You were all correct about Curse of Strahd. I was very, very wrong.

[jaappleton]

As some of you may recall, I've made a few topics about how my DM had planned to run CoS for myself and just one other player, with one character each.

And I was fairly confident in how we'd be able to handle it, due to party composition and a few other factors.

We decided to instead have a party of SIX, as opposed to the original two. More players were able to join us.

Last night we got to the halfway point of Death House...

At lv1, my max HP was reduced to 2. TWO. After a single hit from a Specter.

Our Monk was taken out by cleaning supplies. (He lived)

I... stand corrected. Well, not 'stand', more hunched over in crippling pain.

I'd like to apologize to all of you, whose warnings I previously dismissed.

This adventure does not **** around, that's for certain. Wow. If it had been just the two party members, as per our original plan, forget it.

[Unoriginal]

Not to offend you or anything, but I was inspired:



https://66.media.tumblr.com/48cbdb0c4dadda3d0aa0abd228dee16b/tumblr_pjfgpjhSNK1s8fftuo1_1280.png

Sorry about that, I couldn't resist.

Anyway. I'm not sure it required apologizing, but it was nice of you to recognize the warnings were correct. So thank you.

[ToastyTobasco]

We had half our party taken out by the broom in the closet.
Words of wisdom for future encounters: 1. Dont try to collect rent from witches. 2. Fire is your best friend

[Grod_The_Giant]

The Death House is exceptionally nasty. I ran a full sized party of level 2s through it and they all almost died.

[djreynolds]

My cleric told everyone not to go off on their own, the DM hung up two character sheets on the wall in memorial to them.

And the DM, hand waved ours deaths (we are Strahd's playthings), as we bravely took on Green Hags, at 4th level. "You will make no more meat pies" I think those gals franchised after wiping the floor with us

[ChampionWiggles]

CoS can be nasty, especially for the reckless adventures. I told my party well in advance that making characters that go off on their own or insist on standing their ground will probably get themselves and the party killed.

It also varies on the DM. Because lvl 1-2 characters are super squishy, I pulled my punches in the Death House a bit. Now they are lvl 4 and I'm not pulling punches as much. But I'm also a nice DM and want to see the characters succeed more than I want to see a character die. We'll reevaluate that stance later, depending on what the party does.

[jaappleton]

Anyway. I'm not sure it required apologizing, but it was nice of you to recognize the warnings were correct. So thank you.

I really... really thought that the warnings were a bit over reactive...

I legit can’t believe how badly I underestimated this.

[djreynolds]

I really... really thought that the warnings were a bit over reactive...

I legit can’t believe how badly I underestimated this.

But it's great. In a positive manner.

For me, its nice when an adventure takes me out of this white room laboratory into the real world, where all your rolls miss and the DMs doesn't.

Just living to the next session, actually feels empowering.

There's no dreams of max dps or dpr, it's literally I hit.

My cleric, with protection from evil, trying to tank got whooped by ghouls. The DM rolled at disadvantage with two 19s, and then I got smashed with autocrits.

But I lived. CoS was a fun *ss-whooping. So we'll written. Really made players focus and cooperate.

Best adventure.

[jaappleton]

But it's great. In a positive manner.

For me, its nice when an adventure takes me out of this white room laboratory into the real world, where all your rolls miss and the DMs doesn't.

Just living to the next session, actually feels empowering.

There's no dreams of max dps or dpr, it's literally I hit.

My cleric, with protection from evil, trying to tank got whooped by ghouls. The DM rolled at disadvantage with two 19s, and then I got smashed with autocrits.

But I lived. CoS was a fun *ss-whooping. So we'll written. Really made players focus and cooperate.

Best adventure.

There’s a ton of truth to this.

I’m a bit of an optimizer, but there’s no fun in ROFLstomping encounters. There really isn’t. I once played a Tempest Theurge (Unearthed Arcana) and was able to maximize Chain Lightning.

There’s no fun in that.

Dreading every encounter for how decimating it likely is to be.... There’s an adrenaline rush with that.

It’s like the D&D equivalent of skydiving, I suppose.

[Spore]

The Death House is exceptionally nasty. I ran a full sized party of level 2s through it and they all almost died.

On the contrary I DMed for a group of six quite smart players and they did survive - except the guy who ditched the group so I made his barbarian charge to his death, and the wizard who vanished (also because the player left). But yes, the dungeon is quite something especially if you are unlucky with some rolls.

And be wary. Curse of Strahd isn't as much an adventure path as it is a mini setting. If you leave the beaten path, you can and you WILL be eaten by werewolves if the DM plays by the book without fudging.

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

https://i.gifer.com/ExN.gif

[Laserlight]

Our DM has toned things down. On one hand, I'd like the fights to be more of a challenge. We were nervous about fighting Baba Lysaga, for instance, but I basically solo'd her in a round and a half (it was a good time for a Chromatic Orb crit), and it was kind of "wait, the fight's over already?"

On the other hand, we put quite a bit into RP and pre existing character relationships, and I'd hate for any of the PCs to die; yeah, we could roll a replacement but they wouldn't have the connection to the others.

I think if I were running it, I'd have each player bring several PCs, all members of one group (traveling theater group, pilgrims, diplomatic mission, whatever). You lose a PC, your backup character is back at Vallaki and is already part of the story.