"Open Grave" previews Strahd's longsword

[Dion of the Fraternity]

Stats for his family longsword:

Von Zarovich Family Sword
Paragon Level
Commissioned by Count Strahd, this weapon is the family sword of the von Zarovich clan, symbol of its sovereign rule over Barovia.
The von Zarovich Family Sword is a +3 longsword with the following properties and powers.
Enhancement: Attack and damage rolls
Critical: +3d6 damage.
Property: Once per day, if the Sword has been used to help defeat a living enemy, it must feed. The owner is stunned until the start of his or her next turn.
Property: You gain vulnerable 10 radiant.
Property: You do not cast a reflection.
Power (Encounter; Arcane, Weapon): Move Action. You can use spider climb (warlock 6).
Power (Daily; Weapon): Immediate Reaction, when you hit with the Sword. The target is weakened (save ends), and you gain 20 temporary hit points.
Special: At the end of each round in which an attack is knowingly made with it against a member of the von Zarovich family, the weapon burns with sudden intensity, dealing 30 fire damage to its owner.

[Igor the Henchman]

I thought that portrait represented Ctenmiir the Cursed (a warhammer-wielding vampire described in the same article)?

I missed the fighter/warlock part. Was it mentioned somewhere else?

I wonder if the vulnerability to Radiant damage stacks on top of Strahd's own when he wields the sword himself?

[EO]

Yeah, I think the armored warhammer wielding vampire is Ctenmir. And I figure the reference to warlock/fighter was based on that picture of an armored Strahd.

[Dion of the Fraternity]

Whoops, I guess so, har har. OP edited.

Knowing that Strahd made a "pact," it's almost pretty obvious that his new 4e stats would include warlock stats.

[Igor the Henchman]

Knowing that Strahd made a "pact," it's almost pretty obvious that his new 4e stats would include warlock stats.

Logical, maybe. But not necessarily. If I happen one day meet a demon who trades me his autograph in exchange for a ham sandwich, I don't expect I would spontaneously gain warlock abilities. Not all pacts with nameless beings have to end like that.

[EO]

Who knows, Strahd may become a tiefling.

[Scipio]

Sadly, I wouldn't put it past WotC to make him a tiefling. Or any other race that they think will sell books. "Dragonborn Strahd will sell more books than human Strahd? Make him a dragonborn then."

That said, I can see an argument for Strahd being a Mist Pact warlock, although I personally wouldn't go that route for his stats. I'd keep him as a fighter/MC wizard.

[Ryan Naylor]

Technically, he was a spellcaster before he made any kind of pact, and that pact was for eternal, unaging life not more magic.

[Irving the Meek]

Eh. It cuts both ways. If you're going to study to look for a way to cut a deal with Death, you'd probably want to go into the deal-cutting (i.e., warlocky) style of magic.

The dark pact magic from Forgotten Realms works pretty neatly for a "necromantic" pact with Death. And best of all, you only have to pick one or two powers - that's the nice thing about 4e NPC's. Pick the fighter (or better yet, warlord) exploits you want to use, pick the warlord feats you want to use - yummy! Strahd as a barauva presence warlord with some warlock powers? Tasty.

[Matthew L. Martin]

Technically, he was a spellcaster before he made any kind of pact, and that pact was for eternal, unaging life not more magic.

For Ravenloft-Strahd, yes. I don't know if that was ever established for D&D-Strahd (the Strahd purely of I6, the Strahd who was the baseline for EtCR), who will probably be the model for Open Grave's Strahd. It saves a lot of stress if you realize that Strahd has a foot both in 'basic D&D' and the Ravenloft setting, and what is true of one Strahd is not necessarily true of the other.

I'll be interested to see the full writeup of him and the von Zarovich family sword, and I wonder if the holy symbol of Ravenkind will get an artifact writeup.

Personally, I'm not sure what to make Strahd--a War4/Adp16, a several hundred-CP villain, or an Obsessive and Scheming Legend.

[Irving the Meek]

Another great joy of 4e - you can have a different writeup for him at every encounter. (I think Expedition to Castle Ravenloft follows this track.) You can work him as a striker one room, then as a skulker, then a controller... you're essentially working with the concept that Strahd *has* access to all those powers, but is only whipping out the relevant ones in any given encounter.

[Gnarfflinger]

After Reading I Strahd, I figure him for a Warlord witht eh Vampire Lord template (perhaps souped up for Ravenloft and his Darklord status), and the death pact would be the addition of the Warlock template or MC into Warlock.

I think Strahd should receive the full write up as a PC of the level they decide for him then add the template or templates.

[cure]

Eh. It cuts both ways. If you're going to study to look for a way to cut a deal with Death, you'd probably want to go into the deal-cutting (i.e., warlocky) style of magic.

The dark pact magic from Forgotten Realms works pretty neatly for a "necromantic" pact with Death. And best of all, you only have to pick one or two powers - that's the nice thing about 4e NPC's. Pick the fighter (or better yet, warlord) exploits you want to use, pick the warlord feats you want to use - yummy! Strahd as a barauva presence warlord with some warlock powers? Tasty.

Of course my memory may be faulty, but Strahd was not Elric-style trying to call in demonic favours owed to his family or even make first contact with netherworld powers. He was simply banging his head on his deck trying to grasp at any means possible to wrench away his brother's bethroved. And in this state of desperate need the Dark Powers reached out to him. That should hardly qualify him as a Warlock if by Warlock we mean an expert and specialist in contracting with dark powers. Frankly Strahd seemed to be more a nyophite than an expert and one quite distracted with other matters rather than a specialist in the field. Further every darklord has in effect 'contracted' with the Dark Powers so why go down this road in the first place? Yes there is the matter of the actual netherworld deal with Inajira, that Strahd escaped through good and/or bad luck rather than efficient management. And Strahd's pact with Death was more explicit than most, but that is more crassness on the part of the Dark Powers than anything noteworthy on the part of Strahd.

[Irving the Meek]

Well, some of that crassness might come from the fact that Strahd was the first Darklord, and thus required some unusual circumstances. Also, while Strahd might not have reached out explicitly to Death for his power, he's wielded that power for a very long time indeed, and thus may well be an expert in using it. In the 3.5e writeups, Strahd was a much better necromancer than fighter.

[Rotipher of the FoS]

Just a clarification, for those who haven't read the novels:

The entity or entities with which Strahd made his pact never explicitly claimed to be "Death". That was an assumption on Strahd's own part, and it most likely tells us more about what the aging war-veteran had feared the most at the time than about what he made his bargain with.