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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DEFCON 1" data-source="post: 8965392" data-attributes="member: 7006">Really, really REALLY look at everything [USER=6879661]@TheSword[/USER] wrote above and TAKE IT TO HEART.  Especially the parts about not rushing through levels 1 and 2!  Make the party go through the entire Village of Barovia section and the first dinner/night at Castle Ravenloft as Strahd's guests at 1ST LEVEL.  Make them EARN their level ups and LEARN the issues they will have of being underpowered.The absolute worst thing you could do with a 7 player table of murder hobos in CoS is let them jaunt about at  3rd, 4th, 5th level because you are right... they will just walk over everything.  So any section of the adventure that gives a "recommended level"... keep the party at least one level (if not two) BELOW that recommendation.Couple other things I'd recommend--1)  If possible... push the players to make more weapon-users rather than spellcasters.  Or at the very least, do not allow more than two players to play classes that have healing magic (so cleric, bard, druid, paladin, divine soul sorcerer etc.)2)  DO NOT have the party go see Madam Eva until MUCH LATER in the adventure.  The problem I found when I ran it is that by getting their reading at the very beginning of the campaign, they basically said "Okay!  Let's go find the MacGuffins!" and thus cared very little of a lot of what else was going on in Barovia.  Especially with murder hobos... their entire focus will be to just cut a swathe of bodies through the land looking for the items they need with little thought towards anything else.  And as most likely a lot of the reading results will send them into the Castle itself into only specific areas, even when they go to the Castle they will just make beelines to where they need to go to get their MacGuffins.  The MacGuffins become their end-all and be-all... and anything else will just get glossed over as not being important.  And if one of those MacGuffins is the Sunsword?  Then they will REALLY go hog wild on everything, thinking they have the magic weapon to kill everyone and everything.But if you hold off on the Madam Eva reading until much later... until after they've really experienced all the crap going on in Barovia and they realize "Oh yeah, we NEED to get out of here, otherwise we're dead!"... at that point turning their focus to the MacGuffins and escape from the mists has the right timing on its importance.Were I ever to run CoS again... I would not run the Madam Eva section until the players were GOOD AND READY to want to escape Barovia.  Then Madam Eva becomes a lifeline and they are much more grateful to her than if she just gives them the hints of what is going on at the top of the campaign.</blockquote>

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