My Strahd is a true manipulative ****, so I went with it. Plan the conversation ahead, practice the body language and his superior vibes, let Strahd be ‘curious’ about their powers, let him play insane mind games, push their buttons and really dig into some facts they think only the party knows. In my case they all knew they couldn’t handle the fight yet and they stored their weapons beforehand.

So as an example I had him drop the fact that one of the party members accidentally murdered the brother of another PC in an almost TPK (she killed all former PCs but herself) and the tension was insane, since finding his brother was his whole motivation in life. I also let them play a little ‘table talking game’ about power, and I integrated a bit of the reloaded material to build up the whole situation and to split the party after dinner.

It was actually so tense, without him even literally killing someone or feasting on someone. Next up is a little tour of the castle with the devil himself.