Curse of Strahd: How useful is Rope Trick?

[jaappleton]

Ideally I'd want Leomund's Tiny Hut as a place to rest, since it can last for a full rest.

However, due to party make-up, can't happen. Nobody has it on their class list.

BUT, through the wonderful Ravnica backgrounds granting bonus spells, I am capable of getting Rope Trick.

Party is a Divine Soul Sorc, Rogue Thief, two Fighters, a Monk, and me (Currently Druid but he's going to stay in Vallaki, long story) who will be a Cleric.

Essentially, it boils down to this: Via the Ravnica backgrounds, I can get access to either Rope Trick or Counterspell. While Counterspell absolutely RULES, its only useful against to many opponents. And its... REALLY useful against them. But Rope Trick can help keep us alive, safe, and our resources fresh all the time. I'd still have access to things like Silence to deal with enemy casters. Its not Counterspell, but its something.

So, Rope Trick or Counterspell?

[Sigreid]

Counterspell would be mu choice. Proper precautions should let you have a rest.

[Sception]

If nobody else in the party has counterspell, probably counterspell. Otherwise rope trick. Alternatively, both are good, just take whichever of the two guilds better fits your character's personality.

Are you doing ravnica characters getting drawn into ravenloft, or refluffing curse of strahd to take place in ravnica, with barovia as like a cursed & sealed off district?

[jaappleton]

If nobody else in the party has counterspell, probably counterspell. Otherwise rope trick. Alternatively, both are good, just take whichever of the two guilds better fits your character's personality.

Are you doing ravnica characters getting drawn into ravenloft, or refluffing curse of strahd to take place in ravnica, with barovia as like a cursed & sealed off district?

Refluffing the Ravnica backgrounds.

The Sorcerer would be taking Counterspell, I know that factually.

However... I mean, rolling a 2 is rolling a 2, y'know?

If I took Rope Trick, I'd take Magic Initiate to snag Absorb Elements (my DM house rules that feat so that the spell is added to your class list, and you can cast it with slots. Its not once per day for us)

So I'd be OK with some survivability there, but the rest of the party...? Likely not so much.

[Sception]

Refluffing the Ravnica backgrounds.

The extra spells aren't granted by the backgrounds, so much as by membership in the specific guilds themselves. Why are you getting bonus spells known at all in this case? They represent a pretty significant mechanical boost to spellcasters, far outside of what a background normally confers, and with nothing even remotely equivalent available to non-spellcasting characters. Thats at least thematically (though by no means mechanically) justified in a magic saturated and spellcaster-oriented setting like ravnica, but feels out of step in other contexts. If the rest of the party aren't also playing ravnican style characters, especially given that your party has as few as one other caster and up to four non-casters (depending on whether those fighters are eldritch or not), my honest suggestion to you would be "none of the above".

The ravnican bonus spells are mechanically ill fitted outside of ravnica. Honestly, they're mechanically ill fitted inside ravnica too, really only justifiable on thematic rather than mechanical grounds. If those thematic grounds don't apply in your campaign, it's probably best to not mix this stuff in.

[Ganders]

Seems to me that CoS is intended to be creepy, unsettling, frustrating, demoralizing, and ever-threatening. Things like very few spellbooks for the wizards, no armor available other than what you started with at level 1, a shortage of diamonds and other gems for spell components, and so on. It's a miserable place.

So... if you beat that, and get a nice safe place to rest... is that actually winning or just cheating yourself of the experience?

Also... it'd be easy to rule that the Ravnica guild backgrounds only allow access to extra spells if you actually have access to the guild. If you're trapped in another realm, they're not available.

[djreynolds]

Seems to me that CoS is intended to be creepy, unsettling, frustrating, demoralizing, and ever-threatening. Things like very few spellbooks for the wizards, no armor available other than what you started with at level 1, a shortage of diamonds and other gems for spell components, and so on. It's a miserable place.

So... if you beat that, and get a nice safe place to rest... is that actually winning or just cheating yourself of the experience?

100%, thank you.

Embrace it, I had a life cleric of Sune, at the end of the game I wanted to bring Strahd to life.... so I could skin him alive.

Every kindness you do is either taken advantage of or turned into something, morphed into misery.

It was and is the best 5E campaign so far.

[VonKaiserstein]

I'm presently running Curse of Strahd. I agree it's against the spirit of the adventure. If Strahd saw this happen, he might just set some of his witches to curse every rope in Barovia to cause nightmares to those who slept near it, making rest in a small magical pocket iffy (say, Consave or add d6 hours needed to achieve long or short rest).

Alternatively, his mastery of the world would allow him to move the exit. After the party got dumped out into a lake, or on top of a mountain and had to brave hours of random encounters getting back to town it would be a less appealing option.

Heck, Strahd might just demand all of the party's rope, or switch it out with a cursed rope while they were distracted.

Allow it certainly- but if I were you, and your DM is worth his salt, I would not expect it to be as safe as you imagine it to be in Barovia.

[Bel-Torac]

It would be nice, or you guys can just take watch during your short rests. Only places I think it would be useful is a dungeon or if you're trying to hide from some people. Just depends on your dm's style and if he drops lots of random encounters on you. He could also drop them after you finish your rests too so I wouldn't say it's a big deal.

Leomund's Tiny hut is nice too, but not necessary. I would focus on resting in secure places first off and definitely not in the woods.

[ad_hoc]

LTH wouldn't be very good in CoS.

Not a lot of places which will tolerate intruders hanging about.

Rope Trick is at least more inconspicuous and shorter term.

[TheCleverGuy]

I'm playing CoS now as a Gloom Stalker Ranger, so I got Rope Trick for free at level 5. We're at 7th level now, and I haven't used it yet. I expect it'll come in handy eventually, when we need a rest mid-dungeon.

[Citan]

Ideally I'd want Leomund's Tiny Hut as a place to rest, since it can last for a full rest.

However, due to party make-up, can't happen. Nobody has it on their class list.

BUT, through the wonderful Ravnica backgrounds granting bonus spells, I am capable of getting Rope Trick.

Party is a Divine Soul Sorc, Rogue Thief, two Fighters, a Monk, and me (Currently Druid but he's going to stay in Vallaki, long story) who will be a Cleric.

Essentially, it boils down to this: Via the Ravnica backgrounds, I can get access to either Rope Trick or Counterspell. While Counterspell absolutely RULES, its only useful against to many opponents. And its... REALLY useful against them. But Rope Trick can help keep us alive, safe, and our resources fresh all the time. I'd still have access to things like Silence to deal with enemy casters. Its not Counterspell, but its something.

So, Rope Trick or Counterspell?


If nobody else in the party has counterspell, probably counterspell. Otherwise rope trick. Alternatively, both are good, just take whichever of the two guilds better fits your character's personality.

Are you doing ravnica characters getting drawn into ravenloft, or refluffing curse of strahd to take place in ravnica, with barovia as like a cursed & sealed off district?

I'd tend to agree that as long as party has both spells how do you do it doesn't matter as much.

With that said...
Sorcerer can learn Counterspell easily. So I'd say you should learn Rope Trick.
BUT. Sorcerer can ALSO learn Catnap, and imo he really should too!

Considering it can affect three people and that you have...
- one 99% short-rest based (Monk) guy.
- people that have interesting short-rest resources (You as Cleric for Channel Divinity, Fighters)
If you are really in dire need for short rests (which I expect would be mainly for those reasons first), getting half party a short rest in 10 mn can really be a lifesaver.
Especially if some of those guys also got Inspiring leader or Healer feat.

So it all boils down to why you want short-rest first and how hard you expect it to work with Rope Trick.

If your Sorcerer would agree to pick both Counterspell and Catnap, and you like the other bonus spells on the list that gets Rope Trick go for it without regrets.
Otherwise, just let your gut guide you. :)

FWIW: after having found a way to view those lists, I think that Izzi list is a great pick for you if you go Cleric, very especially if you pick a "defensive/support" Cleric Domain such as Life, Nature Knowledge or Grave. Unseen Servant (which will be castable as ritual since you're Cleric) can be used in all kind of ways, Elemental Weapon could help a fighter, Conjure spells can also be used in many ways (including possibly getting Earth Elementals to dig a safe place underground? :)), including boosting party action economy (same with Animate Objects), and Glyph of Warding, while costly, could help you set up rear cover or traps.