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

[Tales and Chronicles]

I always take a few minutes to check if the encounter will be somewhat interesting, both as a DM and for the players.

In this case we have a few druids who took over a winery and animated the grape wines. So you want a mix of spellcasters and plant-based monsters (BeyondMeat sandwhich, anyone?) .

Replacing a bunch of lame twigs with a Corpse Flower or Body Taker Plant and few Assasin Vines (MOT) would have been more interesting. Or have a few Wine Weird (refuffed Water Weird) grapple the PCs and drown them in wine.

Or have the druids use Thorn Whip to throw the PCs in the grapes press and crush them slowly.

 

[pukunui]

Replacing a bunch of lame twigs with a Corpse Flower or Body Taker Plant and few Assasin Vines (MOT) would have been more interesting. Or have a few Wine Weird (refuffed Water Weird) grapple the PCs and drown them in wine.

I think it's worth pointing out that when Curse of Strahd first came out, there weren't a lot of plant monster options besides blights and shambling mounds, so definitely going back through and adding in some of the more interesting ones that have been introduced to the game since is a worthwhile endeavor.

As another example, I am running Dungeon of the Mad Mage, and the PCs just made it to the githyanki level. The adventure includes githyanki warriors, knights and gish, but I've swapped some out for the githyanki buccaneers, star seers, and xenomancers from Spelljammer, and I've made the two bosses a kith'rak and a supreme commander (from MotM) instead of having them both be gish.

 

[Parmandur]

Like wanting a challenging, thrilling fight that lasts more than a round? Balanced encounters? That's not a typical playstyle for D&D?

The typical playstyle is for combats that last 1-3 rounds that are not balanced, but rather geared towards player victory. At least that was what WotC found in playtesting, and it is what they design for.

 

[dave2008]

After the fact. For future reference, my base encounter is going to be 5500 XP. This means that I'm going to pretty much re-write the entirety of the combat encounters in the book. And that's fine. I just need to figure out what to do to make this adventure thrilling and exciting.

Sounds like a good idea.

And if they get used to a cakewalk and then you have a randomly very difficult encounter, that is just inviting a TPK.

I don't find that to be the case, but my players probably know what to expect from me to some degree. We mostly have easy* fights and then a real barn burner every once and a while and it has never led to an accidental TPK for us.

*I do not mean "easy" as in the DMG encounter guidelines

 

[pukunui]

I'd just like to add that I can't count the number of times I've run an encounter that ended with me thinking it had been too easy only for my players to state how tough they thought it was and how they felt like they'd only just survived by the skin of their teeth or the luck of the dice or whatever. The point being: sometimes our perspective can be skewed when we're sitting in the DM's chair, and an encounter we thought was too easy felt "just right" or even possibly "too hard" to the players on the other side of the screen. It's important to remember that in situations like this.

 

[Parmandur]

I'd just like to add that I can't count the number of times I've run an encounter that ended with me thinking it had been too easy only for my players to state how tough they thought it was and how they felt like they'd only just survived by the skin of their teeth or the luck of the dice or whatever. The point being: sometimes our perspective can be skewed when we're sitting in the DM's chair, and an encounter we thought was too easy felt "just right" or even possibly "too hard" to the players on the other side of the screen. It's important to remember that in situations like this.

One of the more interesting aspects of watching Critical Role for me is watching how Matt Mercer puts the fear of God in his players every fight...but doing the math, he is usually putting out something the group is extremely prepared to handle...but they don't know that.

 

[pukunui]

One of the more interesting aspects of watching Critical Role for me is watching how Matt Mercer puts the fear of God in his players every fight...but doing the math, he is usually putting out something the group is extremely prepared to handle...but they don't know that.

Yeah, like just recently, I made a whole thread about how the death tyrant I pitted against three of my PCs was a total pushover because they found its weak point ... and while I thought it was too easy, they all thought they'd just barely survived and that if it hadn't been for their lucky trick with the darkness spell, they'd have all been toast. (I'm not so sure I agree with their assessment, but the point is -- they thought it was a hard, challenging encounter even though I thought it was too easy.)

 

[Flamestrike]

BTW, according to the book, they start 120 feet away. So they are effectively blind to the party's approach (per the rules).

I thought they were in a building?

Any good reason why you didnt have the Druid leave a few Twig blights scattered about outside the main group (using their ability to blend in automatically) as guards?

Yeah. But then again, I didn't design the encounter - Chris Perkins did.

For a sandbox. Chris didnt design the encounter to be run exactly as is. He expected there to be a DM involved, and to adjust the encounter as needed relative to the strengths and weaknesses of that DMs party.

Pretty sure the adventure itself tells you to do exactly this. In fact I'm certain the adventure tells you to do exactly this.

You know your party man. Even at an eyeball, a bunch of CR 1/8s and a CR 2 is obviously going to get steamrolled by a 5th level fully rested party.

Upgrade a few monsters in your encounter (Swapping X Twig Blights for a Shambling mound or two is the obvious choice, and is both CR appropriate and thematically appropriate).

Either do it on the fly, or during your mid-week prep (you should have a pretty good idea what the PCs are likely going to encounter on the upcoming session).

 

[Parmandur]

Yeah, like just recently, I made a whole thread about how the death tyrant I pitted against three of my PCs was a total pushover because they found its weak point ... and while I thought it was too easy, they all thought they'd just barely survived and that if it hadn't been for their lucky trick with the darkness spell, they'd have all been toast. (I'm not so sure I agree with their assessment, but the point is -- they thought it was a hard, challenging encounter even though I thought it was too easy.)

That matches my experience, and that isn't an accident in my book but rather a specific design intent.

 

[pukunui]

I thought they were in a building?

Any good reason why you didnt have the Druid leave a few Twig blights scattered about outside the main group (using their ability to blend in automatically) as guards?

Some of the blights are in the building, but there are also some out in the vineyard. OP's party was apparently able to sneak past all of these outside guards using pass without trace.

You know your party man. Even at an eyeball, a bunch of CR 1/8s and a CR 2 is obviously going to get steamrolled by a 5th level fully rested party.

And that's not even the full complement of enemies at the winery. There are at least two more druids, some needle blights, and all the blights that are outside. From what I can tell, the party has not dealt with all of those opponents, so I don't know why they assume the party can get a long rest inside the winery. Are those other opponents just going to stand around in one place without moving for at least 8 hours? That seems unlikely. The OP could also shake things up by having a random encounter team (IIRC druids are on the list) show up to collect some more wine or otherwise check in during the rest.

That said, as I've mentioned before, if I ever get to run this adventure again, I'm going to make it hella hard for the PCs to take a long rest anywhere in Barovia. The howling of the wolves, the skittering in the underbrush, the flapping of wings, the scratching of the skeletal trees against the windows ... all of that will make for a restless night!