Help with Curse of Strahd (Spoilers for players)

[DomesticHausCat]

HEAVY PLAYER SPOILERS AHEAD

So you've got the Tome of Strahd, the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind and the Sunblade as destined items the players are meant to get on their adventure. However I will have seven players when I start this adventure. So I was thinking of including four more destined items of similar design and balance so all players could have one. Was thinking so far of adding these three. But I'm not sure of what the fourth destined item should be.

Eye of Vecna
Hand of Vecna
Vampire Killer (homebrew item)

Hand of Vecna would be nerfed to only add 1d4 extra cold damage instead of 2d8 per melee attacks. It would just make the sunsword look worse with it's measly 1d8 extra damage when ONLY attacking undead. The eye of Vecna I'm fine with unchanged.

The Vampire Killer is of course based off of the same weapon from the Castlevania series. One of the players will be playing a Belmont inspired whip using Paladin in this game so it would fit well. There are some homebrew versions of this I found so far, but my favorite iteration is as such. With a little adjustment from me as well.

+2 whip
Does 1d8 extra damage against undead
Does 4d6 extra damage against vampires
Can as a bonus action make an extra attack with 5ft reach only to stake an enemy with the butt end of the whip's handle. This attack does 1d4+str or dex piercing damage. If this attack beats the AC of the opponent by 10 or more then the opponent is staked in the heart.

The 4d6 of the Vampire Killer against vampires isn't that much better than the sunsword because the sunsword automatically just does 20 extra damage to vampires anyways.

Not sure what the 7th item should be. Was considering the Apparatus of Kwalish but with some nerfs. But I'm open to other ideas.

If anyone thinks these extra items are too strong or too weak and should use some tweaking let me know. I want them all to be on equal footing with the Tome of Strahd, Holy Symbol of Ravenkind and the Sunsword.

Thanks in advance!

[5eNeedsDarksun]

Do the players have the Blood Spear? That seems thematic and similar in power to those other items. I suppose it's not quite as good if players have a regular source of Temp HP, though even in our campaign where I was a player with Inspiring Leader the martial made regular use of this. PAM with spear and shield isn't exactly a weak fighting style either.

[Angelalex242]

Keep in mind the Hand and Eye synergize when used by the same person. It's reasonable to figure the same person who gets the eye might want the hand too. Or the other way around.

Anyways, I'm not sure bringing Vecna's stuff into a Strahd campaign is the best plan, because it's reasonable to figure someone using the Eye and Hand might end up the next Darklord himself.

Bringing in the Belmont Whip is a cool idea though.

You might also, if you're a Buffy fan, bring in the Slayer Scythe.

Also from Buffy, is the Hammer of the Troll Gods (Seen vs. Glorificus.)

Likewise remember...the Sunsword is cool, but it's straight up inferior to a Holy Avenger in every way.

[DomesticHausCat]

Yeah I was thinking of eliminating the dual bonuses of using both the eye and the hand of Vecna at the same time to reduce the chances of a new dark lord rising. However considering the whole dark gifts and dark powers of the setting, it would be kinda fitting not gonna lie.

Blood spear sounds pretty appealing, it fits rather well. I'll look into the Buffy suggestions. Speaking of which I still would like to check that show out when I get some extra free time lol!

[Angelalex242]

Oh, no. Leave those synergizing bonuses in. If somebody wishes to get drunk on the dark side, it's totally appropriate to make that PC the new master of Ravenloft...you'll want to think up an appropriate curse.

[Keravath]

There are other items already in the module that you might be able to use for this. I would lean away from adding Artifact level items from outside the module.

Even then there is a range of level of power in the items - the Tome of Strahd does nothing except provide background information and makes the character carrying it a target of Strahd, the Sunsword is useful especially against vampires but it is only a +2 that does an extra d8 against vampires and emits sunlight , the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind is decent against undead and vampires but requires a good aligned cleric or paladin to attune to it.

The other items in the module that you could use are the Bloodspear - though you might want to boost it slightly, Icon of Ravenloft - exceptionally good properties against undead and fiends (30' protection from evil and good in particular), and Saint Markovia's Thighbone (mace of disruption) - could boost this a bit if you want. You could also modify the effects of the Gulthias staff to fit the party a bit better. These are all more or less unique magic items already in CoS and balanced for it.

The "artifacts" that you find in CoS aren't artifacts in the DMG sense - they are artifacts from the point of view of the plot of CoS not due to any innate power.

However, your suggested additions aren't even remotely balanced with these (they are several times more powerful). The two Vecna artifacts are vastly overpowered for CoS. Just look at the list of benefits associated with each that doesn't include the random major beneficial properties (permanent truesight, 20 strength ... several charge based effects and the campaign may get messed up because they also force the user to switch to a neutral evil alignment). In addition, the homebrewed weapon is also overpowered and tailored to favor one specific character that you know will be using a whip. If you are giving one player a massively OP homebrewed item you'll need to come up with something for every other character or folks will know you are playing favorites and that typically doesn't go over well.

The 20 damage from the sunsword or sunlight in general is situational.

Also, keep in mind that Strahd is extremely intelligent. His intelligence is 20 and wisdom 15. His flaw is over confidence not stupidity. Strahd also knows these items are in his domain, he knows what they can do and how they can be used, and with the number of spies (wolves, bats, vistani ...) he has, he will also know that the party has recovered these items.

Strahd has access to the Amber temple which has every spell in the PHB. Strahd became a wizard by studying in the library at the Amber temple and if he wants to swap his spell list, it is trivial for him to do so.

What does all this mean? Strahd will come up with tactics to eliminate these folks that mitigates or suppresses any benefits these items provide as much as possible. He will look at the conflict as a fun game to break up his perennial boredom and another opportunity to crush some upstarts since none could possibly be worthy to replace him.

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When I ran this, the players completed most of the content in the module so by the time they went to the castle they had all of these items. In addition, there are enough milestone leveling opportunities that starting at level 3 after the Death house they can easily be level 11-14 when they fight Strahd.

Strahd as written will die within two combat rounds (or less) against a party like this so he needs some beefing up if you run it for a group that goes after everything and want it to be an interesting fight.

In my game, Strahd realized that the party had become quite powerful (he had crushed them when they were level 7 for the fun of it with the aid of a few of his werewolves) so he took up the challenge to better himself a bit.
- Strahd retrieved his Animated Armor and +2 greatsword and used both.
- I bumped Strahd's hit points close to the maximum
- Strahd returned to the Amber temple and improved his spellcasting - I bumped him up to an 13th level spellcaster and tuned his spell list
- Strahd enlisted a few allies - he gave the surviving druids from Yesterhill their wish and gave them a job to do, he created a few vampires from his vampire spawn and also created two vampire spellcaster lieutenants

The party then encountered Strahd in the castle at the location of the prophecy (which the players avoided until they had explored the entire castle - they killed Rahadin and one of the vampire spellcasters and the other threats in the castle). Strahd set this encounter up so that he would have all the advantages of course. He arrayed his four druids with each hidden in a corner of the room, he flanked himself with a couple of vampires and the vampire spellcaster. When the players entered there was some discussion and before the players could attack two druids cast fog cloud, the remaining two druids cast silence covering most of the room and Strahd cast Tensor's transformation on himself and waded into melee against the party to show them his true mettle.

It was a good fight with a couple of characters knocked unconscious at different points and the party having to deal with the fog and the silence but despite his confidence and his plan, Strahd was eventually defeated.

My point is really that CoS doesn't need overpowered artifacts added since there are so many anti-undead anti-vampire items already in the module that Strahd as written won't be much of a challenge.

The main items missing from CoS though are general magic items. There is a very limited selection of magical weapons available and most of the items are only available later in the game. Much of the magic in CoS is in the castle catacombs or Strahd's treasure room that the party won't usually see until the end of the game. As written, there are no magical bows, no magical swords (except the sunsword), no magical polearms ... so if players choose to build characters around specific weapons/fighting style it is up to the DM to either hint to them to broaden their options or add a couple of magical weapons/items.

[Angelalex242]

That's the thing, though.

Somebody wielding the hand and eye might actually hit the level of 'worthy replacement for me.' A hand/eye wielder would be similar to Azalin in old Ravenloft. You will definitely get your own domain with those two items.

[DomesticHausCat]

That's an interesting angle to consider. Strahd being interested in a new Dread Lord via a new Vecna is a fun concept. Although yes the Vecna items would have to be nerfed. One of the players may be down to try and become a new Dread Lord anyway which would be fun/funny.

I don't think the whip is op though. The 4d6 only applies against vampires. And it is comparable to the extra 20 sunlight damage the sunsword does. Plus they both do an extra 1d8 damage against undead, so the damage is comparable.

Sure the stake action is very strong and it's not set in stone yet it can be tweaked. Was thinking of making it be +12 higher than ac to stake a heart instead. It does use up the bonus action though which wouldn't synergize with all builds.

You're right that favorites shouldn't be played. The blood spear or other similar artifacts that are in the book would have to be buffed. And the Holy Symbol and Tome of strahd can be buffed too.

That's true, Strahd is very intelligent and he would definitely do something about these items. That's something I'll think on as well.

Edit: The stake attack doesn't add the 1d8 and 4d6 extra damage. Though after thinking about it some more the stake attack should just be an action anyway not a bonus action.