“Strahd Von Zarovich-a selfish beast forever lurking behind a mask of tragic romance, the illusion of redemption that was ever only camouflage for his prey…”
– Tracy Hickman, Creator of STAHD
Curse of Strahd is a timeless gothic horror adventure originally inspired by Laura and Tracy Hickman’s Ravenloft and published by TSR in 1983. Upon its release, it garnered praise and awards from various outlets. Dragon magazine, a notable source for all things Dungeons and Dragons, ranked it as the 2nd best module of all time.
In 2016, Wizards of the Coast decided to release a new version to the market. An updated version that would change the 2nd edition module to reflect the 5th edition rules. In this article, I will go through Curse of Strahd chapter by chapter and provide a comprehensive and in-depth review of what I consider the best Dungeons and Dragons Module of all time. Curse of Strahd is here, and it is here to stay.
Want a copy for your own? Here is the module on Amazon: Curse of Strahd
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What is Curse of Strahd?
In summary, the adventurers find themselves in Barovia, a mysterious realm surrounded by a deadly fog that has many different mechanics that force the characters to stay within the area. They soon discover that Barovia is ruled by Strahd Von Zarovich, a vampire/wizard who has been holding the people in his realm in eternal imprisonment, with not even their souls being able to escape.
However, not all is lost for the adventurers. Madam Eva, a fortune-teller, tells the party their fortunes through a tarokka card deck. Using the information derived from the cards, an endless combination of adventures unfolds. Once Strahd finds out about the adventurers in his domain, he will go on a campaign to spy, taunt, torment, and eventually kill them.
The goals of the players are to find the hidden items or allies that will aid them in defeating Strahd, protect Ireena Kolyana (who has a remarkable resemblance to a past lover of Strahd), and stay alive as long as possible.
We will go over some important elements of this 4-6 player, level 1-10 module such as Barovia, The Tarokka Deck, Alterations to Magic, Groups within Barovia, Notable NPCs, Major Locations, The Mist, and Strahd himself.
Who is Strahd Von Zarovich?
The main villain of this campaign setting, Strahd is a character that has multitudes and depth that allows DM’s to take him in a lot of different ways. He has tragedy, he has aspirations of love, a powerful mind, and a lot of power at his disposal. One of the interesting components of Strahd as well is his persistence in tormenting the party by taunting them. He needs to conquer and dominate the party until he is bored and decides that he’d rather focus on breaking his toys.
History
What is Strahd’s backstory? Before becoming a vampire, he was son to King Barov von Zarovich. After his father’s death, Strahd became the conqueror we all know today. Strahd went after all his family’s enemies and destroyed them all. At the end of waging bloody wars, he had found that he cornered the last of his enemies in a beautiful and remote mountain valley. Having been taken with it’s beauty, he decided that this would be the place of his new kingdom.
Queen Ravenovia, Strahd’s mother, was mourning the death of King Barov and had become fearful of her son after seeing the monster that war had molded him into. Sergei, Strahd’s younger brother, was kept at home and away from the battlefield. This caused Strahd to grow jealous, forcing wizards and stonemasons from across the realm to gather and forge him a castle that would rival his homelands. After it’s completion, he forced his mother and younger brother to come join him. Tragically, Queen Ravenovia died on the way to the castle that was named after her. Castle Ravenloft would honor her by having a crypt deep inside to host her corpse.
Later On
After these events, Tatyana, a Barovian woman with remarkable beauty, found herself to be under the lustful eye of Strahd. It was a turn of events for the conqueror, Tatyana fell in love with Sergei instead. Finding that even with the gifts that Strahd gave her, she preferred the warmth and kindness of Sergei. They both fell in love and Strahd would simmer in anger until the day of their wedding.
On the day of the wedding, Strahd would commit kin killing. Drinking Sergei’s blood and seal the deal between him and the Dark Powers from the Shadowfell. After this, Strahd would chase Tatyana to the castle balcony, where she would throw herself off to escape him. This would result in her death and the Dark Powers threw the realm of Barovia onto its demi-plane where it resides to this day.
Roleplaying
Strahd has several goals in this game. They’re to turn Ireena Kolyana (reincarnated Tatyana) into a vampire spawn, kill the vampire hunter Rudolph Van Richten who is hiding somewhere in Barovia, and find a successor or consort to release himself from this curse he finds himself in.
Using these goals and his manipulative nature to turn the party against themselves will be a major tool in a DM’s Pocket. Additionally, use his want to terrorize people and conquer them throughout interactions to show his separation from humanity and most emotions that would have made him a man.
Abilities and Stats
Strahd’s stat block is nothing to laugh at.
His tactics, minions, abilities, lair actions, and actual stat block take up two entire pages. We are going to take some inspiration from themonstersknow.com and go through his stats for a comprehensive gander.
Strahd’s Tactics:
The module mentions that since the entire campaign is played around Strahd, that you need to play him in an intelligent manner. On top of that, you need to do all that you can to make him terrifying enough to justify giving him an entire module. That means attacking at advantageous moments from advantageous positions. Additionally, Strahd is someone who likes to mess with his victims. That means that sometimes he might fight them just to test their abilities for a round or two, then leave. Lastly, he’s not against asking people to join his ranks (until an opportunity occurs and he can backstab them of course) to turn them against each other.
Vampire Minions:
Strahd isn’t one to show up out of the blue without some backup. In the module, it instructs you to role a d20 and based on that role your players can face anything fro vampire spawn to dire wolves.
Heart of Sorrow:
This gives a bit of boldness to Strahd’s moves. Heart of Sorrow is a crystal gem that is located in Castle Ravenloft that absorbs the first 50 points of damage. This can be undone by destroying it or encasing Strahd within an antimagic field.
Lair Actions:
When inside Castle Ravenloft, he can take a multitude of lair actions that make him a formidable for and I recommend using them without restraint. This involves Strahd being able to pass through walls, causing windows and doors to open or magically locked, summoning angry spirits, and causing your literal shadow to rise up and kill you.
Stat Block:
In comparison to a normal vampire stat block, they are pretty similar. The biggest difference is that Strahd is described as being a 9th-level spellcaster with a spell save of 18 DC and +10 to hit with spell attacks.
The rest of the vampire’s abilities are also formidable. Things like Legendary Resistance and Legendary Actions will keep your players on their toes.
The biggest disadvantage to being a vampire though would be detrimental if used correctly. Things like not being able to enter a residence without an invitation or stake to the heart are some ways players could hurt Strahd’s ego.
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Barovia
Barovia is a land of ghosts, werewolves, and other horrific creatures. From the mysterious wilderness, forgotten ruins, and hard-fought battlefields are all at the player’s disposal to explore and collect clues. But it wasn’t always like this.
Where is Barovia? Barovia is a demi-plane outside the physical realm. When Strahd fulfilled his part of a dark pact with entities simply called the “Dark Powers” that dwell in Shadowfell, they cursed all of Barovia to another realm of existence and gave Strahd his vampirism and rule over the realm. While Strahd is stuck in the realm as well, he does think that a worthy inheritor of his role would free him. However, his ego and arrogance disallow this to happen.
The Mists of Barovia
Surrounding the outskirts of Barovia is a very thick, eerie, and deadly fog. One of the most interesting parts of this demi-plane is the mechanics that go along with it. This entails things like gaining levels of exhaustion on a failed DC 20 con save, being perpetually lost and turned around, and having your vision heavily obscured.
Alterations to Magic
Not even your magic is safe here!
While most magic works like usual, everything becomes a bit eerie. First off, nothing, and that means nothing can leave Strahd’s domain. Any planar spells simply fail upon casting. That includes stuff like banishment, astral projection, plane shift, teleport just don’t do their job.
Some noticeable exceptions are spells that summon creatures are okay, and stuff like Mordenkainen’s Magnificient Mansion works as long as it within the rules set within Barovia.
The Best Parts
Additionally, spells that allow players to get in contact with their deities or patrons still work, but with the distinction that Strahd knows that you are casting the spell, and can choose to become the person being contacted instead. Which in my professional opinion, is the funniest thing ever. There are also a ton of cosmetic spell modifications such as a scream instead of the familiar mental ping of the Alarm spell or Bigby’s Hand simply becomes a skeletal version.
A favorite part of mine is the section labeled Resurrection Madness. This indicates that souls are just as trapped as the living are. Being caught in the mist and knowing that your immortal soul is trapped in Barovia forever! If someone does attempt to bring you back, you have to roll on the indefinite madness table in the Dungeon Master’s guide.
Groups within Barovia
Many key organizations are fighting for survival in Strahd’s domain, here are a couple of them quickly summarized.
Barovians
The original inhabitants of this land are the Barovians. They are deeply invested in tradition and can react quite rudely to newcomers, outright staring at you as you pass or refusing to talk. Years of being in this realm have caused a once happy people to become bitter and fearful. A notable trait is that if you do manage to befriend a Barovian, you have a friend for life.
Furthermore, only about 1 in 10 Barovians have souls. As mentioned previously, even after death, your soul would be trapped here. That is not the end of living though. A soul, may it be decades, can find a body to be reincarnated into. That is why individuals like Ireena Kolyana can be reincarnated Tatyana.
Vistani
The Vistani are wanderers in Barovia who can actually leave Barovia and travel through the mist at any point. The lore states that is due to the Vistani people saving a previously wounded Strahd and returning him to his family without any pay.
They are flamboyant, wearing bright colors, and often found laughing, drinking, and enjoying each other’s company. Don’t let their charisma fool you, they view Strahd as a king and aren’t below selling fake potions to foolish adventurers who are trying to leave Barovia.
Vistani have several notable members like Madam Eva, who tells you your fortune and how to defeat Strahd or find the tools to do so. Vistani can also utter curses that make people lose nonmagical items, change their appearance, or gain vulnerability to a damage type. These curses are all temporary and inflict damage to the Vistani that casts it when it is over.
Krezekites
Similar to Barovians, except more scared and more drunk on wine.
The Tarokka Deck
Fortune Telling
My favorite mechanic of this module has to be the Tatokka Deck introduced by Madam Eva in the beginning of the module. They make the adventure different each time you play, resulting in replayability. In my own group, we like to shift the DM between campaigns, a mechanic like this allows even those with knowledge of the module to be caught off guard and transported into a new game!
The ritual will result in the party knowing five important elements of the game:
- Strahd’s location inside Castle Ravenloft
- The location of the Tome of Strahd
- The location of the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind
- The location of the Sunsword
- and the identity of a possible powerful ally to fight against Strahd.
You will do this before the game starts but write it down for reference later, but if they encounter someone who can perform a fortune, do it again and substitute the old for the new results.
The treasure items are meant to help you kill Strahd and there are a range of NPC’s that are implemented into the game to help you assist with killing Strahd. The location is where he is guaranteed to be when they go to Castle Ravenloft (unless he has been forced to go into his coffin).
Rating
Well, this article is already getting too long. The good news is that we will be returning to Barovia soon and talking about some other things I want to touch on before releasing a rating for the entire module. Next time we will be covering maps, items, and other mysteries. Join our discord (here) to be notified when that happens or join our newsletter above!
Here is my preliminary ratings:
Strahd: 9.5/10
I love his backstory, I love his attitude, I love his stat block. The only thing I could wish for was expanding his stat block to be more than just a copy and paste vampire with some spells. Additionally, I wish I had more lore to read on this guy to add to my arsenal when running the game.
Barovia and Groups: 9/10
Barovia has a ton of mechanics that make the game interesting. My only problem is that it can be confusing for people to keep track of all the different changes like magic alteration. I will say, I found myself immersed in the places, people, and tidbits of information mentioned throughout.
Tarokka Deck: 10/10
A really cool mechanic. Ensures replayability, uniqueness, and exploration! No big gripes about it. If you don’t have an official deck, you can literally use a deck of cards.
Thank you again for reading Part 1 of What Is Curse Of Strahd? The Best DnD Module.
Like this deep dive? Check out: A Devil Has Been Lurking in The Background of D&D Since 1E.
Resources:
- Perkins, Christopher, Jeremy Crawford, and Mike Mearls. Curse of Strahd Fifth edition., Wizards of the Coast, 2016.
- “Ravenloft.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 18 Feb. 2024, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ravenloft_(module). Accessed 8 Mar. 2024.
- https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/17043-vampire
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