u/Nawara_Ven

I'm running a "new game plus" style high-level Curse of Strahd campaign, (levels 8-15) and my players (currently level 10) are strong... heckin' strong! The Sorcerer alone does hyper-optimized Chromatic Orb damage that basically deletes everything ever.

I've buffed creature numbers, used nefarious tactics, and, most importantly, implemented pseudo "gritty realism 2014" rules that mean they can only long rest after a half-dozen substantial encounters.

The common issue DMs seem to have is Strahd and not having him just die right away. I was thinking of reskinning one of the big boss monsters from Guide to Ravenloft, but I still want him to be "vampire flavoured" at the end of the day. I like the idea of maddening hit-and-run tactics within Ravenloft.

I've established that Strahd can cast level 9 spells, and has an every-spell-in-D&D spell list, regardless of class, as do his three full-vampire-not-spawn minions that will be present in the battle. (An endless reinforcement wave of 6x zombies will appear at initiative count 20, but that's more for action economy).

I keep thinking about Warding Bond or healing spells or other stuff that could keep Strahd safe, and I've been experimenting with these as the party fights Jander Sunstar and lesser vampire bosses throughout the adventure. The conclusion is pretty much always that there's no amount of "legal" damage output that can be done that affects the (heavily caster-leaning) party in any substantial way. "Worst-case" the enemies desperately focus-fire the Sorcerer PC and then the other players are barely touched.

I COULD give Strahd Shield and Blur and Greater Invisibility and Warding Bond and all sorts of other stuff that his minions cast on him to buff him and keep him as the "main event..." (I don't want to just homebrew a gargantuan statblock or give him 900 HP or something, I want a "RAW" "design challenge.")

...so I came up with "at battle start, Strahd and friends Circle Magic cast Anti-Magic Field, Distributed to 3x minion casters; the other casters just run away and hide in Ravenloft for an hour." into the next room and use the Hide action while Strahd pick off the party."

...vs Wizard, Druid, Psion Artificer, Sorcerer, Ranger, and Rogue... I wonder if this is going to just be devastating.

Yes, yes, there's the issue with "OMG I can't play my character now" or whatever; let's put aside the "social" aspect of this for now... I just want to know if you think that this strategy makes Strahd (Umbral Lord Stat block) basically invincible.

Or maybe this is awesome and it will allow the martial players to shine...

Or maybe the excitement will come from the party scrambling the other way to madly search Ravenloft for the concentrating casters, finish them off one-by-one while Strahd pursues at his leisure, leading to a more offence-based second part of the battle.

Like I said, my players are extremely strong players, optimized characters, creative problem solvers... I just wonder if it's an "auto game-over" or not.

I dunno. Thoughts?