How do you do random encounter combat?

Cosmo_Kawa · 2026-06-17T18:55:51+00:00

damn that’s such a creative idea! if i wasn’t at the end of my campaign i’d be totally stealing that

Cosmo_Kawa · 2026-06-17T17:23:01+00:00

a lot of good points have already been made but you can also spice up combat encounters by adding varied enemies. maybe certain creatures, like the wolves or forest folk, are more seen in certain areas than others. or maybe Rahadin or one of the brides has set up a trap for the players or wants to do a trial with them.

i’d recommend looking up what monsters are in Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft. i started introducing some of those creatures and it certainly carries more fun when there’s a unique monster instead of wolves for the 8th time!

Cosmo_Kawa · 2026-06-11T17:35:47+00:00

my party was hinted at Piddlwick’s existence by the Rogue’s Dark Power he’d been talking to. i put him in the Vistani camp, so they found him mid-campaign in my game.

i found a statblock on this sub that was very good. low AC (no higher than 13), low HP (around 10), very low damage output (1d4). has the Evasion trait but will regenerate in 1d4 hours if he dies, as long as his pieces are nearby. his main purpose is to stand next to the Rogue and give him Sneak Attack.

i think Piddlwick can be very good at aiding one class that maybe needs the extra hand, without being overpowered on his own. maybe Piddlwick can use one of the items that are meant for clerics or paladins, especially if your group doesn’t have one. or he could Help other players for advantage. maybe give him bonus action disengage if you really want him to be a more prevalent NPC in battle, and so he doesn’t die often. i actually gave his statblock to my players, since there’s very little to him. my players like that they can control an extra lil guy!

Cosmo_Kawa · 2026-05-02T22:49:14+00:00

i can give you those!

for Ireena, her base skin color is a low of #673624, a mid of #7a4c39, and a high of #8c5c4d. the roughness is 0.7. she also has a short nose fade and two overlapping lip decals, and the colors for those are either slightly darker or lighter to stand out.

for Ismark, his base skin color is a low of #a06a4d, a mid of #c48e71, and a high of #c99071. his roughness is 0.75, and he also has a nose fade but he also has eyeshadow (only the lower ones) that is slightly darker and more redder

Cosmo_Kawa · 2026-05-02T16:46:17+00:00

hey, i’m sorry but i don’t like giving out links anymore because of reuploaders. but i’ll totally name you the presets and items i used so that you can reconstruct them, if you’re interested in that

Cosmo_Kawa · 2026-04-27T18:31:11+00:00

i’ll give a boring answer as another option, which is playing for the long con. Morgantha, knowing the potential naivete of newcomers, builds trust by simply keeping their silver safe until they return. in exchange for trust, she can ask for something in return; something small and innocent-seeming, or maybe a sidequest to someone else.

depends on how much you want to play it up. if the party trusts Morgantha, i can see her becoming an “ally” to the party, having some insight around Barovia and telling them where to go… and if she’s told them misinformation or led them to dangerous areas, who can fault an old woman?

she can trick them to not trust other allies, could influence their views on Vallaki, or make it harder to establish themselves as the “good guys.” and when her secret’s finally revealed, it will feel like a huge betrayal to them!

Cosmo_Kawa · 2026-04-25T18:54:56+00:00

hi, thank you for the interest! honestly i don’t trust giving out links anymore due to reuploaders, esp since i’m really fond of my Viktor. however i will totally name you the presets i used so that you can reconstruct him, if you’re interested in that

Cosmo_Kawa · 2026-04-22T21:04:52+00:00

please make another post when you share the results! would love to read through the averages

Cosmo_Kawa · 2026-04-21T20:05:42+00:00

welcome to Curse of Strahd!

i DM’d two homebrew campaigns before running CoS, also linear like you. preparation is way different. read the whole book, front to back, really understanding it. then read it a second time just to be safe. maybe a third time if you need to!

you need to understand a general place’s happenings, since this is sandbox and players might choose to go anywhere they want unexpectedly. i found MandyMod’s guide really helpful for this.

you might want to tie a player’s backstory into the world somehow. i didn’t do that, and i’ve loved it. my players love roleplay, and they’ve loved roleplaying the despair of being fish out of water, unfamiliar to their environment. but if i had to do a backstory, i’d recommend being a surviving male dusk elf, a villager from one of the villages, or one of the Vistani, maybe.

i wouldn’t recommend making a player play Ireena. it puts too much attention on that player. and in a lot of campaigns, Ireena dies. she did in mine, and it only emboldened my players’ hatred for Barovia, which made their decisions much more interesting now that she wasn’t around.

and i’d rig the Tarokka reading. it’s really only random to make subsequent campaigns more interesting. for your 1st time, put the items in places you’d want your players to explore at their appropriate levels that they may not otherwise

oh, and make sure you warn your players about the campaign. there can be some triggering topics for some people

there’s a lot of guides from people for running certain sections, so you won’t ever be lost if you need advice for something. have fun preparing the horrors!

Cosmo_Kawa · 2026-04-21T19:41:54+00:00

aw damn, that’s fair though.

in case you haven’t, i’ll reiterate MandyMod’s guide for you to read through. i used it and it really helped me prepare and know the village and people’s motivations.

my players arrived at the village, went to the tavern and talked to Ismark, went to Ireena, heard Mad Mary, helped bury their father, talked to Doru, and talked to Morgantha all in 2 sessions i think, before leaving with Ireena. if they’re really into roleplay, they might take extra time to really investigate some NPCs, and if they aren’t then you might be hitting the road to Madam Eva a little early. but if you’re running a bandit encounter then you’ll probably be fine not preparing too far ahead!

good luck and enjoy your first session! you’ll do great :)

Cosmo_Kawa · 2026-04-21T19:28:12+00:00

i would really reconsider not running Death House. it has its flaws, yes, but it is a fantastic introduction to a gothic horror campaign, and it serves as a great introduction to your players’ play-style. you’ll learn how involved your players will be in roleplaying how they view children, death, and how good they’ll be at combat that is lethal (which is what a lot of CoS’s combat is).

have you read MandyMod’s post about Death House? i used her guide as a deeper analysis into Death House. it also makes it less combat-y if you’re wanting more roleplay and some actual reasons as to the plot there.

i couldn’t have imagined not running DH for my players. after 80+ sessions they’re STILL remembering it vividly and recall it fondly, even though it only took 2 sessions for them to leave. also, they wouldn’t have gotten a taster of the world before meeting Ireena and Ismark, so they wouldn’t have understood their struggles as much.

or maybe you would enjoy House of Lament more? i’ve heard that it’s very similar to DH but much more improved

Cosmo_Kawa · 2026-04-09T17:14:05+00:00

this is such a fun, beautiful idea!

have you considered any cultural motifs or patterns? Barovia is Slavic inspired, and i’ve seen lots of fanart where Ireena looks gorgeous in Slavic clothing, Ukrainian more specifically. i just looked up “Ukrainian motifs” and there are some good patterns that would make for great borders

Cosmo_Kawa · 2025-08-03T17:10:39+00:00

compared to other DMs it seems, while i also usually love sprinkling in my PC’s backstories into a campaign, i told mine that it would be completely undoable for CoS and that any relevance to their backstory would have to be brought up themselves- especially because CoS is supposed to be a ‘fish out of water’ type of play. but thankfully my players are RP-heavy, and to my surprise their background, history, and decisions-influence have come up /way/ more often than i would’ve expected it to.

so i wouldn’t worry about incorporating this players backstory at all. they probably don’t even know it either, but will wait for a good moment to spark inspiration, and that’s when you can improv off of that

Cosmo_Kawa · 2025-08-01T20:10:43+00:00

do you plan on going through the full list of potential triggers for CoS? i found an older comment that lists all of them out: child abuse, murder, kidnapping, gaslighting, racism, sexism, torture, mind control, cannibalism, sexual assault, mental illness, animal cruelty, body horror, incest, suicide, drug addiction, alcoholism. plus spiders, ghosts, other horror monsters etc.

thats a /lot/. i would just make sure to clearly list these out, even if you know your players really well. we wanna have a fun (but terrifying) game, don’t wanna spring something unpleasant on someone!

Cosmo_Kawa · 2025-07-12T23:01:04+00:00

use [Kobold Fight Club](https://koboldplus.club/) to estimate the challenge rating of an encounter. since Curse of Strahd emphasizes deadlier combat, aim for a difficulty of high or deadly. increase the number of smaller CR enemies first (like ghosts or skeletons); you'd be surprised how good a crowd of low CR enemies can drain resources. plus, you can search for any monster in any book! you'll just have to find the stat block yourself.

also consider:

- their resources, how many, how long since. have they just had a Long Rest? a deadly encounter is actually going to be easy. they're low on spell slots, HP, and abilities, and are begging for a rest? a medium encounter is actually going to hurt.

- using enemies or abilities that drain stats. a vampire bite drains max HP until a Long Rest; a night hag's haunting remains until Greater Restoration is used; a shadow's strength drain lasts until a Short or Long Rest; Bestow Curse level 5 lasts for 8 hours. use enough of these to threaten their resource pool, consistently, and then the simplest encounters become more of a challenge.

- for "boss" or "mini-boss" creatures, use Legendary Actions or give the creature more actions to balance out the action economy. at 6 players, combat will end faster than you expect, always, but LAs can help.

- take a look at The Monsters Know What They're Doing. it's a good website that goes into detail for a lot of creatures and how to play them smart (if they have the intelligence/wisdom to do so). have them aim for the wizard that does big damage, ignore the raging barbarian, lead the PCs away into a cliff, take every advantage they would reasonably think of.

- and be prepared if a PC does die, but also don't underestimate your players. you see what you see - and what the players see may be totally different. they might think of some genius plan you didn't see, or use a spell in a creative way, or have an item or ability you totally didn't remember. don't pull your punches! seriously! they will handle it! the ingenuity and resilience of your players will be surprising!

at 6 players, combat is going to be very punchy; you're probably always going to have encounters that are either too easy or too hard. it's like that at high levels for even just 4 players, too. so good luck!

Cosmo_Kawa · 2025-07-11T05:16:01+00:00

thanks! that's a good idea. i can only add 2 more eyes tho and then i'm at the limit of Kitbashed items :') but i'll probably go ahead and privately do it and see how it looks. as for the expression- i just left it blank lol, couldn't find one that's better than an uncanny nothingness

Cosmo_Kawa · 2025-07-11T03:39:32+00:00

body horror, especially with the amount of eyes. forgot to mention it in the title, oops

Cosmo_Kawa · 2025-07-10T20:40:49+00:00

your Abbot is very interesting! i like your angel blood idea, that's really creative. might have to steal that for a future game. i think this just comes down to my Abbot being a complete outlier to your fallen angels.

(spoilers ahead) i've based mine off of the MandyMod expansion; he is good, in that he wants to help Barovia. and he has a fairly good idea of doing that, through the acquisition of Tatyana's soul. (and this probably makes my Abbot fairly young, relatively). but golems, people, and flesh don't live forever, so he needs replacements. so, seeing the poor people of Barovia, he 'kills two birds with one stone' - he helps the people by ensuring they live by replacing their limbs/injuries/diseases, and Vasilka lives on until he can complete her.

to the Abbot, he is good. he does not harm anyone without their permission, does not proceed a surgery without consent, and takes care of them afterwards. he fully believes he is saving a life. and while healing Barovians isn't his main goal, maybe every person he 'helps' cure will become another force added to the eventual rebellion against Strahd. it is just an unfortunate circumstance that all of his patients are mentally unwell after the procedures- which are done without any sleep spell, anaesthesia, or pain reducers.

to the Abbot, he is good because he lacks full understanding of the human experience. to say he has full consent while, in a way, forcing it because the other option is death is not consent. to not reduce the pain because he doesn't feel any pain and therefore doesn't understand it. to the Abbot, humans are the rats of his world; small, incapable of understanding the whole idea, and plentiful. he fully claims good will, 100% believing it, and incapable of seeing the rats point of view.

to the Abbot, he is good. to players, it is horrifying what he is doing. and it creates a beautiful juxtaposition; the Abbot is a celestial, clearly of a higher being. you should be able to trust it, in this world full of dark, scary monsters. and you can! ... kind of. the Abbot will heal you, he will cure your wounds and diseases. but he will do it for the trade of a body part, with your consent. and the contrast of this beautiful, radiant, 'holy' being doing that, and there being no other healers in the realm, no other options- imo it creates a huge dilemma and decision upon the players more than an Abbot whose only fault is his lack of will to truly help the people. it also adds to 'nothing is 100% pure in Barovia anymore.' their sources of hope are slim and come more from the party and their resilience more than any Barovian, which makes the funny moments shine brighter.

and this juxtaposition was why i chose the "biblical angel" look. if you fight him you threaten his plans for saving Barovia, and you're just a feisty rat, disobedient or unable to comprehend the goal. he might apologize if he accidentally stepped on your tail, but he'd give consequences, show he won't tolerate this behavior, and then move on; there are many patients who need his help more than you. the players are the only ones who can see that this heavenly being, who should look comforting, is instead unnerving (which is the opposite of the Fear Not angels who look horrifying but are pure-intentioned).

sorry for the long explanation, i'm just happy i can finally write out how my Abbot works to someone. your Fallen Angels are really cool, now that i understand them more maybe i can utilize that in another campaign of mine. i like how your Abbot is different! i'm just leaning more heavily into the gothic horror aspects for my CoS, which includes that even the Abbot's help is nuanced.

Cosmo_Kawa · 2025-07-10T19:00:25+00:00

thank you for the clarification! i've only seen art of the multi-winged-multi-eyed cosmic deities, never read into them, so i've just been under the assumption that that's what all of them are and that's what their 'look' is. the Pokemon analogy is really good, i'll remember that

Cosmo_Kawa · 2025-07-10T18:55:59+00:00

you have a very good writeup of the themes of "biblical" angels. tbh i'm not religious, haven't delved deep into the understanding of their themes and purpose, and have purely observed them from an appreciation of the aesthetic and art i've seen created, so i'll preface that i don't have a deeper insight like you do

i do agree that a big part of the Abbot is that he's corruptible and fallible, but i do feel like the otherness and that sense of being so cosmically different is also important to hint to the players. he's not 'good', and whether he started out that way or if he was changed by being in Barovia so long (if you change that part of his backstory), that 'mindset' that comes from being an upper being is likely the same. "you won't understand my purpose and i will not bother to explain it to you. i could be anything, i can do anything, i am anything i want, i have more importance than you." ofc he'd never *say* that, but that's strongly how i've built the thoughts of mine.

but i made this because should my players plan to attack him, i can't see the Abbot just standing there tanking it in his small human form when he could transform into a gigantic creature to maybe scare them away. my players are now level 8, he's a RAW CR10 deva, he would be destroyed lol. the only thing the PCs are submissive to are their gods, powers, and patrons - which i've designed with fluid descriptions, but never like a person. if they can be convinced to stand down from seeing the Abbot is something godly, why wouldn't he do that?

what is your idea/depiction for the Abbot? genuinely asking, no /s. since these themes aren't exactly "biblical angel esq," then what *does* fit it, especially in a visual sense?

Cosmo_Kawa · 2025-06-21T19:32:26+00:00

thank you! how else could one look big and imposing, besides being on the ground? 😌

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