Take an adventure (such as Curse of Strahd), and build a single character to try and win the entire adventure without a party, but the adventure doesn’t scale to group size. I’m interested to see what kind of unique characters come out of these unusual circumstances, considering that the game expects you to have a party. Remember that because you are solo, all of the xp is getting funneled into one character, so you might be overleveled after the first area or two.
I’m thinking something like a Fiend Warlock or Paladin with a lot of staying power would be pretty useful to have, while Bards are probably… not very useful.
To take Curse of Strahd as an example: It runs from L1-10, and if you assume it's made for a party of four, that same Xp funneled into one character will take it to L17.
TLDR: Changeling, Far Traveler, L8 Devotion Paladin, L1 Hexblade Warlock, L8ish College of Swords Bard
Race: If you get charmed at any point, you're sunk, and a hostile use of Polymorph can take you out of a fight long enough for the odds to be stacked horribly against you. These can both be easily avoided by being the Changeling from Mordenkainen's Monsters of the Multiverse. Their creature type is Fey, and most charm effects require the target to be a Humanoid, making you immune to them. And Polymorph requires a save from an unwilling creature targeted, with shapechangers automatically passing, and Changelings are shapechangers.
Background: Far Traveler, for the Proficiency in Insight and Perception.
Ability scores: Your highest ability score will go in Charisma. You have to put a minimum of 13 in Strength. Your next highest available ability score will go in Constitution, followed by Wisdom. For a standard array, that would be: (13 str, 10 dex, 16 con, 8 int, 12 wis, 16 cha) at L1.
Class L1: Paladin: You have to tough out the poor attack bonus for the first level, but between your chainmail and shield, you're starting with an 18AC, as opposed to the 11 you'd have if you started with the other class. After an encounter, turn into someone else (because you're a Changeling and can do that) and blend in among the town people until you're back to full effectiveness.
Class L2: Hexblade Warlock: You now can use your Charisma for your attack rolls, increasing the attack bonus from +3 to +5, and your damage bonus from +1 to +3. You learn shield which you can use to buff your AC to 23 for a turn with a L1 slot, and you regain a L1 slot on a short rest.
Class L3-9: Devotion Paladin: Your Channel Divinity turns your weapon magical, and adds your Charisma modifier as a bonus on your attack rolls with your weapon, and makes it magic for the purpose of bypassing damage. That means at L3, for a minute per short rest, you can be attacking at a +8 modifier with a mundane weapon, that deals damage as if it were magical. Your fighting style should be Blind Fighting, so your enemies can't frustrate your attempts to fight them by being invisible. L7 you get the Aura of Protection that adds your Charisma modifier as a bonus onto ALL of your saves, and by L9, your Charisma modifier will be +5. You also get access to Divine Smite at L3, which is hugely valuable due to it being Radiant Damage, and the enemy not getting a save to avoid it.
Class L10+: College of Swords Bard: For the other 7ish levels, you're taking a full-caster to maximize the number of spell slots you have for smites, casting Shield, and various healing/utility spells. And by taking the College of Swords, you can add your Bardic Inspiration dice to your damage, since you don't have any allies to spend them on. It also lets you take the Dueling fighting style to add another +2 damage on every hit with your weapon. The ASIs for these levels will be put towards the Tough and Warcaster feats (thanks to ThelonelyMagi for noting that Warcaster is needed to cast Shield while going sword and board)
At L17 (when a party of 4 would be L10) you'd be fighting Strahd, attacking twice with a +18 to-hit modifier, to deal 2d8 (Sunsword vs undead) + 9 Radiant Damage (5 from Charisma, +2 for the Sunsword's modifier, +2 for the Dueling Fighting Style) on a Hit, + your smite damage (ex: +3d8 for a L1 slot vs undead), + 1d8 for the Defensive Flourish. That adds up to 6d8+9Radiant damage per hit, and you have two attacks per turn, on top of the sword emitting an aura of sunlight that will deal additional damage to Vampires. That's an average of 92 damage against Strahd per turn, and the sunlight would prevent him from turning into mist and fleeing. And you'll have an average AC of 27 for Strahd to even hit you. Your worst save will be Intelligence at +5, with your best being Charisma at +16, making you utterly immune to the possession ability of Ghosts. And your hit points will statistically average around 174hp.
It's not perfect, but it has at least as much of a chance of working as anything else I can think of.
To take Curse of Strahd as an example: It runs from L1-10, and if you assume it's made for a party of four, that same Xp funneled into one character will take it to L17.
TLDR: Changeling, Far Traveler, L8 Devotion Paladin, L1 Hexblade Warlock, L8ish College of Swords Bard
Race: If you get charmed at any point, you're sunk, and a hostile use of Polymorph can take you out of a fight long enough for the odds to be stacked horribly against you. These can both be easily avoided by being the Changeling from Mordenkainen's Monsters of the Multiverse. Their creature type is Fey, and most charm effects require the target to be a Humanoid, making you immune to them. And Polymorph requires a save from an unwilling creature targeted, with shapechangers automatically passing, and Changelings are shapechangers.
Background: Far Traveler, for the Proficiency in Insight and Perception.
Ability scores: Your highest ability score will go in Charisma. You have to put a minimum of 13 in Strength. Your next highest available ability score will go in Constitution, followed by Wisdom. For a standard array, that would be: (13 str, 10 dex, 16 con, 8 int, 12 wis, 16 cha) at L1.
Class L1: Paladin: You have to tough out the poor attack bonus for the first level, but between your chainmail and shield, you're starting with an 18AC, as opposed to the 11 you'd have if you started with the other class. After an encounter, turn into someone else (because you're a Changeling and can do that) and blend in among the town people until you're back to full effectiveness.
Class L2: Hexblade Warlock: You now can use your Charisma for your attack rolls, increasing the attack bonus from +3 to +5, and your damage bonus from +1 to +3. You learn shield which you can use to buff your AC to 23 for a turn with a L1 slot, and you regain a L1 slot on a short rest.
Class L3-9: Devotion Paladin: Your Channel Divinity turns your weapon magical, and adds your Charisma modifier as a bonus on your attack rolls with your weapon, and makes it magic for the purpose of bypassing damage. That means at L3, for a minute per short rest, you can be attacking at a +8 modifier with a mundane weapon, that deals damage as if it were magical. Your fighting style should be Blind Fighting, so your enemies can't frustrate your attempts to fight them by being invisible. L7 you get the Aura of Protection that adds your Charisma modifier as a bonus onto ALL of your saves, and by L9, your Charisma modifier will be +5. You also get access to Divine Smite at L3, which is hugely valuable due to it being Radiant Damage, and the enemy not getting a save to avoid it.
Class L10+: College of Swords Bard: For the other 7ish levels, you're taking a full-caster to maximize the number of spell slots you have for smites, casting Shield, and various healing/utility spells. And by taking the College of Swords, you can add your Bardic Inspiration dice to your damage, since you don't have any allies to spend them on. It also lets you take the Dueling fighting style to add another +2 damage on every hit with your weapon. The ASIs for these levels will take your Constitution to 20
At L17 (when a party of 4 would be L10) you'd be fighting Strahd, attacking twice with a +18 to-hit modifier, to deal 2d8 + 7 Radiant Damage on a Hit, + your smite damage that varies depending on the slot, + 1d8 for the Defensive Flourish, and you'll have an average AC of 27 for Strahd to even hit you. Your worst save will be Intelligence at +5, with your best being Charisma at +16, making you utterly immune to the possession ability of Ghosts. And your hit points will statistically average around 174hp.
It's not perfect, but it has at least as much of a chance of working as anything else I can think of.
I'm a little curious how you manage to get an average AC of 27. You are wearing chainmail, that's 16. With a shield and it goes up to 18. Throw in an average of 4.5 for Defensive Flourish and you only have 22.5. Without the Warcaster feat you can't cast the Shield spell while you are going sword and board because the spell does not have a material component.
Perhaps substitute the +4 CON for the Tough and Warcaster feats? You will get the same amount of HP but can cast with your hands full at the cost of -2 to your CON saves.
I'm a little curious how you manage to get an average AC of 27. You are wearing chainmail, that's 16. With a shield and it goes up to 18. Throw in an average of 4.5 for Defensive Flourish and you only have 22.5. Without the Warcaster feat you can't cast the Shield spell while you are going sword and board because the spell does not have a material component.
Perhaps substitute the +4 CON for the Tough and Warcaster feats? You will get the same amount of HP but can cast with your hands full at the cost of -2 to your CON saves.
You are correct. And with the Charisma Modifier being added to all saves, the character still has a +8 on Con Saves by leaving the Constitution at 16. I'll update the comment and credit you for the correction.
You are correct. And with the Charisma Modifier being added to all saves, the character still has a +8 on Con Saves by leaving the Constitution at 16. I'll update the comment and credit you for the correction.
Your build also has the option of putting up Shield of Faith if additional armor is needed so the AC could potentially hit an average of 29.
You are correct. And with the Charisma Modifier being added to all saves, the character still has a +8 on Con Saves by leaving the Constitution at 16. I'll update the comment and credit you for the correction.
Your build also has the option of putting up Shield of Faith if additional armor is needed so the AC could potentially hit an average of 29.
It could, but I believe Protection From Evil and Good would be a better use for Concentration, since a +9 modifier on an attack roll against an AC27 already only hits on an 18+, and a higher AC doesn't affect an enemy's chance to crit, but the enemy having disadvantage on Attack rolls would cut the crit chance from 50/1000 chance to 2.5/1000.
That’s a great analysis. However, I’m a bit worried about the Death House. This challenge is hardest at the lowest levels, and you have a particularly weak level 1. Are you sure you can handle enough of the first area in order to level up? I don’t remember if you’re allowed to rest in that area, its been a few years since I last played Death House.
That’s a great analysis. However, I’m a bit worried about the Death House. This challenge is hardest at the lowest levels, and you have a particularly weak level 1. Are you sure you can handle enough of the first area in order to level up? I don’t remember if you’re allowed to rest in that area, its been a few years since I last played Death House.
My experience with Death House was in Adventure League, and it played more like DCC than D&D, (whoever opens a door or enters a new area gets one-shotted without warning, then the rest of the group defeats the thing and then checks to see if the first character is dead).
In my opinion, Death House is terrible, and should be skipped, especially if it's a lone character trying to survive something that's over-leveled for a full party. I think it's much better to start at L4 or 5 where the actual campaign starts. In fact, I think running Lost Mines of Phandelver first, then having mists take the character into Barovia at L5 would be much more reasonable than Death House.
Very conveniently, I’ve already mapped out a speedrun of Lost Mines that wins in 3 in-game days. The strategy ditches the party in favor of a solo run after the first area, so I know it’s doable, especially if you aren’t skipping all of chapter 3 (and therefore missing out on the xp and magic items) like I did.
I love Fayette Gamer's build. I'll try one of my own that takes a completely different approach.
Edits made in blue
This character is built around never engaging in full on combat where possible, and basically sneaking around, luring enemies out and then destroying them with big critical hits. At max level, it involves getting up really close, putting out abilities the opponent can't see: Hunter's Mark, Blood Curse of the Marked, and then hitting them hard at range before flying away. If you don't kill them in one turn, fly away with Bonus Action Dash, reset and go again.
Our principal weaponry will be either a Shortbow (1-5), and later a longbow (6+), and a Rapier once we have levels in paladin.
Race: Aaracockra, so that you can fly all the time. This enable you to escape from many enemies in Curse of Strahd, or jank combat encounters by flying overhead and shooting them with arrows. But we're also prepping for a single unleashing of massive damage rapier Smites when we really want to.
Stats: Standard Array:
Strength 14
Dexterity 15
Constitution 10
Intelligence 12
Wisdom 8
Charisma 13
Levels 1-5 Assassination Rogue
Your biggest threat to success level 1-2, where your hit points are trash and so first 3 levels are going to go into Rogue. This gives us Sneak Attack, so that we can shoot once and then just fly away, Cunning Action so we can fly behind a tree then Hide for free, or move in, shoot, then dash away again. The whole point is not to tank hits, but simply not get hit at these early levels. At level 3 we are going to bolster this plan with Assasinate: You have advantage on attack rolls against any creature that hasn’t taken a turn in the combat yet. In addition, any hit you score against a creature that is surprised is a critical hit. The goal is to never let the enemy take a turn or hit us in melee. To this end we will then take one more level in Rogue to take the Mobile feat at level 4 so we don't provoke opportunity attacks when we use the rapier and upping our fly speed to 40ft, giving us a movement of 120 feet when we double dash, and then it seems wrong not to go to level 5 for Uncanny Dodge and 3d6 Sneak Attacks.
Levels 6-8 Arcane Archer Fighter
Next up, assuming we make it through that particularly hard low level gauntlet, we do need more survivability but mainly we want Action Surge because Assassinate triggers more than once as long as you're going first, which we almost always would between our stealth, our flying, and our Alert feat. There's no character that doesn't benefit from a 2 level dip into Fighter, and we'll also go to 3rd level to get an archetype because the benefits are too big not to.
We will take the Arcane Archer subclass, along with Archery fighting style. Our arcane shots will be:
Seeking Arrow. We can now scout out an enemy creature, and then shoot it from behind total cover and without line of sight, gaining our Assassinate and sneak attack bonuses every time. When we get this at level 8, our damage should be 1d6 (shortbow) +3d6 (sneak attack) +1d6 (seeking arrow)+dex for 2 x 6d6+dex damage on the attack, with a second Action Surged arrow.
Shadow Arrow. Bonus 2d6 psychic damage and can blind the target.
We have the option of wearing Medium Armor when our hit and run flying tactics won't work, so we carry that around with us, but played correctly we shouldn't ever be attacked because we leave them dead or we're gone.
Level 9-13: Paladin, Oath of Vengeance
There are two Oath options here, Conquest or Vengeance. Vengeance is the better choice, as it gives us Vow of Enmity, which means we can fly within 10 feet, Cunning Action dash back into the sky and still have advantage on all attack rolls for 1 minute so this is the right choice. We also get Hunter's Mark to add to our crazy first turn shenanigans.
At 4th paladin level, we'll take Piercer (+1 Dex, brings us to 18, forgot that first time around) to add even more damage to our critical hits. Sharpshooter is another good option, but our strategy relies on putting out 4 colossal attacks in a single turn of combat. We then go to Paladin 5 to get Extra attack.
Level 14-16: Blood Hunter, Order of the Ghost Hunter
Next we take Blood Hunter, and take Curse of the Marked. This gives us an additional hemocraft die of damage after we mark a creature up as a Bonus action, which as usual we'll try to do while flying or in stealth before combat begins. It's down to the DM whether this would initiate combat, but with Alert we should be fine anyway.
At level 2 we now take Duelling, for when we go in with the rapier later.
We take Rite of the Storm because lightning is less often resisted. We join Order of the Ghostlayer at 3rd level, which gives us Radiant damage on our crimson rites and resistance to Necrotic damage, both great against Strahd when we come to take him down.
Level 17: Divine Soul Sorcerer
We take this for Favored by the Gods: If you fail a saving throw or miss with an attack roll, you can roll 2d4 and add it to the total, possibly changing the outcome. Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a short or long rest. Missing an attack with advantage becomes increasingly unlikely. The only really relevant spell is Bless which we cast before stealthing up.
Level 17: Rogue
We go back to Rogue for Uncanny Dodge, but our survival isn't really about mitigating damage it's all about never getting attacked. Still, there's not all that much else we can get that's comparable in terms of power.
Assuming we're not using Seeking Arrow and instead are just wailing on them: against Undead in Curse of Strahd we can do the following:
Stealth up as close as we can with +10 to stealth checks and cast Hunter's Mark and Vow of Enmity before our enemy knows we're there.
Initiate combat and we need the enemy to be Surprised. I know you can argue "what if they aren't surprised" but the entire point of an Assassinate build is to surprise the enemy so yes, of course that will negate my plan.
2 Attacks: +12+1d4 to hit, with +2d4 additional to hit from Favor of the Gods if it misses, with advantage because we're going first (Assassinate), or because we got a Vow of Enmity on our enemy. Every attack is a guaranteed critical hit until Strahd takes a turn. Each attack deals:
Rapier - 1d8 piercing
Crimson Rite - 3d4 radiant (Blood Curse of the Marked)
Arcane Shot - 1d6
Shadow Arrow - 2d6 psychic (once per turn, but we only need one turn)
Hunter's Mark - 1d6 piercing
Divine Smite, level 2 slot - 4d8 radiant vs. undead, or 3d8 using level 1 slot. We can do 4 of these, after using the spell slot for Hunter's Mark.
Sneak Attack - 3d6
First attack, auto critical hit: 102 damage from 3d4+4d6+6d8+6.
Second attack, auto critical hit: 92 damage from 3d4+1d6+6d8+6, no sneak attack
Action Surge!
Third attack, auto critical hit: 76 damage (level 1 smite, no sneak)
Fourth attack, auto critical hit: 76 damage (level 1 smite, no sneak)
Total average damage output if all Advantage'd attacks hit: 346 damage. Even without a magical weapon, this damage is easily sufficient to drop Strahd in a single turn before he ever knows what's happening.
As soon as the assassination attempt lands, we fly away using Mobile and begin shooting with a longbow, using our arcane archer abilities.
I could do more damage using a battlemaster build instead of arcane archer, but I don't think I'd survive the lower levels if I can't snipe at range and the paladin levels can't kick in until later.
Sorry man but your math is off, the big thing I noticed is you trying to Divine Smite with a bow, that does not work as Divine Smites require a melee weapon.
Can't really rate your build until you fix the numbers from that mistake buddy.
Take an adventure (such as Curse of Strahd), and build a single character to try and win the entire adventure without a party, but the adventure doesn’t scale to group size. I’m interested to see what kind of unique characters come out of these unusual circumstances, considering that the game expects you to have a party. Remember that because you are solo, all of the xp is getting funneled into one character, so you might be overleveled after the first area or two.
I’m thinking something like a Fiend Warlock or Paladin with a lot of staying power would be pretty useful to have, while Bards are probably… not very useful.
To take Curse of Strahd as an example: It runs from L1-10, and if you assume it's made for a party of four, that same Xp funneled into one character will take it to L17.
TLDR: Changeling, Far Traveler, L8 Devotion Paladin, L1 Hexblade Warlock, L8ish College of Swords Bard
Race: If you get charmed at any point, you're sunk, and a hostile use of Polymorph can take you out of a fight long enough for the odds to be stacked horribly against you. These can both be easily avoided by being the Changeling from Mordenkainen's Monsters of the Multiverse. Their creature type is Fey, and most charm effects require the target to be a Humanoid, making you immune to them. And Polymorph requires a save from an unwilling creature targeted, with shapechangers automatically passing, and Changelings are shapechangers.
Background: Far Traveler, for the Proficiency in Insight and Perception.
Ability scores: Your highest ability score will go in Charisma. You have to put a minimum of 13 in Strength. Your next highest available ability score will go in Constitution, followed by Wisdom. For a standard array, that would be: (13 str, 10 dex, 16 con, 8 int, 12 wis, 16 cha) at L1.
Class L1: Paladin: You have to tough out the poor attack bonus for the first level, but between your chainmail and shield, you're starting with an 18AC, as opposed to the 11 you'd have if you started with the other class. After an encounter, turn into someone else (because you're a Changeling and can do that) and blend in among the town people until you're back to full effectiveness.
Class L2: Hexblade Warlock: You now can use your Charisma for your attack rolls, increasing the attack bonus from +3 to +5, and your damage bonus from +1 to +3. You learn shield which you can use to buff your AC to 23 for a turn with a L1 slot, and you regain a L1 slot on a short rest.
Class L3-9: Devotion Paladin: Your Channel Divinity turns your weapon magical, and adds your Charisma modifier as a bonus on your attack rolls with your weapon, and makes it magic for the purpose of bypassing damage. That means at L3, for a minute per short rest, you can be attacking at a +8 modifier with a mundane weapon, that deals damage as if it were magical. Your fighting style should be Blind Fighting, so your enemies can't frustrate your attempts to fight them by being invisible. L7 you get the Aura of Protection that adds your Charisma modifier as a bonus onto ALL of your saves, and by L9, your Charisma modifier will be +5. You also get access to Divine Smite at L3, which is hugely valuable due to it being Radiant Damage, and the enemy not getting a save to avoid it.
Class L10+: College of Swords Bard: For the other 7ish levels, you're taking a full-caster to maximize the number of spell slots you have for smites, casting Shield, and various healing/utility spells. And by taking the College of Swords, you can add your Bardic Inspiration dice to your damage, since you don't have any allies to spend them on. It also lets you take the Dueling fighting style to add another +2 damage on every hit with your weapon. The ASIs for these levels will be put towards the Tough and Warcaster feats (thanks to ThelonelyMagi for noting that Warcaster is needed to cast Shield while going sword and board)
At L17 (when a party of 4 would be L10) you'd be fighting Strahd, attacking twice with a +18 to-hit modifier, to deal 2d8 (Sunsword vs undead) + 9 Radiant Damage (5 from Charisma, +2 for the Sunsword's modifier, +2 for the Dueling Fighting Style) on a Hit, + your smite damage (ex: +3d8 for a L1 slot vs undead), + 1d8 for the Defensive Flourish. That adds up to 6d8+9Radiant damage per hit, and you have two attacks per turn, on top of the sword emitting an aura of sunlight that will deal additional damage to Vampires. That's an average of 92 damage against Strahd per turn, and the sunlight would prevent him from turning into mist and fleeing. And you'll have an average AC of 27 for Strahd to even hit you. Your worst save will be Intelligence at +5, with your best being Charisma at +16, making you utterly immune to the possession ability of Ghosts. And your hit points will statistically average around 174hp.
It's not perfect, but it has at least as much of a chance of working as anything else I can think of.
Edit: corrected damage calculation.
I'm a little curious how you manage to get an average AC of 27. You are wearing chainmail, that's 16. With a shield and it goes up to 18. Throw in an average of 4.5 for Defensive Flourish and you only have 22.5. Without the Warcaster feat you can't cast the Shield spell while you are going sword and board because the spell does not have a material component.
Perhaps substitute the +4 CON for the Tough and Warcaster feats? You will get the same amount of HP but can cast with your hands full at the cost of -2 to your CON saves.
You are correct. And with the Charisma Modifier being added to all saves, the character still has a +8 on Con Saves by leaving the Constitution at 16. I'll update the comment and credit you for the correction.
Your build also has the option of putting up Shield of Faith if additional armor is needed so the AC could potentially hit an average of 29.
It could, but I believe Protection From Evil and Good would be a better use for Concentration, since a +9 modifier on an attack roll against an AC27 already only hits on an 18+, and a higher AC doesn't affect an enemy's chance to crit, but the enemy having disadvantage on Attack rolls would cut the crit chance from 50/1000 chance to 2.5/1000.
That’s a great analysis. However, I’m a bit worried about the Death House. This challenge is hardest at the lowest levels, and you have a particularly weak level 1. Are you sure you can handle enough of the first area in order to level up? I don’t remember if you’re allowed to rest in that area, its been a few years since I last played Death House.
My experience with Death House was in Adventure League, and it played more like DCC than D&D, (whoever opens a door or enters a new area gets one-shotted without warning, then the rest of the group defeats the thing and then checks to see if the first character is dead).
In my opinion, Death House is terrible, and should be skipped, especially if it's a lone character trying to survive something that's over-leveled for a full party. I think it's much better to start at L4 or 5 where the actual campaign starts. In fact, I think running Lost Mines of Phandelver first, then having mists take the character into Barovia at L5 would be much more reasonable than Death House.
Very conveniently, I’ve already mapped out a speedrun of Lost Mines that wins in 3 in-game days. The strategy ditches the party in favor of a solo run after the first area, so I know it’s doable, especially if you aren’t skipping all of chapter 3 (and therefore missing out on the xp and magic items) like I did.
I love Fayette Gamer's build. I'll try one of my own that takes a completely different approach.
Edits made in blue
This character is built around never engaging in full on combat where possible, and basically sneaking around, luring enemies out and then destroying them with big critical hits. At max level, it involves getting up really close, putting out abilities the opponent can't see: Hunter's Mark, Blood Curse of the Marked, and then hitting them hard at range before flying away. If you don't kill them in one turn, fly away with Bonus Action Dash, reset and go again.
Our principal weaponry will be either a Shortbow (1-5), and later a longbow (6+), and a Rapier once we have levels in paladin.
Race: Aaracockra, so that you can fly all the time. This enable you to escape from many enemies in Curse of Strahd, or jank combat encounters by flying overhead and shooting them with arrows. But we're also prepping for a single unleashing of massive damage rapier Smites when we really want to.
Stats: Standard Array:
Levels 1-5 Assassination Rogue
Your biggest threat to success level 1-2, where your hit points are trash and so first 3 levels are going to go into Rogue. This gives us Sneak Attack, so that we can shoot once and then just fly away, Cunning Action so we can fly behind a tree then Hide for free, or move in, shoot, then dash away again. The whole point is not to tank hits, but simply not get hit at these early levels. At level 3 we are going to bolster this plan with Assasinate: You have advantage on attack rolls against any creature that hasn’t taken a turn in the combat yet. In addition, any hit you score against a creature that is surprised is a critical hit. The goal is to never let the enemy take a turn or hit us in melee. To this end we will then take one more level in Rogue to take the Mobile feat at level 4 so we don't provoke opportunity attacks when we use the rapier and upping our fly speed to 40ft, giving us a movement of 120 feet when we double dash, and then it seems wrong not to go to level 5 for Uncanny Dodge and 3d6 Sneak Attacks.
Levels 6-8 Arcane Archer Fighter
Next up, assuming we make it through that particularly hard low level gauntlet, we do need more survivability but mainly we want Action Surge because Assassinate triggers more than once as long as you're going first, which we almost always would between our stealth, our flying, and our Alert feat. There's no character that doesn't benefit from a 2 level dip into Fighter, and we'll also go to 3rd level to get an archetype because the benefits are too big not to.
We will take the Arcane Archer subclass, along with Archery fighting style. Our arcane shots will be:
We have the option of wearing Medium Armor when our hit and run flying tactics won't work, so we carry that around with us, but played correctly we shouldn't ever be attacked because we leave them dead or we're gone.
Level 9-13: Paladin, Oath of Vengeance
There are two Oath options here, Conquest or Vengeance. Vengeance is the better choice, as it gives us Vow of Enmity, which means we can fly within 10 feet, Cunning Action dash back into the sky and still have advantage on all attack rolls for 1 minute so this is the right choice. We also get Hunter's Mark to add to our crazy first turn shenanigans.
At 4th paladin level, we'll take Piercer (+1 Dex, brings us to 18, forgot that first time around) to add even more damage to our critical hits. Sharpshooter is another good option, but our strategy relies on putting out 4 colossal attacks in a single turn of combat. We then go to Paladin 5 to get Extra attack.
Level 14-16: Blood Hunter, Order of the Ghost Hunter
Next we take Blood Hunter, and take Curse of the Marked. This gives us an additional hemocraft die of damage after we mark a creature up as a Bonus action, which as usual we'll try to do while flying or in stealth before combat begins. It's down to the DM whether this would initiate combat, but with Alert we should be fine anyway.
At level 2 we now take Duelling, for when we go in with the rapier later.
We take Rite of the Storm because lightning is less often resisted. We join Order of the Ghostlayer at 3rd level, which gives us Radiant damage on our crimson rites and resistance to Necrotic damage, both great against Strahd when we come to take him down.
Level 17: Divine Soul Sorcerer
We take this for Favored by the Gods: If you fail a saving throw or miss with an attack roll, you can roll 2d4 and add it to the total, possibly changing the outcome. Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a short or long rest. Missing an attack with advantage becomes increasingly unlikely. The only really relevant spell is Bless which we cast before stealthing up.
Level 17: RogueWe go back to Rogue for Uncanny Dodge, but our survival isn't really about mitigating damage it's all about never getting attacked. Still, there's not all that much else we can get that's comparable in terms of power.@Sanvael
Sorry man but your math is off, the big thing I noticed is you trying to Divine Smite with a bow, that does not work as Divine Smites require a melee weapon.
Can't really rate your build until you fix the numbers from that mistake buddy.
Hah, yeah you're right. Edits made in blue.