D&D 5E Is Strahd hard to defeat?

[Bruce Vistani]

Curse of Strahd is meant to cover levels 1 - 10. Presumably you are meant to fight Strahd somewhere near the upper end of that.But is Strahd hard to beat? I've never run a group over 6th level in 5E but 144 HP with a 16 AC strikes me as rather vulnerable (even with regeneration). I can see 6 x 10th level characters taking Strahd out in about two rounds. Surrounding him with minions will be key to making the fight tougher, but if I know my players they will find every means necessary to concentrate all their attacks on Strahd.So, anyone with more experience running high level games have any opinions?

 

[JonnyP71]

If you play him as a highly intelligent villain he will not take a whole party head on... you are intended to time his attacks when it is most beneficial for him - when the party are tired, or separated, for example. Maybe he approaches when they are resting and only have 1 PC awake - attempts to charm that PC, then leaves immediately.

We played it last year using 1E rules, and even in that system a party of 6 fully rested, well equipped level 6-7 PCs would have a decent chance of taking down Strahd in a simple melee. So that never happened. 2 got separated by one the castle's traps - so he appeared and took those 2 out - charming one of them. He then went down to the crypt area and waited for the Wight/Teleport trap to cause confusion among the remaining 4 and attacked when they were separated and dressed in rags.

The party never stood a chance!

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Strahd can also disengage from a fight whenever he wants. Using his legendary action and his lair ability to move through the floors, walls, and cielings as if they are no there.

If he is taking too much damage he can simple leave and they can't follow him. After which he simply waits for his regen to bring him back to full hp then he can attack them again. The PC's likely would have bursted on him during the first encounter with him. So they won't be to hit him as hard in future encounters. Even if they do bring him down. He just turns into mist and returns to his coffin. As he can go through cracks in the walls and floors so they once again can't follow him, they only have an ingame hour to find him before he starts regenerating again.

Pretty much they have to defeat Strahd near his coffin or when they defeat him they have to know were his coffin is, or else he will probably be back at full strength before they find him.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I concur. Straight up battles are not favouring strahd or the standard vampire. When considering CR damage is really not all that counts. Neither are hp. And 144 hp are a lot to go through in a battle. A group of level 7 characters has a hard time doing that much damage in a single round. I think it is level 11 when they start to be dangerous. Before that they need to somehow have to surprise him.
Actually there is an upgraded version of strahd here at enworld. I would discoirage using that except against extreme powergamers. IF PCs are playing so well they can force a battle, they should be able to win.

 

[Bruce Vistani]

Thanks. I haven't finished reading the book yet but I haven't seen much in the way of suggestions for how to run Strahd.

What if they encounter Strahd outside his castle?

 

[JonnyP71]

If you stick by the rule that any encounter the PCs have with Strahd will always be on his terms, and at a time which is beneficial to him, then it won't be a problem.

But as has already been said, the only way to kill him for good is to beat him in his own Crypt - it doesn't matter if he gets beaten up outside his lair a few times, he can always come back.

Play him intelligently. He knows his way around every inch of his world, use that to his advantage. He's not just another mob to be defeated for xp. He's a recurring and very deadly super-villain who is a genius. Use the full range of his abilities to trick, torment, wear down and generally terrify the party before finally moving in for the kill.

The original 1E Ravenloft was very much in the vein of Tomb of Horrors in the sense that played properly, it was only useful as a one-shot adventure - because the odds were so heavily stacked against the party. I would approach a 5E conversion in a similar way... probably using the stuff in the adventure as a campaign leading up to a big final showdown which ultimately the PCs are going to lose.

 

[Valador]

I haven't played the adventure yet, but I looked his block over and I saw tons of things Strahd can exploit and do to make the parties life a living hell in an encounter, if not played like a run of the mill mindless monster...

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

When I ran the original Ravenloft, he definitely was tough to defeat. As others mentioned, he can use guerrilla tactics like nobody's business. But even when it came down to a straight-up fight in the end, he still nearly mopped the floor with my group. Two PCs outright dead, and all but one downed by the time he was defeated. The fact that he can cast spells, including fireball, really made him that much more deadly.

In 5e, I agree, adding some minions so the PCs can't gang up on him isn't a bad idea at all. Putting barriers so it's hard to close to melee with him is another good trick.

 

[Ranthalan]

Lot of good advice and comments here. When I run Ravenloft, it's pretty easy to keep Strahd alive. It's all how you play him (remember, he always knows where the PCs are). If I wanted to, I could probably keep that adventure going indefinitely. Obviously, the fun would wear off quickly.

I like to have him appear early, but dart into a nearby room and when the PCs get there, he'll have vanished. Then right about the time the party gives up looking for him in the immediate vicinity, I'll have him attack the weakest member for a turn and then make a retreat. Then they won't see him for a while, but they'll likely be nervous that he'll show up at any time. After a suitable amount of adventuring (when the PCs have learned to be afraid of alcoves and statues), I'll look for a time for a more significant battle, knowing that Strahd will likely escape. The next time the PCs find him will likely be the endgame, as having Strahd escape yet another encounter will have gotten old. Even so, they'll still have to find him in his crypt pretty quickly.

I love running Ravenloft, so much fun.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

Strahd can also disengage from a fight whenever he wants. Using his legendary action and his lair ability to move through the floors, walls, and cielings as if they are no there.

If he is taking too much damage he can simple leave and they can't follow him. After which he simply waits for his regen to bring him back to full hp then he can attack them again. The PC's likely would have bursted on him during the first encounter with him. So they won't be to hit him as hard in future encounters. Even if they do bring him down. He just turns into mist and returns to his coffin. As he can go through cracks in the walls and floors so they once again can't follow him, they only have an ingame hour to find him before he starts regenerating again.

Pretty much they have to defeat Strahd near his coffin or when they defeat him they have to know were his coffin is, or else he will probably be back at full strength before they find him.

It's almost as if this scenario were custom-made to make Hunter's Mark and Locate Creature useful.