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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DEFCON 1" data-source="post: 6863027" data-attributes="member: 7006">There's a lot of factors that have to fall into place first for this to be something to worry about.  First, the party has to believe him.  With the amount of crap he's done / doing... them taking him at his word that "killing Strahd won't end the curse!" isn't at all a sure thing.  Second though... even if they *did* decide his opinion had merit, the Abbot's beliefs came about for him without the knowledge of what the Tome of Strahd, Sunblade, and Holy Symbol of Ravenkind would add to the situation.  So he could easily be making opinions based on incomplete information.  It'd be like someone claiming Superman couldn't be killed because the person had no idea that Kryptonite existed.  Once the person was then brought up to speed, perhaps his opinion would change.And of course, the last thing is that even if the party actually comes to the same conclusion of the Abbot and decides that killing Strahd doesn't solve anything (and thus gives up the fight)... why should that derail the campaign?  It just means as the DM we'd just need to come up with something else for the party to focus on.  Maybe now they're primed to become some of Strahd's minions (can't beat 'em, join 'em!)... maybe they now begin a fight to claim an area of the valley themselves and start clearing it out so that they themselves have holdings (like they take over Argynvostholt)... maybe they start claiming the vestige powers in the Amber Temple in hopes that they too might be granted their own domain.  Or maybe they decide they still want to try and put Strahd down even if it "won't do any good", just because it's the right thing to do?Worrying about "campaign derailment" is only a concern if the DM has no desire or intention of doing anything other than just following along what is in the book.  But if that's the case... the DM was probably going to have to push the players in the direction the book tells them anyway... so at that point, just ignore the the part about the Abbot not believing Strahd's death will do any good, that way there's no obstacle for the party to do what the book has lined up as the default direction for them to go.</blockquote>

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