Advice on Expedition to Castle Ravenloft

[MoshiMaro]

I'm planning to get a campaign running with the 3.5 adventure Expedition to Castle Ravenloft.

The player party will consist of 4 characters starting at 6th level (as recommended by the book)
The only allowed source for character building will be PHB (maybe allowing prestige classes from DMG not sure yet though)

I'm looking for feedback from DM's who already played the adventure, Tips and advice on what things I should pay attention to, to make sure it runs smooth.

I already downloaded the compiled errata list and the monster sources from the boards.

Some things I'm interested in:

- Overall difficulty for a party of four (Can I expect reasonably experienced players to get killed etc?)

- Is it recommended to have 2 clerics in the party (party composition would then be thief/mage/cleric/cleric) since it's an undead-heavy campaign?

- Any tips on certain encounters

- Tips on playing out the major NPC's (Especially Strahd himself)

- Duration of the campaign (book suggest 20-25 sessions but having read the book it seems longer to me)

Plus any other comments which you as DM found to be useful for running the adventure.

Thanks!

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

Haven't actually run the adventure myself, but I just wanted to welcome you to the forum!

Not a lot of Strahd's character really comes through in the adventure, IMHO. But that's to be expected, since in the original adventure he was just a very intelligent and uniquely powerful end boss with a cool backstory. If you want to see how he was developed as a character since then, try to track down a copy of the novels Vampire of the Mists and/or I, Strahd. They're old and out of print, but not too hard to find.

As for the other specifics, I'll defer to anyone who has run it...

[A G Thing]

There are some new versions of I Strahd, floating about from the not to distant re release... I bought one as finding the older printings is near impossible.

Still I also have not run EtCR... Sorry! I have little else to add but others have run it so I will also have to bow to their experience to inform you!!!

But Welcome to the Boards!

[Lost Heretic]

try to track down a copy of the novels Vampire of the Mists and/or I, Strahd. They're old and out of print, but not too hard to find.

...and recently reprinted in digest-size.

[Jester of the FoS]

- Overall difficulty for a party of four (Can I expect reasonably experienced players to get killed etc?)

The ELs of some of the encounters is debatable, but for the most part reasonably accurate.
Just be aware of party level to the EL and pay attention to possibly monster synergy. It was created late into 3e when the power creep was pretty high and can be hard at times.

- Is it recommended to have 2 clerics in the party (party composition would then be thief/mage/cleric/cleric) since it's an undead-heavy campaign?

It's actually more demon/devil/aberration heavy than undead heavy.
I'd really recommend some kind of fighter rather than just another cleric. Clerics are good in melee, but not good enough to do the job solo.

- Duration of the campaign (book suggest 20-25 sessions but having read the book it seems longer to me)

20-25 four-hour sessions should take care of most of it. That's assuming quick sessions with limited chatter and heavy play with one encounter per hour.
Find out how fast your group can run through a single encounter and that should help you set the baseline.

[The Giamarga]

try to track down a copy of the novels Vampire of the Mists and/or I, Strahd. They're old and out of print, but not too hard to find.

...and recently reprinted in digest-size.

..and readily available at half.com or amazon marketplace for pennies.

[Marxsus]

Just bought Vampire of the Mists off of Amazon myself, I can't wait for the package!

[MoshiMaro]

Thanks for the welcome and the replies, I'll try and get hold of the two novels mentioned.

Even though this adventure is probably mocked by all you hardcore Ravenloft fans out here (I mean any serious fan doesn't let a bunch of 10th level players clear out a Dark Lord :p) I'm hoping some more people who actually DM'd the adventure can give me feedback.

Perhaps after the adventure I'll be continuing the campaign by buying the Ravenloft PHB and DMG.
Right now I'm planning to use the Taint rules from Heroes of Horror or do you guys recommend I use The Fear, Horror and Madness checks common to te RL setting?

...waving his white veiny hand...

[DasSoviet]

I did run a partial run of Expedition to Castle Ravenloft as a stopgap between campaigns last October/November. We got about... ohh... maybe two thirds of the way through the second part in 5 meetings, (though there were 6-8 hours long, so take that as you will).

I must agree with with Jester about the ELs... it's a little tougher than your baseline CRs, so if you're just running core books/SRD, do expect there to be some hiccups. The start isn't too too bad, but apparently it does get worse in the Castle, when you can have multiple encounters triggered at once. Still, smart players and cautious DMs should be able to avoid most of the problems (unless the rolls are with the DM, in which case the players had better be packing backup character sheets)

As for the 2 clerics thing... clerics are helpful, aye, but you do need a someone to play the wall here. A cleric specialized for defence works, but I'd go for either a fighter or a paladin (my party had a psychic warrior... worked well enough). The fights inside the castle and other buildings really do benefit from having someone stand in the chokepoint and keep the squishies safe. Though, be advised to keep them fully stocked with potions and the like.

As for the Taint rules thing... at the moment, I'd stick with Taint. You don't have the RL books yet, while the Taint rules are available free in the SRD, so easier for you. When you get the RL books/pdfs (try Drivethru RPG, where I got most of mine from), you can decide which you prefer, but until then, stick with Taint. (Also, see if you can't pick up Heroes of Horror... best supplement for D&D 3.5 in my opinion, and something you might find handy later on if you're running Ravenloft)

Anyways, good luck mate! Hopefully this ends up a resounding success!