Savage Wombat
Hero
Yeah, basically. I fully support deciding not to randomize the adventure, but once you've decided to randomize what's the point of changing it to suit players' whims?
D&D 5E Curse of Strahd help
Yeah, basically. I fully support deciding not to randomize the adventure, but once you've decided to randomize what's the point of changing it to suit players' whims?
pukunui
Legend
Was just looking at the original Ravenloft module. I found this admonition rather humorous: "You must play Strahd in the same way the players play their characters. Study this NPC as carefully as the players study their characters."
I don't know about you guys, but my players tend not to study their characters carefully. I regularly have to remind them about various things their characters can or can't do.
On a different note, I was looking at I6 to see what it had to say about the various artifacts. The icon is "a small carving of the purest silver" that is 12" tall. It grants a +4 bonus to turn undead attempts and can heal 3d6+3 hit points 1/day when used by a cleric of good alignment. Note that it doesn't tell you what the statue depicts.
In comparison, the 3.5 version of the icon from Expedition to Castle Ravenloft is a 12" statue of a raven. It can be used as a holy symbol, improving the wielder's ability to turn undead. It also has a 1/day healing ability (this time 3d8+10) that can be used by any good character capable of casting divine spells.
Note that neither of those versions have an anti-undead aura. That appears to be something unique to the 5e version, as is the 1/day use of augury. With that in mind, I think I shall have no qualms about removing the protection from evil and good aura.
I don't know about you guys, but my players tend not to study their characters carefully. I regularly have to remind them about various things their characters can or can't do.
On a different note, I was looking at I6 to see what it had to say about the various artifacts. The icon is "a small carving of the purest silver" that is 12" tall. It grants a +4 bonus to turn undead attempts and can heal 3d6+3 hit points 1/day when used by a cleric of good alignment. Note that it doesn't tell you what the statue depicts.
In comparison, the 3.5 version of the icon from Expedition to Castle Ravenloft is a 12" statue of a raven. It can be used as a holy symbol, improving the wielder's ability to turn undead. It also has a 1/day healing ability (this time 3d8+10) that can be used by any good character capable of casting divine spells.
Note that neither of those versions have an anti-undead aura. That appears to be something unique to the 5e version, as is the 1/day use of augury. With that in mind, I think I shall have no qualms about removing the protection from evil and good aura.
Wepwawet
Explorer
My turn now.
My players had found their ally Davian and were about to go into the vineyard. Because it's worth a level and it was about the right time to level up, Davian called them and told them that they had a certain glow around them as if if they rest they will be more powerful the next day. He said that he had heard about them (from other ravens) and that there is a safe spot nearby where he will tell them all about their situation. His family had gone ahead, the players didn't see or asked about them (sigh).
They get to a clearing with some cart wheels and broken vistani carts. The monk recognises the place, in a pile of rubble finds a box with a Strahd puppet that he used to play with as child, and remembers clearly the campfire, the zombie horde coming, the whole killing, how he crawled into the deadly fog and came out near Neverwinter (or whatever FR city he came from).
They sit under a big tree, there are ravens perched above (Davian's family which the players aren't at all curious about, again... sigh). Davian tells them about the gems, the witch and the druids, while giving a compliment to each of the players (at the same time I give an inspiration token).
Later during the night the ravens start squawking, wake everyone up, and they are attacked by Vistani (2 spies and 2 bandit captains). Interesting fight. At the end of the third round an armoured tiger appears and attacks the Vistani. After they are all dead, the tiger moves around ignoring the players and sniffing, approaches the monk and pounces on him. Soon after a voice says "Tyger, stay, sit", the half elf from the inn comes out of the shadows all happy and satisfied. He says "Tyger, why are you attacking these good people. Unless... you're a Vistana...", looks at the monk "But you're black! That can't be... Oh dear..." He turns pale and perplexed.
Very annoyingly the monk player just said "Was it you?" (-.- ') (damn, was it that obvious?...)
Rictavio says of course not (monk rolls 15 on insight, I tell him that he believes he said the truth). Then tells them about the tower where he'll tell them the whole story, and where they can go if they need a rest.
Another time he'll reveal that he's in fact (removes hat, long curly hair with silver streaks fall) Ezmeralda de la Vega Rodriguez legendary monster hunter. I'm merging them: Ezmeralda stats, switch Cha and Wis, remove Vistani powers, Rictavio's cleric spells. I don't need more NPCs in my story...
I plan on having him/her attacked by Strahd's minions, have the tiger killed (players will find the wagon and dead tiger) and barely escaping with his life, per Ezmeralda's storyline.
It was very interesting to see the ally in action, using his action in combat to give someone inspiration is pretty powerful and useful, as one kept rolling really low.
Actually I let them spend inspiration to reroll bad dice, even when they already had advantage... It just felt right at the moment but in the end there were a lot of rerolls, even other players giving their inspiration. Is that how it's supposed to go by the rules?
My players had found their ally Davian and were about to go into the vineyard. Because it's worth a level and it was about the right time to level up, Davian called them and told them that they had a certain glow around them as if if they rest they will be more powerful the next day. He said that he had heard about them (from other ravens) and that there is a safe spot nearby where he will tell them all about their situation. His family had gone ahead, the players didn't see or asked about them (sigh).
They get to a clearing with some cart wheels and broken vistani carts. The monk recognises the place, in a pile of rubble finds a box with a Strahd puppet that he used to play with as child, and remembers clearly the campfire, the zombie horde coming, the whole killing, how he crawled into the deadly fog and came out near Neverwinter (or whatever FR city he came from).
They sit under a big tree, there are ravens perched above (Davian's family which the players aren't at all curious about, again... sigh). Davian tells them about the gems, the witch and the druids, while giving a compliment to each of the players (at the same time I give an inspiration token).
Later during the night the ravens start squawking, wake everyone up, and they are attacked by Vistani (2 spies and 2 bandit captains). Interesting fight. At the end of the third round an armoured tiger appears and attacks the Vistani. After they are all dead, the tiger moves around ignoring the players and sniffing, approaches the monk and pounces on him. Soon after a voice says "Tyger, stay, sit", the half elf from the inn comes out of the shadows all happy and satisfied. He says "Tyger, why are you attacking these good people. Unless... you're a Vistana...", looks at the monk "But you're black! That can't be... Oh dear..." He turns pale and perplexed.
Very annoyingly the monk player just said "Was it you?" (-.- ') (damn, was it that obvious?...)
Rictavio says of course not (monk rolls 15 on insight, I tell him that he believes he said the truth). Then tells them about the tower where he'll tell them the whole story, and where they can go if they need a rest.
Another time he'll reveal that he's in fact (removes hat, long curly hair with silver streaks fall) Ezmeralda de la Vega Rodriguez legendary monster hunter. I'm merging them: Ezmeralda stats, switch Cha and Wis, remove Vistani powers, Rictavio's cleric spells. I don't need more NPCs in my story...
I plan on having him/her attacked by Strahd's minions, have the tiger killed (players will find the wagon and dead tiger) and barely escaping with his life, per Ezmeralda's storyline.
It was very interesting to see the ally in action, using his action in combat to give someone inspiration is pretty powerful and useful, as one kept rolling really low.
Actually I let them spend inspiration to reroll bad dice, even when they already had advantage... It just felt right at the moment but in the end there were a lot of rerolls, even other players giving their inspiration. Is that how it's supposed to go by the rules?
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pukunui
Legend
Sort of. By RAW, you can give your inspiration to another player, but inspiration can also only be spent to gain advantage on a roll. Advantage =/= a reroll. But obviously you're allowed to change that. I've allowed my players to do different things with inspiration at various times. (Not doing anything fancy with it for this campaign, though.)
pukunui
Legend
Strahd is a 9th level wizard. Normally 9th level wizards have four cantrips, but Strahd only has three. I am pondering whether it would be worth giving him booming blade and having him use it with a longsword. He is pictured wearing a sword, after all. And his legendary action to move without provoking OAs could be really useful with booming blade.
Anyone got any thoughts on the matter?
EDIT: On second thought, I really don't like booming blade. It's too 4e for me. I'm just going to give him fire bolt plus chill touch via Spell Sniper. I've also given him War Caster, and I've switched out some of his utility spells for combat ones. To whit:
Cantrips: chill touch, fire bolt, mage hand, prestidigitation, ray of frost
1st level: absorb elements, fog cloud, longstrider, shield
2nd level: Aganazzar's scorcher, detect thoughts, mirror image
3rd level: counterspell, fireball, nondetection
4th level: fire shield, greater invisibility, phantasmal killer
5th level: scrying
I imagine he's got pretty much every wizard spell in a spellbook somewhere in the castle, and he really doesn't need to prepare ritual spells like comprehend languages. I figure he's going to spend his one 5th level spell slot on scrying pretty much every day, so there's no point in having him prepare another 5th level spell.
Fire shield is useful because it's not a concentration spell. He can have that up and running along with mirror image and longstrider and still cast something like phantasmal killer that does require concentration.
Anyone got any thoughts on the matter?
EDIT: On second thought, I really don't like booming blade. It's too 4e for me. I'm just going to give him fire bolt plus chill touch via Spell Sniper. I've also given him War Caster, and I've switched out some of his utility spells for combat ones. To whit:
Cantrips: chill touch, fire bolt, mage hand, prestidigitation, ray of frost
1st level: absorb elements, fog cloud, longstrider, shield
2nd level: Aganazzar's scorcher, detect thoughts, mirror image
3rd level: counterspell, fireball, nondetection
4th level: fire shield, greater invisibility, phantasmal killer
5th level: scrying
I imagine he's got pretty much every wizard spell in a spellbook somewhere in the castle, and he really doesn't need to prepare ritual spells like comprehend languages. I figure he's going to spend his one 5th level spell slot on scrying pretty much every day, so there's no point in having him prepare another 5th level spell.
Fire shield is useful because it's not a concentration spell. He can have that up and running along with mirror image and longstrider and still cast something like phantasmal killer that does require concentration.
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LexStarwalker
First Post
An alternate rule for Inspiration (I believe it's in the DMG) that I use and recommend is players can decide to use Inspiration after they roll, but before the DM announces the results of the roll. This effectively gets rid of the possibility of a player using Inspiration when they would've succeeded on the roll anyway. It gets rid of a player feeling like they "wasted" their Inspiration, which can feel especially insulting for the player because you can only have one Inspiration at a time.
It's a good point that Inspiration grants advantage (even using the above variation) and isn't technically a reroll. Advantage doesn't stack, so if the player already has advantage, Inspiration will do no good. However, you could easily change that as the DM and have Inspiration be an actual reroll, in which case it could "stack" with advantage. It won't break your game, and it makes Inspiration a little more useful, if that's what you're going for.
Of course, none of these variants (or even Inspiration as written) is terribly useful if you don't remember to give Inspiration out to the PCs on occasion.
Savage Wombat
Hero
Strahd needs Greenflame blade for sword-fighting revenants. Otherwise they regenerate unless he pulls out the big guns.
pukunui
Legend
Well, but the revenants don't fight him anymore. And he can just attack them with a fire bolt or fireball instead, if need be.
Anyway, I just got back from my session. The PCs went upstairs and searched around the ground floor of Wachterhaus. As they were barging into the servants' quarters, I had Ernst sneak up behind them and put his sword to Ezmerelda's throat. This got everyone talking and eventually they convinced Ernst to go get Lady Wachter. Everyone they spoke to claimed to know nothing about the skeletons and cultists in the basement. Lady Wachter asked them to help her overthrow the burgomaster. The PCs said they'd think about it and left. So I didn't have Strahd show up at that point.
They went back to the inn and got another room and decided just to rest. I interrupted their rest with the attack on the church. They chose to put their armor on first, and it's almost half a mile from the inn to the church, so it was all over by the time they got there. They could do little but burn the bodies. I did have the old lady survive long enough to tell them to save her son (Udo the shoemaker).
Then they went back to bed, thinking they could sleep late, but I interrupted them again with angry shouts as a mob formed outside to go take on the burgomaster. The PCs managed to talk the mob down with some amazing rolls and RP. They suggested that they approach the burgomaster with four members of the mob to talk. They convinced the guards to let them in. Then the mystic used thought spear on the baron and he died, with everyone thinking he'd had a heart attack or something. While the baroness was sobbing over her husband, the PCs wandered around the mansion. They found the wedding dress and took it. They found Udo in the closet and freed him. And they found Victor in the attic and killed him and his skeletal cats.
Then they decided to go back to the inn and have another short rest (since I hadn't let them have a long rest overnight). When they emerged an hour later, Lady Wachter had asserted her control, and her black-robed, devil-masked followers were patrolling the streets. They went to pay their respects at her house, and just as they were about to attack her, a raven fluttered at the window, drawing their attention to the familiar black carriage pulling up outside. They asked the new baroness if they could come back tomorrow and beat a hasty retreat. Strahd greeted them outside and chastised them for the fact that they still hadn't accepted his invitation. He also warned them about the revenants and told them that they might find they need to seek shelter in the castle, since the revenants refuse to go there now.
And that's where we ended things.
So they still haven't actually fought Strahd. They pretty much run away from him every time he appears.
But they achieved a few things tonight. They got the wedding dress, for instance!
LexStarwalker
First Post
I found it. Page 240 under Heroism.
