I am running Curse of Strahd as the DM currently. We are well into the campaign at this point (players are level 6), and at this point they have only had one encounter with Strahd until now (when they first got to Barovia). Right now they are in the village of Vallaki and I was thinking of doing a modified version of the St. Andral's Feast event in order to introduce another encounter with the vampire lord for the party.
One question I have for other DMs who have done CoS (or have used vampires in other campaigns) is what sort of ways have players tried to exploit the various weaknesses that come with vampires that you have allowed or disallowed but found interesting all the same. For example, have any of your players found unusual tactics to make use of the vampires' weakness to running water?
The party is still a little low level to be trying to fight the BBEG and hope to win, but that being said a few of my players are experienced D&D players (even moreso than I) and could probably come up with very intelligent and unusual exploits.
I am mainly asking about these exploitations so that I can ensure that I do not accidentally hand them the possibility of victory against Strahd too early in the campaign.
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The reason for this thread is to try and make sure I (as the DM) do not fall into an obvious pitfall. Strahd is clever in the way he approaches problems, but I may not be as clever.
Also, while I agree with rewarding the players for clever and unique gameplay, handing them a win may be too much. I would be fine if they force him into his misty form and he retreats back to his castle, but I am also afraid of them somehow preventing his escape in this form (which I have seen suggested in other threads) and them winning too early in the campaign.
To summarize, its not that I have a problem with my players coming up with smart strategies, its that I am afraid that my inexperience in playing a BBEG as the DM may lead to a lack-luster and un-intimidating villain, or a premature ending.
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But... Strahd is also smart. In fact, he's more than just smart - he's a genius and an apex predator (depending on the game, he might be an apex sexual predator). He also has the benefit of hundreds of years of experience. Anything the characters try, he's seen before.
As a GM, he is a foe where fudging is probably required. Listen to what your players are talking about and think of Strahd's response to it, then just make it up that he did that stuff beforehand. If the players say something like, "we'll try to grapple him!", it is fair for you to retroactively decide Strahd drank a potion of free action before he came to the event. It might sound dodgy to do this but it's impossible for us to play genius-level monsters without this sort of shenanigans.
On the other hand, the Dark Lord of the Valley is bored and arrogant and more than a little jaded. He might think so little of the characters that he doesn't bother preparing defences. They might surprise him. Once.
The biggest problem with exploiting his weakness to running water is that it only applies if he's in running water at the moment he hits 0hp, at the end of his turn, or when he wants to shapechange. This will almost certainly require grappling him in it or otherwise making it so he is unable to move out of it since he can use a legendary action to move in addition to his normal movement.
With Strahd having allies and running away if they start actually hurting him, along with lair actions to help out if they're in his home, it's unlikely they will ever be able to seriously threaten him before the fated encounter.
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I am running Curse of Strahd as the DM currently. We are well into the campaign at this point (players are level 6), and at this point they have only had one encounter with Strahd until now (when they first got to Barovia). Right now they are in the village of Vallaki and I was thinking of doing a modified version of the St. Andral's Feast event in order to introduce another encounter with the vampire lord for the party.
One question I have for other DMs who have done CoS (or have used vampires in other campaigns) is what sort of ways have players tried to exploit the various weaknesses that come with vampires that you have allowed or disallowed but found interesting all the same. For example, have any of your players found unusual tactics to make use of the vampires' weakness to running water?
The party is still a little low level to be trying to fight the BBEG and hope to win, but that being said a few of my players are experienced D&D players (even moreso than I) and could probably come up with very intelligent and unusual exploits.
I am mainly asking about these exploitations so that I can ensure that I do not accidentally hand them the possibility of victory against Strahd too early in the campaign.
Four-time Judge of the Competition of the Finest Brews! Come join us in making fun, unique homebrew and voting for your favorite entries!
let them win if strahd go be overconfident
I did NOT eat those hikers.
reward them for being smart
I did NOT eat those hikers.
The reason for this thread is to try and make sure I (as the DM) do not fall into an obvious pitfall. Strahd is clever in the way he approaches problems, but I may not be as clever.
Also, while I agree with rewarding the players for clever and unique gameplay, handing them a win may be too much. I would be fine if they force him into his misty form and he retreats back to his castle, but I am also afraid of them somehow preventing his escape in this form (which I have seen suggested in other threads) and them winning too early in the campaign.
To summarize, its not that I have a problem with my players coming up with smart strategies, its that I am afraid that my inexperience in playing a BBEG as the DM may lead to a lack-luster and un-intimidating villain, or a premature ending.
Four-time Judge of the Competition of the Finest Brews! Come join us in making fun, unique homebrew and voting for your favorite entries!
Great advice, for pretty much all games of D&D.
But... Strahd is also smart. In fact, he's more than just smart - he's a genius and an apex predator (depending on the game, he might be an apex sexual predator). He also has the benefit of hundreds of years of experience. Anything the characters try, he's seen before.
As a GM, he is a foe where fudging is probably required. Listen to what your players are talking about and think of Strahd's response to it, then just make it up that he did that stuff beforehand. If the players say something like, "we'll try to grapple him!", it is fair for you to retroactively decide Strahd drank a potion of free action before he came to the event. It might sound dodgy to do this but it's impossible for us to play genius-level monsters without this sort of shenanigans.
On the other hand, the Dark Lord of the Valley is bored and arrogant and more than a little jaded. He might think so little of the characters that he doesn't bother preparing defences. They might surprise him. Once.
The biggest problem with exploiting his weakness to running water is that it only applies if he's in running water at the moment he hits 0hp, at the end of his turn, or when he wants to shapechange. This will almost certainly require grappling him in it or otherwise making it so he is unable to move out of it since he can use a legendary action to move in addition to his normal movement.
With Strahd having allies and running away if they start actually hurting him, along with lair actions to help out if they're in his home, it's unlikely they will ever be able to seriously threaten him before the fated encounter.