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GM Tactics: Final Fight with Strahd Von Zarovich

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So for a while now I have heard from players & GM that the final fight with Strahd was too easy, or how they need to buff Strahd for the final fight to give him a chance. From what I have experienced from running the Curse of Strahd is that the GMs who run the game are overlooking a LOT of things they really should be taking into account.  The big mistake is that many of them narrow down Strahd to a guy who is just sitting around his castle waiting to get his ass kicked by the PCs whenever they bother to show up. While a lot of BBEGs go that route, Strahd is far more hands-on and active in this game than the typical villain who gets taken out by some random group of murder-hobos.  "The adventure ends when either Strahd von Zarovich or the characters are defeated. Your goal is to keep Strahd in play for as long as possible, using all the abilities and resources at his disposal." A simple wat to think of him is this... Dracula + Albert Einstein + Sun Tsu = Strahd So lets go...
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Acton Economy - A General Overview

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What is action Economy and why is it important?  You won't find action economy listed in any of the books as it is a term that has come about by players and GMs when discussing what PCs, Monsters & NPCs can do on their turn.  The more things you can do, the more likely you are to be successful at winning the fight. Creatures with a "large action economy" can do more, and likewise creatures with a "small action economy" can do less. Essentially it isn't just what you can do , but everything you can do on each of your turns.  I'm going to give an overview of what the standard options are for players and then go into detail after about specific common abilities across the classes.  First is your Standard or Basic Action . This is a list of the most common standard actions. Attack Action:  You make a melee or ranged attack. Cast a Spell: The spells you have will tell you if you can cast it as an action, reaction or bonus action. Dash: Effectively just...
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Lightning Damage to Creatures in Water or Underwater

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Question: If I cast call lighting at a group of monsters in a river. Does the spell do any extra damage or become an area of effect spell?  Strangely enough Rules As Written (RAW) in D&D 5e doesn't have any solid rules when it comes to Lightning related spells hitting targets in water or underwater. I thought surely this has to be an oversight.. So I actually looked up one of the game designers (Jeremy Crawford) Tweets: It seems the game designers left a number of environmental interactions up to the DM, which makes things tricky. None of the lightning based spells have any additional text to say they do or do not cause additional damage or get a increase in range for blasting a target in water.  It is common knowledge that water is a good conductor of electricity.  (IE Nobody brings a toasters in the bathtub expecting a good result.)  But it turns out that isn't exactly the case. Here is a link to the USGS  on the matter. Turns out PURE water that is down...
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Crafting Rules: Healing Potions

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Crafting Healing Potions 101   NOTE: This entry is strictly for the crafting of Healing Potions and not other potions, or the crafting of magic items. As such all costs for gold pieces and time have been adjusted to be specific for consumables as opposed to the crafting of magical items.  Crafting a Potion of Healing requires a number of things:  1) A formula or recipe on how to crate the potion.  A background of Guild Artisan with the Alchemists & Apothecaries field will likely already know the formula/recipe.  A Sage background with the Alchemist specialty will also likely know the formula/recipe.  Sages will also likely know from whom and where they can obtain the information (per the background feature: Researcher) if they don't have the formula/recipe. 2) The crafter has to be a spell caster with healing spells and necessary spell slots for the potion being crafted. The Crafter must expend one spell slot of the spells level for each day of the c...
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Magic Item: Bag of Holding - Q&As

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Bag of Holding FAQs 1) Are fragile items safe inside a bag of holding, or can they be broken if the bag is jostled or hit?  Something that should have been included in the description of the Bag of Holding is the fact that items placed into it are held in an "extradimensional space". This is included in the write up for the Handy Haversack Placing the haversack inside an extradimensional space created by a bag of holding, portable hole or similar item instantly destroys both items and opens a gate to the Astral Plane. So since they are not in the same  plane of existence as the exterior of the Bag of Holding fragile items placed in to the bag are safe from any jostling or hits the bag may take.  2) How much does a Bag of Holding cost?  A Bag of Holding is an Uncommon Wonderous item, so per the Dungeon Masters Guide they are anywhere from 101 - 500 Gold Pieces. The GM should consider how easily the item can be made or obtained in the game setting and then assign the p...
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Location: Dover, NH, USA
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