✍ Sign up for dScryb to enhance your game's immersion and inspire your creativity. Use code FLUTESLOOT for 10% off your first subscription payment: dscryb.com/flutesloot Read my entire article to master Strahd von Zarovich in DND 5e Curse of Strahd : www.flutesloot.com/mastering-strahd-von-zarovich-ultimate-dnd-5e-curse-of-strahd-guide/? Get VTT maps for Castle Ravenloft that I demonstrated in the video: www.dmsguild.com/product/185990/Castle-Ravenloft-hires-colour-jpg-maps?affiliate_id=3063449
Tip for learning the castle: Download the Minecraft map. Somebody recreated the entire castle in Minecraft and its great for understanding what connects to where etc
Strahd does an unarmed strike at +9, and if he hits he can just grapple rather than do damage. This makes for an easy grapple, and then with bite he can restore some hp, even if he is in sunlight. Also, with grapple he can move. I had him fighting on top of one of the towers, and he grappled a PC and then dumped him over the side falling 280 feet to his death.
Also, his grapple actually does necrotic damage. His unarmed strike does both bludgeoning and necrotic damage and then says he “can grapple it instead of dealing the bludgeoning damage.” So his grapple does 4d6 necrotic damage. I am fairly sure this is intentional and not just a copy-paste oversight because the standard vampire statblock just says “instead of dealing damage, the vampire can grapple the target,” which would remove all damage of his if copy-pasted. Standard vampires don’t even get extra necrotic damage on their unarmed strikes.
Small note, but Strahd can't Polymorph himself since he's a shapechanger. Totally works to make Rahadin a T-Rex/Giant Ape though! Thanks for the video and article, it's a very thorough reminder as I prep for impending combat in my campaign!
My first thought with a creature to change someone into is a giant bat. Maybe reflavor another large winged creature stat block and describe it as a bat instead.
One of my players spent the entire Strahd fight playing cards with Escher in one of the towers. Literally all he did was roll for a favourable hand. It was a really funny juxtaposition the action.
“You chase Strahd as he retreats to a dimly lit room, cackling and hurling a fireball your way, burning one of your companions to ash. Meanwhile Jahn what are you doing?” “Uh you got any 4s? Go fish.”
I remember being so proud of my players retelling to their friends years later about a pre battle scene they had w/ Strahd talking to them while he was walking upside-down on the ceiling, the background around him a giant painting of a battlefield (the one that won him the castle ages ago) and numerous crystal chandeliers. First battle round those chandeliers fell from the ceiling and created a blast of glass that caused damage and made the entire floor difficult terrain. The players eventually thought of a few creative ways of using the glass to their advantage too. It was so much fun.
While I do plan to improve Strahd's statblock by giving him much higher level magic (he's a centuries old wizard, why would he only have 5th level magic), I intend to give the players as many advantages as needed to compensate it. They get to build alliances with the many factions of Barovia, including a few off script groups if they play their cards right. It'll involve battling their way up the castle to Strahd's throne room and facing the number of minor antagonists the party failed to kill and have personal beef with. I hope this makes for a satisfying and fun conclusion to their story
I like Dream, Control Weather (for atmosphere), Project Image (so he can keep showing up to taunt the party, no matter where he is), Finger of Death to cast on one of the party's allies and make them kill the zombie that their former friend has become. Soul Cage also, so he can drink up the soul of someone the party cared about right in front of them, solidifying him as a real monster. Horrid Wilting could be really frightening too, if your party has a druid that likes plant spells.
I enjoy adding elements of Kain, from Legacy of Kain. Like Strahd, they were both Notable Warriors before they were vampires. So, to me it makes sense that Strahd would still know how to fight
Here's how I ran him: set up the confrontation location such that Strahd has lots of minions, and he has a wall he can pass through to a place the PCs can quickly get to. A round then goes like this: Strahd attacks and moves through a wall where he can't be attacked. The PCs are forced to fight the minions so they can't use ready actions. Strahd uses legendary actions to pop out, attack and go back where he is safe until it is his turn again. This way only one PC gets one chance per round to attack Strahd between legendary actions, all while the minions chip away at their HP. I could have wiped the whole party out this way, but once they killed Rhadin I had Strahd loose his cool and not fight so strategically to him them a chance. End results, 2 PCs dead-dead, 2 PCs taken down to 0HP and brought back, the other pretty banged up before Strahd was defeated. The fight took 3 sessions
My first introduction to Strahd was in the Ravenloft Anthology Series that was put out back in the day. "I, Strahd," and its sequel are an amazing example of how to do a good villain protagonist and "Vampires of the Mist" shows how insidious the Mists are when manipulating the Darklords and the people it pulls in.
"I, Strahd," (much better than the sequel!) really opened my eyes about his character. He is such a "That Guy." Not an incel, as he is able to get with many women, and he does. But he pure entitlement he feels for Tatyana. I have SEEN that sort of thing in real life! Also, I LOVE how the few True Believers are able to use their divine powers against him, while most clerical types are ineffective. I interpreted it as "The Gods have no power here, but FAITH can power spells. Therefore, Strahd must beat the faith out of the people." Also, I have decided that the cleric, or anyone else casting DIVINE spells, must succeed on a Wisdom Saving Throw. I'll set the DC as 15, at first, and as they proselytize, and gather more acolytes to their faith, their own faith grows, and the DC goes down. That works out well, because as soon as I finished the group Tarokka reading, the cleric said, "I want a reading for myself!" Fortunately, this was just before going on hiatus, for medical reasons. The PC's backstories don't really affect much in Barovia, but I came up with individual quests for each of them. I claimed that they were each and as a group Touched By Mistress Fate. They weren't the first, but the gods hope they won't be the last. A small group of about 6 gods (plus Mistress Fate) really MISS their followers in Barovia, and have been working for centuries to break the souls free! Loki, the Trickster God, came up with a plan, that SHOULD work. It will, eventually, take an individual quest from EACH of the PC's. After they kill Strahd, they also have to gather enough religious followers (and perform the right rituals at the right places) to weaken the wall around the demiplane. Once that is weakened, they go to the right spot, perform the right ritual, and they break it, and then, they can fight Vampyr, who set it all up, in the first place. Each of the PCs has already, before reaching Barovia, become rather enthusiastic about worshipping their chosen deities, and all their deities (plus Morninglord and Mother of Night, Raven Queen and Mistress Fate) have real reason to want Barovia free. Working together, they hope to accomplish what one god alone cannot. I think they'll ALL end up proseletizing for their own gods, although tecnically, only the Cleric (follows Loki) needs to find enough acolytes, plus one specific follower to join her against Vampyr. It allowed me to get a special five-card reading for each PC, as part of a larger whole, all because of a certain chapter in "I, Strahd," where he went up against a very faithful cleric (or was it a monk? I need to read it again. Hahaha!). I also used his "I am the Land," and combined it with "Caleb Widogast's Web of Words," (from Critical Role during the lockdown) and HIS "I am the Land," and came up with some very interesting lore for my game. I look forward to them solving that little riddle. But, thanks to reading, "I, Strahd," I made it out that Strahd really IS the land, and when he dies, there will be... surprises. Famine, for one, until someone else performs the ritual to take over, and THEY will be the land, and they will make the crops grow to feed the people. Hopefully, this time, it will be someone who is not so ravenous for human flesh/blood. Someone on Reddit suggested using scenes from "I, Strahd," as prophetic dreams, that help clarify some things, such as his obsession with Ireena, and why he keeps calling her "Tatyana," as well as why his patient and doesn't freak out, even if she threatens to end herself, to save her brother and friends. I have it on Audible. I just need to bookmark the proper scenes, and they can "witness" them with the excellent narration. It will be cool. I wasn't so fond of the sequel, but it did make me see how he would be particularly interested in luring in magic-users. He's going to like my party: One high charisma bard, a strong fighter, a strong cleric, and an intelligent wizard. Worthy companions? Possibly? Worthy successors? Possibly. Each of them have something to tempt him, which I only realized, because of reading the books about him. Background research can REALLY change how you run a module, even while still keeping it mostly as written, with very little homebrew.
Re: Strahd and Forbiddance I saw someone, somewhere, post that since Barovia and everything in it ultimately belongs to Strahd, he just figures that ALL residences are his, and he can do wherever he wants, without bothering with an invitation. I like the Charm thing, too, but after reading I, Strahd, I kind of prefer the "everything belongs to me," attitude in the bad guy, meaning that he can attack and infiltrate a residence WITHOUT charming his way in, and face the battle, right away, if it suits his purposes.
I think that was in the MandyMod or Dragnacarta stuff. The best way to do this is to have him abide by it for a while just to make the players think they're safe, only for him to reveal he's not bound by it at all when they least expect/most need it; use it to scare the absolute shit out of them with an epic monologue and just have him poof out of there in a cloud of bats after everyone wets themselves. It also works really well to throw the heat off Vasilli von Holt if you play up Strahd having to be invited in but let Vasilli come and go as he pleases.
Agreed. It's not the stat block. It's how it is played. Similarly, a LOT of creatures are "more than their stat block," if you play them well. I REALLY LIKE "The Monsters Know What They Are Doing." It's a website and a published book, and it gives great ideas for how to play the enemy creatures your party may encounter. Sure, a carrion crawler with an Int of 1 is not going to strategize, but even they have some things they instinctively know to do. Smart opponents can look easy, but be deadly.
Unfortunately, the book specifically mentions that light is supernaturally suppressed in Barovia, and even during the day it doesn't actually count as sunlight for purposes like the vampire weakness
@@animefan1246if anyone in the party can wield the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind, then they can cast sunlight, which should completely override the cloud cover… for a while at least…
Favorite strahd moment was the first dinner party. The players just cleared death house and got invited to dinner to meet the lord of the land. After learning that he was a vampire from the local village, they came to dinner armed and ready. Strahd greeted them, gave the good food, music from his bard, and even brought in a priest whos son had tried to kill strahd. He gave the son back to the priest as long as he gave his word that he and his kin would never raise arms him again. Then he turned to the players and explained that they were just the latest in a long line of jokes sent to be killed by him. Sent by the gods to keep him from breaking out of his cell. He was done playing by the rules of a being who doesnt care or even watch over his land. He tried to recruit the party to spring him from the jail cell and to prove he was immortal, he had the fighter run him through with his longsword. Auto crit and hit then just healed the dmg after in front of the party. Watching the party fight itself on weather or not to join him was intense. They decided against it when they learned that his maid was heavily charmed so she was his personal blood bank/toy.
You can have Strahd pre-cast invisibility on Beaucephalus, so if he gets grappled or otherwise immobilized, Beaucephalus can Ethereal Dash him to safety.
A bit behind the times. Thanks for putting your series together. As a returning DM to this module, it’s very helpful One tip that may have been stated already: Strahd can’t - or shouldn’t - use Polymorph on himself as he is a shape changer.
I’ve read a number of articles and seen multiple videos and it seems to me that one use for Polymorph is overlooked. Strahd can cast it on the player that is carrying the the sun sword and/or amulet. If successful, the target and everything he or she is wearing and carrying is also changed. So that would take those items producing sunlight out of play. Once that happens, Strahd and his brides can have a feeding frenzy.
My party is about to go against him. They think they're gonna ambush him, but he know's theyre coming and I've slightly buffed his brides. It's gonna be fun!
Great video, have been running the campaign for a while and watched many videos, but this one takes the cake for its intended purpose, really clear information on how to run him in combat!
Excellent timing. Prepare for an info dump, as I agree just saying levels without context doesn't help when discussing the fight. My players just marched for their first (and final) assault on the castle (level 10, accompanied by Van Richten, Esmerelda, Kasimir (fated ally), and the Flesh Golem from the abbey (unnamed one, they wanted to protect the bride and asked Krezk for assistance. Belview family delivered a STR stick.). As they don't know what they're doing in the labyrinth, they're slowly going through, aiming for the catacombs (but the elevator trap shot them up to the study and vault, where they found the Sun Sword. No Symbol of Ravenkind, they already put of Strahd a few times, and he showed up in person to decimate a boss (Izek Strazni post Ireena escape and his boss dying went to the Amber Temple and took all but the big 3 dark gifts to become a hulking abomination, Strahd killed him once he claimed to be "Stronger than Strahd himself!") and told them they are showing up after the temple period. This was encounter 2 with the big man, 1 being at the Winery where he calmly told them to give him his tome back, they all attacked at once, and he was entirely unharmed (level 6 or 7 party, under 50 damage, Heart of Sorrow transfer)). They completely scouted out the study's floor (4 I think?) and went down to meet just the accountant, before the ground floor. They sat through the dinner that they were days late for, got to ask big man some questions while internally panicking that this guy found them before they were ready. Illusion broke after he basically told the Paladin he's a coward with no convictions if he wouldn't swing at him (he did). After that they went back to the first basement, got Kasimir back (elevator separated them, other NCPs are elsewhere in the castle trying to find the monster), and went to the catacombs. Just finished the room with still water, thrones, and Strahd Zombies. This video gave me three WONDERFUL ideas. 1: When we jump back in, a (Greater) Invisible Strahd pounces from the ceiling to tear into the neck of the character with the Sun Sword, the only hint of what's going on being the water being tossed around and blood splattering on his figure before disappearing. He'd always been cordial up to this point, as he puts on airs to seem like the always controlling, even tempered Count. They have made him very, very upset. Post attack, he'll slink away through the walls. 2: The players see Van Richten as not only a hero, but as a troubled father figure (I make him gruff because he doesn't want kids to through their lives away, but he'll give up his to save them), and mentor. He's alone in the castle. He can be charmed. Now that'll even the odds some. 3: I am 100% putting Strahd on his Nightmare. They (sadly) already decimated the armor in a single round, but Strahd, his mount, Rahadin, the last surviving member of the Bonegrinder Coven, and Van Richten vs a party of 4 plus Kasimir, Esmerelda, and best case scenario Kasimir's sister? That seems like an epic battle. If I can get a response or something on Sunday I can say how it goes, if you're interested. (We play on Strahderday.)
STRAHDERDAY! I love that! Your game sounds like a blast. I love the idea of the invisible Strahd ambush and how you described it. As a point of caution, I would be careful making Strahd's charm ability resemble mind control too much. Van Richten may see Strahd as an ally, but would he attack the party? That's up to you, of course, but I bring it up in case the players would find that unfair. Please let me know how your next session goes! I'm especially interested to hear how Strahd + Beucephalus goes.
@@FlutesLoot You know, good point on the Charm Mind Control. I was thinking he'd just be more aligned to Strahd and openly defending him, but not attacking per say.
My favourite part of the castle is the room with the hourglass and brazier. Between the temptingly breakable items, the doors that close automatically if they are broken, and the statues that come to life to kill you, it's a TPK room if there ever was one. I have yet to see a second tier party that could possibly deal with two hostile iron golems in an enclosed space.
Giving Stradh level 10 spellcasting instead of level 5 spellcasting was the perfect amount for me to keep him scary but ultimately they were able to defeat him after great sacrifice, which fit the theming of the module in my opinion
I to have run strahd 3 times, im actually running my 4th now, my party just got through the Death house and Strahd had shown up and charmed one of the players, the charmed spell is grate and they are into it, so it so much fun,
I think this is great advice. If I run Strahd I will use your tips. Especially hiding in his castle and throwing his minions at the party to waste their resources and try to come from the shadows to charm and disorient them. Our DM threw waves of mobs at us and it was a good fight. Strahd didn't last long against the Paladin who was using the Sunsword and smites, but overall the fight was enjoyable because Strahd would throw his minions at us and we basically had to tackle them away to give the Paladin a straight line to attack Strahd. The only regret is that I had just turned into a giant Gorilla when Strahd died so I did not get to smash the wolves. I mean I did in narration but not in combat.
Ill just homebrew him make him a multi phase boss fight thats always fun give him a final form like castlevania dracula and make the ravenloft hear more interesting
So, Strahd is Resistant to B, P, and S from non magical sources, and his bite does Necrotic damage that reduces max HP while healing him. I think you may be underestimating him in grapple. Not to mention he can still charm them or have his Children of the night all focus on the grappler. Keep in mind the Strahd has specicically attempted to precharm the party, so it os highly likely that half of them will jump the grappler as soon as they try to start fighting.
@flutesloot unless I’m misunderstanding your video and article, I think you are reading the bit mechanic wrong. You portray it as he can either attack unarmed twice or bite. That doesn’t appear to be how the stat block is written. It says “Strahd makes two attacks, only one of which can be a bit attack” This means he can’t bite twice. But he can unarmed attack twice or unarmed attack once and bite once. This to me means he can unarmed attack. Attempt to grapple. If he succeeds, he can then bite. If he fails the grapple he can make another unarmed attack. Please tell me if I’m wrong.
@@FlutesLoot thanks for the reply! I’m running curse of Strahd for the first time and all of the prep is intimidating. Your video and article have been very helpful. Though I got halfway through the article and put it on pause to finish reading the adventure. Thanks for the help!!
Just a quick note: I’m not sure if it was an errata or a misread, but my Strahd’s grapple only requires him to lose the 1d8+4 slashing damage, he can grapple off an unarmed strike and still seal the 4d6 necrotic. Additionally, monster grapples have a set DC to escape rather than being a contested check, in Strahd’s case a DC 18 check.
@@FlutesLoot No problem. I just pointed it out because I’m running CoS with a few close friends who I can only describe as powergaming gremlins (affectionately), so I wanted to see if the Unarmed/Unarmed or Grapple/Bite multiattack was more useful. Turns out, Unarmed/Unarmed still hits harder and is better for killing weak characters, but if it’s going to be two tanks fistfighting for 20-something turns then the bite is better because of that sweet sweet EHP.
OH MY GOD thank you so much. That is a massive buff to what i thought he could do, being able to then bite and get that health back is gonna be amazing.
So I have Strahd as one of two modules I’m offering my core friends to play at some point when I get my new apartment and one of the friends moves in with me. I have the book and was thinking to keep my players on their toes I’d just have him silently watch them at least once in every town they’re in. And when they’re doing a long rest I throw in some dialogue where he’s just standing at their bed or by their window or just beyond the tree line. Always out of reach but NEVER too far.
DM's forget how to properly play intelligent enemies. Strahd is highly intelligent and has eyes EVERYWHERE. He is going to go into their final confrontation knowing EXACTLY what the party can do, and will make a plan to deal with them.
DMs often hold themselves to a standard of not metagaming their DM knowledge into a monster's knowledge, but Strahd totally gives the DM a reason to plan around the party. Strahd should know what they can do, and the party should feel accomplished if they hide anything from him and his spies.
last time i ran CoS my players were dumb, they were level 9, had the sun sword, the amulet of raven kind, found most of the secrets of strahd and then completely failed to plan on how to actually fight him, the most the succeeded on doing was finding and destroying his coffin strahd seeing they meant to kill him and had the means used guerilla tactics throughout the castle to whittle them down, striking from the ceiling, the walls, calling his pets, a fireball at the start put them on the back foot, killed the healer by polymorphing him into a rabbit while in the armoury then using 10 animated daggers to just pin cushion him hit and run tactics throughout and by the time they remembered the symbol of ravenkind it was too late and the group were lost to the mists of barovia forever
I came back and revisited to write down the points and get a strategy together. I will rehearse this battle. BTW, I saw "FL and I thought it meant that you were in Florida, LOL (Channel Initials). Be well. THANK YOU
I was asking around about "Lair Actions" i heard: "You need to use them all, before choosing the same one again" "You cant choose the same lair action twice in a row" But if you read in the Curse of strahd and monster manual. it is basically "Choose one to use this round"
@@FlutesLoot Found out Strahd can spam one Lair action over and over. Red Dragons cant do that, they cant use the same lair action twice in a row, Death Tyrants need to do their list of actions, before choosing the same one again.. Everyone i ask say "Cant do the same twice" btw. lol Thanx for explaining Strahd. Sub+
Strahd can be very strong even with a not very good stat block, I get it. What I don't understand is how escaping at virtually any time with the phasing and misty escape and charming the entire group for an easy victory (or at leas to delay the fight and regenerate) can be fun, because some people talk about it a lot, but in my point of view this will simply obliterate any party with a less than optimal strategy and cohesive group thinking, which in my experience is 90% of the groups I play, because ideal and strategic thinking is almost always not fun for the entire group, and I speak this as an optimizer myself.
In my opinion, Strahd in Castle Ravenloft, without the need for homebrew, is potentially the most interesting and exciting boss fight in all of 5e's published campaigns. It involves knowing his weaknesses and figuring out how to shut him down, not just rolling attacks until the side with the superior action economy wins. I suggest focusing on that throughout the campaign to set the party up to succeed. If a DM doesn't play the whole campaign as a setup for this fight, it could be as unfun as you suggest.
Ok, get this: Strahd fighting alongside his animated armor and periodically mist forming within the armor to deal a more devastating attack and benefit from AC
a lot of my players have resistances to Charm so I was thinking maybe to have him hide out in a swarm of bats in wide open locations and charming the PCs that I can while they deal with some much bigger encounters. like in the courtyard area, I was thinking of throwing the wyverns that flew away after 2 of them were killed off and literally throwing over a railing the mongrelfolk after polymorphing him.
@@FlutesLoot area 7 has about 4 red dragon Wyrmlings standing guard. My bad. My party fought them once before when they were just invited to dinner and after losing 2 they ran away. So since there really isn't anything happening in the courtyard I figured I could throw a couple of big monsters at them.
As a party, we defeated Strahd in about 4-5 rounds. He was a pushover. When I ran CoS as a DM, I buffed Strahd and made him truly a scary foe. Then my players curbed stomped him anyways. I would never run Curse of Strahd again however. Most of my players can't handle the dark setting. It was depressing for me as well as I struggled with my players complaining that they felt helpless when that is the point of the module. You need a group of people who are chill.
Unfortunately i fear the only way to balance Strahd out is give him perhaps a final phase that, while not mitigating the affects of sunlight, decrease its affect on him. Perhaps a shroud of shadow that even the sunsword struggles to pierce surrounds him, as he taps into his true potential as the First Vampyr. The disadvantage from sunlight on attack rolls and ability checks is gone, and he takes half damage from sunlight. While this may seem unfair I feel like players are just flat out going to enjoy a battle where they barely squeak out a victory than one where they roflstomp him.
You have outdone yourself with all of this. The moment Strahd started talking I lost it and then it turned into an ad and I appreciate it so much more hahaha. But I reallllllly appreciate this information in video form alongside your article you wrote. I feel so unbelievably prepped to run Strahd really because I binged so much of your content hahah
You can always do the same as my DM for his BBEG for ours 10th lvl character. Just give him two 9th level spell slots and 'dark star' spell. btw. Still don't know how we did not killed him dealing 420 dmg (he escaped). Also nice video.
I'm not adding 9th level spells, but I did decide to give Strahd a few scrolls and potions. Three potions of Superior Healing. HAHAHHAHAHAHAAAAA! I am evil. And three scrolls of Disintegrate. He won't use them willy nilly, but in the boss fight? Yeah, he'll use them. He knows he'll be able to get more, eventually. Adventurers bring STUFF, and his collection keeps growing, right? Finally, I'm giving him an Amulet of Shielding, with 3 charges per day. Shield is a great way to ANNOY your players, and the amulet means he saves his spell slots.
Small not on strahds vampiric weakness, strahd effectively has no vampire weaknesses. Strahd owns the whole of the lands of Berovia/raven loft, he is the lord of all the lands in his kingdom, there is no house in the campaign he can't enter unless it's hallowed ground. Also because of his regional effects there is no running water or sunlight in Berovia so he doesn't suffer those outside of spells and items the players bring
One change I always try to make with Strahd(and technically you can consider this a nerf) I switch out his fireball spell for something else. I don’t understand why anyone would ever give a vampire a fireball spell. There entire deal is that they tend to be in crypts or castles. Inclosed spaces. They also tend to be very vain and make themselves and their layers lavish. So why would a vampire cast an explosion that just destroys wherever they were fighting. Especially in Strahds case why would he want to damage Ravenloft? I like to give him lightning bolt. If the party I’m up against is really over powered I give him chain lightning so he can really punish characters who try to bum rush in groups that are close together
I'm gonna start Curse of Strahd next week, i suspect one of the players went searching for his weaknesses because he's chosing a grappling barb with expertise.... I'm a bit orried about him so i ill give to Strahd the "Oil Of Slipperiness" at least in the last fight to get that Freedom of Movement.. He is a tactitian afterall, being prepared to fight those pesky grapples should be his priority.
It's common for players to want to grapple well, particularly for Barbarians. I wouldn't assume, by that preference, that your player was planning around Strahd's weaknesses. Even if so, Strahd has ways to get around, like turning to mist. I'd be careful with something like Oil of Slipperiness that will invalidate what a player earnestly wants to do from character creation.
I'm gonna pick option B. Buff Strahd to CR 17, mix him with his Dead House Eve of Ruin statblock, add the Haunted Zones to his Lair Actions in Castle Ravenloft, and THEN play him as smart as possible with improved spellcasting. :D My players are insanely OP tho, so its fine.
I have an undead warlock with strahd as a patron in my party. Slowly they're starting to realise how evil Strahd really is as they continue to explore. I'm not sure how I'm going to rule it later on when they may oppose Strahd. Would he take the powers away? Would he let them keep them as a means of honorable fighting? If he takes them, what is the final straw? Always so much to think about as a DM. Loved the video. Movement being key is some great advice, feeling a lot better about my combat with him now.
I'm glad the video was helpful! The simplest method would be for the powers to not be immediately withdrawn; they could dissipate over time. This would motivate the Warlock to attack Strahd when powers begin to dissipate, before losing power. You could also take away subclass features but keep Warlock class features. The more complicated method would be to figure out what the Warlock would be able to do if all powers could be taken away in an instant. Regardless of the method, make sure the player understands how it works or it could lead to hard feelings.
One of my players changed character since they had to go on hiatus and decided to just make a new one upon returning. Their old character is now a new bride to Strahd, with undead warlock and vampire powers. She will help him in the final fight.
My grievance with Strahd's statblock is that it quite literally *is* a standard Vampire Spellcaster with a modified spell list and Lair actions. The repeat charm included. One of the fairest ways I know to buff a stablock without making it absurd is to give the monster feats as if the Challenge Rating is its level. For Strahd, that's three feats, four if you allow Starter feats, which I do. If that seems too overkill, make it so Strahd has "half player feats rounded down" like a proper rule. That'll be at least one feat, two if you allow Starters. Throw in a couple of magic items and you've got a boss worth talking about. My recommendation? Amulet of Protection Against Turning, Cape of the Mountebank and Boots of Haste. If you add the Mystic Conflux feat which allows a 4th attunement, a Pearl of Power is a reasonable option. Bracers of Defense could also help if your Strahd is inclined for up-close and personal combat. Gloves of Missle Snaring or a Ring of Evasion will help demonstrate the supernatural speed of Strahd von Barovich, while also conserving his Legendary Resistances for avoiding spells.
@FlutesLoot Another idea is adding the Scout Rogue's 'Skirmisher' ability. If a hostile creature ends its turn within 5 feet of Strahd, he can use his reaction to move up to half his speed without provoking opportunity attacks. This would keep him constantly moving and avoid getting cornered or the party grouping up on him.
this was originally written as a 1st ed module, and they neutered undead in 5e while also making it basically a super hero game, or dnd with training wheels for the players.
@@FlutesLoot point is none of this was an issue before. A vampire in 1st ed drains 2 levels from a character per hit. its impossible to convey that type of dread in 5e. Unless you use 1st ed ideas.
@@xaxzander4633 I agree, undead were much scarier in other editions. Level drain was brutal. Most of the old-school gamers I know say they're glad it's not in the game anymore, and they like the deadly stuff. They thought it was tedious.
@@FlutesLoot and thus my comment, if you wish to play a game that was written for another game, then claim most people wish it never existed, at the same time attempting to make strahd harder, you clearly never even tried it the old way.
Hmm, my answer to this dilema was to make shapechange a bonus action, and make Cast a spell one of his legendary actions (costing 2 points). I also updated his spellcasting to include a few extra spells, Adding Cone of Cold, Dimension Door, Phantasmal killer, Counterspell, Lightning Bolt, Haste, Vampiric Touch, Summon undead, Hold person, Blidness deafness, Cloud of daggers, Invisibility, Ray of enfeeblement, Shocking Grasp, Chill touch. I also took a page from the old 3.5 Stradh and brought back the 3 fanes that give him buff. Mountain fane +10 ac, Swamp fane resistance to all damage types and forest fane constant nondetection and freedom of movement. The players needed to destroy these fanes in order to remove these buffs from him or the fight would be much harder.
@@FlutesLoot I played the game Expedition to castle ravenloth (dnd 3.5 edition) quite a few time and still own that book but since then we moved on to 5th edition. We started the game again recently cause we wanted a horror themed game for halloween. Now I've taken a number of elements from the 3.5 version and carried them over to my 5th edition game. I started the game at 3rd level and I used 2 hooks to bring the players in. They started out venturing forth from Baldur gate because of rumours of travelers going missing on the road and stories about wolf attacks (possibly werewolves). The players geared up for werewolves and went searching for these wolves to make the roads safe again, night came and they stopped at a traveler's inn for the night. This is were a stranger appeared and told them about a land called barovia beset by evil nearby, he offered them the burgomaster letter and told them how to get there. They followed his directions and were swallowed by the creeping fog and brough to barovia. They found the town of barovia besieged by undead. They fought some stradh zombies and other undead creatures and found the townsfolk barricated in the town center. After a small boss fight with an undead creature I created (5th edition version of an etomber from the libris mortis) they reached level 4 and are directed to the local church which seems to be source of the undead attack on the town. They head over and end fighting a buffed (5th level cleric) Father donavich who has been possesed by a page from the Necronomicon (a gift from stradh) they have no choice but to fight and several undead join the battle and while attemping to reach father donvich the floor collapses and two party members fall into the basement. Were they are attacked by Doru the starved vampire spawn kept captive in the basement. It was a hard battle but they ended up killing both Donavich and Doru (I had planned that they could save Donavich in a few different ways but just in case I had also prepared a journal writen by Donavich detailing what had happened to him). His son was killed when he tried to attack castle ravenloth a year ago following a powerfull wizard who tried to rally the villagers on an attack on the castle. Donavich recovered his son's body and in his terrible grief used a page from an evil book that he "found" to bring his son back albeith as an undead monster. Horrified at what he had done he locked his son in the basement but as the magic of the page took control of his mind he slowly descended into madness. With the danger of the undead neutralized the group went on to look for the burgomaster who sent them the letter asking for help. They learn he is dead and head to his house to speak to his daughter. As they make their way to the Burgomaster's mansion they are attacked by swarms of bats and some large wolves. They manage to get inside and speak to Irena who tells them the whole story of Stradh and Barovia. They decided to spend the night here and rest. However cautious the party decided to maintain a guard during the night and sleep in shifts. This paid off because they heard a noise during the night and found none other than Count Stradh Von Zarovich come for one of his night visits to Irena. He dances with Irena who is bleeding from the neck, she has been charmed and is under his control. He casually greets the pc's as they arrive to confront him and after a few words they attack (as I knew they would they have an undead hating paladin in the party afterall). Stradh is fully buffed by the fanes and way above their challenge level but he is amused and has no intention on killing them. He wants to test them and see if they are worth turning into vampires. He starts off with a lighning bolt, hiting the rogue and paladin. They survive and he congratulates them for meeting the minimum prerequisite to be worth his attention. The fight goes on uses a few weaker spells chill touch, ray of frost, and his claws as legendary actions. He drops the paladin and at this time Irena breaks free of his charm and attacks him. He is caught of guard but quickly composes himself. He says he has had enough fun for tonight and will return to collect Irena once he has finished his preperations for the wedding and dimension doors away. This is as far as we got. This time stradh didn't go all out (obviously cause they would be dead if he did) I plan on Stradh leaving them alone now until they destroy a fane. At which point he will send a full fledge vampire after them. I plan on running this a pure horror/grimdark campaing and my players include three long time (10+ years) veterans and somewhat experience player (2 years) so to keep thins interesting for them I need to make the fights harder than they are in the book or for them it will be a cakewalk and I want them to fear for their lives lol. I told them this game the gloves were coming in off and I was coming for them lmao. The real fight againts Strahd is still far off but I plan on them fighting him another time or two before the final confontration were he will finnaly go all out.
Hey I hope you see this because you've been suuuuuper helpful in improving my DMing for this campaign. QUESTION: How do I get the players to dip in and out of Castle Ravenloft when they see the Castle AS part of the final boss fight, something not to be touched until the end? You recommend using the Castle more than once in your other video and I really want them to try exploring Ravenloft for information or specific gear, but they've absolutely internalized that it's Strahd's Lair and he is most at home there. What reason can I give, or what situation can I construct, where they would feel either the necessity or the ability to range into the Castle and survive?
Hi! Here are a few thoughts: 1) I recommend telling your group that while the castle is dangerous, it won't trigger the end of the campaign to go there. There is much to explore that will help them in their quest to enjoy the campaign. Tell them so! :) Strahd or one of his closest allies, like Rahadin, may also tell them this if you prefer to have the prompt in-game. 2) It may be too late in your campaign, but placing one of the 3 Fortunes of Ravenloft items in the castle is a natural way to get them there. 3) The dinner invitation. 4) An ally or NPC must go to the castle, and they request the party to accompany them for protection or whatever. Strahd could even do this as his Vasili persona to prompt the players to go to the castle while being among them to learn more about them. 5) NPCs can spread rumors about magic items and other treasures in the castle. For example, someone heard about the Luck Blade that an adventurer had and wondered what happened to it. 6) Have NPCs speak openly about people who have gone to the castle on business or to attend a banquet/gala and lived. Maybe they even enjoyed themselves despite the eerie setting. Strahd is a lord of the land and regularly has certain people attend the castle. 7) Prompt the party with the werewolf den plot line to free Emil from the castle dungeon. 8) Prompt the party with the Mad Mary plot line to find Gertruda in the castle. 9) Have an ally or even a party member become captured in the castle. Captured in the way that Belle was captured and able to explore in Beauty & the Beast, but give limits and chores as they work with Cyrus to upkeep the castle. 10) Prompt the party with the skull of Argynvost plot line to find the dragon skull in the castle. 11) An alliance with Kasimir will pull the players eventually to the crypts.
My party started with the Essentials Kit (Dragon of IceSpire Peak), and then I got Curse of Strahd. So, they are going into Barovia with some magic gear and at Level 5. I have already promised them BEEFED UP enemies. Not every encounter, of course, but the low-level bosses will be higher-level bosses, for sure. Also, more minions. Even so, Strahd is CR 15, and the module, as written, has your characters going against him at level 10 or 11, right? I'm playing him MOSTLY as written, but with another 5th level spell slot (10th level wizard), and a few potions, scrolls, and a magical item or two. Potions of Supreme Healing mean that he, effectively, has WAY more hit points, unless they manage to force him to skip out on taking the potion. Also, if he can charm a cleric, there's no reason not to position that cleric right next to the Heart of Sorrow, and just cast healing spells at it, all through the battle. Will it turn into an HP grind? Maybe. Will it bump up the challenge rating? Yep. Just imagine the Abbot healing the Heart, while the party chases Strahd up, down, and all around Ravenloft. Hahahahaha. Of course, they can take down the Abbot, to allow them to finally finish Strahd, but they have to realize what's up and THINK of it, first.
Dude vampires have the strongest ability to make an army even stronger than necromancy wizard or a lich, i once had a commoner becoming a vampire and he barely escaped the party, in just 3 days of running dude made 27 vampire spawns, party were just a day slower to reach a small village(they were lucky it was just 27 people) and vampire massacered everyone and burried them and that one day lead was enough for a whole village of people to rise as vampire spawn, like how do you even deal with that, if i was just a regular vampire i would be apocalypse manifested
It has been clarified that the dome has a floor (I can't find the reference), but it makes sense since it can be a sphere that is larger, therefore leaving enough surface area to create the floor. Even if not, players can use the boxing option just as effectively (which is another reason it makes sense to give it a floor).
Is it possible yo have strahd charm all the NPCs and then in the final fight have him phase into a locked room with a charmed noc that he can drain. He cam also have them fight the npc and try to suicide off the edge of things.
Strahd being an easy kill is completely the fault of the DM. Just as this video states you don't really have to give Strahd any additional powers just play him properly. Strahd is a military genius and has spent countless ages using adventurers as his personal play things. He isn't just going to walk into the center of the map and stand there going back and forth in melee combat just rolling the dice. As the DM you have to play him as smart and tactical as he is. Especially if youngave him inside the castle and why would he allownthe final battle to take place anywhere else. The final battle innthe bottom of the castle crypt shoukd not be the first time the party faces him either. Strahd needs to interact with the party throughout the entire campaign. The players are just toys there for Strahd's amusement and they should be reminded of this fact during the campaign many times. I like the idea of starting the fight high in the towers and having it move down and through the castle ending in the crypts. Strahd is smart he will wear down the party. Force them to use up their respurces, spell slots, etc. Then when they are tired, bloody, and at the their end l, then and only then will he stand and fight.
I think he needs a beef up, otherwise i can't play him as aggressive as I want. i dont want him to be forced to fight in the castle, he should be a thread everywhere in barovia
I believe he's a threat elsewhere, but for a final boss when the campaign has prepared the players with items and knowledge to specifically kill Strahd, the castle is the best place cinematically and tactically :)
Good question! I have a Roll20 CoS campaign that I can turn to, but I often had to delete old maps to prevent the site from crashing or slowing to a crawl. For that reason, I don't have everything all sorted out and ready to go, though I have a pretty good Castle Ravenloft setup because I only want to do that once and will never delete it, haha. It uses the maps that I purchased from the DMs Guild that I link to in the description and mention in the video, so I wouldn't feel comfortable distributing that content without permission from the creator.
There's no reason you can't give him misty step and flavor it as a temporary mist form. Also, at 25:10, is that advice for players? Kind of metagamey for them to purposely only encounter him at the destined spots, at least in the beginning when they don't know any better and should just expect his entourage.
Yes, it's reasonable to give him Misty Step. No, it's advice for the DM to anticipate what players will be motivated to do by the game itself. It also helps DMs who may not know why the destined location matters (a truth I've encountered often).
@@omnisquirrel the CoS book says Strahd will always be accompanied by creatures determined on a random table, UNLESS he is encountered in his tomb (because he's probably recovering from "dying") or the destined location. In other words, he won't have his automatic swarm of minions in the destined location.
WOTC was getting increasingly bad at game design, and I think by now their team consists of the worst game designers they could find on the planet. But the average DM/Player is really bad at running the game, and especially monsters. I mean case in point, you made a mistake in assuming that Strahd follows the same rules for grappling as the PCs, by saying "[He] doesn't have great modifiers for grappling" and showing the +4 Athletics. Per the statblock, he rolls the +9 to hit, and then if he hits, he can grapple them instead of dealing damage. So it's decent, at least. Not making a comment on the general strategy of whether he should or not, just saying. Tho grappling an out-of-position PC that is squishy and relies on not allowing the enemy to get any attacks in lest he get nuked in a round or two seems like a good idea.
I assume I was referring to his inability to maintain a grapple if someone attempts to break it with a contested roll (feel free to time-stamp what I said). Additionally, forced movement is increasingly common as more character options have been added to 5e, so a grappled creature and the grappler can be separated without rolling. That can be done without a huge drain on the players' action economy, too. What drove you to your statements about the design team and the average people playing the game?
@@FlutesLoot The premise on which the video is based on: the complaints that Strahd is too weak and underwhelming, which is also repeated in a billion stories of how "my players took out my big bad in a single round"
I'd add a bit of flair like it's a longsword or shortsword manifested from shadow into steel or pulled from the blood spilled from his chalice. Or tske a page from warcraft and have it be a sentient antithesis to the sun sword that can fly around by itself
I really like giving him Blackrazor, and having him keep it sheathed almost all the time. I mention it over and over that he has a sword, and he never draws it in the many skirmishes with him preceding the final fight. When he finally draws it, and he's regenerating with every hit despite the sunlight, he's really scary. Just spread out his attacks, that thing's a menace.
For me, this fight is pretty far away. In lieu of this, I reworked the module to where Strahd gave them the option to play a "Cat and Mouse" game with him. As they search for ways to defeat him, he will be searching for them or ways to impede them. For this, I made a list of options on the map that he/his minions could go. If the PCs are there, he will stalk/fight them. If they are not where he's searching, he could disrupt the area. Depending on where he is and how well he rolls, he could kill/capture/turn an ally, destroy/capture a powerful item, or make encounters more difficult for the PCs. 1st roll, he has already found and captured Van Richten while they're rescuing Ireena in Barovia. Without Van Richten, the party will run into his starving Sabertooth Tiger. They can find Van Richten at Ravenloft, but if they don't rescue him in 3 weeks, he'll be a broken puppet of Strahd's.
I'm running a "Barovia Unionizes" type game where the party is all NPCs at a higher level than when you start normally, so I may just have to take this idea. Would you mind if I did so?
@@elijahcortez3352 Not at this time. Just break the sections of the map into numbers (i.e. A=1), and let your DM make a determination of how that should play out for W/L conditions/outcomes. You can also throw in the "haunted environment" table for more creepiness.
Why are the brides' dresses so worn and tattered? The man OWNS Barovia. Surely he can afford to buy them new clothes. In fact, I recall one person saying that the party should meet Strahd early, and one way to do that is for Strahd and his brides to be on a shopping spree one night. That would work well in Vallaki, I suppose, or else in the Village of Barovia, after the PCs fail miserably in haggling with the proprietor of the only store in town, only to see a handsome man and three beautiful women come in, grab anything they want, and pay a pittance for it, because "Of COURSE, My Lord!" He could be charmed, or he could be terrified, but either way, Strahd gets his goods at cost or below. I think it would be appropriate for an ABANDONED bride to have worn clothing, even if she keeps her jewels, but the three very much still at his side brides? No. They should always look their best.
That's certainly a fair interpretation! I also think it's fair to have the clothes tattered as an indication that Strahd is an abuser who doesn't intend to treat anyone well.
@@FlutesLoot First of all, thank you for the video. It's been both entertaining and helpful. On the topic of Strahd being an abuser, I would like to respectfully disagree. After having read both volumes of I, Strahd, I don't see him having the personality of a domestic abuser. He's a prideful noble, but he very much understands the value of loyalty and doesn't abuse his subjects. He is harsh in his punishments for any law breakers, but on the whole, law abiding folks in his land have little to fear from him. The evidence of that in the CoS module itself is Rahadin's unwavering loyalty to him. People just don't vest that kind of loyalty into someone who treats them poorly. His brides may feel neglected emotionally as he is so vested in wooing the current reincarnation of Tatyana, but there is no reason for him to mistreat them by neglecting their worldly needs, like clothes appropriate for companions of Barovia's sovereign lord. Also, his pride would take it very poorly if anyone could accuse him of being miserly. I just wanted to mention this as it seems to me that I, Strahd novels make much better job in portraying him than the CoS module does :)
I like to change his stats to be more in line with what it’s portrayed in the I, Strahd novels so he gets an hp buff and can cast higher level spells. Plus I like taking inspiration from other sources on vampires to make even more of a challenge for my players, plus they like where I draw some extra stuff from sometimes
My party fought Strahd 2 levels early, while he was with his brides AND the Abbot from Krezk, AND he was resurrected when he ran out of HP the first time, AND they didn't bother screwing with the Heart, AAAAND it was immediately after they fought the whole wolf pack, then Rahadin and the gargoyles... And it was easy for them. The problem is the baked-in solution of the module for fighting him. The Symbol and Sunsword just body him so hard that hardly anything else matters. His charm requires the player can see him, so every person has the option of "I close my eyes," especially the one with the symbol. Close eyes, dodge, relocate as needed. Those two items just require you to be in the room and you're doing damage to him every turn and negating his regen. This is why I'm giving him one important spell: Maddening Darkness. He needs a way to fight back against the sunlight or he simply will melt. He's only going to be able to cast it once, but it buys him time to regen, puts a wall between him and the Sunsword or Symbol, and even dispels their effect if they're nearby when he uses it. Plus it does enough damage that the party might back off, and without Devil's Sight, they can't teleport through it easily in Ravenloft's cramped corridors. Now they're the ones that can't fight on his terms, they're the ones that either have to delve into darkness to fight him or back off. Plus, thematically, it's very poetic. It becomes a battle of light and dark, an ebb and flow with no clear supremacy either way. Vampires depend on their regen to stick around for any length of time, and those two artifacts deny it completely. Without it, they do not have the health pool to have staying power. Minions are not a deterrent for this, RAW. The party can easily just ignore all the minions and burst down Strahd in a few turns, most likely, which is why a lot of DMs end up just kiting around with his legendary actions and the incorporeality. No mist form in the sunlight to save him, so he almost has to run. Strahd is haughty and proud. It really feels against his character for his fighting style to be "I run like a bitch until they blow all their spell slots on minions, then bite their ankles through the floor." Put Strahd on his horse. Make him a formidable cavalry general. Give him a way to battle the sunlight spam that doesn't involve him fleeing on round 1, but doesn't feel like you're just removing the weakness. Strahd not ever finding a way to deal with these legendary items that pose the biggest threat to him over everything makes him seem stupid, like someone should've killed him by now. He's supposed to be ancient, the slayer of many parties before you. If he just accomplished that by kiting... Meh. Feels like he's exploiting a video game more than being an immortal vampire king.
I always have heaps of questions about why someone says the fight was easy, especially since the way you described it I can't really fathom how it was easy, but it's alright. It's different for everyone and it is what it is, haha. :P I particularly disagree with "close my eyes" as a viable option for long, but I think it's great if players discover *how* to fight Strahd and they're smart about the confrontation, something I discussed in the video. I also went to a comic con panel where the creators of Ravenloft spoke about Strahd and I agreed with them that vampire were originally monsters who were manipulators and abusers that seduce people. I think it's fine to play up that side of Strahd, and I think it's fitting.
I believe it's because CoS is a long campaign, (and with most groups) by the time they finally reach Ravenloft for the BBEG Boss fight, which, if done to its entirety, is epic and quite long in of itself, the DM plays Ravenloft Castle and Strahd weakly. Why? Because they are exhausted with CoS and (somewhat want it to end) but more importantly and most likely happening... Barovia forbid PCs die and cry after investing that much time in a campaign. If its 2 things I feel you MUST do for Cos is (SPOILERS): 1) Make Death House more than just its namesake. Write a murder mystery, centuries old, for the players to solve, about Durst Manor and Rose and Thorn's Parents, that the players can expand on... but most importantly... make the Ravenloft and Strahd battle EPIC!!! Everything in between Death House and Ravenloft is still good and fun, but less than Ravenloft. Ravenloft Castle is the epic battle!!!! I assure you... NONE of my players thought Death House sucked or that Ravenloft Castle and Strahd was a pushover or underwhelming BBEG!!!
Thank you SO much for this! I have been simultaneously anticipating yet dreading the final battle with Strahd, but now you have given me so many ideas and I will definitely put them to use!
Strahd was the first module I ran for my long time group and the final fight was epic and took 3 sessions. No homebrew since he was originally a wizard so I prepared diffrent spells for him and that helped. He almost won too.
I don't know have to worry about wall of force because I will just give Strahd counterspell and dispel magic. The stat block isn't set in stone. Don't be afriad to just make Strahd more powerful
Counterspell might save him in the right circumstances, but smart players will just go more than 60 feet away out of Counterspell range. Dispel Magic won't help against Wall of Force because WoF specifically says Dispel Magic won't dispel it. Having said that, this video was really more to help people who want to optimize Strahd as he is and to point out that the minions and the castle are essential.
Im surprised that strahd only gets 3 legendary actions. The whole world is his playground! He doesn't care unless someone isn't a part of his scemes and fun games he has created! Depending on your player skills. I'd modify any monster to fit their needs of excitement. But strahd and the boss battles of the land should make your players feel like the gravity around them from their POWER LEVEL BEING OVER 9000 so daunting!
Honestly, the way I do it is adding new stuff. Old lore. Lyssa von Zarovich as an ally to the party. If Strahd feels anger, have him spawn TWO of The Angry. Those are deadly creatures. Strahd's other 3 wives there with him. All part of the final fight.
Appreciate the video. Im preparing to run strahd for the first time. I only have 3 players although experienced im worried that if i employ all the tactics youve outlined that not only will it not really be fun they wont stand a chance. I get strahd wont fight fair but how do i as a dm ensure that my players are capable to withstand a full length fight from the top of the tower to the bottom with strahd dping everything he can to survive and win?
I recommend liberally rewarding players with information about Strahd as they explore Barovia, seek their destined items, and form alliances. Tell your players out-of-game that if they want to survive, they'll need to know as much about Strahd as possible to anticipate and counter his strengths.
In your sessions did it occur that Strahd charmed a pc on 1 hp and then cast polymorph on that pc, hereby giving that pc the order to block or patrol an area where the other pc's need to go passed in order to get the Stradh? Or is that too farfetched? If that happened can you elaborate on it?
When Strahd grapples, does he need to make a successful attack which auto grapples the target with a DC 18 to escape later, or is it a contested grapple check using the DC 18? I'm stumped as to which.
Also if Strahd is grappled can he grapple the player in return? I ask because one of my players has a grapple build and although they have just finished the death house, im already concerned the player will grapple Strahd reducing his move to zero and then shove him prone putting his attacks at disadvantage and all the players at advantage. As his lair action relies on movement that will fail and he will not be able to go into mist form as he will likely be in sunlight from 1 or more items. If he can grapple back at least he can bite hurting the player and healing himself. The player is a wood elf so has advantage on charm saves so charm could esily fail.
The DC 18 is to escape later. Grappling a creature technically doesn't give the grappler the grappled "condition" simultaneously. So, a character can grapple Strahd without that character being grappled.
My players were overleveled and I still could have run circles around them all day with vanilla Strahd if I went all out. He is a boss that can be as easy or difficult as you want.
That's kind of the problem with him i guess, the DM has to let the players win basically, or they have the literal best strategy of all time to the point the fight becomes cheesy (wall of force microwave)
@@DoctorWu23 honestly I just let them have more levels than the module intends to give them more tools to pin Strahd down. It makes the fight more fun for me and them.
✍ Sign up for dScryb to enhance your game's immersion and inspire your creativity. Use code FLUTESLOOT for 10% off your first subscription payment: dscryb.com/flutesloot
Read my entire article to master Strahd von Zarovich in DND 5e Curse of Strahd : www.flutesloot.com/mastering-strahd-von-zarovich-ultimate-dnd-5e-curse-of-strahd-guide/?
Get VTT maps for Castle Ravenloft that I demonstrated in the video: www.dmsguild.com/product/185990/Castle-Ravenloft-hires-colour-jpg-maps?affiliate_id=3063449
Tip for learning the castle: Download the Minecraft map. Somebody recreated the entire castle in Minecraft and its great for understanding what connects to where etc
That’s incredibly useful.
Man's got a link? xD
Strahd does an unarmed strike at +9, and if he hits he can just grapple rather than do damage. This makes for an easy grapple, and then with bite he can restore some hp, even if he is in sunlight. Also, with grapple he can move. I had him fighting on top of one of the towers, and he grappled a PC and then dumped him over the side falling 280 feet to his death.
Also, his grapple actually does necrotic damage. His unarmed strike does both bludgeoning and necrotic damage and then says he “can grapple it instead of dealing the bludgeoning damage.” So his grapple does 4d6 necrotic damage. I am fairly sure this is intentional and not just a copy-paste oversight because the standard vampire statblock just says “instead of dealing damage, the vampire can grapple the target,” which would remove all damage of his if copy-pasted. Standard vampires don’t even get extra necrotic damage on their unarmed strikes.
@tlemgr They don't get to try that until it is their turn and Strahd has legendary actions he can use before they have a chance.
Small note, but Strahd can't Polymorph himself since he's a shapechanger. Totally works to make Rahadin a T-Rex/Giant Ape though! Thanks for the video and article, it's a very thorough reminder as I prep for impending combat in my campaign!
I totally overlooked that! I gotta update my article.
My first thought with a creature to change someone into is a giant bat. Maybe reflavor another large winged creature stat block and describe it as a bat instead.
One of my players spent the entire Strahd fight playing cards with Escher in one of the towers. Literally all he did was roll for a favourable hand. It was a really funny juxtaposition the action.
“You chase Strahd as he retreats to a dimly lit room, cackling and hurling a fireball your way, burning one of your companions to ash. Meanwhile Jahn what are you doing?”
“Uh you got any 4s? Go fish.”
@@FreddieMercurytheSharkWrestler Pretty much 🤣
I remember being so proud of my players retelling to their friends years later about a pre battle scene they had w/ Strahd talking to them while he was walking upside-down on the ceiling, the background around him a giant painting of a battlefield (the one that won him the castle ages ago) and numerous crystal chandeliers. First battle round those chandeliers fell from the ceiling and created a blast of glass that caused damage and made the entire floor difficult terrain. The players eventually thought of a few creative ways of using the glass to their advantage too. It was so much fun.
Epic! Walk on the ceiling monologue is gonna be something I use next time.
That sounds amazing!
Mind If I borrow that idea?
While I do plan to improve Strahd's statblock by giving him much higher level magic (he's a centuries old wizard, why would he only have 5th level magic), I intend to give the players as many advantages as needed to compensate it. They get to build alliances with the many factions of Barovia, including a few off script groups if they play their cards right. It'll involve battling their way up the castle to Strahd's throne room and facing the number of minor antagonists the party failed to kill and have personal beef with. I hope this makes for a satisfying and fun conclusion to their story
I'm sure it will! Players love to have their choices matter.
I like Dream, Control Weather (for atmosphere), Project Image (so he can keep showing up to taunt the party, no matter where he is), Finger of Death to cast on one of the party's allies and make them kill the zombie that their former friend has become. Soul Cage also, so he can drink up the soul of someone the party cared about right in front of them, solidifying him as a real monster. Horrid Wilting could be really frightening too, if your party has a druid that likes plant spells.
He already has complete control over the weather. It’s why they call him “the land”
he seems less like a wizard who studies magic and more like a sorcerer. His magic is more due to his nature than study.
I enjoy adding elements of Kain, from Legacy of Kain. Like Strahd, they were both Notable Warriors before they were vampires. So, to me it makes sense that Strahd would still know how to fight
Here's how I ran him: set up the confrontation location such that Strahd has lots of minions, and he has a wall he can pass through to a place the PCs can quickly get to. A round then goes like this: Strahd attacks and moves through a wall where he can't be attacked. The PCs are forced to fight the minions so they can't use ready actions. Strahd uses legendary actions to pop out, attack and go back where he is safe until it is his turn again. This way only one PC gets one chance per round to attack Strahd between legendary actions, all while the minions chip away at their HP. I could have wiped the whole party out this way, but once they killed Rhadin I had Strahd loose his cool and not fight so strategically to him them a chance. End results, 2 PCs dead-dead, 2 PCs taken down to 0HP and brought back, the other pretty banged up before Strahd was defeated. The fight took 3 sessions
Sounds epic! I think that's the way DMs should consider running him to make it memorable.
My first introduction to Strahd was in the Ravenloft Anthology Series that was put out back in the day. "I, Strahd," and its sequel are an amazing example of how to do a good villain protagonist and "Vampires of the Mist" shows how insidious the Mists are when manipulating the Darklords and the people it pulls in.
"I, Strahd," (much better than the sequel!) really opened my eyes about his character. He is such a "That Guy." Not an incel, as he is able to get with many women, and he does. But he pure entitlement he feels for Tatyana. I have SEEN that sort of thing in real life!
Also, I LOVE how the few True Believers are able to use their divine powers against him, while most clerical types are ineffective. I interpreted it as "The Gods have no power here, but FAITH can power spells. Therefore, Strahd must beat the faith out of the people." Also, I have decided that the cleric, or anyone else casting DIVINE spells, must succeed on a Wisdom Saving Throw. I'll set the DC as 15, at first, and as they proselytize, and gather more acolytes to their faith, their own faith grows, and the DC goes down. That works out well, because as soon as I finished the group Tarokka reading, the cleric said, "I want a reading for myself!" Fortunately, this was just before going on hiatus, for medical reasons.
The PC's backstories don't really affect much in Barovia, but I came up with individual quests for each of them. I claimed that they were each and as a group Touched By Mistress Fate. They weren't the first, but the gods hope they won't be the last. A small group of about 6 gods (plus Mistress Fate) really MISS their followers in Barovia, and have been working for centuries to break the souls free! Loki, the Trickster God, came up with a plan, that SHOULD work. It will, eventually, take an individual quest from EACH of the PC's.
After they kill Strahd, they also have to gather enough religious followers (and perform the right rituals at the right places) to weaken the wall around the demiplane. Once that is weakened, they go to the right spot, perform the right ritual, and they break it, and then, they can fight Vampyr, who set it all up, in the first place. Each of the PCs has already, before reaching Barovia, become rather enthusiastic about worshipping their chosen deities, and all their deities (plus Morninglord and Mother of Night, Raven Queen and Mistress Fate) have real reason to want Barovia free. Working together, they hope to accomplish what one god alone cannot. I think they'll ALL end up proseletizing for their own gods, although tecnically, only the Cleric (follows Loki) needs to find enough acolytes, plus one specific follower to join her against Vampyr.
It allowed me to get a special five-card reading for each PC, as part of a larger whole, all because of a certain chapter in "I, Strahd," where he went up against a very faithful cleric (or was it a monk? I need to read it again. Hahaha!).
I also used his "I am the Land," and combined it with "Caleb Widogast's Web of Words," (from Critical Role during the lockdown) and HIS "I am the Land," and came up with some very interesting lore for my game. I look forward to them solving that little riddle. But, thanks to reading, "I, Strahd," I made it out that Strahd really IS the land, and when he dies, there will be... surprises. Famine, for one, until someone else performs the ritual to take over, and THEY will be the land, and they will make the crops grow to feed the people. Hopefully, this time, it will be someone who is not so ravenous for human flesh/blood.
Someone on Reddit suggested using scenes from "I, Strahd," as prophetic dreams, that help clarify some things, such as his obsession with Ireena, and why he keeps calling her "Tatyana," as well as why his patient and doesn't freak out, even if she threatens to end herself, to save her brother and friends. I have it on Audible. I just need to bookmark the proper scenes, and they can "witness" them with the excellent narration. It will be cool.
I wasn't so fond of the sequel, but it did make me see how he would be particularly interested in luring in magic-users. He's going to like my party: One high charisma bard, a strong fighter, a strong cleric, and an intelligent wizard. Worthy companions? Possibly? Worthy successors? Possibly. Each of them have something to tempt him, which I only realized, because of reading the books about him.
Background research can REALLY change how you run a module, even while still keeping it mostly as written, with very little homebrew.
Re: Strahd and Forbiddance
I saw someone, somewhere, post that since Barovia and everything in it ultimately belongs to Strahd, he just figures that ALL residences are his, and he can do wherever he wants, without bothering with an invitation.
I like the Charm thing, too, but after reading I, Strahd, I kind of prefer the "everything belongs to me," attitude in the bad guy, meaning that he can attack and infiltrate a residence WITHOUT charming his way in, and face the battle, right away, if it suits his purposes.
I think that's a fine way to omit the residentce forbidance.
I think that was in the MandyMod or Dragnacarta stuff. The best way to do this is to have him abide by it for a while just to make the players think they're safe, only for him to reveal he's not bound by it at all when they least expect/most need it; use it to scare the absolute shit out of them with an epic monologue and just have him poof out of there in a cloud of bats after everyone wets themselves. It also works really well to throw the heat off Vasilli von Holt if you play up Strahd having to be invited in but let Vasilli come and go as he pleases.
He *is* the land, after all.
Weapon of wounding is my favorite weapon.
Very helpful guide. For years I've thought this stat block bites, but you have convinced me!
Your fang-sharp wit is never wasted on me, Bob!
Agreed. It's not the stat block. It's how it is played.
Similarly, a LOT of creatures are "more than their stat block," if you play them well. I REALLY LIKE "The Monsters Know What They Are Doing." It's a website and a published book, and it gives great ideas for how to play the enemy creatures your party may encounter.
Sure, a carrion crawler with an Int of 1 is not going to strategize, but even they have some things they instinctively know to do. Smart opponents can look easy, but be deadly.
Sunlight also gives him disadvantages on his attack rolls and ability checks! Much superior to running water, if you have a choice.
True! I should've mentioned that.
Unfortunately, the book specifically mentions that light is supernaturally suppressed in Barovia, and even during the day it doesn't actually count as sunlight for purposes like the vampire weakness
@@animefan1246if anyone in the party can wield the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind, then they can cast sunlight, which should completely override the cloud cover… for a while at least…
Favorite strahd moment was the first dinner party. The players just cleared death house and got invited to dinner to meet the lord of the land. After learning that he was a vampire from the local village, they came to dinner armed and ready. Strahd greeted them, gave the good food, music from his bard, and even brought in a priest whos son had tried to kill strahd. He gave the son back to the priest as long as he gave his word that he and his kin would never raise arms him again. Then he turned to the players and explained that they were just the latest in a long line of jokes sent to be killed by him. Sent by the gods to keep him from breaking out of his cell. He was done playing by the rules of a being who doesnt care or even watch over his land. He tried to recruit the party to spring him from the jail cell and to prove he was immortal, he had the fighter run him through with his longsword. Auto crit and hit then just healed the dmg after in front of the party. Watching the party fight itself on weather or not to join him was intense. They decided against it when they learned that his maid was heavily charmed so she was his personal blood bank/toy.
You can have Strahd pre-cast invisibility on Beaucephalus, so if he gets grappled or otherwise immobilized, Beaucephalus can Ethereal Dash him to safety.
Smart!
Bonus note:
Have Strahd cast _Greater Invisibility_ through _Glyph of Warding_ that way he doesn’t have to concentrate on it.
A bit behind the times. Thanks for putting your series together. As a returning DM to this module, it’s very helpful
One tip that may have been stated already: Strahd can’t - or shouldn’t - use Polymorph on himself as he is a shape changer.
Totally! A few people reminded me of that Polymorph detail.
I’ve read a number of articles and seen multiple videos and it seems to me that one use for Polymorph is overlooked. Strahd can cast it on the player that is carrying the the sun sword and/or amulet. If successful, the target and everything he or she is wearing and carrying is also changed. So that would take those items producing sunlight out of play. Once that happens, Strahd and his brides can have a feeding frenzy.
Great idea! That could be a good way to take the item off the board.
Know this is a year ago but in Barovia, the sunlight is so faint that Vampires are not affected by that specific limitation on Misty Escape
Correct, unless sunlight is produced from some other means like the Sunsword.
Such an underrated video. Thank you so much for this. Will definitely use this in my upcoming CoS campaign.
You're welcome, and thank you! Good luck with your campaign :)
I DMed strahd a while back, no changes to his stat block, played smart, played dirt, the fight took 8 hours to conclude....
My party is about to go against him. They think they're gonna ambush him, but he know's theyre coming and I've slightly buffed his brides. It's gonna be fun!
Great video, have been running the campaign for a while and watched many videos, but this one takes the cake for its intended purpose, really clear information on how to run him in combat!
I'm glad it was helpful. Thank you!
Excellent timing.
Prepare for an info dump, as I agree just saying levels without context doesn't help when discussing the fight.
My players just marched for their first (and final) assault on the castle (level 10, accompanied by Van Richten, Esmerelda, Kasimir (fated ally), and the Flesh Golem from the abbey (unnamed one, they wanted to protect the bride and asked Krezk for assistance. Belview family delivered a STR stick.).
As they don't know what they're doing in the labyrinth, they're slowly going through, aiming for the catacombs (but the elevator trap shot them up to the study and vault, where they found the Sun Sword. No Symbol of Ravenkind, they already put of Strahd a few times, and he showed up in person to decimate a boss (Izek Strazni post Ireena escape and his boss dying went to the Amber Temple and took all but the big 3 dark gifts to become a hulking abomination, Strahd killed him once he claimed to be "Stronger than Strahd himself!") and told them they are showing up after the temple period. This was encounter 2 with the big man, 1 being at the Winery where he calmly told them to give him his tome back, they all attacked at once, and he was entirely unharmed (level 6 or 7 party, under 50 damage, Heart of Sorrow transfer)).
They completely scouted out the study's floor (4 I think?) and went down to meet just the accountant, before the ground floor. They sat through the dinner that they were days late for, got to ask big man some questions while internally panicking that this guy found them before they were ready. Illusion broke after he basically told the Paladin he's a coward with no convictions if he wouldn't swing at him (he did). After that they went back to the first basement, got Kasimir back (elevator separated them, other NCPs are elsewhere in the castle trying to find the monster), and went to the catacombs. Just finished the room with still water, thrones, and Strahd Zombies.
This video gave me three WONDERFUL ideas.
1: When we jump back in, a (Greater) Invisible Strahd pounces from the ceiling to tear into the neck of the character with the Sun Sword, the only hint of what's going on being the water being tossed around and blood splattering on his figure before disappearing. He'd always been cordial up to this point, as he puts on airs to seem like the always controlling, even tempered Count. They have made him very, very upset. Post attack, he'll slink away through the walls.
2: The players see Van Richten as not only a hero, but as a troubled father figure (I make him gruff because he doesn't want kids to through their lives away, but he'll give up his to save them), and mentor. He's alone in the castle. He can be charmed. Now that'll even the odds some.
3: I am 100% putting Strahd on his Nightmare. They (sadly) already decimated the armor in a single round, but Strahd, his mount, Rahadin, the last surviving member of the Bonegrinder Coven, and Van Richten vs a party of 4 plus Kasimir, Esmerelda, and best case scenario Kasimir's sister? That seems like an epic battle.
If I can get a response or something on Sunday I can say how it goes, if you're interested. (We play on Strahderday.)
STRAHDERDAY! I love that!
Your game sounds like a blast. I love the idea of the invisible Strahd ambush and how you described it.
As a point of caution, I would be careful making Strahd's charm ability resemble mind control too much. Van Richten may see Strahd as an ally, but would he attack the party? That's up to you, of course, but I bring it up in case the players would find that unfair.
Please let me know how your next session goes! I'm especially interested to hear how Strahd + Beucephalus goes.
@@FlutesLoot You know, good point on the Charm Mind Control. I was thinking he'd just be more aligned to Strahd and openly defending him, but not attacking per say.
@@dreamwanderer5791 that sounds more reasonable to me! :)
My favourite part of the castle is the room with the hourglass and brazier. Between the temptingly breakable items, the doors that close automatically if they are broken, and the statues that come to life to kill you, it's a TPK room if there ever was one. I have yet to see a second tier party that could possibly deal with two hostile iron golems in an enclosed space.
Very true :D
Giving Stradh level 10 spellcasting instead of level 5 spellcasting was the perfect amount for me to keep him scary but ultimately they were able to defeat him after great sacrifice, which fit the theming of the module in my opinion
I gave him far more spellcasting the first time I ran it. It was fun, and there were some incredible moments with him casting Disintegrate.
I to have run strahd 3 times, im actually running my 4th now, my party just got through the Death house and Strahd had shown up and charmed one of the players, the charmed spell is grate and they are into it, so it so much fun,
I really think the Charm can be so fun when done right and when the group gets into it. Sounds fun!
I think this is great advice. If I run Strahd I will use your tips. Especially hiding in his castle and throwing his minions at the party to waste their resources and try to come from the shadows to charm and disorient them.
Our DM threw waves of mobs at us and it was a good fight. Strahd didn't last long against the Paladin who was using the Sunsword and smites, but overall the fight was enjoyable because Strahd would throw his minions at us and we basically had to tackle them away to give the Paladin a straight line to attack Strahd. The only regret is that I had just turned into a giant Gorilla when Strahd died so I did not get to smash the wolves. I mean I did in narration but not in combat.
Thank you!
I'm glad you mentioned that you could still narrate your gorilla form crushing the wolves. That's a skill that few players seem to grasp.
Ill just homebrew him make him a multi phase boss fight thats always fun give him a final form like castlevania dracula and make the ravenloft hear more interesting
right on
So, Strahd is Resistant to B, P, and S from non magical sources, and his bite does Necrotic damage that reduces max HP while healing him. I think you may be underestimating him in grapple. Not to mention he can still charm them or have his Children of the night all focus on the grappler.
Keep in mind the Strahd has specicically attempted to precharm the party, so it os highly likely that half of them will jump the grappler as soon as they try to start fighting.
Those are certainly things that can happen!
@flutesloot unless I’m misunderstanding your video and article, I think you are reading the bit mechanic wrong. You portray it as he can either attack unarmed twice or bite. That doesn’t appear to be how the stat block is written.
It says “Strahd makes two attacks, only one of which can be a bit attack”
This means he can’t bite twice. But he can unarmed attack twice or unarmed attack once and bite once.
This to me means he can unarmed attack. Attempt to grapple. If he succeeds, he can then bite. If he fails the grapple he can make another unarmed attack.
Please tell me if I’m wrong.
Sorry if I explained it poorly or incorrectly, but you are correct.
@@FlutesLoot thanks for the reply! I’m running curse of Strahd for the first time and all of the prep is intimidating. Your video and article have been very helpful. Though I got halfway through the article and put it on pause to finish reading the adventure. Thanks for the help!!
Just a quick note: I’m not sure if it was an errata or a misread, but my Strahd’s grapple only requires him to lose the 1d8+4 slashing damage, he can grapple off an unarmed strike and still seal the 4d6 necrotic. Additionally, monster grapples have a set DC to escape rather than being a contested check, in Strahd’s case a DC 18 check.
That is a detail that has escaped me until now! Thanks for pointing that out.
@@FlutesLoot No problem. I just pointed it out because I’m running CoS with a few close friends who I can only describe as powergaming gremlins (affectionately), so I wanted to see if the Unarmed/Unarmed or Grapple/Bite multiattack was more useful. Turns out, Unarmed/Unarmed still hits harder and is better for killing weak characters, but if it’s going to be two tanks fistfighting for 20-something turns then the bite is better because of that sweet sweet EHP.
@@jojo_dipshit good luck with your delightful gremlins :)
OH MY GOD thank you so much. That is a massive buff to what i thought he could do, being able to then bite and get that health back is gonna be amazing.
So I have Strahd as one of two modules I’m offering my core friends to play at some point when I get my new apartment and one of the friends moves in with me. I have the book and was thinking to keep my players on their toes I’d just have him silently watch them at least once in every town they’re in. And when they’re doing a long rest I throw in some dialogue where he’s just standing at their bed or by their window or just beyond the tree line. Always out of reach but NEVER too far.
Making his presence felt/seen is a great idea!
DM's forget how to properly play intelligent enemies. Strahd is highly intelligent and has eyes EVERYWHERE. He is going to go into their final confrontation knowing EXACTLY what the party can do, and will make a plan to deal with them.
DMs often hold themselves to a standard of not metagaming their DM knowledge into a monster's knowledge, but Strahd totally gives the DM a reason to plan around the party. Strahd should know what they can do, and the party should feel accomplished if they hide anything from him and his spies.
last time i ran CoS my players were dumb, they were level 9, had the sun sword, the amulet of raven kind, found most of the secrets of strahd and then completely failed to plan on how to actually fight him, the most the succeeded on doing was finding and destroying his coffin
strahd seeing they meant to kill him and had the means used guerilla tactics throughout the castle to whittle them down, striking from the ceiling, the walls, calling his pets, a fireball at the start put them on the back foot, killed the healer by polymorphing him into a rabbit while in the armoury then using 10 animated daggers to just pin cushion him
hit and run tactics throughout and by the time they remembered the symbol of ravenkind it was too late and the group were lost to the mists of barovia forever
Brutal! I have noticed players don't often strategize. Maybe they're afraid of the "metagame" word or they aren't used to losing.
I came back and revisited to write down the points and get a strategy together. I will rehearse this battle.
BTW, I saw "FL and I thought it meant that you were in Florida, LOL (Channel Initials).
Be well. THANK YOU
I was asking around about "Lair Actions" i heard:
"You need to use them all, before choosing the same one again"
"You cant choose the same lair action twice in a row"
But if you read in the Curse of strahd and monster manual. it is basically "Choose one to use this round"
A monster can use one Lair Action per round, triggering on Initiative count 20.
@@FlutesLoot Aka: i can spam the best one every round?
@@FlutesLoot Found out Strahd can spam one Lair action over and over.
Red Dragons cant do that, they cant use the same lair action twice in a row, Death Tyrants need to do their list of actions, before choosing the same one again..
Everyone i ask say "Cant do the same twice" btw. lol
Thanx for explaining Strahd. Sub+
Strahd can be very strong even with a not very good stat block, I get it. What I don't understand is how escaping at virtually any time with the phasing and misty escape and charming the entire group for an easy victory (or at leas to delay the fight and regenerate) can be fun, because some people talk about it a lot, but in my point of view this will simply obliterate any party with a less than optimal strategy and cohesive group thinking, which in my experience is 90% of the groups I play, because ideal and strategic thinking is almost always not fun for the entire group, and I speak this as an optimizer myself.
In my opinion, Strahd in Castle Ravenloft, without the need for homebrew, is potentially the most interesting and exciting boss fight in all of 5e's published campaigns. It involves knowing his weaknesses and figuring out how to shut him down, not just rolling attacks until the side with the superior action economy wins. I suggest focusing on that throughout the campaign to set the party up to succeed. If a DM doesn't play the whole campaign as a setup for this fight, it could be as unfun as you suggest.
Ok, get this: Strahd fighting alongside his animated armor and periodically mist forming within the armor to deal a more devastating attack and benefit from AC
Ooo that's neat
a lot of my players have resistances to Charm so I was thinking maybe to have him hide out in a swarm of bats in wide open locations and charming the PCs that I can while they deal with some much bigger encounters. like in the courtyard area, I was thinking of throwing the wyverns that flew away after 2 of them were killed off and literally throwing over a railing the mongrelfolk after polymorphing him.
Yeah, it's a war of attrition with his Charm, even if they have resistance.
I'm not sure I understand the wyvern polymorph stuff. Can you explain?
@@FlutesLoot area 7 has about 4 red dragon Wyrmlings standing guard. My bad. My party fought them once before when they were just invited to dinner and after losing 2 they ran away. So since there really isn't anything happening in the courtyard I figured I could throw a couple of big monsters at them.
@@mileslugo6430 ah I understand now, thanks :)
As a party, we defeated Strahd in about 4-5 rounds. He was a pushover. When I ran CoS as a DM, I buffed Strahd and made him truly a scary foe. Then my players curbed stomped him anyways. I would never run Curse of Strahd again however. Most of my players can't handle the dark setting. It was depressing for me as well as I struggled with my players complaining that they felt helpless when that is the point of the module. You need a group of people who are chill.
There is a balance act to avoid feelings of hopelessness from the players and/or their characters. Chill groups are nice though.
Unfortunately i fear the only way to balance Strahd out is give him perhaps a final phase that, while not mitigating the affects of sunlight, decrease its affect on him. Perhaps a shroud of shadow that even the sunsword struggles to pierce surrounds him, as he taps into his true potential as the First Vampyr. The disadvantage from sunlight on attack rolls and ability checks is gone, and he takes half damage from sunlight. While this may seem unfair I feel like players are just flat out going to enjoy a battle where they barely squeak out a victory than one where they roflstomp him.
You have outdone yourself with all of this. The moment Strahd started talking I lost it and then it turned into an ad and I appreciate it so much more hahaha. But I reallllllly appreciate this information in video form alongside your article you wrote. I feel so unbelievably prepped to run Strahd really because I binged so much of your content hahah
That's exactly what I want to hear! Especially about making you laugh with the ad.
My dm is making strahd so damn cool, he is so calm but when he needs to use brute force damn... every time we speak with the vampire we piss our pants
That's the vibe I went with as the DM and I don't regret it. :)
A creature is behind total cover while in a wall of force. I'd say light would stop affecting him while inside.
I would agree but for the detail that the wall of force is invisible. If you can see inside/through the wall, that means light is passing through.
thank god for this video I'm starting to play soon
You can always do the same as my DM for his BBEG for ours 10th lvl character. Just give him two 9th level spell slots and 'dark star' spell.
btw. Still don't know how we did not killed him dealing 420 dmg (he escaped). Also nice video.
Thank you! And that is a curious escape lol
I'm not adding 9th level spells, but I did decide to give Strahd a few scrolls and potions.
Three potions of Superior Healing. HAHAHHAHAHAHAAAAA! I am evil. And three scrolls of Disintegrate. He won't use them willy nilly, but in the boss fight? Yeah, he'll use them. He knows he'll be able to get more, eventually. Adventurers bring STUFF, and his collection keeps growing, right? Finally, I'm giving him an Amulet of Shielding, with 3 charges per day. Shield is a great way to ANNOY your players, and the amulet means he saves his spell slots.
Something I have also thought of doing was giving him Barovia lair actions as in the book it says that he is part of the land
Brilliant!
Oh....I regret using my paralyzing poison on Morgantha now.
Small not on strahds vampiric weakness, strahd effectively has no vampire weaknesses. Strahd owns the whole of the lands of Berovia/raven loft, he is the lord of all the lands in his kingdom, there is no house in the campaign he can't enter unless it's hallowed ground. Also because of his regional effects there is no running water or sunlight in Berovia so he doesn't suffer those outside of spells and items the players bring
Why do you say there's no running water? There are waterfalls, for example.
1:47 In my next game, Strahd will have new minions -- Spinner and Paddlefoot.
One change I always try to make with Strahd(and technically you can consider this a nerf) I switch out his fireball spell for something else.
I don’t understand why anyone would ever give a vampire a fireball spell. There entire deal is that they tend to be in crypts or castles. Inclosed spaces. They also tend to be very vain and make themselves and their layers lavish.
So why would a vampire cast an explosion that just destroys wherever they were fighting. Especially in Strahds case why would he want to damage Ravenloft? I like to give him lightning bolt.
If the party I’m up against is really over powered I give him chain lightning so he can really punish characters who try to bum rush in groups that are close together
Much more thematic, agreed
I'm gonna start Curse of Strahd next week, i suspect one of the players went searching for his weaknesses because he's chosing a grappling barb with expertise....
I'm a bit orried about him so i ill give to Strahd the "Oil Of Slipperiness" at least in the last fight to get that Freedom of Movement..
He is a tactitian afterall, being prepared to fight those pesky grapples should be his priority.
It's common for players to want to grapple well, particularly for Barbarians. I wouldn't assume, by that preference, that your player was planning around Strahd's weaknesses. Even if so, Strahd has ways to get around, like turning to mist. I'd be careful with something like Oil of Slipperiness that will invalidate what a player earnestly wants to do from character creation.
I'm gonna pick option B. Buff Strahd to CR 17, mix him with his Dead House Eve of Ruin statblock, add the Haunted Zones to his Lair Actions in Castle Ravenloft, and THEN play him as smart as possible with improved spellcasting. :D My players are insanely OP tho, so its fine.
That's probably option A as most people seem to homebrew him. :P
I have an undead warlock with strahd as a patron in my party. Slowly they're starting to realise how evil Strahd really is as they continue to explore. I'm not sure how I'm going to rule it later on when they may oppose Strahd. Would he take the powers away? Would he let them keep them as a means of honorable fighting? If he takes them, what is the final straw? Always so much to think about as a DM.
Loved the video. Movement being key is some great advice, feeling a lot better about my combat with him now.
I'm glad the video was helpful!
The simplest method would be for the powers to not be immediately withdrawn; they could dissipate over time. This would motivate the Warlock to attack Strahd when powers begin to dissipate, before losing power. You could also take away subclass features but keep Warlock class features.
The more complicated method would be to figure out what the Warlock would be able to do if all powers could be taken away in an instant.
Regardless of the method, make sure the player understands how it works or it could lead to hard feelings.
You can remove hes powers with time and if he want to keep them he can get a New patron on barovia Maybe Sergei ghost?
One of my players changed character since they had to go on hiatus and decided to just make a new one upon returning. Their old character is now a new bride to Strahd, with undead warlock and vampire powers. She will help him in the final fight.
My grievance with Strahd's statblock is that it quite literally *is* a standard Vampire Spellcaster with a modified spell list and Lair actions. The repeat charm included. One of the fairest ways I know to buff a stablock without making it absurd is to give the monster feats as if the Challenge Rating is its level. For Strahd, that's three feats, four if you allow Starter feats, which I do. If that seems too overkill, make it so Strahd has "half player feats rounded down" like a proper rule. That'll be at least one feat, two if you allow Starters.
Throw in a couple of magic items and you've got a boss worth talking about. My recommendation? Amulet of Protection Against Turning, Cape of the Mountebank and Boots of Haste. If you add the Mystic Conflux feat which allows a 4th attunement, a Pearl of Power is a reasonable option. Bracers of Defense could also help if your Strahd is inclined for up-close and personal combat. Gloves of Missle Snaring or a Ring of Evasion will help demonstrate the supernatural speed of Strahd von Barovich, while also conserving his Legendary Resistances for avoiding spells.
Great ideas! Items and feats are tame ways to strengthen him (and any "boss") without reinventing the statblock entirely.
@FlutesLoot Another idea is adding the Scout Rogue's 'Skirmisher' ability. If a hostile creature ends its turn within 5 feet of Strahd, he can use his reaction to move up to half his speed without provoking opportunity attacks. This would keep him constantly moving and avoid getting cornered or the party grouping up on him.
@@MrSoup-zs4rd definitely!
Btw .. great integration of video theme with sponsor ad. This reminds me of 50s or 60s US TV where ads were as engaging as the program
I wanted it to feel fun and not invasive, so thank you! :D
this was originally written as a 1st ed module, and they neutered undead in 5e while also making it basically a super hero game, or dnd with training wheels for the players.
nice
@@FlutesLoot point is none of this was an issue before. A vampire in 1st ed drains 2 levels from a character per hit. its impossible to convey that type of dread in 5e. Unless you use 1st ed ideas.
@@xaxzander4633 I agree, undead were much scarier in other editions. Level drain was brutal. Most of the old-school gamers I know say they're glad it's not in the game anymore, and they like the deadly stuff. They thought it was tedious.
@@FlutesLoot and thus my comment, if you wish to play a game that was written for another game, then claim most people wish it never existed, at the same time attempting to make strahd harder, you clearly never even tried it the old way.
My video doesn't make Strahd harder. It explains how to use him in 5e. I actually like level drain stuff. I have a video about it.
Hmm, my answer to this dilema was to make shapechange a bonus action, and make Cast a spell one of his legendary actions (costing 2 points). I also updated his spellcasting to include a few extra spells, Adding Cone of Cold, Dimension Door, Phantasmal killer, Counterspell, Lightning Bolt, Haste, Vampiric Touch, Summon undead, Hold person, Blidness deafness, Cloud of daggers, Invisibility, Ray of enfeeblement, Shocking Grasp, Chill touch.
I also took a page from the old 3.5 Stradh and brought back the 3 fanes that give him buff. Mountain fane +10 ac, Swamp fane resistance to all damage types and forest fane constant nondetection and freedom of movement. The players needed to destroy these fanes in order to remove these buffs from him or the fight would be much harder.
Great twists. How many of those spells did you end up using? Did the players ever fight him with fane buffs?
@@FlutesLoot I played the game Expedition to castle ravenloth (dnd 3.5 edition) quite a few time and still own that book but since then we moved on to 5th edition. We started the game again recently cause we wanted a horror themed game for halloween. Now I've taken a number of elements from the 3.5 version and carried them over to my 5th edition game. I started the game at 3rd level and I used 2 hooks to bring the players in. They started out venturing forth from Baldur gate because of rumours of travelers going missing on the road and stories about wolf attacks (possibly werewolves).
The players geared up for werewolves and went searching for these wolves to make the roads safe again, night came and they stopped at a traveler's inn for the night. This is were a stranger appeared and told them about a land called barovia beset by evil nearby, he offered them the burgomaster letter and told them how to get there. They followed his directions and were swallowed by the creeping fog and brough to barovia. They found the town of barovia besieged by undead. They fought some stradh zombies and other undead creatures and found the townsfolk barricated in the town center. After a small boss fight with an undead creature I created (5th edition version of an etomber from the libris mortis) they reached level 4 and are directed to the local church which seems to be source of the undead attack on the town. They head over and end fighting a buffed (5th level cleric) Father donavich who has been possesed by a page from the Necronomicon (a gift from stradh) they have no choice but to fight and several undead join the battle and while attemping to reach father donvich the floor collapses and two party members fall into the basement. Were they are attacked by Doru the starved vampire spawn kept captive in the basement. It was a hard battle but they ended up killing both Donavich and Doru (I had planned that they could save Donavich in a few different ways but just in case I had also prepared a journal writen by Donavich detailing what had happened to him). His son was killed when he tried to attack castle ravenloth a year ago following a powerfull wizard who tried to rally the villagers on an attack on the castle. Donavich recovered his son's body and in his terrible grief used a page from an evil book that he "found" to bring his son back albeith as an undead monster. Horrified at what he had done he locked his son in the basement but as the magic of the page took control of his mind he slowly descended into madness. With the danger of the undead neutralized the group went on to look for the burgomaster who sent them the letter asking for help. They learn he is dead and head to his house to speak to his daughter. As they make their way to the Burgomaster's mansion they are attacked by swarms of bats and some large wolves. They manage to get inside and speak to Irena who tells them the whole story of Stradh and Barovia. They decided to spend the night here and rest. However cautious the party decided to maintain a guard during the night and sleep in shifts. This paid off because they heard a noise during the night and found none other than Count Stradh Von Zarovich come for one of his night visits to Irena. He dances with Irena who is bleeding from the neck, she has been charmed and is under his control. He casually greets the pc's as they arrive to confront him and after a few words they attack (as I knew they would they have an undead hating paladin in the party afterall). Stradh is fully buffed by the fanes and way above their challenge level but he is amused and has no intention on killing them. He wants to test them and see if they are worth turning into vampires. He starts off with a lighning bolt, hiting the rogue and paladin. They survive and he congratulates them for meeting the minimum prerequisite to be worth his attention. The fight goes on uses a few weaker spells chill touch, ray of frost, and his claws as legendary actions. He drops the paladin and at this time Irena breaks free of his charm and attacks him. He is caught of guard but quickly composes himself. He says he has had enough fun for tonight and will return to collect Irena once he has finished his preperations for the wedding and dimension doors away.
This is as far as we got. This time stradh didn't go all out (obviously cause they would be dead if he did) I plan on Stradh leaving them alone now until they destroy a fane. At which point he will send a full fledge vampire after them. I plan on running this a pure horror/grimdark campaing and my players include three long time (10+ years) veterans and somewhat experience player (2 years) so to keep thins interesting for them I need to make the fights harder than they are in the book or for them it will be a cakewalk and I want them to fear for their lives lol. I told them this game the gloves were coming in off and I was coming for them lmao. The real fight againts Strahd is still far off but I plan on them fighting him another time or two before the final confontration were he will finnaly go all out.
I would also add Reverse gravity and others telekinetic or mind manipulation spells like encode thoughts
Hey I hope you see this because you've been suuuuuper helpful in improving my DMing for this campaign.
QUESTION:
How do I get the players to dip in and out of Castle Ravenloft when they see the Castle AS part of the final boss fight, something not to be touched until the end?
You recommend using the Castle more than once in your other video and I really want them to try exploring Ravenloft for information or specific gear, but they've absolutely internalized that it's Strahd's Lair and he is most at home there. What reason can I give, or what situation can I construct, where they would feel either the necessity or the ability to range into the Castle and survive?
Hi! Here are a few thoughts:
1) I recommend telling your group that while the castle is dangerous, it won't trigger the end of the campaign to go there. There is much to explore that will help them in their quest to enjoy the campaign. Tell them so! :) Strahd or one of his closest allies, like Rahadin, may also tell them this if you prefer to have the prompt in-game.
2) It may be too late in your campaign, but placing one of the 3 Fortunes of Ravenloft items in the castle is a natural way to get them there.
3) The dinner invitation.
4) An ally or NPC must go to the castle, and they request the party to accompany them for protection or whatever. Strahd could even do this as his Vasili persona to prompt the players to go to the castle while being among them to learn more about them.
5) NPCs can spread rumors about magic items and other treasures in the castle. For example, someone heard about the Luck Blade that an adventurer had and wondered what happened to it.
6) Have NPCs speak openly about people who have gone to the castle on business or to attend a banquet/gala and lived. Maybe they even enjoyed themselves despite the eerie setting. Strahd is a lord of the land and regularly has certain people attend the castle.
7) Prompt the party with the werewolf den plot line to free Emil from the castle dungeon.
8) Prompt the party with the Mad Mary plot line to find Gertruda in the castle.
9) Have an ally or even a party member become captured in the castle. Captured in the way that Belle was captured and able to explore in Beauty & the Beast, but give limits and chores as they work with Cyrus to upkeep the castle.
10) Prompt the party with the skull of Argynvost plot line to find the dragon skull in the castle.
11) An alliance with Kasimir will pull the players eventually to the crypts.
I beefed up my strahd because my party wants to go to level 20
That's a great reason!
@@FlutesLoot mostly just fused him with the illrigger
My party started with the Essentials Kit (Dragon of IceSpire Peak), and then I got Curse of Strahd. So, they are going into Barovia with some magic gear and at Level 5. I have already promised them BEEFED UP enemies. Not every encounter, of course, but the low-level bosses will be higher-level bosses, for sure. Also, more minions.
Even so, Strahd is CR 15, and the module, as written, has your characters going against him at level 10 or 11, right?
I'm playing him MOSTLY as written, but with another 5th level spell slot (10th level wizard), and a few potions, scrolls, and a magical item or two. Potions of Supreme Healing mean that he, effectively, has WAY more hit points, unless they manage to force him to skip out on taking the potion. Also, if he can charm a cleric, there's no reason not to position that cleric right next to the Heart of Sorrow, and just cast healing spells at it, all through the battle.
Will it turn into an HP grind? Maybe. Will it bump up the challenge rating? Yep.
Just imagine the Abbot healing the Heart, while the party chases Strahd up, down, and all around Ravenloft. Hahahahaha. Of course, they can take down the Abbot, to allow them to finally finish Strahd, but they have to realize what's up and THINK of it, first.
Idk....my Tiefling Paladin pretty much solo'd him with a Flametongue.
Probably shouldn't have, just saying 😅
Dude vampires have the strongest ability to make an army even stronger than necromancy wizard or a lich, i once had a commoner becoming a vampire and he barely escaped the party, in just 3 days of running dude made 27 vampire spawns, party were just a day slower to reach a small village(they were lucky it was just 27 people) and vampire massacered everyone and burried them and that one day lead was enough for a whole village of people to rise as vampire spawn, like how do you even deal with that, if i was just a regular vampire i would be apocalypse manifested
If they were all single-minded, I'm sure it would go that way. They have significant weaknesses, though.
I would like to use his cape kind of like in Spawn with it's own hp and spells
That's a fun idea
If wall of force is used as a dome.. could not Strahd just use is pass through walls just to drop down a floor?
It has been clarified that the dome has a floor (I can't find the reference), but it makes sense since it can be a sphere that is larger, therefore leaving enough surface area to create the floor. Even if not, players can use the boxing option just as effectively (which is another reason it makes sense to give it a floor).
Is it possible yo have strahd charm all the NPCs and then in the final fight have him phase into a locked room with a charmed noc that he can drain. He cam also have them fight the npc and try to suicide off the edge of things.
That seems feasible to me
Gertruda could be the NPC if they haven't convinced her to leave / freed her.
Strahd being an easy kill is completely the fault of the DM. Just as this video states you don't really have to give Strahd any additional powers just play him properly. Strahd is a military genius and has spent countless ages using adventurers as his personal play things. He isn't just going to walk into the center of the map and stand there going back and forth in melee combat just rolling the dice. As the DM you have to play him as smart and tactical as he is. Especially if youngave him inside the castle and why would he allownthe final battle to take place anywhere else. The final battle innthe bottom of the castle crypt shoukd not be the first time the party faces him either. Strahd needs to interact with the party throughout the entire campaign. The players are just toys there for Strahd's amusement and they should be reminded of this fact during the campaign many times. I like the idea of starting the fight high in the towers and having it move down and through the castle ending in the crypts. Strahd is smart he will wear down the party. Force them to use up their respurces, spell slots, etc. Then when they are tired, bloody, and at the their end l, then and only then will he stand and fight.
Honestly I think what it has to do with is the rule setting you guys are using because Strahd was far more formidable in other rule settings
WotC prints 5e boss monsters that are disappointing if DMs don't heavily consider how to run them or homebrew them.
I think he needs a beef up, otherwise i can't play him as aggressive as I want. i dont want him to be forced to fight in the castle, he should be a thread everywhere in barovia
I believe he's a threat elsewhere, but for a final boss when the campaign has prepared the players with items and knowledge to specifically kill Strahd, the castle is the best place cinematically and tactically :)
@@FlutesLoot but in i dort befinden him, i need to play Him live a coward hiding in his castle
You wouldn't have a prepared sort of maps and everything campaign for roll20?
Good question! I have a Roll20 CoS campaign that I can turn to, but I often had to delete old maps to prevent the site from crashing or slowing to a crawl. For that reason, I don't have everything all sorted out and ready to go, though I have a pretty good Castle Ravenloft setup because I only want to do that once and will never delete it, haha. It uses the maps that I purchased from the DMs Guild that I link to in the description and mention in the video, so I wouldn't feel comfortable distributing that content without permission from the creator.
Moat of the PCs in my game are immune to charm😢
Oh, how did they gain that immunity?
@FlutesLoot gnome and mostly elves and half-elves. Not immune , but advantage against saves vs charm. I mistated when I said 'immune'.
There's no reason you can't give him misty step and flavor it as a temporary mist form.
Also, at 25:10, is that advice for players? Kind of metagamey for them to purposely only encounter him at the destined spots, at least in the beginning when they don't know any better and should just expect his entourage.
Yes, it's reasonable to give him Misty Step.
No, it's advice for the DM to anticipate what players will be motivated to do by the game itself. It also helps DMs who may not know why the destined location matters (a truth I've encountered often).
@@FlutesLoot ah ok cool, thanks! I have been wanting to run, but still haven’t so I appreciate the advice 😁
@@FlutesLoot actually... Why does the destined location matter specifically? Other than you're absolutely sure he'll be there?
@@omnisquirrel the CoS book says Strahd will always be accompanied by creatures determined on a random table, UNLESS he is encountered in his tomb (because he's probably recovering from "dying") or the destined location. In other words, he won't have his automatic swarm of minions in the destined location.
@@FlutesLoot I don't know how I missed that in your video... But that would definitely make him more vulnerable, right! Thank you!
It’s pathetic what 5e did to Ravenloft. I’ll stick with AD&D
That's fine
@@FlutesLoot no you are! 😉
@@codychavez9839 😆
WOTC was getting increasingly bad at game design, and I think by now their team consists of the worst game designers they could find on the planet. But the average DM/Player is really bad at running the game, and especially monsters.
I mean case in point, you made a mistake in assuming that Strahd follows the same rules for grappling as the PCs, by saying "[He] doesn't have great modifiers for grappling" and showing the +4 Athletics. Per the statblock, he rolls the +9 to hit, and then if he hits, he can grapple them instead of dealing damage. So it's decent, at least.
Not making a comment on the general strategy of whether he should or not, just saying. Tho grappling an out-of-position PC that is squishy and relies on not allowing the enemy to get any attacks in lest he get nuked in a round or two seems like a good idea.
I assume I was referring to his inability to maintain a grapple if someone attempts to break it with a contested roll (feel free to time-stamp what I said). Additionally, forced movement is increasingly common as more character options have been added to 5e, so a grappled creature and the grappler can be separated without rolling. That can be done without a huge drain on the players' action economy, too.
What drove you to your statements about the design team and the average people playing the game?
@@FlutesLoot The premise on which the video is based on: the complaints that Strahd is too weak and underwhelming, which is also repeated in a billion stories of how "my players took out my big bad in a single round"
Is the art in this video ai?
I don't recall what ratio of the art is ai but I had fun with Midjourney trying to cook up Strahd and Barovian scenes that I've never seen depicted
@@FlutesLoot aw that's a shame. I would have much rather real human artists, commissioned or even just using existing artwork and crediting it
AI art is still great. Thanks for the video!
I think giving him a sword could be fun, and add to the “evil noble” vibe.
Yeah, feels right
Yeah, but only when the party has 8 levels at least, lol. Peasant scrubs don't deserve steel to gullet
I'd add a bit of flair like it's a longsword or shortsword manifested from shadow into steel or pulled from the blood spilled from his chalice. Or tske a page from warcraft and have it be a sentient antithesis to the sun sword that can fly around by itself
I really like giving him Blackrazor, and having him keep it sheathed almost all the time. I mention it over and over that he has a sword, and he never draws it in the many skirmishes with him preceding the final fight. When he finally draws it, and he's regenerating with every hit despite the sunlight, he's really scary. Just spread out his attacks, that thing's a menace.
2nd edition he had a +4 bastard sword. So longsword in 5e.
A Moonbeam spell delivering the final blow will kill Strahd as it prevents him from misting.
Are you referring to the shapechanger bit of the spell? Haha that's a funny gray area.
For me, this fight is pretty far away. In lieu of this, I reworked the module to where Strahd gave them the option to play a "Cat and Mouse" game with him. As they search for ways to defeat him, he will be searching for them or ways to impede them. For this, I made a list of options on the map that he/his minions could go. If the PCs are there, he will stalk/fight them. If they are not where he's searching, he could disrupt the area. Depending on where he is and how well he rolls, he could kill/capture/turn an ally, destroy/capture a powerful item, or make encounters more difficult for the PCs. 1st roll, he has already found and captured Van Richten while they're rescuing Ireena in Barovia. Without Van Richten, the party will run into his starving Sabertooth Tiger. They can find Van Richten at Ravenloft, but if they don't rescue him in 3 weeks, he'll be a broken puppet of Strahd's.
I think yours is a great alternative method that stands out from the usual boss battle in 5e!
I'm running a "Barovia Unionizes" type game where the party is all NPCs at a higher level than when you start normally, so I may just have to take this idea. Would you mind if I did so?
Do you still have access to the list. I'm a PC that's secretly Strahd and would love to introduce this to the DM
@@elijahcortez3352 Not at this time. Just break the sections of the map into numbers (i.e. A=1), and let your DM make a determination of how that should play out for W/L conditions/outcomes. You can also throw in the "haunted environment" table for more creepiness.
Why are the brides' dresses so worn and tattered? The man OWNS Barovia. Surely he can afford to buy them new clothes.
In fact, I recall one person saying that the party should meet Strahd early, and one way to do that is for Strahd and his brides to be on a shopping spree one night. That would work well in Vallaki, I suppose, or else in the Village of Barovia, after the PCs fail miserably in haggling with the proprietor of the only store in town, only to see a handsome man and three beautiful women come in, grab anything they want, and pay a pittance for it, because "Of COURSE, My Lord!" He could be charmed, or he could be terrified, but either way, Strahd gets his goods at cost or below.
I think it would be appropriate for an ABANDONED bride to have worn clothing, even if she keeps her jewels, but the three very much still at his side brides? No. They should always look their best.
That's certainly a fair interpretation! I also think it's fair to have the clothes tattered as an indication that Strahd is an abuser who doesn't intend to treat anyone well.
@@FlutesLoot First of all, thank you for the video. It's been both entertaining and helpful. On the topic of Strahd being an abuser, I would like to respectfully disagree. After having read both volumes of I, Strahd, I don't see him having the personality of a domestic abuser. He's a prideful noble, but he very much understands the value of loyalty and doesn't abuse his subjects. He is harsh in his punishments for any law breakers, but on the whole, law abiding folks in his land have little to fear from him. The evidence of that in the CoS module itself is Rahadin's unwavering loyalty to him. People just don't vest that kind of loyalty into someone who treats them poorly. His brides may feel neglected emotionally as he is so vested in wooing the current reincarnation of Tatyana, but there is no reason for him to mistreat them by neglecting their worldly needs, like clothes appropriate for companions of Barovia's sovereign lord. Also, his pride would take it very poorly if anyone could accuse him of being miserly.
I just wanted to mention this as it seems to me that I, Strahd novels make much better job in portraying him than the CoS module does :)
@@ciarandwynvil273 I'm glad you mention this because it's much more interesting, in my opinion, to take the angle you described.
I like to change his stats to be more in line with what it’s portrayed in the I, Strahd novels so he gets an hp buff and can cast higher level spells. Plus I like taking inspiration from other sources on vampires to make even more of a challenge for my players, plus they like where I draw some extra stuff from sometimes
My party fought Strahd 2 levels early, while he was with his brides AND the Abbot from Krezk, AND he was resurrected when he ran out of HP the first time, AND they didn't bother screwing with the Heart, AAAAND it was immediately after they fought the whole wolf pack, then Rahadin and the gargoyles... And it was easy for them.
The problem is the baked-in solution of the module for fighting him. The Symbol and Sunsword just body him so hard that hardly anything else matters. His charm requires the player can see him, so every person has the option of "I close my eyes," especially the one with the symbol. Close eyes, dodge, relocate as needed. Those two items just require you to be in the room and you're doing damage to him every turn and negating his regen.
This is why I'm giving him one important spell: Maddening Darkness. He needs a way to fight back against the sunlight or he simply will melt. He's only going to be able to cast it once, but it buys him time to regen, puts a wall between him and the Sunsword or Symbol, and even dispels their effect if they're nearby when he uses it. Plus it does enough damage that the party might back off, and without Devil's Sight, they can't teleport through it easily in Ravenloft's cramped corridors. Now they're the ones that can't fight on his terms, they're the ones that either have to delve into darkness to fight him or back off.
Plus, thematically, it's very poetic. It becomes a battle of light and dark, an ebb and flow with no clear supremacy either way. Vampires depend on their regen to stick around for any length of time, and those two artifacts deny it completely. Without it, they do not have the health pool to have staying power. Minions are not a deterrent for this, RAW. The party can easily just ignore all the minions and burst down Strahd in a few turns, most likely, which is why a lot of DMs end up just kiting around with his legendary actions and the incorporeality. No mist form in the sunlight to save him, so he almost has to run.
Strahd is haughty and proud. It really feels against his character for his fighting style to be "I run like a bitch until they blow all their spell slots on minions, then bite their ankles through the floor."
Put Strahd on his horse. Make him a formidable cavalry general. Give him a way to battle the sunlight spam that doesn't involve him fleeing on round 1, but doesn't feel like you're just removing the weakness. Strahd not ever finding a way to deal with these legendary items that pose the biggest threat to him over everything makes him seem stupid, like someone should've killed him by now.
He's supposed to be ancient, the slayer of many parties before you. If he just accomplished that by kiting... Meh. Feels like he's exploiting a video game more than being an immortal vampire king.
I always have heaps of questions about why someone says the fight was easy, especially since the way you described it I can't really fathom how it was easy, but it's alright. It's different for everyone and it is what it is, haha. :P
I particularly disagree with "close my eyes" as a viable option for long, but I think it's great if players discover *how* to fight Strahd and they're smart about the confrontation, something I discussed in the video.
I also went to a comic con panel where the creators of Ravenloft spoke about Strahd and I agreed with them that vampire were originally monsters who were manipulators and abusers that seduce people. I think it's fine to play up that side of Strahd, and I think it's fitting.
I believe it's because CoS is a long campaign, (and with most groups) by the time they finally reach Ravenloft for the BBEG Boss fight, which, if done to its entirety, is epic and quite long in of itself, the DM plays Ravenloft Castle and Strahd weakly. Why? Because they are exhausted with CoS and (somewhat want it to end) but more importantly and most likely happening... Barovia forbid PCs die and cry after investing that much time in a campaign. If its 2 things I feel you MUST do for Cos is (SPOILERS): 1) Make Death House more than just its namesake. Write a murder mystery, centuries old, for the players to solve, about Durst Manor and Rose and Thorn's Parents, that the players can expand on... but most importantly... make the Ravenloft and Strahd battle EPIC!!! Everything in between Death House and Ravenloft is still good and fun, but less than Ravenloft. Ravenloft Castle is the epic battle!!!! I assure you... NONE of my players thought Death House sucked or that Ravenloft Castle and Strahd was a pushover or underwhelming BBEG!!!
Same here! Death House and Ravenloft Castle should be epic bookends to the campaign.
Thank you SO much for this! I have been simultaneously anticipating yet dreading the final battle with Strahd, but now you have given me so many ideas and I will definitely put them to use!
You're welcome and good luck! :D
Good sir, excellent video. I’m prepping to run the adventure and I envision Strahd as a dangerous and Lethal opponent.
Rightfully so! Enjoy the prep and eventual game :)
Thank you so much for the video and THE MAPS!! So good just bought them.
You're welcome! Enjoy those maps :)
Strahd was the first module I ran for my long time group and the final fight was epic and took 3 sessions. No homebrew since he was originally a wizard so I prepared diffrent spells for him and that helped. He almost won too.
I don't know have to worry about wall of force because I will just give Strahd counterspell and dispel magic. The stat block isn't set in stone. Don't be afriad to just make Strahd more powerful
Counterspell might save him in the right circumstances, but smart players will just go more than 60 feet away out of Counterspell range. Dispel Magic won't help against Wall of Force because WoF specifically says Dispel Magic won't dispel it. Having said that, this video was really more to help people who want to optimize Strahd as he is and to point out that the minions and the castle are essential.
Im surprised that strahd only gets 3 legendary actions. The whole world is his playground! He doesn't care unless someone isn't a part of his scemes and fun games he has created! Depending on your player skills. I'd modify any monster to fit their needs of excitement. But strahd and the boss battles of the land should make your players feel like the gravity around them from their POWER LEVEL BEING OVER 9000 so daunting!
Do you mean lair actions? You seem to be talking about the environment. It'd be cool to give Strahd lair actions in other parts of Barovia.
I just found out Strahd is a actual character, and was not a made up vampire sounding char name for that one cartoon.
Honestly, the way I do it is adding new stuff. Old lore.
Lyssa von Zarovich as an ally to the party.
If Strahd feels anger, have him spawn TWO of The Angry. Those are deadly creatures. Strahd's other 3 wives there with him. All part of the final fight.
They're actually called The Angry?
Does Roll20 have the maps for the campaign and the tokens? WTH a proper subscription?
I've not explored what's already created for Roll20, but those could be massive time savers if they're good.
Appreciate the video. Im preparing to run strahd for the first time. I only have 3 players although experienced im worried that if i employ all the tactics youve outlined that not only will it not really be fun they wont stand a chance.
I get strahd wont fight fair but how do i as a dm ensure that my players are capable to withstand a full length fight from the top of the tower to the bottom with strahd dping everything he can to survive and win?
I recommend liberally rewarding players with information about Strahd as they explore Barovia, seek their destined items, and form alliances. Tell your players out-of-game that if they want to survive, they'll need to know as much about Strahd as possible to anticipate and counter his strengths.
Could Strahd cast polimorph in a zombie? That would be almost unfair.
Yes, but the CR must match the zombie, so it wouldn't be spectacular.
29:54 I CANNOT BELIEVE YOU JUST STUCK A CUP OVER HIM 💀 CRYING WHERE'S A CREDIT CARD TO SLIDE UNDERNEATH
🤣🤣 "look what they did to my boy"
In your sessions did it occur that Strahd charmed a pc on 1 hp and then cast polymorph on that pc, hereby giving that pc the order to block or patrol an area where the other pc's need to go passed in order to get the Stradh? Or is that too farfetched? If that happened can you elaborate on it?
I've not encountered that scenario, and I'm not clear on some of the details as to what's trying to be accomplished.
When Strahd grapples, does he need to make a successful attack which auto grapples the target with a DC 18 to escape later, or is it a contested grapple check using the DC 18? I'm stumped as to which.
Also if Strahd is grappled can he grapple the player in return? I ask because one of my players has a grapple build and although they have just finished the death house, im already concerned the player will grapple Strahd reducing his move to zero and then shove him prone putting his attacks at disadvantage and all the players at advantage. As his lair action relies on movement that will fail and he will not be able to go into mist form as he will likely be in sunlight from 1 or more items. If he can grapple back at least he can bite hurting the player and healing himself. The player is a wood elf so has advantage on charm saves so charm could esily fail.
The DC 18 is to escape later.
Grappling a creature technically doesn't give the grappler the grappled "condition" simultaneously. So, a character can grapple Strahd without that character being grappled.
Some really helpful tips to running Curse of Strahd. Some of the best on TH-cam. Thank you!
Thank you for the kind words :)
The last words before the barbarian slew the party where "damn that bat sexy!"
LOL 🤣 That got an actual 8-second laugh out of me 🤭
My players were overleveled and I still could have run circles around them all day with vanilla Strahd if I went all out. He is a boss that can be as easy or difficult as you want.
I agree. If they can't burst damage or lock him down, it's up to the DM to determine difficulty.
That's kind of the problem with him i guess, the DM has to let the players win basically, or they have the literal best strategy of all time to the point the fight becomes cheesy (wall of force microwave)
@@DoctorWu23 honestly I just let them have more levels than the module intends to give them more tools to pin Strahd down. It makes the fight more fun for me and them.
Sublime breakdown my guy.
Thank you! :)