I picked up the Expedition to Castle Ravenloft over the holidays, and I've been looking over the adventure, and wondering if it really is as tough as they make it out to be. To me some of the initial enounters in the village with the infected zombies look like they could be challenging for 5th level PCs if they are done with a 25-28 point build, but if you wade into the castle at 9th level I'm not sure how tough a battle with Strahd would be.
Here's his basics: AC 27, 70 hp, Fast healing 5, DR 10/silver and magic, a single slam attack +9 to hit (1d6+4) and 2 negative levels with every hit that cause him to gain 10 temporary hit points. He is also a 10th level Necromancer so has spells, but many of the encounters encourage the dm to have him enter battle in his dire wolf or dire bat form where he won't be using his spells.
Furthermore, by the time the party goes after him they should know he's a vampire and will be gathering weapons and spells that will exploit his weaknesses. I think that if you run him as is he will get whipped if he goes solo against the party because even against a AC 27 it shouldn't be hard to deal 70 points of damage in one or 2 rounds.
Has anyone else checkted out this book yet or actually run any of this? How did you find it went?
Haven't bought it, but your post has me thinking about nerfing his feats. How about Wild Spell, and then something to allow him to grapple on a successful bite in wolf form (so that he could drain blood)? That might be nasty.
Well he does have some pretty nifty feats, but if he goes down in the first couple of rounds of combat, he can't really use them very effectively. I find that for boss villains to survive in single combat against an adventuring party they need a high AC and lots of hit points. I personally tend to beef up my high end undead (ie vampire, liches, death knights etc...) with the unholy toughness supernatural ability, which gives them their level x cha bonus to hit points. I also give them 10 hp per HD. Doing that would give Strahd 130hp, which would make him more survivable, but even 130 hit points can be chewed through pretty quick by a well prepared 9th level party.
Haven't bought it, but your post has me thinking about nerfing his feats. How about Wild Spell, and then something to allow him to grapple on a successful bite in wolf form (so that he could drain blood)? That might be nasty.
Well, there's more to Strahd than just HP and AC.
He should have some kind of plan to either split up the party or remove each specific person one by one.
At least that's the plan. I never saw Strahd as a "rush from the front" type of villain. Typically a villain's plans, no matter how well thought out, never turn out. They should be there at least though.
i havent seen this book yet so dont know how it is but when i played and ran ravenloft he was tough. not state wise but he is smart hell weaken u with minions and traps they to break u up us hit and run tactics i recall one of are party getting lighting bolted in the old one.in short u may beat him but u should not be able to kill him. he has backup plans on top of backup plans. your not the frist to come a calling . would also say he has a few spots of unhollow .and he has the other vampirs strad was always bad for makeing and keaping 3 or 4 ladys intill he got bored and made a new one. it's not alway about how many hp he has . hes a wizared and a vampire and a fighter .they even put his states up a few years back .but i think there doing the old strad not the ravenloft one.if played right the pc's will eaither hurt him and he'll flee to the countryside and there never find him b4 he heals. or there bearly get out alive if any of them do.
Just some thoughts without having read the module:
1) Even if he attacks in animal forms, nothing prevents him from casting boost-spells before hand (i.e. False Life, Bull's Strength, Displacement, etc.).
2) I understand the book to be build so Strahd gets to choose where he attacks and that many rooms have traps and/or allies for him to play with. So he choose the terrain and this can mean a lot in that case.
3) He can easily retreat to his coffin if one given encounter goes badly. The PCs are supposed to encounter him more than once. Maybe the first time they'll feel all powerful with their anti-vampire toys and will use them all, only to see Strahd retreat, heal and come back to hit them when they're dry.
Finally, I'd suggest listening to the podcast of some months back (was it November?) where the designers of the module discuss this and give some good tips to a DM who wants to run Strahd to his full capacity.
Hope this helps! Happy gaming.
Bocklin
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Reading this thread WAAAY late, I would have Strahd continually keep a shatter or two on hand at all times. Silver weapons are pretty easy to recognize and Strahd would want to eliminate those first.
Also, as a 10th level caster, don't overlook the power of cloudkill. As a poison effect, Strahd is immune because he's undead. He could drop it right on himself and make the party face serious penalties as they try to take him on.
Ditto what Fatespinner said about the timing.
Just wanted to say that Strahd was never really that tough even in the original module. If a group of PCs could somehow corner him, you could eventually kill him (temporarily) with a bit of punishment taken in return. I ran the module about 3 times back in the 1st/2nd edition days and then again after converting it to v.3.5 (before the present conversion) and about half of the times he showed up the PCs were able to force him back to his coffin in gaseous form.
Strahd was never really intended to be as big a threat in a head-to-head fight as much as a constant dangerous antagonist that would pop up at really inopportune moments to harry the adventurers. What makes him dangerous is his knowledge of the layout of his castle, his minions, and his ability to regenerate in his coffin and come back to attack the PCs again later and again and again. Strahd is best ran as a guerilla tactics villain - show up with some minions, cast a few damaging spells, and then withdraw with a derisive laugh as the PCs slowly use up their resources on replaceable henchmen.
The challenge was trying to pin him down and make him stay dead. That's why the PCs have to find his coffin before they lose the battle of attrition against him (which he will always win if he is played right).
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He was tuff the way I dm'ed him.
I had him come back to life through cheesy vampire B-movie mechanisms--pouring blood on his ashes, summoning his pieces with a vampire magnet then pouring blood on them, etc...etc...
The pc's were always looking at the Monster Manual and trying to figure out how to kill him permanently.
Like the Big Bad Wolf said; he is only tuff if you play him that way. Dont cheat him; he is one tuff and practically unkillable sob; he is smart and cunning with specific goals in mind and evil through and through; play him as the worst of humanities aspects and you will see how tuff he is; play him like a stupid stand up and get killed with honor kind of guy and he will be a wimp.