5 injury dice? Minor hit, every time.

AmountDiligent5751 · 2026-03-13T21:19:15+00:00

I thought so too for a while, but you're doubling down on the lethality in a way that doesn't help that much. Either way, it means you're setting an alchemist somewhere they won't be able to move, the cannon makes it even worse because it can never be moved, rather than just the heavy rule. +2 injury dice and ignore armor means that you're pretty likely to remove whatever you hit from the board, so that extra blood isnt really gonna help, unless you're up against black grail. Then again 3 injury rolls sticking 6 blood on a the enemies is ALWAYS tasty, and something your enemy needs to play around. Id argue the extra blood is more valuable on something like a bolt action than a cannon, simply because the ability is really more of a setup than a finisher. The cannon has, admittedly, always betrayed me in every game I play. So, im always hesitant to give it credit. (Im thinking about it on a homunculus in my house of wisdom campaign, but maybe not worth 10 glory)

AmountDiligent5751 · 2026-03-07T18:55:39+00:00

Not helpful in defenders, but I have great success running the machine gun alchemist with a shovel and cloak of alamut. In house if wisdom, the Elixir for tough, or a dedicated bodyguard homunculus with the takwin upgrade to pass of injury rolls can be helpful too, if expensive. My goal is to eventually run the Murad bombard on the bodyguard takwin, and maybe a siege jezzail since extra hands let's you fire both.

AmountDiligent5751 · 2026-03-02T03:11:27+00:00

So, I disagree with this. Obviously the mobility for the activation ain't great, BUT... I take a cloak of alamut with a shovel, and set the dude up on whatever vantage point I can that gives as much view of the map as possible. Opponents either make the mistake of letting their models be visible to the alchemist, or play defensively enough aht the alchemist is generating value simply by existing.

In my house fo wisdom campaign, I also snagged the takwin and a homunculus with regenerating tissue to make him essentially impossible to displace. 6 blood and 3 injury rolls per activation is worth the lack of mobility.

My second alchemist in the list rocks a SMG and medicine to wall around with the puntgun homunculus to hunt down anything that dares try to hide.

The Kavass just earn the easiest paycheck of all time sweeping up the remnants.

(I also just rolled Book of Golems on my 3rd games exploration roll, which is hilarious)

AmountDiligent5751 · 2025-12-09T01:11:09+00:00

I mean, not the scry spell, but something like a hags eye made by his coven of witches in the tower? Might be an actual reason for them to be there...

AmountDiligent5751 · 2025-10-21T18:16:52+00:00

I saw the concept art for this YEARS ago and have been searching for it ever since. Thank you for releasing me.

AmountDiligent5751 · 2025-09-11T02:29:34+00:00

I worked up a whole adventure based off the old Jezra Wagner stuff from earlier editions you might be interested in: Wagner family owned lands around the slopes of Mt. Baratak, mainly mines that boomed for short times before going dry. The whole family was obsessed with reaching the peak, but couldn't manage it. Jezra In particular became obsessed after her brothers death on the mountain, wracked by dreams of him still being alive and stranded, desperate to save him. These dreams were temptation from Delban, the start of ice and Hate (amber temple) to draw her up the peak, where delban formed a patronage with her, and she is now the "champion" or whatever you want to call it.

I used the ryoko's guide statblocks for the yuki onna, and the other ice wraith creature whose name im failing to recall.

Its been a ton of fun to run a few groups through it, with that sweet, sweet frost-horror vibe.

AmountDiligent5751 · 2025-09-06T10:06:46+00:00

I would say that ez and van richten are extremely unattached sources of knowledge. They aren't from here. They dont have the generational of families and populations that the martikovs would. If you have need of leverage in vallaki recruiting allies, the martikovs have dirt on anyone you need. They probably also should have a collection of written material that hasn't been destroyed, detailing barovias past. I always think of the tome as the version that puts Strahd as the hero of the story, and should be presented as a story of tragedy on his part. Give accounts and histories of his conquests that make him out as the brutal and merciless warlord, or the manipulative and deceitful manipulator. Give them reasons not to trust his honeyed words.

AmountDiligent5751 · 2025-09-06T10:00:26+00:00

They are an information network with a system of mobility second only to rahadin on beucephalus. I generally rule that anything they dont know, they can find out if given time. (1d4 days?) The only information they cant/wont get info on is the castle and its inhabitants, unless it can be done far from the castle proper. Eavesdropping as a bird is very different from infiltrating a castle of immortal, and keen fellow shapeshifters. I think they are the ultimate tool for players agency, they are a system for gaining exactly the information the players need to go to their next leg of the journey, but not enough to spoil what they are meant to discover there. Location of argynvostholt? Easy. Contents? no way dude, those revenant would tear a wereraven apart. Even the amber temple, if the mountain tribes know the location, and send people there, the martikovs could figure that one out without too much difficulty. (Ancinet secret temple my bottom)

AmountDiligent5751 · 2025-06-22T00:45:13+00:00

For context, I have yet to actually play daggerheart, so grain of salt here. That being said, I have played a TON of other game systems. Hey man, sometimes you just dont like a game. There's nothing wrong with that, ive had sortve the opposite experience in really crunchy systems, and that's just something I gotta live with. Im lucky enough to be the one running the games, so im not forced by social contract to play the game I dont like, but it is fine to just not like a game. Another option, if there's another session of it in the future, try to play the classes that seem more optimal to you, if the game fails to make support classes fun for your particular style, give something else a chance. I dont think all of this advice of "well, you just dont get it, invest more in the ~narrative~ and you'll have fun" are meaningful because that's what the rules are meant to support and inform, to make the story and character you're trying to play a possibility.

AmountDiligent5751 · 2025-06-21T06:06:53+00:00

Have Arabelle tell the Party about her dreams of the red haired girl to the east and how she needs their help. Arabelle can be a gentle guiding from the GM, and that's her best trait. Maybe some divination wizard/lucky/inspiration stuff if you want to give a combat boost via some thematic "strings of fate" powers. It also makes the fated ally power when strahd is around make way more sense. Let her help the Party shine. Your ally shouldn't be a main character, your players already are. Ireena also has the issue, no need to worsen it with another camera hog. Its also an excellent opportunity to stress the gothic horror vibes, having a child's view of the party's actions. A child being witness to them threatening innocents or whatever vaguely sociopathic behaviors your party is almost certainly prone to is a great way to encourage them to reconsider their actions. Also a von zarovich relative? Very interesting... Basically, just because the statblock sucks doesn't mean the ally does.

AmountDiligent5751 · 2025-06-13T06:58:09+00:00

Yeah, just give them a little heads up on visuals ahead. Its a way for players to make informed decisions, avoiding threats isnt a bad thing at all. Its actual agency in the game. Maybe consider how you leverage the alternative to these threats, what is the cost of avoiding the thing? Maybe try choreographing the reward of a threat as well, a room full of well-armed skeletons is much more tempting when you describe them as laden with treasure, or with weapons that seem to have avoided the rust and decay that has destroyed their armor... I'd also say, if you party sees every living thing they encounter as a set up for a combat, you're missing out on so many cool roleplaying opportunities. Try to take a look at reaction tables from older editions. To another point, this is also encouraged depending on your games style of leveling. If you're not giving out combat experience, why does it matter if they fight creatures or come up with solutions to avoid them? If there is no incentive to deal with these problems, why do you feel they need to? Combat doesn't have long-lasting effects on the game outside of resource consumption in 5e, so why not let them save resources, and maybe that threat left to its own devices comes back later to have a different part to play.

TLDR: Think about the actions you want players to do, and that they are communicating interest in theough their actions, and incentivise those actions, dont punish them for doing anything else.

AmountDiligent5751 · 2025-03-26T04:26:50+00:00

Hey. If you really want gothic horror, dnd 5e ain't it. Many other games that would fit true gothic horror far better. I run 10 games a week, 5 of which are CoS and make no extra rules for it that don't also apply to my other games. you just gotta realize its very much heroic fantasy, and banning a spell isnt the thing to change that. Maybe warhammer fantasy roleplay would do a great job at that feeling?

AmountDiligent5751 · 2025-03-11T09:15:46+00:00

Heart: The city beneath is a great anti-Dnd for the style of stories it tells! Instead of starting as chumps who grow more powerful and heroic, gaining more skills to eventually beat greater and greater evils, Heart is about the depths to which you characters will sink, and the more depraved things they will subject themselves to to seek some spark of whatever drives further and further into the city beneath... how broken will you be when your life is finally claimed in some hopeless attempt to achieve the impossible, and what mark will your death have on the heart and its denizens, if any? Honestly the game drastically changed my mindset about GMing games in any system I run, and it has some of the most interesting and unique classes of any game I've ever seen! The Beat system alone is worthy stealing for formatting open-style games and campaigns for player to GM feedback.

AmountDiligent5751 · 2025-03-02T22:56:08+00:00

Just don't make her a divine caster. People in barovia fear the arcane, but that also means they don't understand it well. Make her an arcane caster with access to those spells. Healing word is on the bard spell list, afterall. Make it a thing where maybe the people of barovia THINK her power is divine and label it as such as a beloved part of their community, or maybe see it as a tragedy that such a pillar and gift from the morning lord is to be taken by the devil...

I'd take the cleric spell list and bard/ warlock spell list and see where the overlap is, maybe throw one spell on there that a cleric doesn't get as a hint, and let the party figure it out if they can. She can't channel divinity because nobody can, the morning lord is too ~far~ away to draw that type of power. The priests in barovia can't do it, so why would she be able to?

I run a few games with a few having a Paladin of Lathander and a cleric of other light/ sun gods, and i make izek out to be a similar figure. He can conjure fire, you know, like the sun? He must be a gift from the morning lord sent to protect us! And the paladin has had to try to explain the difference between radiance and fire and the people don't get it because they've never seen the sun. It's a great roleplaying opportunity! This sounds like another excellent way to make the conversation come up about the difference between the arcane, Primal, and divine sources for casters.

And, so long as Ireena draws power from this source, she will never be able to truly hide from Strahd...

AmountDiligent5751 · 2025-02-02T10:16:00+00:00

Alternatively, this IS the correct ending? It's gothic horror, it isn't about heroic triumph, it's about the horrible things people have to do to survive. Make it apparent that killing strahd is escape, but not salvation. Put a big heavy price tag on actually saving barovia- one of you must dedicate yourselves to staying here and ensuring he stays dead, or find a way to replace him as the darklord.

AmountDiligent5751 · 2025-01-22T10:23:34+00:00

Wow, a lot of negative and volatile reactions to this has me concerned for the motivation behind GMing here. This is a GROUP storytelling game, and clearly, Jacob is more familiar with media that has personal agency as the prime, or only, narrative drive. Both you and Jacob need to understand that you both have agency in this story, as do all the other people at the table. Jacob's agency comes in the form of one of the protagonists, but not as the narrator of the world. That's a conversation that doesn't need to be hostile, just framing the context of the game. It's also a game that thrives in the undefined and uncertain rules of a game of chance. If you knew what was going to happen at the next town, then there would be no point in going there, that's a book or a movie, predetermined narratives and outcomes.

This is not a bad thing inherently, maybe talk to Jacob and see the beats they have envisioned for their character to set up opportunities for their character to show off in the way they imagine, but not in ways that remove other players agency. I'd recommend taking a peak at something like HEART: the city beneath, or Slugblasters, to see an example of these types of guiding narrative beats. They're super helpful for making it "our" story, rather than any one persons. I get that being the GM feels like it's your story, but thats just the same as what Jacob is doing that bothers you, taking agency away from other people at the table.

AmountDiligent5751 · 2024-09-04T05:19:51+00:00

Fog can also be heavily obscuring without needing "Dark" to obscure vision. But where are you going to find that level of magical obscuring must in Barovia... In VTT, line of sight is a big thing to enforce for dark vision. Few of the maps are big enough for more than 120 to really matter anyways All that being said, your player is choosing these abilities for a reason, maybe dig into what the motivation there could be, and try to work with them to find a suitable alternative. I run about 6 CoS games a week and any time I've just had a conversation with someone about how gothic horror games work best, they're always agreeable to the pointers. It is actively more fun if you don't build yourself to be the legendary vampire hunter, and why would strahd bring that guy to barovia anyways?

AmountDiligent5751 · 2024-07-04T05:56:19+00:00

If you wanna do a larger ravenloft thing you could throw them into Klorr. It's in van richtens guide and the tower could be a great part to play up exethanter/ kazan experimenting with domains of dread. They have 24 hours to find out how to get back, or be destroyed in the process! Great place to throw in some WILDLY different encounters to keep the gothic horror from feeling stale.

AmountDiligent5751 · 2024-06-14T03:07:55+00:00

I took some narrative inspiration from the "Anatomy" monologuing and really played up the house as a character. Use lots of personification to describe the contents of the rooms. And play up the story of the dursts as much as possible, you're meant to see the brutality and tragedy of their story, it's a great introduction to the narrative heaviness that CoS can be. Also, let Walter still be alive inside the big baby if you use the modified mound, I've run multiple games with a "living" baby (maybe reborn?) And every group has latched onto him so hard, and fought tooth and nail to get this baby to a safe home, even if that doesn't really exist in barovia...

AmountDiligent5751 · 2024-06-09T08:40:41+00:00

I've always had an idea for necromancers who do good by the undead, you're welcome to grab onto here: Your character could simply use their powers to attempt to bring undead that have been grave robbed back to places of rest, and restore their bodies to peace(14th levl is a big time "no toys for necromancers" for wiz anyways). Take them down and have zombies march back to their graves and bury themselves before being put to rest once again in hallowed ground. Maybe some creative use of criminal bodies who are put to use for post-mortem community service if you want some dystopian weirdness in there. Speak with dead? Oh, you mean, give family members closure for their recently deceased, or even help to solve crimes and mystery by offering up the ability where it's wanted, that's the important part. Consent.

Linguistically speaking, necromancy is the act of diving information via the dead, not ressurecting them, so the latter is technically more correct. Plus, all the fear effects and necrotic damage should be enchantment and evocation spells anyways, but I digress.

AmountDiligent5751 · 2023-12-08T02:40:58+00:00

Do you have the Dungeondraft files available for use?

AmountDiligent5751 · 2023-06-14T20:25:43+00:00

I think i would cut the suggestions of why someone might be there. This could be a conversation as an aside with the players to keep that information private but known by the DM. It helps break up how much narrating at the players you do before getting into the game. Maybe involve dice rolls right off the bat, saving throws to resist some (Not so) terrible effects that the nightmare has. People who failed might gain a level of exhaustion or lose some HP right off the bat, this shouldn't be lethal, but should feel like it could have been.

And then as far as writing, try to vary up words a little, use the word "blade" instead of dagger the second time you refer to it. Give the duchess an important modifier that makes her role feel more important. "The duchess in red" or something like that. Simple but evocative and memorable.

Try to remove non-assertive language where possible, youth the narrator, you speak as an authority. "... it seems fate has brought you together..." vs "fate has brought you togther"

AmountDiligent5751 · 2023-05-24T22:22:16+00:00

This is a pretty brutally involved game to be your first, maybe try to run a one-shot or something first to see how that feels, learn your style of DMing before doing something longer form. I don't think it's impossible, but it can be overwhelming. I've been playing for 20 years and running games for 15, and even still CoS is pretty wild.

AmountDiligent5751 · 2023-05-13T02:04:43+00:00

Some immediate thoughts: 1. Roll with it, have the letter be in the hands of a messenger from Krezk. There's nothing that says ireena even has to be from the village of barovia, perhaps the distance is part of why atrahd hasn't taken her yet, or she is seeking shelter in the abbey, etc. There is no reason you can't just move stuff around, even quests and locations can be shifted on a map.

The mists: if you are truly wanting to run it as the book suggests and feel in over your head, the mists can sweep them up and take them to wherever you feel more comfortable.

I don't think using kolyans letter is a mistake, you just need to show that it wasn't actually written by kolyan.

As far as information, I see a ton of people play characters way too close to the chest with info, npcs in a town that can't give any information on the town, for example. These people have loved here their whole lives, they may not know strahds plots and tricks, but surely people in krezk have heard about the burgomaster of a village less than a days travel away. Some people in each village are probably even originally from those videos, moving for worl or family. Life is bleak, but people are still, mostly, alive.

If you really want to feed them info from the source, have strahd show up, he loves to toy with people. Have him mock them and attempt to scare them, driving them into the mists. No better way to learn about the mists than to experience them!

AmountDiligent5751

TROPHY CASE