The book describes him as a vampire wizard and basicly a God of this realm. But via my understanding his stat block is just vampire
His stat block is basically Vampire Spellcaster with some bonus lair actions and slightly higher stats. There's some domain effects that happen that are not reflected in his stat block.
He's in no way generic. Stats don't make the character, but his stat block has plenty already. Put too much more in and it will 1. Seem clogged, 2. Make him too hard to defeat, and 3. Not allow you to use all his cool abilities. Remember, mostly fights only last 3-6 rounds.
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All stars fade. Some stars forever fall. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Homebrew (Mostly Outdated):Magic Items,Monsters,Spells,Subclasses ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If there was no light, people wouldn't fear the dark.
He's in no way generic. Stats don't make the character, but his stat block has plenty already. Put too much more in and it will 1. Seem clogged, 2. Make him too hard to defeat, and 3. Not allow you to use all his cool abilities. Remember, mostly fights only last 3-6 rounds.
Most fights last 1-3 rounds, though you could do things like turn him into a multistage boss.
If a party acquires all the magic items available in CoS that are extremely effective vs undead and reach about level 10 (which is where they are expected to be - they can actually be significantly higher just using the milestone leveling suggested in the book if they are completionists) then Strahd as written is almost trivial and may not last one round. (The items emit sunlight, protection from evil and good 30' radius and one of the items equipped by a cleric can be used to turn vampires every turn - there is also the sunblade doing radiant damage and another item that will do 1d6 radiant to undead within 30' every turn (helm of brilliance?). Basically, without significant modification the end game can be far too easy - dealing with the characters early on, Strahd doesn't need any enhancements - however, if played as written then by the end he likely needs a significant boost (at least that is what I found).
When I ran it, Strahd was significantly enhanced in difficulty AND he had both allies and a strategy in mind and still lost though it was somewhat close.
There is a good article out there on making changes to Strahd that offers some good suggestions - it should show up if you google for it. I used some of the suggestions and some of my own.
Changes I made to Strahd ...
1) He was so impressed with the characters that he recovered his sword and armor (the animated plate mail that roams the castle and the +2 Greatsword that was left in Argynvostholt). This bumped his AC to 21 and increased his melee damage options.
2) I increased his hit points to ~170 range.
3) I increased his spell casting to ~13th level with access to some 7th level spells. He has access to the amber temple and can learn whatever spells he wishes - the only reason he hasn't is lack of motivation. One reason for this change is that he needed access to the disintegrate spell in case the party wizard decided to deploy a wall of force - without that the party just divides and conquers.
4) He summoned some of the druids to assist him in the final encounter. These had both fog cloud and silence prepared. Fog cloud blocks all the pesky sunlight that several of the magic items emit. It also prevents the effects of protection of evil and good emitted by one of the magic items that would give all the undead disadvantage on their attack rolls since the vision effects cancel all sources of advantage and disadvantage. The fog cloud ensures that melee combat is an effective option. Strahd also had a standard vampire spellcaster and several vampire spawn as minions.
In the end, Strahd cast Tensors Transformation on himself and tried to use his military experience and ability to destroy the characters. He was able to knock two characters to zero hit points by the end of the combat and was killed himself (though not with radiant damage) and the existing fog cloud blocked the sunlight from the magic items that would have prevented his escape in gaseous form. So the party had to descend to his tomb and finish him off there.
Overall, I thought it made a reasonably epic finish to the module but Strahd as written would not have been much of a challenge.
P.S. The party also had possible allies waiting in the wings (the spirit of Tatyana) in case the dice had gone against the party but it turned out not to be needed.
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I've read threw and after a bit of investigation found he's just a basic vamp. What can I do to make him seem more like he is suppose to
What is he supposed to be like?
The book describes him as a vampire wizard and basicly a God of this realm. But via my understanding his stat block is just vampire
His stat block is basically Vampire Spellcaster with some bonus lair actions and slightly higher stats. There's some domain effects that happen that are not reflected in his stat block.
Isn't this what I'm asking for help fixing.
You're not explaining the problem. You want him to seem more epic, I get that, but what specifically do you want from him?
To feel less like the generic bady he is
He's in no way generic. Stats don't make the character, but his stat block has plenty already. Put too much more in and it will 1. Seem clogged, 2. Make him too hard to defeat, and 3. Not allow you to use all his cool abilities. Remember, mostly fights only last 3-6 rounds.
All stars fade. Some stars forever fall.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Homebrew (Mostly Outdated): Magic Items, Monsters, Spells, Subclasses
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If there was no light, people wouldn't fear the dark.
Most fights last 1-3 rounds, though you could do things like turn him into a multistage boss.
Some things to keep in mind ...
If a party acquires all the magic items available in CoS that are extremely effective vs undead and reach about level 10 (which is where they are expected to be - they can actually be significantly higher just using the milestone leveling suggested in the book if they are completionists) then Strahd as written is almost trivial and may not last one round. (The items emit sunlight, protection from evil and good 30' radius and one of the items equipped by a cleric can be used to turn vampires every turn - there is also the sunblade doing radiant damage and another item that will do 1d6 radiant to undead within 30' every turn (helm of brilliance?). Basically, without significant modification the end game can be far too easy - dealing with the characters early on, Strahd doesn't need any enhancements - however, if played as written then by the end he likely needs a significant boost (at least that is what I found).
When I ran it, Strahd was significantly enhanced in difficulty AND he had both allies and a strategy in mind and still lost though it was somewhat close.
There is a good article out there on making changes to Strahd that offers some good suggestions - it should show up if you google for it. I used some of the suggestions and some of my own.
Changes I made to Strahd ...
1) He was so impressed with the characters that he recovered his sword and armor (the animated plate mail that roams the castle and the +2 Greatsword that was left in Argynvostholt). This bumped his AC to 21 and increased his melee damage options.
2) I increased his hit points to ~170 range.
3) I increased his spell casting to ~13th level with access to some 7th level spells. He has access to the amber temple and can learn whatever spells he wishes - the only reason he hasn't is lack of motivation. One reason for this change is that he needed access to the disintegrate spell in case the party wizard decided to deploy a wall of force - without that the party just divides and conquers.
4) He summoned some of the druids to assist him in the final encounter. These had both fog cloud and silence prepared. Fog cloud blocks all the pesky sunlight that several of the magic items emit. It also prevents the effects of protection of evil and good emitted by one of the magic items that would give all the undead disadvantage on their attack rolls since the vision effects cancel all sources of advantage and disadvantage. The fog cloud ensures that melee combat is an effective option. Strahd also had a standard vampire spellcaster and several vampire spawn as minions.
In the end, Strahd cast Tensors Transformation on himself and tried to use his military experience and ability to destroy the characters. He was able to knock two characters to zero hit points by the end of the combat and was killed himself (though not with radiant damage) and the existing fog cloud blocked the sunlight from the magic items that would have prevented his escape in gaseous form. So the party had to descend to his tomb and finish him off there.
Overall, I thought it made a reasonably epic finish to the module but Strahd as written would not have been much of a challenge.
P.S. The party also had possible allies waiting in the wings (the spirit of Tatyana) in case the dice had gone against the party but it turned out not to be needed.