For anyone wanting to extend CoS into the Vampyr fight, you need to make sure that the lore gets to the players throughout the game. It can't be Strahd as the BBEG all throughout and then suddenly "oh there's a bigger one now". The easiest way to do so is through the Tome of Strahd and through Strahd himself. Maybe Rictavio or Ezmerelda can give some too
So much this. I can't imagine my players *enjoying* finding out after killing Strahd that there not actually done. I feel like it would be so anticlimactic to then go do a fetch quest. I'd definitely make sure they find out about it somewhere so that they know it's coming, and I'd add the Amber Temple to the list of places they can learn about it :)
In my game my players asked Ireena to stay in the Valaaki church for a bit (they returned the bones so the church is hallowed grounds). Ireena didn't want to stay put and be of no use, so she started researching the church's archives. When the players came back Ireena presented them with an old, and mostly faded, scroll but with a few passages that could be read along the lines: "Strahd has been vanquished a long time ago, but something is not right in castle Ravenloft". This was a great way of alluding to Vampyr, the curse's cyclical nature and to get my players interested in finding more about Barovia's past.
This is it! I informed my group about Vampyr through means of Exethander, when they visited him in the amber temple. They are now more determined than ever to remove Strahd and then end this whole affair once an for all, it was really effective.
I plan on making the curse clear to my players, of how hopeless Strahd's pursuits are. I also plan on making Strahd a little more susceptible to finally believe that once Ireena dies (and after a good enough fight against the big man himself), so a potential 'final battle' against Vampyr would involve Strahd himself as an ally, in a 'rage against the heavens' for lack of a better term.
Heroes who formerly vanquished Strahd, but failed to bind Vampyr who then get turned into servants of Strahd sounds like a really fun premise for an "evil" campaign. Party does Strahd's bidding hunting down a new group of adventures then chooses to be loyal, usurp Strahd, or finish what they started centuries ago, after regaining some memories and autonomy of course.
As someone who is running CoS, this videos are gold to me. For my Campaign, I'm letting my players know up front that there are multiple ways they can go about saving Barovia via Madame Eva as my info dump (it was her magic that brought them in the first place). From there, my party can decide how they want to go about things: Kill Strahd and repeat the cycle, defeat Vampyr and other Elder Gods in the Amber Temple or replace Strahd and set him free. I love the idea that they can fight Vampyr and jill Strahd and liberate the land though I am also adding in the idea that there are other dark powers fighting for control and will possibly make another party member 'their champion'.
I'm not sold on the idea of Vampyr at the end of Strahd's story, but I am sold on the encounter itself, which would work well (with tweaks) to seal an Eberron Overlord back into Khyber.
@@guttyjip I can't remember all of the specifics, but they did manage to pull it off. The Paladin dealt a crazy amount of damage and the Druid made use of some creative ways to keep the conditions that the party was being afflicted with off. In the end, they managed to hold him off long enough for one of their NPC Sorcerer friends to finish the ritual
Just finished this battle. After a year-long Strahd campaign, my DM decided that this was a good way to end it. Unfortunately my character has an 11 wisdom, so when the Fear psalm was triggered, before the battle starts, my character failed. When we learned the effect, everyone at the table realized that there was only a slim chance that I could regain control of my character. Unfortunately, I never did, even after the DM told us I could get advantage on the saves if I was in sunlight. I wasn't needed for the psalm readings, so my character stood dumbly in the light of a lantern, running back to it when the dread hand grabbed me once, while the other players completed the ritual without me. This was really awkward for everyone at the table, and I ended up really disappointed, since I wasn't able to participate in the final battle of the campaign. Just wanted to give a heads up to anyone considering running this. Maybe keeping this in mind and preparing for it can prevent something similar from happening to your players.
An easy fix (and honestly my original interpretation of the Fear Psalm) iis that if you are in the ritual lantern light you no longer have to use your action/movement to run to light. You're still considered frightened and if the light you're by is gone you still have to use your movement/action to get to the light, but otherwise you can do things as normal while within the light.
This. This is what I've been waiting for. My campaign's party is still a few months away from this, but having this info will help with the climactic prep. Thanks LBH! This will be put to great use!
last session, my party JUST learned of Vampyr's existance and the possibility of sealing him, this video will help alot on the prep for it if they survive Strahd, they only have Berez, Argynvostholt and ravenloft to go and they know how to cleanse the paladin of Argynvostholt. Thanks for the help you brought everyone for this campaign :)
My second group completed this successfully at level 12. They recruited Ismark, Ezmerelda, and their ally Zuleka to help. Only death was Ismark for a few rounds, but they revived him immediately. I rolled 4 for the 1d4-1 Vampire Spawn EVERY time so they were everywhere! Tide turned when the Bard used Mass Suggestion and told them all to go to Ravenloft and sweep Sergei's tomb. They wisely prepped with Heroes' Feast, giving them all immunity to fear and adv on all Wisdom saves. Wizard tried Otto's Irresistible Dance on Vampyrs summoned form. It was forced to dance but still landed attacks. Funny moment. They went to the Amber Temple one last time to give Exethanter the amber block, and Strahds dust remains and then took their leave of Barovia. (At which point the Beacon stops working.) Thanks for the content!
I just started to run CoS for the first time. I got this crazy idea to link this adventure with the Innistrad Campaign setting where there's a Vampire Planeswalker who created an angel god to free Innistrad, Planeswalker Sorin Markov, who is possibly either the source of Strahd's power or the only one who can kill Strahd... But I think this Vampyr idea is also interesting... I might gonna use this, or maybe just pit both the god and Planeswalker together 🤣🤣🤣 But in any case, I really like the idea of finally finishing Strahd off. Thank you for sharing!
If any of you run this encounter and wanna actually have an evil laugh sound effect to play in the event that they fail in the ritual I suggest that you go with Gary Oldman's iconic laugh from Bram Stoker's Dracula
I already gave my party the original ritual for binding Vampyr, but this sounds so much cooler. I'll have to work on a hybrid version that incorporates the Psalms of Terror
I was planning to set curse of Straht in a 1001 night mythical Babylonian world with the goddess lamashtu as the one who bestowed the curse on Straht. This is video is absolutely perfect for my campaign.
Coming up on my Curse of Strahd finale. Strahd kidnapped Ireena, leaving behind a wedding invitation. Party has decided to perform the ritual to seal Vampyr on the way to the wedding. (They’ve already been to the Amber Temple. I kept trying to gently nudge them towards doing Strahd first, but they were dead set.) Probably going to have to tone down the ritual a bit, since they’re level 9, but they do absurd damage and have a decent amount of healing, so I’m probably mostly going to drop those 17 DCs to 14 or 15.
"Your party cant kill a god at such a low level" Icewind Dale: "wanna bet?" (Before anyone tries to "instruct" me I know Auril is weakened in the module lol)
I am going to run this, with one amendment, i will substitute the vampire spawn with Strahd. Yes, multiple Strahd, like multiverse of madness, each representing a version of Strahd that was killed by previous adventurers. This implies there were several iterations of adventurers who defeated him and subsequently fell to Vampyr or simply left Barovia, allowing the curse to continue. I will use Strahd's stats, but not his legendary actions. My party is a group of 8 level 10 characters with all three artifacts, I'm sure they will be fine >:)
Question for the creators, for Amber: 1. If the character fails to read the stanza because of the choking effect, does that mean the ritual fails and everyone dies?
This is great! It can either be used as a reprise (like you said) or as an extended version of CoS if your players loved the setting and want more or if they killed Strahd earlier than thought.
One of my players is a warlock to Dahlver-Nar, who has been released into the world. I think I might adapt this ritual in case said player wishes to take over as Dreadlord. Maybe Dahlver-Nar can help in the fight by providing buffs to the players in time of need. Really well designed ritual btw, love this idea. My party is lvl 10 and will be ready for Strahd in not too long. So this video comes at a very good time. :)
This is sooo god! I am a big fan and will DEFINETLY use it for my Strahd groupt that will fight in the battle of Vallaki next week. Krezk vs Vallaki in a open field battle to free Vallaki from the Wachters :P (Don't ask how it came this far) LOVE IT
Ran CoS a year ago and Strahd joined the party to help lift his curse and fight Vampyr They traveled into an "upside down" version of Barovia and fought a literal army (their forces being some barovians and the ghosts of old dead adventurers) and ended with a 1200hp Vampyr fight, a 600hp Lich-Death Knight hybrid, 30 ads, 7 level 20 PCs, and one of the most BADASS endings to a campaign I've ran
This is such a great idea. I can't use it for my running adventure, my players are nearly done and I want to keep Strahd as the BBEG. But if I ever run it again, I am doing this.
I wasn't sure if I wanted to run vampyr, and then my party got OBSESSED with the idea of strahd being a puppet to something larger as they learned about him. like yeah, true. wanna full break barovia free not just kill a guy? ok.
Oooh, finally you uploaded this! Was beginning to fear I had to do the entire thing from scratch, and trust me, I ain't cut out for that!! What I will use as the stick/carrot however, for my party, is that because I've given them infinite "free" resurections throughout the game (I didn't like the concept of introducing a new "heroic" character to the party midway through the quest) I'll spill the beans to them that the price they've paid for their resurections, is giving away small pieces of their souls to Vampir (Vampyr is literally "Vampire" in Norwegian, so I changed that) and should they leave Barovia, they will just instantly fall dead, because they lack parts of their souls. Now, every single on of my PCs have had need of that resurection, so this will really tie them to it, you win, or you die. After that, they'll have some cleanup duty to do, then we can move on to the next great campaign! ...9 levels higher, in like 2 weeks ingame...
Anyone try doing this ritual BEFORE confronting Strahd? I absolutely love this binding ritual and its significance for ensuring that Strahd dies permanently, but I still want the Strahd confrontation to be the Big Boss battle at the end. Maybe they bind Vampyr without Strahd realizing until he dies that it is permanent?
This is great! I’ve been wanting to hear your thoughts on Vampyr and the Vampyr fight for some time now, so this is great! I’ll be taking your stuff into consideration for my campaign!
Dose anyone remember that character trait from Fallout 1 and 2 called "Jinxed"? It basically just makes failing tests waaaay more common. Like... for everyone! I want that translated into D&D
I love this a lot, having strahd be the champion, having a better manifestation of all the evil (i didnt like the dark lords as a source), getting something else after the strahd fight to continue. But why the closing words of strahd reanimating as a villain? Id will gladly pledge and run this fight but i will finally let strahd rest after his curse is broken (and maybe find his love in the afterlife)
I was very confused by this for a moment, because I was just watching some videos of the new stuff from the Binding of Isaac: Repentance, and the Binding of Vampyr sounded like some weird parody.
First of all, thanks A LOT for your videos. They are a hell of an improve to the original adventure. Now, what if... players try to bind Vampyr before killing Strahd, as a way to give redemption to him? Would Strahd turn to human again after Vampyr's binding? My players always talk about "saving" Strahd. They're now entering AMber Temple and I have already put some lore about Vampyr since they found Ez.
I know no one helped, and I am a first time DM who hasn't been there so i can't help. But I would love to hear if you found an answer to yourself (or already played it and could talk about it)
I'm doing this, but doing it before they kill Strahd so that when they do, he stays dead. The final battle is Strahd, but they'll be lucky to get there
I don't know if you'll ever see this since it's so very long after you posted the video, but you have just given me the ultimate final battle of my campaign's Second Act. I've known for a long time that I was going to push a Vampire Civil War in my game setting that would happen over the course of most of Act II, and I knew that the *finale* would involve Chaos Cultists using the Lance of Eternal Night to murder the sun. The players would then have only a few days to reignite the sun and save the world. But I was lacking a final villain of this arc. My Strahd [Prince Rotansin] would likely be dead before this happened and he's really only going to be the target of a single party; I needed something big enough for *two* parties to tackle together. Enter Vampyr or better still the "Lord of Blood" as you call him makes him the perfect antagonist for my world. He sounds like he could be a demon god or even a Galchutt, one of the Cthulhu-like beings who serve as the setting's ultimate foes. The Chaos Cults *serve* the Galchutt, so the death of Prince Rotansin could have awoken the Lord of Blood, who orders his cult to find and use the Lance. And in some way I haven't worked out yet, locking the Lord of Blood away again is one of the required steps before the sun *can* be resurrected. The sun has a soul, perhaps, one normally shared by the various sun gods in the setting, but upon being slain, that soul has gone into the Lord of Blood's possession. This has been something I've been struggling with for ages... on some level I probably started thinking about this before I revived my campaign with the start of Act II over a year ago. I had a "final boss" *situation* but no actual boss fight. That was so unsatisfying. This gives me exactly what I needed. I cannot thank you enough.
I've always attributed Vampyr to Death itself, since there are so many references to a deal with death. So not so much a vampire god, I treat vampyr as another name or a specific interpretation / avatar of Nerull from Greyhawk (Basically the grim reaper).
I'm just about to use this next session for the climax of the campaign ! I have one question though : for the complex trap, at initiative 20 and 10, we choose each time one of the possible "active element" to use, right ? Or are they all unleashed each time ?
Hey just looking for some clarification! Love this and I'll be running it with my players later this week and just want to ensure it's balanced. I read through this section of raising the stakes and it didn't seem clear there either. - Does the essence of Vampyr continue to function after the Aspect is summoned? - Does the essence just use smothering darkness on the lanterns or is there something else snuffing them out? Thanks for all your help! I've been using LBH for my CoS campaign that's been going strong for over 2 years now and I can't express how much you've helped.
I intend to have the players leave Barovia thinking they have defeated Strahd and purified the land by slaying him. Some players will certainly be resurected throughout CoS, while simultaniosly they get the DeathCurse from Tomb of Annihilation. Which will force them to find informatiom/cure after they left barovia. They will visit Candlekeep for information on the curse, while also doing 1 or 2 quest there to get an audience with a powerfull mage/prof. They will be informed about the death curse, but not about its origin or how to stop it. But the mage will tell them that only two beeings/entitys might know the answer they seek (Ravenqueen & Lady of Pain). They will be offered a portal to 1 of the two planes. The players will have to to make their way through either the Shadowfell or Sigil, leveling as they go. So when they reach the Ravenqueen or the Lady of Pain they will be lvl 14-15. The Ravenqueen and the Lady of Pain will give them the information only for a favor, which she will request after they lift their curse. They party will be directed towards Chult where they will have a cut down version of the Tomb of Anni, but increased in difficulty due to lvl to lift their curses. I expect the players to be lvl 18-20 at this point. They will return to the Ravenqueen or Lady of Pain, where they get ordered to return to Barovia and cleanse the real thread Vampyr. The Ravenqueen wants to include barovia into her own domain and is interested in the powers and memories Barovia holds. The Lady of Pain might have a similar interest (still need to figure out). This aproach makes it more interesting and believeable to have a lvl 19 or 20 party fight Vampyr (a demigod) in an epic battle.
I noticed something with The stat block and all. It seems to lack a way to stop The players from just using tiny hut as a bunker with one ranged player dealing damage from within. Any idea how to deal with that?
I am contemplating using the The Binding of Vampyr. It seems excellent. I have one major question about the encounter as outlined. One of the methods for the party to lose is: snuffing out the ritual lanterns. Quoting the write up: During the ritual, Vampyr's Essence will attempt to snuff out the light of these lanterns. If all of them go out, the ritual fails! I am missing (I presume) the how of that attempted snuffing. Is this something left to the GM or am I just being dense?
IM running this tonight, on a VTT going to be amazing as I can adjust special effects with the reading. Is the aspect of Vampyr meant to be constrained to the Circle of salt or can he exit. I have a party lvl 12 w/dawn. While strahd was able to avoid and or counter. If Vampyr is restricted to the circle they will decimate him fast with ranged spells/Attacks. I suppose I can just have a spawn break the line. PS. My whole group appreciates the raising the stakes addition you have made.
I just wanna say how much I enjoy your videos. I've been watching all your CoS vids in prep for running it. They're so helpful. I've included quite a few of your ideas into my game prep. Keep it up!
So to start the ritual the players roll initiative. They read the psalms one per round? Do all of the pc have to read it together or does only one pc have to read it per round? If only one has to read it can it be the same one each round or does each psalm have to be read by a different character? Then once each psalm is read the aspect comes out, gets destoryed(hopefully), and sucked into an amber block. Am I getting that correct? Btw just got into your videos these are super helpful! Great work!
Hello. Terribly sorry for bothering you, but I need a clarification on Binding of Vampyr from Raising the stakes. Do effects of "Vampyr's essence" (the complex trap) still work after "Aspect of Vampyr" enters the battle? E.g. do party still have to worry about lanterns and is the battlefield still a misty difficult terrain? Thanks in advance and thanks a lot for your fantastic guide, it was a blessing for my CoS run that is nearing the final battle now.
If the Dark Powers imprisoned Barovia, does defeating Vampyr free the land? Also, how much time do you give the party to gather ingredients and prepare the ritual before Vampyr resurrects Strahd?
Really cool, but I have a few questions. 1. Where do the enemies like the vampire spawn appear? Inside the 50ft diameter circle or outside it? If outside, can they enter? 2. Is it intended for each pslam/stanza to be one round? So from Bone to Amber:5 that's 9 rounds? Is it basically every party member speaks the pslam each round and if noone can, its game over? 3. The mist heavily obscuring the ritual area seems really rough. If the group doesn't have a mist dispersal spell or item, its permanent blindness (disadvantage). In my mind, heavy hinting at that kind of magic would hopefully prevent this, but if you got a thick headed party it feels like a TPK before things even get going. I guess that's CoS for ya tho. 4. On the other end of the spectrum if you have a smart party that gathers a small army to take pot shots from outside of the circle, what do you think is the best way to deal with this? I'm thinking maybe the mist dispersal doesn't work on the outer circumference of the circle. Or maybe, it does but very quickly comes back, giving a chance every once in a while to get some extra damage off. Thanks for your time. These CoS resources are terrific!
this is great and it came just in time...best patreon i took eveeer! just 2 questions... 1)My party is about to enter castle.. they dont have a character who can use the holy symbol of ravenkind (healer is a rogue with fast hands and healer treat that uses healers kit). so they used it to cleanse a fane site and left it there! Will it be a MUST on this ritual? 2nd)Will the bones of a saint be necessary?(previous edition) cause they did a whole quest for this. if not ill tell them to melt wax and put the bone powder in candles of lanterns.
I like to think that it’s the souls of the adventurers brought in from the outside, that is the main feeding. The souls of the Barovian villagers are just kind of the subsistence that allows Strahd to survive.
Seems like a neat idea but I think Strahd should be the be all end all, and I like the dark powers to be a vague mysterious almost incomprehensible force Plus I want to move on to a new campaign after Strahd Especially because I may kill a couple players in the Strahd fight to give some weight to it
Yeah I was thinking a little about that myself! My main idea to fix that was somehow working in Strahd as the Aspect of Vampyr, whether it be a reincarnation and a modified stat block or just replacing the appearance. Seems fitting as a champion!
@@hyberjection So would you fight Straud twice? Or would it just buff Straud? Because if so you definitely have tease it early on that way it doesn't just seem like an ass pull. The way I see it if you ran Straud in a properly terrifying way its impossible to one up him with a different boss, Strahd at least the way I see him is supposed to represent Saiten or at least Caine, so if you do try to one up him you would have to make a boss fight with evil itself and that takes away from the mystery and dread of it once you know you can punch it in the face (Also because I was planning on running ToA in the future and I think Ascerak and Vampyr are to similar)
my thoughts currently, as it stands, is to have the players learn all of this from the spirit of argynvost before they have the dinner, then return, slay the dragon's undead corpse, return the skull to the beacon, and gain the revenants as allies (instead of having them all die off as RAW) then eventually work their way through berez, the amber temple, and the castle before confronting strahd, hopefully dropping him to 0. Then, he calles out to vampyr, and gains a second monstrous demonic form (my players have joked constantly that everyone calls him the Devil strahd, so im gonna lean into that moniker) then they finally kill that, stake his coffin, then go to bind vampyr, unless the party, having been corrupted by their vestige given gifts (as every one of them has one now, but im running a little bit differently off a very good homebrew supplement ) decides to try and take the thrown and ireena, having beena vampire this entire time, reverts to tatyana and becomes vampyrs new champion. Que twist fight, which after the double whammy of strahd, theyre not gonna be able to win, and they get flung out of the throne room (where i plan to have the final fight with our demonic count) they get a long rest, heal up, go forward, then hopefully decide (and learn from the trio of strahd, argynvost, and tatyna) that they cant leave until vampyr is sealed as he controls the mists
@@LunchBreakHeroes eventually they decided to go after Strahd first. (and only two character died in the process) They will be going after Vampyr in the next and probably final session.
Wait a min... Strahd is a wizard .... he had a patron .....which makes him a warlock ... I mean if i had an eternity to live i would multiclass into something more useful..
Hoping someone can help, running this in a few weeks most likely, but am a bit confused by how combat actually works with Vampyr's Essence (the trap). It acts on Initiative Count 10 and 20, so am I right in assuming that means it uses an Active Element of its choosing on both of those initiative counts + the Constant Elements on top of this? Then when the Aspect of Vampyr is summoned - minus the Bastion of Evil - does the Essence continue to make those two actions in addition to the Aspect making its turn + Legendary actions? Just seems like a lot of actions from Vampyr's side and just trying to make sure I'm reading this all correctly
I mean that's a pretty cool idea and all, but I feel like itd better to just beef up Strahd (since we can all agree his stat block suuuucks) and make him the true badass villian of the adventure like he's supposed to be and not just the minion of some greater villian.
I've never looked at the 5e book for Castle Ravenloft, but it sounds full of needless bloat. A god of vampires? Really? For me, that's a dumb idea. Only a god of death could, y'know, manipulate things into undeath. I thought this video was going to focus on how to bring the dark being (called the Creature) from House on Gryphon Hill into a more mainline continuity (such as being the essence of Strahd's doubts, fears, and regret). Oh well.
For anyone wanting to extend CoS into the Vampyr fight, you need to make sure that the lore gets to the players throughout the game. It can't be Strahd as the BBEG all throughout and then suddenly "oh there's a bigger one now".
The easiest way to do so is through the Tome of Strahd and through Strahd himself. Maybe Rictavio or Ezmerelda can give some too
Very good point. Don’t just JRPG this thing.
So much this. I can't imagine my players *enjoying* finding out after killing Strahd that there not actually done. I feel like it would be so anticlimactic to then go do a fetch quest. I'd definitely make sure they find out about it somewhere so that they know it's coming, and I'd add the Amber Temple to the list of places they can learn about it :)
In my game my players asked Ireena to stay in the Valaaki church for a bit (they returned the bones so the church is hallowed grounds). Ireena didn't want to stay put and be of no use, so she started researching the church's archives. When the players came back Ireena presented them with an old, and mostly faded, scroll but with a few passages that could be read along the lines: "Strahd has been vanquished a long time ago, but something is not right in castle Ravenloft". This was a great way of alluding to Vampyr, the curse's cyclical nature and to get my players interested in finding more about Barovia's past.
That’s fantastic!
This is it! I informed my group about Vampyr through means of Exethander, when they visited him in the amber temple. They are now more determined than ever to remove Strahd and then end this whole affair once an for all, it was really effective.
Cool.
I think I'm going to imply that the mists of Barovia are literally Vampyr's gaseous form ;-)
Holy crap, I love this idea.
I plan on making the curse clear to my players, of how hopeless Strahd's pursuits are. I also plan on making Strahd a little more susceptible to finally believe that once Ireena dies (and after a good enough fight against the big man himself), so a potential 'final battle' against Vampyr would involve Strahd himself as an ally, in a 'rage against the heavens' for lack of a better term.
Running this encounter for my level 13 party today! It's been a long road to this point and they're ready to lift the curse once and for all
How did it go?
Heroes who formerly vanquished Strahd, but failed to bind Vampyr who then get turned into servants of Strahd sounds like a really fun premise for an "evil" campaign. Party does Strahd's bidding hunting down a new group of adventures then chooses to be loyal, usurp Strahd, or finish what they started centuries ago, after regaining some memories and autonomy of course.
Absolutely perfect timing. We ended last session with them summoning it. You and the reddit community been such a great help to my campaign! 💚💚
Glad to be of service!
2:40 I'm going to come back and watch this part whenever I need some motivation into my life, this is powerful
Everyone needs a dark god in their corner sometimes!
As someone who is running CoS, this videos are gold to me. For my Campaign, I'm letting my players know up front that there are multiple ways they can go about saving Barovia via Madame Eva as my info dump (it was her magic that brought them in the first place). From there, my party can decide how they want to go about things: Kill Strahd and repeat the cycle, defeat Vampyr and other Elder Gods in the Amber Temple or replace Strahd and set him free. I love the idea that they can fight Vampyr and jill Strahd and liberate the land though I am also adding in the idea that there are other dark powers fighting for control and will possibly make another party member 'their champion'.
Lol I like... today’s morning said “i wish new LBH guide will be published today”
Wish granted! Now to figure out which horrific unintended side effect goes with it.
I'm not sold on the idea of Vampyr at the end of Strahd's story, but I am sold on the encounter itself, which would work well (with tweaks) to seal an Eberron Overlord back into Khyber.
Ran this at the final battle of my CoS campaign and it was amazing!! The party had a great time. Thanks for the amazing supplement!!
You’re very welcome, and I’m glad you all had fun!
My party is literally summoning this dude in like 6 days, perfect timing my friend 🙏
Good luck!
How did it go?
@@guttyjip I can't remember all of the specifics, but they did manage to pull it off. The Paladin dealt a crazy amount of damage and the Druid made use of some creative ways to keep the conditions that the party was being afflicted with off. In the end, they managed to hold him off long enough for one of their NPC Sorcerer friends to finish the ritual
Just finished this battle. After a year-long Strahd campaign, my DM decided that this was a good way to end it. Unfortunately my character has an 11 wisdom, so when the Fear psalm was triggered, before the battle starts, my character failed. When we learned the effect, everyone at the table realized that there was only a slim chance that I could regain control of my character. Unfortunately, I never did, even after the DM told us I could get advantage on the saves if I was in sunlight. I wasn't needed for the psalm readings, so my character stood dumbly in the light of a lantern, running back to it when the dread hand grabbed me once, while the other players completed the ritual without me. This was really awkward for everyone at the table, and I ended up really disappointed, since I wasn't able to participate in the final battle of the campaign.
Just wanted to give a heads up to anyone considering running this. Maybe keeping this in mind and preparing for it can prevent something similar from happening to your players.
An easy fix (and honestly my original interpretation of the Fear Psalm) iis that if you are in the ritual lantern light you no longer have to use your action/movement to run to light. You're still considered frightened and if the light you're by is gone you still have to use your movement/action to get to the light, but otherwise you can do things as normal while within the light.
This. This is what I've been waiting for. My campaign's party is still a few months away from this, but having this info will help with the climactic prep. Thanks LBH! This will be put to great use!
Glad I could help!
LBH: You have been waiting for this video for a long time...
Me: I just learned of this channel yesterday
last session, my party JUST learned of Vampyr's existance and the possibility of sealing him, this video will help alot on the prep for it if they survive Strahd, they only have Berez, Argynvostholt and ravenloft to go and they know how to cleanse the paladin of Argynvostholt. Thanks for the help you brought everyone for this campaign :)
Happy to help!
My second group completed this successfully at level 12. They recruited Ismark, Ezmerelda, and their ally Zuleka to help. Only death was Ismark for a few rounds, but they revived him immediately. I rolled 4 for the 1d4-1 Vampire Spawn EVERY time so they were everywhere! Tide turned when the Bard used Mass Suggestion and told them all to go to Ravenloft and sweep Sergei's tomb.
They wisely prepped with Heroes' Feast, giving them all immunity to fear and adv on all Wisdom saves.
Wizard tried Otto's Irresistible Dance on Vampyrs summoned form. It was forced to dance but still landed attacks. Funny moment.
They went to the Amber Temple one last time to give Exethanter the amber block, and Strahds dust remains and then took their leave of Barovia. (At which point the Beacon stops working.)
Thanks for the content!
I just started to run CoS for the first time. I got this crazy idea to link this adventure with the Innistrad Campaign setting where there's a Vampire Planeswalker who created an angel god to free Innistrad, Planeswalker Sorin Markov, who is possibly either the source of Strahd's power or the only one who can kill Strahd... But I think this Vampyr idea is also interesting... I might gonna use this, or maybe just pit both the god and Planeswalker together 🤣🤣🤣
But in any case, I really like the idea of finally finishing Strahd off. Thank you for sharing!
If any of you run this encounter and wanna actually have an evil laugh sound effect to play in the event that they fail in the ritual I suggest that you go with Gary Oldman's iconic laugh from Bram Stoker's Dracula
Great idea!
ua-cam.com/video/fqJGBsMCl-c/v-deo.html
For your convenience here is a link to the sound effect.
Or King Theoden!
I already gave my party the original ritual for binding Vampyr, but this sounds so much cooler. I'll have to work on a hybrid version that incorporates the Psalms of Terror
Nothing wrong with a little retcon. :-)
Yeah, I mentioned to the party I might be doing a little retconing and they are already joking about having to gather Hag teeth...
I was planning to set curse of Straht in a 1001 night mythical Babylonian world with the goddess lamashtu as the one who bestowed the curse on Straht. This is video is absolutely perfect for my campaign.
Coming up on my Curse of Strahd finale. Strahd kidnapped Ireena, leaving behind a wedding invitation. Party has decided to perform the ritual to seal Vampyr on the way to the wedding. (They’ve already been to the Amber Temple. I kept trying to gently nudge them towards doing Strahd first, but they were dead set.)
Probably going to have to tone down the ritual a bit, since they’re level 9, but they do absurd damage and have a decent amount of healing, so I’m probably mostly going to drop those 17 DCs to 14 or 15.
Not killing Strahd first just begs for him to show up during the Binding ritual, which I think would be even worse
"Your party cant kill a god at such a low level"
Icewind Dale: "wanna bet?"
(Before anyone tries to "instruct" me I know Auril is weakened in the module lol)
Icewind Dale: “Hold my beer”
I am going to run this, with one amendment, i will substitute the vampire spawn with Strahd. Yes, multiple Strahd, like multiverse of madness, each representing a version of Strahd that was killed by previous adventurers. This implies there were several iterations of adventurers who defeated him and subsequently fell to Vampyr or simply left Barovia, allowing the curse to continue. I will use Strahd's stats, but not his legendary actions. My party is a group of 8 level 10 characters with all three artifacts, I'm sure they will be fine >:)
Question for the creators, for Amber: 1. If the character fails to read the stanza because of the choking effect, does that mean the ritual fails and everyone dies?
Pretty much. But if you feel that’s too much or unfair, tweak as you see fit.
This is great! It can either be used as a reprise (like you said) or as an extended version of CoS if your players loved the setting and want more or if they killed Strahd earlier than thought.
wowwww, i'm gonna introduce this right now in my campaign
its an awesome idea to a big finale
Grrrrr. Have to wait until after Easter to continue our Strahd campaign 🧛🏻
I love the nod to Netflix Castlevania's ending. A vampire bringing the foodsource to an evil being. Perfect.
I think I may alter to some blood mist. This is just because I have already introduced the Dark Powers as a separate 'entity"
One of my players is a warlock to Dahlver-Nar, who has been released into the world.
I think I might adapt this ritual in case said player wishes to take over as Dreadlord. Maybe Dahlver-Nar can help in the fight by providing buffs to the players in time of need.
Really well designed ritual btw, love this idea. My party is lvl 10 and will be ready for Strahd in not too long. So this video comes at a very good time. :)
This is sooo god! I am a big fan and will DEFINETLY use it for my Strahd groupt that will fight in the battle of Vallaki next week. Krezk vs Vallaki in a open field battle to free Vallaki from the Wachters :P (Don't ask how it came this far)
LOVE IT
2:40 - Classic, honestly the clip I've ever seen from this channel.
Ran CoS a year ago and Strahd joined the party to help lift his curse and fight Vampyr
They traveled into an "upside down" version of Barovia and fought a literal army (their forces being some barovians and the ghosts of old dead adventurers) and ended with a 1200hp Vampyr fight, a 600hp Lich-Death Knight hybrid, 30 ads, 7 level 20 PCs, and one of the most BADASS endings to a campaign I've ran
This is such a great idea. I can't use it for my running adventure, my players are nearly done and I want to keep Strahd as the BBEG. But if I ever run it again, I am doing this.
I wasn't sure if I wanted to run vampyr, and then my party got OBSESSED with the idea of strahd being a puppet to something larger as they learned about him. like yeah, true. wanna full break barovia free not just kill a guy? ok.
GOOD. ONE OF MY PLAYERS IS PLANNING ON TRYING TO BECOME A VAMPIRE. THIS IS GONNA BE HELPFUL
Love binding Gods, it’s my second favorite hobby. (DMing is First)
Oooh, finally you uploaded this!
Was beginning to fear I had to do the entire thing from scratch, and trust me, I ain't cut out for that!!
What I will use as the stick/carrot however, for my party, is that because I've given them infinite "free" resurections throughout the game (I didn't like the concept of introducing a new "heroic" character to the party midway through the quest) I'll spill the beans to them that the price they've paid for their resurections, is giving away small pieces of their souls to Vampir (Vampyr is literally "Vampire" in Norwegian, so I changed that) and should they leave Barovia, they will just instantly fall dead, because they lack parts of their souls.
Now, every single on of my PCs have had need of that resurection, so this will really tie them to it, you win, or you die.
After that, they'll have some cleanup duty to do, then we can move on to the next great campaign! ...9 levels higher, in like 2 weeks ingame...
I am so going to use this in my campaign thank you so much
Have fun!
Anyone try doing this ritual BEFORE confronting Strahd? I absolutely love this binding ritual and its significance for ensuring that Strahd dies permanently, but I still want the Strahd confrontation to be the Big Boss battle at the end. Maybe they bind Vampyr without Strahd realizing until he dies that it is permanent?
I'm doing this tonight wish me luck 🙏
This is great! I’ve been wanting to hear your thoughts on Vampyr and the Vampyr fight for some time now, so this is great! I’ll be taking your stuff into consideration for my campaign!
Happy to help!
Dose anyone remember that character trait from Fallout 1 and 2 called "Jinxed"? It basically just makes failing tests waaaay more common. Like... for everyone! I want that translated into D&D
I love this a lot, having strahd be the champion, having a better manifestation of all the evil (i didnt like the dark lords as a source), getting something else after the strahd fight to continue.
But why the closing words of strahd reanimating as a villain? Id will gladly pledge and run this fight but i will finally let strahd rest after his curse is broken (and maybe find his love in the afterlife)
I LOVE your curse of strahd videos! Cant get enough
FYI... your "click up here" is not working!
Love your work, dude. I'm planning to translate it to Brazilians Portuguese in the near future!
I was very confused by this for a moment, because I was just watching some videos of the new stuff from the Binding of Isaac: Repentance, and the Binding of Vampyr sounded like some weird parody.
First of all, thanks A LOT for your videos. They are a hell of an improve to the original adventure. Now, what if... players try to bind Vampyr before killing Strahd, as a way to give redemption to him? Would Strahd turn to human again after Vampyr's binding? My players always talk about "saving" Strahd. They're now entering AMber Temple and I have already put some lore about Vampyr since they found Ez.
I know no one helped, and I am a first time DM who hasn't been there so i can't help. But I would love to hear if you found an answer to yourself (or already played it and could talk about it)
I'm doing this, but doing it before they kill Strahd so that when they do, he stays dead. The final battle is Strahd, but they'll be lucky to get there
2:41
Unintentional jumpscare.
I don't know if you'll ever see this since it's so very long after you posted the video, but you have just given me the ultimate final battle of my campaign's Second Act. I've known for a long time that I was going to push a Vampire Civil War in my game setting that would happen over the course of most of Act II, and I knew that the *finale* would involve Chaos Cultists using the Lance of Eternal Night to murder the sun. The players would then have only a few days to reignite the sun and save the world. But I was lacking a final villain of this arc. My Strahd [Prince Rotansin] would likely be dead before this happened and he's really only going to be the target of a single party; I needed something big enough for *two* parties to tackle together.
Enter Vampyr or better still the "Lord of Blood" as you call him makes him the perfect antagonist for my world. He sounds like he could be a demon god or even a Galchutt, one of the Cthulhu-like beings who serve as the setting's ultimate foes. The Chaos Cults *serve* the Galchutt, so the death of Prince Rotansin could have awoken the Lord of Blood, who orders his cult to find and use the Lance. And in some way I haven't worked out yet, locking the Lord of Blood away again is one of the required steps before the sun *can* be resurrected. The sun has a soul, perhaps, one normally shared by the various sun gods in the setting, but upon being slain, that soul has gone into the Lord of Blood's possession.
This has been something I've been struggling with for ages... on some level I probably started thinking about this before I revived my campaign with the start of Act II over a year ago. I had a "final boss" *situation* but no actual boss fight. That was so unsatisfying. This gives me exactly what I needed. I cannot thank you enough.
Of course I’ll see it! And I’m happy to hear that we’ve given you what you need to run an awesome game!
I've always attributed Vampyr to Death itself, since there are so many references to a deal with death. So not so much a vampire god, I treat vampyr as another name or a specific interpretation / avatar of Nerull from Greyhawk (Basically the grim reaper).
How much light do the lanterns emit? 15ft radius?
15 feet of dim light due to the mist, yes.
I'm just about to use this next session for the climax of the campaign !
I have one question though : for the complex trap, at initiative 20 and 10, we choose each time one of the possible "active element" to use, right ? Or are they all unleashed each time ?
All of them
Hey just looking for some clarification! Love this and I'll be running it with my players later this week and just want to ensure it's balanced. I read through this section of raising the stakes and it didn't seem clear there either.
- Does the essence of Vampyr continue to function after the Aspect is summoned?
- Does the essence just use smothering darkness on the lanterns or is there something else snuffing them out?
Thanks for all your help! I've been using LBH for my CoS campaign that's been going strong for over 2 years now and I can't express how much you've helped.
Looking forward to digging into this. Thanks for making this dedicated topic! Out of curiosity where’d you find that video cover art for Vampyr?
Elder Scrolls Online!
Maybe Vampyr is an avatar of Asmodeus
yes indeed I been waiting for this. Ty for replying last time bro
No problem!
If the freaking covid can End... I will be able to finish my CoS Campaign... it has about 5 sessions left
If you incorporate older edition lore, you can make vampyr into Kas instead.
I intend to have the players leave Barovia thinking they have defeated Strahd and purified the land by slaying him. Some players will certainly be resurected throughout CoS, while simultaniosly they get the DeathCurse from Tomb of Annihilation.
Which will force them to find informatiom/cure after they left barovia.
They will visit Candlekeep for information on the curse, while also doing 1 or 2 quest there to get an audience with a powerfull mage/prof.
They will be informed about the death curse, but not about its origin or how to stop it. But the mage will tell them that only two beeings/entitys might know the answer they seek (Ravenqueen & Lady of Pain).
They will be offered a portal to 1 of the two planes.
The players will have to to make their way through either the Shadowfell or Sigil, leveling as they go. So when they reach the Ravenqueen or the Lady of Pain they will be lvl 14-15.
The Ravenqueen and the Lady of Pain will give them the information only for a favor, which she will request after they lift their curse.
They party will be directed towards Chult where they will have a cut down version of the Tomb of Anni, but increased in difficulty due to lvl to lift their curses.
I expect the players to be lvl 18-20 at this point.
They will return to the Ravenqueen or Lady of Pain, where they get ordered to return to Barovia and cleanse the real thread Vampyr.
The Ravenqueen wants to include barovia into her own domain and is interested in the powers and memories Barovia holds.
The Lady of Pain might have a similar interest (still need to figure out).
This aproach makes it more interesting and believeable to have a lvl 19 or 20 party fight Vampyr (a demigod) in an epic battle.
I noticed something with The stat block and all. It seems to lack a way to stop The players from just using tiny hut as a bunker with one ranged player dealing damage from within. Any idea how to deal with that?
The obvious answer to that is, the spell takes a minute to cast. Not really feasible in combat
Note: amber floats, so dropping it in lake won’t do much😅
I am contemplating using the The Binding of Vampyr. It seems excellent. I have one major question about the encounter as outlined.
One of the methods for the party to lose is: snuffing out the ritual lanterns.
Quoting the write up: During the ritual, Vampyr's Essence will attempt to snuff out the light of these lanterns. If all of them go out, the ritual fails!
I am missing (I presume) the how of that attempted snuffing. Is this something left to the GM or am I just being dense?
IM running this tonight, on a VTT going to be amazing as I can adjust special effects with the reading. Is the aspect of Vampyr meant to be constrained to the Circle of salt or can he exit. I have a party lvl 12 w/dawn. While strahd was able to avoid and or counter. If Vampyr is restricted to the circle they will decimate him fast with ranged spells/Attacks. I suppose I can just have a spawn break the line.
PS. My whole group appreciates the raising the stakes addition you have made.
I thought that Orcus was the God of vampires...
I just wanna say how much I enjoy your videos. I've been watching all your CoS vids in prep for running it. They're so helpful. I've included quite a few of your ideas into my game prep. Keep it up!
That’s one bold hair style 😳
*drum accompaniment*
Does reading a stanza cost an action? Is it a free action? Trying to make sense of action economy here
Costs an action
So to start the ritual the players roll initiative. They read the psalms one per round? Do all of the pc have to read it together or does only one pc have to read it per round? If only one has to read it can it be the same one each round or does each psalm have to be read by a different character? Then once each psalm is read the aspect comes out, gets destoryed(hopefully), and sucked into an amber block. Am I getting that correct?
Btw just got into your videos these are super helpful! Great work!
Hello. Terribly sorry for bothering you, but I need a clarification on Binding of Vampyr from Raising the stakes. Do effects of "Vampyr's essence" (the complex trap) still work after "Aspect of Vampyr" enters the battle? E.g. do party still have to worry about lanterns and is the battlefield still a misty difficult terrain? Thanks in advance and thanks a lot for your fantastic guide, it was a blessing for my CoS run that is nearing the final battle now.
If the Dark Powers imprisoned Barovia, does defeating Vampyr free the land?
Also, how much time do you give the party to gather ingredients and prepare the ritual before Vampyr resurrects Strahd?
What statblock for the aspect of vampir?
Would you be interested in running a straud campaign with these alterations?
Really cool, but I have a few questions.
1. Where do the enemies like the vampire spawn appear? Inside the 50ft diameter circle or outside it? If outside, can they enter?
2. Is it intended for each pslam/stanza to be one round? So from Bone to Amber:5 that's 9 rounds? Is it basically every party member speaks the pslam each round and if noone can, its game over?
3. The mist heavily obscuring the ritual area seems really rough. If the group doesn't have a mist dispersal spell or item, its permanent blindness (disadvantage). In my mind, heavy hinting at that kind of magic would hopefully prevent this, but if you got a thick headed party it feels like a TPK before things even get going. I guess that's CoS for ya tho.
4. On the other end of the spectrum if you have a smart party that gathers a small army to take pot shots from outside of the circle, what do you think is the best way to deal with this? I'm thinking maybe the mist dispersal doesn't work on the outer circumference of the circle. Or maybe, it does but very quickly comes back, giving a chance every once in a while to get some extra damage off.
Thanks for your time. These CoS resources are terrific!
When do the Dread Shadows come in?
this is great and it came just in time...best patreon i took eveeer! just 2 questions...
1)My party is about to enter castle.. they dont have a character who can use the holy symbol of ravenkind (healer is a rogue with fast hands and healer treat that uses healers kit). so they used it to cleanse a fane site and left it there! Will it be a MUST on this ritual?
2nd)Will the bones of a saint be necessary?(previous edition) cause they did a whole quest for this. if not ill tell them to melt wax and put the bone powder in candles of lanterns.
You're free to modify anything you to fit your game! The Holy Symbol can be a big help with saving throws, but it's not necessary.
If the souls of the people Strahd kills go to feed Vampyr, wouldn't that create an inconsistency wrt resurrection magic?
I like to think that it’s the souls of the adventurers brought in from the outside, that is the main feeding. The souls of the Barovian villagers
are just kind of the subsistence that allows Strahd to survive.
Seems like a neat idea but I think Strahd should be the be all end all, and I like the dark powers to be a vague mysterious almost incomprehensible force
Plus I want to move on to a new campaign after Strahd
Especially because I may kill a couple players in the Strahd fight to give some weight to it
Killing players is generally frowned upon.
Yeah I was thinking a little about that myself! My main idea to fix that was somehow working in Strahd as the Aspect of Vampyr, whether it be a reincarnation and a modified stat block or just replacing the appearance. Seems fitting as a champion!
@@hyberjection So would you fight Straud twice? Or would it just buff Straud? Because if so you definitely have tease it early on that way it doesn't just seem like an ass pull.
The way I see it if you ran Straud in a properly terrifying way its impossible to one up him with a different boss, Strahd at least the way I see him is supposed to represent Saiten or at least Caine, so if you do try to one up him you would have to make a boss fight with evil itself and that takes away from the mystery and dread of it once you know you can punch it in the face
(Also because I was planning on running ToA in the future and I think Ascerak and Vampyr are to similar)
It sounds super deadly even for a party of 6 people. Idk is really balanced?
Believe it or not, earlier versions were *too easy*.
I take it they can always invite some allies?
Of course! But then, how many allies survived Castle Ravenloft?
my thoughts currently, as it stands, is to have the players learn all of this from the spirit of argynvost before they have the dinner, then return, slay the dragon's undead corpse, return the skull to the beacon, and gain the revenants as allies (instead of having them all die off as RAW) then eventually work their way through berez, the amber temple, and the castle before confronting strahd, hopefully dropping him to 0. Then, he calles out to vampyr, and gains a second monstrous demonic form (my players have joked constantly that everyone calls him the Devil strahd, so im gonna lean into that moniker) then they finally kill that, stake his coffin, then go to bind vampyr, unless the party, having been corrupted by their vestige given gifts (as every one of them has one now, but im running a little bit differently off a very good homebrew supplement ) decides to try and take the thrown and ireena, having beena vampire this entire time, reverts to tatyana and becomes vampyrs new champion. Que twist fight, which after the double whammy of strahd, theyre not gonna be able to win, and they get flung out of the throne room (where i plan to have the final fight with our demonic count) they get a long rest, heal up, go forward, then hopefully decide (and learn from the trio of strahd, argynvost, and tatyna) that they cant leave until vampyr is sealed as he controls the mists
Watch me run or play this and replace the verses of the psalms with "the gospel of dismay" from bendy and the ink machine.
Uh guys. My players are seriously considering doing this ritual BEFORE taking care of Strahd.
They think binding Vampyr will weaken Strahd more.
Then let it. That’s the kind of strategic thinking that should be rewarded.
But don’t think Vampyr won’t call on his champion.
@@LunchBreakHeroes eventually they decided to go after Strahd first. (and only two character died in the process) They will be going after Vampyr in the next and probably final session.
2d7 damage. Uh. A D7?
But lore-wise, why can't Vampyr manifest in all his godly glory? It doesn't quite make sense that humans could trap him.
They did it before, they can do it again!
*Strahdegy*
;)
Wait a min...
Strahd is a wizard .... he had a patron .....which makes him a warlock ...
I mean if i had an eternity to live i would multiclass into something more useful..
After reading the " I Strahd, " book series. i disagree. I offer no further explanation. Good day.
I disagree with your disagreement and offer no counterpoint. Good day to you as well!
Did I hear 2d7?
He could mean 2d8-2... It equals the same lol.
Or I just misspoke 😄
DONT do strahd dont use him to lure the adventure he is an evil npc no good will come of it
that is lame the party to kill the ruler os stradh
Hoping someone can help, running this in a few weeks most likely, but am a bit confused by how combat actually works with Vampyr's Essence (the trap).
It acts on Initiative Count 10 and 20, so am I right in assuming that means it uses an Active Element of its choosing on both of those initiative counts + the Constant Elements on top of this?
Then when the Aspect of Vampyr is summoned - minus the Bastion of Evil - does the Essence continue to make those two actions in addition to the Aspect making its turn + Legendary actions?
Just seems like a lot of actions from Vampyr's side and just trying to make sure I'm reading this all correctly
That was my understanding, yes, to what you said ^
Awwwww yeeaaaahhhh!!!
I mean that's a pretty cool idea and all, but I feel like itd better to just beef up Strahd (since we can all agree his stat block suuuucks) and make him the true badass villian of the adventure like he's supposed to be and not just the minion of some greater villian.
I've never looked at the 5e book for Castle Ravenloft, but it sounds full of needless bloat. A god of vampires? Really? For me, that's a dumb idea. Only a god of death could, y'know, manipulate things into undeath. I thought this video was going to focus on how to bring the dark being (called the Creature) from House on Gryphon Hill into a more mainline continuity (such as being the essence of Strahd's doubts, fears, and regret). Oh well.
Vampire god? Really? 5th edition is far worse than I thought.
wut