Summary

• In Vecna: Eve of Ruin, Strahd von Zarovich is a memorable villain with a temporary appearance in a haunted mansion.
• Strahd is Lawful Evil, controls Barovia, and prefers to be personally involved, spying on players and manipulating events.
• Strahd is untouchable with hidden weaknesses, obsessed with lost love and his brother, and a master manipulator in horror-themed campaigns.

168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dungeons & Dragons reintroduces famous locations and villains in the Vecna: Eve of Ruin adventure module. This includes the Lord of Barovia and immortal vampire, Strahd von Zarovich, along with the infamous Death Ho💎use location that turns would-be adventurers into minced m🙈eat while Strahd stalks the hallways.

Whether you are using Strahd in your homebrewed version of Eve of Ruin or just plopping him into a new setting altogether, there are distinct aspects to Strahd that make him the m🧔emorable villain he is. Although, to play as Strahd von Zarovich, you only need to keep a few details in mind to make him consistent.

8 Consider His Role 💫In Eve of Ruin ♉

In Vecna: Eve of Ruin, the party appears in Strahd's domain of Barovia, locked in by the everlasting fog that traps the horrid place in the Shadowfell. Both after a piece of the Rod of Seven Parts, the party and Strahd enter into a haunted mansion known as the Death House.

While campaign adventures like Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft have ample opportunities for Strahd to appear, in this adventure, he only makes a temporary appearance, almost like a cameo. Here you should ham up the performance of an immortal vampire lord to really make sure the players get as much "Strahd" as possible.

Strahd's stat block changes depending on the module or adventure he appears in, so don't be scared to change spells or abilities you don't like.

7 Make Him Personally Involved In Your Players 👍

As shown in Eve of Ruin, Strahd prefers to be directly involved with any of the goings-on in ꧟his foggy domain 🅘of Barovia. Especially if it involves a group of bright-eyed travelers he has yet to completely break. As long as Strahd is capable, give him an ear to the ground to plans being made against him.

You can display this by having Strahd mention something he could not otherwise have seen if he wasn't spying on the party, alerting your players that he is nearly omnipresent without the aid of magic to suppress his senses. Describing him as just a silhouette on a mountain peak is enough to warn the party that Strahd is always watching.

6 Play Him As♏ Lawful Evil 🤪

Strahd's official alignment is lawful evil, and this is due to the fact that he has full control over his citizens while endlessly torturing them in subtle ways. For this reason, you should play Strahd to keep an iron grip on the people of Barovia, giving them the false hope that they can live a long life as long as they follow the rules.

During role-play, this means he is very unlikely to go berserk or fly off the handle, even when directly insulted or confronted. Strahd should know he has a distinct advantage over everyone in his realm, so make sure he isn't coy when showing it off.

5 ᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚ Interchange His Parts To Fit Your Campaign

If you love the idea of Strahd but not the baggage of lore that follows when dropping him into your campaign, consider changing 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:minor aspects of the vampire to keep it personal to your campaign setting. This can be as simple as changing the name of the 𓆏character to his starting ra꧟ce and gender or even size.

The core of Strahd is his alignment, status as a vampire and lord over a hidden realm, and skills for using 🌞magic. Using these bones, you can reanimate Strahd into any form that best suits the needs of your players while allowing you to insert a memorable villain with a finished stat block.

4 Make Him Untouchable (Until He Isn't)

The thing that makes Strahd so dangerous is he is so hard to kill despite his number of mechanical weaknesses. Not only does the party have to bring him to zero hit points, but also destroy his hidden and protected coffin before he regenerates, which you can use to Strahd's advantage.

While Strahd will still leave a fight before he falls to zero, despite his immortal safety net, do not be afraid to put him in danger knowing that he can easily escape. This can be reflected in Strahd's personality when role-playing him, displaying a cocky arrogance that switches to enraged when proven to be vulnerable.

3 Use His Complicated 🦂Relationships

It's important to remember that Strahd is more than just an immortal vampire lord; he was once a lover and a brother. In a fit of jealous rage, Strahd killed his brother, Sergei, and after learning his fate, his fiancé leapt from the top of Ravenloft tower. Strahd's obsession with his lost love and brother still infects his personality centuries later and this piece of lore should be accessible during play.

Since the soul of Sergei's fiancé, Tatyana, reincarnates officially into characters like Ireena Kolyana from 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft, make Strahd horribly obsessed𝔉 with these characters and drop his calm demeanor when encountered or mentioned. If the party learns of these relationships, allow them✅ to use them against Strahd.

You can also add, remove, or completely change these characters t🐲o suit your campaign or player characters.

2 Remember He Is A Master Manipula෴tor 𝔉

Knowing that Strahd has a 20 in Intelligence makes it no surprise that he is able to successfully꧟ drive thꦐe people of Barovia to madness with his magic and deception. This can make it very difficult for your players to tell if Strahd is personally affecting their perception or the creeping horror is playing tricks on their minds.

Mechanically, use Strahd's spells like Nondetection, Greater Invisibility, Scrying, and Polymorph to both spy on and trick his victims into near insanity, before finally drawing their blood and forcing them to become vampire thralls. Whatever plan the party thinks of, you should allow Strahd to think of 20 moves to counter it.

1 Use Strahd With Horror The💟mes

Strahd works best in any 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:type of horror campaign you place him in, specifically to act as an all-knowing, immovable threat that delighꦅts in causing as much terror as possible. Where to his victims, every move is an act of life or death, for Strahd, it is just a way to stave off ce🐠nturies of boredom.

This is why Strahd's stats are built specifically for horror-themed campaigns, like the Charm and shape-changing abilities that would otherwise be more of a nuisance in generic, heroic fantasy or comedic campaigns. Using Strahd's weaknesses against him should prove to be a challenge to your players, and not easily circumvented.