D&D 5E CoS - Donavich the usefull Ally

[Kalaron]

As part of my Curse of Strahd run (sesión 4 now) I stumbled upon an issue around the level of power or amount of help that you get from ‘Strahd’s Enemy’ – Inspiration is a great tool, yet in the very long meantime between facing Strahd directly, the ally can be quite useless.
Our ally from the tarokka was the Broken One – Father Donavich in Barovia. Donavich is the priest in charge of the church, enduring a whole year of madness and pain from his son, Doru, turned into a vampire spawn by Strahd to torture him. Donavich has trapped his son in the basement in the church.
However, Donavich is a simple acolyte, unable to perform much after solving his son’s torments (usually winds up with Doru dead).
In my campaign, the group managed to kill Doru after a fierce firefight (we are running CoS with Red Masque). A distressed Donavich begs the characters to aid him taking Doru to the altar and cries to the heavens for the Morninglord’s blessing. The church starts to tremble, the bell tolls, the doors fly open (party thought Strahd was coming) and the Morninglord answers the prayer of Donavich, bringing his son back to life.
It was something done on the spur of the moment: it created a strong emotional conection with the pain of Donavich, shown that a sliver of hope is still alive despite darkness (I am heavily following [MENTION=9789]evilbob[/MENTION] Points of Light idea).
But afterwards? I am rolling with Donavich being a full priest, who can offer some services of healing and blessing for the players – only at dawn of each day. I am using a version of brutal long rests with 1 day rest for shorts and 3 days for longs, so a healer is quite handy, as red Masque spells are fewer and slower. My doubt is whether to put him high on the spell side (9^th level so he can cast 5^th spells) but static on his church (which is now holy ground again, like Vallaki’s) or to simply keep him an adept.
Comments?

 

[Rils]

One thought is that he doesn't necessarily have to tag along with the group throughout the entire adventure. You could leave him in the Village of Barovia to "tend his flock", but he can be a resource that the players can go back to for healing, possibly removing curses, or other things as needed. As the PCs gain levels and he starts to realize that they could challenge Strahd, he says "When you take your final fight to the Devil, take me with you - I want retribution for my son / to play an active part in bringing light to the valley besides sitting in my church / whatever other reason you come up with".

That way he's not center stage during the adventure, you don't have to worry about him getting killed in a random werewolf fight, nobody has to run him during battles, etc. But he's still there, he's still valuable to the party (for healing, if nothing else), and there's good incentive story-wise to bring him along to the final fight.

 

[Fleetwood C. DeVille]

One thought is that he doesn't necessarily have to tag along with the group throughout the entire adventure. You could leave him in the Village of Barovia to "tend his flock", but he can be a resource that the players can go back to for healing, possibly removing curses, or other things as needed. As the PCs gain levels and he starts to realize that they could challenge Strahd, he says "When you take your final fight to the Devil, take me with you - I want retribution for my son / to play an active part in bringing light to the valley besides sitting in my church / whatever other reason you come up with".

That way he's not center stage during the adventure, you don't have to worry about him getting killed in a random werewolf fight, nobody has to run him during battles, etc. But he's still there, he's still valuable to the party (for healing, if nothing else), and there's good incentive story-wise to bring him along to the final fight.

This.

Use him to move the story-line along and to adjust tension.

 

[Ganymede81]

One thought is that he doesn't necessarily have to tag along with the group throughout the entire adventure.

This is a valid approach.

I'm doing something similar in my game. Esmerelda ended up being my players' ally, but she does not like to work as part of a team. As such, I'm letting the players send her out on solo missions. Esmerelda is currently scouting out Yester Hill for the party as they deal with the intrigues in Vallaki.

 

[azathosk]

In my campaign we have some of the same thing. Victor Vallakovich ended up being "the primary ally", but he just gave them information (and told them to visit places so he could cook up a potion to help them in the struggle against Strahd).

They met Ezmeralda who quickly became their fighting ally. They're only three characters (bard, cleric and wizard/rogue/ranger) so they need all the help they can get. Now we're venturing into Castle Ravenloft - and they haven't even visited the Amber Temple where the Sunblade and Tome of Strahd is hidden.

 

[Rils]

Now we're venturing into Castle Ravenloft - and they haven't even visited the Amber Temple where the Sunblade and Tome of Strahd is hidden.

Side note, but keep in mind:

1) Just because they are going to the castle doesn't mean it has to be the Final Battle. Lots of groups go to the castle multiple times before the showdown.

2) It's not necessary to have all three artifacts in order to kill Strahd, unless you want it ot be. It's totally doable to kill him without any of them. It's more of a "If you want to defeat Strahd, these tools will be very useful, but not required". There's definitely incentive to find them, but its not strictly necessary.

2.a) If, as the DM, you DO want them to have those things to beat Strahd, then encounters with him prior to that can just be social, or skirmishes where he condescendingly walks away making comments about "hunh, you aren't so tough, come fight me again when you are worth fighting" after beating on them for a few rounds. That'll give them the motivation to track all the artifacts down.

 

[azathosk]

Side note, but keep in mind:

1) Just because they are going to the castle doesn't mean it has to be the Final Battle. Lots of groups go to the castle multiple times before the showdown.

This is my plan, really. They're travelling into the castle - not quite sure of what is happening. It may - or may not - end in a battle, but that is more up to the characters than me really. I let them do almost anything.

Now what I plan to do is let them have chat with Strahd. Let them now a bit more about what his thoughts are. They're motivated not by destroying Strahd, but finding a way out of Barovia - and this is what I'm planning to use on this (hopefully) social encounter.

In addition they might wander around in the castle, but it won't be the final battle.

2) It's not necessary to have all three artifacts in order to kill Strahd, unless you want it ot be. It's totally doable to kill him without any of them. It's more of a "If you want to defeat Strahd, these tools will be very useful, but not required". There's definitely incentive to find them, but its not strictly necessary.

2.a) If, as the DM, you DO want them to have those things to beat Strahd, then encounters with him prior to that can just be social, or skirmishes where he condescendingly walks away making comments about "hunh, you aren't so tough, come fight me again when you are worth fighting" after beating on them for a few rounds. That'll give them the motivation to track all the artifacts down.

They've already faced Strahd twice and he wasn't particulary nice to them. He actually killed them last time (but they got resurrected). Because of this they're adamant on finding the artifacts. They did get the Sunblade and the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind, but lost it the sword when they was killed. The characters knows it was taken to the Amber Temple so they planned to travel there after visiting Argynvostholt.

 

[evilbob]

One thought is that he doesn't necessarily have to tag along with the group throughout the entire adventure. You could leave him in the Village of Barovia to "tend his flock", but he can be a resource that the players can go back to for healing, possibly removing curses, or other things as needed. As the PCs gain levels and he starts to realize that they could challenge Strahd, he says "When you take your final fight to the Devil, take me with you - I want retribution for my son / to play an active part in bringing light to the valley besides sitting in my church / whatever other reason you come up with".

That way he's not center stage during the adventure, you don't have to worry about him getting killed in a random werewolf fight, nobody has to run him during battles, etc. But he's still there, he's still valuable to the party (for healing, if nothing else), and there's good incentive story-wise to bring him along to the final fight.

I like this idea a lot. It's also a good way to balance out allowing him to be a higher level, and/or he can level up with the party to keep his power at about the right place.