I have just started playing DnD and I'm interested in playing Curse of Strahd, and I'm curious to know which character class like fighter, sorcerer, wizard, etc. is good against fighting Strahd von Zarovich ? Can a Fighter stand a chance against fighting Strahd or will Strahd just destroy the Fighter ?
I have just started playing DnD and I'm interested in playing Curse of Strahd, and I'm curious to know which character class like fighter, sorcerer, wizard, etc. is good against fighting Strahd von Zarovich ? Can a Fighter stand a chance against fighting Strahd or will Strahd just destroy the Fighter ?
It's bad form to ask this question. Play what you want to play and trust your DM to make the game fun to play for your class.
sorry didn't mean to offend, just curious if I would stand a chance against Strahd, but the way you put it I may not really have anything to fear from Strahd then, it's more the DM I should fear on how they are going to use Strahd to kill my character right ?
DnD can be played a ton of different ways. I have a feeling based on your question and your newness to the game that you're looking at it like you would a typical video game: here's this vampire boss at the end of the campaign. That's a valid way to play, and so long as your group is all on the same page, by all means continue to ask the question.
What quindraco meant by 'bad form', I think, is that generally people think of DnD (specifically in Curse of Strahd) as less about "making a character that can kill the boss" and more about making something fun for all pillars of play - Combat, Exploration, and Roleplaying. If your party wants to focus on combat and that's what you enjoy, you can leave the other two pillars behind; it's just one more way to play the game.
To answer your question, and echo what was said before me: any character or class could theoretically stand up to Strahd. Thematically, either a holy/gods associated character would 'fit' better, but playing a character you want to play should be first and foremost. If your DM is worth their salt, they'll find a satisfying way to resolve an encounter with Strahd, one way or another.
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I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?
Without getting into too much Meta info, Strahd is an Undead Vampire, so any class or character that is built to take on those particular threats has a higher than average chance against him, but at the same time... Strahd is designed in such a way that he's not particularly weak to any one class. More important is party composition and dealing with his tactics than any one specific class.
For the purposes of the adventure, being a Paladin or Cleric will help against the high number of Undead faced in the journey. You could also play as a Ranger and take Undead as your Favored Foe, which gives you a lot of advantages in dealing with Undead.
The important thing to understand is that, generally, D&D is not about you versus the DM, or you versus the monsters/villains. D&D is, at its core, collaborative storytelling. What that means specifically varies from table to table, for every player and every DM, but the point is to have fun along the way.
My advice is not to get too attached to your characters--not because they're liable to die (from my experience it's actually kind of hard to die in 5e), but because dying is not really a bad thing in D&D to begin with. Death is really an opportunity--a chance to create a tragic or otherwise dramatic and impactful moment in the story. It's your chance to go out in a blaze of glory, or to give the other party members new vengeful motivations... and then you make a new character, which is itself an opportunity to introduce new elements to the story and to take it in new directions that it might not have otherwise.
I see so mainly DnD is about storytelling not so much like a typical fighting game, but can any class of character really hold their own against Strahd like say a Fighter Battle Master or a Fighter Psi Warrior or even a Fighter Champion ? Because I have learned that DnD is a team game and I don't want my character to be a weak link to the team
I see so mainly DnD is about storytelling not so much like a typical fighting game, but can any class of character really hold their own against Strahd like say a Fighter Battle Master or a Fighter Psi Warrior or even a Fighter Champion ? Because I have learned that DnD is a team game and I don't want my character to be a weak link to the team
Those are all good choices, and none of them are particularly weak against Strahd. If you were to play as any of those fighter types you would be able to contribute to battle against Strahd... or anything else, really. I will say that Champion is probably the weakest of the three... it's not a bad subclass by any honest measure, but it doesn't give you as many tactical options as the other two subclasses.
I see so mainly DnD is about storytelling not so much like a typical fighting game, but can any class of character really hold their own against Strahd like say a Fighter Battle Master or a Fighter Psi Warrior or even a Fighter Champion ? Because I have learned that DnD is a team game and I don't want my character to be a weak link to the team
Depends on what you have in mind. What I meant when I said it was bad form was that you were asking about Strahd, specifically, but you should not know in-character that Strahd even exists, let alone that he's in your campaign, let alone that you expect to fight him.
It's not bad form to ask generic questions about what a class, subclass, or other feature is good at. Just stick to questions you have a valid basis for asking. For example, for all possible goals, Champion is a bad subclass of Fighter - there is always a better subclass, whatever you have in mind. Because we can have that conversation without Strahd being relevant, it's a reasonable conversation to have.
However, avoiding being the "weak link" is a very nuanced question. Do you want to deal a lot of damage per round? That leads to different build choices than if you wanted to support your allies with buffing abilities, or debuff the enemy, and so on. A Fighter Battle Master is very good and so is a Shepherd Druid, but their talents are a far cry from identical.
To save you the trouble, I will pick a subclass from each class for you, so you can avoid worrying about picking a "bad" subclass for the class you want to play. This list won't have any traps in it, so play what you feel like would be fun.
Thank you this will be very helpful, and thank you for confirming that no subclass or class would be weak against Strahd, now I can play confidently
Do you have a race picked? Like class, you can go with what you like but there are a few options that are uniquely capable in the setting if you're interested.
Without spoiling any specifics for the campaign:
Elves and Reborn don't sleep, so you can have someone always on watch. (Useful for a gothic horror setting)
Changelings, Centaurs, Fairys, and Satyrs are Fey, and a lot of spells/magical abilities only affect Humanoids. (Useful in general, though there are some spells that specifically affect Fey, so it is a tradeoff)
Hello,
I have just started playing DnD and I'm interested in playing Curse of Strahd, and I'm curious to know which character class like fighter, sorcerer, wizard, etc. is good against fighting Strahd von Zarovich ? Can a Fighter stand a chance against fighting Strahd or will Strahd just destroy the Fighter ?
It's bad form to ask this question. Play what you want to play and trust your DM to make the game fun to play for your class.
sorry didn't mean to offend, just curious if I would stand a chance against Strahd, but the way you put it I may not really have anything to fear from Strahd then, it's more the DM I should fear on how they are going to use Strahd to kill my character right ?
DnD can be played a ton of different ways. I have a feeling based on your question and your newness to the game that you're looking at it like you would a typical video game: here's this vampire boss at the end of the campaign. That's a valid way to play, and so long as your group is all on the same page, by all means continue to ask the question.
What quindraco meant by 'bad form', I think, is that generally people think of DnD (specifically in Curse of Strahd) as less about "making a character that can kill the boss" and more about making something fun for all pillars of play - Combat, Exploration, and Roleplaying. If your party wants to focus on combat and that's what you enjoy, you can leave the other two pillars behind; it's just one more way to play the game.
To answer your question, and echo what was said before me: any character or class could theoretically stand up to Strahd. Thematically, either a holy/gods associated character would 'fit' better, but playing a character you want to play should be first and foremost. If your DM is worth their salt, they'll find a satisfying way to resolve an encounter with Strahd, one way or another.
I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?
Without getting into too much Meta info, Strahd is an Undead Vampire, so any class or character that is built to take on those particular threats has a higher than average chance against him, but at the same time... Strahd is designed in such a way that he's not particularly weak to any one class. More important is party composition and dealing with his tactics than any one specific class.
For the purposes of the adventure, being a Paladin or Cleric will help against the high number of Undead faced in the journey. You could also play as a Ranger and take Undead as your Favored Foe, which gives you a lot of advantages in dealing with Undead.
Watch Crits for Breakfast, an adults-only RP-Heavy Roll20 Livestream at twitch.tv/afterdisbooty
And now you too can play with the amazing art and assets we use in Roll20 for our campaign at Hazel's Emporium
The important thing to understand is that, generally, D&D is not about you versus the DM, or you versus the monsters/villains. D&D is, at its core, collaborative storytelling. What that means specifically varies from table to table, for every player and every DM, but the point is to have fun along the way.
My advice is not to get too attached to your characters--not because they're liable to die (from my experience it's actually kind of hard to die in 5e), but because dying is not really a bad thing in D&D to begin with. Death is really an opportunity--a chance to create a tragic or otherwise dramatic and impactful moment in the story. It's your chance to go out in a blaze of glory, or to give the other party members new vengeful motivations... and then you make a new character, which is itself an opportunity to introduce new elements to the story and to take it in new directions that it might not have otherwise.
I see so mainly DnD is about storytelling not so much like a typical fighting game, but can any class of character really hold their own against Strahd like say a Fighter Battle Master or a Fighter Psi Warrior or even a Fighter Champion ? Because I have learned that DnD is a team game and I don't want my character to be a weak link to the team
Those are all good choices, and none of them are particularly weak against Strahd. If you were to play as any of those fighter types you would be able to contribute to battle against Strahd... or anything else, really. I will say that Champion is probably the weakest of the three... it's not a bad subclass by any honest measure, but it doesn't give you as many tactical options as the other two subclasses.
Watch Crits for Breakfast, an adults-only RP-Heavy Roll20 Livestream at twitch.tv/afterdisbooty
And now you too can play with the amazing art and assets we use in Roll20 for our campaign at Hazel's Emporium
Depends on what you have in mind. What I meant when I said it was bad form was that you were asking about Strahd, specifically, but you should not know in-character that Strahd even exists, let alone that he's in your campaign, let alone that you expect to fight him.
It's not bad form to ask generic questions about what a class, subclass, or other feature is good at. Just stick to questions you have a valid basis for asking. For example, for all possible goals, Champion is a bad subclass of Fighter - there is always a better subclass, whatever you have in mind. Because we can have that conversation without Strahd being relevant, it's a reasonable conversation to have.
However, avoiding being the "weak link" is a very nuanced question. Do you want to deal a lot of damage per round? That leads to different build choices than if you wanted to support your allies with buffing abilities, or debuff the enemy, and so on. A Fighter Battle Master is very good and so is a Shepherd Druid, but their talents are a far cry from identical.
To save you the trouble, I will pick a subclass from each class for you, so you can avoid worrying about picking a "bad" subclass for the class you want to play. This list won't have any traps in it, so play what you feel like would be fun.
Have fun.
Thank you this will be very helpful, and thank you for confirming that no subclass or class would be weak against Strahd, now I can play confidently
Do you have a race picked? Like class, you can go with what you like but there are a few options that are uniquely capable in the setting if you're interested.
Without spoiling any specifics for the campaign:
Elves and Reborn don't sleep, so you can have someone always on watch. (Useful for a gothic horror setting)
Changelings, Centaurs, Fairys, and Satyrs are Fey, and a lot of spells/magical abilities only affect Humanoids. (Useful in general, though there are some spells that specifically affect Fey, so it is a tradeoff)