Strahd's tactics for the final fight

[Balthasaurus]

Hello, playground,

I have been running Curse of Strahd for my group since September, and the players have recently been invited to Castle Ravenloft. After Strahd's "dinner" with them, and knowing that they are trapped inside the castle with no way out, they have set out to find the tomb of Sergei, which is where the Sunsword is located. Once they have found it, they will head to the audience hall, where Strahd will be waiting for them (it is where he is located according to the card reading).

I'm worried that the final encounter will be too easy. The players are all level 9, and are a battlemaster, an open hand monk, a light cleric, and a thief. They will have the two magic items that create sources of sunlight, so Strahd will have disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks if he is caught in either, and will be unable to regenerate his hp. In addition, Van Richten, Ezmerelda, Ismark and Ireena are all travelling with the party; Ireena is Strahd's enemy for this game. I've put the players in control of any allied npcs during combat.

Obviously, Strahd won't be holding back, so he's going to be using everything he's got. I'm thinking about changing his list of prepared spells to help him out for this encounter. His highest level spell used for combat is Animate Objects, and there aren't many of those in the mostly empty audience hall. Ideas for Wizard spells that would be particularly helpful?

I'm thinking about using Strahd's only 5th level slot to cast Mislead; his throne faces away from the entrance so the players will be unable to notice him doing this. This'll let him position himself in an optimal position, and hopefully the player's will waste some abilities before they realise they're attacking an illusion.

Strahd could also use Children of the Night to summon some swarms of bats that fly i through the shattered window in the room, and Lief, Strahd's accountant who resides in an adjacent room, can ring a gong if he feels he is in danger, calling monsters such as a wraith and spectres, or vampire spawn to Strahd's aid.

The vampire lord's Sunlight Hypersensitivity is going to be his biggest weakness, and I can only think of two ways to combat it. Unfortunately, both are somewhat cheaty. The first way is to cast Bones of the Earth, to damage and restrain foes and provide some easily accessible cover for Strahd, he can use his legendary actions to get into total cover if a player with sunlight finishes their turn in sight of him. Unfortunately, the spell is one level too high for Strahd to cast. The other option is to cast Heat Metal on either the Sunsword or the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind, if either of them are dropped, the sunlight effect ends. Again, there is a problem as this spell is not on the wizard spell list.

I'm going to remember to use all of Strahd's lair and legendary actions, because they are strategically very useful. Using a lair action he can summon shadows, which I can use to try and drain the fighter's strength. As stated before, his legendary actions can get him into cover and give him some extra attacks.

Any more ideas for my tactics, or anything you would change?

Sorry for such a long post, and thanks for any help in advance!

[Mith]

Have terrain traps such as falling stone blocks and chandaleirs on the party.

Give Strahd wands of spells such as Heat Metal, Hold Person or other tricks. Perhaps vials of alchemical gas bombs that force Disadvantage on certain saves on a failed Con save for 1d4 rounds, things like that.

Keep in mind that Dtrahd has the Glass Heart to help with some damage mitigation.

Also, the Party is fairly large, so giving Strahd some other minions to help out would work as well.

[Umbranar]

Telekinesis is a 5th level wizard spell and can be used try and take an item from a creature. Its also a concentration spell that lasts for max 1 minute so your players can interrupt it while its still a very potent spell.

[DigitalCharlie]

When I ran the combat I had a lot of fun with both greater invisibility and his ability to pass through walls, doors, ceilings, etc. He was, in large part, a master of hit and run tactics and made the party freak out because they didn't know where he was going to strike from next.

My guess is that since your party has sunlight at their disposal, they will bunch together inside it. A few rounds of fireballs from an invisible spellcaster who could have moved anywhere given his movement and up to 3 movement lair actions might just cause them to move apart, maybe even outside of the light. At the very least, they may split up enough to let you use Strahd's minions to soften them.

[SirGraystone]

If the PCs try a long rest in the castle, charming the one on watch is fun. Some of his abilities to remember:

Spider climb: have him walk on a ceiling out of range of melee and use magic on them
Mirror Image: Always use it (or greater invisibility) to make him harder to hit
Regeneration: Don't let him go below half is HP, turn into a bat fly out of the window for a minute so he can get all his HP back and come back to annoy the players.
Polymorph: turning the heavy hitter barbarian into a fluffy rabbit is always hilarious, just don't target a cleric or other high wisdom character.
Prestigitation: Snuff out the party's torch.

Also remember that Strahd don't have that many hit points, in a fair fight a level 9 or 10 group can do a lot of damage in a round or two by using all their special abilities, don't fight fair :-D

[willdaBEAST]

As far as the sunlight sensitivity, he takes that at the start of his turn, so couldn't he use his legendary action at the end of another creature's turn to either move out of range or move through the wall/ceiling/floor with his lair action? I also wouldn't hesitate to have him recover a round or so out of the room and then come back (try not to overly abuse this, since it's unlikely most parties have any way to deal with it).

[Angelalex242]

As far as the sunlight sensitivity, he takes that at the start of his turn, so couldn't he use his legendary action at the end of another creature's turn to either move out of range or move through the wall/ceiling/floor with his lair action? I also wouldn't hesitate to have him recover a round or so out of the room and then come back (try not to overly abuse this, since it's unlikely most parties have any way to deal with it).

To the contrary! Abuse the hell out of everything! Eventually, PCs will Nova the crap out of Strahd and kill him despite your best efforts to keep him alive. No matter how cheap Strahd is, PCs can be cheaper.

[willdaBEAST]

To the contrary! Abuse the hell out of everything! Eventually, PCs will Nova the crap out of Strahd and kill him despite your best efforts to keep him alive. No matter how cheap Strahd is, PCs can be cheaper.

I'm closing in on my last session for the CoS campaign I DM, so this entire thread is very relevant to me too. I'd prefer not to TPK though and I feel like I'd be able to tactically outplay my players if Strahd is coming in and out of the walls. Couldn't he just slowly chip away at them, draining their resources and preventing any attempts at resting? At a certain point the party will have no way to keep pace with Strahd's ability to regain 20/hp a round. But maybe they'll surprise me.

What kind of minions do DMs like to run with Strahd?

[MaxWilson]

I'm closing in on my last session for the CoS campaign I DM, so this entire thread is very relevant to me too. I'd prefer not to TPK though and I feel like I'd be able to tactically outplay my players if Strahd is coming in and out of the walls. Couldn't he just slowly chip away at them, draining their resources and preventing any attempts at resting? At a certain point the party will have no way to keep pace with Strahd's ability to regain 20/hp a round. But maybe they'll surprise me.

What kind of minions do DMs like to run with Strahd?

You could consider cheating on the players' behalf: give them a heads-up from an old gypsy or something that Strahd can do this, and a countermeasure they can exploit (maybe he can't phase in and out of walls when he's recently been exposed to direct sunlight? maybe he's too proud to retreat from single combat, if one of the PCs challenges him while the others fight his minions?).

You can stack the deck against Strahd as much as you want and he won't complain. But it's better if it requires players to do something proactively, instead of the DM simply foregoing to fight effectively on Strahd's behalf.

Therefore the real question is: if Strahd is played to his full potential, how can the players possibly reduce that potential enough to survive, and what help do they need from the DM to achieve it?

[ad_hoc]

That's a lot of allies.

Still, consider Strahd's legendary and lair actions.

He can float through the floor, cast fireball, and then float back out after only 1 character has an action.

Strahd's stealth (esp. in his castle) is unparalleled. He can sneak up to the party and charm (and he knows their weaknesses so he will charm the one with the worst Wisdom save). He can then command that character to do nasty things like throw the Sunsword out a window.

By the time the party gets to the final room foretold in the Tarokka reading they should be worn out. The party should be feeling dread as they are constantly harassed by Strahd and his minions.

[willdaBEAST]

You could consider cheating on the players' behalf: give them a heads-up from an old gypsy or something that Strahd can do this, and a countermeasure they can exploit (maybe he can't phase in and out of walls when he's recently been exposed to direct sunlight? maybe he's too proud to retreat from single combat, if one of the PCs challenges him while the others fight his minions?).

You can stack the deck against Strahd as much as you want and he won't complain. But it's better if it requires players to do something proactively, instead of the DM simply foregoing to fight effectively on Strahd's behalf.

Therefore the real question is: if Strahd is played to his full potential, how can the players possibly reduce that potential enough to survive, and what help do they need from the DM to achieve it?
Thanks for the feedback. They're already in the crypts now, so that limits what information I feel like I can feed them, but in an attempt to give them a warning I described a cut scene involving Van Richten, Ezmerelda and Mordikainen (the party has recruited all of them as allies, but I don't want them involved in the final showdown) trying to destroy the heart of sorrow and during that attempt Strahd emerges from a wall and grabs Ezmerelda, dragging her up a wall away from the others. I'll probably have to expand upon that scene before the final session to reinforce his ability to move through walls.

It's a delicate balance between tension, feeling like there's a possibility for failure and letting the players have epic moments of heroism. The biggest thing I want to avoid is the perception that I'm pulling any punches. I want my party's victory or failure to feel like it was a direct result of the decisions they make.

I like your sunlight idea, maybe he can only phase through shadows. Having him be enraged is another good motivation. One of my players married Ireena, so Strahd will want that character to suffer and the wielder of the Sun Sword is another big target (this character is a Paladin, so it could make for an epic 1v1 showdown).

Sorry to further derail the thread, but does anyone have advice on how to handle Patrina? Kasimir traveled with the party to the Amber Temple and received the dark gift. After betraying some allies of the party that he led into the crypts, he resurrected his sister and has gotten her the spell book. The book mentions that she'll try to use the party to kill Rahadin while trying to convince Strahd of her love for him. Should she fight alongside Strahd or should I try to take her out of the equation before the climatic battle?

[Specter]

If Strahd knows their capacity (he probably does, since he has spies and can cast Scrying) and if they're in the castle in large numbers, it's only natural that he summons a few vampire spawns to take care of the extras while he ravages the PCs.

[MaxWilson]

If you want to feed them information while they're in the crypts, you could always inscribe a riddle into a wall somewhere.

Another option is to wait and see what ideas the players have, and then roll randomly to see which ones actually work. (If they don't try anything, well, I guess they're out of luck.)

Final bit of advice/opinion: don't go into this with the mentality that the players need to win. You need to be willing to pull the trigger and actually TPK the party[1], in order for their victory to really count. Be sure the players know this.

[1] This doesn't necessarily mean a literal TPK. Other failure modes are possible and sometimes more dramatic or entertaining, for the DM and/or for the bad guy. Maybe Strahd kills some, perma-charms another and turns her into a vampire, cuts off another's ears and hands and kicks him out of Ravenloft, and sends another PC to his dungeons. At that point, players have the option of either accepting that this is "the end, you lost," or of trying to somehow regroup, recover, and re-try. (The guy who gets sentenced to merely the dungeon is likely to play a big role in that.) Even if they do choose to continue, the campaign is likely to radically change its direction at that point (since the whole party is now split, for one thing), so I'm still counting it as a TPK.

[djreynolds]

How good of a player is the cleric?
Dispel Good and Evil is very good spell in terms of fixing Strahd's charm.

But Strahd is just tough, it may be worth buffing that battlemaster up with protection from evil, and just hoping the cleric can make his will saves.

So I would try to disable the cleric.

[Iolo Morganwg]

When my players encountered Strahd, he had prepped the room with Glyphs of Warding, and had four Guardian Portraits hanging on the wall.

He had Greater Invisibility up, and charmed the lowest Wis character, ordering him to kill the PC with the Sunsword.

That may have been the longest fight I've ever DM'ed. I think it went 15 rounds.

[Malifice]

Hello, playground,

I have been running Curse of Strahd for my group since September, and the players have recently been invited to Castle Ravenloft. After Strahd's "dinner" with them, and knowing that they are trapped inside the castle with no way out, they have set out to find the tomb of Sergei, which is where the Sunsword is located. Once they have found it, they will head to the audience hall, where Strahd will be waiting for them (it is where he is located according to the card reading).

I'm worried that the final encounter will be too easy. The players are all level 9, and are a battlemaster, an open hand monk, a light cleric, and a thief. They will have the two magic items that create sources of sunlight, so Strahd will have disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks if he is caught in either, and will be unable to regenerate his hp. In addition, Van Richten, Ezmerelda, Ismark and Ireena are all travelling with the party; Ireena is Strahd's enemy for this game. I've put the players in control of any allied npcs during combat.

Obviously, Strahd won't be holding back, so he's going to be using everything he's got. I'm thinking about changing his list of prepared spells to help him out for this encounter. His highest level spell used for combat is Animate Objects, and there aren't many of those in the mostly empty audience hall. Ideas for Wizard spells that would be particularly helpful?

I'm thinking about using Strahd's only 5th level slot to cast Mislead; his throne faces away from the entrance so the players will be unable to notice him doing this. This'll let him position himself in an optimal position, and hopefully the player's will waste some abilities before they realise they're attacking an illusion.

Strahd could also use Children of the Night to summon some swarms of bats that fly i through the shattered window in the room, and Lief, Strahd's accountant who resides in an adjacent room, can ring a gong if he feels he is in danger, calling monsters such as a wraith and spectres, or vampire spawn to Strahd's aid.

The vampire lord's Sunlight Hypersensitivity is going to be his biggest weakness, and I can only think of two ways to combat it. Unfortunately, both are somewhat cheaty. The first way is to cast Bones of the Earth, to damage and restrain foes and provide some easily accessible cover for Strahd, he can use his legendary actions to get into total cover if a player with sunlight finishes their turn in sight of him. Unfortunately, the spell is one level too high for Strahd to cast. The other option is to cast Heat Metal on either the Sunsword or the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind, if either of them are dropped, the sunlight effect ends. Again, there is a problem as this spell is not on the wizard spell list.

I'm going to remember to use all of Strahd's lair and legendary actions, because they are strategically very useful. Using a lair action he can summon shadows, which I can use to try and drain the fighter's strength. As stated before, his legendary actions can get him into cover and give him some extra attacks.

Any more ideas for my tactics, or anything you would change?

Sorry for such a long post, and thanks for any help in advance!

Add some Shadows to the encounter to begin with as mooks.

Ensure the party have had to deal with a few other encoutners during the raid on the tomb before hand. Put some kind of doom clock on them.

[Cespenar]

Aren't there lots of places in the Castle that Strahd can draw the fight to, and get some allies/expendables to join?

Just as an example, I haven't read the book myself but played through it, and our DM started the Strahd battle in a room with 3 Vampire Spawn sisters. And this was with just 3 level 8 players plus Esmeralda. You're talking about 4 level 9 players + 4 NPCs vs. just Strahd, so you absolutely must tilt the balance somehow.

Maybe you can get Rahadin to pitch in?

Or get a lot of Ghouls to join in, which I'm almost positive the Castle had, in some odd room or three.

Or better, get the NPCs to separate and try to destroy the Glass Heart, while the PCs duke it out with just Strahd.

[Merudo]

Strahd can and should let the PC to rooms filled with traps and monsters. Make sure Strahd comes along and do a few attacks each time the PCs are occupied by something, or have Strahd manually activate the traps himself. Good choices:

- K6 can make a great first ambush, and PCs here risk a 1,000 feet fall
- K7 has 4 red dragon wyrmlings
- K8 has 8 gargoyles
- K20 has the Hearth of Sorrow, which is well defended if it wasn't destroyed previously
- K30 has a rope that can be pulled to call in monsters
- K38 has chest trapped with sleeping gas (paralyzes for 4 hours!)
- K39 is full of giant spider webs
- K40 has a rope that can be pulled to call in 5 giant spiders
- K46 has Strahd's animated armor
- K47 has a rug of smothering
- K53 is the rooftop. Strahd can cast Gust of Wind to make a few people fall, or vampire spawn can grapple the party & jump off the roof
- K56 has 7 Barovian witches
- K58 is the bridge. Taking damage here means facing a DC 10 Dexterity saving throw or fall
- K59-K60 can have a vampire spawn grab a PC & jump off the tower
- K61 has an elevator trap that can split the party & triggers sleep gas. Have Strahd attack once the trap triggers. The best trap in the castle
- K72 has Rahadin + Shadow Demon
- K73 has teleportation traps that can imprison PCs.
- K76 has six Strahd zombies
- K78 can be used to charm characters into touching the teleporter. If the PCs try to stop this by destroying the brazier, 2 iron golems attack
- K81 has a trapdoor chute that can separate the party
- K84 has excellent teleport traps that can separate the party, as well as many monsters
- K87 blocks non lawful-good creatures & can thus separate the party

Also remember that Strahd can lock windows & doors as a lair action. Very effective for characters with low strength.

[Balthasaurus]

Hey, thanks for all the advice, everyone!

Harassing and charming the party as they try to wander through the castle sounds like a great way to build up tension. I especially liked the idea of charming a player, probably the fighter, he only has 10 Wisdom, and forcing the to throw an important item out of the window. That's just deliciously evil!

My players are pretty intelligent though, especially the cleric, who has prepared a load of spells to counter Strahd and his traps, such as Calm Emotions and Stone Shape to pass through castle walls.

I don't intend to finish with complete despair for the party, but I didn't wan to make the encounter too easy. Everyone's advice has really helped!

[Envyus]

Yeah Strahd should be harrassing and hit and running the party throughout the entire castle. The Room were he is faced in the card reading is just the one were he will stay and fight them rather then purely do hit and run attacks on them.

[snowman87]

One thing I plan to do when my players finally reach the end fight is, if they haven't encountered and destroyed it already, have Strahd's animated armor summon to him once he's below half his hit points and cover him, raising his AC and sharing half the damage he takes until it's destroyed. It's his armor, right? Why shouldn't he wear it?