Ravenloft / Strahd - Simplified - Spoilers

Thanks to this person here for the tips https://slyflourish.com/running_ravenloft.html

I SAY: And of course, reference the 1st edition version a LOT. 

Another one-shot version here: https://worldbuilderblog.me/

My Details / Needs

I don't want a one-shot, but I want it simple. 

Basing on 1e version from 1983, mostly. 

But party needs to level from level 5 to something decent to beat Strahd. Several battles, etc. ... but how many will it take to level to where they need to be? How strong should Strahd be... maybe need to nerf him a lot. --> well hold on, SOMEBODY say party of 4 at level 7 is fine to beat Strahd in 5e. BUT the verion of 5e I am reading indicates LEVEL 10 party of 4 or 6 characters (I mean, he's CR 15)!

REDDIT SAYS yeah, level 10 party of 4 to beat him, or level 9 party of 7 to beat him. "This is for RAW Strahd, with a party of 3-6 characters up to level 10. A level 10 party SHOULD beat Strahd, otherwise this game would have a very odd ending. If you only have 2-3 players, they should be level 11, if you have 7 players, they should be level 9. I will not cover leveling here, but this guide assumes you're following the basics." https://www.reddit.com/r/CurseofStrahd/comments/10ig8r2/a_strahd_combat_guide_how_to_rip_apart_your_party/

HOW NUKE STRAHD

• 5e says he's gotta be in running water or sunlight to die die, (prevents mist) instead of mist out of there.
• auto mist at 0 hp
• 1e 
• you're supposed to intelligently retreat with him, gaseous form, turn into bat or wolf, summon helpers to cover retreat
• he knows when he is in over his head
• a stake to heart just stuns him in place (via the TOME text, pg.32). 

ITEMS

• The Icon of Ravenloft, tiny statue
• 1e version, a tiny statue. The artifact adds a +4 bonus to turn any undead and heals 6-21 (3d6+3) hit points once per day when used by a cleric of good alignment. 
• 5e version, pg.233, has more cleric stuff, but you gotta be a cleric. 
• Super turn undead (DC +2+
• 1 time super heal 30 ft away 3d8+3
• Augury spell once a day
• Not great for our party... so we will get another super artifact instead. Anti-undead so... let's see....
• Sunsword - CHECK
• 1e description is:  Its blade is a form of crystal glassteel, held by a platinum hilt and guard. It glows with dim blue light most of the time.
  The sunsword is a +2 sword against all creatures except undead. When within 30 feet of any undead, the blade suddenly glows brilliant blue. The blade is +3 vs. undead (to hit and damage). When used against vampires, the blade flares and sparks when it hits, inflicting 10 additional points of damage per hit.
  
• 3.5e has SUN BLADE (kind of, via https://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/magic-weapons/specific-magic-weapons/sun-blade/) desc:
• Bastard sword (also treat like shortsword if more convenient). In normal combat, the glowing golden Blade of the weapon is equal to a +2 bastard sword. Against evil creatures, its enhancement bonus is +4. Against Negative Energy Plane creatures or undead creatures, the sword deals double damage (and ×3 on a critical hit instead of the usual ×2).

• https://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRD:Sun_Blade says In normal combat, the glowing golden blade of the weapon is equal to a +2 bastard sword. Against evil creatures, its enhancement bonus is +4. Against Negative Energy Plane creatures or undead creatures, the sword deals double damage (and x3 on a critical hit instead of the usual x2).

  The blade also has a special sunlight power. Once per day, the wielder can swing the blade vigorously above her head while speaking a command word. The sunblade then sheds a bright yellow radiance that is like full daylight. The radiance begins shining in a 10-foot radius around the sword wielder and extends outward at 5 feet per round for 10 rounds thereafter, to create a globe of light with a 60-foot radius. When the wielder stops swinging, the radiance fades to a dim glow that persists for another minute before disappearing entirely. All sun blades are of good alignment, and any evil creature attempting to wield one gains one negative level. The negative level remains as long as the sword is in hand and disappears when the sword is no longer wielded. This negative level never results in actual level loss, but it cannot be overcome in any way (including restoration spells) while the sword is wielded.

• 5e descr is: 

  Sunsword CoSp223
  Weapon (Longsword), legendary (requires attunement) Martial weapon, melee weapon
  3 lb.		1d8 Radiant Finesse, versatile (1d10)
  ... The hilt, which is sentient, knows that it can never be reunited with its original crystal blade. It has, however, gained the properties of a sun blade: While grasping the hilt, you can use a bonus action to cause a blade of pure radiance to spring into existence, or make the blade disappear. While the blade exists, this magic longsword has the finesse property. If you are proficient with shortswords or longswords, you are proficient with the Sunsword. You gain a +2 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with this weapon, which deals radiant damage instead of slashing damage. When you hit an undead with it, that target takes an extra 1d8 radiant damage. The sword's luminous blade emits bright light in a 15-foot radius and dim light for an additional 15 feet. The light is sunlight. While the blade persists, you can use an action to expand or reduce its radius of bright and dim light by 5 feet each, to a maximum of 30 feet each or a minimum of 10 feet each. Sentience. The Sunsword is a sentient chaotic good weapon with an Intelligence of 11, a Wisdom of 17, and a Charisma of 16. It has hearing and normal vision out to a range of 60 feet. The weapon communicates by transmitting emotions to the creature carrying it or wielding it. Personality. The Sunsword's special purpose is to destroy Strahd, not so much because it wants to free the land of Barovia from evil but because it wants revenge for the loss of its crystal blade. The weapon secretly fears its own destruction. Finesse. When making an attack with a finesse weapon, you use your choice of your Strength or Dexterity modifier for the attack and damage rolls. You must use the same modifier for both rolls. Versatile. This weapon can be used with one or two hands. A damage value in parentheses appears with the property—the damage when the weapon is used with two hands to make a melee attack.

• Holy Symbol of Ravenkind, 1e version = medalian
  
• 1e version: When presented against vampires, however, it flares with the light of the sun for 1-10 rounds. Remember that vampires are destroyed by exposure to direct sunlight for 10 rounds. Vampires cannot move or attack while the medallion flares. Other creatures are not be affected by the medallion. The medallion can only be used once per week.
  
• I think Strahd doesnt die from Sunlight in 1e tho. 
• 5e version: 
• Super turn undead if u are cleric
• Hold vampires
• Sunlight - hurts or kills vamps (5e Strahd takes 20 dmg per round sunlight)
• Tome of Stradh
• 1e, it's just a journal with clues to how to find and beat him. The "text" of it has big clues, 30% chance per paragraph to read each paragraph. 
• 5e, same i guess... weird they dont treat the "text" of it as big of a deal. Very funky. 
• Where the hell is the magic user loot? Zilcho. I thought TOME was a spellbook, gah. 
• OPTIONAL 5e loot
• Gulthias staff
• madness DC 12
• anti twig blights
• Blood spear 
• steal temp 2d6 hp
• Saint Markovia's Thighbone
• Is a Mace of Disruption

Takeaways from their one-shots

• Reduce it all to one goal, kill Strahd. 
• Once the adventures begin, set a timer for three hours and fifteen minutes, leaving 45 minutes for the final confrontation with Strahd. When the timer runs out Strahd attacks the characters wherever they are and with whatever artifacts they have received.
• Recover the Three Artifacts Before Facing Strahd
• To help them kill Strahd, the characters must seek out three powerful artifacts hidden within the castle including the Sun Sword, the Icon of Ravenloft, and the Tome of Strahd.
• Change the 5e freeze him artifact into something more fun. 
• Replace the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind with the Icon of Ravenloft because the Icon's abilities better fit the theme of this game and a paralyzed Strahd isn't much fun. That means the Icon of Ravenloft does not sit on the altar in room K15. Instead, replace it with a large bowl of holy water able to restore the vitality of the party once, giving them the equivalent of a short or long rest depending on how hard a time the characters are having.
• https://dnd5e.wikidot.com/wondrous-items:holy-symbol-of-ravenkind

• Add a trait to the Tome of Strahd to speed things up if needed. When defeated, the characters can burn the Tome of Strahd to destroy Strahd permanently instead of seeking out his coffin. This is likely the only item the characters need to truly defeat Strahd. This item can also shatter the crystalline heart that grants Strahd 50 extra hit points if we choose.
• Take away the 5e 50hp healing crystalline heart maybe, probably. 
• Dinner... how does that happen in 1e? In 5e, apparently the madame Eva is in the carriage also. 
• Maps for Online Play
• Because of the timing, it's best to run this scenario mostly in the theater of the mind. It can help, however, for the players to see the rooms they're in and what rooms they've already explored. The maps in Curse of Strahd follow the isometric versions found in the original I6 Ravenloft module but you can find excellent Ravenloft battle maps on the DM's Guild. 
• $$$ https://www.dmsguild.com/product/254681/Castle-Ravenloft-Battle-Maps?affiliate_id=70406
• 
  
• Change Up Room K78
• Room K78 in the dungeons of Ravenloft, as written in Curse of Strahd, can teleport the characters outside the castle which isn't any good for our one-shot version. You can limit the stones to Red, Orange, and Yellow to keep the teleporters within the castle itself.
• *** the party needs to fight some standard vampires so they understand what they normally are like. 
• Still toying with idea of temp level drain. Heck, don't the Wights have it in 5e? 

INTRO

Intro: The Carriage Ride to Ravenloft and the Drawing

When following the traditional model, read or summarize the following as the characters begin the adventure:

The ornate black carriage roars along the narrow winding road leading to Castle Ravenloft. Peering out one window, you watch rocks fall one thousand feet to the river below. Ahead the carriage master turns his cowled face towards you, his eyes shrouded under his tattered leather tricorn hat. Reaching back with an arm too long for his body, he gently pushes you back into the carriage and locks the door.

Raspy laughter rattles the glyphed coins of Madame Eva's veil. Sitting across from you, she draws an ancient worn deck of cards from her colored robes and begins placing them face up on the small table inside the carriage.

When using Curse of Strahd for this run of Ravenloft, use the simplified fortune drawing described in James Introcaso's Guide to Running Curse of Strahd as a one-shot adventure with one minor exception: skip the ally and stick to the location of the three artifacts and Strahd himself. Remove all but the following cards from the common cards in the Tarokka deck or a normal deck of cards:

xxxx see his link, personally I think I'll just make it up to speed things up. 

Facing Strahd von Zarovich

45 minute before the end of the game, Strahd arrives and unleashes his full power. As a spellcasting vampire, Strahd is a complicated monster to run.

If the characters have the three items, Strahd may find himself at at a great disadvantage. Greater invisibility is Strahd's best weapon, removing any disadvantage he has, preventing him from being targeted by spells that require sight, letting him move freely without opportunity attacks, and preventing his spells from getting countered.

This does, however, remove his ability to charm, which we can safely ignore since many characters are either immune or block it from others.Strahd's spider climb is an effective way of staying out of reach of powerful melee characters. For more tactics on running vampires, see the Monster Knows What They're Doing on Vampires.

Strahd is likely a hard challenge for a group of 7th level characters. If you happen to be running him at a higher level or feel he needs to be beefed up, add one or more of the following enhancements:

• Increase Strahd's hit points up to to 200.
• Increase the necrotic damage of Strahd's bite to 14 (4d6) or 21 (6d6).
• Make these changes to Strahd's prepared spells: shield instead of comprehend languages, mage armor instead of prestidigitation, counterspell instead of nondetection, lightning bolt instead of fireball, dispel magic instead of scrying, misty step instead of detect thoughts.
• Give Strahd 60 feet Blindsight so he can see through his own fog cloud.
• Let Strahd use legendary actions to cast spells, one action per spell level.

If you have more than four characters, consider adding one vampire spawn for each character above four. These spawn may serve as Strahd's brides. If you want to give them some mechanical flavor, you can give them the capabilities of a mage, veteran, or assassin (without the poison).