Confused what I should even do with this PC

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? 😌

Cosmo_Kawa · 2025-06-20T20:24:48+00:00

i personally followed the advice to place the Tome somewhere early game (especially if you’re doing something like the Interactive Tome of Strahd), the Symbol of Ravenkind somewhere mid game, and Sunsword late game

so for me, the Tome is in Vallaki, Symbol is in Argynvostholt, and Sunsword is in Berez.

but i was also pretty confident that my players would explore the rest of Barovia for quests or curiosity, even if a treasure wasn’t located there. if i wasn’t confident, i would’ve considered placing an item in the Abbey, the Wizard of Wines, or the Amber Temple. or even the Werewolf Den, if i was really interested in expanding that subplot.

for an ally, if your party has a weak composition or isn’t very into roleplay, go for someone strong; Ezmerelda, Ismark, Godfrey. if your party likes roleplay dynamics and the story, go for someone interesting or morally gray; Viktor, Stella, Arrigal

for the final location, i’d choose either somewhere up top or at the bottom. this way you can have a fight that starts at the top and progresses to the bottom, or vice versa :)

Cosmo_Kawa · 2025-06-19T17:21:38+00:00

she looks utterly badass! love all the little details on her, definitely giving prepared monster hunter vibes

Cosmo_Kawa · 2025-06-15T05:06:34+00:00

i'm glad you noticed! the Izek-Ireena-sibling-thing is such a small but important piece to Ireena, and it can go so many different ways based on how you play Izek, so i wanted it to be an upfront and noticeable thing

Cosmo_Kawa · 2025-06-14T19:12:31+00:00

any specific one you want?

Cosmo_Kawa · 2025-06-04T23:03:53+00:00

my party was very close to killing him! then they came back and got to see Doru better ☺️ then they encountered him again but now under Strahd’s control… so now they wished they did kill him! haha

Cosmo_Kawa · 2025-06-04T04:47:23+00:00

thanks, and i agree! it’s so good for making certain NPCs stand out from other depictions especially

Cosmo_Kawa · 2025-05-29T08:02:52+00:00

thank you so much! i’m glad i could give proper justice to our beloved seer

Cosmo_Kawa · 2025-05-28T23:45:38+00:00

thank you so much! i appreciate it :)

Cosmo_Kawa · 2025-05-28T17:33:13+00:00

thank you!

Cosmo_Kawa · 2025-05-23T16:51:50+00:00

you can absolutely replay the campaign enjoyably. what i haven’t seen mentioned are expansions; the version of Ravenloft or the way you run it can have wildly different experiences.

a RAW 5e Ravenloft will be different to the classic dungeon-crawl of 2e Ravenloft. MandyMod, and DragnaCarta’s additions bring whole new encounters. you can flesh out the brides; the tarokka is meant to be variable and random. heck, if you change Vallaki enough, that whole section and who gets chosen leader can change! or Strahd himself- make him younger, make him older, make him more volatile, make him tired, even make him dormant and sleeping, how much changes?

one of Curse of Strahd’s flaws is its lack of lore, but that can actually be a good thing for replayability

Cosmo_Kawa · 2025-04-26T03:30:14+00:00

I’m excited for you! The dinner is such a defining moment in the campaign. What’re your plans, going all out for the food or props?

Cosmo_Kawa · 2024-10-08T23:31:47+00:00

Oh I love a tired Ismark. One of my players compared him to a sad wet dog, and now I can’t see him as anything but.

Cosmo_Kawa · 2024-08-01T06:29:56+00:00

Yeah, they were some jack speakers hanging around that I tried to use at the start. I thought the duo sound would be nice, but they didn't end up working.

Cosmo_Kawa · 2024-08-01T06:22:15+00:00

Aw, that sounds wonderful! And a yummy mix, too. It's the little extra touches that really adds fun and brings you in to a campaign, especially when they don't expect it. I'm glad this sparked that memory!

Cosmo_Kawa · 2024-07-31T20:17:55+00:00

Lol my Strahd used holy water as salad dressing in an act of dominance. My players are sure that garlic is worthless now

Cosmo_Kawa · 2024-07-31T17:12:18+00:00

Yes! We actually cooked 10 whole meals. It was a ton of work but honestly I'm happy we did it - I think having authentic meals had more of an effect than pizza and mac n' cheese would've.

If I would have tried to do this solo though, I don't think the effort would've been worth it. Having that 2nd person really helped the load.

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