How prepared is THIS party for Curse of Strahd? (Round 2)

[jaappleton]

So we had Session Zero on Friday. We’re at 5 players with a part time 6th, though he acknowledges it won’t be often at all. So basically we’re at 5. (When I originally posted this, we were at 2 players)

We are all 1st Level.

Grung Rogue going Thief
VHuman Hand XBowman Fighter going Champ or Battlemaster
VHuman going Fighter going Sanctified Hunter (from MFOV)
Changeling Dragon Sorcerer (Blaster)

The infrequent 6th member is a Drow Monk

And then me. Winged Tiefling Grave Cleric

And the DM did something very interesting that was incredibly surprising.

“Everyone starts with a free Feat, and you can ignore any restrictions on the Feat. This means Variant Humans get 2.”

.....So here’s what I did. In the book Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, there were Feats available as a preorder bonus. They were racial Feats for the races introduced in Volo’s (Plus the Tortle).

I took the Feat named Tortle Protection.
“Your Natural Armor becomes 18, and is not affected by your Dexterity. Increase your Strength or Wisdom score by one. Additionally, once per short or long rest, when forced to make a Dexterity saving throw, you can use your Reaction to grant halfcover to creatures within 5ft of you.”

So my AC becomes 18, I can use my Reaction to grant +2 to people’s Dex saves once per rest, and my Wisdom increases by 1.

After rolling and the Feat, my stats are:

Str 7
Dex 16
Con 16
Int 10
Wis 18
Cha 10

AC 20 (Feat + Shield)

I took a background from Ravnica that adds spells to the vanilla Cleric list, letting me pick up Sleep and adds others such as Pass Without Trace and Gaseous Form.

....Now, a word, if I may...

I was the last to make my character. I’d wanted Cleric. Normally I’d feel a little bad about making something with innate Flight and such high AC.

-But we had NO Tank, at all.

-No one with Darkvision, even.

-One spellcaster, and a Sorcerer at that (so few spells known). At least he’s a Face.

-Nobody capable of Radiant damage (Sanctified Hunter will be a little help with that later)

So I had to fulfill many holes here... Not particularly proud of cheesing this a bit, but I’d say the party kinda needs it.

[Trustypeaches]

I'm not sure why you feel compelled to min-max your party composition or whatever, but you do you man

[Unoriginal]

Some things cannot be defeated by strength in battle. Curse of Strahd is gothic horror.


Your party is certainly powerful... if it is enough, however, only time will tell.

Just remember that Strahd certainly was powerful, too, before the Dark Powers.

[SociopathFriend]

Speaking from experience- you must recognize the benefits of conversing and talking your way past creatures.
You also must realize you cannot walk up to everything and bust it down. This is a sandbox-style campaign and, like most sandboxes, you can come across something much deadlier than you without realizing it.

[StoicLeaf]

Your min maxing means absolutely nothing providing the DM is running the campaign the way it should be: i.e. a meat grinder.

Most of the fights you get in the "level appropriate" areas aren't fair.
Death house will likely cost you a few members unless you're all being meta-munchkins.
If your Face can't swallow his pride and keep his mouth shut then he'll die quickly as well.

[jaappleton]

In the first topic, everyone said we’d die very quickly.

I try to make a strong PC and now I’m being told to talk my way out of things.

You’re sending me mixed messages, GITP!

[Unoriginal]

In the first topic, everyone said we’d die very quickly.

I try to make a strong PC and now I’m being told to talk my way out of things.

You’re sending me mixed messages, GITP!

Not really.

As we keep telling you, it's not a question of having strong PCs.

Let's go at it the other way: jaapleton, what do you know about Curse of Strahd?

[jaappleton]

Not really.

As we keep telling you, it's not a question of having strong PCs.

Let's go at it the other way: jaapleton, what do you know about Curse of Strahd?


-Most encounters are essentially Deadly

-Lots of Undead and Shapeshifter enemies

-That means Magical and Silver weapons are important

-It’s VERY good to be able to deal Radiant damage

-Holy Symbol Of Ravenkind requires Channel Divinity, meaning Clerics or Paladins only can utilize it

-Who can help you is random

-Where the items that can help you are located is random

-Everything is probably out to kill you

-Ravens are one of the only good things

-In a Land where everything is likely trying to kill me, having the Identify Spell is probably a good idea

-Sandbox adventure, meaning non-linear and we could EASILY go to an area we shouldn’t be in yet, meaning we’ll likely die quickly unless we make informed decisions about where to go

-That means high Insight should be useful since people have their own agenda because they, y’know, trying to kill me

-There’s no dawn or sunlight, really, meaning everything is dark

-I do know there’s some hags that have a thing for kids

-Lots of things that like to Poison you



Some of that I pieced together myself because it’s overwhelmingly obvious.

Other things I heard about from topics where they divulged more information than I would’ve like.

And a few conversations on Twitter that I scrolled past that spoiled a few things.

[Unoriginal]

Some of that I pieced together myself because it’s overwhelmingly obvious.

Other things I heard about from topics where they divulged more information than I would’ve like.

And a few conversations on Twitter that I scrolled past that spoiled a few things.

Well, you've got the beginning of the right idea, but there's one point that need to be cleared out (not a spoiler, it's right on the cover):

Have you wondered what was the Curse of the title? And who was cursed?

[jaappleton]

Well, you've got the beginning of the right idea, but there's one point that need to be cleared out (not a spoiler, it's right on the cover):

Have you wondered what was the Curse of the title? And who was cursed?

Offhand?

Lots of people.


Strahd himself, who toys with the party at various points.

The people of Barovia for having such a tyrant as a ruler.

Lycanthropy is a Curse (in a metaphorical sense, it’s a disease in 5E I believe), so they might be considered.

With Strahd being such a fleshed our villain throughout the years, with some games and books about him, he’s likely cursed in several ways. Tragic and all that.

The Party because they can’t leave

[Keravath]

How deadly the module is depends to a large extent on the DM and what they want to achieve.

A massively powerful party could fail if that is the DMs goal and a weak one could succeed.

This depends on whether the DMs goal is for everyone to have a good time sitting on the edge of their seats, dealing with the horror theme, wondering if they will survive and then possibly squeaking out a success or failure ... which could be equally fun depending on the group. Or whether the DM plans to run the module directly from the book contents using the villains as effectively as possible. Keep in mind that your party level doesn't matter if you somehow aggravate Strahd himself. The major villain may toy with the party ... if he decides that they are a threat or real irritant then the DM may decide he has had enough and wipes out the party ... start over.

Similarly, there are probably other areas where it may not be wise for characters of the earlier levels to venture ... however, with careful interaction with the NPCs you should be able to acquire some rough knowledge of what areas might be more terrifying for the inhabitants and from that form an opinion on where to go. However, Barovia is probably a bad place to be murder hobos ... you can't escape and some of the local inhabitants can be powerful adventurers or creatures just as trapped as you are. Attacking first and asking questions afterward may be just a generally bad idea.

I think that having a party with a range of skills - ranged, melee, arcane, divine, rogue is usually a good idea when you don't know what to expect and almost any composition that covers most of these can work (though it would be nice to have more than one character with healing word).

Finally, I would check with your DM about the tortle specific feat ... logically it makes no sense since it implicitly relies on the tortle having a shell and its innate 17 AC.

I'd also recommend that the thief take the healer feat since he can probably use it as a bonus action with his object interaction ability.

[sithlordnergal]

I was the last to make my character. I’d wanted Cleric. Normally I’d feel a little bad about making something with innate Flight and such high AC.

-But we had NO Tank, at all.

-No one with Darkvision, even.

-One spellcaster, and a Sorcerer at that (so few spells known). At least he’s a Face.

-Nobody capable of Radiant damage (Sanctified Hunter will be a little help with that later)

So I had to fulfill many holes here... Not particularly proud of cheesing this a bit, but I’d say the party kinda needs it.

So, you wanna max out your party, in Curse of Strahd. Welp, looking over your group you hit the nail on the head. You guys lack Radiant Damage, a Tank, a secondary caster, and Darkvision. Here is my suggestion for you:

--Race: Half Elf--

Half Elf nets you Darkvision, advantage against charms from vampires, and sleep immunity. Along with +2 charisma and +1 to two other ability scores. All in all, it is actually a lot stronger then Tiefling.


--Class: Paladin/Sorcerer--

Start Paladin, reach level 6, go pure Sorcerer. I would suggest Vengeance or Redemption Paladin, and Divine Soul Sorcerer for your subclasses. This will provide your party with a Tank, Healer, Radiant Damage, and if you work with the other Sorcerer the two of you can craft spell lists to expand available spells.


---Feat---

This is a tough one. You're going to want War Caster and Sentinel no matter what.I'd personally grab War Caster first, as it is required for the build to work.


---Build Info---

First, you're going to max out AC. Go Sword and Shield, and grab the Defense Fighting Style. With Shield of Faith and plate armor, you'll be sitting pretty at 23 AC with no magical armor. Make sure you grab the Shield spell as a Sorcerer to boost that further.

Next, You want Booming Blade, Green Flame Blade, and Chill Touch a your cantrips, and Quicken Spell as a metamagic. Booming and Green Flame Blade are pretty obvious. They give you an extra chance to smite an enemy. Chill Touch is there because it is the most powerful cantrip in the game when you're facing undead or anything that regenerates health...and it shuts down vampires hard.

Chill Touch prevents the target from healing any HP for one full round after being hit by it, and if the target is undead they have disadvantage on all attacks against you. Yup, you heard right. Disadvantage on ALL attacks. Its basically an improved Vicious Mockery when used against undead since it applies disadvantage on every attack they make against you.

[1Pirate]

---Feat---

You're going to want War Caster and Sentinel no matter what.I'd personally grab War Caster first, as it is required for the build to work.


The DM's giving them a free Feat at level one, so taking Sentinel first might be a little bit better. War Caster will give advantage on concentration saves, but not much else until the sorcerer levels kick in.

[Bel-Torac]

If you're a winged tiefling, how can you take a tortle feat?

Be prepared for making wisdom saves and the have the ability to deal radiant damage. If the two fighters won't change their classes I would stick with cleric and take resilience constitution. Be prepared to heal and use spirit guardians. Your party isn't optimized, but just do what you can on your side.

Also there is not much water in barovia, good luck on the Grung surviving.

[Arial Black]

In the book Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, there were Feats available as a preorder bonus. They were racial Feats for the races introduced in Volo’s (Plus the Tortle).

What are the feats for Aasimar? What do they do?

[Laserlight]

In the first topic, everyone said we’d die very quickly.

I try to make a strong PC and now I’m being told to talk my way out of things.

You’re sending me mixed messages, GITP!

Always try to talk your way out of it. Have a strong party for the times when that doesn't work.

If you have That Guy who likes to taunt the villains and can't keep his mouth shut, make it clear that This Is Not The Time, with a healthy dose of Shut Up Or You Will Get Us Killed. I've seriously considered buying a gag.

[jaappleton]

What are the feats for Aasimar? What do they do?

There's one feat per race.

The Aasimar's gets them Magic Resistance.

They're.... mostly balanced. That one in particular? Not really.

[ProsecutorGodot]

In the first topic, everyone said we’d die very quickly.

I try to make a strong PC and now I’m being told to talk my way out of things.

You’re sending me mixed messages, GITP!

My insistence on how deadly this would be previously was based around your party having been two people, I made my recommendations with that first in mind. You're as prepared as you can be without me giving you spoiler level knowledge of how to deal with the earlier encounters. Your party is fairly well put together, aside from a distinct lack of Paladin. You can only guarantee so much before the game starts, and considering how ludicrously strong your level 1 setup is compared to most of the characters I'd run through the campaign, you should be more than ready.

A few minor suggestions I would make:
-See if you could snag some Holy Water for the Sanctified Hunter pre game, it would make a ton of sense thematically for him to have some handy. Holy Water isn't fantastic but it could prove invaluable to even have just one vial. As a Cleric you can craft holy water, don't forget that.
-Always be prepared to run away, keep an escape route in mind at all times.
-Don't be overcautious. It can be just as costly as rushing in without a plan.

Have fun with it. With a party of 5(6) your odds of survival are now above average. It's quite a dynamic shift from how you'd first presented it, if I'd known it would end up like this I wouldn't have been so insistent in the previous thread. I feel a bit responsible for making you perhaps a bit too paranoid.

[Merudo]

And then me. Winged Tiefling Grave Cleric


If you play a Cleric or Paladin I strongly recommend being of the Good alignment. There are some treasures in the module that can only be used by these two classes if they are Good.