Incidently, I'm rebuilding Strahd so he'll actually be a threat to my PCs. Once we finish the campaign, I'll post my rebuild (some of my players peruse thses forums).
I ended up giving Strahd an additional level in Dungeon Lord (see Dungeonscape) and replacing his fane powers with ancient vampire stats per the Vampire Age Categories rules.
Dungeon Lord... nice. Good thinking.
While we're actually on the topic of fixing him as per his background, should he have any levels in aristocrat?
He's always seemed rather contemptuous of "court life" and its associated luxuries, even as a mortal, so I'd think not. Even the living Von Zaroviches seem to favor adventuring classes over Aristocrat, according to Legacy of the Blood.
That said, I think I read that Strahd didn't learn necromancy until after his transformation into a vampire. Before that he was just a mundane warlord trying to retake Barovia from the Tergs. Besides, fighter levels fit with his persona.
Also keep in mind that Strahd was created well before the advent of templates in D&D monsters. So he's one hit die short of the minimum in terms of initial levels. Chalk it up to how 2e and 3.x don't always mesh perfectly.
So then Strahd would be a 5th level fighter? As per the current template, you have to be 5th level to become a vampire. Or maybe warrior instead of fighter. Even so, 5th level martial class plus vampire template, plus 16 levels of necromancer would make Strahd epic!
Strahd was set up for 2nd edition and he wasn't turned as your generic vampire, so that wouldn't apply and its nice to have some flexibility with the rules. Strahd made a pack with death as he died from a mortal wound from a castle guard and when he killed his brother Sergei the castles sentries shot arrows into his torso thus finalizing the pact with death and turning him into a vampire.
Strahd was set up for 2nd edition and he wasn't turned as your generic vampire, so that wouldn't apply and its nice to have some flexibility with the rules. Strahd made a pack with death as he died from a mortal wound from a castle guard and when he killed his brother Sergei the castles sentries shot arrows into his torso thus finalizing the pact with death and turning him into a vampire.
Actually, it was a rival family that killed him. I believe right after Tatyana threw herself off the castle walls, they attacked, and that is when he became a vampire.
Anyway, back to the subject at hand, which is the EtCR Strahd, if you want to give him fighter levels, give him two. Or if you want more, reduce his wizard levels to 8, and give him 4 fighter levels. Too much more will make him unreasonable for the encounter.
Also, Strahd does actually have pointed ears. Its in his description in Ravenloft. Just a little fact I re-read, for all those "elven strahd front cover" haters.:D
Here's what I went with:
Count Strahd von Zarovich
LE medium undead (augmented humanoid)
fighter 4/rogue 4/wizard 4/blackguard 3 (CR 17; CR 20 with the Fanes of Barovia).
Here's my reasoning:
He went up fighter/rogue/wizard relatively at the same time (1st level fighter, 2nd level rogue, 3rd level wizard, etc.). Let's clear the air on one point: Strahd is Dracula. In the late 19th century (when Bram Stoker wrote Dracula), aristocrats were expected not only to schmooz, but have a wide and varied knowledge of politics, science (or what passed for science at the time) and religion. As such (and considering that Strahd was a powerful warlord), he gained levels in fighter. Rogue I used strictly for the social aspect. I find the NPC class Aristocrat flawed, plus given the backstabbing nature of Romanian nobility in that era, I felt having sneak attack would not be wholistically out of character. Further, Strahd's family would insist on a basic knowledge of magic (thus the wizard) and Strahd was not made a vampire in the traditional sense. He petitioned some dark force to be created. The wizard levels would give him the groundwork to figure out how that was done. The blackguard is after his fall, which is really elementary, and seemed fitting.
He'll be a tough fight for my PCs, but I'm running anywhere between 4 and 8 characters through the module, so assuming all 8 show up, the fight should be reasonable. Rough, but reasonable.
Sure, the nobility in the 19th century were expected to be good at social repartee. But even when Stoker dreamed up Dracula, he was definitely depicting the guy as a militant medieval relic trying to learn how not to act like one (e.g. his attention to Harker's mannerisms in the first portion of the novel), not a suave master of small talk. That came later, mainly with the Christopher Lee movies.
And Strahd is not Dracula. He was, originally, an homage to the vampire image created by Stoker, but he always had more personality than the original novel's Dracula, who was far more of an eerie monster and far less human-like than many people realize.
Actually, it was a rival family that killed him. I believe right after Tatyana threw herself off the castle walls, they attacked, and that is when he became a vampire.
That is so not true. Read the module roots of evil and from the shadows of the grand conjunction, he gets killed while butchering everyone at his brother marriage. Even in the boxed set of ravenloft 2E if u read his story they imply that he got killed by the castle guards.
I wouldnt give much fighter lvl to sthrad as he was a general leading the troops. He did slaughtered many ppl, but he had the equipment, the stats and the army to help him.
For the calling of the power that made him a vampire (read inajira the arcanoloth), it is said in one of the 2 last modules of the grand conjonction that he had a wizard at his camp to conjure up the beast. So he need not take mage lvl before being trained by azalin.
Optimally he would take 2 fighter lvls and whatever much mage lvl u deem reasonable. (in 2e edition, he had the powers of a 300smtg years old vampire and was a 16e lvl necromancer, he rocked a lot of asses). Assume that he as some vampire immunities (like immune to garlic and holy symbol yet not turn undead) since hes been one for a while.
Hope it helps clarify it.
[responding to the theory that a rival family killed the wedding guests.] That is so not true. Read the module roots of evil and from the shadows of the grand conjunction, he gets killed while butchering everyone at his brother marriage. Even in the boxed set of ravenloft 2E if u read his story they imply that he got killed by the castle guards.
You're partially right, but only partially. The bits that you claim as fact have largely been superseded in 3rd edition. A brief explanation follows.
When the 1990 Black Box set came out, the official canonical stance was that Strahd himself went on a rampage and killed the wedding guests.
In 1993 PN Elrod wrote I, Strahd, which was told from Strahd's own point of view. It detailed the plot of the rival family (led by Leo Dilisnya - forefather of Ivan) to wipe out the Von Zaroviches. That novel makes it quite clear that Dilisnya's men were disguised as VZ guards during Sergei's wedding, and led a castle-wide bloody coup at the time.
Although Elrod leaves enough ambiguity for you to dismiss much of the details in "I, Strahd" as self-serving propaganda, the issue of the wedding massacre seemed to make less sense as the result of a single vampiric rampage, and more sense as a concerted coup attempt. In the book, Leo Dilisnya admits he started the rumor that Strahd killed the entire castle's worth of guests, and then mocks the general populace for believing that one man was capable of so much killing in such a short time.
(You hear that? Leo Dilisnya is mocking YOU! Let's both of us go break his face!
)I don't have the 1995 Red Box or the 1997 post-Requiem campaign book at hand, but by 3rd edition, Dilisnya's actions have been written into the official history and they are now part of the Ravenloft canon. Page 12 of the Core Rulebook states explicitly that Leo Dilisyna's men used poison-tipped crossbow bolts to kill the wedding guests, launching their attack after Strahd murdered Sergei. Page 17 of the Ravenloft Gazetteer I states that the populace now believes that Dilisnya's men killed Strahd, Sergei, Tatyana, and the rest of the wedding guests.
So your citations to From the Shadows and the 1990 Black Box Realm of Terror book are correct insofar as that is what they say. But in light of the 18 years that have passed since their publication, those sources have been superseded. Moreover, the story you dismiss as being "so not true" is actually canon.
In less than a year it's all going to be obsolete anyway.
And if WotC ever does decide to resurrect (reanimate?) Ravenloft for 4E, it'd be a lot further in the future than June. They've got FR, Eberron, and probably another setting or two to update first, and each of those'd be released in a different year, to avoid competition between product lines.
Going by his backstory from I, Strahd, Strahd never actually lived at court after his early childhood, but began training as a squire in preparation for war before he'd even turned 10. I don't think the "schmoozing nobility" idea works with him, the moreso in that he never bothered to establish a 'court' of his own, when he was alive, and now treats foreign dignitaries as a nuisance at best and an opportunity to insult his neighbors by butchering them more often.
Sure, the nobility in the 19th century were expected to be good at social repartee. But even when Stoker dreamed up Dracula, he was definitely depicting the guy as a militant medieval relic trying to learn how not to act like one (e.g. his attention to Harker's mannerisms in the first portion of the novel), not a suave master of small talk. That came later, mainly with the Christopher Lee movies.
And Strahd is not Dracula. He was, originally, an homage to the vampire image created by Stoker, but he always had more personality than the original novel's Dracula, who was far more of an eerie monster and far less human-like than many people realize.
I remember on the Ravenloft boxed set it said he "created" it, but I thought the dark powers did it? Is Strahd from any published game world originally. There was also a world mentioned where the Vistana made that club of unbreakable wood, from a tree at the top of the world.
The other thing you mention is the legend of Kulchek the Wanderer from the novels Knights of the Black Rose and Spectre of the Black Rose..
Count Strahd is from no published gameworld aside Ravenloft. His fall did indeed create the first domain of Ravenloft. He was the first being that the DPs snatched up.
The other thing you mention is the legend of Kulchek the Wanderer from the novels Knights of the Black Rose and Spectre of the Black Rose..
Yes, that's where I read it. I wonder if the tree at the top of world was a Ravenloft domain a published or unpublished game world the Vistani are originally from.
He did drop a few tantalizing hints/questions about the Kulchek Legend on Ravenloft-L (search for Kulchek)
For example the tale of Kulchek fighting 100 men is not to be taken at face value:
Well, the legend states that when Kulchek found the caverns beneath the Ivlis, he came to a room where 100 men where feasting. Now, at this point, Kulchek hadn't slept for 13 days. Now, the Gibbering Mouther is a large blob of flesh with eyes and mouthes all over it. And it can produce a Gibbering that causes beings near it to experience strange hallucinations. Thus, the Gibbering from the thing could have been what made Kulchek see 100 men, and they all leaped to attack him. But then he used his dagger, Novgor (good name James) and blinded 50 of the men by reflecting torchlight. (Blinded the whole creature, or at least gave it a handicap.) Then, he took his cudgel, Gard, and killed the other 50. (Killed the Mouther, as Gomez suggested.) Then, I agree with Gomez, that he leapt through the portal, which then changed into something dangerous.
to which James Lowder replied:
Well spotted, Mark. There are a couple things to ponder, though. (These
are purposeful "enigmas I laced into the material...)
--The cudgel at the site was, in fact, Gard. So Kulchek was there at
some point. But if he escaped through the portal, why was Gard there?
Also, why was Novgor (which Inza has in Spectre) still in RL?
--If Kulchek did get through the portal, how did the story of the 100
men survive? Who was left to tell it?
A little Kulchek trivia--the format for his adventures come from the
adventures of the Celtic hero Cuchulainn. His name is a variation of
Kolchak, everyone's favorite moster-hunting reporter.
Hoo ha,
Jim Lowder
I wonder if the tree at the top of world was a Ravenloft domain a published or unpublished game world the Vistani are originally from.
I don't think the "tree at the top of the world" reference was necessarily meant to be taken literally. Vistani stories are often laced with metaphor, and they're not particularly devoted to telling the truth, as a culture. Plus, at the time Knight of the Black Rose was written, Ravenloft's designers were pretty dead-set against putting hard limitations upon the Vistani or their origins, powers, etc.