u/Far-Assistance9925

so I’m not entirely sure this kind of post belongs in this server, however I think it’s cool and wanna share with more people

I was talking to a friend about CoS and one thing brought up was how it would benefit from being put into a video game format. since then I’ve been unable to stop thinking about how cool it would be to have a bg3 style isometric crpg based on this module. so, here are all of the ideas I have so far for it:

CHARACTERS

similar to bg3 there’s a list of characters you pick from to start or you make a custom character, and any character you don’t pick can be a companion to join you. I can go into more detail on these if anyone likes but currently the character ideas I have are: a cleric of the morninglord with a lot of angst about how she can’t hear her god anymore, a paladin who on the surface seems like a very knight in shining armor type but is actually an oathbreaker, an investigative rogue, and Esmeralda herself (I think it would be REALLY cool if she were a playable character and a companion)

LEVELING

I know this is a weird one but one of my issues with bg3 is leveling is kinda wonky so id want this to be different, I’m thinking itll work more like milestone leveling where completing certain quests (such as escaping the death house or finding one of the artifacts) grants you a level. I’ve been warned against this however so I think it could probably use a combination, you can get xp from encounters but you also get whole levels from completing quests

ENDINGS

the friend I was talking to about the adventure once expressed she really doesn’t like “choices matter” games where the ending is based solely on a final decision made in the end, so I thought especially hard on this for her.
the regular ending would be you kill strahd and escape ravenloft, but eventually strahd will return.
however it is possible to permanently kill strahd and release ravenloft entirely from its curse. I’ve heard in lore that’s done by impaling strahd in his resting place with the sun sword, it’ll probably have a couple more steps than that.
if you garner enough good will among the people of barovia, you may inspire them to rebel against the devil strahd and a civil militia may join you in the final attack on strahds castle, which as well as significantly reducing the encounters you’ll have to go through to get to the final boss will also give you the option to become the new ruler of barovia with strahd gone.
of course you can be an evil character throughout the whole game but there is a particular way to get an evil ending. If you accept a dark gift from the amber temple, when you slay strahd forever you will have the option to take his place as dread lord of barovia.
if you accepted a dark gift but still wish to lift ravenloft’s curse, you will need to sacrifice yourself.
if you’re playing Ezmeralda she has her own set of good and evil endings involving madam Eva trying to make her the next lord of barovia, I’ve not fully thought that out

of course, I have little to no ability to make this an actual game, much less an OFFICIAL one, so itll probably stay as just an idea for all time. But it is really fun to think about

like obviously it’s made for necromancer wizards, but I’m curious does the 6th level necromancer feature mean the circle of bones free casting of animate dead mean the item summons two skeletons?

i respecced my necromancer for story reasons before I could test it out and I’ve been considering going back in that decision but I wanna know this first

I’ve been considering doing a “canon” resist durge, which is just playing a draconic sorcerer/vengeance or oathbreaker pally for the most lore accurate RP.

sorcerer would start me off with more spells while pally would start me off with more weapons, but I don’t think either of those matter much since level 1 is like 5 minutes of the game

I’m more wondering the long term effects of my first level. if I start with pally, I’ll have heavy armor. if I start with sorcerer, I’ll have con save proficiency. which is more valuable for a sorcadin in the long run, and are there any other effects of my first level I’m not thinking of?

taven brawler builds are insanely powerful but are usually built around stacking up modifiers on thrown weapon attacks. im wondering if i can make use the feat how its "intended" to be used. a proper rough drunk brawler, using improvised weapons and unarmed strikes

the drunken master monk is obvious for this and the gloves of kushigo modifier improvised weapons, but my knowledge stops there. and of course, the obligatory disclaimer that i know such a build will never touch the absurdity that is a tavern braler giant barb

i had what i think is a cool character idea but it seems very difficult to put into the game

my concept is a warrior chosen to be the champion of a nature god, thrust into the game somewhat unwillingly to save the world. i want them to be martial, and have some nature themed abilities.

that description leans me toward ranger, but the way the game treats rangers does not lend itself well to the unwilling champion of a god. sorcerer, warlock and cleric have the dialogue and special events that id want, but sorcerer and warlock dont have many natureish options

a thought i had was an oath of the ancients hexadin, im not sure how well ancients lends itself to hexadin builds but it seems like something. another idea i had was a ranger with some levels in nature cleric, which seems alright at first glance

i recently got my hands on a copy of the curse of strahd book and i really like it, ive also instantly fallen in love with Ezmerelda, shes just a complete badass. im wondering if i can build her in this game, and i see two possible routes.

in either route, she's gonna be a human of course, either folk hero or outlander leaning folk hero. she also has to take dual wielder as her first feat as its necessary for her unique fighting style wielding a rapier and a handaxe (this weapon combo makes it nearly impossible to optimize but its cool as hell so im running with it)

• Option 1: eldritch knight. she studies magic a great deal and this will give her some of that. maybe eventually taking some wizard levels, divination fits considering as a vistani she has some amount of divination ability.
• Option 2: hunter ranger. arguably fits better for a vampire hunter but less arcane. keeper of the veil and urban tracker fit well for her, hunter's mark can be reflavored as her vistani curse, and she is able to cast animal friendship through her evil eye.

theres also bladesinger which ive seen recommended for building her on tabletop, but i dont really think it fits her that much. bladesinger is a gish but with more focus on spellcasting whereas i think ezmerelda is more of a gish with a focus on fighting.

I’ve been scouring the mod manager for anything that adds a blindfold, as I have a character who is blind and a blindfold would be super thematic for her, but I can’t find anything

the final part of my string of posts about my elemental party in which each member uses a different element

i am using mystra's spells to enhance my spell options, as well as using some modded subclasses sparingly

i have gotten a lot of help making this party, and i think this will be the lineup of the party:

• Water: Shadowheart. i have a modded frost warden ranger subclass that im planning to use, however an ice sorcerer is always fun or i could do a bladelock using that frost staff from the underdark. certainly not optimal but definitely cool.
• Earth: Tav. a land druid with a focus on plant spells, taking wall of stone when i can
• Fire: Wyll. a draconic sorcerer and vengeance paladin, dual wielding belm, exploit flame blade, the fire myrmidon scimitar and any other of the many fire based weapons. i kinda wish this one could be my tav but wyll, karlach and minthara all work great for fire and theres not really a great earth companion so i guess i gotta suck it up.
• Air: Gale. a monk with another homebrew subclass whos name currently escapes me, but its built around using step of the wind more than flurry of blows so the garb of earth and sky is a great pick here for me

in truth, the biggest roadblock ive been hitting is who should be what element. as stated above i wished i could make my tav the fire element since its charisma based and i usually make tav the party face, but no one else but a custom character fits for earth.

i did however find a mod that lets me make custom companions, and im thinking of using that, but im worried no game made companions is gonna make the world feel more flat

I’m looking to translate a dnd character I made into bg3. she is a dexterous eldritch knight raised by a wizard who uses her familiar to overcome her blindness

I’m thinking fighter 7 for war magic, at least 1 level in wizard mainly for the dialogue options but also extra spells is nice, and 3 levels into thief rogue for an extra bonus action. with this build I wouldn’t be able to get the fighters third attack but thief rogue balances that out by working with war magic

thoughts?

the fourth post in my elemental party in which each member represents one element.

for a while I considered not making a post for this element since it’s probably the easiest to do, there’s like a billion fire spells in the game, a draconic sorcerer would serve very well, a fiery sorcadin wielding flame blades even better. Hell if I wanted to be extra I could download some mods and be a wildfire Druid, or just take stuff that enhances the fire options I already have

since most fire based stuff comes from charisma casters and tieflings are insanely good for this theme the fire character would make a fantastic party face, so I kinda want my tav to be the fire character. Issue with that is that fire probably has the most companions that fit perfectly for the concept (karlach, minthara and wyll) as opposed to something like earth, where the most fitting companions for that are two act 2-3 characters that I don’t even like all that much to begin with. I do have some fun ideas for an earth based tav but still I usually make tav the party face for obvious reasons

the third (technically fourth) post about my elemental party, with each party member using a different element. so far i have done earth and water and gotten some very fun and fascinating suggestions. this one i have a better direction with but am still a bit lost.

my original idea was a storm sorcerer with a 2 level dip into tempest cleric. its a classic, its fun, its powerful.

however, one suggestion i've seen is to build a monk, as their fast and agile nature is very on brand with an air based character. indeed i did find in the mod manager an air based monk subclass that seems... alright i guess? the features seem a bit wonky but it'll probably be a lot of fun

from that same source i also got ranger as they get lightning arrow which is supposedly really really good but idk