In his castle he can do this through the buildings very walls, floors, and ceilings! Do NOT run him as a tank and spank health sponge, because he isn't. As for helping characters fit the tone of the game, that is something to work with your players on. I request mine help choose characters that fit classic horror tropes (think frankenstein, wolfman, dracula, lovecraft, etc.). Hell, requesting the party model their characters off of the cast of Dracula is perfectly reasonable because this practically *is* that story.For my party, Paladin is very much based on Belmont from Castlevania, down to him having a magic whip (that is likely to fuse with the sunblade). He just got the symbol of raven kind a few sessions ago.The cleric of Thor is a bit of an odd duck, admittedly, but I've kind of been lucky enough to have that player work with me to keep the tone of the game. He's kind of been the deliberate fish out of water, despite ironically being the most likely to be "from" a world like Ravenloft (I'm implying that it *is* an alternative Transylvania in my game), albeit from a different region/time period. He's had a few silly moments, but over all there haven't been many issues.The cleric of Amaunator doesn't fit a horror trope from his character persay, but has instead kind of been helping reinforce the theme of Barovia being a place of corruption and Evil. The other cleric has kind of helped with this as well (Loki), but I've made it clear there are bigger problems than Strahd in the lands of Barovia. The very land itself is cursed by them.</blockquote>

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