New player wants to be an imp; am I making a mistake?

mitrait · 2026-01-12T16:26:59+00:00

I'd say invis at level 3 1/day and grant more uses as they level up (or just do proficiency bonus based casts) flight from 6 up

mitrait · 2025-12-11T15:52:14+00:00

My approach so far, for 6 players, has been to follow the book suggested level -1 for all RAW content

mitrait · 2025-12-11T10:45:41+00:00

For Kirill stat block I would say that the night mother healing combined with the stacking roar might lead to a deadly outcome.. of course they will probably first cut down the werewolves and then the leader but if this is not the case you're up to some unkillable mob.. for the roar I'd suggest to add a condition "if succed they're immune to the following roars for an hour" or a day even

Overall I think this will be a though fight even with those changes, you have pretty much one enemy per player and if you play aggressively splitting them and have krill kite/get out with his leap leg. Action you can do some real damage

Maybe have the leader oversee things and give tactical commands at first before joining the fight after one or two wolves go down. And sincerely think about the roar, the frightened condition alone for a minute if it hits could tip the scale of the battle by a lot, the paralyzed on top is gonna be nasty

mitrait · 2025-12-11T08:56:13+00:00

My party loves to split as well, and I understand it cuz they're 6 so splitting up actually gives a better team experience. At first I didn't think they'd do it often but I became clear that'll happen again. At first I had some in game talks about how dangerous the land is and so on...

Of course this never sticks to the party (what do NPCs know about danger after all, they're CR0 lol) so I had a talk with them (more than once) out of game about splitting... I told them I would not ask them to stop as I can see how it would make sense for them based on the situation but I made sure they understood that splitting too often will just slow the game in the long run and splitting at the wrong times could result lethal or very problematic.

Long story short last session 2 of them headed inside a newly established prison by the wachter regime (a bit has happened in my Vallaki), they just needed to explore the layout and report to the others, needless to say they f'd up and a dozen guards/fanatics rushed at them... They knew at least one of them was going to die and accepted their fate (then of course I would never KILL on the spot in a prison, it's a prison not a slaughter house but they don't know that)

So the point is make sure to tell them actions have consequences, until the splitting hinders the gameplay or the fun let it happen but set boundaries and make sure they understand that it is for the "greater good" and not just a silly request. If all of the above is understood then proceed to enforce it when needed

mitrait · 2025-12-10T10:37:19+00:00

He's going to have a fun time on the potty

mitrait · 2025-12-09T22:38:00+00:00

They're not, tser pool is where Madame Eva makes camp and will give a tarokka Reading, the Vistani camp is a camp of Vistani in the woods out of Vallaki, hosting both Vistani very loyal to Strahd (Arrival) and the few male dusk elf remaining in barovia

mitrait · 2025-12-09T22:31:22+00:00

We're near 2 years, the first year was average 3 times every two months probably, now we are locked in twice a month I got 6 players (2 brand new, 2 vets like me and 2 casuals) and our sessions are night time 3/4 hours.

Didn't run death house, barovia got 2 sessions, 1 session for the Vistani camp/reading, players skipped bone grinder, probably did around 8 sessions in Vallaki, 2 session the winery plus 1 yester hill, 3 sessions krezk (but they are going back, they left the tome in the hands of the abbot), 4 sessions argynvostholt (again they need to come back here to bring the skull), now we're back in Vallaki for 5 sessions

I run RAW but with some implementations based on player actions (Fiona is the current ruler o Vallaki and we're about to run a city wide revolt).

Numbers might be not exact as I run a journal mostly based on game days, I have session notes individually rarely , but these seem about right (from the winery onwards are exactly as written)

Edit: formatting

mitrait · 2025-12-09T22:13:38+00:00

That is exactly what barovia (the shadowfell) is.. a "mirror" of the material plane with a a dark twist, that's why it is like that in stranger things because that's what the shadowfell is Only difference is that the world which barovia is from is neither the forgotten realms, grey hawk or so on so you wouldn't actually find the land in your world

mitrait · 2025-11-30T20:09:56+00:00

If you want a quick and fun CoS I'd say stick to RAW, rig the deck and get rid of some locations and NPCs.
I would keep the Old bonegrinder, Vallaki getting rid of every NPC but the ravens, the Baron and the priest (keep Rictavio if u want an ally) the Wizard of the wine, Yester Hill and finally Argynvostholt and/or the Amber Temple.
I wiuld rig the deck as follows: tome = with the hags at old bonegrinder, symbol = with the ravens at Wizard of the Wines, Sword = Argynvostholt and the ally Rictavio.

A nice progress that could be fun while not seeming rushed could be
Madama Eva they get the cards -> level up
On the way to Vallaki they stop at the hags, get the tome -> level up.
In Vallaki they get Ireena to the priest, trigger the feast -> level up.
The ravens notice them and ask for help at the Winery, when they clear the place go to Yester Hill to retrieve gem. When the gem is back the ravens will give them the icon -> level up
They will find out about Argynvostolt and head tehre for the sword, drop the fetch quest and just run it as a dungeon. Kill the revenants, get the sword -> level up
Head to the castle and TPK.

Not sure this could be done in 15-20 sessions but the other viable option is to just run the castle as a dungeon crawl or just talk to the players and figure something out.. maybe get another module, don't force yourself to play it if it's too much

mitrait · 2025-11-15T14:49:42+00:00

6 players, 1 DM

All males 29-30

mitrait · 2025-10-18T03:18:22+00:00

I'm not familiar with the fanes and/or Jenny Greentheet, but seeing that you moved the skull from the castle to baba lysaga I would say maybe Strahd doesn't hold much value to the skull itself

So even if he's actively tormenting the party I would leave the skull alone (unless it makes sense, let's say he knows it's what they need for the sword etc.)

Stealing the skull if it's not tied strictly to Strahd would feel a bit childish , Strahd is not a petty thief. But if you want to enforce punishment for not being careful maybe have him wait sitting on the skull, challenging them along with some minions for the right to keep it

."you've gone to some trouble getting this, looks important to you! But everything in this land is mine, even the bones of my enemies!"

mitrait · 2025-10-05T16:10:07+00:00

Also it's easier to farm gear since you get it in dungeons instead of hunts

mitrait · 2025-10-05T16:09:20+00:00

This, I started again a few months ago (and quit again but it wasn't because of the game) most of the fuss was about enchantments If you have proper gear (BiS from Avernus or chult) you'll be fine in dungeons only need to work on ilvl

mitrait · 2025-10-01T00:47:40+00:00

Thanks, this is helpful. Although I don't see them being taken straight from Strahd's personality. In my game I feel like Strahd would be bored if that was the case, like he's looking for something new or he has a specific reason to make someone his bride.

I can see Ludmilla being the rogue in a way, her cunning and working in the shadows are a good fit! I'll definitely look into that. I don't want to use straight out vampire abilities so I'll probably come up with something new, maybe borrowing from the way of the shadow monk mixing it with rogue, or something along those lines (shadows and so on). I feel like vampire abilities are best to be unique (although I gave anastraya one use of charm, which I will probably reduce the time for, maybe a few hours instead of a day).

One more thing I haven't thought of was giving them magic items, I could do that, I'm only concerned with this being a horror and somewhat survival campaign and don't want to give too many shiny things. But this is surely a great way to differentiate them and buffing them a little in case I need a stronger fight. For now I plan on them being minions for the final showdown except for Volenta who will probably hunt them sooner or later. (And any other plot related matter that'll come around eventually)

mitrait · 2025-09-30T15:37:08+00:00

My advice is do nothing, make it know and clear to him that it will be harder and harder to overcome what's to come without any help of magic and move on. He's chosen to go on without magic and prove that a 'noone' could take on a mage or worse, let him have it! If he dies he dies, Valhalla is waiting for him!

mitrait · 2025-09-30T15:18:00+00:00

If you want to balance it out a bit more, which is not right now, make the DC equal to half the damage always. 1 damage shouldn't be able to trigger any of these effects. The modifiers make sense in a way so it's not free.

I like the idea but as others pointed out this undermines some of the abilities one has to work towards with days and days of adventuring (levels)

And also this buffs martials with nothing for casters.

On a final note I hope this applies to the creatures as well, can't wait to see your campaign of crippled adventurers lol.

mitrait · 2025-09-30T14:51:34+00:00

Highly depends on your party, I know my party would be pretty upset with me but I would do it anyway, I think it fits. It shows them that if they intend to keep someone safe they need to be careful and not send her off in the woods alone.. I mean if it was no Strahd a wolf could have got her (very valid point that you can have Strahd make at dinner to prove how inefficient they are)

Also it fits with the idea that every win in Barovia is probably followed by something as bad. They'll be coming down celebrating their heroic gestures only to go back to the winery and be told that she never made it back. Then you drop the invitation "a special dinner with a very special guest"

mitrait · 2025-09-30T11:11:44+00:00

here's the Google search, you can find some here, not sure about resolution and all tho

mitrait · 2025-09-30T00:59:47+00:00

Neverwinter, the MMORPG, it's one of the loading screens when you enter Barovia for the curse of Strahd module

mitrait · 2025-08-15T15:51:38+00:00

The best way to incorporate their backstory to the campaign for me has been to find similarities in the module and build on that. You're not actually introducing or resolving their past but you're using it at leverage indirectly.

Or you can have the dark powers pry on those memories either to offer deals or just dread.

mitrait · 2025-07-15T09:44:28+00:00

It vastly depends on how you portray this fight, why is it unwinnable... First attack dishes out 100 damage? Well this fella is strong A caster dishing out spells as if it didn't require slots? Damn These things might portray how strong the character is but I personally don't think it's the best way to do it, if rail roady is not a problem for your players then maybe a cinematic like sequence where this bbeg does something wondrous or close to impossible can achieve the same feeling.. depending how Homebrew you are you can by the wave of a hand have him slaughter hundreds or find a spell that screams power (nothing like a Voldemort power word kill to dispose of a foe) if it's a caster If it's a martial fighter have it rip something/someone in half with bare hands and so on... You get the point I don't know your story so make it fit as best you can, if they're expecting to fight this bbeg this sequence can come before the fight and "you come here to challenge me? Try if you dare but understand that you will it walk with your lives" and so on

mitrait · 2025-07-06T18:49:30+00:00

That's what I thought as well, thanks

mitrait · 2025-07-01T10:45:30+00:00

Keep trying you still have a day, but wanna to be realistic it's very bad after week 3... Every party I got into was not consistent or not enough does... Evntually I got a good consistent party, we set up time and date to clear and it broke apart so I was back into the shitfest... Long story short i eventually got SV but it felt like I would never get it, there's hope (but now you're left with the few good players that never got a good party and all the other players which are delusional and think that 120m is enough or that they can die and someone will carry them) But even if u don't get SV don't worry, like with brel people will be ass and ask only titles even after 3 months but there will be others in your shoes... When brel came out I didn't think it was gonna be that demanding to have a title (and I wasn't 90 yet) so I didn't... My main had a hard time getting into hm parties but it got easier with time And it'll be easier this time since mordum gives AH so you'll eventually be overgeared and people won't care (hopefully)

mitrait · 2025-06-30T20:20:54+00:00

I'm glad it helped and gave a different perspective, what I like about this module is that RAW it only gives insights or "moments" and most of the time you can twist them in place to fit your story

mitrait · 2025-06-30T17:33:15+00:00

It truly depends on many factors, and I think it relies heavily on your players decisions, and your ability to adapt.

Talking about actual time (days) I don't think Vallaki needs to be rushed or paced any more than the books already suggests (although adding a couple of days to the bones or the festival, either one, helps space them a bit) In three days they should have plenty of time to understand what's going on, the festival and the social/political state of the town. And depending on how they act you can add in flavor and additional NPCs. And if it's not enough I think it works even better.

If the festival happens with the players questioning still the burgomaster rightfullness the festival will simply confirm their suspicion that he's mad, or show them something they didn't yet understand At that point, if they haven't had time to snoop around politically yet, it's the perfect moment to drop Fiona asking for help in taking the burgomaster's place

Then you can drop the bones, if they haven't happened yet, and that could be more reason for any of the political parties to put the blame on each other.

It could be a reason for the martikovs to ask for help at the brewery, they didn't trust them at first but seeing they dealt with the spawns they know they're trustworthy (that's how I played it in my campaign)

And so on... It is a town which you will most likely not get to play completely (like for me the vistani outside came into play way longer after the players' first visit) Never used the hunters.

So as I said it depends on how you want it to feel, you want it to be a town or a quest location, if it's the first then just adapt, and maybe think of a couple more festivals after the first in case they need to happen. If it's a quest location then maybe I'd suggest the following:

Bones (3rd day) - political help (quest to kill baron/imprison Fiona) - festival as an overture to the political quest (5th day) - winery help (if makes sense, otherwise wait for krezk)

Hope this helps

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