D&D 5E Curse of Strahd milestones (spoilers!)

[RCanine]

I'll take advantage of this necro'd thread to point out my experience in CoS.

My players have been bungling around in Barovia for a few months now partially completing several objectives but finishing nothing. They've also wandered into a few area that were outright too high level for them and getting shellacked by the monsters. I ended up giving them a couple levels just to help push the plot forward.

 

[pukunui]

[MENTION=12731]CapnZapp[/MENTION]: Why do you keep resurrecting old threads just to pick apart something someone said months ago?

 

[CapnZapp]

[MENTION=54629]pukunui[/MENTION]: Did I resurrect this thread? (Checks thread) Maybe I did; I just clicked on an XP "somebody" gave me; saw something I wanted to reply to. That's all.

 

[pukunui]

You're the most prolific thread necromancer on the boards at the moment.

 

[Patrick McGill]

Braaaaaaaaaaains

This thread being necro'd actually gives me a chance to update how using non-combat XPs worked out since we finished up that campaign last month.

They players ended up being level 8 when they finally faced Strahd. They ended up not doing anything with the screwed up angel dude, facing Baba Lysaga, or going to the werewolf lair. And, since they never returned the dragon skull to it's resting place, I was a mean DM and had as a consequence Strahd raise the dragon as a dracolich.

Still, with all the artifacts and other various magic items they collected (that helm of brilliance tho) as well as having Mordenkainen on their side both the dracolich and Strahd weren't that difficult to them. I actually had to inflate Strahd's HP a bit to make the battle more dramatic. I wasn't pulling any punches, either.

So I'd say ignoring the milestone method and going with the suggestions in the DMG for non-combat XPs works fine for the module. Not a fully functional clockwork no-arbitration needed method, of course. Though I don't think even newer DMs would have much trouble with it.

 

[77IM]

I, for one, welcome our new Thread Necromancer Overlords.