Best times to use milestones in DND: Curse of Strahd

Summary

• Use milestones like getting key articles to level players in the Curse of Strahd.

• Completing side assignments such as saving the iRena or vineyard can also trigger levels.

• Save equalization for large milestones such as forming alliances or completing dungeons.

One of the most popular campaigns from Dungeons & Dragons is the curse of Strahd and with good reasons. Aesthetics are great; It has one of the best official villains from D&D, the area is perfect for exploring and the campaign can be quite difficult. Because the players are free to take several routes, equalization of them can be confusing, depending on their path.

Sure, you can use experience points and just count their death, but milestones also work well here. The book even has its recommendations for when using Milestones, which we will touch, but it does not give you enough details to reach level ten. So when are you going to level up your players?

There will be spoilers for the campaign here.

Honorable mention: Death House – for levels one to three

Curse of Strahd is a campaign that starts at level three and goes all the way to ten. That said, it is normal for DMs to start at level one, so the book has a special page mission to start the game: Death House.

Honestly, we have no notes here, as we strongly recommend making the death house. It is a good introduction, a good place to introduce Strahd if you want, and it gets the party to the appropriate level. It may be a little too deadly for a low -level group, but it gets the job.

9

When you get one of the most important articles

One level per macguffin

The first book recommends is to level them out when they get one of the following items: Tome of Strahd, Sunsword and the symbol of Ravenkind. With these you get three milestones ready to go, and we also agree that it is a good choice.

That said, we do not recommend that you do this if you put two of these articles in the same place, as their place is technically random. Otherwise, you will give them two levels directly.

If you put two milestones in the same place, for example, having a milestone to complete Argynvostholt, but Sunsword is also there, we recommend that you only make one level and use another milestone elsewhere. There are more milestone suggestions here than necessary to reach level ten, so have fun.

8

Do Tarokka reading

If

If you do not want the game to be too dangerous is a good place to smooth out the group after their meeting with Madam Eva. It happens relatively early, so using this is likely to be the milestone that gets the party to level four.

This is not a violent meeting, so using this point as a milestone is just a way to make sure your players will be a little stronger before exploring the dangers with Barovia.

7

Get the legs

Saint Andral Thank you

In Vallaki there is a whole story about the legs of St. Adral stolen by the coffin Maker, Henrik. You can level the players when they safely return their legs to the church and thus save the place from Strahd.

As I said, it is not very difficult to pick up the legs, depending on the players' current level. If you want to make this task more difficult, you may consider having Henrik delivering the legs to Morgantha and thus binding the old Bengrinder to this plot.

That said, if the adventurers go to the old Bengrinder first, consider evening them out when they kill the pastures instead of using their legs as a milestone.

6

Surviving Vallaki

Strahd Strikes

The book recommends many events in Vallaki, as it is the most developed city in Barovia. Which you will do is up to you, but we recommend the attack on the church, which also binds in with the above legs.

Having a confrontation where Strahd seems is a good way to make things even more personal between him and the party, and to equalize them to survive such a meeting is a nice reward.

5

Save the iRena

Down by the lake

Most of the story is about saving Ireena Kolyana, which Strahd wants as her bride. Her story can go many different ways depending on what you want to do, what players do during the campaign and whether they manage to protect her or not.

Either way, a sure way to save her for good is to take her to Sergei in Krezk. If the players succeed, you can just as well level them up. However, this milestone is difficult to trigger, so do not expect it to happen every time you run this adventure.

4

Save the vineyard

Protect the wine

This one is a little more complicated. It is technically a dungeon, but it is not very difficult. You should definitely reward the players here, but if that reward will be a level or something else, it's up to you.

If you choose not to level them through the legs or Tarokka reading, this may be a good place to compensate for it, otherwise the party may be for below level for the assignments in the future.

3

Deadly Lysaga

Or pick up the pearl

Baba Lysaga and her hut are among the most difficult meetings here, so you can give your players something for the effort. It also binds the events in the vineyard, so if you do not plan them up there you can start this side search to hunt the pasture and kill her.

It is still a good way to equalize them in both places. The vineyard is a good place for a level five group, while Lysagas Swamp is level eight, so they cannot go from one to the other immediately, which means the level helps in both places.

2

Argynvostholt and Amber Temple

Dungeon & Dungeon

Barovia has three large dungeons: Argynvostholt, Amber Temple and Castle Ravenloft. Since the castle is mainly saved for dinner and the end, we recommend that the characters are already level ten before they go there so they can fight with everything they have.

Thus, it is worth two levels to implement the house to Silver Dragon and the damned temple. They are both high -level places, so using them during the other half of your campaign is good.

1

Forming an alliance with the enemy of Strahd

The enemy to my enemy

During the Tarokka reading, you assign an NPC to be Strah's enemy. Whoever you choose, the players will still have a mission to find out who the card is talking about, and when it is done, they still have to convince the person to join the fight. When this recruitment assignment is complete, you can compare them.

As a bonus, these are our best recommendations for Strahd's enemy:

• IRENA: Having their business with his addict is very catartic story. Still, since the card mentions that allies are the evil bride, you can also use one of Strahd's actual brides if the Ireena does not prove a good candidate depending on how your story goes;
• Zuleika: Having a werewolf versus Vampire Fight is a fun concept, and having her as the potential enemy is a good incentive for the players to go to the werewolf. Alternatively, you can see which NPC players the most and turn them into a werewolf that hates Strahd to meet the card's description.
• Victor, Kasimir or the Morden Cain: If your party lacks a Spellcaster, one of these would be good. However, the murder chain is particularly stronger.
• Rictavio or Ezmeralda: They are both tied up well in the story, are expert campaign hunters and can provide help through information rather than battle.

Cards whose descriptions can be about more than one character is useful if things do not go as you expected and you lost allied NPC, or if you want to switch to an NPC your players as more.