This is my first time running the Curse of Strahd campaign, my PCs are enjoying it so far (we just finished up death house), but I need to make a decision about Madam Eva's card reading since they should be visiting the Tser Pool encampment soon. So I was wondering, what are the pros/cons of each of the Strad's Enemy options? I know I could just leave it up to chance or whatever, but I would like to know if I should probably pick one or two as my top choices. Also, I would appreciate any tips on what locations make the most sense for each of Strahd's treasures.
For my experience, I have played it with Ezmerelda as an ally, and I found that was mostly necessary for that group because not all the players were reliable. Any of the major NPCs is going to do that. They will support if things are unstable, but may pull focus from the party if the party knows what they're doing.
As a DM, I redrew that card three times, ultimately settling on Ireena Kolyana over Zuleika Toranescu and Davian Martikov. The challenge with the latter two is that my group has no real moral center, and so I'm pretty certain I would have to deal with voluntary lycanthropy if I went that way. I also happen to think that Wizard of Wines is one of the easier chapters in the book.
Ireena has the benefit of having a lot of flexibility. She does not have stats, so she can be as weak or as strong as I need her to be. I can also decide from a story standpoint whether I want her to been a helpless damsel or an equal, as fits my players. Lastly, she has one of the most interesting and weird alternative endings, where she walks into the pool in Krezk per the Something Blue entry.
Thank you so much for the advice! What I ended up doing was choosing my top 2 or 3 allies and then making the card reading vague enough that it could be either one of them. I am also probably going to have multiple NPCs end up joining the party and helping out, but the enemy foretold in the card reading will probably be either the Mad Mage, or Victor Valakovich.
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Hi, I am Catslug.
This is my first time running the Curse of Strahd campaign, my PCs are enjoying it so far (we just finished up death house), but I need to make a decision about Madam Eva's card reading since they should be visiting the Tser Pool encampment soon. So I was wondering, what are the pros/cons of each of the Strad's Enemy options? I know I could just leave it up to chance or whatever, but I would like to know if I should probably pick one or two as my top choices. Also, I would appreciate any tips on what locations make the most sense for each of Strahd's treasures.
Here's an interesting starting point: https://www.reddit.com/r/dndnext/comments/8l1moa/looking_for_advice_on_the_enemy_in_curse_of/
For my experience, I have played it with Ezmerelda as an ally, and I found that was mostly necessary for that group because not all the players were reliable. Any of the major NPCs is going to do that. They will support if things are unstable, but may pull focus from the party if the party knows what they're doing.
As a DM, I redrew that card three times, ultimately settling on Ireena Kolyana over Zuleika Toranescu and Davian Martikov. The challenge with the latter two is that my group has no real moral center, and so I'm pretty certain I would have to deal with voluntary lycanthropy if I went that way. I also happen to think that Wizard of Wines is one of the easier chapters in the book.
Ireena has the benefit of having a lot of flexibility. She does not have stats, so she can be as weak or as strong as I need her to be. I can also decide from a story standpoint whether I want her to been a helpless damsel or an equal, as fits my players. Lastly, she has one of the most interesting and weird alternative endings, where she walks into the pool in Krezk per the Something Blue entry.
Thank you so much for the advice! What I ended up doing was choosing my top 2 or 3 allies and then making the card reading vague enough that it could be either one of them. I am also probably going to have multiple NPCs end up joining the party and helping out, but the enemy foretold in the card reading will probably be either the Mad Mage, or Victor Valakovich.