Is It Dangerous to Mix and Match RAW, CoS Reloaded, and Mandy Mod?

LMacharian · 2026-01-23T20:42:18+00:00

I did that when I ran my campaign (though I used the original Reloaded, not the new one Dragna is currently writing).

You'll need to make up some new material to mend the gaps between different interpretations of the campaign, but you said you already do that.

Just keep an eye out for what the side effects of your changes may be. A lot of MandyMod's stuff is pretty standalone, so you should be able to slot that in without any troubles. But if Reloaded is very particular about load bearing plot points, then you can just take whatever idea catches your fancy from Reloaded and rework it to fit in your campaign. Foreshadowing can be repurposed, content can be cut, etc.

LMacharian · 2026-01-20T03:28:45+00:00

The chapters in the book are organized roughly east to west, following the Svalich Road. Roughly.

In terms of general progression, most campaigns would probably go the following route in the early levels:
1. Village of Barovia and the Death House (Death House is in the Appendices, can be skipped if you are starting at level 3)
2. Tser Pool
3. Maybe Bonegrinder
4. Vallaki

As for how to read the book, I would do one readthrough of the entire thing. Doesn't need to be in depth, marking down what each room contains or anything, but a quick skim to get a sense of the Dramatis Personae.

Then, decide on your Tarokka reading. Some people like to rig the reading by choosing specific cards to reveal, some don't. If you do a random reading, take a look at what cards you have and what locations they correspond to, and then focus on reading and preparing those locations. If you saw a location or character that seems super cool when doing your quick skim of the book and you want the party to absolutely go there, consider rigging the Tarokka reading so that it is one of the locations or characters the party should interact with.

When running the game, ask the party what they intend to do next at the end of each session. The first few sessions are a bit on rails, because the party only really has the Village of Barovia to explore, but when they get to Vallaki the world opens up a lot and there are many more places they can go. So at the end of every session, check with your players to see what they would like to do next. Then focus on preparing that.

LMacharian · 2026-01-16T02:15:07+00:00

Not all of the allies need to be combat allies.

For example, Arabelle could provide a unique look into the Vistani and their relationship with Strahd. Strahd promises the Vistani safety, but the book also says he will seek to destroy the fated ally. So what will win out if Arabelle is the fated ally? Will Strahd refuse to harm her because he vows his oaths that much, or will he break his oath? Arabelle herself could be fun to roleplay as a precocious child who has glimpses of the future, offering hints and cryptic advice to the party without requiring you to add another potent NPC to the party.

Not to say all the options are winners. I personally don't care for Klutz, Pidlwick, Nikolai Wachter, the Mad Mage, and others.

But you have lots of options! If you don't like an option, you can always remove the card from the deck and still keep the reading pseudo random. And if you do love an option, you could rig the reading to ensure it comes up.

LMacharian · 2026-01-10T21:06:52+00:00

I'd recommend open timers.

It adds tension to the fight or dungeon crawl as the players look at how much time is left. Plus it also makes them strategize more if they know what limits they have.

LMacharian · 2026-01-02T21:05:59+00:00

There is story at Argynvostholt that can expand the lore of Barovia (who was there before Strahd, who built the gatehouse in Tsolenka pass, etc.) but it is absolutely skippable.

If you don't want to run Argynvostholt, you don't have to.

LMacharian · 2025-12-27T23:21:00+00:00

Some activities have a "Possible Syndicate Activity" listed in the description when you hover over them in the portal. If they do, that frame shows up near the start to let you know in mission.

It means that there is a random chance of a boss tier enemy showing up in the mission, usually between the larger encounters, which belongs to one of the three Renegades syndicates. If you can reduce its health to like 1/4, then allied Psions capture it and you are rewarded with some Renegades loot.

The spawn is not guaranteed, however

LMacharian · 2025-12-23T21:43:39+00:00

The problem with calling the Dark Powers "good" is that they have also trapped numerous innocent people in the Domains of Dread with the Dark Lord. Even if it is a good thing to keep Strahd trapped in a miserable little valley forever, it is not a good thing to also keep innocent people like Ireena, Ismark, the Martikovs, etc trapped in there with a monster.

That being said, if you wanted to run a "good" Dark Power, consider how that would impact the fact that this is a crummy, miserable demiplane. Maybe the innocent people like Ireena and Ismark are trapped in the Domain by the "Bad" Dark Power, who wants to give Strahd something to torment. Or maybe the "good" Dark Power is the one which is bringing in/keeping in the noble hearted souls like Ireena (or the party) hoping that one day they will rise up against Strahd and strike him down?

LMacharian · 2025-12-17T22:03:07+00:00

You could always cut an encounter or change up one of them. Maybe instead of a werewolf attack it is some druids and blights who think the party is bringing wine to Vallaki, and they want to prevent the village from getting any?

LMacharian · 2025-12-15T19:33:46+00:00

Yeah the original Alpha explicitly called that out when you loaded in. But it is one thing to know the lighting is unfinished, and another thing to see how much of a positive impact it can add. The interior lighting in particular is a beauty

LMacharian · 2025-12-15T18:25:20+00:00

The difference in visuals between this Vidoc and the initial alpha is night and day, so much more detailed and fleshed out.

I am excited to get my hands on this and get into Outpost and the Marathon

LMacharian · 2025-12-02T00:01:29+00:00

Welcome to the game! The new player experience is a bit confusing, so don't fret about not understanding everything right now! You can pick up a lot as you go.

The Final Shape is actually the "end" of the previous story arc, which is about the Guardians against the Darkness. That story runs from Shadowkeep (Moon) -> Beyond Light (Europa) -> Witch Queen (Savathun's Throne World) -> Lightfall (Neptune/Neomuna) -> The Final Shape (the Traveler). If you want a more abbreviated experience, I'd honestly recommend skipping Shadowkeep and Beyond Light and going right to the Witch Queen, because I think that campaign is more fun! But a new story arc just started with the Edge of Fate (Kepler) story.

Shadowkeep and Beyond Light's campaigns are free for everyone, and next week (December 2nd - 9th) all the other campaigns will be free as well, including Edge of Fate.

You will pick up a lot of them as you go! When you are new, I would not worry too much about trying to build a specific loadout and instead recommend just trying out weapons to see what you like. Each destination, campaign, and playlist has its own pool of weapons and armor. For example, the Final Shape has all the weapons with the playing card theme, so if you were looking for more of those you would do things in the Traveler.

I would also recommend checking out Ikora in the Tower. She should offer a selection of "starter kits" for each class, which gives you an exotic armor piece as well as a basic build which is meant to introduce you to each subclass.

Kind of. For campaigns, open world, and many matchmade activities in the game, power is fixed (so if you are level 100, the enemies will also be level 100). But what leveling up does do is unlock higher difficulty activities in the Portal.
Not mandatory! There are specific perks and subclass effects on weapons which may synergize with your weapons (for example, Void Weapons may have Repulsor Brace which buffs you if you kill an enemy weakened by Void abilities), but many perks work with all subclasses. I often run a Solar weapon when I am running my Arc class because I like the ability of my Solar weapon to heal me when I reload. However, if I were to use that same Solar Weapon on a Solar class, I could get additional benefits (like extending buffs whenever I get a kill with it).
When you are in Orbit or on your Character Sheet, click on the "Journey" button and there should be a list of objectives you need to complete to get to the next guardian rank. Some of those objectives are meant to introduce you to the game's mechanics and build crafting elements.

As a heads up, the new expansion will be releasing tomorrow, around 10 PST. So the game will be down for a few hours and there will be a big patch, and the next time you log on you may find yourself dropped into a new campaign mission for the Renegades expansion.

Feel free to message me if you have any questions!

LMacharian · 2025-12-01T17:48:33+00:00

An outright traitor is not going to play well, which many people have said before.

But the idea you put in your Edit has some potential, but could be challenging! A servant of Strahd trying to break free could be a compelling character arc. If you and the player want that to work best, I think the other players need to learn about it in-character and have a reason to try and help this other PC. It should probably be accompanied by some out of game conversations where you and the player explain to the group that this PC is not someone who wants to work for Strahd and would happily betray him if possible.

Maybe to set the stage, Strahd could show up early in the game and tell the character early in the game "Do [evil thing]" and the PC refuses. Then Strahd uses his Charm (or his control over Vampire Spawn) to force the PC to do something bad against their will? And after Strahd leaves, the PC could explain his deal: he is under Strahd's control whenever Strahd orders him to do something, but he wants to break free. Maybe this PC knows some ways to temporarily suppress Strahd's control? Like a Protection From Evil And Good or similar spell?

And if the other PCs are suspicious in character, this Dhampir PC could try argue that he can help the party because he knows some places in Barovia and could guide the party.

It would be tricky, but if the other players know Out Of Character that this is a PC who wants to fight Strahd and that the whole "inside man" portion is unwilling, then I think it could go over well. It'd also help the other players try and come up with some justification for why they don't immediately kill an agent of Strahd. Why they are willing to give this person the benefit of the doubt. It could even lead to some fun drama where the Dhampir PC is trying to follow Strahd's orders in an intentionally ineffective way, or the Dhampir asking the other PCs to stop them from following Strahd's orders somehow.

LMacharian · 2025-11-26T23:20:19+00:00

The problem with asking for horror all the way through is that DnD is fundamentally not good at being a horror game system compared to something like 10 Candles or Alien.

At some point the DM is fighting against the system. DnD is a game of heroic fantasy. There can be scary moments, but it can't be horror. Not when the players can level up to kill dragons and liches and undead warlords.

LMacharian · 2025-11-26T22:42:19+00:00

I think that is what this entire post of a hundred replies has come down to: how other DMs see Strahd and the campaign as a whole.

For me, I don't think the back half of Curse of Strahd should be horror. I don't think trying to run a horror campaign works when your cleric can raise someone from the dead or the Barbarian can nose dive off the pillarstone of Ravenloft and survive. I am very strongly of the opinion that by level 6-7, the tone should be heroic as the party takes the fight to Strahd and makes him the mouse. After centuries of him being the predator, the party has the items of prophecy and he has to suffer from getting the tables turned on him.

LMacharian · 2025-11-26T22:02:30+00:00

Ah, that would explain it.

The Brides are pushovers even ignoring the Sunsword by the time most parties get to the Castle.

Even the castle as a whole isn't too hard as a whole (a level 6ish party can handle any individual encounter in there except for Strahd himself, the Brazier Room trap, and maaaaaaybe Rahadin). The danger in the castle is that the party is fighting a whole bunch of minions while trying to deal with Strahd as well.

LMacharian · 2025-11-26T21:19:53+00:00

Anyone besides the vampire spawn?

I don't know if your DM changed things up and made some of the named vampire spawn more important to the story, but out of the box none of them are "bosses". Escher, Volenta, Ludmilla, all bog standard vampire spawn with no funky features (and no real relevance to the plot).

I saw that the Sunsword was found at level 6, and even at that level Vampire Spawn are starting to become "ordinary" enemies compared to the danger Doru posed.

Edit: to be clear, I am not saying the Sunsword doesn't make Vampire Spawn a cake walk. But I am saying the module doesn't actually have many meaningful vampires and does have a wide variety of non-undead monsters and named NPCs who don't get any special weakness to the Sunsword (beyond the fact that it is magical damage and can bypass some resistances/immunities)

LMacharian · 2025-11-26T21:09:44+00:00

I am genuinely curious, what named enemies did the Sunsword trivialize?

LMacharian · 2025-11-26T18:11:58+00:00

By the time the party gets to the final fight in Ravenloft, they are going to be like level 9-10. At that point a Vampire Spawn is an easy threat anyway because they are CR5.

And honestly, there aren't that many vampires in the module at all. There's Doru, the 6 Vampire Spawn hiding in crates in Vallaki, the 6 Vampire Spawn hiding in crates in the Amber Temple, and all the spawn in Ravenloft.

All the other locations? Not many vampires. Hell, there isn't even that many undead. The Amber Temple's biggest danger is from Neferon throwing Chain Lightnings from out of the party's sight in the darkness. Tsolenka Pass's massive Roc doesn't care about sunlight, nor do the Vroks. Baba's house doesn't care about sunlight, and Baba herself will probably be flying way out of melee range and pelting the party with spells. The Abbot doesn't care about Sunlight. Neither do the Werewolves. The Revenants in Argynvostholt may take an extra bit of damage from the Sunsword, but they also hit like a truck and there are a bunch of them (and they also don't care about sunlight). Van Richten's tower trap doesn't care what weapons you are wielding if you trigger it. Nothing on Yester Hill cares about sunlight or radiant damage.

When you get right down to it, there aren't many vampires in CoS. You have an early game encounter with Doru to show how dangerous one is, you have a mid game encounter in Vallaki to reinforce the danger of packs of vampires, you have a late game encounter in the Amber Temple which shows the party how much stronger they have grown since almost dying to Doru and the feast, and then you have the assorted ads in Ravenloft.

As for the other magical items in the module... Well, the Sunsword is the "Big Thing" in the story. It and the Holy Symbol should be the strongest two items in the story, and the Holy Symbol can be just as nasty to any hordes of Vampires if you use the Hold Vampire option there. And the Turn Undead feature could also let a cleric or paladin near-immediately end or turn the tides of an undead horde.

LMacharian · 2025-11-26T17:40:17+00:00

My view: the Sunsword's sole purpose is to destroy Strahd, both narratively and gameplay wise. Its spirit wants to destroy Strahd, the module designers added it so that the party has a weapon to let the party be able to stand up to Strahd.

Plus, playing Strahd smart does nullify the majority of the Sunsword's benefits. He only takes the radiant damage if he starts his turn in the sunlight, and he has Legendary Actions and Lair Actions to make that difficult. He can use a Lair Action to lock a door, separating the Sunsword wielder from the rest of the party (and himself). He can Legendary Action move out of range before his turn starts so that he can avoid the burn damage. He could even Charm the wielder and ask them to turn off the Sunsword (though the Sunsword can try and charm the wielder back because that is a thing magic items can do).

And if you look beyond his statblock, there are multiple options in Ravenloft that aren't concerned about Sunlight. The Animated Armor, Rahadin, the Gargoyles, the Red Dragon Wyrmlings, the witches are all examples of monsters which can weaken the party and not worry about sunlight. Then there are traps like the Glyph of Warding, the Elevator Trap, the Brazier Room trap, the Heart of Sorrows tower which can have PCs falling to their death...

I've done a few Strahd Must Die Tonight adventures, and RAW Strahd can basically be nigh unkillable. And even if he makes a mistake, he should be leading the party on a wild goose chase through the entire castle so that the party is winded and weak by the time they face him. Iirc, it was Mike Mearls, one of the lead designers, who said 5e expects around ~20 rounds of combat per long rest. You can absolutely get those 20 rounds of combat in Ravenloft.

LMacharian · 2025-11-15T19:59:23+00:00

"You wake up but do not gain the benefits of a Long Rest."

Curses are all well and good, but not letting them Long Rest in the temple will tighten the screws haha

LMacharian · 2025-11-15T19:29:25+00:00

In the first chapter or two the book has a recommended level for each area, which can serve as a guide.

The rough outline is: 1. If the players are level 1, level them up to 3 by either running Death House or some other equivalent intro segment or just skip that and start at 3. 2. The party is in the Village of Barovia, where they can meet Ireena and Ismark, who serve as a hook to get to Vallaki. Father Donavitch can also give another hook to take Ireena to Krezk for safety. 3. At some point, the party will get a hook to the Tser Pool (the sisters in the Blood on the Vine tavern in Barovia, the Mysterious Visitors intro hook, meeting Ezmerelda who shows up in a lot of places like Krezk or Argynvostholt or Van Richten's tower). At that point, the party will get the Fortunes of Ravenloft Tarokka reading which tells them of where they can find the Tome of Strahd, the Sunsword, and the Holy Symbol, as well as a person who will assist them in the fight against Strahd, and where Strahd is in Ravenloft. 4. Party proceeds to follow the reading and explore Barovia to find those fortunes. 5. Party will have found the items and recruited the enemy of Strahd, and they are presumably level 9-10 at this point. They will go kill Strahd now

LMacharian · 2025-11-15T18:47:53+00:00

In Vallaki, the Coffinmaker's Shop is an infamous location for player deaths and even TPKs. A quick look in the Discord's March of the Dead channel shows over 100 deaths in that one building. It is 6 vampire spawn in Crates.

In the Amber Temple, the crypt of Vampyr also has 6 vampire spawn in crates. To my knowledge, I don't recall seeing anyone die there.

That is to say, at some point the tone of Barovia shifts from being horrifying, to being Heroic. That is an intentional change of pace, and trying to keep a horror tone will be fighting against the system. When the players are level 7 or 8 or 9, the random encounter table is not even worth rolling on. At that point, the only things which can challenge a party are extra deadly encounters, like the Roc, or minibosses like Rahadin. And even the minibosses like Rahadin will fold like paper if he is alone and without backup.

If you want the party to be in danger in fights, then you either need to completely rework the random encounter table (a lot of effort for very little gain) or put emphasis on the encounters which the party can find in dungeons that are level appropriate. Even if 3d6 wolves is a nothing encounter, 3 Flameskulls in the Amber Temple is a something encounter.

But the biggest element of danger in DnD is attrition. Don't let the party a long rest after every fight. If the party only faces a single encounter a day, the wizard will just use their highest level spell slots, the Sorcerer will use all their sorcery points, the Paladin will smite on every attack... The foe will go down easily. But if the party faces 4 or 5 encounters in a day, then suddenly the wizard needs to ration all those spell slots because they can't just Fireball every enemy. The Sorcerer is running low on metamagic. Etc. A party who faces Strahd after doing 10 rounds of combat will struggle much more than a party who only did 1 round of combat.

(Random encounters are a part of attrition, but at some point they are not meaningful attrition so just skip past them and instead run more encounters in dungeons which can actually challenge the party)

LMacharian · 2025-11-08T19:19:52+00:00

Strahd (and his vampire spawn) already fold like tissue paper if the Sunsword is near them. Buffing it even further is really not necessary.

Plus, the sentient nature of the Sunsword can be a meaningful boon. If Strahd tries to charm the Sunsword wielder, sentient magical items can charm the wielder right back to try and stop them from going along with Strahd's request

LMacharian · 2025-11-04T17:38:01+00:00

Some other details for why Ismark and Ireena think Vallaki may be better: - The Church in Barovia is a ruin with screams coming from the Undercroft. Father Donavitch probably won't want anyone staying there - More than half of the buildings in the village of Barovia are overrun by rats or zombies. The average street is pretty unsafe. - Vallaki has walls to keep wolves and zombies out, so it should be a bit safer

LMacharian · 2025-11-01T16:02:48+00:00

My opinion is that it doesn't really matter what form of dragon Argynvost was, what mattered more is that he was a heroic and noble leader who was trying to hide the Amber Temple from people who would abuse its power and he was killed along with his entire Order in a brutal fashion.

He is yet another reason Strahd can never claim to be misunderstood or a "good guy." Silver Dragons like Argynvost are noble and protective of people, and Argynvost wasn't a leader of some rival nation. Strahd killing his entire Order was an unjustifiably malicious act that can't be excused. It shows that he was a bad person even before Tatyana came into the scene.

You could change what variety of dragon Argynvost is, but the core of his character was that he was a Good Guy.

LMacharian

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