D&D Story: My Player Said CURSE OF STRAHD Wasn't Hard Enough
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- Опубликовано: 10 сен 2024
- Curse of Strahd is a classic module of horror that is supposed to be challenging for D&D players. However, perhaps that's not the case? In this video, I tell the story of when one of my CoS players said that the module wasn't hard enough and what I decided to do to spice things up.
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Hilariously, I made a CR 20 Grand Vampire statblock specifically because the normal Vampire statblock doesn't work for high level encounters. Not Strahd specifically, I didn't know he had a unique CR 15 one at the time, but still. The Grand Vampire is mostly just a beefed up Vamp, with the same moves and a couple logical new ones. With one exception: Legendary Initiative. With this, by spending all 3 LAs, the Grand Vampire can take a full extra turn, with some limitations and bonuses to make it closer to balanced.
I love that you call people out for backseat DMing. I bet that person hasn't even been a DM since high school XD
“I am altering the stat block, pray that I do not alter it any further.”
Beautiful! 😂
Outstanding!
“Absorb what is useful, discard what is useless, and add what is specifically your own.” ~Bruce Lee
He was magnificent
"its okay to admit when you're wrong" more people need to be like this even myself
Totally agree.
Curse of Strahd is deadly at low levels, and tolerable past level 5. Once players get the artifacts the threat level diminishes greatly. Especially if there are more than 5 pc’s.
My Curse of Strahd group is currently fighting an eldritch abomination that was sealed beneath the Amber Temple.
Surprise! This is now Lovecraftian horror.
My second run through, totally did this. The Amber Temple had perfectly customizable material to really up the horror. Especially, when you work in Dark Blessings. Make one of them a Warlocks patron: golden.
"Run modules as written!!!"
Let me tell you a story of Starfinder Adventure path "Threefold Conspiracy" Third module.
We escape a base in stolen vehicles. Crossing a volcanic planet surface when the road we come to arrives at a steep cliff. I decide to drive my hovercar down and told to make three checks.
"Take 21d6 points of damage to car, player takes half!" ...I am lvl 5. For reference? Had I ramped the car off the cliff? The vehicle would have 20d6 and no damage for me unless vehicle got destroyed.
But it gets better. That was a good result. Cause module had a compounding DC. So for three checks? Each point you fail a check by is 1d6 damage, but also increases next DC by that many points... on a high DC So driving down a road with me being specialized in vehicles? Overall, that hazard if untrained had potential for over 60d6 damage...for lvl 5s... as written.
There was another option. You could try climbing down the thousand foot embankment and path. DC15 flat, no penalty if you crit fail!
I was first to go, and after I had it explained to me how my three checks with a big bonus led to 20d6 and potential death was calculated (and even shown) I straight up told the GM I refused to accept that, and could reverse it, or just ramp the vehicle off so didnt die. I was ready to quit then and there. GM just cut that hazard out all together.
Point is? As Written doesnt necessarily mean good or suitable. Change up modules as needed!
It’s generally wrong when players begin to take damage 😂
@@Alpha___00 Well I am of the mind that it depends on the damage. Back in day of junkfood oneoffs and 'just a game', getting splattered is fun. In mant roleplay tables nowadays, people want to be the character start to finish. Taking damage is usually fun and excitement as lose and heal, or retreat if things are bad. Potentially a death.
Trouble comes is when you get save or die. Ironically an experience with same character later in campaign. Level 20 of same adventure path. The module getting grindy with big fight after big fight of heavy solos that just deal tons of damage in single hit.
Second to last enemy before the final boss? My PC is hit with a crit disintegrate. 2/3s of my health is gone in a single hit. Put me to zero. Instakill into dust with no save and no revival.
I was not in a good mood.
Edit: It was what inspired me to begin working on my own dice system to give more agency to players in both attack and defence to modify and have tactics in survival. Remove the all or nothing concept.
In the intro after they said we are screwed and looked in horror, Then it cut away to a youtube grubhub ad...
NGL, the opening sketch is literally what I have done to both the modules I am currently running. I like the story lines but WOTC is soooooooo bad at actually writing adventures.
Edit: To the point you make later about customizing the module, yeah, you shouldn't feel obligated to run it exactly as written. If you're table enjoys modules exactly as written great, keep at it and have fun! Personally, I have found that modules as the starting point for inspiration is best for the games I run. Like my Tyranny game is **at best** inspired by the module at this point, rather than run from the book.
Examples of badly written adventures? What do you exactly find so bad about them?
'Gary' has pretty high Stealth, no one saw him with the MM and the CoS book...
Yes Gary is stealth is very high. Is that suspicious?
"We didn't TPK yet! This is TOO EASY!!!"
This is a bullshit complaint.
One of my 5 party members slaughter an encounter on their own. While the rest of us watched. And "helped" by killing a few minions.
I so not think it's a crap complaint.
@@harley4683 I think an encounter being able to be beaten by one character and all characters getting killed is a completely different level of difficulty. Being too easy is one thing. But saying because there wasn't a wipe that it's too easy is different. I've had chances for my team to wipe and they do well and pass the encounter, even if a few of them fall/die. I would say that's not too easy, but rather properly tuned.
The thought that Curse of Strahd is "easy" is why when I run it, I will be adding Grim Hollow into the mix.
Oh, that is going to be so good!
You diabolical monster! Tell us how it goes!
I can't get "I'm high since dungeon school" out of my head : )
Sorry.... :D
1:36 POV: you’re the anime villain and the hero just magically turned their hair blonde somehow
Protector and Scourge aasimar for the win!
Oh gosh, I wonder if this is from Sunday night’s game? Can’t wait to see who said this on the eventual video!
Oh boy it was Joe! 😂
He said it in the intro...
Yeah it was Joe. And yeah I called him out in the video. Love you Joe. :-)
It was probably joe
A DM that actually listens to their players and knows what a sandbox game is! Wow, yay! No that wasn't sarcasm that's a legitimate yay.
I wish my players listened to me more. They were around 5th level and were heading to the amber temple. I gave them so many hints in game and then even said "if you go there your party will probably wipe" I only told them because they complained about dying too much early on. They went and there was a tpk in the first encounter. They leaner their lesson as soon as that first lightning bolt happened.
If a player of mine told me that a campaign was too easy because there wasn't a TPK before level 5, I'd have few options available but to assume an alien parasite had infected their brain.
Remember, is no fun,is no Blinsky! Something about Blinsky makes me happy.
When our group ran Strahd, our CLERIC cut the demon arm off issacs corpse and then had our paladin cut HIS arm off to see if he could graft the demon arm onto himself. He could not.
You made a bazillion good points I learned by the time I DM'd since the 80s and implemented in the 90s and after. By the 90s, not just every campaign I ran nor module I used, I tweaked my games to use a whole lot of homebrew stuff to put people to read the DM only material to get an edge not get such an edge to dominate the missions get the knowledge to backfire.
Here is one paragon monster, the Winter Wyrm, the epic monster of the area. I actually created all of its things in each campaign off of rolls. A veteran of a former campaign told the other players about it. I reminded him that the local frost giants were paragon level in threat because they were a Spartan level military who avoided the paragon monster. He nodded and gave the advice anyway. The alterations: The Winter Wyrm was a heat-based entity that was completely immune to any kind of Ice (and cold) aside from Ash who actually healed from Fire and any kind of heat aside from outer-planar. On a natural 20, it swallowed and disintegrated anyone who failed the save. Every round, all the swallowed person can do is take heat damage and save vs. disintegration every round... if they fall below 0 HP, they disintegrate. Also, if the White Wyrm has people swallowed, the damage is divided between the White Wyrm and the swallowed... until the swallowed are disintegrated. Another thing is that whenever struck by a bladed weapon, the attacker gets hit by a "magma" blood blast that does the same damage as Fire Shield on top of doing 3d6 damage for 1d6 rounds. Further hits only extend the rounds damaged if the new roll is greater than the time left. Hitting the beast with electricity, magical or not, was no longer a damage immunity thing but doubled the beast's rate of attack & movement while adding +2 to attack and defense per hit. So, electricity hurts but it just might not be worth it unless it's a final blow.
Oh, and that disintegration effect is to turn the target into ash, gas, molten elements, and magical energies. Disintegrating a swallowed target makes it belch up the flame of the transition, a breath weapon that is like Red Dragon breath that is not only fire but acid and poison.
The beast lost (not mentioned above) its weapon shatter skin akin to Stone Dragons, freezing paralysis defense to anyone wounding it, summoning Winter Wolves chance at the beginning of each round, enhanced fear aura, and the blizzard that happens before battling it begins. The veteran's advice completely backfired... and they role-played well the investigation enough to know the veteran was wrong in that incarnation in all ways. I even warned the party that the veteran (in DM avatar form to the party) that this world's truths were not entirely true to the world their previous lives had as true then vanished.
A salute to the 80s
We actually recently went through CoS in my DnD group, and I had a ton of fun. We were generally one or two levels below what we were expected to be, so each battle was a matter of life and death. The only time we really felt it was too easy was, unfortunately, the battle with Strahd himself.
You sir are a true Villain talking funny in a high voice to your pet...and then turn back to your listeners telling us how to make players suffer more =] lol! Our DM made that room with 6 spawns and not the 4ish... 2 players escaped and 3 died. It was great as it set the tone for the campaign. The DM allowed 1 to come back to life as a Dark Gods champion; linked to the Amber Temple. We are now on the last session soon and I can't wait to read the module and compare!
Cool, that sounds like fun. :D (Yes, I'm definitely a villain. :D )
*SPOLIERS*
Having played CoS last year, I found that the first half of the module was insanely difficult. Every monster you come across until you get Tree Bane is CR 4 and and above (3 Hags, Shambling Mound at Level 2, beefed up Vampire Spawn (Doru), 6 Vampire Spawn in Valaki.
Once you get to the Catacombs and get given 'gifts' and a robot, all battles, especially Strahd himself, are a cake walk.
Playing the module, we are a 3 man party at lvl 8 and I can hardly believe how unbalanced the Amber temple is right now. If you put it into Kobold Fight club the enemies are four times a deadly encounter for us. Its over all the experience in a day each fight we have. We were a four man party by the way. Until someone pointed their finger and a pc died!
Yep, CoS is definitely made in the shadow of AD&D and 3.0/3.5. Where it was almost adversarial between player and DM.
I ran a modified CoS and led my players into a false sense of security. They haven't seen Strahd's prowess until the final fight. Oh boy, it became a bloody mess.
Im here to support, but i cannot watch in the event of spoilers.
Keep up the good work dude!
Thank you! :-)
I ran CoS and agree with the players that once you have alys and the artifacts, things, RAW are easier for them.
But not going to lie, even if the opening skit was meant to be funny... I love the idea of Strahd finding some of the alys like van Richten and Esmeralda and using mass suggestion and modify memory on them to aid him instead of the players. It can be an interesting way to introduce them to the players, deal with that betrayal and learn that these are actually good guys. It shows the players that Strahd is a powerful opponent, so strong that he was able to steamroll a formidable Monster Hunter
My party of lvl 3 thought we could take on 6 vampire spawn without really knowing what that meant. We should have tpk, but the dm was super nice and had Rudolph save us💕💕
My players didn't feel like going to Valaki,
So I let them try to break into Ravenloft instead.
Now at 5th level they're gonna be crusading to bring down Strahd,
I wonder how they'll hold up,
But surely this is gonna be glorious.
the probem with Curse of Stradh and all 5e modules. is the game is balance around NO MAGIC ITEM. So the game is balance if the player had no magic item.
But then in mot of those module (especially the early one) it was a race for which module gave ou the artifact legendary weapon first. Hoard of the Dragon Queen gives out a legendary weapon around level 7
prince of the Apocalyse sure they come by a bit later, but there is 5 of them
Out of the Abysse give our a legendary weapon at level 2-3
Curse of Stradh give it randomly, depending on which card the fortune teller drew. For my group, the sunsword was at the crossroad next to the fortune teller caravan. we obtained it at level 3
If there is one thing I hope WotC changes in 5.5, it's their mentality on magic item.
Magic item is a cool part of character progression. it's a fun way to customize your character, and a random magic item might allow a character to explore a new strategy that I would never have thought about without that magic item.
So let's embrace magic item for 5.5, including an expected magic item curve when calculating character power, and balance encounters using the curve. it won't even require that much work since adventurer league already made a pretty decent magic item curve
Doing the Acquisitions Incorporated adventure. Had to do a little bit of improvising when the group decided to not trust this suspicious and shifty gnome, that would have led them into an ambush. Basically, had the party do some walking before I called for a Perception check, and there's the bandit gang attack.
I just looked at truly how much content, resources, and options are on the patreon. Definitely worth the money and will probably sign up for tier 3 or 4 or so. Yall, there are tons of tiers for different price ranges. Def check it out. This is not a paid advertisement lol
I am legit considering it. Not immediately, but possibly in the future.
Changing the crap to fit your group is the best part! 🤣
Modules give you great/good material to make a base. The rest is season to taste.
100% agree.
When they arrived in Vallaki, my players were presented with several things to do (they know that there is a little Vistana girl who will need to be saved at some point, they can get free rooms at the inn if they retrieve the wine, they need to meet with Rictavio before nightfall, and there is of course the whole situation with the bones)
They decided that the bones were on top of their to-do list, easily managed to track them down, brought them back to the church, and informed the Burgomaster about the vampire spawns
Their encounter with the burgomaster made them realize that the guy is insane, but he did send Izek and 10 guards to help them take care of the vampire spawns
This led to the craziest combat I have ever run, three of the 7 PCs went down (the bard came in clutch for that), just the combat itself lasted 3 hours irl, and they only managed to survive thanks to Izek (played by a friend who usually just watches us play) who made some very lucky rolls, as well as the goliath jumping out the window and landing sword first on the last enemy
"Holy Crap! We're screwed!!!"
Altar Boys.... Bones... nope, not further going down this road... 🤐
Barbarian: This module is too easy
DM: I sleep
Rogue: Starts to read the module
DM: *I AM CHANGING THE MODULE!*
Curse of Strahd difficulty really depends on the DM. If the DM knows how to actually run it correctly then it can be the most difficult module. Especially the Death House, Baba Lasaga. These encounter was very close to killing the party every time. I can admit that running Strahd in his castle can be tricky. If you know how to run him then it can be difficult. But if you do not know how to do hit and run then Strahd will be easy to defeat. However I can suggest that if you have this problem, then look on dmsguild and get the homebrew expansion, "The Devil Strahd." This verison of Strahd is terrifying. Regardless I uses this all of the time because it gives the real fear into my players. Oh right, even the coffin shop encounter can be a close TPK too, 5-6 vampire spawn is scary.
Don't talk to me about sandboxes being hard to run and requiring improvisation. We've been playing over a year, 2-4 times a month and I can count on one hand how many times my players saw an adventure through, and not just, for example: gave up 'cause they didn't wanna risk dying, got a cart, and started roaming the countryside visiting farms that technically didn't even exist 2 seconds prior.
"digging holes is fun!"
mmhm, what did you say happened to that gravedigger again?
He almost died. Oh crap
Well for our group despite we went in the COS at higher level. But the encounter is hard enough that i felt every encounter is just near death and DM is pity on us and let us live.
I ran a CoS of campaign and imho I don't think its that easy. I had one player die in the death house along with a couple of pivotal NPCs die due player choices (and consequences based on it) throughout the campaign. I will also add, despite the criticism I read online, Strahd is not a pushover if played smart which pretty much happened with me when I TPKed the party I ran for.
I ran the CoS with tonnes of modification. Vallaki is the most modifications I made fitting my players' background and they are really enjoy!
In fact, they are happy to have me as CoS DM, as they felt challenged, and they also believe in me that I won't let them killed in the module easily, but if they do something recklessly,.they probably will face a worse than dead situation.
Hahaha, I don't really that love combat, but problem solving and role playing.
Hope you and your players enjoy your game!
I am currently running CoS for 6 players, I am pumping up every encounter since they are so many and so far it's been hard for them with 1 casualty and nearing another one at Wizards of wines
If you pause at exactly 2:33 you can read the encounter that luke made for his patrons which is very simple yet well done.
I have literally never been this early to your videos. 3 minutes before upload?! :D
I'm running a Curse of Strahd campaign and homebrewed Watcher being the reason the bones went missing in this exact same way! 😧
Aren't there like 3 nighthags to fight while you're are lvl 3.
unless they don't go there. even then my players went back at lvl 4 and had little trouble
My players made quick work of them by dividing and conquering
well, it depends who has the upper hand. When the party finds out they are hags, they leave, and from the outside cast the Silence spell through one of the windows. Its perfectly doable.
@@Boardslam27 actually with innate spellcasting they can cast the spell with out the requirement
@@Grixis_Teller_of_Talesinnate spellcasting makes them ignore material components, not verbal. Silence should still work
Sandbox vs railroad vs linear does sound like s good video
The end of that into had me wheezing when they all looked at the Kobold
That part with the bones brings back a very memorable moment in the first CoS group that I ran. It was a party of 6 that was split with 3 of them at the coffin makers shop trying to locate the bones. While two players were interrogating the coffin maker, the rogue went upstairs.. alone. He actually went to the wardrobe first where he found the bones, lucky for him, but this is where Strahd "chose" to make an in person appearance to collect said bones. Using the portal, I described it in a manner similar to the original Terminator's arrival with sound of sparks and electricity.. then the sound of heavy boots coming in his direction on the bare wooden floor of the upstairs. Of course, the other two players downstairs could hear this as dust rained down on them from the floorboards above. Henrick panicked saying "Oh no..., he's here". The guy playing the rogue was nearly stuttering when Strahd walked into the room and said "I'll be relieving you of those". Of course the rogue turned them over and Strahd did them no harm, he actually thanked the rogue for being so "cooperative". The players were absolutely terrified (in a really good way). I've DM'd this part of CoS twice now and neither group was going to get out of Vallaki without the Feast of St. Andral happening.. it just too much fun! :) Ultimately, the players regrouped and went back to the coffin makers shop and burned it down.. because that's what players do.. That was when the spawn broke out and fled into the night kicking off the start of St. Andral's feast.
The best part of this is the open campaign book in the front of the dm.
My players keep complaining that someone gets reduced to 0 hp every encounter.
This is partly Why Like frost maiden better as a horror module Because it has no issue being deadly. You also noticed there is a distinct Lack of magical weapons
As someone who played and TPK'd in Curse of Strahd, after getting really close to TPK 7 times in the campaign (2-3 of the players downed and the others below half HP with enemies that can deal half of their HP in damage in a single turn), in a campaign where the DM told us they adjusted the difficulty for lower level encounters because he was tired of ending the campaign in the damn Death House over and over, I can say:
Curse of Strahd is a TPKing machine. If your characters aren't optimal and your party structure isn't balanced, you're gonna have a hard time, the frustrating kind. There are some encounters placed in places you will very likely stumble upon in lower levels that are way above "Deadly". If you face them with drained resources, like we did when we TPK'd (though we were already level 7 and the encounter wasn't one of the adjusted ones), it's nigh impossible to survive. *Take the 6 vampire spawn encounter Luke mentioned.* If you don't have a cleric or don't have Turn Undead or Turn Undead fails miserably, that encounter will almost 100% TPK you. And I do want to remind that you can get into that encounter at any time after you get to Vallaki. It was the first thing my group did, so we faced it at level 3 or 4, don't remember which. But alas, you will probably die before you can even get there, because EVERYONE enters the f**king windmill, because the module gives you a letter that mentions it.
In short, played as is, Curse of Strahd is a module that will likely murder you before you can even feel like you got anywhere. You're probably gonna have to play it several times and maybe metagame a bit in creating your characters before you can really get to explore what is in it. If anyone ever tells you it is easy, roll an insight check because something definitely doesn't add up.
They zeroed in on that wagon because, I'm afraid to say, they've read the adventure
(If its the wagon I'm thinking of with the tiger in it)
I have a party of 3 going through it as written right now and the only change I’ve made is starting them at level 3 and leveling them as if they’re 2 levels lower for the duration of it. Let’s see how this goes 😅
It's certainly true that there's nothing in the way of good support for helping DMs decide how NPCs pick between several possible choices, and so linearity plagues all published adventures. But the theft of the bones of Saint Andral seems designed to coerce the PCs down a linear path, since there's no solution offered other than recovering them, not even temporary measures to gain time to find an alternate solution. It's either find the bones, stumble across and kill the secret vampire spawn, or take the L of watching Vallaki fall to Strahd.
I dunno. I'm not sure how well it'd work with a campaign setting, but I feel like there should be at least three lasting solutions offered in scenarios like this, so that the DM is encouraged to be in the mindset of players being able to succeed in different ways. (Master DMs should already know that, more junior DMs might still need the training wheels.) In this case, other options might include . . .
1) Have Father Lucien hold a special service, to get enough of a phrenic boost to appeal to Saint Andral for a direct intervention, with the PCs arranging to get everyone they can to attend. Perhaps emptying the stocks is necessary to get enough people to fill the pews.
2) Finding and killing the vampire spawn is of course an alternate way to prevent Strahd from taking Vallaki, at least for now. But if this is intended to be a viable solution separate from finding the bones, then they need to have some sort of discernable presence in town, perhaps sneaking out for drinks. (They interpret their orders to 'lay low' as 'use stealth and do not kill your victims', because after a while they got thirsty enough to creatively interpret their orders.)
3) Contact Strahd and make some sort of unfortunate bargain with him, sparing the town for a year and a day. If the PCs can't do that through one of the loyalists in the area, they might have to try when he invades the church, making their bargaining posture that much worse. Or they can learn of the Spirit Mirror and how it can be used to beckon his attention.
Umm..
Then rework it accordingly to your party? Gm has all the authority in the world.
Yes, as long as it's not your job or your grave, digging holes is very fun.
Too easy you say? *cue a hut with massive tree roots for spider legs scuttling over the hillside in your direction and rapidly approaching*
When I hear a player complaining that the campaign/module is too easy, I think back to Avengers.
Thor: Is that the best you can do?
1:35 We're screwed
everyone: NANI?!
I killed two players in that coffinmaker’s upstairs
My players ended up setting the attic on fire as a last resort....which caused a problem when they realized "oh yeeea, vampires dont like sunlight so the windows were boarded up...um escape route is a no go"
It was awesome. They had to scramble to find a crowbar to pry out the boards while taking fire damage, while a flaming vamp leaped onto one of them
Doing the module currently...we nearly died twice at the death house...to be fair 1 was due to party conflict. Second time was still in the death house and was....yeah party conflict plus a monster plus just bad timing on our side and most of us were under level (the encounter that we were supposed to do to level up was solo by one party member while we split when we told them to shout when there is trouble) We survived thanks to teamwork and good rolls in critical moments. Plus two of us getting possessed did hinder a bit.
I cannot believe anyone would think Death House is easy.
Doesn’t this mainly depend on the builds like any race plus a forge cleric can get a free plus 1 armor or weapon at level 1
My reaction to this now i've reached 13 minutes into the video.
Those bones AREN'T protecting the town they're interred in there to prevent the town coming under attack when those bones animate once they've been removed from consecrated ground long enough to reawaken!
I'm thinking Bone Golem.
Strahd is aware about those so is probably scrying this adventure with a bowl of bloodied candy and a glass of fine brandy or blood and enjoying the show!
If your Luck pt system suck maybe you should rename it to the Luke pt system... see what I did there.
I to had a luck pt system that I had to dismantle as it absolutely changed the math.
Be well and have the best day.
The entire D&D 5e has a monster and CR problem not only curse of Strahad.
But that's a sell point for 5e.
crap if I knew this was going to have a Skit I would have clicked. sorry the skits are one of my favorite bits of your videos. I know this module from people but never ran it before
ok story time. My players were in Vallaki for all of a day, when they made their way to Blinskys shop, Ireena was with the party and Blinsky exclaimed there was a doll that looked like her, but couldn't sell it to them out of fear, fair enough right? they roll high intimidation (sigh) Blinsky is still more scared of Izek than the party, Blinsky tells the party that its for Izek and wont sell it. Here's the uhh fun bit, one of my players want to get with Ireena (fair enough I say)........... he tries to fight Izek, naturally Izek kicks those players out of the town while 2 arent with the group at the time but Izek takes Ireena. The 2 party members that stay behind try to rescue Ireena from Izek, she sucessfully escapes but Izek 1shot those 2 party members......... this just happened and idk how to run next session
I had an amazing idea. Take curse of strahd, and Modify it with Homebrew, to turn Strahd the Simp into Bird of Hermes Alucard ala Team Four Star.
My group is playing through COS and so far it's been firm but fair. People have gone done in the campaign and ho boy. The friggin jester fight was one of the hardest flghts of the campaign.
I forgot to get to the jester fight. Will be fun. :-)
@@theDMLair Yeah. Especially since i thought it was a good idea to use counterspell on one of his attacks. Only for everyone bar the monks to fall down to his killing joke legendary action.
I have not run, or even read, a pre-written module since way back in the AD&D days, when a module was under $10-15 and small enough to be staple-bound, maps and handouts included.
Even back then I changed things for the party mix and number of characters I had at the table.
I figure, if you want to run/play modules "properly as written" there is Adventurer League
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Even the Catholic Church has figured out that altar boys will not keep secrets...
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Luke, don't fall into the trap of the "mom's basement" derision. Clueless schlubs can have their own apartments, or even live in their uncle's best friend's college roommate's garage!
In our game we killed them relatively easily. We were lvl 4: Oathbreaker Paladin, Lycan Bloodhunter, Life Domain Cleric, Fiend Warlock, Dragon Bloodline Sourcerer. Holy Water and Turn Undead, took about 2 hours but they were killed and we weren't that badly damaged. DM really couldn't get us grappled because of crappy rolls while we kept hitting every turn. Was extremely fun to be honest and we got a lvl up after that.
What software do you use to write your prewritten adventure?
Want to make it harder.... As soon as they find Strahd have it so that the others in the castle or on the grounds start heading to help him. Even if Strahd dies, they have to get out. Which they wouldn't get a rest. I ran the original a few times. I have never done the curse... Or Have the all the tombs have something in them that get released upon his death. Or one after another. So that they have to get thru them to get to Strahd. By then, they will be weaker. Again, not sure of the remake. But I do remember there were enough spots in the castle to add someone. Or something as simple as another party that lives in the country has been waiting for someone to defeat him. Now they are there to rob you. Party vs Party.
Or since the fog kept you in. Have it where it also kept something out. So when they start to leave, it can lead you into another campaign, or a Lich was trapped in the fog but now free. That or what ever you want lived there and that is what also was killing people leaving.
Luke... Milivoj is 16 taking care of his younger siblings.. he sold the bones to support them... but you may have changed all that so I still like the way you did this lol
This is the best; I have ran things differently than the module as well. DM Rule #1: make it fun your own way
Man seeing all the talk of the tpks this module is making me second guess joining the one i found
I feel like famous modules like curse of strahd should be changed a little bit for the DMS preferences for a few reasons. The main reason lots of people heard about it
It feels like you are the chaotic good counterpart to Matthew Colville 😅
I like the way you explain a Sandbox game. I am in the Working of actually running my first 1-20 Sandbox adventure, thus far I have only given them a single Plothook, but will widen and give them more as they go on, Basically I dont want to overwhelm my Players with choices in the early game where they are still limited with what they can do per long rest. i want them to instead gradually get more and more freedom, the higher level they get as the Higher level means the more they can handle per day.
It's ok to admit when you're wrong. That's how you grow as a person. Also, stop cheating with your kitties guest starring in your videos :p
As a Coca-Cola fiend, I feel I must defend my sugary beverage-drinking brethren. Otherwise I agree with you. ;)
My Saturday day dm runs a sandbox where we kinda just wander around.
Is it fun?
@@theDMLair eh some times it has its moments usually when the players are rping with each other.
Wait a level 5 turn undead shouldn't be able to kill a Vampire Spawn.
I don't think he said they died, just that they fled, and only one remained to fight.
I'm starting COS Sunday and am changing a lot because one of the players was going to be our dm for it and read the book front to back just couldn't get into being a dm for it. We did get a pretty good session 1tho I kinda messed up his game by making an artificer and making a steam powered car....... to be fair, he allowed guns and 4 of the other players were gun slingers, with silver bullets.
Anyway I feel like taking liberties with modules is a good thing and keeps players on their toes. I'm going to start them off at an inn as they sleep, they will have a dream (the story of Strahd) then wake up to a letter in a dagger on the inside of the door...... then when they go to leave the inn keepers wife is going to burst into the inn screaming about "those $%/÷ing gypsies" always partying and keeping her up at night yet nobody wants to do anything about it...... if they chose to go talk they will get a flute made out of bone and be told it is a very powerful magic item (it is a flute of summoning that summons a merchant that has powerful items (pretty much anything they ask for but his prices are high and he is hard to haggle with) if they try to steal from him he is a level 20 character and if they try to use him in a fight he will dip out. His bag is the only real magic item he has, as it is a portal to any items in any relm. If they need a healing potion it is stolen from somewhere in the multiverse, it could even be stolen from them and sold back to them.
You're not the only one who had Lady Watcher have the bones. I did something similar.
How did you run the bones situation?
@@theDMLair o.o Senpai Luke noticed me!! I had Lady Watcher just have them in her home, after having intimidated the grave digger into stealing them for her. Our paladin was able to coax it out of the parishioner boy who had taken them.
Yeah, I don't like the single inspiration limit either, so instead I let them hold on to additional points, BUT they are reduced to one if they take a short or long rest, having lost their momentum. My thinking is that it encourages the group to keep playing and push forward rather than sacrifice their inspiration resource.
One thing I'd also like to find a way to do is give spellcasters another way to use their inspiration points. Since they make few attack rolls, if they're in a straight up fight, they're less likely to need them because most spells just happen and don't require a roll. I thought about letting them use an inspiration to cast a 1st level spell, but that seems a bit OP.
I think that modules are good for starting GMs to help them learn what to do and use and what not to so they can make their own campaigns well
Thank you Joe
My personal opinion the module is a starting point, if you don't change it to make it fit your party then your failing your basic duty as a dm
I love that encounter reminds me of Salem’s lot!
Mine was too easy, but I had a first time DM who rushed us through it in about 5 sessions. Killed Strahd in 2 rounds, most of which happened from me controlling the missing warrior and my paladin in the second round when I remembered they had Extra Attack at level 6. I didn't even use the thighbone because it'd evaporate at the end of the fight.
I have a hard time imagining doing it in 5 sessions. Wow
There were 4 of us all clerics and we killed them all at lv 4 using turn undead once lol it was alot of fun and scary
I'm currently running Curse of Strahd, and I had a similar situation with the 3 (level 2) PCs vs 1 vampire spawn.
The vampire tries to spring at them, the Ranger uses Ensnaring Strike to pin it to a wall.
Now I actually fudged the saving throw and made the vampire fail, thinking "It'll succeed the saving throw next turn, that'll be a great way to show how powerful just one vampire spawn is!"
Half his health and some terrible saving throws later, I'm thinking "okay, but he'll succeed soon and start to regenerate!" (He was getting hit by radiant damage every turn).
He gets down to a single hit point, and THEN breaks out the Ensnaring Strike. "Okay but now he'll do some damage before he goes dow- (miss miss miss)..."
When they got to the coffin makers they just burned the whole house down...
i am actually runing this campaign and in the first 2 sessions 2 players already died (5 people party)
I understand that one. My players just made it out of Durst Manor so they really haven't even started and I had to do some "creative math" to prevent an Instakill at lvl 2. And even then they were only 1 round away from a TPK.
We all know they're still alive because Luke is the nicest DM ever xD
That feels like a challenge. I have to know prove how evil I am. LOL
@@theDMLair Yeesss
100% ready for next session lol
I had 1 player decide to pursue the bones quest line by themselves. He was led upstairs and was snacked on by the vampire spawn. Best part was he didnt tell anybody else where or what he was doing 😂
They eventually came to collect the bones and followed the same clues. The Forge Cleric had spirit guardians so the vampires weren’t as difficult to dispatch =\
well, dahh. It's supposed to be easy till like lvl 6 or 7. Not at 1-3 of course. But.
So later, after they joined forces with Esmeralda, find the sword, slew a big pack of werewolfs and probably said "Master, CoS is way too easy", Strahd strikes them.
Strikes them really hard for them to be too reckless not to sleep in St.Andral church. He casts sleep on their single watchman, he casts silence, enters their hideout as mist, sucks them dry, get all of their precious items, wakes one up by licking his neck, tells him "Let the hunt begins", and then maniacally laughs watching them realizing all of that. And then the game begins. Works every time dude.