Touch of Death (3.5 conversion) Help

[Hazgarn]

My Strahd is a little more like Bram Stoker's Dracula than the oftentimes quite "in control" one PN Elrod wrote of in his fantastic books.

I'd say that even in the books, Strahd struck me as temperamental and passion-driven enough to qualify as chaotic. He can plan, he can make and enforce laws and likely values his word, but if something happens to truly incite his rage (or obsessions, in Tatyana's case), that's when he becomes more unpredictable.

Though one nitpick: P.N. Elrod is a she.

[Zilfer]

My Strahd is a little more like Bram Stoker's Dracula than the oftentimes quite "in control" one PN Elrod wrote of in his fantastic books.

I'd say that even in the books, Strahd struck me as temperamental and passion-driven enough to qualify as chaotic. He can plan, he can make and enforce laws and likely values his word, but if something happens to truly incite his rage (or obsessions, in Tatyana's case), that's when he becomes more unpredictable.

Though one nitpick: P.N. Elrod is a she.

^and for some reason I thought Elrod was a guy. O.O'

[Ryan Naylor]

Where is he listed as CE? As in, what is your source?

Because (while there's a bit of variation, some of which has had errata), he's meant to be LE.

[Zilfer]

Where is he listed as CE? As in, what is your source?

Because (while there's a bit of variation, some of which has had errata), he's meant to be LE.

Which is what I see him as.

Though an example of him listed CE is SoTDR. (Secrets of the Dread Realms) I'm sure this was Erratted and might have been 3.0 before it switched 3.5.

[Hazgarn]

Both Gaz. I and Secrets list him as CE.

[Ryan Naylor]

And both were errataed.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

And both were errataed.

Where? Not in our collection of errata:
http://fraternityofshadows.com/TheVault/RL_Errata.html

Were there some "Ask Azalin"s that were missed in compiling that?

Personally, I always liked him as CE. It presented a nice contrast to Azalin's LE (Especially in I Strahd 2). Strahd might think he's Lawful, but his personality doesn't seem so to me. (Maybe his lawful and chaotic aspects balance out to NE?)

[Ryan Naylor]

It must have been in an Ask Azalin then.

EDIT: But apparently I'm wrong. Oh well. After 15 years, I'm bound to misremember some things... Sorry!



I prefer him being LE, I must say. I think it fits best with his personality (the rigid self-control, the obsession, keeping his word, the possessiveness of his mastery over the land, protecting his people...). I like it for the same reason you like him being CE - just because he and Azalin are both LE, doesn't mean they'll get along *at all.* It also makes his betrayal of Sergei even more so: he didn't just betray his brother, he betrayed everything he believed in as well.

Also, from a purely game design point of view, I'm bored by "CE is the most evil evil!" And there are hundreds and hundreds of other CE darklords.



As a retrospective:

In pseudo-Ravenloft adventures:
I6 - CE
I10 - CE
Expedition to Castle Ravenloft - LE

In Ravenloft campaign settings:
The Black Box - LE
The Red Box - LE
Domains of Dread - LE
SotDR/Gaz I - CE (but I'm convinced it was erratad to LE)

RL adventures:
House of Strahd - LE
From the Shadows - CE (although that's just a standard vampire stat block)
Roots of Evil - LE

Overall, I'm sure he's meant to be LE.

[Mangrum]

We (forum users) had long debates on the issue of Strahd's alignment back in the day. And no, it was never officially changed via errata. To quickly touch on those arguments, I myself believe that CE is as accurate as anything. Strahd certainly acts to protect Barovia from outside threats, but that's because, in my view, he's doing nothing more than protecting that which he sees as his personal property--lands and folk included equally. He's prone to murderous rages and exceptionally treacherous; I can't imagine Strahd allowing a promise he'd made to prevent him from taking what he wants.

Basically, it comes down to this: I think the darkly honorable Strahd in Elrod's novels is, fittingly, Strahd as he sees himself. I think the "real" Strahd is the blackguard we see in Vampire of the Mists.

[alhoon]

OK, I'm convinced he's NE then. Valid arguments for LE, valid arguments for CE. So... that's a natural NE.
And not the neutral evil that's 20% lawful, 60% neutral, 20% chaotic. But the 40% lawful, 20% neutral, 40% chaotic kind.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

MOD NOTE: Poor Quinntonia.... just wants advice on converting Touch of Death and here we (self included) are debating Strahd's alignment... without invoking Viagra, I can't think of a better example of getting off-topic. Let's take it to a new thread, shall we?

[alhoon]

Well, what is your experience, what are you suggestions?

And further to that, what did you do to bring Ancient Egypt alive?

The main problem is that as written there's very little opportunity for the PCs to learn any of the backstory. Since it's such a good backstory, that's a pity, and you should find ways to communicate it.

As Ryan said, the backstory is nice. I would suggest throwing in silver tablets with parts of the story, the parts you want the PCs to learn, in hieroglyphics. The PCs would probably grab them as treasure and while looking to sell them, they'll probably seek someone to read them.

My experience was... I can't remember it very well. I think we dropped it after a time.
All I remember was my PCs cutting through the villager mob with abandon once they were attacked for "Stealing" the water of the fountain. I had the village have about 250-300 people. The PCs killing 20-30 commoners in 2 nights was a genocide the village would need generations to come out from.

[Quinntonia]

Thanks for weighing in on the whole "debate about Strahd is a side issue" issue.

As for the module itself, I think that having them gain access to some kind of Rosetta Stone-like device would be incredibly helpful. I wonder what I could have them find though? I like the silver tablets idea, they could have been created by previous visitors trapped there. Maybe something in with three or four languages on it that can be used to translate with some successful skill/intelligence checks.

I do want to drive home the very alien nature of this particular culture, with none of the PCs knowing the language, for example.

I was wondering though, about gold. I'm imagining that gold is still valuable, but only at a tenth its price, because there is so much covering the various temples and perhaps water is far more valuable. That being said, with a cleric that can create water in pretty significant amounts, that might not hinder them much, but it might be nice flavour.

As far as food and drink? Maybe alcohol is prohibited? The food consists of baklava and dates and spicy goat dishes?

Also, while I like the lpflavour of being attached by the townspeople as outsider infidels, they will slaughter normal people, how should I deal with that?

[Resonant Curse]

Also, while I like the lpflavour of being attached by the townspeople as outsider infidels, they will slaughter normal people, how should I deal with that?

You can try beefing up some of the local "city watch"/religious zealot types. The City Watchman base class from the Kingdoms of Kalamar campaign setting is great for making pcs think twice about messing with the locals, and it is a licensed D&D product, so it's even closer to technically being D&D than the Whitewolf/Arthaus Ravenloft material even though it is made by Kenzer and Company. The party may be able to mow through villagers, but if some of the random villagers are buffed but not wearing any armor or using an actual weapon or something, it's harder for them to pick and choose who is attacking them. Or use the Swarm rules for them provided in the "torches and pitchforks" sidebar in one of the core books. I think that was the name of it. Give the mob a morale bonus to attack and damage for being so incensed. Things like that. Don't forget that you can also have them stone the PCs as well, ranged attacks can help weaken them before the local muscle comes to try and show them a lesson. Or have the muscle arrive just in time to take on the PCs when they go after the elders, children, craftsmen, and whoever else may have started with stones. Attacks on the weaker members will also draw a larger crowd, and most pcs, even fairly evil ones won't feel good about slaughtering commoners. Maybe give anyone not flat out evil a penalty to attacks and damage if they aren't doing subdual or something. Hurray for morale being two edged.

[Resonant Curse]

On the plus side we had feedback on the Strahd's Alignment question from two of the contributors to Ravenloft, so it wasn't a complete waste.