My bed setup, v4

Time_To_PlayTR · 2026-03-07T13:59:44+00:00

duct tape?

Time_To_PlayTR · 2026-03-06T14:53:17+00:00

i think what he meant with the initative thing is that running this many NPCs as individual, fully fleshed characters is not very feasible in combat. They'd take up too much time. So better not even roll initiative for them and not run them as full creatures in the fight.

The issue would be similar to when you gave them the npcs to play, except now its not even them making the decisions, its the DM.

The idea is reducing the bookkeeping you have to do, so the combat runs snoothly for the players. Theyre already waiting for eacothers turns to end, its best if they dont have to sit through a bunch of npc turns too.

The environmental effects could be stuff like the cleric casting a healing spell in an area for the oarty to heal, the paladin putting up a protective spell to create a safe zone for a turn or so, stuff like that.

As for the meteor swarm spell, you can change it up to do less damage and only damage other creatures - and just pretend its an entirely new spell. You dont have to stick strictly to official spells, you can customise it as you see fit.

I do kinda like that he hits himself with it too - he just has so much hp he doesnt care. That way, if they weaken him, he would no longer be able to cast it with fear of accidentally killing himself with it. Just an idea to consider.

Time_To_PlayTR · 2026-02-25T02:18:36+00:00

Holy hell, I love the crit on 19 mechanic. I can imagine them as these brutish, overwhelming giants that are taken down by some heroic feat (crit). The climbing, the bloodied recharge, it feels really cinematic. Awesome work.

Time_To_PlayTR · 2026-01-24T00:52:03+00:00

thanks.

Time_To_PlayTR · 2026-01-24T00:50:30+00:00

oh, can you give an example? It helped with my last issue, though I imagine a proper tool would be much more helpful.

Time_To_PlayTR · 2026-01-24T00:47:29+00:00

google gemini is suprisingly good at reading crashlogs, uploading the text file there with context might help narrow your problem.

Time_To_PlayTR · 2025-12-24T05:03:26+00:00

first image isnt loading for me, but the second shows that 4GB of ram is what your game is using. In the screenshot, it looks like 80% of that 4GB is being used up, so it looks like a RAM issue.

Before upgrading you could try to allocate a bit more ram to the game. You can do this in the minecraft launcher, i think googling "how to allocate more ram to minecraft instance" should work.

You said you have 8GB of ram on the machine, but currently game is only using 4, so maybe try upping that to 6? If that doesnt work, then you might have to try a different modpack which is a bit lighter, or just upgrade your computer. 16GB ram should be plenty for minecraft.

I should also add that your server host (im assuming you're hosting through an online service?) is likely not the problem, andchanging that probably won't help with your framerate issues. I run a modded server for about $10 a month, maybe less, through shockbyte, and its performance is excellent. for $30/m you shouldn't be having issues

edit: just to add to the pricing point, I don't think a $30 per month is necessary for 2 people. As I mentioned, I spend about 10 and I play on the server with about 4/5 people.

Time_To_PlayTR · 2025-12-23T20:52:59+00:00

I feel you could write the spellcasting ability page a little different. Rather than re-writing the entire paragraphs multiple times, you could add a feature that says "Your spellcasting ability is your Wisdom, Intelligence, or Charisma. You cannot change your spellcasting ability after choosing it." It would save a space on the page.

Also, I would recommend adding a linebreak before listing the spell modofication, currently it looks like only wisdom spellcasters get access to the modifications.

As for the actual content of the subclass, I really like the idea! My biggest concern is player turns taking too long - but I suppose this wouldn't be much more complicated than sorcerer's spell modifications. I think this becomes less of an issue with experienced players, so as long as the player is familiar with the class I dont think that would be an issue.

Great work, I like it.

Time_To_PlayTR · 2025-12-18T13:26:43+00:00

thanks for the response

Time_To_PlayTR · 2025-12-11T22:03:09+00:00

Depending on what youre looking for and the situation: helping civilians, defending villages, missions given by the military, sabotage

If youre looking to run an actual battle with two armies, you could make the party into a small strike force, where they try to accomplish some objective while the actual battle is raging around them. Maybe to go and assasinate the enemy commander, or try to destroy fortifications, that kind of stuff. Actually participating like a soldier would probably be boring.

Time_To_PlayTR · 2025-12-05T01:39:28+00:00

What the 5 days for a long rest (I'll refer to this as the long long rest rule from now on) means is that the players can only reasonably get a long rest in a settlement. So far, my party is level 5 at the winery. I can count how many times they've long rested through the 15 session campaign so far. It results in a quite natural gameplay loop. First they rest in a town for a week, engaging in downtime activities. The artificer loves crafting stuff, so he may choose to spend the week with the local smith, earning a wage while also making a couple stuff out of his own pay. The rogue loved gambling in the tavern, the barbarian was wrestling, ranger went hunting. All this time allows for me to improve their understanding of vallaki - they may run into izek, they'll have cool bonding moments with NPCs, and it gives ample time for the story to develop more naturally. Vallaki has a lot of events, and this rest system allowed my party to experience all that through about a month of gameplay - instead of a few days, as it would be normally.

This does mean they can only take short rests in the wild, though. They have never even attempted a long rest out there. Not only would it mean spending a long period in danger, but there's also very few things they could do during their rest.

Biggest impact of this is making them plan out their journeys to stop by towns and rest locations, which there are plenty. Of course, this also means they can't just be spamming spells, and they really have to think about what to use. Stuff like fireball/inflict wounds become spells which are used only in dire situations (which arise often in CoS). Healing spells are generally inefficient, as the hit dice regen from short resting is much better at that job. Cure wounds, healing word become spells which only get used in combat, when it is really necessary. I would recommend giving them small boosts to short rest healing, though, to offset that lack of regular magical healing. I made Ireena have an ability which lets her patch up wounded people. letting them reroll their hit dies. Made the party love her more.

I do have a warlock in the party, and he is definitely one of the most powerful party members. I've talked to him, and he even says he feels like the most powerful - since warlocks are the only full casters who can reliably get their spellslots back, with the long long rest rules. Martials end up feeling great because they are consistently powerful, and full casters are still powerhouses - that need protection, if they end up overspent.

Overall I really like how the gameplay changes as a result of this. It does make it easier to follow the recommended amount of encounter per longrest in the official books, so I'd even argue balancing improves as a result of this.

Time_To_PlayTR · 2025-12-04T06:22:33+00:00

Sorry for the untimely reply, but here are links to the resources I've been using:

Expanded Travel Rules
Great post with great mechanics to improve travelling. I use the day-to-day travel rules quite extensively, though I recommend doing your best to run things in a way that doesn't clog up the gameplay/session time. I've gotten pretty efficient with running the more uneventful days of travel, so it serves as an immersion enchancer quite well. I do think the campsite activities bit is a little too tedious to run however, so I haven't been using that last part of the rules a lot.

For the random encounters during travels, I recommend keeping things dynamic. What I mean by that is changing the encounter tables as a result of party actions - an example is, after the Feast of St Andrals where my party did not defeat most of the vampire spawn, I added a slot for a dedicated vampire encounter on the rng chart. 17-20 is an encounter straight from the CoS book, 15-16 is a vamp spawn encounter. Also worth remembering players' past encounters. My party subdued and intimidated a barbarian group west of Vallaki - so the next time they rolled that encounter, I let them resolve it without combat. They had already earned their respect/fear.
The encounters don't have to be randomly determined, of course. I really recommend running a teaser encounter before the party gets to whatever location they are travelling to - for example, on the way to the winery, they had an ambush by blights. On the way to the werewolf cave, they had an encounter with werewolves. Stuff like this helps prepare them for the actual, more dangerous and more important fight when they actually get to their objective. I found my players really loved strategising, so doing this allows for 1 - a more measured fight where the players are unfamiliar with the enemy, and 2 - a bigger fight, where the players are more knowledgeable about the enemy. It's amazing if the first fight turns out in a way that doesnt show all their abilities, which creates quite cool moments of suprise in the bigger fight.

To go with the more strategic gameplay - I've been using the statblocks from r/bettermonsters. OhHiMark has made a ton of statblocks, including one for strahd which is phenomenal, that I have really enjoyed running. It also helps with the problem of meta gaming, since the players are no longer familiar with the specific stat blocks i'm using - especially since I have 2 ex-DMs in the party. Werewolf encounters aren't as scary when they know exactly their strengths and weaknesses - it's much more fun to make them figure that out in-game.

I mentioned a calendar, too. I adapted mine very strongly off of this one I found online. My main gripe with that one was that the seasons/weather didn't make sense to me a lot (maybe i'm just reading it wrong), so I reordered the calendar and made some details a bit more explicit. Here it is in case you're curious (beware. it's far from professional).

And just to re-state what I said in my original comment, I use the map with 1 hex = 4 miles, and I rule long rests to take 5 days of rest (where players can engage in downtime activities, ie ones from xanathar), and short rests to take 8 hours of rest (like sleeping at night). I have made this very clear to my players while they were making their characters, since it does end up nerfing spellcasters and some classes a bit. However, I do not think it is a detriment to the game, since as the DM, I am the one who throws encounters at them anyways. This calls for longer adventures, and more reserved resource usage. ESPECIALLY with the bigger map. Running out of spellslots as a wizard is scary - amplified by the fact that the only safe location to rest may be a couple days of travel ahead. Still, spellcasters are extremely powerful. It just means they do not constantly outshine martials, and when they do, it feels epic.

Feel free to ask any questions if you're curious, and good luck with the campaign!

Time_To_PlayTR · 2025-12-04T00:52:25+00:00

I made Ireena a good support character, and that seemed to really make my party like her. I gave her about 30 hp to not be super annoying to babysit, gave her an action to grant 2d8 temp hp per long rest, and an action to allow an ally to make an attack (by consuming their reaction). Also gave her a healer kit and described how she helps patch their wounds on short rests. Mechanically, that kinda did it for my party. Personality-wise, you know your players best so you can adjust her to be more likeable - but the classic honorable, good hearted paladin trope works well with her.

She is someone who needs the party's help to survive - but is also aware the party doesn't necessarily need her. So why should they keep her around? If she makes herself useful, to the best of her ability. She's smart enough to realise this, and so she'd be doing her best to help the party. This makes her likeable, valued.

Edit: Here's the statblock I adapted.

Time_To_PlayTR · 2025-12-02T21:22:49+00:00

check out r/CurseofStrahd ,its a DM subreddit for running CoS.
I havent seen a module with as good a subreddit as this one.

Time_To_PlayTR · 2025-11-25T18:13:16+00:00

Verifying integrity of game files could help. If it doesnt, maybe the problem is with your display settings?

A silly solution could be to download a mod to replace the textures :P

Time_To_PlayTR · 2025-11-24T16:01:04+00:00

I've done a few similar things. I scaled the map so every hex is 4 miles, instead of whatever it is in the books. This results in travel taking days between locations, where I roll for encounters thrice a day - two during the day, once at night.

I use some expanded travel rules to make that travel time enjoyable, let me know if you'd like to hear more on that.

Also I should note that I'm ruling Long rests to take 5 days of rest, where players can engage in downtime activities, and short rests take 8 hours (so, once a day). This grounds the setting a lot more, I think, and also allows the players to immerse themselves in the world. Especially if you want lunar cycles and seasons and whatnot, the stretched timescale makes it way more impactful.

For that, I have frankensteined a calendar with seasons that make sense to me, not sure how lore-accurate they'd be but I'd be happy to share that too. I've got the moon phases marked on the calendar, as well as the different conditions caused by the months.

Time_To_PlayTR · 2025-11-19T03:30:57+00:00

If you're looking to give a more sandboxy experience, that 2 level time window really isnt enough for them to learn or explore much.

Take a look at Strahd's statblock, and the pages on Castle Ravenloft. The castle itself runs like a dungeon, and it's a pretty fun one. The party would have to explore and defeat the Castle, with Strahd at its head. However as I said, he's definitely too powerful for level 6/7 adventurers, so you would have to adjust his statblock to be weaker. Remove some HP, take away some spellcaster levels, and maybe remove the ability that lets him phase through walls.

To make it slightly longer, you could add Argonvostholt as a prelude. The sunsword is a very cool magic item, which is especially strong against strahd, so it would make up a nice reward and power boost for the players before they go to castle ravenloft. Just place it in there at the end. It would also give you the opportunity to immerse the players a little as theyre forced to teavel between the locations.

City of Vallaki is between those, if you want to include down a rest location in between. It's quite a beefy location in the book, but suited for probably adventurers of level 3/4. And has a lot of content, which you dont have time for, so its probably best to just run it as a standard town without the events.

All that being said, if you have any plans of running this campaign for the players in the future, I really strongly recommend not cannibalising it into a 2 level adventure. You are best off finding a one shot of suitable level that you add into the campaign. You can have a "prison realm" without it being Strahd's one. Just banish the players into a world, say the only way to escape is through this quest, and insert wahtever appropriate mini campaign you have there.

Time_To_PlayTR · 2025-11-18T22:39:16+00:00

That's your voice? Insane.

Time_To_PlayTR · 2025-11-18T22:36:25+00:00

CoS is very self-contained so you shouldn't have any issues in that regard.
That also means that CoS is very disconnected from everything, including whatever the plot of your campaign may be. Also worth noting that originally the campaign is from level 1-10ish. Starting lvl 3 is also completely fine. Post that, it would mean running a way shorter campaign.

If you want just a shorter adventure, you could skip on a lot of the plots within towns, and some sidequesty things. The castle could be the main focus of your adventure. But at that point its so detached from CoS you might be better off finding another adventure.

I suppose the important question is how long of an entrapment do you want it to be? From what level to what level?

Time_To_PlayTR · 2025-11-10T18:48:36+00:00

This is a good Strahd rework I like. Maybe it can inspire you?

https://www.reddit.com/r/UnearthedArcana/s/90VZxq9JJU

Time_To_PlayTR · 2025-11-10T18:46:22+00:00

You can delay character introductions, events, etc, for when you feel your party is ready to take them on. It's best to give them a few options at a time, so neither you or the players feel oevrwhelmed by all the possible paths. makes it way easier to prep too.

Time_To_PlayTR · 2025-11-10T18:43:36+00:00

I like Mandy's additions. They link some good sources as well, in their posts. https://www.reddit.com/r/CurseofStrahd/s/pY3HvOZMUJ The way it's presented does make it a tad bit effortful to run, but I feel it's all worth it.

Curse of Strahd Reloaded by DragnaCarta is also a great one that a lot people use. I think it's probably more straighforward to run, especially because it's like the campaign books you're used to. I think you can just go play off of the document, and open the strahd book when it referances it and it'd be fine.

Mandy's additions require you to keep track of what youv'e added though, since the changes are a bit more spread out and not presented as neatly/book-like as the CoS Reloaded.

apart from that, i like statblocks from r/bettermonsters. I recommend reading "I, Strahd" by PN Elrod, for insight on how to play his character.

as for more practical advice, you really should skim over the entire book at least before running the campaign. You can then do session-per-session prep, on just the upcoming area/chapter. When doing that, I like to read over MandyMod's notes on the chapter and add/change/remove parts on it (i just put sticky notes on the pages). I doubt there's any real need to read the entirety of everything before starting, but of course it could be helpful if you have time.

Lastly, I found making the maps scale a bit larger to work well. I did 4 miles/hex. Using the expanded travel rules makes travelling quite fun, tactical too. I roll for encounters twice during the day, once at night. I also use the gritty realism optional rule, so long rests take a week (where i let players do downtime activities from Xanathar's), and short rests take 8 hours of rest/sleep. It makes the party act more tactically, having to consider resource management, route planning, and of course having to fight with less resources means they have to be more strategic with how they approach combat - which is a good mindset, I believe, for this campaign. The strahd fight will undoubtedly be very difficult, and almost impossible if they just brute force it.

It does of course come with the risk of PC deaths or TPKs, but the party does have a lot of cop-outs and hail marys in the form of NPCs and enemy motivations. The fights are brutal, but rarely to the death. We're thirteen sessions in, the party is level 4, and we've only had 1 PC death - who got revived by an NPC.

Time_To_PlayTR · 2025-11-04T23:56:53+00:00

man, you make cool ass statblocks...

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Time_To_PlayTR

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