I changed the mad mage in my game from mordy to Tasha and changed my Lysaga into Baba Yaga so she has a actual reason to want to help the party to rescue Yaga from Strahd who used modify memory to make Yaga think she is Lysaga
Actually, you could say that Victor is impersonating Mordenkainen because he’s afraid of what negative effects he could have on causality if he meets himself in the past. You could even make the dark bargain he’s made be an infernal pact with Neferon, the Arcanaloth in the Amber Temple. But Neferon twisted his wish to go back in time and sent him back a year before the party arrives. In my game, the party drew Victor as an ally and just met Mordenkainen. Now I’m thinking that they may begin to notice that Mordenkainen isn’t all that he seems to be. Or maybe he has a scar that resembles one Victor has…
My party haven't met Mordenkainen yet, but they've heard stories and they've already tied him to the tarokka reading. So I'm going to get some inspiration and make Victor a reincarnation of Mordenkainen and play him like 5 from umbrella academy
Yeah that mad mage one isn't gonna work. The paladin crit thunderus smited him blowing the windows in the attic out then the rogue sneak attacked slitting him ear to ear, also they threw his body on his portal which ripped his body apart turning him to ash. They really didn't like that he killed those servants. Lol.
Your Mad Mage change is SO GOOD. For the last year I've been running Curse of Strahd (making great use of your suggestions) and I might have to rethink my big plans for the mages magnificent mansion involving a Gygax tribute with tomb of horrors...
Oof, if only I had seen this video earlier. I had the Baron discover Victor right after he messed with Stella Wachter turning her into a lady-cat. Instead of being mad at his son, the Baron was excited and proud of Victor's spellcasting. The Baron had found out his son was capable of mind-altering magic and saw it as an opportunity to hone the power into what would become the Reformation Center. With Victor's magic, even the most "unhappy" Vallakians could be "happy", forever. Victor used this opportunity to fund his research in creating a portal out of Barovia all the while pumping out whatever mind-altering magic tools the Reformation Center needed. My players liked it well enough haha!
In my Game, Arabelle was turned into a Night Hag! My party took too long to investigate Arabelle fate after i droped the first clue, so instead of starting the event when they got to the lake (what would be very akward since she was missing by 1 mounth game time), i made that Blunto was instructed to do the sacrifices by the gentle grandma Morghanta. He sacrifices the boy to the lake, and give the girls to Morghanta. Since my party killed her daughters, but let she escapes, now she's seekeing girls on Barovia to turn into Night Hags, she got the tird gem of the Winery, and now she can use it to cast spells withou a covenant. The Battle took place at the stanting stones near the mill, the party was fooled by an iluysory ritual to turn Arabelle into Hag, but she was already turned and when they tryed to rescue her, they discovered that the girl on the center of the ring was actualy a Dretch under ilusion, the real Arabelle came out of the invisible spells and atacked then together with 6 other Dretches, whe they killed her, the ring got the center of a Call Lightininbg spell and Morghanta Join the fight. At the start of each turn 1 image of Morghanta appeared at each of the stones, one was the real one and the others have just 1 HP, they acted on iniiative 10 and each not destroyed Morghanta casted a spell. At the end of the fight they used a Scroll of Revivify on Arabelle (Madame Eva gave it to then in case they have to "chase' the hag into the etheral plane). I got astounished by this move, and ruled that she still a night hag, but retained her alligment (for now). Now she's roaming Barovia as a C/G Night Hag in search for a purpose .
i Heared that longer comments counts more for the red god that choose those who profit. I'm not sure if its true, but hope it is! You rly deserve to growth, your tips made my game fantastic! When i'm done, i gonna make all my players watch, like and comment every single video. But until there, you are my secret, sorry!
A year late but your mad mage is great and I’ve incorporated it into my campaign. I incorporated the barovian feywild in my campaign to align with the ladies three but also to answer the question of “what happens to the barovian feywild when it goes to the shadow fell”, and basically Viktor and Stella get trapped there for a few years. One of my players was stuck there with them for decades. The other thing, though, is I’ve made Victor and Stella Victoria and Stell-trans, lol. It’s going to be fun as a trans dm to pull that reveal.
Holy shit. That is a BRILLIANT change for the Mad Mage. If my group were to get Mordenkainen as is, I honestly don't think that they'd have much fun. Sure, it would be much easier to plan an assault on the castle, but Mordenkainen is as written, an immense pain in the ass to deal with and even harder to get on their side.
@@NonLogicUser In our campaign, my character became best buds really quickly with him (like a long lost brother). He wept manly tears when he got killed by Strahd not long after we [REDACTED] Ireena.
So... I switched out the mad mage from Mordenkainen to Halaster Blackcloak. The party could tell the mage was extremely powerful even in his rambling hobo state, and they jumped on finding his staff to cure him from this madness. Only to find they revived Halaster ( a sane Halaster free from the influence of the Underdark ) to take his vengeance out on Barovia. Halaster promised to help them kill Strahd if they did something for him afterwards, and they sort of got that following the evil spellcaster might be a terrible idea. Strahd sensing the power Halaster had regained rode up to fight him before he got back to full strength, and the party had a choice. Help Wizard Hitler and officially face Strahd as an enemy for the rest of the campaign with an extremely powerful ally ( and then have to deal with Halaster's demands after ) , or side with Strahd to drive another evil from Barovia for good, and get a favor from Strahd. They sided with Strahd to drive Halaster from the demiplane for good, and Strahd a. stopped sending werewolves after them and b. allowed them to pick one person in all of the land to leave Barovia as long as it was not Ireena.
yesssss I’m running CoS right now and decided to change Mordenkainen’s identity to some vague random powerful wizard-but this is a fantastic idea as well
Yeah it sucks that they kinda watered down Mordenainen by putting him as they did in this campaign. Better to replace him than soil his legacy in my opinion.
I personally would really change Clovin a bit. I really like him as a concept. Similar to Vasilka, he acts as an insert for an iconic horror monster (in his case, the Hunchback of Notre Domme) and I really wanna play up that aspect. As such, I'd make the additional changes, 1. Don't make the other Mongrelfolk hate him. Maybe change it so that Clovin is basically working to help the other Mongrelfolk, whether that'd be a cure for their madness or that working for the Abbot is the only way they're allowed to live. Plus this would mean that recruiting Clovin basically gets the party a small battalion of loyal Mongrelfolk allies. 2. Get rid of the alcoholism. All it really does is make him a liability whether he's drunk or not. 3. Make his extra head more a part of his character. The idea of a Bard with an extra head is a really cool grotesque idea. He can basically harmonize with himself. I'd say make it so the head isn't always screaming when it's awake. Instead, maybe it can act as Clovin's conscious.
I like your idea for the Mad Mage. Very unique and different. What are your thoughts on this tho: I've played the Mad Mage as the defeated, PTSD NPC. A recent example is Thor from End Game. The Mage's confidence is non-existent at this point and in a deep depression for so long he doesn't remember why he became this way. I play him as an in denial drunk when the party finds him. As the party restores his memory the PTSD manifests. As the DM, if you do it properly, it can provide some comedy or lightness to the game.
I definitely used Clovin Belview to suggest the Abbot was stitching bodies together making use of animal parts for flesh golems. My players were in a position where they needed to revive a character after taking some big risks that didn’t pan out well. With this being Ravenloft i didn’t want to just resurrect the player i had already used the Dark Gifts on a previous player. I needed death to still mean something. I decided on the reincarnate spell it pieces a new body from body parts nearby. The players stumbled upon Clovin in the svalich woods coming back from yesterhill while he was collecting more animals and bodies for the Abbot’s experiments and his flesh golem bride. Kept his face covered or in shadow most of the time he had a cart with cages on it. He was a nifty way to keep the threat of death for my players without punishing them for taking risks and still add to the creepiness of the setting.
Interesting ideas with the Mad Mage. I think I might make him think he's Mordenkainen due to his spellbook being one of the many books he wrote with his name on it (let's call it Mordenkainen's Tome of Arcane Lore), and only remembers he's not him after being cured. Perhaps he never escaped Barovia, but when he used his teleport spell it backfired by sending him to the Amber Temple where he made a pact with the Lich there. Need to give it more thought.
My plot is the Mad Mage is the Victor as well, but he traveled back to Barovia not because of a dark pact but a the time loop of freeing himself and he failed last time because he couldn't manage to let his younger self to help the party. And not this is his chance to right the wrong and end this loop once for all
Just have the kid's father send a bodyguard with like a better stat block that can be there to protect her, and have her stay safe in town here and there
somewhat ironically, ishmark (or ishmael, i keep m,xing up the names) is my partys fated ally and him and ireena have been with the party for a long while now simply due to the fact vallaki was destroyed, despite them defeating the spawn in the shop and preventing the feast. ishmark actually died and was later ressurected by strahd, who then was killed again by the party, and brought to the abbot for ressurection, where our artifcer built him a new metal arm. hes proved pretty useful so far
I came here looking for a way to run the Mad Mage, seeing the suggestion of Victor is a great idea. Ultimately not for my party as they killed him in the attic and bruned him and his mother on a pyre after the feast of St Andrals.
In my campaign, Mad Mage is a younger Mordenkeinen as one of my players back ground is that they are Mordenkeinen's apprentice. It's kind of funny because we basically had the same idea but in the other way round : Mord's futur self preped the aventure who he remembers being saved by and sent them into a quest that he knew would lead the PC to Barovia. I might steal the rework idea and just add the layer that Victor IS morden, or I might just tie that character to another PC's backstory (time travel fuckeries, YEAH !)
Firstly, i have used so many of your great ideas for running COS - my party is currently on Yester Hill and have just retrieved the blood spear from the statue! Whilst I think having the mad mage as Victor is a very cool idea, it really wouldn't work for the campaign I am running as I have made him out to be a villain - definitely responsible for driving Stella mad and potentially also for the large number of zombies in Barovia village! What are your thoughts on running Mordekainen as is from the module?
For maybe the first time I'll have to disagree with you. Time travel and that sort of thing can go really bad and leave loooooooots of plotholes. Don't think that would work with more inquisitive players
Maybe instead of time traveling, he did some sort of experiment where he saw many of the possible parties that could arrive in Barovia and their different fates. That could introduce an interesting element where Victor asks random details about events to try to narrow down what timeline he saw is the one he's currently in.
@Amanda could the juvenile Victor perhaps be the result of a strange mix between a simulacrum and clone spell? The archmage Victor has no charges of this spell left and as a result of accepting one of the dark gifts aged about 60 years. The north sarcophagus in the breached vault of the Amber Temple leaves room for interpretation. I agree that time travel is a tricky thing to mess with.
@@trabsnirp5824 Maybe, yeah. Make it so Victor did a LOT of weird magic nonsense (which as a bonus explains how he went mad) without timetravel shenanigans
I changed the mad mage in my game from mordy to Tasha and changed my Lysaga into Baba Yaga so she has a actual reason to want to help the party to rescue Yaga from Strahd who used modify memory to make Yaga think she is Lysaga
The Mad Mage as Victor was quite a good idea!
Agreed. If only the party didn't beeline for the Mad Mage so fast, I might have used this Mad Victor instead of Mordenkainen.
Actually, you could say that Victor is impersonating Mordenkainen because he’s afraid of what negative effects he could have on causality if he meets himself in the past. You could even make the dark bargain he’s made be an infernal pact with Neferon, the Arcanaloth in the Amber Temple. But Neferon twisted his wish to go back in time and sent him back a year before the party arrives.
In my game, the party drew Victor as an ally and just met Mordenkainen. Now I’m thinking that they may begin to notice that Mordenkainen isn’t all that he seems to be. Or maybe he has a scar that resembles one Victor has…
@@NonLogicUser same..
My party haven't met Mordenkainen yet, but they've heard stories and they've already tied him to the tarokka reading. So I'm going to get some inspiration and make Victor a reincarnation of Mordenkainen and play him like 5 from umbrella academy
Yeah that mad mage one isn't gonna work. The paladin crit thunderus smited him blowing the windows in the attic out then the rogue sneak attacked slitting him ear to ear, also they threw his body on his portal which ripped his body apart turning him to ash. They really didn't like that he killed those servants. Lol.
Yeah it's not for everyone.
Your Mad Mage change is SO GOOD. For the last year I've been running Curse of Strahd (making great use of your suggestions) and I might have to rethink my big plans for the mages magnificent mansion involving a Gygax tribute with tomb of horrors...
I cringed when he said it isn't Mordenkainen. Then, holy shit-great idea.
I absolutely love the idea of replacing the mad mage with victor! Stealing this for sure!!
As always 10/10
Glad you like it!
Oof, if only I had seen this video earlier. I had the Baron discover Victor right after he messed with Stella Wachter turning her into a lady-cat. Instead of being mad at his son, the Baron was excited and proud of Victor's spellcasting. The Baron had found out his son was capable of mind-altering magic and saw it as an opportunity to hone the power into what would become the Reformation Center. With Victor's magic, even the most "unhappy" Vallakians could be "happy", forever. Victor used this opportunity to fund his research in creating a portal out of Barovia all the while pumping out whatever mind-altering magic tools the Reformation Center needed. My players liked it well enough haha!
In my Game, Arabelle was turned into a Night Hag!
My party took too long to investigate Arabelle fate after i droped the first clue, so instead of starting the event when they got to the lake (what would be very akward since she was missing by 1 mounth game time), i made that Blunto was instructed to do the sacrifices by the gentle grandma Morghanta. He sacrifices the boy to the lake, and give the girls to Morghanta.
Since my party killed her daughters, but let she escapes, now she's seekeing girls on Barovia to turn into Night Hags, she got the tird gem of the Winery, and now she can use it to cast spells withou a covenant.
The Battle took place at the stanting stones near the mill, the party was fooled by an iluysory ritual to turn Arabelle into Hag, but she was already turned and when they tryed to rescue her, they discovered that the girl on the center of the ring was actualy a Dretch under ilusion, the real Arabelle came out of the invisible spells and atacked then together with 6 other Dretches, whe they killed her, the ring got the center of a Call Lightininbg spell and Morghanta Join the fight. At the start of each turn 1 image of Morghanta appeared at each of the stones, one was the real one and the others have just 1 HP, they acted on iniiative 10 and each not destroyed Morghanta casted a spell.
At the end of the fight they used a Scroll of Revivify on Arabelle (Madame Eva gave it to then in case they have to "chase' the hag into the etheral plane). I got astounished by this move, and ruled that she still a night hag, but retained her alligment (for now). Now she's roaming Barovia as a C/G Night Hag in search for a purpose .
i Heared that longer comments counts more for the red god that choose those who profit. I'm not sure if its true, but hope it is!
You rly deserve to growth, your tips made my game fantastic! When i'm done, i gonna make all my players watch, like and comment every single video. But until there, you are my secret, sorry!
Lol, thank you so much!
@@LunchBreakHeroes I was the one who used the Scroll of Revivify on Arabelle, and now that Strahd is gone, I'm here to pay my DM's promise!
A year late but your mad mage is great and I’ve incorporated it into my campaign.
I incorporated the barovian feywild in my campaign to align with the ladies three but also to answer the question of “what happens to the barovian feywild when it goes to the shadow fell”, and basically Viktor and Stella get trapped there for a few years. One of my players was stuck there with them for decades.
The other thing, though, is I’ve made Victor and Stella Victoria and Stell-trans, lol. It’s going to be fun as a trans dm to pull that reveal.
Came in clutch; starting my game tomorrow and was worried about Ismark! Best CoS resource I’ve found yet!
Glad we could help!
Ismark for whatever reason is always a fan favorite. Every party I've talked to loves him
Holy shit. That is a BRILLIANT change for the Mad Mage. If my group were to get Mordenkainen as is, I honestly don't think that they'd have much fun. Sure, it would be much easier to plan an assault on the castle, but Mordenkainen is as written, an immense pain in the ass to deal with and even harder to get on their side.
Finally, my boy Ismark!
Ismark works so well as a sympathetic character who is also effective, an easily liked ally for sure.
@@NonLogicUser In our campaign, my character became best buds really quickly with him (like a long lost brother). He wept manly tears when he got killed by Strahd not long after we [REDACTED] Ireena.
Have the party draft up a field trip permission slip for Clovin and ask the abbot to sign.
So... I switched out the mad mage from Mordenkainen to Halaster Blackcloak. The party could tell the mage was extremely powerful even in his rambling hobo state, and they jumped on finding his staff to cure him from this madness. Only to find they revived Halaster ( a sane Halaster free from the influence of the Underdark ) to take his vengeance out on Barovia. Halaster promised to help them kill Strahd if they did something for him afterwards, and they sort of got that following the evil spellcaster might be a terrible idea. Strahd sensing the power Halaster had regained rode up to fight him before he got back to full strength, and the party had a choice. Help Wizard Hitler and officially face Strahd as an enemy for the rest of the campaign with an extremely powerful ally ( and then have to deal with Halaster's demands after ) , or side with Strahd to drive another evil from Barovia for good, and get a favor from Strahd. They sided with Strahd to drive Halaster from the demiplane for good, and Strahd a. stopped sending werewolves after them and b. allowed them to pick one person in all of the land to leave Barovia as long as it was not Ireena.
I always recommend people to make the mad mage someo e from someone's backstory.
But a Victor time travelled back into the mists? Sounds pretty cool
yesssss I’m running CoS right now and decided to change Mordenkainen’s identity to some vague random powerful wizard-but this is a fantastic idea as well
Yeah it sucks that they kinda watered down Mordenainen by putting him as they did in this campaign. Better to replace him than soil his legacy in my opinion.
THE MAD MAGE TAKE. HOLY SHIT.
I personally would really change Clovin a bit. I really like him as a concept. Similar to Vasilka, he acts as an insert for an iconic horror monster (in his case, the Hunchback of Notre Domme) and I really wanna play up that aspect. As such, I'd make the additional changes,
1. Don't make the other Mongrelfolk hate him. Maybe change it so that Clovin is basically working to help the other Mongrelfolk, whether that'd be a cure for their madness or that working for the Abbot is the only way they're allowed to live. Plus this would mean that recruiting Clovin basically gets the party a small battalion of loyal Mongrelfolk allies.
2. Get rid of the alcoholism. All it really does is make him a liability whether he's drunk or not.
3. Make his extra head more a part of his character. The idea of a Bard with an extra head is a really cool grotesque idea. He can basically harmonize with himself. I'd say make it so the head isn't always screaming when it's awake. Instead, maybe it can act as Clovin's conscious.
It just hit me that this man looks exactly like a younger Moby. No offense if you don't like Moby, man. Great video as always.
I like your idea for the Mad Mage. Very unique and different. What are your thoughts on this tho: I've played the Mad Mage as the defeated, PTSD NPC. A recent example is Thor from End Game. The Mage's confidence is non-existent at this point and in a deep depression for so long he doesn't remember why he became this way. I play him as an in denial drunk when the party finds him. As the party restores his memory the PTSD manifests. As the DM, if you do it properly, it can provide some comedy or lightness to the game.
That definitely works!
I definitely used Clovin Belview to suggest the Abbot was stitching bodies together making use of animal parts for flesh golems. My players were in a position where they needed to revive a character after taking some big risks that didn’t pan out well. With this being Ravenloft i didn’t want to just resurrect the player i had already used the Dark Gifts on a previous player. I needed death to still mean something. I decided on the reincarnate spell it pieces a new body from body parts nearby.
The players stumbled upon Clovin in the svalich woods coming back from yesterhill while he was collecting more animals and bodies for the Abbot’s experiments and his flesh golem bride. Kept his face covered or in shadow most of the time he had a cart with cages on it.
He was a nifty way to keep the threat of death for my players without punishing them for taking risks and still add to the creepiness of the setting.
Interesting ideas with the Mad Mage. I think I might make him think he's Mordenkainen due to his spellbook being one of the many books he wrote with his name on it (let's call it Mordenkainen's Tome of Arcane Lore), and only remembers he's not him after being cured. Perhaps he never escaped Barovia, but when he used his teleport spell it backfired by sending him to the Amber Temple where he made a pact with the Lich there.
Need to give it more thought.
My plot is the Mad Mage is the Victor as well, but he traveled back to Barovia not because of a dark pact but a the time loop of freeing himself and he failed last time because he couldn't manage to let his younger self to help the party. And not this is his chance to right the wrong and end this loop once for all
does Victor actually bathe regularly now, or did he just learn prestidigitation?
Who needs to bathe when you smell like teen spirit?
Wonderful take on Mad Mage..... just.... wow
Just have the kid's father send a bodyguard with like a better stat block that can be there to protect her, and have her stay safe in town here and there
somewhat ironically, ishmark (or ishmael, i keep m,xing up the names) is my partys fated ally and him and ireena have been with the party for a long while now simply due to the fact vallaki was destroyed, despite them defeating the spawn in the shop and preventing the feast. ishmark actually died and was later ressurected by strahd, who then was killed again by the party, and brought to the abbot for ressurection, where our artifcer built him a new metal arm. hes proved pretty useful so far
started Dming Strahd past Weekend, theses videos have been helping a lot, thanks man
You’re welcome!
I came here looking for a way to run the Mad Mage, seeing the suggestion of Victor is a great idea. Ultimately not for my party as they killed him in the attic and bruned him and his mother on a pyre after the feast of St Andrals.
I put an Aboleth in the lake so it will be a while before they meet the Mad Mage.
Damn, I wish I had the same idea for the Mad Mage you suggested when I started my campaign. Great work as always, keep up the good work mate.
Thank you, will do!
In my campaign, Mad Mage is a younger Mordenkeinen as one of my players back ground is that they are Mordenkeinen's apprentice. It's kind of funny because we basically had the same idea but in the other way round : Mord's futur self preped the aventure who he remembers being saved by and sent them into a quest that he knew would lead the PC to Barovia. I might steal the rework idea and just add the layer that Victor IS morden, or I might just tie that character to another PC's backstory (time travel fuckeries, YEAH !)
Ayyyy, been waiting for this one ❤️
Amazing as always!!!
Thank you!
This idea is fantastic
Firstly, i have used so many of your great ideas for running COS - my party is currently on Yester Hill and have just retrieved the blood spear from the statue! Whilst I think having the mad mage as Victor is a very cool idea, it really wouldn't work for the campaign I am running as I have made him out to be a villain - definitely responsible for driving Stella mad and potentially also for the large number of zombies in Barovia village! What are your thoughts on running Mordekainen as is from the module?
So the mad mage is a variant of Lulu from Descent to Avernus.
So I use Arabelle to kinda railroad the campaign. If I didn’t the party would have never met Irena.
yes yes yes i waited for this!
Gotta be honest, not really a fan of the mad mage being Victor. I just prefer him being the actual Mordenkainen. Everything else is good as always.
The mad mage stuff is a cop out, I mean how to make him interesting? usea another character? well wooo
For maybe the first time I'll have to disagree with you. Time travel and that sort of thing can go really bad and leave loooooooots of plotholes. Don't think that would work with more inquisitive players
Maybe instead of time traveling, he did some sort of experiment where he saw many of the possible parties that could arrive in Barovia and their different fates. That could introduce an interesting element where Victor asks random details about events to try to narrow down what timeline he saw is the one he's currently in.
@Amanda could the juvenile Victor perhaps be the result of a strange mix between a simulacrum and clone spell? The archmage Victor has no charges of this spell left and as a result of accepting one of the dark gifts aged about 60 years. The north sarcophagus in the breached vault of the Amber Temple leaves room for interpretation. I agree that time travel is a tricky thing to mess with.
@@trabsnirp5824 Maybe, yeah. Make it so Victor did a LOT of weird magic nonsense (which as a bonus explains how he went mad) without timetravel shenanigans
The mage shouldn’t cast magnificent mansion, it can’t work in a domain of dread, and it takes a lot of challenge out of the game