terrified-spider - Let's all scream at the sun :)
Let's all scream at the sun :)

Artist and Fantasy Nerd, Fanart and Original Stuff :) (He/Him) (Commissions: Open) (Requests: Closed) (Asks: Open) (:

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Okay, I'm Really Sick, But I Really Like These Guys So I'm Not Going To Wait Any Longer To Write This,

Okay, I'm really sick, but I really like these guys so I'm not going to wait any longer to write this, and hopefully it all comes out right.

The Lunchbox Heroes have good stuff for the main Brides, and I think Escher as well. Each of them had some new statblocks, with Ludmilla being a mage of some kind, Anastrasya was a noble from Vallaki, Volenta a rogue, and Escher a bard.

I'm pretty sure this is the video where they go over the changes, and the stat blocks and stuff are on their Patreon, though (last year I think?) the full pdf of their changes to the module was made pay-what-you-want for Halloween, and there's some good stuff in it.

Their stuff is what I used as a base when I first ran the module, though I built off it as needed, and am continuing to do so as I prepare my second run of the module.

Here's the most recent version of my Brides:

Ludmilla:

Oldest of Strahd's brides, more his Chamberlain than Rahadin (who's more of an attack dog of sorts), Strahd trusts her the most.

Mage/wizard (class to be determined), but one of the last lines of defense in Castle Ravenloft

Volenta:

Second youngest of Strahd's brides, a rogue

Former resident of the Village of Barovia

Generally resides in the torture chamber of Ravenloft, but occasionally goes out to torment people at Strahd's request

Responsible for making Doru a vampire spawn, and the whole affair was rather messy (assuming the players have helped Father Donavich), hence Strahd's distaste for her.

Anastrasya:

Second oldest bride, former Vallaki noblewoman, still participates in the politics there, in case you wanted to make Vallaki even more chaotic.

Out of all the Brides, she spends the least amount of time in Ravenloft, preferring to stay close to home, where she can get information to return to Strahd.

Typically only interacts with Strahd in person when he wants something from her, be it information, someone in Vallaki killed, or something physical.

Her disconnect from the Castle makes it easier for her to interact with the party in private.

Escher:

So he's now RvR's son, rather than Erasmus, and has received the most changes out of all the Brides.

Essentially, van Richten wasn't a great father, with high standards for Escher as he was growing up and training to become a monster hunter like his father.

After his mother's death to a vampire, Escher left home for Barovia, looking to earn his father's approval by killing Strahd von Zarovich, the First Vampire.

Once arriving in Barovia, he spent some time holed up in what was originally RvR's tower, doing research and preparing to face the Count.

Vasili von Holtz begins showing up, showering Escher with praise that he never got from his father, and it eventually culminates in Escher happily becoming one of Strahd's brides.

Currently, Escher is Strahd's youngest consort, and spends all his time in Castle Ravenloft at Strahd's request. Unlike the other Brides, Escher's job is essentially to just look pretty.

Happy to be a vampire, trying to ignore the many downsides of it, or the risks and dangers of his position.

A bard, though his adventuring skills are rusty

With a little work, any of the brides, aside from Ludmilla, would help the party out a bit, if not openly turn against Strahd as much as possible. Volenta is probably going to be trapped in the catacombs next, Strahd has completely given up pretending he still romantically interested in Anastrasya, and Escher is essentially just a trophy for him, and trapped within Castle Ravenloft.

Fellow CoS DMs (and players),

I call upon ye once more, to tell me all your Brides of Strahd lore!

There's nothing in the module. I do not know how to work with this.

(I do have some stuff for past love interest Patrina Velikovna and forgotten bride Sasha Ivliskova. It's the Main Three plus Escher I'm worried about.)

Thanks in advance team. ♡

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More Posts from Terrified-spider

1 year ago

Changes to the Zombie - Vers. 1

As part of my Ravenloft/Domains of Dread Hopping Campaign, my players are going to be visiting Falkovnia and defending a small lumber farm over the course of a few days leading up to the full moon. While I love fighting and/or playing zombies (my main PC is literally a spider-infested corpse), I find 5e's basic zombie stat block a bit lackluster, particularly when using it in mass combat with low level PCs. Of course, there's the Strahd Zombie, but the extra limbs become a pain to track, and when working with a party of four level three characters, I can't have too many of them in a fight.

With the session less than 12 hours away as I write this, here's what I'll be test running:

The D&D 5e statblock, taken from D&DBeyond.
https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/17077-zombie

I'm using the RAW statblock as a starting point, and will be making only small changes to the AC, HP, and Damage details, to keep the CR close to 1/4.

Rather than just the Slam attack, I'll be adding a Bite and Claw/Slash attack. Each attack will have the same Damage dice, before taking into account the changes mentioned later. The main variations will be the Damage type, with slashing for the Claw/Slash, and piercing for the Bite. One of my favorite house rules I've played with and used is that the damage type for some weapons can change depending on how the attacks are described, and I want to provide the zombies with a few different options.

To keep with the CR, they won't receive Multiattack, and just have the option to shift between attack methods.

To make it easier to come up with descriptions for the zombies, and to create some mechanical variation between them, I created a simple table to roll on as needed. Most are purely aesthetic changes, though a few change speed, buff or debuff damage/attack rolls, and impact AC.

Changes To The Zombie - Vers. 1

A Missing Jaw have a -1 to hit, along with the debuffs from a Broken Jaw or Missing Teeth.

Zombies with Missing Teeth, Missing Fingers, or a Broken Jaw have a -1 to damage rolls of their respective attacks.

A Limp drops speed by 5, and Missing a Leg by 10. Those Missing Both Legs are prone and must crawl.

Armor, even when broken, adds some kind of protection. Wearing it provides the zombie with +1 AC.

Larger zombies receive an extra hit die and +1 damage to Slam attacks.

Anyway, I'll be testing this stuff out tomorrow, I'll give an update as soon as possible about how it all went. I don't do a lot of homebrew, at least not beyond reflavoring stuff, so this will probably need a few revisions before it's actually decent.

An early "thank you" to my players, who don't yet know how much help they're going to be.


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1 year ago
A picture of two wolf miniatures for D&D. The one in front has a pale grey coat, with warm grey/brown highlights around its mantle and muzzle. The wolf in the back has a darker coat, with red undertones and a bloody face. Both are standing on small patches of grass, and are on translucent bases.
The backside of the lighter wolf.
The dark wolf, shown from the back.
A picture of the lighter wolf, without the darker wolf in the frame.

I finally painted a couple miniatures again (:

I'm working on expanding my mini collection to include more NPCs/stock enemies for my games, and wolves are abundant in Ravenloft.

These are the Pathfinder Deepcuts Timberwolves (:


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1 year ago

Strahd but he's in your house watching your read this right now


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1 year ago
terrified-spider - Let's all scream at the sun :)

from now on your tumblr nickname is whatever you get from this sexual identity generator  ☆


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1 year ago

I am unfortunately just like other guys. I like trashy horror, dog poems, cannibalism as a metaphor for obsessive devotion, religious imagery, people who use my name in a sentence, academic validation, lying for fun, being bisexual and bleeding out in the snow.


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