pukunui
Legend
OK. When I played through it, the DM generously allowed us to take a few long rests in the chapel so we wouldn't have to leave the castle and come back again.
D&D 5E Curse of Strahd help
- Thread starter pukunui
- Start date
Savage Wombat
Hero
Not a bad idea - but I found the werewolf den to be a little boring as written, so I'd recommend spicing it up a bit.
In other notes - my players will probably fight Strahd tonight. The thing I've realized is that, even once they've beaten him - which I think they can do - they have to then get to his coffin to finish him off. In one hour. Which means no short rests to recover from his damage.
And they haven't met the Brides yet.
Helldritch
Hero
@pukunui
Of course. With all the items Strahd is in deep trouble. That is why he will use hit and run tactics. A haste spell on non undead minions at a crittical points will ensure that he stays dangerous. The dragon, the gargoyles, some Vistanis are all "acceptable" loss for a cornered Strahd. A Vistani could take a grab of the icon or the sword and rushes to the cliff... or werewolves take it god knows where?
What you forget is that Strahd will target the weakest party member and slay him/her outright. Then it will be the cleric. Not every group find every items and once you have one; Strahd starts to hunt you (especialy the if you have the book). Remove the Icon or the sunsword and all of a sudden a fair fight isn't fair anymore. You need those items. Unfortunately, Strahd knows of them. He will fight on his own terms until he has no more minions. But by then, even with the items, players will have almost no ressources. The fight will be fair again
Of course. With all the items Strahd is in deep trouble. That is why he will use hit and run tactics. A haste spell on non undead minions at a crittical points will ensure that he stays dangerous. The dragon, the gargoyles, some Vistanis are all "acceptable" loss for a cornered Strahd. A Vistani could take a grab of the icon or the sword and rushes to the cliff... or werewolves take it god knows where?
What you forget is that Strahd will target the weakest party member and slay him/her outright. Then it will be the cleric. Not every group find every items and once you have one; Strahd starts to hunt you (especialy the if you have the book). Remove the Icon or the sunsword and all of a sudden a fair fight isn't fair anymore. You need those items. Unfortunately, Strahd knows of them. He will fight on his own terms until he has no more minions. But by then, even with the items, players will have almost no ressources. The fight will be fair again
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Savage Wombat
Hero
Your DM is a softy.Last time my players tried to take a long rest in a monster infested dungeon they woke to find a pack of ghouls were waiting for them to come of the Leomund's Hut.
My players were terrified to even try to rest in the Castle, even with a Leomund's Hut. (Of course, I was prepared to have Strahd come up through the floor invisibly.) There is one room in the crypt that has the protection of sunlight, which they considered for a while but decided against.
Incidentally, they were able to finally defeat Strahd, but it was a hard fight and I'm a terrible tactician. They probably should have gotten out the Icon a lot earlier in the fight, though.
pukunui
Legend
Technically, that wouldn't work. The spell creates a hemisphere, which means it has a floor. (So sayeth Jeremy.)
Savage Wombat
Hero
Well, good thing it didn't come up then. I think the spell's too good anyway - it's like the designers felt the players should be able to say "no fair attacking us when we're not playing". Ruins a lot of story options.
texastoast
Explorer
I've been lurking for a few weeks getting fantastic ideas for running CoS at home for my wife and kids (12 and 10). They're all first-time players, this is my first time playing 5th Edition, and my first time DMing since I was in high school. It's been a struggle, to be sure.
My party is in the middle of the various quests in Vallaki, I've made some mistakes, and I don't want the party to get too far off the paths laid out in the book. I got lucky that they returned to the Blue Water Inn after rescuing Arrabelle, so I got a second chance to give them the Wizard of Wines quest. It may be a huge challenge anticipating how to point them at quests though; when they saw the people in the stocks in the town square, they started throwing tomatoes at them.
1. We haven't been to Madam Eva yet. I know, I know. But all the Vistani are in league with Strahd, so nobody in Barovia (basically Ismark and Donavich are the only ones they spoke to) was inclined to send us to see them. Then they noticed a Vistani spy trailing them on the way to Vallaki with Ismark and Ireena, and now they pretty much think all the Vistani are evil. I'm trying to disabuse them of that notion, but honestly the book doesn't give me a lot to work with on that. They just rescued Arrabelle and are about to return her to her father, but they were talking about releasing her at the edge of the Vistani camp and letting her find her way rather than encounter the Vistani. In addition to thinking the Vistani are all bad guys, they're worried that they will be discovered for having killed that Vistani spy. So two questions.
First, any suggestions how to redeem the Vistani a little bit in their eyes? I'm going to try to do it when they return Arrabelle. I think I'll have to have Arrigal be away somewhere, since they'll recognize him from the initial adventure hook, and they know the letter he gave them was written by Strahd. I'm actually thinking about making the Vallaki camp Vistani unaligned (the book says they all serve Strahd) so that there are some Vistani that aren't "evil." Does that make sense with the dusk elves there? I think it does, since they would be no ally of Strahd's given what he did to their people, but that may be a shallow interpretation of their motives. Of course, my party consists of a pair of tweens and their mom who's basically playing on their account, so maybe simplistic motivations are the way to go.
I'm also thinking about moving Madam Eva to that camp to force the encounter with her and the card reading. Short of that I was planning on having Luvash exclaim, "Madam Eva must have sent you!" when they return Arrabelle to them, introducing her that way. But I anticipate at least one of the boys responding with "We have to go all the way back there!?" when directed to Tser Pool, which is not unreasonable given how far it is to go just to see her. Does anyone see any major problems with doing that?
2. In Barovia, they party declined to destroy Doru. They instead latched on to Donavich's prayer that Doru could be cured, and are now asking everyone they meet if they know of a cure. They're also worried about Ireena turning into a vampire because she's been bitten. I had Rictavio do a bit of an info dump on them (he told the whole Strahd/Tatyana/Sergei backstory), including some answers to those question that I made up on the spot. He told them to become a vampire, you have to die within a certain period of time (unspecified, unknown) after being bitten, and that you can outlive that time and avoid becoming a vampire. As far as a cure for someone who is already a vampire (like Doru), he suggested that the Amber Temple is a place of powerful magic that they could have that sort of information. I know a lot of people think the Amber Temple is superfluous junk, but I think it's cool, I think the players would be interested in the lich, and I'm curious to see what they'll do with the various temptations, so I wanted to point to it somehow. Plus it gives me time to figure out about a cure for vampirism before they get to the place where it's supposed to be. I want to provide happy endings (perhaps not in keeping with the spirit of Ravenloft, but I'm ok with that), so I'm fine letting a cure exist for someone like Doru. Basically, does anyone have any suggestions (or is there any canonical information) about curing vampirism, either prospectively in the case of Ireena or after the fact like Doru?
3. How did anyone get Izek and Ireena to recognize that they were siblings? I want to involve the party in that somehow, in the hopes of freeing them from having to escort Ireena all over the place, and neutralizing Izek as a threat (because he's grateful to them for reuniting him with his sister). I'm trying to make that the milestone that levels them up to 4th level, and also a Point of Light (I want to use the Points of Light scheme that evilbob has detailed elsewhere on these forums). When we arrived in Vallaki, I had Ireena look around and recognize the place in a vague way, trying to seed the idea that she had grown up here before being adopted. Then Ismark and Ireena went to appeal to the Burgomaster while the rest of the party went to the Inn. I'm trying to figure out a way to get them to Blinsky's so they see the Ireena doll, but my party isn't much for exploring the town, so I haven't found a way to push them toward Blinsky's.
PS. If this is thread hijacking and I should start a new thread, just let me know. I don't know all the etiquette for this forum yet.
My party is in the middle of the various quests in Vallaki, I've made some mistakes, and I don't want the party to get too far off the paths laid out in the book. I got lucky that they returned to the Blue Water Inn after rescuing Arrabelle, so I got a second chance to give them the Wizard of Wines quest. It may be a huge challenge anticipating how to point them at quests though; when they saw the people in the stocks in the town square, they started throwing tomatoes at them.
1. We haven't been to Madam Eva yet. I know, I know. But all the Vistani are in league with Strahd, so nobody in Barovia (basically Ismark and Donavich are the only ones they spoke to) was inclined to send us to see them. Then they noticed a Vistani spy trailing them on the way to Vallaki with Ismark and Ireena, and now they pretty much think all the Vistani are evil. I'm trying to disabuse them of that notion, but honestly the book doesn't give me a lot to work with on that. They just rescued Arrabelle and are about to return her to her father, but they were talking about releasing her at the edge of the Vistani camp and letting her find her way rather than encounter the Vistani. In addition to thinking the Vistani are all bad guys, they're worried that they will be discovered for having killed that Vistani spy. So two questions.
First, any suggestions how to redeem the Vistani a little bit in their eyes? I'm going to try to do it when they return Arrabelle. I think I'll have to have Arrigal be away somewhere, since they'll recognize him from the initial adventure hook, and they know the letter he gave them was written by Strahd. I'm actually thinking about making the Vallaki camp Vistani unaligned (the book says they all serve Strahd) so that there are some Vistani that aren't "evil." Does that make sense with the dusk elves there? I think it does, since they would be no ally of Strahd's given what he did to their people, but that may be a shallow interpretation of their motives. Of course, my party consists of a pair of tweens and their mom who's basically playing on their account, so maybe simplistic motivations are the way to go.
I'm also thinking about moving Madam Eva to that camp to force the encounter with her and the card reading. Short of that I was planning on having Luvash exclaim, "Madam Eva must have sent you!" when they return Arrabelle to them, introducing her that way. But I anticipate at least one of the boys responding with "We have to go all the way back there!?" when directed to Tser Pool, which is not unreasonable given how far it is to go just to see her. Does anyone see any major problems with doing that?
2. In Barovia, they party declined to destroy Doru. They instead latched on to Donavich's prayer that Doru could be cured, and are now asking everyone they meet if they know of a cure. They're also worried about Ireena turning into a vampire because she's been bitten. I had Rictavio do a bit of an info dump on them (he told the whole Strahd/Tatyana/Sergei backstory), including some answers to those question that I made up on the spot. He told them to become a vampire, you have to die within a certain period of time (unspecified, unknown) after being bitten, and that you can outlive that time and avoid becoming a vampire. As far as a cure for someone who is already a vampire (like Doru), he suggested that the Amber Temple is a place of powerful magic that they could have that sort of information. I know a lot of people think the Amber Temple is superfluous junk, but I think it's cool, I think the players would be interested in the lich, and I'm curious to see what they'll do with the various temptations, so I wanted to point to it somehow. Plus it gives me time to figure out about a cure for vampirism before they get to the place where it's supposed to be. I want to provide happy endings (perhaps not in keeping with the spirit of Ravenloft, but I'm ok with that), so I'm fine letting a cure exist for someone like Doru. Basically, does anyone have any suggestions (or is there any canonical information) about curing vampirism, either prospectively in the case of Ireena or after the fact like Doru?
3. How did anyone get Izek and Ireena to recognize that they were siblings? I want to involve the party in that somehow, in the hopes of freeing them from having to escort Ireena all over the place, and neutralizing Izek as a threat (because he's grateful to them for reuniting him with his sister). I'm trying to make that the milestone that levels them up to 4th level, and also a Point of Light (I want to use the Points of Light scheme that evilbob has detailed elsewhere on these forums). When we arrived in Vallaki, I had Ireena look around and recognize the place in a vague way, trying to seed the idea that she had grown up here before being adopted. Then Ismark and Ireena went to appeal to the Burgomaster while the rest of the party went to the Inn. I'm trying to figure out a way to get them to Blinsky's so they see the Ireena doll, but my party isn't much for exploring the town, so I haven't found a way to push them toward Blinsky's.
PS. If this is thread hijacking and I should start a new thread, just let me know. I don't know all the etiquette for this forum yet.
Wepwawet
Explorer
Rictavio knows how to interpret Mme Eva's reading, he's perfect to point them her way, like "so you are strangers from a distant land, you should visit Mme Eva, she's a very gifted seer that can show you your destiny/a way out"
The Vistani in Vallaki are keeping an eye on the Dusk Elves. They're guarding them, more as prisioners rather than friends.
But your players are already doing a quest for them, they can also point them to her.
Yeah, it's fine to have Mme Eva in Vallaki camp, she can call them by their names and all, and get them in her caravan. Better yet, she could be passing by on her way to Tser Falls, and when she sees them she invites them in. That way her camp is still independent from Luvash's. Another safe-ish place that they can go to in the future.
Well, that's sweet and all but there's no cure, only the release of proper death. Vampires are supposed to be super evil, not emo teenagers with sparkly skin. Of course, you are playing with kids, you could change things.... But if it was me I'd have Doru kill his poor mad father to show them how vampires are.
Well, i had the players roll an insight check (or perception, dont remember) to notice that Ismark and Ireena weren't brother and sister... You can do the same to notice that they look related, very similar features. In your game I'm sure you dont want incest happening hahaha
