Strahd von Zarovich Gets Reworked for a Rematch in ‘Vecna: Eve of Ruin’
Everyone’s favorite vampire who is both ancient and the land, Strahd von Zarovich, is back in Vecna: Eve of Ruin, and he’s ready for a rematch.
Strahd Von Zarovich, the ancient vampire and lord of Barovia, is back in Vecna: Eve of Ruin. You might have encountered the ultimate Dracula in Curse of Strahd, widely regarded as one of 5th Edition’s best campaigns. Well, he’s back as part of the whirlwind tour of 5E as they get ready to release the 2024 Player’s Handbook.
While Strahd isn’t necessarily aligned with Vecna directly, he still plays an antagonistic role in the adventure. He also has a reworked stat block that makes him ready for a rematch. He’s not nerfed—not exactly—but there are a few ways in which he’s a little weaker and a few ways in which he’s got more power than ever.
As we get ready for the eventual release of Vecna: Eve of Ruin, we’re taking a look at the book, which will be available in your FLGS on May 7th and, broadly, May 21st!
Strahd von Zarovich, Master of Death House
Spoilers ahead for Vecna: Eve of Ruin, though it’s not that big of a spoiler since they literally use Strahd as promotional art in the advertising for Vecna: Eve of Ruin. That says a lot about how successful you are as a villain. Yeah, Vecna’s cool and all. But we’ve got Strahd in this one. He even gets a full two-page spread complete with a new stat block that reflects how he is in this part of the adventure.
First and foremost, the characters encounter Strahd as they investigate Barovia on the hunt to collect enough plot coupons to advance the story of Eve of Ruin. No critique there. Nothing wrong with collecting plot coupons. That’s just how the adventure works. Again, no big spoilers there either, that’s literally the thing that WotC is hammering home: get out there and find the Rod of Seven Parts. And once you start finding it, ol’ Strahd here takes an interest.
Now, he’s not necessarily meant to be a combat encounter. But WotC knows what D&D players are like. So, of course, he has a fully worked-up thing ready to go. You don’t even need to have Curse of Strahd to be able to run him. As you can see in the stat block above, he’s mostly the same. He has slightly fewer hit points, but he also regains all of them 1d4 hours after he has been reduced to 0 hit points. Now he teleports back to Ravenloft and regains all his hit points.
So you could, theoretically, kill Strahd multiple times over the course of your adventure. It isn’t that hard, all you have to do is be capable of doling out 136 points of damage in a round, or 156 points of damage over two rounds (assuming you don’t have access to Radiant damage). Which isn’t that hard considering that you’re 14th-15th level by the time you’re here. Your friendly neighborhood Paladin/Sorcerer can probably manage it if you Haste them. And then there’s the rest of the party too. Just get those rests in.
But as you can see Strahd no longer casts Fireball as a spell. Now he casts it (roughly) every three rounds as a non-spell magical effect that deals fire and necrotic damage, which is a plus. It also can’t be countered, but can’t be upcast. Still, an 8d6 AoE every so often isn’t too bad. Though Strahd will really feel the lack of Animate Objects, which can be clutch when facing a party.
Even so, he’s still every bit a powerhouse as he was. But the party will be more on even footing with him this time, which might help players who’ve encountered him before feel like they’ve come quite a ways since the early days of adventuring.
How many times do you think your party could kill Strahd if they were 14th level?
