D&D 5E Curse of Strahd - What am I missing? (Possible spoilers?)

[commandercrud]

How so? I haven't got to the 5e castle part yet, what is different from the original. Or easier, rather.

For one thing he drains two levels with each hit in the original.

 

[Nebulous]

For one thing he drains two levels with each hit in the original.

oh, well that's a 5e thing, most undead are just not as scary. But yeah, level drain was awful. They should implement a hit die drain mechanic, players would be terrified of that.

 

[toucanbuzz]

...In my opinion, the question is not why would Strahd leave his castle, but why would he stay? He’s the land, yes, but he’s also the lord of the land. He can go wherever he pleases without the slightest of threat or challenge, because it’s his land, and who’s going to stop him? On top of that he’s so interminably bored....

Yep, that's part of it. Perhaps the better way to phrase it is that it wouldn't be in character for him to gallop in on a nightmare, harass the low-level PCs like some sort of gym bully at school, pull down their pants, and ride away. He plays a long-term game. Everything has meaning. In my game, his appearances were few and far between, to send a message. When they sought to elevate the Church in Vallaki as a safe haven for Ireena, Strahd tore down its trappings during a service, slaughtered the priest, and sent a loud and clear message that he is the Land. There is no safe haven. They're trying to interfere with his destiny by influencing Ireena. Yet, he won't kill them for that curiosity bit.

All these other times he's failed, Ireena/Tatyana has been surrounded by natives of the land. The party is a novel factor and one he intends to play into altering a legacy of failed attempts. He just hasn't quite figured that part out yet, and this is where the adventure can take a fantastic spin. I had no idea my PCs would do what they did in the way they did.

 

[Charlaquin]

Yep, that's part of it. Perhaps the better way to phrase it is that it wouldn't be in character for him to gallop in on a nightmare, harass the low-level PCs like some sort of gym bully at school, pull down their pants, and ride away. He plays a long-term game. Everything has meaning. In my game, his appearances were few and far between, to send a message. When they sought to elevate the Church in Vallaki as a safe haven for Ireena, Strahd tore down its trappings during a service, slaughtered the priest, and sent a loud and clear message that he is the Land. There is no safe haven. They're trying to interfere with his destiny by influencing Ireena. Yet, he won't kill them for that curiosity bit.

All these other times he's failed, Ireena/Tatyana has been surrounded by natives of the land. The party is a novel factor and one he intends to play into altering a legacy of failed attempts. He just hasn't quite figured that part out yet, and this is where the adventure can take a fantastic spin. I had no idea my PCs would do what they did in the way they did.

Yup, I think we’re on the same page. I actually do like to have him show up frequently, but it’s always meaningful when he does.

One example of how I use him is at Kolyan’s funeral. As-written some wolves menace the characters at the funeral as a mysterious shadowy figure watches from the mist. Yawn. I have him attend the funeral, as a mourner. Why the hell would he skulk around the outskirts like some kind of weirdo? He came to pay his respects to Kolyan and offer his sympathies to Ireena, and that’s exactly what he’ll do. Plus, having the bad guy just waltz up to the party, bold as brass, and introduce himself is infinitely more intimidating than hiding in the shadows because it shows that there’s nothing anyone can do to stop him and he knows it.

That’s the kind of appearance I like to have Strahd frequently make. Just casually showing up to flaunt the fact that the would-be heroes can’t do squat about it, not to engage in cartoonish pranks.

 

[jasper]

Or for every bite lose 2 points of every stat these stats can be recovered by one long rest per bite.

 

[jayoungr]

I notice that several of the OP's complaints are specifically about the lack of horror-related mechanics.

Looking over the instructions in CoS on how to set the mood of horror, I can see that most of them are narrative elements. The module seems built on the philosophy that horror is most effective when it's developed through the story and atmosphere, rather than the mechanics. So I think a large part of the issue here is just a mismatch of expectations between the players and the writers of the adventure.

The Dark Powers and their influence were completely absent.

Did you go the Amber Temple? That is the main place where the Dark Powers come into Curse of Strahd, but some DMs choose to cut that part.

Magic worked just fine and we never had to roll a Dark Powers Check.

Page 24 of the hardback includes a list of alterations to magic: spells that would allow a party to leave Barovia won't work, and Strahd may intercept any spell that attempts to contact another plane. It also has suggested cosmetic changes to spells (for example, mage hand would appear as a skeletal shadowy hand rather than a normal one); did your DM use those?

As for magic just plain not always working, it seems to me like that would penalize the players of magic-using characters in unfun ways. But that's just MHO.

Fear, horror or madness checks were completely absent, too.

There is a system for tracking sanity and rolling for fear/horror/madness in the Dungeon Master's Guide, which your DM could have added to CoS. I do think the book would have benefitted from a pointer to that section of the DMG and a note on how DMs could incorporate it. To really integrate fear/horror/madness checks deeply into the adventure as written would take a lot of work, though.

I ran the Adventurer's League modules that accompany this adventure last year, which do include some horror/madness checks. To be honest, I don't think they worked well for our group. They just felt tacked on. That's why I think it would take some doing to bring this fully into the adventure, and not every table really wants to track sanity as if they were playing Call of Cthulhu, so for every group that was happy to have this fully and officially woven into the adventure, another group would probably be turned off. Plus, as I noted at the beginning of this post, the authors seem to be approaching the story with the goal of doing more with narrative and less with mechanical changes.

 

[Guest 6948803]

Just one more comment, on Madness checks this time.
Lately, I have long romance with Call of Cthulhu, and there, Sanity works both as a Madness roll (you need to pass the test or you are behaving erratically for 1d10 rounds) and more importantly, as a resource. Because combat in CoC is deadly, players engage in it quite rarely, and for GM, hitting on their sanity is a way to deplete vital resource without crippling their actions too much. That being said, I noticed that people like slippery slope of slowly losing Sanity, but are not fond of short term bouts of madness.
From my experience with Ravenloft itself, I think expanding Dark Powers mechanics would work better than forcing madness and horror checks on players. Slowly becoming monster you try to fight - what can be more awesome in horror game?
Other than that, indeed, 5e is not deadly enough for this style of play. I would love to see "Van Richten's Guide to the Undead" Volo-style book with variant rules for little more ravenlofty experience, but as long as we don't try to make D&D into grim dark realistic game (there are plenty of those out there) DMG variants are enough to make Curse of Strahd dangerous and deadly (as someone said above, Amber Temple is good reality check for players. Mine barely made out of it alive - but its also totally non-ravenloftian dungeon crawl).
(Oh, I just recalled that Marr Mercer once posted his 5e version of corruption rules - its another good thing to add to CoS campaign to make it less high fantasy).

 

[Weiley31]

I agree wholeheartedly with basically everything in this post, but this particular bit I wanted to challenge a bit. In my opinion, the question is not why would Strahd leave his castle, but why would he stay? He’s the land, yes, but he’s also the lord of the land. He can go wherever he pleases without the slightest of threat or challenge, because it’s his land, and who’s going to stop him? On top of that he’s so interminably bored. For centuries he’s been trapped in this tiny snow globe of a domain, with the same souls being recycled over and over again, history repeating itself with only minor variations generation after generation. I can’t imagine him being content to just sit in his castle looking menacingly out a window like some gothic Cercei Lannister. I see him going out among his subjects, feeding on who he pleases, manipulating the populace just to make something happen. That’s why he messed with Donnovich and the Abbot and all the others; he hasn’t been surprised in centuries, so he passes his time just screwing with people in the hopes of getting a mildly amusing result.

I agree. Plus I've heard a number of people say that Strahd should basically "move around/appear outta nowhere" to torment the party.

Oh a pack of wolves? Should be easy like the last pa-yo why is that one particular wolf different from the others?

Oh a knock on the door? Can you come in you ask? Well I'm not sure if I should...that group of PC/NPCs told me it's not safe to open his door at night.Its not a good.....You know what, okay yeah su-Strahd grabs the poor smuck as he's given permission to enter, and the guy gets dragged out into the Darkness outside.

Walking down the castle hall just min-gets blasted by a Fireball as Strahd laughs manically and phase back through the wall.

Basically, your not safe from Strahd no matter where your at on his home turf.

 

[Retreater]

So reading this has inspired me that I should get the Dark Powers involved more and try to add a little more of the old Ravenloft flavor into my campaign. They are just finishing up Vallaki, around 6th level. I wonder when would be a good time to introduce it? Maybe having them unleash it at the Amber Temple?

 

[Guest 6948803]

So reading this has inspired me that I should get the Dark Powers involved more and try to add a little more of the old Ravenloft flavor into my campaign. They are just finishing up Vallaki, around 6th level. I wonder when would be a good time to introduce it? Maybe having them unleash it at the Amber Temple?

My players got VERY excited when they learned about existence of Dark Powers and Amber Temple. For them, it was explanation they wanted (their previous, false explanation was existence of ancient vampire beneath Yester Hill). So, make Wereravens or Gray Elves (or Vistani) talk about Dark Powers and point them into Amber Temple. Also, if one of your players die in the meantime, make him comeback with a little gift from Dark Powers. Have fun!