The Amber Temple is LEAKING! Dark Gifts through Dreams | Running Curse of Strahd 5e
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 ก.ย. 2019
- Unleash Dark Gifts onto your players with this guide. Invade their dreams and corrupt their causes. The Vestiges are hungry.
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Dark Gifts are one of the coolest parts of the Curse of Strahd adventure module, but they have a couple of big problems: they aren't available until end game, and they risk taking a player's character away. I'll work to solve both of these problems (as I see them) in this video. I'll also put an explanation on why so many Barovians are soulless.
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#rpg #dungeonsanddragons #dnd
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I would expect to find a lot of warlocks in Barovia.
Be the change you wish to see in the world!
This is genius, I love the idea of having to reclaim your soul in the perilous Amber Temple. I hope to incorporate this in my upcoming CoS campaign, my players will eat this up.
Lemme know how it goes!
For sure! Also I was wondering about your Tarokka deck hook. Do you give the players a personal destiny reading and a reading for Fortunes of Ravenloft at the beginning?
My players were actually given their personal destinies between session 0 and session 1, which included a horrifying dream sequence interrupted by Madam Eva giving them a cryptic description of their destiny, and beckoning them to Barovia. Because I work with all of my players, I was able to hide their cards underneath their keyboards when they weren't looking. Then I sent them each their dream sequences electronically. The sequence ended with an OOC "Look under your keyboard". They loved that.
The Fortunes of Ravenloft reading happened at the usual time, with Madam Eva--although mine happened in the camp outside Vallaki. In addition to the usual readings, she also expounded on their personal destinies during that time.
I see, thank you so much for your advice. Watching your videos has been a joy.
Yo, this totally explains how Izek Stazni got his arm.
I had an idea, to reclaim the soul what if they need to fight themselves? A phantasmal image of them using their stats and powers? Though probably with some undead type features, like incorporeal to throw off the rest of them.
That could work, but 1v1 combat in DnD is pretty clunky--especially for melee classes. "I swing my sword." "Hit. Your mirror image swings his sword. Miss." "Okay, I swing my sword again."
Final battle: Nega You!
I used the dark gifts as kinda a "Failsafe", if a player dies, odds are they are willing to make any deal to save themselves. But i do actually like the idea of there being a plausible downside aside from just what is basically a price tag.
For reference the entities my characters made deal with where:
> Shade: a fallen archfey lingering on the edge of shadowfell
> The land: A blighted entity that has been corrupted by Strahd and the Dark powers
> The Eye: A beholder-type entity that demands they sow chaos and fear.
> The Dragon: A shadow dragon grants then some abilities similar to a draconic sorcerer
Buuuuuut i had the problem of finding downsides for my players and not just flinging powers at them. Suffice to say i think a found it.
Glad I could help!
A really clever and novel approach to Dark Gifts. Great video.
Thank you!
You sir.. are my dark gift!
Hey just wanted to let you know how my players did with this and thank you for providing such cool homebrew material to make my campaign so much better!
My players just got their souls back from the dark gods by basically doing a light version of the ritual for Vampyr you have. I only did 5 of the ritual stansas and they had three gods with less HP and I basically used the beholder dragon stat block but divided it between their three gods. There were three of them at level 11 (rogue, ranger rogue and cleric) with a sub that played the lich in place of their missing sorceress. I had flameskulls in place of the vamps and planned to have the thrall come in cuz Drizlash was one of the gods. But I had to not do that plus brought in fewer flameskulls cuz I wasn’t trying to TPK. But overall they said it was a great battle and I had the most fun I’ve had in awhile!!
They’re going to the castle next for dinner with Strahd where I’m gunna surprise them with a wedding for their previous ally, Ireena. But the wedding of course won’t happen cuz Ireena and Ismark have a contingency plan in place for if she were ever to be kidnapped. They have a one time use dagger that kills the target immediately. I’m not sure if I want it to also kill the bearer or have Strahd on impulse power word kill him. Or do some kind of similar thing, cuz I definitely don’t want him to be tortured but there’s no scenario in which he does this and escapes Strahd. So it’s just a matter where he hopes Strahd ends him quickly or he does it himself.
By the time my party got to the Amber Temple, it was genuinely impossible for our orc paladin to fail his charisma save, so it came dangerously close to a "shopping trip" for Dark Gifts.
Does 5th not have the rule that saves always fail on a roll of 1, regardless of the bonus?
This is amazing! I'm going to use quite a bit of this in my campaign, but I'll move all the stuff with Vampyr proper to the sequel "The Return of Strahd". Vampyr can have a "core shard" or "heart" of the Amber prison, stashed somewhere in Barovia, preferably deep in the forests, or some other unused part of the map. They can be searching for this while a returned Strahd sends his best after them, and eventually Vampyr can get into the game as well.
Again, I'm loving all of your content. Can't wait to finish with your video's and get stuck into Mandymods content!!!
EDIT: Urgh, wrong video. This should have gone into the "Running the Amber Temple" video.
YIKES. I'm the DM and I'm scared 😂
This combined with the land of barovia video really ebbs in the direction of a strahd team up with the party. Imagine Strahd meeting the players and one has/had a dark gift and telling them 'we have a mutual foe'. Around 8th level.
Definitely a viable adventure path!
Lucky me finding this channel right when I started running CoS :)
Lucky me too!
Omg, I'm running CoS but altering it a bit and homebrewing some parts of it and I'm so glad I found this channel
I'm glad you found it too!
I’m about to run CoS for some friends and family and these videos are like crack. Very informative stuff. Your hard work is much appreciated! 🙂
I appreciate that! I hope you and your group have a lot of fun. :)
My DM is doing this with my artificer!
Our party started as a homebrew Levels 1-5 campaign just to have some fun. After we finished, we decided to carry our group into Curse of Strahd. Since it wasn't a serious campaign until that point, we rolled up characters that we never would have for CoS and there were a lot of shenanigan's. (I ended up getting a Deck of Many things and pulled the Vizier, arguably the best card in the deck)
At the end of the previous adventure (the session before we got invited to Barovia) our party was visited by the god we had helped out and each given a boon - a free natural 20 to use on any one roll.
Months later in Barovia, Strahd shows up during the Feast. He batters away our Paladin in one hit to make an example of her. Before he can kill her, my artificer whispers a prayer and burns her natural 20 on a firebolt to hit Strahd. It surprises and angers him to the point he's getting ready to kill us, and then Ireena willingly goes with him to stop the slaughter.
It turns out that when my character prayed for help, let's just say the plea got...*intercepted.* She had a dream where I saw this dark power, but the second I went to interact with it, I woke up.
Really looking forward to continue playing along that plot thread and so is our DM!
Side note: Boons are great for combat but they can be *amazing* to use for story moments. The Vizier card I pulled hasn't been used yet. My character is going to offer it to Van Richten in exchange for him training her.
That sounds like quite the exciting time! I bet the rest of your journey will be quite unforgettable. :-)
@@LunchBreakHeroes It's been amazing. We've spent the last three sessions roleplaying dealing with the aftermath, both as a party and as individuals and now we're more determined than ever.
I was so excited to see a new video of yours pop up. This is wonderful; thank you. I'd love to see you and your group play.
Lol I promise it wouldn't be as thrilling as you'd imagine. We're all eating, and that'd probably be gross to watch. 😆
At session 0 I asked characters what their favorite fictional monster without context, and flavored the gifts around them, so at the end of the campaign, we may go full on monster squad.
I have an assimar cavalier fighter in my group and hes been having a hard time gathering up the coin to buy the mount he wants. So after a failed constitution save i gave him a dream. I had all the other players leave the room so his decision wouldnt be influenced by others.
He dreamt of a white angel who offered him the gift to summon a shadowy steed if he accepted and became his champion. The angel introduced him self as Andras. But he is really Andras the Grey knight. He took the bait and hes now able to cast find steed once a day but hes only able to summon the specific mount I created for this.
Now I took this part from you; everytime he uses the ability I have him roll percentile dice to see if his soul gets ripped from his body. I cant wait for the group to slowly figure out what is going on. The rest of the group is SO suspicious of his new power.
I love it!
My players are really skeptical of everything in Barovia (and they should be) so I'm not sure if they would accept a gift from a dream sequence where they failed a wisdom save. I'd have to find a different way to work these in but regardless, amazing video! It's fantastic that I'm running CoS (first module, brand new DM) right as I found your videos.
Thank you for all the help.
You're welcome! Thank you for taking the time to watch!
This is a good point... I am about to start CoS with my group and I have a feeling they will react similarly. I think I am going to have them "roll a d20" at the start of the session which will be the WIS save (I will apply the bonus behind the scenes). I have already prepared them by saying that there may times when I ask them to roll and text me the result and I will respond with an outcome as a way to deal with charms, etc.
Bro! This is a great explanation for the soul depletions. I love it.
Thank you!
This is brilliant and I want to use it. My players decided to start the module at Level 8. They plan to advance up to level 13 or so before the end. I need to make the module harder and more interesting, but still fun and engaging. I'm so glad I found your videos. I'm definitely going to use these ideas. Hopefully they'll keep the players on their toes. I tend to lean more plot/intrigue driven than battle driven campaigns and the leaking Amber Temple and political fun in Vallaki from your other videos are perfect.
Glad I could help! Let me know how it goes, I'd love to hear it.
@@LunchBreakHeroes I definitely will.
Hold up- aren't nightwalkers cr20? That's a short fight...
@Lunch Break Heroes I don't know how to or if it's possible to send you a personalized message, but I have a question I'd like to hear your answer to. I'm borrowing a mechanic from Dread in which you use a Jenga tower for skill checks; if the tower falls over a character dies. I modified the mechanic for my Curse of Strahd game such that when a player rolls a natural one they pull a block from the Jenga tower to represent the depravity of Barovia draining them of their hope and will. I was initially planning that when the Jenga tower falls to have each character experience a mental break and suffer from some form of madness from the madness chart. The players are FAR more into the Jenga tower than I originally thought; they love and fear pulling from it, and I want to make sure when it falls, which they are terrified of because I haven't told them what happens, it's cool and they enjoy it. Do you think assigning some form of temporary or indefinite madness will be fun for them? What would you suggest? Thank you for your time; I look forward to hearing your answers.
That's got to be one of the most interesting mechanics I've heard of being added to the game!
Indefinite madness could work, but you'll have to either cherry pick or, better yet, make up something custom for each PC. You could also rope in the vestiges or dark powers, with the falling of the tower representing the fall of their mental/spiritual guards. Barovia is all about corruption, so I would start thinking along that theme.
Amazing, thank you
These videos are so so helpful
Thank you! I'm glad you're getting use out of them.
It's marvelous! I wish our DM in Iraina's CoS campaign watched this before starting it. When her quest to find herself a patron, who would actually helped her with lack of arcane powers, could be much more sinister.
But even in standard settings Iraina managed to persuade Kazimir to tell about each sarcophagus he hugged, and chose one to plot her grand scheme (which fruited in next custom campaign) involving dusk elves in process. She's not pledge her loyalty to any of the remains, because DM made it sound like they are weak lingering remains of their former glory.
The amber temple is leaking and dark lords are escaping or popping up out of nowhere. Thanks for the inspiration.
Dark *gifts*, not Darklords. Big difference.
@@quicksilvertongue3248 no the dark gifts are the secret to defeating the dark lords. The dark lords aren't an issue in their amberal prisons, so they need to get out.
This is great, with two mechanical issues that balance each other but are both pretty bad, so I'd suggest changing both rather than keeping both. Cone of Cold on command is OP as all hell, and 5% chance to lose your soul will accumulate to 100% in only 20 uses. I'd limit the power level to like an Xth level spell, and make it an X% chance, but X starts at 1, and only after reaching 10% do they have the option, via another dream, to accept a further gift and raise X to 2. Thus, you could in theory get to 80%, still have your soul, accept the pact for the ninth and final time, and potentially get 2 uses of a 9th level spell before the third unavoidably damns them (possibly worth it to save an NPC or something). But if they see where this is going and are like "no, once was enough, then their gift is a level 1 spell and they can use it up to 100 times. I think that's better than getting a game breaking 5th level spell up to 20 times during 5th level and then being soulless.
Very nice....and by the Morninglord, I've missed these videos. A pity you're not free to do them more often.
One possibility, instead of having the whole party roll their wisdom saves at once, have them roll it when they, individually, do something questionable. Not much danger of them not doing something questionable sooner or later - Curse of Strahd tends to bring out the evil in everyone. That act, or decision, or whatever, is what attracts their attention, and they seek out the one responsible for it. After all, it's easier to tempt someone who's already proven willing to bend somewhat.
I love this idea!
And yeah, I wish my time were more free as well. Young children tend to put brakes on things, at least temporarily.
@@LunchBreakHeroes Ahhh, yeah, that'll do it alright. I can't begrudge you spending time with your kids at all.
First, love your content. I add a lot of it to my campaign as well as mandymods since you introduced me. keep up the great work!! Question on this one, how would this work with a warlock player. His pact is with Semuanya, so i doubt he will care. would this make other players warlocks? If one chooses this as a way to multiclass as a warlock how would that pact work. Sorry so many questions, I have only been DMing off and on for about a total of a year.
i really like the music you have playing subtly in the background. Very creepy stuff, where did you find it?
Honestly no idea at this point, sorry.
Also, what about only being able to be resurrected with a further corrupted soul? Guess I'd have to get created
I see no issue with that, but you'd have to define what a "further corrupted soul" means, and how that'll work in terms of gameplay.
@@LunchBreakHeroes Well I for sure don't want my players losing their characters. In fact, when the first one dies, I am going to have a Dark Power offer them life and power (at a unknown price)
I guess I would mean that if someone who accepts a dark gift BEFORE they died, were to die and be unable to be resurrected, that each time their god brings them back, their soul reclamation quest/enemy becomes harder and they become more physically/mentally deformed, albeit more powerful champions of their Power.
@@Skellybr0 Sounds good! I'd love to hear how it works out and how you finally decide to implement it.
So I have a question with this. My players are just now about to leave Old Bonegrinder and it's about time I start introducing the Powers and Gifts.
I am running a style of game where I don't send private notes or messages, and everything is told at the table so the whole party can experience the epicness. Only VERY personal or massively important tasks are not publicly shared. My players are very good at separating player knowledge from character knowledge.
My question is.. with the dreams and the choices.. should those be narrated publicly or shared privately? I have lots to keep track of already and speed of the game is an issue, as I am running pretty much every addition and expansion to CoS plus my own personal sidequests
Ultimately, you can do it however you think works best. There's really no harm in sharing the dream sequences with the rest of the group. However, I'd take care to give out any dreams and dark gifts that you plan on *before* the party gets wind that they're getting screwed in the deal.
@@LunchBreakHeroes haha very good point! Love your content! Thanks for your work. Your video on Vallaki is a godsend.
@@Skellybr0 glad I could help!
@@LunchBreakHeroes So I could just do it with several party members when they fail their save? Because in the video it seemed like only pick one - which of course would make it easier for other Players to make their decision once they failed their save (because they kinda already know what will happen)
Do you have a stat block for Vampyr?
Not quite yet. That will be made, though. If you need something now, I recommend starting with the Nightwalker stat block from Mordenkainens Tome of Foes.
So I’m running CoS, and one of my players accepted the deal during their dream sequence. It’s gonna get spicy quick lol.
non native english speaker here - the accumulate 5 percent chance - those stay right? Like, first time using it: DC 5. Second time: DC 10, third time: DC 15, etc?
Does it reset somehow?
because the video does not have subtitles
Need Subtitle :(
I'm sorry, at will Cone of Cold? At mid-level? I think the heck not.
I set it where they can only do the spell for their gift once per day. That way they dont rack up a quick soul steal by using them over and over, and it helps with balance, since the consequence of the gift is normally pretty severe