Darklords' Realistic CRs

[Warlock'sFriend]

So I see a lot of people talking about how they're disappointed that some of the darklords have pretty wimpy CRs in Van Richten's Guide. With Darklords like Vladeska Drakov who are no more dangerous than most of her servants, I understand that frustration. I know that her real danger comes from the army at her disposal, but still.

What I'm curious about are the Darklords who have additional abilities tied to the generic stat blocks given. How much more dangerous does the Disintegrate spell make Saidra from the standard wraith? How much does Ivana Boritsi's ability to recreate level 1 through 7 wizard spell effects after just an hour in her lab boost her CR?

I'm just curious to get other people's thoughts on this since I haven't found much discussion about it on other forums.

[1Pirate]

I think the point of the additional abilities isn't to affect their CR, the Darklords in VRGtR aren't really meant to be beings you confront directly in standard combat. Their additional powers are meant to be plot devices for the most part.

The viability of the CR system is the subject of a much bigger debate anyway.

[Evaar]

I think the point of the additional abilities isn't to affect their CR, the Darklords in VRGtR aren't really meant to be beings you confront directly in standard combat. Their additional powers are meant to be plot devices for the most part.

The viability of the CR system is the subject of a much bigger debate anyway.

And confronting a Darklord directly, even if the party can stomp them, probably doesn’t solve anything. They’ll just come back, maybe stronger. Their realm and curse need to be investigated and somehow undone to have a hope of vanquishing them permanently; even then they may just be replaced.

Sorry to answer your question with a comment about something else, OP, I don’t have a good answer for you. The darklords aren’t about brute power anyway so it’s somewhat irrelevant.

[Psyren]

Remember too that their "difficulty" doesn't take into account some of their more dangerous abilities, like being able to seal their borders, intercept your divinations, and spy on you if you catch their attention. By themselves in a straight-up fight, some of them may not seem particularly threatening just by stats - but your chances of catching them by themselves outside of a battlefield they've specifically prepared to mitigate their weaknesses and counter your strengths is essentially nil.

And as Evaar mentioned, death in Ravenloft is seldom final, particularly for the villains.