D&D 5E Curse of Strahd (and limitations on 1st level play)

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

I've found that giving max instead of average HP to key monsters is a decent way to make 5e encounters more challenging for the PCs. That way the monster has a good chance to survive the 1st round novas, so that it can start laying down some smack of it's own.

 

[pukunui]

I've found that giving max instead of average HP to key monsters is a decent way to make 5e encounters more challenging for the PCs. That way the monster has a good chance to survive the 1st round novas, so that it can start laying down some smack of it's own.

I do this as well. I will also give some NPCs/monsters feats (or parts of feats), saving throw proficiencies, extra skills, sometimes even a class feature or two. Not only do these things help make them more of a challenge, but they also make the NPCs/monsters more fun to play.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I did that, eventually. Pushed the party through to 3rd level. And everything is okay for literally one session, before...

The party gets to Kresk and decides they want to stop the Abbot. I give the party's cleric some divine intervention to say "maybe don't try to kill this guy outright" - and the party gets frustrated that they have to leave yet another adventure location because it's too difficult to change anything.
So I'm assessing that the party has explored the village of Barovia and completed the Death House; gone through Vallaki and basically did all the damage they can do there by putting Wachter in power; met with the Vistani at Tser Pool; spoke with the Abbot in Kresk. In frustration, the other "old timer" in the group (a 55 year old parent of some kids in the group) says "everywhere we go, it's like we're at least 2 levels behind where we should be."
And sure enough, using milestone levelling, the party should be at 5th level before their next planned stop (the Winery).
So at the start of the previous session, they went from 2nd to 3rd level. An hour into yesterday's session (and after that complaint), I just shrugged: "Level up. I guess twice."
So we're averaging a level of experience per 4-hour session. Upon reaching 5th level, the party of 5 characters steamrolled through the Winery. I managed to shave off a couple of temporary hit points, but otherwise, it was a slaughter: druids dying before they could take a single action, dozens of twig blights being destroyed in two rounds.
Guessing I just push them into Castle Ravenloft now?
Do I need to completely redesign 5th edition? Is it even a functional system? (Doesn't seem to be at this moment.)

CoS is basically a sandbox, which means the party may well encounter something they are the wrong level for. There are two ways of dealing with this. Either, leave the encounter as is, and accept that some encounters are going to be pushovers whilst others are run away or die. Else, you need to adjust the encounter on the fly to match the party ability. WotC haven't done anything wrong here, that's just the nature of a sandbox. The party can rush straight to the castle to confront Strahd, and die, if they so choose. One of the reasons I'm not a fan of CoS is it requires metagame thinking: "we need to gain levels first".

What WotC have done wrong is claim that CoS goes from 1st level. It doesn't, it starts around level 4. The Death House is a crude patch to try and bring the party up to the right level for the rest of the adventure.

Our milestone levelling house rule is: you can only gain one level at a time.

 

[mamba]

CoS is basically a sandbox, which means the party may well encounter something they are the wrong level for. There are two ways of dealing with this. Either, leave the encounter as is, and accept that some encounters are going to be pushovers whilst others are run away or die. Else, you need to adjust the encounter on the fly to match the party level. WotC haven't none anything wrong here, that's just the nature of a sandbox.

to be fair, they list two locations for level 5, the winery being one of them

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Because it's in the adventure that I paid $40 to run. And it's the highest reviewed adventure of the 5e era.
And I trust the designers of the system to know how to create adventures.
(They apparently don't.)

No one can create adventures for your party unless they know the skill level of your players and the abilities of their characters.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The room is 20 x 100 foot, and full or obstacles (wine barrels, etc.)

Oooh, do a Larian, do a Larian. Exploding wine barrels everywhere!!!

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Perhaps if I provide a very specific example?

Party composition (all 5th level):
Ranger
Cleric
Rogue
Paladin
Artificer (Artillerist specialization)

The party knows from talking to a group of survivors that the Winery has been overrun with druids and their plant-like minions. Ranger has cast Pass Without Trace so the group can enter the building - basically undetected. They stealth into a room that is packed with 24 twig blights and a druid overseeing everything on scaffolding.
Initiative is rolled when the party breaks into the fermentation room. Each twig blight has 4 HP and AC 13. The Paladin is killing two a round with his multiattack. The Artificer drops a shatter spell in the midst of the creatures - and even if they save for half damage, they die anyway (that's one third of them dead). Rogue is killing one a round with Sneak Attack. Cleric is killing one a round with Sacred Flame. The paladin has a 19 AC, so I am rarely hitting him.
The Ranger gets the drop on the druid on the scaffolding. One shot, second shot with colossus slayer. Dead druid before she got a chance to even cast a middling produce flame spell.
And that's basically a typical encounter. All of the enemies are dead - usually before we go around the table.

So, easy encounter was easy? I don't see a problem, some encounters just exist so the players can toss a grenade and blow [stuff] up. It's fun.

 

[James Gasik]

Oooh, do a Larian, do a Larian. Exploding wine barrels everywhere!!!

Then make sure all the bad guys have random fire arrows...

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Then make sure all the bad guys have random fire arrows...

Shouldn't really need that here. Lot's of little wooden guys running around? That's obvious fireball bait. The party blow themselves up.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

So you don't use the published adventures.

I use a mix of published adventures and stuff I've made from scratch. I rarely leave anything unaltered.

I'm guessing you don't use the encounter building guidelines in the DMG.

No, I don't.

Do you create your own monsters?

Yes. And I usually tweak standard ones.

Do you throw like +10 level challenges against them?

Sometimes. It's about the only way to make dragons work the way they should.

NPCs with class levels?

Yes, often. Sometimes with 30+ levels.

Do you let your players use non-core stuff (like Xanathar's options)?

Yes, although I reserve right to veto 3PP stuff.

Do you use gritty rest variants?

No.