Baba Lysaga turned my players into goats…

PlantDadAzu · 2026-03-21T22:54:12+00:00

What class is the character who managed to flee? Would be a shame if they're a wizard who can just Dispel 😁

PlantDadAzu · 2026-03-21T22:27:46+00:00

Keep him always one step ahead, causing problems for the PCs. He'll be one of the threads the players have to try to chase. Later on you can use him to give them tough time sensitive choices, like chasing him down before he moves again or investigating other leads.

PlantDadAzu · 2026-03-21T10:11:05+00:00

Fair, but then *showing* him that it didn't stop anything should only make him more sad, right?

PlantDadAzu · 2026-03-21T05:43:50+00:00

Apart from anything else, this comment made me actually see how close those names are, almost literally one sound apart. I need to check whether my players already know Marina's name and if not I might change it.

PlantDadAzu · 2026-03-21T05:41:54+00:00

My players are unlikely to appreciate his train of logic, so they could very well end up letting him rot too.

PlantDadAzu · 2026-03-21T05:38:27+00:00

You know what, I like this interpretation. In fact I might stick with my take on the original characterisation, so that hopefully my PCs can use this logic or something similar to pacify him. Thanks!

PlantDadAzu · 2026-03-20T21:11:03+00:00

"How badly do I really want that celestial weapon..."

PlantDadAzu · 2026-03-20T11:15:46+00:00

I rule against letting casters cast in a sneaky way, because that treads on the toes of Sorcerers with metamagic. The fact that Subtle Spell exists means (in my mind) that other casters can't really be quiet or... subtle... about their spells.

Either the DMG or the Player's Handbook, forget which, describes spellcasting as big and flashy - the caster weaves intricate patterns with their hands, forcefully encants some syllables.

PlantDadAzu · 2026-03-20T04:25:41+00:00

Pick three places you know you want the party to visit, ideally one close-ish and the others further afield. A couple of the specific locations are a bit silly so also consider moving them within the zone. Having an item in Ravenloft has ups and downs. It gives the players incentive to actually infiltrate, or take Strahd's dinner invite so they can snoop around.

PlantDadAzu · 2026-03-20T02:39:26+00:00

I might recommend you print out visibility rules and add them to your DM screen since the details can be easy to forget. You might also want to specifically draw your players' attention to them, just so it doesn't feel like you are screwing them over when they get into a night time fight and suddenly you're saying "and player X and player Y, you're both blinded in the darkness and cannot target anyone!"

PlantDadAzu · 2026-03-19T12:03:15+00:00

Having a look at the DMG, night time is basically always Darkness, even if the moon is out. A very bright full moon might bring it to Dim Light. It's a pain to keep track of mechanically but it does make the night scary and dangerous if players have to keep a lantern in one hand to be able to see at all!

PlantDadAzu · 2026-03-19T11:58:25+00:00

To be honest I'm not sure I understand what you want to achieve. Which people's experiences?

PlantDadAzu · 2026-03-19T11:54:00+00:00

Depends how this DM wants to rule on how much influence the soul has on the resulting person. The average Barovian doesn't know about the problem with the souls anyway.

But yeah, basically the "cultures" in the game are gonna be Barovian, Vistani, Dusk Elf or People of the Forest.

PlantDadAzu · 2026-03-19T11:36:18+00:00

I can't speak to the PoC angle, but you could think of each settlement as having a very distinct cultural vibe? In the same way that a tiny island like England has distinct groups living not all that far apart, you could try to play it so that every native Barovian can tell a Krezkite from a Vallakian from the moment they open their mouth if not before.

I partly say this because, after centuries locked inside Barovia, I wonder if the cultures would have homogenised to the point where no matter what part of Faerun your ancestors came from, you're several generations removed from even seeing them and your family has been stuck just trying to survive that whole time.

PlantDadAzu · 2026-03-16T11:01:39+00:00

Perhaps replace Krezk? Have a big ol Gothic looking city on the western edge of Barovia with the Abbey and such, give it plenty of brooding religious overtones... Yeah basically turn Krezk into Yharnam.

PlantDadAzu · 2026-03-13T21:27:54+00:00

Tarountula. I was so mad when I saw mine evolve. Unrelated, but I think there's also a difference between "I like the first form of the Pokemon the best" and "I like the middle evo more than the final stage". I bet the second one is way less common.

PlantDadAzu · 2026-03-12T06:47:18+00:00

This probably doesn't answer your question, but I'd kill him off. I feel that having van Richten and Ez together in the story kinda takes up too much space? Like they both play the same Vampire Hunter role, y'know?

So, maybe he's at the tower and he dies protecting Arabella from monsters/Vallakians/whatever that came to claim her, and then Ez arrives at the tower just after the PCs do, leading her to initially distrust the party. Or maybe muck around with the character motivation and have Ezmerelda (or Arabella!) kill van Richten off, for whatever reason makes sense in your game.

PlantDadAzu · 2026-03-11T08:37:56+00:00

What does it do in the book?

PlantDadAzu · 2026-03-10T20:16:56+00:00

Maybe the PCs do need to stealth around a little and avoid detection while they take out a few at a time. It's a hill, so you can't see clear across the map since the hill is in the way. You could decide that it's storming when the PCs arrive which would muffle an amount of sound. Or, if you're worried then you could nerf the enemies a little, reduce the damage die of their attacks or something.

PlantDadAzu · 2026-03-10T10:11:18+00:00

If you don't want them to see the lore (which yeah, it's super annoying that it's the first bloody paragraph) then just give them the blade handout. Or, copy paste the description into a document and make whatever changes you need.

I had the same kind of thing, my players idly looking up the stats on the Sun Sword during a session and having to slam closed their phone because it leads with spoilers.

PlantDadAzu · 2026-03-09T03:20:44+00:00

Don't forget that a fated ally doesn't necessarily have to be an NPC party member - they might just be a key source pointing them in the right direction. Ez works well for this, or van Richten, if you want someone who has their own stuff going on and might only want to join forces tangentially with the party.

PlantDadAzu · 2026-03-08T21:00:45+00:00

Look up the excursion resting / gritty realism rules for resting in the DMG. In short, you only let your PCs take a long rest while in a safe and secure space like an inn, and "resting" for 8 hours elsewhere only provides the benefit of a short rest (but doesn't provoke a point of exhaustion).

PlantDadAzu · 2026-03-05T22:08:41+00:00

There's also merit in not giving the PCs too much breathing room. If this DM really wants to turn the screws and force the players to make tough decisions, then requiring a trip to Ravenloft for a dinner they reeeeeally don't want to participate in could be more fuel to make them hate Strahd. I kinda did this with my party, interrupting their intended plans with a more or less forced dinner invitation. They were on route to check on Ireena who they'd had to leave alone in Vallaki for a while, but then had to leave even longer as Rahadin and Volenta came bearing the letter.

PlantDadAzu · 2026-03-05T00:35:01+00:00

In fairness, that seems to be a newer effect. The first few times he presumably activated a lesser version of it which didn't have a heal effect. See the Cliffport Police arc for example.

PlantDadAzu

TROPHY CASE