Okay, serious problem here. I am running the "Expedition to Castle Ravenloft" as a minicampaign, but there is a problem with the cleric. We have an unspoken rule here, first of all, that other than prestige classes, anything in the complete books is canon, and does not require permission. The party has a cleric with a feat that allows him to burn two turn attempt to outright destroy any undead he would turn. It made the zombie encounters significantly easier (but still challenging), but I forsee a problem with Strahd. I can't find anything that stops him from being turned or destroyed. I don't want to take the feat away, and I don't want to take the easy way out and just say "Oh, yeah. He can't be turned." Any ideas?
"Disciple of the Sun" feat?
Well, they do still need to succesfully turn Strahd - I'm assuming you know that.
Also, the cleric will need the turn attempts in the first place - I'd play off that one. Not sure of the undead denizens in the adventure - haven't seen it yet - but if there is some undead minions around, throw them in to soak up the turns.
Also, turning is ranged at 60' - Strahd may have to keep at 65' the whole fight.
You have several options. And I think Carnivore has already suggested all the right approaches. Let me simply elaborate.
Your party's cleric has a powerful feat that's important to him. Don't look for a way to thwart his ability altogether. If a PC selects a feat, he should get the benefit of it. Instead, look at the problem this way. Strahd is a genius (Int 20, Wis 17) who has survived for centuries, likely by identifying his foes' powers accurately and adjusting to defend against and overcome them. Have Strahd respond to the unique danger your party's cleric presents like a genius-level adversary with a network of spies and minions at his disposal would.
The PCs destruction of the zombies should catch Strahd's attention. Thereafter, he'll use his spies and minions to keep tabs on the PCs. (See EtCR pp 9-10.) Soon enough, the cleric will use his undead-destruction feat openly again, and Strahd will learn of it from his spies and prepare accordingly.
First, have Strahd instruct his minions to concentrate their attacks on the cleric first and foremost at all times. If Strahd and the PCs meet, have Strahd hang back personally from confrontations until his minions take the cleric down.
Second, have Strahd maneuver his undead minions to present the cleric with viable targets for the cleric's turning attempts to test the cleric's limits on this ability. Spies report these limits back to Strahd. When Strahd decides to confront the party in person, he'll first send in undead to induce the cleric to exhaust his turning attempts. He'll appear only when the cleric is tapped out.
Third, if Strahd remains unsure about the number of the cleric's turning attempts per day or the cost of using the undead-slaying feat, have Strahd make full use of the vampiric dominate ability to obtain this information. Have him instruct all of his vampire minions to use their dominate ability to inquire and learn about the cleric's abilities, and then report back to him. If Strahd or any other vampire under his control dominates a PC, he or she inquires about the cleric's powers, learn its limits, and arms Strahd with this knowledge. These vampires then try to use their dominated victims to destroy the cleric outright.
Fourth, when circumstances or resources don't let Strahd exhaust the cleric's turning attempts, he'll combat the party at range. Strahd has many long- and medium-range spells at his disposal. Have him snipe at the party, particularly the cleric, from long distance or from behind minions who keep the cleric beyond his 60-foot turning range. Strahd's melee powers may be devastating, but he simply won't risk getting within close range of the cleric until he neutralizes the instant-death threat the cleric presents.
In sum, play Strahd like the genius he is at all times, unwilling to let himself fall easy prey to the cleric's undead-slaying feat. Now, if the PCs come up with an ingenious way around Strahd's tactics, good for them! Dimension door that cleric right over to Strahd and have him say, "BOO!" Reward the PCs and let the cleric take a shot at him. Simply put, let the cleric gain the full benefit of his feat, but only if the PCs first out-think this genius-level villain.
Another way to go is to give Strahd the Improved Turn Resistance [Monstrous] Feat from Libris Mortis (pp 27-28). This feat grants Strahd a +4 bonus to his character level (monster HD plus class levels) to determine his HD for turn, rebuke, command, and bolster attempts. Strahd has 10 HD (or 10 necormancer levels), so this feat bumps his effective hit dice (or level) for turning attempts to 14. Switch Improved Turn Resistance for one of Strahd's other feats that least fit the way you see him. I'm not enthusiastic about this approach because it smacks of stealing the thunder from the cleric because he chose a good feat. But there it is.
Good luck!
The unhallow spell presents another option. I've not read all of EtCR yet, so I don't know if unhallow spells already cover portions of the castle. Strahd is certainly powerful and ancient enough to have treated with evil clerics who could cast it for him. Consider placing an unhallow spell or two in castle locations Strahd is likely to confront the party.
Be judicious though. If other undead are within its scope, the spell makes encounters with all of them substantially more difficult, unbalancing the adventure as a whole. Moreover, this approach is designed to impede the cleric's feat directly, which is somewhat unfair to the cleric who gave up other options to take the feat.
If these are characters that the players already were using in an ongoing campaign, I can see avoiding the Improved Turn Resistance etc. However, if the character was created (or the feat added during level-up) when the players already knew that you were going to be running Ravenloft, I wouldn't feel the need to simply make Strahd immune. The fact that the ability will work on his undead minions is enough. Using the Unhallow effect within the castle also wouldn't be inappropriate; the cleric's turning works well outside the castle, is harder to use within the castle (but still probably affects many minions), and fails entirely against Strahd himself - this seems appropriate to a horror-themed campaign.
Another idea - Strahd should be frightening, and for turning attempts against him to fail in some frightening way would be appropriate. One possible example: give Strahd the increased turn resistance to make his effective HD impossible for the cleric to affect, then add an ability "Reflect Turning" such that when Strahd is in the area of effect of a turning attempt that fails to turn him, the energy reflects back to Knock Back the offending cleric 20 feet, Reflex save to avoid falling prone, and taking 1d6/10' damage if hitting an obstruction that prevents the full knockback. Note that using Turning on lesser undead in the same area as Strahd would still affect those lesser undead, and you'd have to determine if it still triggered the knockback or not. (Some might see this as penalyzing the PC for having this ability, but it can also be seen as placing the spotlight on that PC when he uses this ability, by letting him trigger a cool effect they can be frightened by. This works better with some groups than others...)
He has +4 turn resistance built in.
His stats are posted at WoTC: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20061006a&page=2
Strahd has a vampire's standard SQ +4 turn resistance (Monster Manual 252). Vampires don't have racial HD; rather when they become undead and receive the vampire template, all current and future HD become d12s. So Strahd has 10 HD but is effectively a 14 HD monster for turning purposes.
To bolster Strahd more, one could add Improved Turning Resistance, which effectively makes him an 18 HD monster for turning purposes. Further, in the area of effect of an unhallow spell, clerics take a -4 penalty on turning checks against him. This combination should make Strahd all but immune to turning by a party of the expected levels in EtCR. If that's the direction you want to go.
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Another way to go is to give Strahd the Improved Turn Resistance Feat from Libris Mortis (pp 27-28). This feat grants Strahd a +4 bonus to his character level (monster HD plus class levels) to determine his HD for turn, rebuke, command, and bolster attempts. Strahd has 10 HD (or 10 necormancer levels), so this feat bumps his effective hit dice (or level) for turning attempts to 14. Switch Improved Turn Resistance for one of Strahd's other feats that least fit the way you see him. I'm not enthusiastic about this approach because it smacks of stealing the thunder from the cleric because he chose a good feat.
While overall I agree with what you wrote, I don't agree with the last statement. Any and every player should not expect to succeed at taking out Strahd in one shot. Ultimately that makes an adventure rather anti-climactic to have the big bad guy go away in a puff of smoke due to one feat. I am all for allowing players to utilize the feats that they choose and there are most likely plenty of undead to allow this player to do just that -- make the feat chosen useful.
But someone like Strahd should NEVER fall to any kind of one shot that the character is currently using to get to his domain. Increase his levels, give him improved turn resistance, employ a few wish spells making it impossible for him to be turned in his own home -- I don't care and the players shouldn't either -- what kind of vampire is Strahd if all a cleric has to do is come into his home and say "booga booga" and he dies in a puff of smoke? There is nothing cheesy about beefing up the big bad guy to prevent this from happening.
I would even go as far as to say that you should feel free to use the DM trump card -- "Really -- your turn check was a 29? Man, that was close -- you needed a 32 -- too bad..."
At least that is my thought on it...
Don't forget that Strahd would never, EVER get into a straight out brawl with the PCs. There's no reason to bother-- he can pop in, cast Horrid Wilting, and then leave a bunch of denizens behind for the PCs to deal with-- then Wilt from a different direction a few rounds later.
Strahd is probably one of the toughest archetypal badguys in D&D, and there's really just nothing that should drop him easily.
Actually, the adventure does have a few spots where Strahd intentinally does some irrational things, based on where he is encountered, and what they do, but they make sense for the character.
I only read through it at Borders (I really want it, but I don't really NEED it), but I would feel completely justified in allowing the turn attempts to take Strahd (just Strahd, the other undead can react the way they should) down to 0 hit points instead of outright destroying him. That way, the player doesn't feel hosed by denying his ability, and you haven't seen your main villain go up in smoke because of one good roll.
The other tactic that I can see Strahd directing his minions to do is to disarm or sunder the clerics holy symbol. I would think he would do this while using up the clerics turn attempts. With out being able to brandish the holy symbol, the cleric can not turn dead.
I definately agree with others that you should specifically punish the player for taking a great feat for this campaign but should play Strahd very intelligently.
Sean Mahoney
I like Ashenvale's ideas a lot. When I actually calculated Strahd's turn resistance, I realized that it should be much of a problem. Before we even began the game, my party and I agreed that this would be a Ravenloft campaign, complete with fear, horror, and madness saves, dark powers checks, and darklords. I don't have my "Secrets of the Dread Realms" on me, because I left it at home this year, but if I recall correctly, undead darklords all recieve an additional +4 turn resistance, in addition to the +1 turn resistance that all undead possess in Ravenloft, giving him an effective 19 hit dice. No 10th level cleric is going to turn that, especially since he's multiclassing as a paladin.
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Okay, I haven't even seen this adventure yet, but did they seriously turn Strahd von Zarovich into a freaking 10TH LEVEL NECROMANCER?!? Man, in the 'real' Ravenloft, Strahd is epic. His caster level is somewhere around 17-19, he has 9th-level spells at his disposal, and his vampire LA plus the fact that he's a DARKLORD push his CR well over 20.
I'm a little sad to hear that there is an adventure designed for 10th-12th level characters to successfully defeat him. It should be no contest.
They did. But remember that this is a conversion of the original Expidition to Castle Ravenloft module, NOT any of the subsequent Ravenloft material. So there is no Demi-plane of Dread for instance and therefor no Darklords.
Sean Mahoney
Sean is right. Plus, I recently saw the stats that Strahd had in the original module. He was only 10th level then, though "only" might be an understatement, since back then it was monumental for a vampire to have any class levels at all. Throught the second edition ravenloft, Strahd was level 16, and it was only in 3rd edition that he became a 16 necromancer/4 fighter. He's never had 9th level spells.
All true on all counts. But Fatespinner's comments nonetheless strike true chords.
Strahd IS an epic figure in D&D mythology, if not in actual level. Why else would we be writing this thread? Strahd's our Dracula, a monumental personality of eldritch horror who has grown to mythical stature over the years since the Hickmans first summoned him into the dark corners of our game. In this newest version, his character levels and CR may not be "epic" within that term's present meaning in the game, but it is still our job as DMs to give Strahd the full measure of menace and terror he deserves.
Challenging the evil of Strahd's Barovia and Castle Ravenloft, and ultimately confronting the master vampire himself, must be unforgettable. I don't care what his present statistics may be. WE must make him epic.
Well said!
"There may come a day when the DM skills of men will fail, but it is NOT THIS DAY!"
I understand the zeal of the 2e players to make their Strahd an epic character, and if I were running a Ravenloft campaign thats what I would do, but you guys should remember that the original Strahd was either a 10th or 11th level wizard in his first appearence I6 way back in 1982 I think.
A piece of advice I can offer is this... Say that the Dark Powers protect Strahd from affects such as these attacks, becaue of his status as a Dark Lord. As far as the new Ravenloft book is concerned. I think nutering Strahd by completly throwing out ALL of the Sword and Sorcery material was quite, um, annoying. Am I alone in that?
I really don't think anyone is throwing anything out, 2e or Sword and Sorcery. This adventure is modeled after the original adventure, which, as has been mentioned here a few times, featured a 10th level Strahd, not a 16th level necromancer Strahd.
If you still want to maintain Ravenloft continuity, then this adventure can still have happened very easily in the past, not as far into Strahd's "sojourn" to the Demiplane of Dread as was detailed in the various campaign settings.
I have two words: Libris Mortis. It has made my special undead, as well as several of my PCs, stronger. Your the DM, and it's your right to revamp a NPCs stats, especially one such as Strahd who is unique to the campaign and by my understanding is supposed to be the most difficult part. Also, inlcude a few excess undead encounters before hand,and maybe a few extra in the fight. That many undead should give priesty a run for his money. And maybe look in Lords of Darkness too. It has a few interesting things that might help. I'm assuming this is a 3e adv.