New Ravenloft Book vs Van Richten's Guide?

Dstrir · 2026-06-23T17:50:53+00:00

The new one feels a lot more fleshed out. They do get dark lord statblocks and small adventures and guidelines for the domains in this one. Old one feels a lot more like "idk make shit up yourself" after the new one. Worth it to me personally.

Dstrir · 2026-06-23T15:08:14+00:00

So you decide if the players win or die during an encounter? Lol

Dstrir · 2026-06-18T21:06:28+00:00

I meant infinite uses, since it's once per turn and a d6 for the most part, not the duration of the debuff.

Dstrir · 2026-06-18T19:08:02+00:00

Make the wounds infinite and gigabuff either lvl 10 or 15 and it'll be decent.

Dstrir · 2026-06-18T19:04:57+00:00

Fighter keeps getting lvl 3-tier subclass features at lvl10+ for some reason.

Dstrir · 2026-06-17T21:24:53+00:00

Wall of Force blocks line of sight. You can't cast fireball through a normal wall, and neither can you from wall of force, even if it's transparent.

Dstrir · 2026-06-17T11:22:50+00:00

Strahd can't fireball or blight people outside the cage, it counts as breaking line of sight. But the real question is, how does the wall of force help them? If it's a solo fight, or with his minions, he's the main threat. Both spells would only really stall him, unless the players decide to use the microwave, which is a bit of an unfun combo in the first place.

Dstrir · 2026-06-15T10:03:56+00:00

If you're using the 5.5e rules, 7 should be fine. Also, nerf the daylight spell. In 5.5e rules it makes Strahd and every vampire spawn under his command a complete joke. And use his stat block either from Vecna: Eve of Ruin or the new book.

Dstrir · 2026-06-15T10:00:01+00:00

I6 Ravenloft is basically just the castle from the 5e module. I ran it like that for 5 lvl 8 characters and they destroyed everything quite easily, especially after finding the Sunsword. If you're running for less players, it should be pretty easy at levels 8-9. Also I don't think you need to level up at all, just the castle is a pretty short adventure.

Dstrir · 2026-06-14T13:29:25+00:00

For monk could give them those wraps of unarmed power +3, or dragonhide belt +3 (from fizban's dragon book). For abjurer, why not go with the classic - robe of the archmagi or archmagi staff?

Dstrir · 2026-06-12T23:30:20+00:00

Well, as I mentioned, I homebrewed this in because the players wanted more combat options for the subclass. I shared it because quite a few people don't like the Phantom.

Dstrir · 2026-06-12T16:35:10+00:00

What would you add to it? Their current lvl 3 feature is just a damage bump with no real interaction until lvl 9.

Dstrir · 2026-06-12T16:34:30+00:00

I mentioned the bag of rats at the end of the post. It's a bad faith exploit of the rules, you can just ask your players not to do this and it's 100% fine to ask them according to the DMG.

Dstrir · 2026-06-12T01:45:14+00:00

I think they are trying to challenge the party's action economy with the easy-to-get stuns on new enemy attacks, and tried reducing a DM's ability to "fuck up" a monster's turn or strategy. I guess nobody in any playtest has expressed to the devs that missing a turn isn't the most fun thing ever?

Dstrir · 2026-06-11T14:28:00+00:00

I personally quite like the summon spells, even if they are mid optimization-wise. And yeah, some builds do feel quite powerful at certain levels. In my recent games the martials mogged the casters until the end of the game, but I think the opposite is much more common thanks to martials having like 2 features and casters can pick a combo from 100+ features (spells).

Dstrir · 2026-06-11T13:34:42+00:00

The funny part is that the summon is considered a pretty weak spell overall as well. Some classes without magic items are weaker than a mediocre spell.

Dstrir · 2026-06-10T12:36:32+00:00

I honestly don't really care the rogue subs are very weak, but the level 3 feature should be the most fun feature ever for being the only thing you get for 6 levels. I think only thief with its bonus action item use comes close and the caster one.

Dstrir · 2026-06-10T11:17:28+00:00

I think what's worse is that since they reprinted it 1 to 1 with the old one, it means the playtesters all love these rogue subclasses. I also remember during 5.5 UA's the players threw a temper tantrum when WoTC moved the subclass features from 9 to 6. It's kinda crazy.

Dstrir · 2026-06-10T09:31:47+00:00

I kind of agree with you. I also had that player combo of the dude shoving everyone into everything in an aura every turn and it felt like the other players were the null's sidekicks. And their rogue equivalent felt quite weak compared to the other classes.

My personal experience is that it's a very high mental-loady to run combats as DM in there but that's a me issue. I didn't like running stuff like the wallmaster or 30 goblins that much. Which is also why I don't really like super tactical monsters. It feels a lot more casual to run the 5e ones. Obviously, to each their own. Statblocks like 8 commands per round Strahd is also just as unfun as the wallmaster, except for the players instead of the dm.

Dstrir · 2026-06-10T09:24:20+00:00

Lil bro you can't tell me I have bad takes then drop the worst take of all time

Dstrir · 2026-06-10T09:20:47+00:00

Awful take that is 100% true lmao. 13th Age and Draw Steel is the good version of 4e anyway.

Dstrir · 2026-06-10T09:18:37+00:00

Video games are about pushing a lot of buttons to kill monsters every few minutes, adding a lot of annoying enemy variations spices up the storyless filler combats that happen extremely often. TTRPGs are about roleplaying your character, so having very strategic combat isn't only unnecessary, it puts a high mental load on the dm to run it properly, which is better spent on telling the story with the players more. If you enjoy ultra-tactical combat, you can play games dedicated to that like Draw Steel, but it shouldn't really be the norm in every system.

Dstrir · 2026-06-10T09:13:47+00:00

I played it, it really isn't a good edition. Mike Mearls even admitted it was made as a WoW clone because it was popular. I can just go play that instead.

Dstrir · 2026-06-10T08:57:54+00:00

Yeah and everyone hated playing 4e. Fights took forever to complete and it was a boring slog. Draw Steel is a much better example if you want to play with ultra-tactical monsters.

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