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Message: <blockquote data-quote="epithet" data-source="post: 7506075" data-attributes="member: 6796566">You have to play up Barovia itself as an enemy, with Strahd just an avatar of corrupted Barovia. Show your players some extra creepy stuff, like have a bloodbath in Valaki with dozens of bodies in the streets, werewolves/vampires triumphant, main buildings in flames. Then, the next time the party sees Valaki, it is as if nothing had ever happened... people whose heads were off a couple of days ago are asking "Vot are you lookink at? Vy you are actink zo strainch?"Use the mists. The choking mist is an attack by Barovia, and getting lost in the mist will find survivors wherever Barovia wants them to be (back at Valaki?)Make some adjustments to vampires. Start by doubling their movement speed, give them a bonus to AC, and giving them an extra attack. Let there be a lot of them. Also, add a ton of werewolves, and boost some of them massively, size large and just stupid lots of hit points. You can make them vulnerable to silver (but just regular damage from magic weapons.) You want to create a situation where Strahd controls the werewolf clan initially, and it is very nearly impossible to defeat both the vampires and the werewolves unless you turn them against one another.A source of allies could be the dusk elves. Instead of killing all the females, perhaps they were turned into trees, and they're still alive. If the PC party discovers the key to restoring them, they could use that to entice the surly elves to join their cause.If you're going for an elder evil as the BBEG, I wouldn't go with the tentacled ones. Instead, have The Blood God keep the theme of vampirism. Throw in things like any attack that does slashing damage greater than 15 points to a PC will cause the spilled blood to form a blood imp (reskinned mud mephit.) Just to annoy the characters, and let them know The Blood God is watching, and waiting, and that their blood is already claimed.At high levels, it isn't enough to threaten the party. They can protect themselves from dragons, at that point. To challenge them, you have to give them something to care about, then threaten that. They aren't struggling to survive and escape, so then they need a big ticket item to get them invested. Individualize it--figure out what each character's "epic destiny" goals are, and then place a key to achieving that in Barovia. It might be in the Amber Temple, or Markovia's Abby, or deep in the woods, or whatever. It might not have anything directly to do with Strahd, but it needs to be something that the character can discover hints about, and then have Strahd/Blood God threaten it before it can be achieved.</blockquote>

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