Volenta Popofsky, Bride of Strahd | D&D 5th Edition Curse of Strahd NPC Character Breakdown
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 ก.ค. 2024
- Hello and welcome friends to Legendlore, where I draw pictures of gods, monsters, and characters from D&D while giving a small but dense history about them! This week we’ll be looking at one of the three brides of Strahd Von Zarovich, often identified as one of the most vicious and bloodthirsty: Volenta Popofsky.
Timestamps:
1:08 - Overview & Appearance
2:13 - Volenta's Backstory
2:45 - Volenta's Personality
3:41 - Volenta's Relationships with Other Characters
4:37 - Roleplaying Volenta At the Table
6:47 - Running Volenta in Combat
COMPLETED PIECE:
imgur.com/gallery/mMLwjaP
STAT BLOCKS FOR VOLENTA:
imgur.com/gallery/NBu9QZk
REFERENCED SOURCES FOR CURSE OF STRAHD:
Lunch Box Heroes: • Running Curse of Strah...
Dragnacarta: / curse_of_strahd_reload...
MandyMod: / fleshing_out_curse_of_...
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Okay now you need to make all the brides please :D
lol I’ll be keeping them in the polls xP
I definitely want to see your take on the rest of the brides! Awesome work
Agreed!
Awesome to see you do one of the Brides of Strahd! Hopefully, we'll see Anastrasya soon!
Thank you for helping to flesh out this character. I'm running Strahd for a group, and have no idea how to properly use the brides
lol ill try to get them all out in time tp help ya xD quick advice, Ludmilla is the oldest and the intellectual amongst them, so shes a wizard and the bride strahd trusts the most. Anastasya is sometimes unclassed or can be a Sorcerer, but she is the most manipulative and i blieve physically active with strahd, and she also has the biggest disdain for Barovia as a whole, thus being behind alot of the bad stuff that happens there. definitely check out Lunch Box Heroes' guide on the brides :)
i changed her a bit to make her the jealous type. she didn't kill her clients, but rather her competitors (other prostites), making her a sort of "Jack the ripper" of the setting. Her final act of loyalty to strahd that earned her his bite was to bring his 7 heads of former clients (specifically picking ones that had compared her to other women).
this all taught her that she is sexually demented and is aroused by screams of agony. her method of killing is less "Hit it til it dies" and more "Death by 1000 cuts"
YES, same idea for class feature (on all the brides), Beast Barb for Volenta; Necro Wiz but with bulk of spells being charm and cc other than Animate Dead and Danse Macabre for Viliševic and Anastrasya as a Wild Magic Sorc with focus on roll manipulation and teleports (and her wild magic triggers one of the Dark Gift effects/for 3e regional taint effects instead of regular wild magic rolls).
I do add either Erina (no, not the drakon city guard, but the mists adventurer preset character, raised as a shadow vamp or master's chosen, thus keeping some original ranger abilities) or Patrina (in original "regular elf enticed by strahds obtained magic and ended up as a banshee" form) as a rogue as their respective str/charisma melee drains become that much more dangerous if real upfront damage is involved as all CoS runs i did were of higher level than the adventure itself.
those sound like great interpetations :)
I love this so much! definitely going to use this version of her in my game, also I'll look forward to the rest of Castle Ravenloft residents! You earned a sub ^-^
Can we please see the other brides? This was awesome!!
The hair and outfit reminds me a lot of Amy from Soul Calibur who also had vampiric ties. I love this design!!
Just came across your channel and what a motherload of wonderful information and tactics (and cool artwork)!
I'm currently DMing Curse of Strahd for the first time and Volenta was the next Bride I was going to introduce to the party. :D I'm planning to use maybe her Barbarian or Monk stat block when I have the party attempt to stop the Druid ritual at Yester Hill. (I'm crafting her backstory around that she was given to Strahd as an offering by the Druids as a form of alleigence (and as a test of her ruthless bloodlust to protect the ruler of Barovia). My group is 3/4 casters, so it'll be fun to witness their horror as a tiny masked woman in a dress attempts to tear them to shreds like a crazed animal. 😂
That sounds like it’s gonna be super cool :) good luck!
Hey dude, love the videos! I have a video request if you are interested. Could you do a video on Chauntea the Nature Goddess? Anyways, keep up the good work!
i'll add her to the list :)
Totally reminds me of a mix between Harley Quinn and Baby Firefly in House of 1000 Corpses
As someone else said, please please PLEASE make the other brides.
Volenta will likelY be introduced the next session of my CoS game so this is great. Some people might think I've made a mistake with this, but I've set up the 3 brides and Rahadin as 'fortold enemies', one of each of my players characters, with Escher being Ezmerelda's (the fated ally) enemy.
Volenta is the enemy of the monk in my group, an extremely good hearted, yet very naive and trusting dragonborn. My players are going to Lake Zarovich in an attempt to resuce Arabelle, but there's only going to be one boat and not enough space. As the dragonborn is afraid of water, im hoping he'll be left behind on the shore, where i can introduce Volenta.
I'm planning on playing Volenta like a monster, but everything to her is a game. She will consider the monk a new 'Toy' to play with, whilst telling him that her 'child' (the beast that slumbers in Lake Zarovich, not her actual child, but she considers herself its mother) will deal with his friends, and then she will drag him to Ravenloft. She is also going to wear a belt made of dead baby birds with dresses sown into their skin (something i pulled out of my ass in a dream the mono had of her). She's not supposed to be defeated, rather act as a waring of the battle to come.
Knowing him, he won't take the bait, so she's going to goad him about how much pain she'll cause him, how he can't save his friends or himself, and if it looks like his friends will survive on the lake, she attacks in anger.
'Gods, you're even more pathetic than i thought. All thay strength and skill, the muscle, the power, and yer you hold back! Why?!'
(First strike on her): *giggles* YES! Go on, hit me harder, show me why I should keep you!
When the Monk gets bloodied (half health): No! IT'S TOO SOON! STOP GIVING UP, THIS ISN'T FUN! YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO BREAK THIS QUICKLY!'
I'm so excited to play her. Whilst i know that mot people view her as rhe most physically powerful fighter, I'm switching thay up so Ana is instead. Ans stands at aroun 6'4 tall in mh game (or will) and is a fighter/diplomat combo, whilst Volenta is more of a firecracker rogue with explosive tendencies, extremely quick, with a really, really big mean streak.
it will be done xP
Personally, when I ran CoS, I ran Volenta as more of a trickster, than a psychopath. She preferred subterfuge, traps, and misdirection to direct combat (unless her "sisters" were with her) and I even gave her some levels in Rogue. Whereas I played Anastrasya as the psychopathic, violent powerhouse, who loved to be the architect for Strahd's various schemes to torment the people. I gave her levels in Fighter. Ludmilla was cold, calculating, and intellectual; a curious scientific mind, studying the limitations of various creatures and forms of magic across the land. She had levels in Wizard. Escher on the other hand was depressed and self-loathing. Once having been an adventurer, he sacrificed his companions to save himself and became one of Strahd's consorts. Now that Strahd has grown bored and cast him aside, he deeply regrets his actions and wished to either escape, atone, or die. Escher had levels in Bard.
do ludmilla!!
She’s on the list for sure :)
Question! What music theme would you use for the brides, but Volenta in particular?
th-cam.com/video/2mLa07M4hbU/w-d-xo.html
this is my reccomendation for Volenta, just enough of a frenzy but not too much that the party gets IRL oversensitized