Curse Of Strahd Review
Hello Dear Students! Today in this Blog post We Are Here to Give you The Curse Of Strahd Review
“The Curse of Strahd” sneaking around since the ’80s, taking players on a dark journey through “Ravenloft” a setting filled with horror tropes and an overbearing sense of dread.
Does the Ravenloft 5e update hold up? And finally, if you are a dungeon master, will your players love this gothic horror adventure for the world’s greatest roleplaying game?
Let’s brave the untold horrors together in this Curse of Strahd revamped review.
WHAT’S THE ADVENTURE ABOUT?
The Curse of Strahd inexorably drags the PCs from the forgotten realms into the dark and foreboding land of Barovia with thunder,
rain, ancient walls rising to castle spires, and a tarokka deck telling foreboding futures.
The PCs must adventure throughout Barovia, gain power and acquire unique magic items if they’re to have any hope of surviving castle Ravenloft, defeating Strahd, and escaping this land of endless gothic horror.
The strand campaign adventure works for characters levels with 1st and culminates at 10th level.
THE ADVENTURE PATH / SETTING
I have to combine the setting and adventure path here, and the reasons for that are at once the strongest and weakest elements of the book. Curse Of Strahd Review
To put it simply, there isn’t an adventure path in this campaign book The Curse of Strahd is a setting book, and somebody has tried to frame a skeleton framework of an adventure path inside it.
Now don’t get me wrong, the setting is fantastic.
Every inch of Barovia has been lovingly crafted with deep lore, rich visuals, and exciting encounters. This exceeds the original Ravenloft adventure box set from back in 2e days.
Around every corner of the map is some horrible conspiracy or innocent clue that will lead towards an entirely new adventure.
Curse of Strahd 5e is filled with classic horror tropes, from werewolf packs and vampire spawn to haunted dolls and even the equivalent of Baba Yaga, complete with a walking hut.
I LOVE the setting, but as an adventure path, it’s barely holding together.
It’s framed as a sandbox-style adventure, which I love, but there are barely any plot threads to stop even that from falling apart.
I can sum up the entire adventure with “The PCs are tricked into coming, they have to grind for a while then fight the vampire lord, Count Strahd Von Zarovich to leave.” Curse Of Strahd Review
Beautiful In The Book
There are a few NPCs that have ancillary roles around the main plot, but that’s it.
The SUBplots get incredibly interesting and involved, but there’s no direction.
It’s so directionless in fact, that the key items that the PCs are told to get for defeating Strahd are randomly distributed throughout the map in a slew of random locations.
All of this is a real shame since the book is filled to the brim with memorable characters, challenging fights, and intricate dungeon maps that harken back to the early days of high-danger dungeon crawls.
I honestly think that the best way to play D&D Curse of Strahd is to make your plot and just use this as a setting book. Curse Of Strahd Review
Make up your reasons to string the sub-plots together, rather than just letting your PCs wander and encouraging them to grind levels.
Even if you want a loose sandbox adventure, it’s a very difficult setup..
But they can’t, especially if they start at level 1, they’re too weak and will just die.
But there’s no non-game logic reason why they shouldn’t, nothing stops them from just strolling in and dying.
The players have to make the conscious decision to grind for levels, and that’s just not good roleplaying.
THE HAUNTED ONE BACKGROUND
If you’re just wanting the pure stats for this, they’re freely available online,
but the lore for this background is excellent and fits right in with any horror themes you might be playing around with. Curse Of Strahd Review
All around great addition to the base options for your favorite adventurer.
THE TREASURES OF BAROVIA
You probably shouldn’t sprinkle these into other adventures (unless you want to drastically shift some power levels) but they’re flavorful and well-designed artifacts regardless.
18 NEW MONSTERS/NPCS
Most of these are dour and nefarious villagers or are the D&D 5e Ravenloft equivalents of classic horror monsters.
I particularly loved the take on classical zombies, with their still-living limbs hopping around and causing problems when severed.
Excellent stat blocks, and great fodder for any undead-centric adventures you might be cooking up.
45 GORGEOUS MAPS
One of the best selling points for this book is its maps.
Considering how big and detailed some of these dungeons are, it might be worth picking up for these alone.
WHAT’S GOOD ABOUT THE BOOK?
The numerous dungeons are deep and satisfyingly difficult,
and the whole adventure harkens back to the early days of D&D where it was all about dungeon crawling.
I anticipate most groups spending 3-4 sessions in dungeons for each session they spend exploring.
Depending on your playstyle you might not think that’s great, but it makes me ecstatic and nostalgic for some deep diving dungeon crawling goodness.