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Message: <blockquote data-quote="hawkeyefan" data-source="post: 6939394" data-attributes="member: 6785785">I think offering a solution to the OP's problem would actually be useful, rather than going on about CR and the failings of 5E in general. You talked about how the game lets down new DMs...so what advice would you give about Strahd? Calling for a change to how the rules are set up doesn't help this specific case...which is, I think, the point [MENTION=6701872]AaronOfBarbaria[/MENTION] was making at the end of his post.To the OP:I personally find Strahd to be quite capable, and my players are experienced players. They aren't pure min-max types, but they know how to build effective characters. They've only just arrived at the Castle, but they have had one altercation with Strahd prior to obtaining any of the artifacts. I set things up so that the PCs were engaged with other foes, and then Strahd shows up during that fight, so it was far from convenient for the PCs. They'd already taken a bit of damage, used some resources, and were spread out. Strahd was able to take down one PC and one of their antagonists (also enemies of Strahd) because they were isolated. Then he used his mobility to wreak havoc on the rest of them. He avoided the party cleric who had spirit guardians up, so he was able to avoid any radiant damage, and keep his regeneration going. So any damage the party did to him was minimal. He finally was driven off by a story element I had written in to the adventure myself. I think the key to his success is maintaining his mobility, avoiding radiant damage, and not going toe to toe with the party. He should always escape as soon as he's in danger, and his legendary actions make that pretty easy to do. Bolster him with minions...make them capable as well; as others have said, a pack of wolves grouped up for one fireball isn't going to do a whole lot. But a couple of vampire spawn and Rahadin acting in concert to take out the party member holding the Sunsword? Yeah, that'smore effective.Play Strahd with your full knowledge at hand. Don't try and limit what he knows about the party or anything like that. He knows who's the cleric and who's the fighter and so on. Have him and his minions act on that. What I would do at this point is treat the battle you have already ha don't as a case of Strahd "testing" them. Then see what you can do to make the next fight more memorable. You know what the party did that worked, and you know what you did that didn't work. So just do your best to correct both of those am deathly you should be in decent shape. Keep him moving, have him run from any situation that is not advantageous to him. Make them fight on his terms.</blockquote>

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