u/Smol_Sausages

Good day all,

I posted the other day for advice and someone recommended I look at CoS Reloaded. I have only read a tiny bit of it so far, but for the most part I like what I see. It seems like it might help with some of the pacing issues I'm facing at the moment but I'm concerned about swapping to Reloaded after I've already started the game going by the book.

My party has Ireena in tow (no Ismark) and has left Tser Pool after receiving their reading from Madam Eva. They've been on the road and dealt with some random encounters (even managed to have a minion steal an item for Strahd's scrying attempts). We stopped last session after walking through the west gates and are likely going to come across Old Bongrinder next session before heading to Vallaki.

Is it too late to change over to reloaded? If not, is there a good way to make that change smoothly or anything I should be aware of when doing so? Maybe I can swap over to it when they reach Vallaki?

Thank you for your time!

Edit for Grammer.

The game I'm running is early into our campaign (about to reach Old Bonegrinder with Ireena in tow). And I plan to have them meeting Strahd soon-ish.

All 4 of my player's are using updated characters and I can feel the the impact of that. I've already had to compensate in certain fights by using the updated versions of creatures or adding more creatures.

To be clear, I am fine with this. However I feel like Strahd just needs to be... more. And just in case my player's get cocky, I don't want a few lucky crits and really good roles to get rid of the HoS on the first real meeting.

I am wary of buffing his statblock ridiculously because I know he is very strategic/never alone and can mostly make do with what he has. So I was thinking something simple for now.

I was thinking of allowing the HoS to give Strahd resistance to all damage while his connection is intact. This would effectively be giving him an extra 100hp instead or 50hp, but I feel like the effect of getting rid of his resistances would feel more impactful for the player's. And it doesn't feel like too much when thinking about 5.5e monsters and the magic items in CoS in my opinion.

I want to do more later. Make him an awesome sword, more interesting spellcasting, etc. But I figured this was a good start for a first meeting. What do you guys think?

TL:DR I want to make the HoS give Strahd resistance until it's destroyed.