I am in the process of starting a party based on CoS, so I started preparing some props to make the athmosphere more immersive.

And you, what are you using to make the players feel more taken into the adventure ?

Good day CoS Redditers.

Yesterday we had a session where a PC got infected with lycanthropy on the party's way to the tser pool encampment and we finished with the card reading.

Just for little context the party was at the ilvis river crossing after digging up a grave wolves appeared. A mix of regular, dire and a special looking one which was a werewolf in wolf form. This werewolf is from the PCs backstory. She grew up in an orphanage that on a misty night was attacked by something. The werewolf was her best friend that told her to hide in a wardrobe during the attack by then he had already a scratch on his cheek. So her friend, Caleb, targeted her directly in the encounter yesterday and successfully bit her on his first turn. She failed the con save and got infected. I described the wolf after a good perception check how she described him in her backstory. Black hair (now fur), green eyes and the scar on the cheek. Though I think it didn't click with her which is funny. On his next round the Caleb Wolf howled and the pack disappeared into the woods.

Now in preparation for the next session I would like to her some opinions maybe even from your own experiences in Curse of Strahd if you got someone infected.

First should I tell the player about it? Or keep it secret? I think knowing would let her bring in own ideas which could be fun.

Since their in the camp I think I would let Caleb appear in her dream that night or maybe he calls her from the woods if she follows his Voice she would see the wolf transforming into her dear friend. He would say something like "finally we're back together come with me..." and yeah he's been in Barovia some time giving into the curse of lycanthropy so his alignment if you will would be evil but he would still care for her.

Second should I give her the werewolf Statblock? With all the resistancee it's kinda op for a player I think. In another Reddit I found the suggestion to change the infected PCs species to shifter which I kinda liked too. I also think the transformation should be a step by step thing but I'm not sure how to execute it.

Side info the player wouldn't mind playing another character because I told everyone in session zero that this campaign could be deadly at some points. So even a not so good outcome wouldn't make her super sad. 😅

If you read this longer post till the end thank you! I'm curious to hear your stories and tips.

I have heard all the advice about doing your Tarokka reading before the campaign, fudging the results so you don't get awful card pulls. I was pulling cards randomly to keep the spirit alive, looking for a set that would work together, and I got a pull I thought could work, except that the tome was supposed to be in the Tser Pool Encampment, which seemed boring. I was going to just change that one pull, but then I got an idea, and as I've never run this module I'm not sure if it's a terrible one, and I want other people's perspectives.

What if Eva realizes that she has the tome, (or maybe I'll switch to the symbol), and she decides not to give it to the players immediately. Instead she decides to send them on a quest to take Ireena to Krezk instead of Vallaki, and have Ireena go to the pool and escape with Sergei. Madame Eva wants to free Strahd from his torment, and so I thought maybe if she had a vision of the pool, and realized she could possibly remove Tatanya's soul from the mists by permanently escaping to Sergei, she thinks she can help either break Strahd from his obsession or drive him crazy enough that he'll get sloppy and reveal a weakness, allowing either a player or another NPC to take his place. So, in exchange for the artifact she has, she asks the players to take Ireena to Krezk, specifically to the pool. She wouldn't tell them exactly why she wants this, but she assures them it will guarentee Ireena's safety.

But I'd play it that Ireena doesn't want to erase herself and this life, she doesn't want to become Tatanya and go off into the sunset with Sergei, a man she's seen in dreams but never met. And the party's ally I pulled was Ismark, which fit really well with the personalities and desires of my players, so I plan to use him. So, if the party sends Ireena to the pool against her will, they risk angering their ally Ismark. But if they don't do it, they'll have to find another way to get the Tome, or otherwise learn the same information from another source.

I really like the potential this combination has to force the players into a difficult decision both morally and strategically, but I also know it's sort of high risk.

So anyone more experienced with the module, let me know- is this a great idea or a terrible one?

Hey Everyone!

Recently my party started travelling with Ezmeralda, she’s been a great addition in terms of roleplay and theres even a romance brewing between her and a PC. The problem is that she is just a good deal stronger than the rest of the party and I don’t want her stealing the show and winning every fight for the PCs. I’d rather not change her stat block because the players have already seen her in action a few times and that feels disingenuous. I’d rather not kill her off, but I don’t see any other way to keep her from following the party and depriving them of moments to shine in combat for the rest of the campaign.

Any tips?

I have a higher level STrahd who is using this and have a question about detect magic seeing his aura. Just that the wording is fuzzy ( well at least to me )

With a touch, you place an illusion on a willing creature or an object that isn’t being worn or carried. A creature gains the Mask effect below, and an object gains the False Aura effect below. The effect lasts for the duration. If you cast the spell on the same target every day for 30 days, the illusion lasts until dispelled.

Mask (Creature). Choose a creature type other than the target’s actual type. Spells and other magical effects treat the target as if it were a creature of the chosen type.

False Aura (Object). You change the way the target appears to spells and magical effects that detect magical auras, such as Detect Magic. You can make a nonmagical object appear magical, make a magic item appear nonmagical, or change the object’s aura so that it appears to belong to a school of magic you choose.

Does this mean if he is using seeming the Aura will appear that magic is being used even as he is not an object yet he cast it on him himself ?

Wanted to let everyone know here, especially since some of you have helped me tremendously over the past year with this conversion. This is hopefully the first of a few supplements! There are 10 community copies available and it's also part of the Heart of Daggers sitewide sale!

Grab it HERE: https://heartofdaggers.com/products/brides-of-strahd/

The Dark Lord does not do his bidding alone... 

Indeed, three of Strahd’s brides will serve him to the bitter end. One, a trusted advisor on all matters of the arcane. Another to help keep the great valley in line through spy and statecraft. And of course, when all else fails, torture, alchemy, and trap work will do just fine.

Brides of Strahd includes six unique stat blocks converted by Julian Brown for Daggerheart from DragnaCarta's Strahd Reloaded 5e module, with bone-chilling illustrations from Emcee Frodis.

What's Included:

1. A fully illustrated nine-page supplement with two stat blocks for each of Strahd's three brides.
2. A folder with JUST the stat blocks.
3. Six bride tokens for VTT use.

Enjoy the Brides of Strahd whether you use them in burning coffin shops, druidic circles, or, of course, the castle of the Dark Lord himself...

TLDR: would Kiril do anything other than kill the party if he knew where they were, and that they killed everyone in the werewolf den.

I swapped Kiril for a Loup Garou, the party knew there was a Loup Garou and I had Van Richten impress upon them that is a very dangerous creature.

For the den the plan was Zuleika, once she was encountered, would ally with the party to bring down Kiril along with some other werewolves. This way it would be more like 3 players and Z vs Kiril and maybe 1 or 2 werewolves.

The problem, they attacked the den while the hunting party was gone (this is not an issue, they cleaned house honestly) but when they found Z, who was guarding the prisoners, they just left. They saw 1 person who was maybe a werewolf and decided they should retreat, long rest and return.

Now, obviously this cannot go unpunished, I planned on the next visit to be much harder. However, due to some RP, one of my players described killing one of the werewolves in an "explosive" manner, covering themselves in blood and viscera.

They then left the den, returned to Van Richten's tower and THEN described themselves cleaning themselves off.

Now, considering werewolves have a pretty good sniffer on them, I can't imagine it would be hard to follow the smell of lycan guts straight back to a tower with one way out.

So, realistically why wouldn't Kiril and his hunting party just wait around and ambush the party when they leave? Having a Loup Garou, 6 werewolves, and 9 wolves ambush the party while they're trapped on the land bridge seems like a very obvious TPK.

Any idea here? Obviously I know it's in my control to just not do this, but this is a pretty glaring mistake and I don't want to just let it slide.

Context:

One of my players is unhappy with their class and I allow 1 respec per campaign at my table, so for the last week my player and I have been talking about this so that they are happy. I think that ultimately, this is a place to have fun and if their build is not making them have fun, then they should be allowed to change it. Within reason.

We're barely into the story, too. I'm running Curse of Strahd Reloaded, and we're about to start the Siege.

The player has brought up a couple of things they could respec to as well as somewhat outlined to me what they want to do with their character in the long run ability-wise. I'm going to have to paraphrase this next bit, because if I write literally what they have said to me I feel like there's no way to avoid them finding this post. Essentially, they want a "character that can harness the power of the gods/chosens without being related to one or being a chosen".

I have asked why this is possible for the character and they said it was the character's will power was that strong.

Paladin was naturally my first thought when I heard this, but they feel restricted by this, and insist on cleric-like powers without being a cleric or trying to justify it in their backstory when I asked about it, or letting me give them a justification in the story of how it might be possible.

The table is already aware most everything they will encounter is undead or vampire adjacent (and therefore weak to radiant damage). The insistence on being an isolated power house is reading to me as MC Syndrome or at the very very least power-gamey.

How would you guys resolve this situation if you were in my place?

Edit: I think I know what I am going to do. Thanks everyone that threw in their two cents!

I’ll be allowing my player to have a cake and eating it too within the bounds of whats already possible in the game, but that I need lore reasons of why they are able to do these things beyond “they are like this because they can be” (which is the explanation they had provided when I had asked previously).

Castle Ravenloft was a project I originally undertook back in 2017 and slowly whittled away at over the course of several months; this 'rebirth' of the location was built from the ground up: entirely new textures, floor styles, painting methods, and lighting.

The Castle remains my most memorable location to date due in part both to the process of mapping such an enormous, interconnected layout, as well as to having ran it at my own table. I'm so glad to be able to release a new version of it that gives a vision more appropriately memorable as well.

If you're interested, I've got the whole set of the Castle up on DMsGuild right now--but you can also get a look at the full resolution view of the compiled main floor here for free!

From now through November 1, select Barovia Gazetteers are available for 31% off as part of the Halloween Sale at the DMs Guild.

The Barovia Gazetteers are a set of campaign guides containing background information, extra encounters, and additional resources for running Curse of Strahd. The gazetteers include all of the following:

• DM's guide to character generation and leveling
• A new adventure hook
• New travel encounters
• Complete guides to every chapter
• Major expansions to Vallaki, Krezk, van Richten's tower, and more
• Maps for St. Andral's Church and its crypts
• New rules for catching and treating lycanthropy
• New rules for the dark gifts
• A new method for lifting the curse of Strahd
• Two new epilogues
• New and revised handouts
• Stat blocks for every creature that has been added to the campaign, including the drowned maiden, false hydra, forest druid, Gulthias tree, and the warlock of the undead
• New stat blocks for Ireena Kolyana, Kolyan Indirovich, Clovin Belview, headless highwayman Red Lukas, and Strahd von Zarovich!

The following Barovia Gazeteers are on sale now at the DMs Guild:

The Land of Barovia

The Town of Vallaki

The Wild Lands (Wizard of Wines, Yester Hill, Argynvostholt, and Berez)

Castle Ravenloft

The Barovia Gazetteer Collected Edition (collects all 9 gazetteers into one PDF)

The other gazetteers covering the rest of the campaign are also available:

The Village of Barovia

The Old Bonegrinder

Krezk and the West

Van Richten's Tower

The Amber Temple

The Halloween Sale only lasts through November 1, so head over to the DMs Guild and check it out!

As the title says, my players have no idea at all what the Argynvost Skull is, and will probably not be picking up the skull during Ravenloft Heist unless I do something about it. They are already in the Castle for the dinner party with strahd so I don't know what kind of bait I can send in their direction. Any tips? (first time DM by the way)

Fidelis, Ruby, Babalu, and Kammera, stay away if you want a cure for lycanthropy!

So at level 8 my party has finally arrived in Krezk, where they are supposed to look for the Sunsword if they can remember to. Due to some unwarranted fucking around in Barovia Village, they just missed Wintersplinter's attack on the Winery. Fortunately, I had an "if/then" scenario planned for this, and the RP that resulted ended up being pretty great.

Upon gaining entrance to Krezk, Dmitri immediately told the players about the missing livestock (using Mandymod's additions with that), since they asked why he didn't have any. Our party, still being the goody-goodies that they are, elected to perform a night watch for him, to see if they could catch the thief. (They actually did catch Anna snooping around the stables, but she has still managed to avoid suspicion and has turned their attention to the Belviews as suspects for now.)

Our Paladin noticed a raven flying over the southern wall and into the trees...and not long after, Adrian Martikov was rushing toward the party, begging them to wake up Dmitri and open the gate, as his father is grievously injured, possibly dying. (Paladin was still curious about where that particular raven went, but hasn't seemed to put two and two together yet. I suspect that our Rogue has figured it out but is too polite to say anything)

Upon being awoken in the night, Dmitri was immediately suspicious of Adrian, since showing up in the middle of the night and asking for the gate to be opened gives off major vampire vibes. He even threatened him with touching the blade of a silver axe to prove he wasn't lying.

Adrian adamantly refused this, but fortunately still had the party on his side, and they all convinced Dmitri to open the gate. He was, in fact, telling the truth- the druids had returned to the Winery and attacked with "a monster" (Adrian's words)/"an overgrown vegetable" (Davian's words), and Davian's right arm (wing) had been ripped off.

Adrian and Muriel were able to take Davian to the Abbey for medical attention. When the party showed up to check on him (and to seek a cure for the Paladin and Rogue's newfound lycanthropy), Davian was cursing them out for leaving his family to defend themselves alone, and the Abbot had replaced his missing arm with the arm of a werewolf.

Now the party wonders if the new limb will corrupt him, and though they have only just made it to the Abbey, they get the feeling that there is something very wrong about the place...

I've occasionally had some problems with keeping my players invested in the RP side of things, so I'm very pleased that they were very engaged this session, and that they still care a lot about helping the Martikovs :)

(Which is good, because they're the hook to get the party to Yester Hill, where the Holy Symbol is. Party keeps forgetting about the Tarokka so I gotta brute force it)

Me: So my new character Elena is non-romanceable. She's a paladin, a straight shooter all she cares about is honour and duty.
My Dungeon Master: Yeah so anyway i'm gonna need you to draw Strahd hotter, younger with a full head of hair and sinking his fang into an apple.

---

I was told to not think too much about it while drawing him, but here's some one liners:
"Let me take a bite."
"You taste sweeter."
"Do you want to take the apples place?"
"Have you ever wished to be an apple before?"

---

The woman in the purple gambeson is my character Lady Elena, you can read the timeline backstory I made for her here . We just had our second session. she's 4 days into barovia. these are my in character notes.

I worked with my DM to pick the colours he liked for how he imagined his Strahd.

I'm doomed. Doomed.

---

It's been a while since I posted so here's also Vampire Tatyana / Ireena which was a commission. i worked with Bread one of my patrons to design her how he imagined her using his references.

aaand here is Stella Wachter when shes cured of being a catgirl

I also spent some time hand writing one of Strahds letters, and used the wax seal from the beadle and & grimm set.

I painted another portrait of Strahd from the module. i changed his features a bit and got rid of the chair thing behind him for my personal taste.

when we move house i'm planning on setting up a Strahd shrine in my office and have the walls decorated with my paintings and other nerdy stuff. 🖤 🦇

---

Gday, I'm Moonberry. I draw hot guys and waifus. If you like my art or use it in your campaigns and wish to help support me you can do so on Patreon or Kofi. If you can't support me monetarily but still want to help, please Like, Share and comment as word of mouth is the only way my art gets seen. Thank you 😃

Hi people

So, tomorrow my party will be playing the finale of our campaign. They are five 2024 players (rogue/ranger, paladin, monk, druid, bard), with a healthy mix of grizzled veterans and confused newbies. The campaign has been going on for almost exactly a year, and I've been doing some modifications to it. It has been really fun and I wanted to thank you all for all the help and ideas I've gotten from reading this subreddit. Without you this adventure would have been a lot less epic!

That's the main thing I wanted to say. Now, if you are interested, here are some of the main changes I made to the campaign

• Rictavio was helping Blinsky explore his ancestor's craft, which made him a full on clockwork engineer. Ezmerelda's horses are clockwork inventions of his. His ancestors had made a mobile tower design for Argynvost, which Lysaga had later taken for her creeping hut.
• Speaking about Lysaga, Queen Ravenia was in play. She had been killed by her sister Lysaga as a way to seal her own deal with the Dark Powers, and her soul was in the DP's possession. These later used the bard (which was getting corrupted) to implant Ravenia's soul into Vasilika' body. Ravenia immediately offered Ireena to free her soul from Barovia with the Dark Powers permission. I gave the players a choice of encouraging Ireena to accept or refuse Ravenia's offer. They encouraged her, so it happened. Strahd was, let's say, not a fan.
• Sergei was a knight of the silver dragon. In fact, while exploring Argynvostholt the players kept seeing flashbacks of his life in the order, his romance with Tatyana, Argynvost mentoring him, his departure to the castle to get married, and Argynvost arriving to the mansion badly injured, having been able to secure Sergei's sword but not his body, telling the knights to prepare for battle. In the end the Sunsword was lit with the light of all the sunrises that were taken from Sergei by Strahd's betrayal.
• The paladin actually found the silver dragon's vows and took them, so the order is back in business. Later on, he accepted Ismark into the order.
• Vallaki is completely in Lady Wachter's grasp. Strahd has allowed her to summon a bunch of imps, and the Martikovs have been driven out of the city. Father Lucian was driven mad by the revelations of the Tome of Strahd and tried to kill Ireena in the absence of the players only to be gutted by Kiril at the last moment. The werewolves took the orphans of St Andral as their next litter.
• The three fanes are also in. Lysaga was using the Weaver's power over fate to make sure Tatyana was properly killed each time. Morgantha was using the Hunter's power over renewal to make her meatbuns. The monk stuffed himself with meatbuns the first night in Barovia, which made him immediately addicted but gathered enough fae essence inside of him for the Hunter to form a face in his stomach and ask for help. Madam Eva was the seeker, and survived thanks to a deal with Strahd, by which she could help adventurers to take him down on the condition that she inserted some readings of his choosing on the mix.
• Rictavio had his cover blown helping the players survive the Coffin Maker Shop, and accelerated his schedule. While the party was dealing with Wintersplinter, he climbed to the Amber Temple in hopes of finding a way to take down Strahd for good. Instead, he found Vecna's relics had been taken, so he grabbed Mordenkainen, left Ezmerelda to help the party, and left Barovia immediately to prepare for the bigger threat to come (party is playing Eve of Ruin next)
• The relics were, in fact taken by Rahadin. He had grown increasingly skeptical of Strahd's plans to escape the Dark Powers grasp and was looking for a way out. He used the eye to dispatch Kasimir (the party's fake fated ally, planted as a reading by Strahd's orders) and teleported straight into next campaign.
• Gertruda's case is interesting. The party completely ignored Mad Mary during their stay in Barovia and later refused to save her while exploring castle Ravenloft since Strahd had just learned about Tatyana and they did not want to anger him further. As a consequence, she has been corrupted by the Dark Powers and will be Strahd's successor

All that leading to Tatyana's funeral, to take place in Ravenloft's chapel tomorrow. Allies and foes have all gathered and will duke it out outside the castle, leaving the party + Ezmerelda (the actual fated ally) to deal with Strahd. Since the players left the raven amulet with their allies, I will reward them by not having vampire spawn accompany the count, but he has plenty of Ravenloft denizens to help him (Petrina's banshee and the animated armor at the very least I hope to use). Players also have to deal with their greatest foe: a crushing tendency towards splitting the party. My plan is to use colorglass shards for animate objects and when things start going sour bait the flying paladin out of the chapel through the balcony, close the door behind him, and then phase down to the rest of the party to steel wind strike them while the paladin has to deal with the animated armor. Afterwards, Strahd will start leading the party towards the catacombs by way of the cellar. Depending how things are going, the black ooze may spring into action to take on the sunsword wielding ranger. Once in the catacombs, Petrina will inflict her scream against a weakened party.

I am a bit worried because boss encounters in dnd can easily go from oppresive to cakewalk to tpk. With Lysaga, I had her use cloudkill centered on her creeping hut, making it obscured from view (advantage on all attacks) and forcing whoever tried to disarm the hut to do so from inside the cloudkill. It was a wipe. The Weaver fairy then had to spend her last lifeforce to alter fate and give them a repeat, upon which they easily rushed the witch. Players have never tried to attack Strahd yet, so they don't even know about the heart, which together with Strahd casting non-detection makes me fear they will think they are dealing with an illusion. I don't want it to become a grinding affair, which would be Strahd's smartest move but would take from the epicness of the final combat, so if the players do exceptionally well I'll just let them have it and play on the pathos of it all. Ideally Strahd takes down a couple of them before finally falling in the catacombs, grasping at Sergei's tomb (repurposed to be Tatyana's).

The party is finally ready to head back to Ravenloft at level 7 where they will return after exploring the upper levels after dinner. This will be the first time exploring the lower levels and have a sense of the size of the skull, the general location, but are still discussing how to enter. Strahd will be "away" during this time but I want his presence felt especially after they get the skull initially. What have other DMs had success with during the heist? What did you do with Rahadin?

My games Strahdanya's character token I commissioned from a player in my party! She came out STUNNING!

Huge thanks to Nokeio for this incredible art!!!

My CoS is heavily homebrewed, to the point that instead of one Vallaki arc, there are two - with the second focusing on retaking the city from Strahd's minions. It is supposed to end with his retaliation - the Feast of St. Andral, a massive attack on Vallaki with the goal to kill as many civilians as possible. It directly leads into the endgame, with Castle Ravenloft and the final battle with Strahd following on the next day.

The problem is, this kind of a huge setpiece needs a boss to cap it off, and I kinda got carried away and ran out of Strahd's minions.
Anastrasya - dead. Ludmilla - dead. Volenta - dead. Rahadin - dead. A former PC vampirized - dead. Escher - alive, but I need him for a different thing. Arrigal - dead. A whole squad of evil opposites of the party - believe it or not, I've already killed them off too. Lysaga - dead.

The only thing that's still around is Wintersplinter (I want to use it for another thing, just before the Feast, but now I'm tempted to use him for this instead). And then there's Strahd himself, but he already briefly fought the party at the Tsolenka Pass. That doesn't mean I can't use him again, but I'm worried that if they've just briefly clahsed at the Pass, then they fight him in Vallaki, and on the next day they fight him again at the Castle, it might be too repetitive.

Maybe what I need is an entirely new character. Like some sort of a crazy, ridiculous secret weapon that Strahd was just waiting to unleash upon the populace. But who or what?

Good evening everyone,

I will soon be running CoS for 4 players and currently prepping Death House. I want to try to stay as close to the official book as possible, but i also recognise that Death House leaves alot of story holes, and is almost sure to TPK the party.

There are a ton of awesome resources and adjustments i found and honestly its a bit overwhelming.

My current plan is to cherry pick some things from other resources to make sure there is a story the party can figure out and complete, and to make a sort of time loop for when the party dies. I would basically make the party spawn out of the mist when they all die, a bit like the Until Dawn movie from '25. My only issue with that is that it would require the entire party to be killed in order to restart, or some other mechanic.

Would love some input on my plan, and if the module will be good as written, or that its really 'required' to adjust alot.

Thanks in advance for any help and insight 🙂

in order, Ireena, Doru, ismark and Gertrude.

the spark of the raven rock disaster- ireena on expidition to try and find the source of haunting dreams was joined by her brother and his friends down deep into the depths- where they awoken the Tyrant- a horrific whale of absurd proportions that sent their lives spiraling. stranding ismark, curseing doru and causeing the disapperance of Gertrude...

GOD I AM SO FUCKING EXCITED FOR THIS GAME!!!

(artist: https://www.tumblr.com/hareofhrair )

Hi everyone!

I am looking to end my campaign with a wedding between Strahd and Ireena.

Strahd already has Ireena at his castle after the dinner invite and has given advance notice to the party to expect their invitation in the coming weeks.

To the actual question, I want to get actual wedding invitations printed out to give to my players, would Stradh put Irenna or Tatyana's name for this grand event?

Thanks!

In my campaign, Wintersplinter destroyed the Wizard of Wines, eliminating Barovia's only wine source. This got me thinking: why does Strahd allow his own domain to deteriorate?

I get that he's evil and doesn't care about his subjects' happiness, but he's also supposed to be an intelligent ruler and experienced strategist.

Barovia has a tiny, isolated population that he essentially rules over and feeds upon. Wouldn't it be in his own interest to keep them alive, productive, and somewhat stable?

Between monsters killing villagers, dwindling resources, and the destruction of the winery, he's basically letting his own domain collapse.

So how do you interpret this in your campaigns?

Does Strahd deliberately keep Barovia on the brink of collapse? Does he simply not care about its long-term survival? Or do you portray him as someone who actively maintains a certain level of stability while still being a tyrant?

I'm genuinely curious how other DMs reconcile his intelligence and strategic thinking with the increasingly desperate state of his own domain.