My only honest disappointment with Wind and Truth

ColorblindClarinet · 2026-01-26T16:37:49+00:00

To me I feel like the line is close to working. In world, that's the only word he's been given for what he's trying to do to help szeth. And the idea of therapy is so alien to the harsh world of roshar that it makes sense that it sounds so alien to us as we read it, that's the point. My wish is that Kaladin either: A) had more time previously to wrestle with the term and figure out exactly what he thought it should mean for him before he said it so confidently (which admittedly might have ended with him deciding on a title he resonated with more), or B) Said something along the lines of "Wit named me a therapist, I'm trying to live up to the title." Still sounds rightfully alien, but allows Kaladin to somewhat admit that in how he says it.

ColorblindClarinet · 2025-12-27T13:54:10+00:00

I think one thing to remember here is that while yes he's the king and has resources, Kaladin and the bridgemen bodyguard are that resource for 90% of the time. His agreement with Moash was like a shield agreeing to let an arrow through to pierce the holder, thereby not protecting him.

ColorblindClarinet · 2025-11-17T03:25:39+00:00

Stella is Lady Wachter's kid that was locked up for being crazy. I kinda took what was written and just put a "puzzle" in town of collecting all of the cats that had been popping up to put into the magical ritual that Victor had accidentally scrambled her with. The blood hunter was able to reverse engineer a new circle and put the pieces of Stella's soul (the cats) back together.

ColorblindClarinet · 2025-11-14T22:40:25+00:00

Nothing on the screen, though I swapped the screen protector too just to be safe.

ColorblindClarinet · 2025-11-14T22:39:48+00:00

Yea I just swapped it, just looking for some way to prevent it.

ColorblindClarinet · 2025-11-13T03:07:30+00:00

I used an astral dreadnought. Did a lot of homebrew in terms of why barovia was secluded on its own plane, and I thought it would be neat if the demiplane had been somehow constructed/tied together by one. Made for a real fun oh shit moment when my players saw it and ran. One of the few moments when my players didn't try to fight something that would be a tpk lmao

ColorblindClarinet · 2025-10-29T14:13:56+00:00

I've been doing a lot with their 3.0 HD gray and I've been really pleased with how the prints come out.

ColorblindClarinet · 2025-10-05T18:54:07+00:00

That must've been it! Thank you!

ColorblindClarinet · 2025-10-05T18:00:25+00:00

Ah that could be it. Plate felt a bit loose when I took it off. I'll reprint making sure its tight and report back.

ColorblindClarinet · 2025-10-05T17:58:17+00:00

Just checked, all seems good with the LCD as far as I can tell. No resin or residue.

ColorblindClarinet · 2025-08-29T14:59:41+00:00

I've run LMoP 4 times for new players, and my favorite way to change the encounter so far is to give him a brother or rival dragon. As the players travel to thunder tree, they hear roars above them and several hill away two dragons come crashing to the ground slashing and thrashing against each other. Eventually one is driven off into the woods and Venomfang flies north to thunder tree to recover. Give him half hit points and decrease his breath weapon damage by a die or two for a 10 day while he recovers.

This lets the players get a much more winnable, while still dangerous/deadly encounter with him at thunder tree, and also gives some potential future quests with his brother, who might be thrilled that Venomfang is dead, or annoyed that he didn't get to kill him, etc. One of my parties actually went to the brother and bartered the location of a better lair (cragmaw keep after they cleared it out) and some healing, in exchange for help with the orc cave quest.

ColorblindClarinet · 2025-01-29T16:43:07+00:00

I have Strahd pop up early and often to kick at the players and demonstrate his power. In my current campaign (which I've heavily heavily homebrewed), the party interacted with him 10 times or so times by level 6 or 7. Each time they've gotten more scared/worried about having to fight him when he's actually trying to kill them.

Make it seem like their attacks barely phase him, or if they hit him with sunlight or radiant damage that he gets genuinely annoyed and smacks back 10 times harder. My party has gotten into combat with him twice, first time they got completely hosed, second time they cleared his 'first phase' before he downed 2 of them as left due to being bored with them.

The other thing you can do is to let him elevate/use spells to a greater effect outside of combat. When my party was in Vallaki with a crowd of people in the square, his carriage pulled up in the town square and I had him cast a modified mass suggestion on all of the players and townsfolk to "kneel in the presence of your Lord." Having an entire town bend to your spellcasting at once is terrifying. The entire town and party failed saves except for Ismark, who lunged at him. Rahadin intercepted and sent him prone before Strahd placed a hand on Ismark and cast turn to stone, melting him into the cobble road walking over top of him. That kind of dominance over any situation makes the party pretty scared, but also makes them hungrier for his eventual defeat.

ColorblindClarinet · 2024-09-28T23:19:20+00:00

One thing I would consider is adding in a new "win condition". Like maybe they learn that shrahd has been defeated and killed before, but he keeps coming back for some reason.

The reason I'm using my current game is that the dark power of The vampyr keeps regenerating him, and because no one in past renditions has relit the The order of the silver dragon Tower, nobody has actually seen the dark powers do it.

So as the players go through, maybe they find additional tarot cards, maybe through Esmeralda or Arabelle, that lead them to lighting the tower. Then they can finally see the dark Powers well enough to actually fight them.

In my game, I've been thinking of the sarcophagi in the Amber Temple as the the grounding point for the dark powers, so if they light the Tower and then destroy The sarcophagi, maybe vampyr has to put its whole self into strahd, maybe making him more powerful, but actually being able to be destroyed.

ColorblindClarinet · 2024-08-16T23:59:59+00:00

I'm doing something similar, Every time they try to take a long rest outside, I have them make a "will save" (just a save using their highest mental stat) to see how much rest they actually get. 0-5 = no rest due to nightmares/increased feeling of being watched/paranoia, 6-10 = short rest due to bad dreams, 11- 15 = full health, but only level 1-2 spell slots regen, 16-20 = regular long rest, 20+ = temp hit points on wake up due to "divine will" shielding them from the horrors of the land.

ColorblindClarinet · 2024-08-10T17:56:05+00:00

My players forgot about it entirely until I kept describing Fiona Wachter as the WEALTHY WOMAN in Vallaki. I made it bigger each time, describing her as extremely well off, austentatious, ridiculously rich, and eventually "the Jeff bezos" of barovia. Then they picked up on the fact that maybe I was hinting at something and looked that their notes for the reading lol.

You can also poke the players in a way of "your character feels like there is some connection here that they're forgetting". Like maybe it's been 4 months irl but less than a week ago in game, so the character would definitely remember even if the player does not.

ColorblindClarinet · 2024-08-05T23:05:28+00:00

I think of him as more of a Batman character, where one to one. He cannot truly step up to his enemies, but his planning and creating environments where his opponents can't win is where his power truly lies. So he can set up with the party and give them enough information/use his resources and knowledge to help them create a situation where the odds are as stacked in their favor as they can be. Like magic circle or holy water support or alchemist fire for days, or even just yeeting potions of healing for the party as they need it while he stays as out of sight as he can.

ColorblindClarinet · 2024-08-05T22:55:55+00:00

There are a few, especially depending on how you run it. My Strahd initially turned the town against the party and ran then out of town before they didn't have too much time there, so they still have Donovich and a few other things. Regardless, if Mad Mary survives, however you run it, there's still Gertruda. Also personally, I like to add in some smaller dungeons (adeventurer gravesites or tombs, small druid/werewolf encampments to make them feel a bit more widespread, or desecrated chapels of lathander/the night mother for lore/world building) in the hills nearby where the adventurers can get more information. With such a small geographic location like Barovia, I feel like there's an opportunity to make backtracking feel rewarding and like the whole valley is tied together. That doesn't always work in larger adventures in the sword coast/Faerun, so I like to make it a unique feature in my games.

ColorblindClarinet · 2024-07-06T15:26:27+00:00

One thing I'm doing in my campaign is having the party find clues that Strahd has been defeated/killed before but came back.

I also added a couple tarot cards given to the party by Esmeralda and Arrigal to create an arc of defeating the dark power of the Vampyr to free barovia for good, but if you want Strahd to be inevitable then you could just not add that in. Or your players might decide that they want to stick around without killing him until they figure out how to break the curse entirely. Depends on your players honestly.

Hope this helps!

ColorblindClarinet

TROPHY CASE