I am very excitedly preparing to run Curse of Strahd, and I need your help!
I have DM'd before, but I have never ran anything as deep or as impactful to the history of the game. I'm running the game for three rookie players who have had very limited exposure to actually playing.
It's these reasons, as well as my own desire for perfection, that I want to give this campaign everything I've got. I'm pulling out all the stops; minis, tarokka cards, ambiance, maybe a cloak. LOL.
Anyway...I want to hear from fellow Dungeon Masters about things they've done while running it, or even something you always wanted to do if you ran it. I also want to hear constructive tips that will help me plan and prepare better. I'm looking forward to hearing from you!
When fighting the players as Strahd, the general idea is to try and drag the battle on as long as possible, so that you can continue to regenerate any damage taken. Definitely use greater invisibility right away and the majority of your other spell slots lvl 3+ will go towards pounding them with fireballs. Try to avoid melee and if a player does get in melee with you consider charming them, in particular a low wisdom save type like a fighter or barbarian. You want to be strafing and harassing the party but not openly engaging them. Engage them in the dark, between 60-120 ft away so normal dark vision won’t catch you but you can still see them, then quickly reposition.
The rat and bat swarm is good for quickly moving in and ripping to shreds any player that drops after a fireball, but otherwise have them hang back and be conservative with them.
Once you are out of spell slots, move in and bite and claw, going for the squishy characters first. Finally, engage before they get too close to your coffin, so Strahd has a reasonable chance of regenerating before the players find it.
Using these tactics, hopefully you can get the TPK. Good luck.
1) The game may be easier for you to run if you rig the Tarokka deck reading. If you draw it randomly then you can end up with NPCs to aid the party that may not have anything to offer. Or you may find that all the artifacts that the party needs to win may be in the castle or other places that might be too dangerous to venture. If the party starts following the directions on the cards too early then depending on what the cards say, they could easily wind up over their heads. CoS is a dangerous place and pretty much a sandbox. Placing one of the artifacts in the castle is fine .. if they are all there it could be a problem.
So, I'd suggest looking over the options from the Tarokka deck and picking what you think might make for a fun game and then stacking the deck so it appears random but isn't. :)
2) Read the module. CoS is one of those where I found that reading it through was very useful. There are a lot of locations. The order in the book is not the order the characters will encounter them. If you don't want to read it all at once then the first parts to read would be in order ... Death House appendix (usually where the game starts), village of Barovia, Vistani camp at the falls with the seer and cards, Bonegrinder mill, Vallaki ...
3) Use foreshadowing, omens and hints to dissuade the party from the really dangerous paths (the ravens can be useful for this) since otherwise a TPK is very easy. The village of Berez at level 5? Likely no one is walking out alive unless the witch is feeling benevolent.
4) I mentioned reading :) ... which is important to understand what exactly is going on. Strahd is the big nasty guy but the party doesn't usually show up in Barovia with a plan to kill him off. They arrive there usually through one of the "hooks" and are clueless to the danger they are in. The party usually wants to leave and finds out they can't. The mists won't let them.
Here are some things to keep in mind ...
- Strahd is bored. He wants to leave and the only faint hope he has is that some adventurer shows up that is worthy of the role or ruler but Strahd inherently doesn't think anyone can possibly be worthy.
- The demiplane is a reflection of Strahd's mind. His subconscious perhaps. He can force the landscape to change just by thinking about it but doesn't just because he isn't really aware of it. (check out the backstory of the village of Berez).
- most of the people in the demiplane (which is also called Barovia - the same name as the village - which can make it confusing) are shadows or figments of his subconscious. They do not have souls. About 1 in 10 have souls and those souls are generally trapped in Barovia to endlessly reincarnate. Strahd can only feed from the villagers who have souls.
- Strahd is testing the party. He scares them. He puts threats up against them. If they fall then they obviously weren't worthy. He might attack them himself at some point just to show them how weak and useless they are. He won't directly try to kill them until the predicted final confrontation from the card reading (that is the point of the card reading since it sets up the fateful "final" encounter).
- Strahd is smart and confident, not stupid. A party that is equipped with and can use the artifacts that can be found in Barovia will defeat the standard Strahd stat block in 1 to 3 rounds with ease as written. The magic items prevent regeneration, make undead attack with disadvantage, can protect against possession and many of the other tricks. A pretty low level party might be able to defeat Strahd with the various anti-vampire/undead magic items that are available in the realm. However, without those items, Strahd can be pretty challenging.
So you may have to adjust the final encounter by adding allies for Strahd or possibly modifying Strahd himself. At the Amber temple, Strahd has access to every spell in the PHB. If needed, you could have Strahd change out his spells or even increase his spell casting ability as he tries to figure out a strategy to ultimately defeat the party. This is what Strahd lives for, the occasional challenge of wiping out upstart adventurers that enter his realm. He has been here centuries so anything that can motivate him to do anything is welcomed. They are of course unworthy and prove that by their ultimate defeat. Strahd likely doesn't believe he can be killed.
5) CoS is a "horror" setting and plays into several of these tropes.
The vistani appear to be a vague reference to real world group and uses racist stereotypes ... vampires, werewolves, madness, several Grimms fairy tale themes including cookies made from ground up children, or children forced to fight to the death with the survivor forced to join the werewolf pack, an insane asylum populated by creatures with random combinations of human and animal parts lead by an insane fallen angel, a priest with their son turned into a vampire spawn who is now locked up in the basement of the priest's church while he tries to figure out what to do, a fisherman throwing a child in a sack into a lake as an offering to the fish gods for better fishing, there are only a few genuinely nice NPCs out there ... there are lots more similar "horror" moments ... so it might be worth checking with your players if they are ok with the general themes and moderate the events they might be uncomfortable with as required.
6) CoS is one of the better self-contained adventures which can be fun to play and presents a certain theme and vibe but beware it might not be for everyone.
When fighting the players as Strahd, the general idea is to try and drag the battle on as long as possible, so that you can continue to regenerate any damage taken. Definitely use greater invisibility right away and the majority of your other spell slots lvl 3+ will go towards pounding them with fireballs. Try to avoid melee and if a player does get in melee with you consider charming them, in particular a low wisdom save type like a fighter or barbarian. You want to be strafing and harassing the party but not openly engaging them. Engage them in the dark, between 60-120 ft away so normal dark vision won’t catch you but you can still see them, then quickly reposition.
The rat and bat swarm is good for quickly moving in and ripping to shreds any player that drops after a fireball, but otherwise have them hang back and be conservative with them.
Once you are out of spell slots, move in and bite and claw, going for the squishy characters first. Finally, engage before they get too close to your coffin, so Strahd has a reasonable chance of regenerating before the players find it.
Using these tactics, hopefully you can get the TPK. Good luck.
Just a quick comment ... but the suggested tactics really don't work for a party that has collected the various magic items in the module.
The magic items available in CoS make most of the tactics described not work. I'd strongly recommend a good aligned cleric or paladin as a member of the party so that someone can make use of the Holy Symbol and Icon.
The permanent effects that come from these include.
- Protection from Evil and Good 30' radius - "The protection grants several benefits. Creatures of those types have disadvantage on attack rolls against the target. The target also can't be charmed, frightened, or possessed by them." - the creature types include Undead like Strahd so the icon gives Strahd disadvantage on all attacks and prevents charmed, frightened and possessed which shuts down a lot of the vampire secondary attacks.
- the Sunsword can create a 60' diameter region of Sunlight which really harms Strahd and other vampires.
Sunlight Hypersensitivity. While in sunlight, Strahd takes 20 radiant damage at the start of his turn, and he has disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks.
- Radiant damage prevents Strahd from regenerating - as does sunlight - both the Sunsword and the Thighbone will do radiant damage (in addition to whatever cleric spells might be out there like Spirit Guardians).
- the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind can expend 1 charge to paralyse all vampires within 30' for 1 minute (new save every round). It can also be used to produce sunlight
Item details:
HOLY SYMBOL OF RAVENKIND
Wondrous item, legendary (requires attunement by a cleric or paladin of good alignment)
The holy symbol has 10 charges for the following properties. It regains ld6 + 4 charges daily at dawn.
Hold Vampires. As an action, you can expend 1 charge and present the holy symbol to make it flare with holy power. Vampires and vampire spawn within 30 feet of the holy symbol when it flares must make a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, a target is paralyzed for 1 minute. It can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns to end the effect on itself. Turn Undead. If you have the-Turn Undead or the Turn the Unholy feature, you can expend 3 charges when you present the holy symbol while using that feature. When you do so, undead have disadvantage on their saving throws against the effect. Sunlight. As an action, you can expend 5 charges while presenting the holy symbol to make it shed bright light in a 30-foot radius and dim light for an additional 30 feet. The light is sunlight and lasts for 10 minutes or until you end the effect (no action required).
ICON OF RAVENLOFT Wondrous item, legendary (requires attunement by a creature of good alignment) While within 30 feet of the icon, a creature is under the effect of a protection from evil and good spell against fiends and undead. Only a creature attuned to the icon can use its other properties. Augury. You can use an action to cast an augury spell from the icon, with no material components required. Once used, this property can't be used again until the next dawn. Bane of the Undead. You can use the icon as a holy symbol while using the Turn Undead or Turn the Unholy feature. If you do so, increase the save DC by 2. Cure Wounds. While holding the icon, you can take an action to heal one creature that you can see within 30 feet of you. The target regains 3d8 + 3 hit points, unless it is an undead, a construct, or a fiend. Once used, this property can't be used again until the next dawn.
SAINT MARKOVIA'S THIGHBONE Weapon (mace), rare (requires attunement) Saint Markovia's thighbone has the properties of a mace of disruption. If it scores one or more hits against a vampire or a vampire spawn in the course of a single battle, the thighbone crumbles into dust once the battle concludes.
Mace of disruption: When you hit a fiend or an undead with this magic weapon, that creature takes an extra 2d6 radiant damage. If the target has 25 hit points or fewer after taking this damage, it must succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or be destroyed. On a successful save, the creature becomes frightened of you until the end of your next turn.
The hilt, which is sentient, knows that it can never be reunited with its original crystal blade. It has, however, gained the properties of a sun blade.
Sun Blade: You gain a +2 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with this weapon, which deals radiant damage instead of slashing damage. When you hit an undead with it, that target takes an extra 1d8 radiant damage.
The sword's luminous blade emits bright light in a 15-foot radius and dim light for an additional 15 feet. The light is sunlight. While the blade persists, you can use an action to expand or reduce its radius of bright and dim light by 5 feet each, to a maximum of 30 feet each or a minimum of 10 feet each.
Strahd would not stick around and face a stand up fight if he didn't think he would win. So, the challenge for the DM when the time comes is to create a fight where the players will likely win but where Strahd would believe he would have the upper hand. In the game I ran, Strahd had some help from additional vampires and a vampire mage as well as a few of the Yesterhill druids that cast fog cloud and silence over the regions occupied by the party. The fog cloud blocked the sunlight effects. Silence helped to shut down the party spell casters, especially using dispel magic to get rid of the fog cloud. The disadvantage caused by the sunlight and protection from evil and good was canceled by the fact that no one could see each other so all sources of advantage and disadvantage were canceled. The vampires gave up the use of spells targeting a creature they could see but the same limitation was imposed on the party. (The party was level 11 - which is easy to reach with the milestones available).
Anyway, without something like fog cloud to mitigate the sunlight and advantage/disadvantage effects of the icon - the final battle is far too easy for the players.
The following at hand to reference quickly will be useful for running sessios in CoS -
Mists of Ravenloft (Page 23) A creature that starts its turn in the fog must make a DC 20 CON Save or gain one level of exhaustion. (PHB Page 291) The exhaustion can’t be removed while in the mists.
Sunlight (Page 24) there isn’t any. It is always overcast or raining if it's not pitch black at night.
Magic Modifications (Page 24)
Barovian Names (Page 25)
Barovian Lore (Page 26) What Barovians know and believe.
Vistani Lore (Page 27) What the Vistani know and believe.
Map of Barovia (Page 35)
Trinket Table (Page 210)
Book Subject Matter Table (Page 66)
Madness Effects (DMG Page 259)
Fear & Horror (DMG Page 266)
I would like to preface the following by stating that this is NOT my original ideas for running CoS - I got these from somewhere a long time ago online.
In terms of running the game, there are lots of little atmospheric things you can do to add to the overall theme and ethos of the adventure -
Skeletal Rider encounter (Page 31) Emerging from the mist the group sees the Skeletal Rider in the distance. Set the mood with this encounter, describe the dark eerie surroundings as the rider moves towards them then past them into the mists.
Another good one is to have a combat encounter, and have the players be able to see Strahd, or at least his shadowy figure, watching them from a cliff or flying off as a bat - Strahd is a master of his domain, and bought the party here so he will be watching their everymood (remember, he is looking for someone to potentially take his place)
Depending how you had the party arrive in Barovia, the following encounter could be useful (this really put my players off the scent of what Strahd's motives were, and upped the anty later) -
Old Svalich Road (Page 33)
After Traveling for an hour on the Old Svalich Road the party encounters 3 Gloamwings, minions gifted to Strahd by the dark powers.
"You hear screeching and the flapping of wings above you. Looking up into the mist you see three large dark shapes moving towards you. Descending down onto the road three large, slender, bat-like creatures touch down with an audible *thud*. The largest of the three is in the middle of the road, flanked by two smaller creatures. The creatures eyes are a crimson red, feeling them upon you chills you to your bones. You hear a low growl as the creatures proceed toward you."
(Highest Passive) You notice the creature on the right has something in its mouth. In the creature's mouth is a basket made of dark wiker.
The creature steps forward bows its head and gently sets the basket on the ground, then backing away. Returning to the others they all stare at you.
The basket is covered with a thick warm blanket. Inside you find six links of smoked sausage, a loaf of dark bread, a bottle of red wine, three vials of a red liquid each stoppered, and a rolled up letter.
The letter reads:
"Dear Friends,I apologize for the confusing nature of your arrival to my lands, some find the transition harder than others. Please accept this gift, as a token of my hospitality, to ease your transition into Barovia. You will find the potions to be particularly potent as I brewed them myself. I look forward to meeting you soon. Continue along the road, through the Barovian Gates, along the River Ivlis, until you come to the Village of Barovia. I will find you there so we can be properly introduced. Do not fear the creatures that brought my gift to you, they have been instructed not to harm you. Merely “Thank” them and they will be on their way. Keep your wits about you for the roads of Barovia are teeming with dangers.
Safe Travels. -S" (A dark seal of a raven, perched atop a shield, with a castle engraved into it, is in the lower right hand corner of the letter)
If you run Death House, this is a more fitting alternative to the above -
Death House (Page 211) Players will be level three by the end of this encounter. After which Rahadin shows up with a box for the party.
Exiting the house you see parked on the road, a large, black, carriage drawn by two jet black draft horses. The horses snort puffs of steamy breath into the chilly air. The side door of the carriage swings open silently. Stepping out of the carriage is a gray skinned elf, with long black hair, dressed in fine, dark, hooded, robes and studded leathers, a scimitar slung at his side. He is carrying a wooden box with a bright red bow affixed to it.
“Compliments of Lord Strahd. He does hope you will forgive him for not being here to deliver this token in person. Your actions have peaked his curiosity and he has found it appropriate to reward you.” He says stepping toward you holding the box out to you. (As he comes within 10ft of the players they hear the screams of the thousands Rahadin has killed. DC 16 Wisdom or take 3d10 Psychic Damage.) Once someone takes the box from him he says “With my orders fulfilled I bid you farewell.” he turns reentering the carriage. Moments later the horses whinny and the Carriage pulls away. (The screams stop as the carriage pulls away)
The boxes contents: On top of the items in the box is is a folded note with the words “Thank You” scrawled on the outside. Under which are 4 Healing Potions, Exotic Fruits (Pears, Bananas, and Grapes), Dried Jerky, a Bottle of Fine Mead, and a Closed Scroll Case (Containing the Deed to the House, bearing Strahd’s Crest, in the lower right hand corner)
The Note Reads: Dear Friends, I apologize for being unable to congratulate you in person. Thank you for cleansing these vermin from my domain. Your efforts are appreciated, and I do apologize for any friends you may have lost inside. I had grown rather tired of those pests treating me like I was their god and savior, so their demise benefits me greatly. Please accept this gift to aid in your recovery. I have also placed this in motion to have the the remaining spirits cleansed of the house. Once done, the house, and all of its contents will belong to you. Do take care of it as I don’t bestow gifts this large often. Your humble host -S
Always remember the Strahd is constantly toying with the party, testing their limits.
Subtle events that can be called back later is a key aspect of CoS, -
For example having a Wereraven follow them throughout the early adventure is a great way to bring the Keepers of the Feather in early.
One thing my players found interesting when I ran CoS was having him show up in VoB, in a non-hostile encounter, again continues with subverting their expectations of Strahd -
Strahd’s First Appearance: As the hero's sit in the tavern the hear the clopping of hooves, and jingling of chains as a carriage pulls up to the outside of the tavern.
Through one of the windows the character with the highest passive perception sees: A elegant black carriage pulled by two huge black horses pulls up to the front door just out of view. You hear the door to the carriage open then close again.
The Tavern grows silent as the footsteps approach the door stopping just outside. After a few minutes of silence a small bell hanging just above the door rings. The entire tavern sits silently and stares at the door. The wolf's ears go back and she tucks her tail. One of the Vistani stands and makes his way to the door. Opening it ever so slightly the Vistani smiles as he seems to recognize the person on the other side. After a muffled conversation the Vistani bows and gestures for her guest to come in before turning and walking to the bartender. She then returns to his seat. The bartender then walks to the table with a bottle of fine red wine and fine glass goblets.He then begins pouring the wine into the glasses and passing them out the the Party. “Compliments of our Lord”
Unknown the the party the visitor slipped past while they were focused on the bartender pouring wine. “Cheers” a voice behind them says. Turning their heads the hero's see a pale skinned man with dark hair, wearing fine red and black leathers, and a cloak draped over his shoulders. He is also holding a glass goblet filled with red wine. “Welcome to Barovia”. A few of the commoners gasp and hide their faces, cowering in fear. If one of the characters looks into the mirror they do not see the stranger they instead see just a floating glass of red wine.
The stranger introduces himself. “I am Count Strahd von Zarovich, ruler of Barovia. I hope you didn't encounter much trouble along the road. I would like to welcome you all to my realm and I do hope you enjoy your stay.” “For now you are my guests, I would caution you however, these lands are dangerous, only those with great wisdom and courage survive here." He then addresses the party and will answer a few questions, he also addresses Penelope reaching into his cloak and tossing her a bone while apologizing for her masters demise.” “Now I must bid you farewell, I have matters of state to deal with but I will be in touch very soon” Strahd then turns and exits the tavern. Moments later the horses outside whinny and the carriage pulls aways from the tavern and exits the village.
I would 100% recommend doing some of the following -
Make great use of the trinkets, they can really creep out the players when they find them at random times, like walking the road
Some creepy events to have only one character to witness (I think they work best if theres a character who is maybe more "scared" or "weak willed")
(The Great Mirror, Blood of the Vine): Across the back wall of the tavern is a large mirror. One of the characters looks into the mirror and sees that their reflection makes them look significantly older - gray hair, wrinkles, crow’s feet. This character is going to have progressively worse visions throughout the adventure. Nobody else can see it just that character.
Shortly after leaving the Village of Barovia on the way to the River Ivlis Crossroads the hero's come across a corpse. The corpse looks like the character that saw their reflection in the mirror at the Blood of the Vine tavern. Only the character sees that it's them the rest see a Barovian Man
The Hanged One (Page 35): The corpse hanging on the gallows is the same character that has seen their reflection in the mirror and their corpse. Only the character sees that it's them the rest see a Barovian Man.
Hope this helps!
P.S. As others have suggested, do the Tarot card reading ahead of time. Either pre-determine or draw it randomly and adjust if you think nessicary. You can still do the reading at the table for the players for effect, but just read the pre-determined clues.
The first thing I recommend is boosting Strahd. He's supposed to be the final boss but for a group of 10th to 11th level players they can mow through him pretty quickly.
Use the Expanded Dark Gifts from Adventurer's League rules. When someone under 5th level dies the Dark Powers will offer them an immediate (next round) restoration to life as if they had just completed a full rest. This comes with a "gift" which is both boon and bane. (Example: The character's eyes melt, (s)he has disadvantage on Persuasion checks but gains blindsight to 60' and is blind beyond that radius. No need to limit it to just 4th level and below though!
Edit: Be sure to let your players know there will be a secret res option. I had a recruited player who decided to play a Zealot Barbarian and when he saw someone at level 4 get a "free res" he believed that completely cheapened his character's "main ability" of being res'd without a material component. He rage quit the game but had only been there for one session so it didn't really matter to me. But it may to you.
Anyway, without something like fog cloud to mitigate the sunlight and advantage/disadvantage effects of the icon - the final battle is far too easy for the players.
Well, it is unless you use cheap tactics which will wind up being pretty unfun. The key things which, if abused, make Strahd extremely difficult are
Stealth +14
Nondetection
Can walk through walls as a lair action
Can move as a legendary action without drawing opportunity attacks.
Regeneration
What all this means he can ambush the party. Repeatedly. Pop up, surprise round, do a bunch of damage, walk through walls to escape, regenerate, wait a bit, do it again.
If you're planning to try and optimize the atmosphere for your players, don't forget music. I think, in particular, giving Strahd a distinct "theme" that plays when he appears will do a lot to emphasize how important he is. For example, I've downloaded about a dozen variations on the song "Bloody Tears" from Castlevania... it's a popular, thematically appropriate song that has been covered by everything from mariachi bands to giant orchestras. Strahd can appear at any point, and it's a great twist when some seemingly unimportant character stands up and starts laughing and suddenly they hear the ambient music change to Strahd's theme, and before he even says anything they realize he's been there the whole time.
I think the other thing I'd recommend is to make sure that they actually speak with Strahd semi-regularly. This is one of the few adventures that's really built around a single, personality-driven antagonist. Which can be hard to do in D&D... I've found as a DM, once the characters are face-to-face with the enemy, you need to really go out of your way to convince them not to just attack right away or just run away if they know they can't beat them. Strahd has so many illusion or mind control or movement options... he can show up, have a snarky conversation, then just vanish.
His spies have been watching the PCs since they entered the mists. He knows their strengths and weaknesses and typical tactics.
He is also egoistical. He will take opportunities to talk to the PCs in places they can't attack him, taunting the PCs, proving how much smarter than them he is. If you do it right, the players should hate, hate, hate the ***************er.
He will always have two or more escape plans, and will not hestitate to use them. Running away from the PCs and coming back in a weak just means one week longer for Barovia to corrupt the PCs, one week more for him to taunt them and play with them. He is bored and weary - the PCs are novel toys for him, he doesn't want to break them the very first time he plays with them.
In short, he should not be an easy battle.
But... subconsciously he wants to die. This is what gives the characters a chance. He will sabotage his own plans without even realising it.
Anyway, without something like fog cloud to mitigate the sunlight and advantage/disadvantage effects of the icon - the final battle is far too easy for the players.
Well, it is unless you use cheap tactics which will wind up being pretty unfun. The key things which, if abused, make Strahd extremely difficult are
Stealth +14
Nondetection
Can walk through walls as a lair action
Can move as a legendary action without drawing opportunity attacks.
Regeneration
What all this means he can ambush the party. Repeatedly. Pop up, surprise round, do a bunch of damage, walk through walls to escape, regenerate, wait a bit, do it again.
1) I am dubious he would surprise the party more than once. When they become aware of his tricks they will always be watching.
2) The sunlight from the sword, the 30' radius protection from evil, immunity to charm, and other effects don't require any actions from the players. Even with the hit and run tactics he will not be very effective.
3) As you said, these become very unfun tactics for the players. Strahd can be very difficult to pin down and is too smart for a straight up fight unless he has some reason to think he might possibly win. That is pretty much why the final battle in my game was almost entirely in a fog cloud. Disconcerting, limiting, but the only thing I could think of that might level the playing field enough for Strahd to even consider fighting. Magical darkness might achieve the same effect. However, other DMs will come up with other twists :)
1) I am dubious he would surprise the party more than once. When they become aware of his tricks they will always be watching.
2) The sunlight from the sword, the 30' radius protection from evil, immunity to charm, and other effects don't require any actions from the players. Even with the hit and run tactics he will not be very effective.
3) As you said, these become very unfun tactics for the players. Strahd can be very difficult to pin down and is too smart for a straight up fight unless he has some reason to think he might possibly win. That is pretty much why the final battle in my game was almost entirely in a fog cloud. Disconcerting, limiting, but the only thing I could think of that might level the playing field enough for Strahd to even consider fighting. Magical darkness might achieve the same effect. However, other DMs will come up with other twists :)
1) "always watching" doesn't mean stealth fails. It may mean that he doesn't get a surprise round, but he doesn't really need one.
2) None of those effects do anything to a fireball. All sunlight does is give him disadvantage on attack rolls (which he isn't making) and cause him to take damage at start of turn if he's in the sunlight (which he isn't).
That is pretty much why the final battle in my game was almost entirely in a fog cloud. Disconcerting, limiting, but the only thing I could think of that might level the playing field enough for Strahd to even consider fighting. Magical darkness might achieve the same effect. However, other DMs will come up with other twists :)
My players liked fighting in a mixture of magical darkness in the castle (I had all the torches and light sources go out, and made the castle itself be projecting an internal magical darkness), and moved the fight around the castle such as onto the roof and ramparts. Fighting in the fog was also a cool thing they thought, as I had it be a mixture of fog cloud and the Barovian mists, so they had to be careful where they stepped.
1) I am dubious he would surprise the party more than once. When they become aware of his tricks they will always be watching.
2) The sunlight from the sword, the 30' radius protection from evil, immunity to charm, and other effects don't require any actions from the players. Even with the hit and run tactics he will not be very effective.
3) As you said, these become very unfun tactics for the players. Strahd can be very difficult to pin down and is too smart for a straight up fight unless he has some reason to think he might possibly win. That is pretty much why the final battle in my game was almost entirely in a fog cloud. Disconcerting, limiting, but the only thing I could think of that might level the playing field enough for Strahd to even consider fighting. Magical darkness might achieve the same effect. However, other DMs will come up with other twists :)
1) "always watching" doesn't mean stealth fails. It may mean that he doesn't get a surprise round, but he doesn't really need one.
2) None of those effects do anything to a fireball. All sunlight does is give him disadvantage on attack rolls (which he isn't making) and cause him to take damage at start of turn if he's in the sunlight (which he isn't).
Agreed. Strahd could hide, move through a wall, fireball the party, disappear again and repeat until they run out of spell slots. Not much fun as an encounter but Strahd might also win that way.
I appreciate everyone's input, and I welcome more. I've always wanted to run this campaign, and reading your posts just excites me even more. If anyone has tips on products, maps, reference cards, or anything else you made, let me know that too.
There's some good ideas here, I'm also about to run this after my Saltmarsh campaign ends. Those players unanimously voted for Strahd/Ravenloft setting fun.
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Hi, everyone.
I am very excitedly preparing to run Curse of Strahd, and I need your help!
I have DM'd before, but I have never ran anything as deep or as impactful to the history of the game. I'm running the game for three rookie players who have had very limited exposure to actually playing.
It's these reasons, as well as my own desire for perfection, that I want to give this campaign everything I've got. I'm pulling out all the stops; minis, tarokka cards, ambiance, maybe a cloak. LOL.
Anyway...I want to hear from fellow Dungeon Masters about things they've done while running it, or even something you always wanted to do if you ran it. I also want to hear constructive tips that will help me plan and prepare better. I'm looking forward to hearing from you!
Your friend, The Phandalin Philanderer
Strahd strategy:
When fighting the players as Strahd, the general idea is to try and drag the battle on as long as possible, so that you can continue to regenerate any damage taken. Definitely use greater invisibility right away and the majority of your other spell slots lvl 3+ will go towards pounding them with fireballs. Try to avoid melee and if a player does get in melee with you consider charming them, in particular a low wisdom save type like a fighter or barbarian. You want to be strafing and harassing the party but not openly engaging them. Engage them in the dark, between 60-120 ft away so normal dark vision won’t catch you but you can still see them, then quickly reposition.
The rat and bat swarm is good for quickly moving in and ripping to shreds any player that drops after a fireball, but otherwise have them hang back and be conservative with them.
Once you are out of spell slots, move in and bite and claw, going for the squishy characters first. Finally, engage before they get too close to your coffin, so Strahd has a reasonable chance of regenerating before the players find it.
Using these tactics, hopefully you can get the TPK. Good luck.
A couple of suggestions ...
1) The game may be easier for you to run if you rig the Tarokka deck reading. If you draw it randomly then you can end up with NPCs to aid the party that may not have anything to offer. Or you may find that all the artifacts that the party needs to win may be in the castle or other places that might be too dangerous to venture. If the party starts following the directions on the cards too early then depending on what the cards say, they could easily wind up over their heads. CoS is a dangerous place and pretty much a sandbox. Placing one of the artifacts in the castle is fine .. if they are all there it could be a problem.
So, I'd suggest looking over the options from the Tarokka deck and picking what you think might make for a fun game and then stacking the deck so it appears random but isn't. :)
2) Read the module. CoS is one of those where I found that reading it through was very useful. There are a lot of locations. The order in the book is not the order the characters will encounter them. If you don't want to read it all at once then the first parts to read would be in order ... Death House appendix (usually where the game starts), village of Barovia, Vistani camp at the falls with the seer and cards, Bonegrinder mill, Vallaki ...
3) Use foreshadowing, omens and hints to dissuade the party from the really dangerous paths (the ravens can be useful for this) since otherwise a TPK is very easy. The village of Berez at level 5? Likely no one is walking out alive unless the witch is feeling benevolent.
4) I mentioned reading :) ... which is important to understand what exactly is going on. Strahd is the big nasty guy but the party doesn't usually show up in Barovia with a plan to kill him off. They arrive there usually through one of the "hooks" and are clueless to the danger they are in. The party usually wants to leave and finds out they can't. The mists won't let them.
Here are some things to keep in mind ...
- Strahd is bored. He wants to leave and the only faint hope he has is that some adventurer shows up that is worthy of the role or ruler but Strahd inherently doesn't think anyone can possibly be worthy.
- The demiplane is a reflection of Strahd's mind. His subconscious perhaps. He can force the landscape to change just by thinking about it but doesn't just because he isn't really aware of it. (check out the backstory of the village of Berez).
- most of the people in the demiplane (which is also called Barovia - the same name as the village - which can make it confusing) are shadows or figments of his subconscious. They do not have souls. About 1 in 10 have souls and those souls are generally trapped in Barovia to endlessly reincarnate. Strahd can only feed from the villagers who have souls.
- Strahd is testing the party. He scares them. He puts threats up against them. If they fall then they obviously weren't worthy. He might attack them himself at some point just to show them how weak and useless they are. He won't directly try to kill them until the predicted final confrontation from the card reading (that is the point of the card reading since it sets up the fateful "final" encounter).
- Strahd is smart and confident, not stupid. A party that is equipped with and can use the artifacts that can be found in Barovia will defeat the standard Strahd stat block in 1 to 3 rounds with ease as written. The magic items prevent regeneration, make undead attack with disadvantage, can protect against possession and many of the other tricks. A pretty low level party might be able to defeat Strahd with the various anti-vampire/undead magic items that are available in the realm. However, without those items, Strahd can be pretty challenging.
So you may have to adjust the final encounter by adding allies for Strahd or possibly modifying Strahd himself. At the Amber temple, Strahd has access to every spell in the PHB. If needed, you could have Strahd change out his spells or even increase his spell casting ability as he tries to figure out a strategy to ultimately defeat the party. This is what Strahd lives for, the occasional challenge of wiping out upstart adventurers that enter his realm. He has been here centuries so anything that can motivate him to do anything is welcomed. They are of course unworthy and prove that by their ultimate defeat. Strahd likely doesn't believe he can be killed.
5) CoS is a "horror" setting and plays into several of these tropes.
The vistani appear to be a vague reference to real world group and uses racist stereotypes ... vampires, werewolves, madness, several Grimms fairy tale themes including cookies made from ground up children, or children forced to fight to the death with the survivor forced to join the werewolf pack, an insane asylum populated by creatures with random combinations of human and animal parts lead by an insane fallen angel, a priest with their son turned into a vampire spawn who is now locked up in the basement of the priest's church while he tries to figure out what to do, a fisherman throwing a child in a sack into a lake as an offering to the fish gods for better fishing, there are only a few genuinely nice NPCs out there ... there are lots more similar "horror" moments ... so it might be worth checking with your players if they are ok with the general themes and moderate the events they might be uncomfortable with as required.
6) CoS is one of the better self-contained adventures which can be fun to play and presents a certain theme and vibe but beware it might not be for everyone.
Just a quick comment ... but the suggested tactics really don't work for a party that has collected the various magic items in the module.
The magic items available in CoS make most of the tactics described not work. I'd strongly recommend a good aligned cleric or paladin as a member of the party so that someone can make use of the Holy Symbol and Icon.
The permanent effects that come from these include.
- Protection from Evil and Good 30' radius - "The protection grants several benefits. Creatures of those types have disadvantage on attack rolls against the target. The target also can't be charmed, frightened, or possessed by them." - the creature types include Undead like Strahd so the icon gives Strahd disadvantage on all attacks and prevents charmed, frightened and possessed which shuts down a lot of the vampire secondary attacks.
- the Sunsword can create a 60' diameter region of Sunlight which really harms Strahd and other vampires.
Sunlight Hypersensitivity. While in sunlight, Strahd takes 20 radiant damage at the start of his turn, and he has disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks.
- Radiant damage prevents Strahd from regenerating - as does sunlight - both the Sunsword and the Thighbone will do radiant damage (in addition to whatever cleric spells might be out there like Spirit Guardians).
- the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind can expend 1 charge to paralyse all vampires within 30' for 1 minute (new save every round). It can also be used to produce sunlight
Item details:
HOLY SYMBOL OF RAVENKIND
Wondrous item, legendary (requires attunement by a cleric or paladin of good alignment)
The holy symbol has 10 charges for the following properties. It regains ld6 + 4 charges daily at dawn.
Hold Vampires. As an action, you can expend 1 charge and present the holy symbol to make it flare with holy power. Vampires and vampire spawn within 30 feet of the holy symbol when it flares must make a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, a target is paralyzed for 1 minute. It can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns to end the effect on itself.
Turn Undead. If you have the-Turn Undead or the Turn the Unholy feature, you can expend 3 charges when you present the holy symbol while using that feature. When you do so, undead have disadvantage on their saving throws against the effect.
Sunlight. As an action, you can expend 5 charges while presenting the holy symbol to make it shed bright light in a 30-foot radius and dim light for an additional 30 feet. The light is sunlight and lasts for 10 minutes or until you end the effect (no action required).
ICON OF RAVENLOFT
Wondrous item, legendary (requires attunement by a creature of good alignment)
While within 30 feet of the icon, a creature is under the effect of a protection from evil and good spell against fiends and undead. Only a creature attuned to the icon can use its other properties.
Augury. You can use an action to cast an augury spell from the icon, with no material components required. Once used, this property can't be used again until the next dawn.
Bane of the Undead. You can use the icon as a holy symbol while using the Turn Undead or Turn the Unholy feature. If you do so, increase the save DC by 2.
Cure Wounds. While holding the icon, you can take an action to heal one creature that you can see within 30 feet of you. The target regains 3d8 + 3 hit points, unless it is an undead, a construct, or a fiend. Once used, this property can't be used again until the next dawn.
SAINT MARKOVIA'S THIGHBONE
Weapon (mace), rare (requires attunement)
Saint Markovia's thighbone has the properties of a mace of disruption. If it scores one or more hits against a vampire or a vampire spawn in the course of a single battle, the thighbone crumbles into dust once the battle concludes.
Mace of disruption: When you hit a fiend or an undead with this magic weapon, that creature takes an extra 2d6![]()
radiant damage. If the target has 25 hit points or fewer after taking this damage, it must succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or be destroyed. On a successful save, the creature becomes frightened of you until the end of your next turn.
SUNSWORD
Weapon (longsword), legendary (requires attunement)
The hilt, which is sentient, knows that it can never be reunited with its original crystal blade. It has, however, gained the properties of a sun blade.
Sun Blade: You gain a +2 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with this weapon, which deals radiant damage instead of slashing damage. When you hit an undead with it, that target takes an extra 1d8 radiant damage.
The sword's luminous blade emits bright light in a 15-foot radius and dim light for an additional 15 feet. The light is sunlight. While the blade persists, you can use an action to expand or reduce its radius of bright and dim light by 5 feet each, to a maximum of 30 feet each or a minimum of 10 feet each.
Strahd would not stick around and face a stand up fight if he didn't think he would win. So, the challenge for the DM when the time comes is to create a fight where the players will likely win but where Strahd would believe he would have the upper hand. In the game I ran, Strahd had some help from additional vampires and a vampire mage as well as a few of the Yesterhill druids that cast fog cloud and silence over the regions occupied by the party. The fog cloud blocked the sunlight effects. Silence helped to shut down the party spell casters, especially using dispel magic to get rid of the fog cloud. The disadvantage caused by the sunlight and protection from evil and good was canceled by the fact that no one could see each other so all sources of advantage and disadvantage were canceled. The vampires gave up the use of spells targeting a creature they could see but the same limitation was imposed on the party. (The party was level 11 - which is easy to reach with the milestones available).
Anyway, without something like fog cloud to mitigate the sunlight and advantage/disadvantage effects of the icon - the final battle is far too easy for the players.
The following at hand to reference quickly will be useful for running sessios in CoS -
Mists of Ravenloft (Page 23) A creature that starts its turn in the fog must make a DC 20 CON Save or gain one level of exhaustion. (PHB Page 291) The exhaustion can’t be removed while in the mists.
Sunlight (Page 24) there isn’t any. It is always overcast or raining if it's not pitch black at night.
Magic Modifications (Page 24)
Barovian Names (Page 25)
Barovian Lore (Page 26) What Barovians know and believe.
Vistani Lore (Page 27) What the Vistani know and believe.
Map of Barovia (Page 35)
Trinket Table (Page 210)
Book Subject Matter Table (Page 66)
Madness Effects (DMG Page 259)
Fear & Horror (DMG Page 266)
I would like to preface the following by stating that this is NOT my original ideas for running CoS - I got these from somewhere a long time ago online.
In terms of running the game, there are lots of little atmospheric things you can do to add to the overall theme and ethos of the adventure -
Skeletal Rider encounter (Page 31) Emerging from the mist the group sees the Skeletal Rider in the distance. Set the mood with this encounter, describe the dark eerie surroundings as the rider moves towards them then past them into the mists.
Another good one is to have a combat encounter, and have the players be able to see Strahd, or at least his shadowy figure, watching them from a cliff or flying off as a bat - Strahd is a master of his domain, and bought the party here so he will be watching their everymood (remember, he is looking for someone to potentially take his place)
Depending how you had the party arrive in Barovia, the following encounter could be useful (this really put my players off the scent of what Strahd's motives were, and upped the anty later) -
Old Svalich Road (Page 33)
After Traveling for an hour on the Old Svalich Road the party encounters 3 Gloamwings, minions gifted to Strahd by the dark powers.
"You hear screeching and the flapping of wings above you. Looking up into the mist you see three large dark shapes moving towards you. Descending down onto the road three large, slender, bat-like creatures touch down with an audible *thud*. The largest of the three is in the middle of the road, flanked by two smaller creatures. The creatures eyes are a crimson red, feeling them upon you chills you to your bones. You hear a low growl as the creatures proceed toward you."
"Dear Friends, I apologize for the confusing nature of your arrival to my lands, some find the transition harder than others. Please accept this gift, as a token of my hospitality, to ease your transition into Barovia. You will find the potions to be particularly potent as I brewed them myself. I look forward to meeting you soon. Continue along the road, through the Barovian Gates, along the River Ivlis, until you come to the Village of Barovia. I will find you there so we can be properly introduced. Do not fear the creatures that brought my gift to you, they have been instructed not to harm you. Merely “Thank” them and they will be on their way. Keep your wits about you for the roads of Barovia are teeming with dangers.
Safe Travels. -S" (A dark seal of a raven, perched atop a shield, with a castle engraved into it, is in the lower right hand corner of the letter)
If you run Death House, this is a more fitting alternative to the above -
Death House (Page 211) Players will be level three by the end of this encounter. After which Rahadin shows up with a box for the party.
Always remember the Strahd is constantly toying with the party, testing their limits.
Subtle events that can be called back later is a key aspect of CoS, -
For example having a Wereraven follow them throughout the early adventure is a great way to bring the Keepers of the Feather in early.
One thing my players found interesting when I ran CoS was having him show up in VoB, in a non-hostile encounter, again continues with subverting their expectations of Strahd -
“For now you are my guests, I would caution you however, these lands are dangerous, only those with great wisdom and courage survive here."
He then addresses the party and will answer a few questions, he also addresses Penelope reaching into his cloak and tossing her a bone while apologizing for her masters demise.”
“Now I must bid you farewell, I have matters of state to deal with but I will be in touch very soon”
Strahd then turns and exits the tavern. Moments later the horses outside whinny and the carriage pulls aways from the tavern and exits the village.
I would 100% recommend doing some of the following -
Make great use of the trinkets, they can really creep out the players when they find them at random times, like walking the road
Some creepy events to have only one character to witness (I think they work best if theres a character who is maybe more "scared" or "weak willed")
Hope this helps!
P.S. As others have suggested, do the Tarot card reading ahead of time. Either pre-determine or draw it randomly and adjust if you think nessicary. You can still do the reading at the table for the players for effect, but just read the pre-determined clues.
The first thing I recommend is boosting Strahd. He's supposed to be the final boss but for a group of 10th to 11th level players they can mow through him pretty quickly.
Use the Expanded Dark Gifts from Adventurer's League rules. When someone under 5th level dies the Dark Powers will offer them an immediate (next round) restoration to life as if they had just completed a full rest. This comes with a "gift" which is both boon and bane. (Example: The character's eyes melt, (s)he has disadvantage on Persuasion checks but gains blindsight to 60' and is blind beyond that radius. No need to limit it to just 4th level and below though!
Edit: Be sure to let your players know there will be a secret res option. I had a recruited player who decided to play a Zealot Barbarian and when he saw someone at level 4 get a "free res" he believed that completely cheapened his character's "main ability" of being res'd without a material component. He rage quit the game but had only been there for one session so it didn't really matter to me. But it may to you.
Well, it is unless you use cheap tactics which will wind up being pretty unfun. The key things which, if abused, make Strahd extremely difficult are
What all this means he can ambush the party. Repeatedly. Pop up, surprise round, do a bunch of damage, walk through walls to escape, regenerate, wait a bit, do it again.
If you're planning to try and optimize the atmosphere for your players, don't forget music. I think, in particular, giving Strahd a distinct "theme" that plays when he appears will do a lot to emphasize how important he is. For example, I've downloaded about a dozen variations on the song "Bloody Tears" from Castlevania... it's a popular, thematically appropriate song that has been covered by everything from mariachi bands to giant orchestras. Strahd can appear at any point, and it's a great twist when some seemingly unimportant character stands up and starts laughing and suddenly they hear the ambient music change to Strahd's theme, and before he even says anything they realize he's been there the whole time.
I think the other thing I'd recommend is to make sure that they actually speak with Strahd semi-regularly. This is one of the few adventures that's really built around a single, personality-driven antagonist. Which can be hard to do in D&D... I've found as a DM, once the characters are face-to-face with the enemy, you need to really go out of your way to convince them not to just attack right away or just run away if they know they can't beat them. Strahd has so many illusion or mind control or movement options... he can show up, have a snarky conversation, then just vanish.
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Strahd is a genius.
His spies have been watching the PCs since they entered the mists. He knows their strengths and weaknesses and typical tactics.
He is also egoistical. He will take opportunities to talk to the PCs in places they can't attack him, taunting the PCs, proving how much smarter than them he is. If you do it right, the players should hate, hate, hate the ***************er.
He will always have two or more escape plans, and will not hestitate to use them. Running away from the PCs and coming back in a weak just means one week longer for Barovia to corrupt the PCs, one week more for him to taunt them and play with them. He is bored and weary - the PCs are novel toys for him, he doesn't want to break them the very first time he plays with them.
In short, he should not be an easy battle.
But... subconsciously he wants to die. This is what gives the characters a chance. He will sabotage his own plans without even realising it.
1) I am dubious he would surprise the party more than once. When they become aware of his tricks they will always be watching.
2) The sunlight from the sword, the 30' radius protection from evil, immunity to charm, and other effects don't require any actions from the players. Even with the hit and run tactics he will not be very effective.
3) As you said, these become very unfun tactics for the players. Strahd can be very difficult to pin down and is too smart for a straight up fight unless he has some reason to think he might possibly win. That is pretty much why the final battle in my game was almost entirely in a fog cloud. Disconcerting, limiting, but the only thing I could think of that might level the playing field enough for Strahd to even consider fighting. Magical darkness might achieve the same effect. However, other DMs will come up with other twists :)
1) "always watching" doesn't mean stealth fails. It may mean that he doesn't get a surprise round, but he doesn't really need one.
2) None of those effects do anything to a fireball. All sunlight does is give him disadvantage on attack rolls (which he isn't making) and cause him to take damage at start of turn if he's in the sunlight (which he isn't).
My players liked fighting in a mixture of magical darkness in the castle (I had all the torches and light sources go out, and made the castle itself be projecting an internal magical darkness), and moved the fight around the castle such as onto the roof and ramparts. Fighting in the fog was also a cool thing they thought, as I had it be a mixture of fog cloud and the Barovian mists, so they had to be careful where they stepped.
Agreed. Strahd could hide, move through a wall, fireball the party, disappear again and repeat until they run out of spell slots. Not much fun as an encounter but Strahd might also win that way.
I appreciate everyone's input, and I welcome more. I've always wanted to run this campaign, and reading your posts just excites me even more. If anyone has tips on products, maps, reference cards, or anything else you made, let me know that too.
There's some good ideas here, I'm also about to run this after my Saltmarsh campaign ends. Those players unanimously voted for Strahd/Ravenloft setting fun.