Within Curse of Strahd, there is a location known as the Amber Temple. In the Amber Temple, there are a number of Amber sarcophagi that house dark vestiges which can grant players dark gifts.
One of these dark gifts (the gift of lichdom) can only be gifted to a wizard which can cast 9th level spells. How does this make any sense from a module perspective? The module is designed for characters between levels 1-10, and while it could be run at higher levels, the level necessary for access to 9th level spells is far beyond the original upper bound of the module.
I just don't see how someone playing this with a party following the modules level bounds could make use of this gift. Is there something I am misunderstanding about this particular gift?
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Three-time Judge of the Competition of the Finest Brews!Come join us in making fun, unique homebrew and voting for your favorite entries!
When I ran Strahd I just adjusted it so that if my players wanted to accept the gift they gained the knowledge needed to become a lich but couldn't actually accomplish it until they were able to cast 9th level spells
South Sarcophagus. The vestige within this sarcophagus offers “the dark gift of Tenebrous” to any humanoid creature of evil alignment that can cast 9th-level wizard spells. Tenebrous’s gift is the secret of lichdom. This dark gift grants its beneficiary the knowledge needed to perform the following tasks:
Craft a phylactery and imbue it with the power to contain the beneficiary’s soul
Concoct a potion of transformation that turns the beneficiary into a lich
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Does it need to be useful to the party? Or I should say does it need to be useful to the party at this point in time?
The rest of the "gifts" come with some pretty hefty disadvantages and penalties too. Turning into a vampire controlled by the GM doesn't sound like a barrel of laughs to me.
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"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
The issue is, the gift of the Vampyr is available to the players, and will be offered to a fitting creature which touches the amber. The problem with the South Sarcophagus is that because there will be no party member who is fitting to receive it, the gift will never be offered so the party will not know what is inside that one.
This one is still useful in that it explains how the Lich, Exethantur, got his power from the temple, but unless the players use Greater Restoration on the Lich to restore his memory and he tells them of this himself, they really have no way of discovering the purpose of this sarcophagus.
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Three-time Judge of the Competition of the Finest Brews!Come join us in making fun, unique homebrew and voting for your favorite entries!
Also feel free to modify anything in the module to fit you and the party's needs. If you want the party to be able to become liches and vampires, there is nothing stopping you from doing so. You will need templates for those things, but there is some decent homebrew content online for that as well as what the official rules have. Don't be afraid to make it your game.
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Within Curse of Strahd, there is a location known as the Amber Temple. In the Amber Temple, there are a number of Amber sarcophagi that house dark vestiges which can grant players dark gifts.
One of these dark gifts (the gift of lichdom) can only be gifted to a wizard which can cast 9th level spells. How does this make any sense from a module perspective? The module is designed for characters between levels 1-10, and while it could be run at higher levels, the level necessary for access to 9th level spells is far beyond the original upper bound of the module.
I just don't see how someone playing this with a party following the modules level bounds could make use of this gift. Is there something I am misunderstanding about this particular gift?
Three-time Judge of the Competition of the Finest Brews! Come join us in making fun, unique homebrew and voting for your favorite entries!
When I ran Strahd I just adjusted it so that if my players wanted to accept the gift they gained the knowledge needed to become a lich but couldn't actually accomplish it until they were able to cast 9th level spells
South Sarcophagus. The vestige within this sarcophagus offers “the dark gift of Tenebrous” to any humanoid creature of evil alignment that can cast 9th-level wizard spells. Tenebrous’s gift is the secret of lichdom. This dark gift grants its beneficiary the knowledge needed to perform the following tasks:
-------------
Does it need to be useful to the party? Or I should say does it need to be useful to the party at this point in time?
The rest of the "gifts" come with some pretty hefty disadvantages and penalties too. Turning into a vampire controlled by the GM doesn't sound like a barrel of laughs to me.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
The issue is, the gift of the Vampyr is available to the players, and will be offered to a fitting creature which touches the amber. The problem with the South Sarcophagus is that because there will be no party member who is fitting to receive it, the gift will never be offered so the party will not know what is inside that one.
This one is still useful in that it explains how the Lich, Exethantur, got his power from the temple, but unless the players use Greater Restoration on the Lich to restore his memory and he tells them of this himself, they really have no way of discovering the purpose of this sarcophagus.
Three-time Judge of the Competition of the Finest Brews! Come join us in making fun, unique homebrew and voting for your favorite entries!
There is nothing wrong with the players not getting all the answers.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
Also feel free to modify anything in the module to fit you and the party's needs. If you want the party to be able to become liches and vampires, there is nothing stopping you from doing so. You will need templates for those things, but there is some decent homebrew content online for that as well as what the official rules have. Don't be afraid to make it your game.