Up next in 10
Strahd is weak as a solo boss in a blank room, but that's now he's intended to be fought. I'll explain some of the nuances to running Strahd as a formidable *part* of the boss fight in Castle Ravenloft.
✍️ Sign up for dScryb to enhance your game's immersion and inspire your creativity. Use code FLUTESLOOT for 10% off your first subscription payment: https://dscryb.com/flutesloot
Read my entire article to master #Strahd von Zarovich in #DND5e #CurseofStrahd : https://www.flutesloot.com/mastering-strahd-von-zarovich-ultimate-dnd-5e-curse-of-strahd-guide/?utm_source=youtube
Get VTT maps for Castle Ravenloft that I demonstrated in the video: https://www.dmsguild.com/product/185990/Castle-Ravenloft-hires-colour-jpg-maps?affiliate_id=3063449
⏰Time Stamps:
00:00 Strahd's statblock is misleading
00:55 Master Strahd with this resource
01:39 Strahd wants a word with you
02:52 Reasons people say Strahd is weak
04:39 Strahd's actions
09:52 Legendary actions of Strahd
11:09 Strahd's spellcasting
14:00 Lair actions of Strahd in Castle Ravenloft
15:21 Strahd's passive abilities
19:04 Vampiric weaknesses
20:18 Castle Ravenloft highlights
Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
Why is Strahd von Zarevich often spoken of as one of the most underwhelming final bosses for one of the most popular modules of D&D 5e, Curse of Strahd
0:09
Let's figure out what you need as the dungeon master to make Strahd a formidable, fierce final combatant to top off your Curse of Strahd campaign
0:18
Strahd may be the land, but can he stick the landing for your campaign? Today on Flutesloot
0:22
I am Flutes and I've run Curse of Strahd three times for different groups with some different
0:30
techniques for how I handled Strahd each time. I kept homebrew to a minimum. I want to talk about
0:34
not homebrewing Strahd to just make him more dangerous, but how should he really be run in
0:40
the module to use his resources and maximize his threat level? I've come to the conclusion Strahd
0:45
is not as weak as he seems if you only look at his stat block because there's a lot more
0:49
information, resources, minions, and other things in his favor that aren't covered in that little
0:54
block, that stat block. But it's spread throughout the Curse of Strahd book, and I collected it all
0:58
in one place in my article that accompanies this video, all about mastering Strahd von Zarevich
1:03
so that you can have the best Curse of Strahd campaign possible. I highly recommend checking
1:08
out that article, but I will be covering in this video specifically how to maximize Strahd for the
1:13
final boss fight. I recommend that article because I go over a lot of things that are campaign
1:17
spanning not just strahd in the final battle but the biggest selling point i think for the article
1:22
is i've taken a lot of information and put it in one place because that book has so much material
1:27
and it's so hard to wrap your head around it and even if you read it you forget so many details so
1:32
having it all in one place is a huge selling point and i really think everyone running curse of strahd
1:36
should bookmark the article i just wrote i'm very proud of it like please check it out i agree flutes
1:41
they should read the article oh g'day strahd i beheld that screenshot you shared at the beginning
1:47
of the video. It claimed I am a b**** boy. This is a falsehood that I
1:51
am pleased to hear you are correcting. Finding the right words would silence the
1:55
pathetic players. Read this next time I appear to the players to make them shake
1:59
in their boots. From the shadows just ahead of you, bats swoop down
2:03
from their perches, then suddenly coalesce quickly metamorphosing into an alluring human
2:09
Fair of feature and sporting well-formed limbs. There is something charming about this pale-skinned individual
2:15
but something predatory too. A blood drinker bent on your death, or possibly undeath
2:22
That's truly evocative. Did you write that yourself? No. My pact with the dark powers at Describe
2:28
gave me these words of power. Describe? What a coincidence! They're sponsoring this video
2:33
They provide superb box text and immersive audio recordings procured by professionals
2:40
What a helpful service. Yes, they are among my most favored servants
2:44
You can sign up for Describe by using the link and coupon in the description down below
2:48
That way, they'll know Flutes and Strahd sent you. Strahd and Flutes
2:52
So why do people think Strahd is Weenie Hut Jrs? Well, frankly, he doesn't play well with the usual D&D 5e style
2:59
From what I understand, a lot of DMs will just throw a monster in and not do a lot of tactical maneuvering or put in too much thought into their monsters
3:08
But Strahd as a boss monster really deserves your attention. You need to know that even if Strahd just gets grappled, he's probably dead meat unless you have a plan
3:16
If he gets paralyzed by the Amulet of Ravenkind, his attacks hurt
3:21
but he doesn't have the action economy to take on a group of five adventurers of level 10+
3:25
unless you are smart and you think of him as only part of the boss monster of Curse of Strahd
3:30
You see, Castle Ravenloft is the other part of it. Strahd and Castle Ravenloft have a symbiotic, haunting relationship, and that should be your boss fight
3:39
Think of it that way. Not just Strahd. You don't need those CR 20, CR 27 Strahd stat blocks that are out there
3:45
You just don't. Now before I get into the nitty gritty of how to make Strahd more effective
3:49
I want to have a moment to think, why do you want Strahd to be a formidable boss
3:54
Your motivation should be to maximize the fun of your players and yourself
3:58
I honestly think it's more disappointing for you as the dungeon master if Strahd is an underwhelming last fight than it is for the players
4:04
because they can feel like it's because they became mighty, they were smart, But you, you've probably been looking forward to running Strahd as a boss monster for a long time
4:12
It's about your fun too. Having said that, if the players are clever enough and the stars align their preparation with their opportunity
4:19
you know, what luck is, don't think you need to like fudge dice or fudge Strahd's stats
4:24
Let them have their win if they earn it. But I'm here to make sure that you prepare so that you can earn a powerful Strahd boss fight at the end
4:33
that you and all your players will talk about for years. So let's start with Strahd's stat block
4:37
First, it's his actions. He has two main attacks, unarmed strikes and bites. I have found that the
4:48
bite is really something you only want to be doing if Strahd is in a very advantageous position
4:53
because in order to use bite, you need to have charmed someone, they need to be incapacitated
4:57
or otherwise unable to resist, or you need to have them grappled. In order to grapple a creature
5:02
Strahd will have to sacrifice one of his unarmed strikes, which he only gets two of per round
5:06
not counting his legendary actions. And Strahd doesn't have great modifiers for grappling. Some
5:12
of his other abilities he does have expertise in, which we'll talk about later, but grappling is not
5:16
something you want to spend his turns doing. If a player gets knocked out because they've taken
5:20
too much damage, they're at zero hit points, then yeah, go ahead and bite them. Because one, it does a lot of damage, and two, Strahd will heal himself when he bites someone. Let's also talk
5:28
about Strahd's ability to shape change. He can turn into a dire wolf, a bat, or a cloud of mist
5:33
The wolf and bat transformations can be really fun throughout the campaign, but I don't think they'll be very helpful in the final battle
5:40
The mist transformation, aside from being what he transforms into if he hits zero hit points and goes to return to his tomb
5:46
is probably the one that actually needs to be in your toolkit for the final battle
5:50
I hope you don't have to use it, but if Strahd gets grappled, you might consider using the misty form to get away
5:56
because Strahd doesn't have a quick spell like misty step to preserve his action economy while escaping the grapple
6:02
Trust me when I say if Strahd is grappled and he's wasting time trying to break grapples and then he fails to break those grapples, he's in a bad spot
6:09
He needs to be mobile so he can regenerate. He's not meant to just sit there and take it
6:14
Keep in mind the Mist form is also immune to non-magical damage
6:18
So if he's being attacked by a lot of non-magical attacks, like the Barbarian just has a club, you need to think, would Mist be better right now to just escape all that
6:28
this next action Strahd has is his most important one. It's charm. He as a vampire lord has one of
6:34
the most formidable charm effects in the game in that he can use it on the same person over and
6:39
over again until he succeeds each round. That's unique in that a lot of charm abilities usually
6:43
have a clause that says if someone succeeds on it they automatically succeed on it for the next 24
6:48
hours or something like that. But Strahd does not have that limitation. He can use it over and over again. Strahd loves a captive audience because he's gonna charm them until they love him. This was one
6:55
of the points I made in my 13 lessons learned from running this campaign three times that I wish I
7:00
used the charm ability more. Now, I told you to prioritize fun, and I want you to know that this
7:04
could potentially ruin some of the fun for your players, because if they get charmed, they're not
7:09
going to fight Strahd. They are basically out of the fight. If you play your cards right, Strahd will
7:13
show this charm ability throughout the campaign, so the players will try to prepare for it, or at
7:17
least know that it's coming. You don't want this one to be a surprise. It's a waste if you didn't
7:21
use the whole campaign, because it's so much fun you can have with it. Strahd will also keep in mind if there's people in the party that he's learned are less susceptible to charms, like if
7:29
they're an elf and they get advantage against charm, or if they're not a humanoid, like if you play a
7:33
satyr as your playable species, you are counting as a fey creature, so charm won't work on you
7:39
because it only works on humanoids. Strahd's no fool. He knows if you are just going to auto
7:43
succeed against his charm and he would waste his turn. So let's say Strahd charms someone in the
7:47
party. Maybe this person is carrying Sergei's sunsword. That is bad, because Strahd might just
7:54
convince them to give him the sword and they can't use it for the fight because he just disappears
7:58
somewhere into Castle Ravenloft, phasing through the walls. Who knows where he put it? They don't
8:02
All of a sudden they lose that asset for the fight and their friend is still charmed for 24 hours
8:07
When Strahd feels he's ready, he can start to bite someone he's charmed. They'll start to repeat the
8:11
saving throw for the charm, but maybe that's worth it. If he thinks he can finish them off and he's
8:16
got them alone, that might be the time for him to potentially end the charm and just start tearing
8:20
into them. And keep in mind, Strahd can use his charm ability in like his bat form. So that's why
8:25
it can be fun throughout the campaign. Someone could see a bat hanging from a tree and all of a sudden they're charmed by Strahd. But keep in mind, he can't use charm while he's invisible
8:32
because the creature has to see him in order to be charmed by him. Strahd can also use the charm
8:36
ability to bring a bunch of meat shields, some cannon fodder to the final battle. All of a sudden
8:42
a bunch of Barovians perhaps those that the party has allied and befriended can suddenly be there and they saying no don hurt Strahd and they make a human wall saying don hurt him Suddenly they have to go through their friends to get to Strahd That pretty bad Blinsky looks like he make a pretty good wall don you think Next is Children of the Night which Strahd can use once per day to summon a bunch of minions
9:01
Perhaps he's used this before the final battle starts. He knows the party's coming, so he summons a bunch of his minions there with Children of the Night before the battle even starts
9:08
Ideally, Strahd should never be fighting alone, unless the party fights him in the destined location in Castle Ravenloft
9:14
That is the perk of attacking him there. He doesn't get the usual minions that he automatically would get normally
9:19
Strahd should treat these summons almost like a meat shield for him as well
9:23
A bunch of swarm of bats should surround him and give him some kind of partial cover
9:28
and that is especially true if the adventuring party is going to try to just rush him in melee
9:32
All of a sudden they'll be torn up by a bunch of swarms of bats, and maybe he'll turn into a bat and just disappear into the swarms
9:38
If you do want to attack with these beast summons, they are not very powerful
9:41
so they should go only for those with low armor classes, or they will just waste their turns
9:46
Frankly, if the party is attacking the bats, maybe have the bats take the dodge action
9:50
They soak up more attacks. Next, let's talk about Strahd's legendary actions. He has three of them. Moving, very exciting
10:00
but actually probably the most important one. An armed strike? So yeah, he could potentially make
10:04
up to three more attacks per round with his legendary actions in between people's turns
10:09
and then biting. It costs two of his legendary actions and is probably not worth it unless he
10:14
is Kudagraing someone who is down on the ground. He bites them. He auto crits and heals himself a
10:19
lot with the bite and finishes them off. Then it might be worth it. I say move is probably his most
10:23
important one because first of all, he doesn't provoke opportunity attacks with that legendary action. And I mentioned that he needs to be mobilized. He will often be in sunlight from
10:30
the amulet of Ravenkind or the Sun Sword, and he needs to get out of there. Making them chase him
10:35
through the castle, he can use some of his lair actions at that point, which I'll talk about soon
10:39
He needs to make sure he's in an advantageous position. He is not some foolhardy general who just runs in out of pride to die
10:46
He will not be goaded by taunts like, Oh, come back here, you coward. Why are you running
10:51
That's not going to work on him because he knows he's being smart. This also ties into Strahd's regeneration
10:55
because 20 hit points per round is nothing to be shy about retreating for
11:00
It's one reason he needs to be able to retreat. He's going to be focused down because his armor class is not that high
11:05
His hit points are not that high. He needs to be able to get out, regenerate, and come back
11:09
Let's talk about his spellcasting. His DC is 18, plus to hit is 10. If you're not using Children
11:17
of the Night to summon minions, you might want to start off with Mirror Image during the first
11:21
round of combat, or maybe even beforehand. It's concentration-free. It's very useful
11:25
Ray of Frost is his main spell attack. He's probably dealing 3d8 with Ray of Frost, which
11:29
is not a lot of damage, but it is a ranged attack. Fog Cloud is actually very useful. For one thing
11:34
Strahd could turn into mist to blend into the Fog Cloud and escape without anyone noticing
11:38
But the main reason you want to use it is if the party is getting advantage attacking him and surrounding him
11:43
Fog Cloud is this equalizer and they'll have disadvantage to hit him. He will as well, but at least then they won't just be destroying him entirely
11:51
If the party has someone like a Gloomstalker who Strahd may not even be able to see in the dark
11:54
because he relies on darkvision and Gloomstalkers are not visible to those with darkvision
11:59
they have to actually use light to reveal the Gloomstalker, that will equalize the field because the Gloomstalker won't be able to see Strahd either
12:04
This is only temporary though because Strahd's not going to win in a Fog Cloud. this is like a contingency plan for him to get back into an advantageous position and to regenerate
12:12
It also works really well against a party that uses Great Weapon Master and Sharpshooter a lot
12:16
They really need to have advantage to reliably hit with those, or at least a normal to hit
12:21
Sleep is very useful if your enemies have a low hit point person that Strahd can't quite get to
12:27
You can put him to sleep and then try to move in and try to bite them or something like that that would finish them off
12:33
because he will be able to bite them while they are asleep. Gust of Wind can be a good group push if Strahd has a chance to throw them all out a window or
12:39
off a cliff, depending on where they are fighting him in the castle, because it might be better than making a few unarmed strikes on a certain round. Fireball's great. If they're grouped up, blast
12:46
them. Greater invisibility is good because Strahd can be unseen and attack with advantage, because
12:50
he's invisible, and that greater invisibility does not break itself. He can remain invisible while
12:55
attacking. Polymorph is an interesting one, because a lot of Castle Ravenloft is not going to facilitate
13:00
him turning into a dinosaur with Polymorph, like player characters often will, and I don't know if
13:04
you want to use dinosaurs in your gothic setting anyway. But you could just reflavor the beasts as
13:09
vampire lord forms. Maybe you should cast polymorph on Rahadin, Rahadin, whatever you call him. He's
13:15
CR 10 and not actually that powerful. So if you can turn him into a giant ape all of a sudden on
13:20
the parapets of Castle Ravenloft, he might just send PCs flying and make a few bloody puddles
13:25
if you know what I mean. Anime objects can also be really useful for Strahd to distract the party
13:29
and deal a lot of damage as he tries to retreat. A lot of DMs like to homebrew Strahd to have more
13:34
powerful spell casting. If you do want to do that, there's only like a few spells that I recommend
13:39
Anything else might be a little bit of overkill. Like you could have some fun, obviously, but these
13:43
ones I think are good ones if you do want to homebrew him. Disintegrate so he can get out of
13:47
Wall of Force. Counterspell, Misty Step, Absorb Elements, Feather Fall, and Shield. I also like
13:52
the Dream spell, so I'd probably throw that in as well. Let's talk about Strahd's lair actions, which are the main critical reason you want him to fight in Castle Ravenloft
13:59
strahd and castle ravenloft together should be the final boss fight if the players can get him
14:08
to fight elsewhere they are much better off the most important layer action is being able to
14:12
freely move through walls doors and floors and ceilings of castle ravenloft that's incredible
14:17
because he can easily retreat he can easily force them to go into other rooms and try to get into a
14:22
better position and regenerate he can pop through a wall to slash at someone and then pop back out
14:26
It lasts the whole round if he chooses this layer action on initiative 20. The next one is that he can will doors and windows and things to suddenly shut or open
14:34
and when he shuts them, he can will them to be magically locked with a DC 20 strength check to get them open
14:40
If you get the wizard alone in a room, and you can auto-lock that door and Strahd's alone with him
14:44
not gonna last long. Strahd can also summon a specter, which I think you should flavor to be someone who died in the campaign
14:50
Probably a character that the players killed. It's a good callback to have a specter of that person arrive
14:56
And then summoning a shadow from someone. I really don't think you're going to be using the specter and the shadow
15:00
but the shadow one is really cool because you actually pull the shadow from them and the person loses their shadow until it's restored to them
15:05
regardless of whether they defeat it or not. Almost always, your default should be that Strahd can move through walls and everything
15:11
Unless you have another good reason to switch that that's the lair action you're choosing each round
15:15
because you only get one, that should be your default. Now let's move on to Strahd's more passive abilities and details
15:20
Misty Escape. If Strahd is reduced to zero hit points, he turns to Mist and starts flowing back
15:30
to his tomb. This does not happen if he is in flowing water or in sunlight. I have found that
15:36
players get really excited if they realize keeping him in sunlight made it so he couldn't go back to
15:40
his tomb and regenerate. It's a real letdown for you, but the players will love it. It specifically
15:45
says in the ability that he can't do it if he is in sunlight when he's reduced to zero hit points
15:49
he just gets destroyed. Then there's Spider Climb. He has a very formidable climbing speed
15:54
which in Castle Ravenloft is sometimes just as good as flying. This allows him to get out of
15:59
reach of melee combatants and maintain advantageous positions. I recommend using the rules from Tasha's
16:05
for falling on someone, as Strahd might opt to fall from above and pounce on someone so that they
16:11
become prone together, then he stands up and just starts wailing on them. Regeneration, 20 hit points
16:16
per round, and with Strahd's abilities to get in and out of combat, 20 hit points means within less
16:21
than a minute, he's back and ready to go. The regeneration stops if he takes radiant damage
16:26
or is in sunlight, so he's going to avoid those things. He's much more durable if he doesn't have
16:30
to worry about them, but it is fun for you as the DM to try to work around those problems and see
16:35
how Strahd would get around them. Seriously, if the party's cleric puts up spirit guardians and
16:40
tries to keep Strahd in it before he can get grappled or something, have him just retreat
16:44
wait out the spell he is smart he knows how long these spells will last and if he doesn't he'll
16:49
just wait until he can peek in he can literally just like poke his head up through the floor
16:54
somewhere and see what's going on or he can have one of his spies go look one of his minions so he
16:59
can wait out those spells those spells that are just going to wreck him doesn't even have to deal
17:02
with them strahd does not have any condition immunities that's a big problem because grappled
17:07
restrained petrified stunned paralyzed all those things are going to ruin him he's really gotta be
17:12
on top of his game and save his legendary resistances. Seriously, he gets three legendary
17:17
resistances and he should not use them on things that aren't going to make him dead in the water
17:22
A fireball? He doesn't care. He can just regenerate it right back. If the amulet of
17:26
ravenkind is being used to try to paralyze him, grappling can still get him, but anything with a
17:30
saving throw, he can try to prevent it with legendary resistance. Do not waste them. Even
17:34
getting hit with sunbeam, just take the full damage if he fails because he just needs to peace
17:39
out and get out of there Anything that tries to lock down his movement that what you need to worry about most Strahd has expertise in Arcana Perception and Stealth skills I know this because if you just do the math you figure out that he has a plus five proficiency bonus and the stats that go with those skills obviously
17:53
expertise, he's got double the proficiency bonus for those skills. It's unfortunate he doesn't have
17:57
acrobatics or athletics in there, but having a high stealth is great for him sneaking around and
18:01
getting the better of people, getting ambushes, especially if he's invisible, and then Perception
18:05
makes it hard to sneak up on him, but don't forget that even he in the dark with dark vision will get
18:10
a minus five to his passive perception. So instead of a 22, he'd be a 17. I have a video and article
18:15
about surprise and about stealth as well. If you want to check those out, that'd be good for you to
18:20
review. Strahd does have resistance to non-magical piercing, slashing, bludgeoning damage from non-magical
18:25
weapons, and resistance to necrotic damage, not immunity. This means if the party is having their
18:29
attacks resisted, that is really, so if he's resisting the party's attacks, that does make his
18:33
effective hit points much higher. That works out very well for him. Strahd doesn't want to go up
18:37
against magic items. Magic weapons hurt, so he will try to use his charm effect to get people to
18:42
give up those weapons. Do not forget about the Heart of Sorrow that I'll talk about a little bit later, and it gives him 50 extra hit points, but he does not want that Heart of Sorrow to die
18:49
Unless it's the final battle, then maybe he would let it die. Strahd's dark vision of 120 feet is
18:53
more than the average 60 foot dark vision, which means he could potentially stay out of range and
18:58
keep an eye on folks while they cannot see him lurking in the shadows. Again, his stealth is
19:02
really high. We also need to talk about Strahd's four vampiric weaknesses. The first one is
19:06
Forbiddance, which says he can't enter someone's home unless they invite him in, but he can overcome
19:11
that pretty easily with a charm. Second is he is harmed by running water, which I interpret as
19:15
anything of a stream, river, anything that is flowing with water. It deals 20 acid damage to
19:21
him at the end of his turn. A druid player that I was running the game for used the Maelstrom spell
19:26
which creates a whirlpool of water, essentially, and was very pleased to see that Strahd was taking
19:30
acid damage from it, as well as having his movement limited. The third weakness is a stake to the heart
19:34
If he's stabbed by something wooden through his chest, he becomes paralyzed, specifically in his coffin
19:40
And then sunlight hypersensitivity, which is the vampire's most famous weakness, the sun
19:45
Strahd will suffer 20 points of radiant damage if he starts his turn in sunlight
19:49
Remember that the running water and the sunlight will both disable his regeneration for a round
19:54
so he really wants to avoid those things. It's easier for him to get out of running water because he doesn't take damage until the end of his turn
19:59
so he has a bit of a grace period. But sunlight, he needs to be a little bit more clever with his legendary actions
20:04
If he uses a legendary action to move before his turn comes up, then he can avoid taking the radiant damage
20:09
He might, almost at the speed of light, retreat with his legendary action to dart away
20:13
and if he can avoid being in that sunlight, he's going to be much better off. Now let's talk a little bit about Castle Ravenloft itself
20:23
It's impossible for me with the time I have to do a full review of like every single room in Castle Ravenloft
20:27
and everything that can be used to Strahd's advantage, but I'll hit on some highlights
20:31
First, remember Strahd knows this castle inside and out. He should use every advantage he has there
20:36
One of the coolest ways to handle the endgame fight is to have Strahd force the battle to move through the castle
20:41
It would be great to start it off up in the towers and have it slowly progress as Strahd can just move through floors very easily
20:49
with his lair actions to the catacombs, where perhaps the battle reaches its climax
20:53
It's not easy to pull off, but it's probably the coolest way to run the battle, the most satisfying
20:57
and it also makes Strahd the most formidable because it shows he and the castle together are the boss fight
21:01
It also gives Strahd more room to catch players in bad positions when they're stumbling through the castle and lock them in a room alone with him and maybe some other vampire spawn who can just destroy somebody
21:11
Let's talk about Strahd's tomb itself, his resting place. He does not want anyone to get in there
21:17
He doesn't want to fight them, as evidenced by the traps he has there and his wives that lie in wait there to defend his tomb
21:23
The traps here are fairly deadly. There's those teleport traps that are right outside the tomb that can put the PCs into a switcheroo with a white, one of those undead creatures that's lying in one of the crypts nearby with a bunch of other whites
21:37
So one of your PCs ends up in a dusty coffin surrounded by a bunch of other whites in a strange place. They have no idea where they are. Super dangerous
21:44
Plus, whoever is back there where the teleportation happened in front of the tomb, there's now a white standing there
21:50
So if the party's wizard gets surprised by all of a sudden their ally next to them is a white that is very hostile to them, that's really going to put them on the back foot
21:58
That's crypt number 14, by the way, that has the whites in it. Crypt number 32 also has a teleportation alcove where if someone steps there, they get teleported to Strahd's tomb where they will be behind a heavy porticolus
22:10
And they'll be alone with Strahd's wives who are probably going to be hungry
22:13
and maybe Strahd will be in there too. I mentioned the Heart of Sorrow earlier. It's in area number
22:18
20 of Castle Ravenloft. I like to point out that there are halberds on the walls near the heart
22:23
that will come to life and fight the party and keep in mind those are able to do shove attacks
22:28
and there are no railings on those stairs and it's a long fall. Those halberds are probably better
22:31
off trying to shove someone off the side than just slashing at them. Strahd will also sense when the
22:36
heart is being damaged and he will send vampire spawns who appear there. So that's a good place
22:40
for Strahd to utilize his minions and leverage his resources. Area K47 has the Guardian Portrait
22:46
which is a portrait of Strahd, but this is not just some painting with some eyeballs that look
22:50
you up and down as you pass by. This painting can cast Counterspell, Crown of Madness, Hypnotic
22:55
Pattern, and Telekinesis. Those are all great spells, and if Strahd can utilize that painting
23:00
while the PCs are chasing him, it's going to be really useful for him, especially the Counterspell
23:05
You might even have multiple different poses and portraits of Strahd around the castle in advantageous positions so that they can support him with spells in dire need
23:15
Hypnotic pattern is a big one because it can knock out half the party or more or less
23:20
Oh, and there's also a rug of smothering in that room. I think the best place for Strahd to fight the party, if I were to pick one place, would be in the catacombs
23:27
Because he can get them to go into some of the crypts that he knows what's inside of them
23:32
Because he can phase through all the walls. So he can go in and out of crypts no problem, but the players will have to try to break open each crypt and see what's inside
23:39
Sometimes it's a banshee. Sometimes it's spiders. They don't really know what they're going to get, but Strahd can do a lot of damage down there while having plenty of places to hide and recuperate
23:48
I think the best advice I can give you with Castle Ravenloft is to maybe pick a friend and just do like a solo dungeon crawl through there and just see how well you can describe each room, how well you can get down the layout and which rooms go where
24:01
It really is difficult. It's labyrinthian. If you don't practice running Castle Ravenloft, you will fumble running the castle
24:07
That will feel like a big disappointment to yourself when you're running these final fights
24:11
and trying to make Castle Ravenloft part of the fight. You'll just feel like you had a missed opportunity
24:15
I know it's difficult in person to get all the maps right, but at least know where the players are going so that you can at least do theater of the mind
24:22
With VTTs, it does make it somewhat easier, but I found even when I ran this with Roll20
24:27
it was still difficult for me to know which stairs go where. You gotta practice. Gotta practice. Seriously, you gotta practice
24:33
One way that I found that I was able to practice was I had one of the player characters get captured after they picked a fight with Strahd at one point
24:39
And Strahd, when they tried to surrender, said, well, this one's coming with me, though. And they just had to do, like, groundskeeping duty with Cyrus Bellevue for a few days
24:48
The player actually tried to map out the castle from memory, like, as I described it, because I didn't give them the map
24:52
Next, let's talk a little bit about minions of Strahd. first of all straud literally is never alone unless he's in his tomb he might be or he's in
25:02
the destined locations from the taroka card reading because his vampire minions it specifically says
25:08
whenever he appears he just rolls to see what his crew is his entourage this is actually a big reason
25:12
to want to fight straud in the destined location so that he doesn't just start off with five dire
25:17
wolves or a bunch of straud zombies which make a lot of attacks it's possible for him to roll a 19
25:21
or 20 and get none of them, but usually he's going to end up with some posse. Strahd's main pet is
25:27
Bucephalus, the fiery nightmare fiendish horse. It actually has 104 hit points. Make sure you don't
25:33
miss that. 104 hit points. That's actually the maximum hit points for a nightmare. It's immune
25:37
to fire, and when Strahd rides it, Strahd has a resistance to fire. Its hooves deal a good bit of
25:43
damage, and it has ethereal strides, so it can actually help Strahd escape because they can just
25:46
go to the ethereal plane, the border ethereal, whatever, to become out of reach all of a sudden
25:51
And the Nightmare Bucephalus can fly 90 feet. It can run 60 feet and fly 90 feet
25:57
It's incredibly fast. If Strahd is fighting the party on Bucephalus, good luck to them
26:01
They should probably try to destroy Bucephalus as quickly as possible. Bucephalus is in Crypt 39 in the Catacombs
26:08
So again, that's a good place for Strahd to fight because he can pull out Bucephalus and start flying around the Catacombs
26:13
Then there's Strahd's animated armor that patrols up in area K46, the parapets of Castle Ravenloft
26:20
Its armor class is huge. Its hit points are a little bit more than Bucephalus, but a little less than Strahd's
26:25
Resistance's immunities, condition immunities, it just doesn't deal a ton of damage
26:29
I had a lot of fun having Strahd plant that armor somewhere in the campaign so that one of the martial characters wears it And then in the final battle finds out whoa I shouldn be wearing this This is Strahd armor and now it working against me That was really fun It playing the long game for sure It also has blindsight That very useful So essentially I think Strahd should use this armor
26:48
not to wear it though. I think it's much more useful animated. It could stand in front of Strahd
26:54
like a bodyguard and give Strahd cover and it can try to grapple anyone that gets close. But the armor
26:59
is just a really good ally more so than just giving Strahd a little bit more armor class
27:04
I mean, it depends, but that's my opinion. Strahd zombies are very powerful zombies because they can
27:08
make three attacks, one with bite and two with claws. That can surprise players because they're
27:12
challenge rating one, not one fourth or whatever the regular zombie is. So these things, they can
27:17
really tear into someone really quickly. They only get plus three to hit, so they're still just
27:22
zombies, but if they surround somebody, it's going to be tough. Strahd might also prepare for the final
27:26
battle if no one's figured out that he is Vasily von Holtz. Vasily could give false information and
27:31
seem like an ally and tell the players there's an ally that's going to meet them in a certain place
27:36
in the castle or something. In some way, betray them and set them up in a bad position. And if
27:40
they trust Vasili, they're going to end up in a really bad spot. And I mentioned to him earlier
27:44
I call him Rahadin because I like it, but Rahadin some say. Strahd's right-hand man, his wingman
27:49
his chamberlain, is a formidable foe to throw into a Strahd final battle. On his own, he often gets
27:55
killed by the party throughout the adventure, especially because he needs to be a skirmisher
27:59
but he's not as good as Strahd is. I mean, he has Misty Steps, so that's good
28:03
And he has Phantom Steed, so he can make a good getaway. And Rahadin also makes three attacks, which is really good
28:08
Plus, he gets his bonus action, Deathly Choir. Like, he's no slouch, but if people can focus him down
28:13
he will go down quickly. That's his main thing. He's also stealthy like Strahd is, so the two of them could do ambush tactics together
28:18
and give high fives after they slit someone's throat. Rahadin also has Mask of the Wild
28:22
which allows him to potentially hide in dim light in the dark
28:27
because that counts as lightly obscured, which it says Mask of the Wild does
28:31
Darkness is a naturally occurring phenomenon, so it works. I also mentioned earlier that Strahd could cast Polymorph on Rahadin
28:37
to turn him into something very formidable and have a lot of extra hit points. Valid tactic
28:41
There's a lot of other allies Strahd could potentially have, like the Barovian Witches. They could cast Invisibility Spells
28:46
cast Sleep on Weekend PCs, because you don't need a high spellcasting modifier to utilize Sleep
28:57
So what levels should the party be for a satisfying end battle
29:02
They become very dangerous at level 9 when they get things like Wall of Force. And so keep that in mind
29:07
If they fight Strahd at level 8, they'll probably die if you use all these tactics
29:10
But if they're a little bit higher level, they have a few more tools and survivability thresholds
29:15
that it'll probably be a really good fight. I personally run where I usually had the endgame between level 10 to 14
29:23
And it also depends on the character's choices, right? I like to run the campaign with a lot of urgency so that things keep moving
29:29
They don't have infinite time to just go do every single quest before the endgame kind of happens to them
29:35
And like I said, Strahd can force them to go to the castle by slowly taking their allies, charming them, putting them in the dungeons, or having dinner with them at the castle while they're charmed
29:43
But Strahd is not going to let the players just do what they want. If there's something he wants them to do, he's going to make it happen
29:49
So things to look out for that would get Strahd destroyed. Wall of Force plus sunlight from the Sunsword or the Amulet of Ravenkind
29:58
Because sunlight goes into the invisible Wall of Force. And it's possible that it blocks the floor, ceiling, everything in a dome
30:07
So he won't be able to escape and he'll just get cooked microwave style. He'll be dead before Wall of Force is done
30:12
You could say like, oh, he tries to cast Fog Cloud. Maybe that makes it so the sunlight doesn't hit him
30:17
This is all very much a gray area. Like, does Fog Cloud block sunlight
30:21
When Strahd casts Polymorph, does he lose his weakness to sunlight? Players won't like that
30:26
I almost guarantee it. I haven't tried it. But Polymorph usually suspends things like that
30:29
So if Strahd casts Polymorph on himself while he's in a wall of force and becomes a beast
30:33
maybe he's got a chance. It just feels like vampires shouldn't be able to suspend their weakness to sunlight
30:38
So I don't think people would like that very much. And I bet, as I say that, you as a DM are like, nah, I'm not going to do that
30:42
That feels a little gamey. And you're probably right. Sergei's Sun Sword is a Strahd killer for sure
30:48
It deals the radiant damage and it creates sunlight. The holy symbol of Ravenkind creates the sunlight
30:52
Most players will likely waste the charges on trying to hold vampire on just Strahd
30:58
instead of like Strahd and a group of vampire spawn. And Strahd can just legendary resistance that away
31:02
It's the sunlight you got to worry about. Powerful destined allies like Godfrey with the Sun Sword will terrify Strahd
31:09
because they could 1v1 him very easily. Casimir is also a problem, especially if he revives Petrina
31:14
because she's an Archmage with Time Stop and stuff. So that's bad news
31:18
Vasilka is also very strong but at least he can use fire to try to scare her and make her berserk
31:22
and you also gotta watch for if the party tries to make Strahd mad and lose his cool which even
31:28
if something happens to Irina dark powers keep killing her off he can be vengeful but I don't
31:32
think he'd lose his cool he does lose his cool but does he get himself killed necessarily I don't
31:37
know if he did that and someone pillaged Sergei's tomb I think he loves Sergei more than anyone
31:42
that was the price he paid to I don't know buy Tatiana from the deal with the dark powers sort
31:47
of thing from his perspective. It says he cries in Sergei's tomb sometimes, so I think he loves
31:52
Sergei, and he'd get really mad if someone pillaged that tomb, which has some really nice plus two
31:56
armor, by the way. So if you want to make Strahd more dangerous, use these tactics. If you're going
32:06
to homebrew him, honestly don't do it too much. Maybe give him some battlemaster stuff, a few more
32:10
spells, some higher level spells, but you really don't have to do much to make him really formidable
32:14
I really believe that. So let me summarize my tips for running the final Strahd fight
32:18
Review the adventure material, especially review the article I wrote. It'll give you a lot of other things about like fun quotes from Strahd or Strahd encounters
32:26
throughout the campaign, among other things. But you do want to review it for all the things I just went over
32:31
Plus it has like the stat blocks for the different minions and all those sorts of things I just mentioned
32:36
It's really useful. Plan out the encounter. Where is Strahd going to be? What is his tactic going to be to open up the fight
32:40
Kind of make yourself some cue cards with some flows of like, what does he do if he's
32:45
in advantage? What does he do if he's on his back foot and he needs to retreat
32:49
Where is he going to go next in the castle? Where are the most important places for him to go
32:53
Where are the traps he can make the players get into? Like take inventory of all those things and write them down
32:58
Familiarize yourself with the rules that matter, like stealth. If Strahd tries to hide while he's invisible, what's that going to look like
33:04
How does grappling work? Because that's a big part of dealing with Strahd because he can grapple and bite people too
33:09
Just know your stuff. like look at all the abilities and think oh what are some rules that interact with this what do i
33:13
need to know review what player character information strahd has because he's been using
33:17
spies and other ways to gather information about them he should know a lot of their strengths and
33:22
weaknesses and you just need to write down what does strahd know versus what do you as the dm know
33:27
he's not omnipresent he's not omniscient so he doesn't just automatically know everything he needs
33:31
to earn that knowledge just like the players do remember to set the mood you know play some music
33:35
if you're online you probably already had to figure this out throughout the campaign but you know get some ways to get some good maps in there i have a link to one that i used in my article that
33:43
i really think is worth the like 10 bucks i think on the on the dm's guild it's really good maps
33:48
and then practice the encounter like actually run it through with some monsters against strahd use
33:53
the player characters if you know them well enough and you could run them and try to see how well
33:57
they would do against strahd if you really want to nail this final fight don't be afraid to practice
34:02
don't just like cerebrally think about it actually do some run-throughs and see how it feels and see
34:08
how quickly Strahd goes down if the battle master with crossbow expert and sharpshooter and all
34:14
those maneuvers superiority dice wins initiative and has advantage for some reason. How much of
34:19
Strahd is left after that turn? You know, you want to know that kind of stuff. By using all the information I gave and exploring to find your own methods and deciding if you do need to homebrew a
34:27
few details but not going too far, I think you're going to really prepare a good final battle that
34:31
you and your players are going to enjoy and it's really going to make you talk about it for so long
34:36
It's going to be a very fond memory for you. What questions do you have for me for running Strahd
34:39
Did you do all of these things and it still wasn't enough? Tell me more and tell me all the details
34:43
because I never know how much Strahd was homebrewed, what room he was in, was he in the castle
34:48
what player characters had, did they have magic items? There's so many variables. It's hard for me to say when someone says
34:53
oh, Strahd TPK'd us versus we played with Strahd for a few rounds because he was so pathetic
34:58
Like that's like the whole gamut, the whole range of people's experiences with Strahd
35:02
And I don't always know why because they don't give me all the information. I really do want to hear about it. I love this module. I enjoy running Strahd very much, and I like talking about the module with people
35:11
I hope I was able to help you so that you can have more joy with your friends
35:14
That's ultimately what we do FluteSloot for, is help you make lasting friendships and lasting memories
35:21
Have a good adventure this weekend, and I'll see you in the next video. Bye
#Online Media
#Roleplaying Games