D&D 5E Sunlight in Barovia vs Sunlight Sensitivity

[GX.Sigma]

For all his power, all his control over the land, all the minor vampire weaknesses he didn't share, Strahd has always had to slumber during the day and had to fear being caught out in the sun

But I like the fact that Strahd, for all his powers and all his immortality, has this major obstacle that he's absolutely required to work on, that frustrates him because his time is broken up into such tiny chunks. Him "not liking" the daylight just doesn't have the same impact.

Where is this lore from? I have the original module. Here's the first sentence under "Lands of Barovia:"

Lands of Barovia
A perpetual rolling blackness of thunderclouds casts a gray pall over the land.

I took that to mean it's always cloudy, and there's never direct sunlight.

Here's the ending:

The clouds suddenly break open, letting glorious shafts of sunlight flood through. In the valley below, the strange fog dissolves, loosing its power. Barovia is free once more.

So the sun only comes out after he's dead.

In the section on Strahd, it never mentions a sunlight vulnerability. In fact, Strahd has a 60% chance of attacking the PCs ("wherever they are") every morning and afternoon.

 

[Mouseferatu]

You are correct that it's not much of an issue in the original module. It's mentioned in some of the campaign setting material, though, and is a major factor in the novels involving him.

Again, I recognize that this is a retelling of the original module, not the setting. I'm not saying it's something they did "wrong," it's just not my preferred version of him.