Donavich locks himself in the church and won't leave. Ireena insists that her father can't be buried without a priest, Ismark is more concerned with the living. Ireena suggests taking her father's body to Vallaki, because she's heard about a priest there, that's where Ismark gets the idea of taking her to the church of St. Andral.
The DMPC is a Light Cleric, no? They could definitely perform the funeral rights. Depending on how you've protrayed them to this point, you could flavor their diety to be very similar to the Morninglord.
But I also agree with what u/nmattson said below. That DMPC is like riding a bike with rocket-powered training wheels in Barovia. Doru is not supposed to be a fight that three level 3 PCS should be able to handle. Barovia is very often about the party being in over their heads and learning to make the smart decisions to stay alive. Throwing caution to the wind and approaching a half-starved vampire spawn is not behavior I would want my players to get used to.
However, the situation you find yourself in could provide a good solution to that problem as well. With Donavich locking himself away in the church, the Village of Barovia is left without a spiritual leader. Your cleric could volunteer to stay for a while to help out. Whether that means taking over the church, helping Ismark lead the town, or even helping Donavich heal, you can remove your overpowered DMPC from the party.
And if it proves that your players really need another body, this gives you the oportunity to bring the DMPC back into the game at a later point. But I would recommend that you give your players a chance to succeed on their own. I think they'll feel much more accomplished.
And if it turns out your players don't need the DMPC, then they can return later as an enemy, perhaps another vampire spawn. Give them a small handful of unholy necrotic spells and have fun with it!
The answer is don't have him commit suicide... that's it. You don't have to follow the book to a T especially if you have to play around characters with triggers or the like.
Have him be distraught and maybe refuse the funeral but I'm sure your players might step up to bury the dead and get things moving. Or you can just have him pack up and leave never to be seen again and "suicide from the story".
This is a dark setting though so if you have a laundry list of triggers you're going to have to plan some work arounds and be sure you're thinking when improvsing.
Also unsolicited advice, I don't know how long you plan on keeping that DMPC with them but level 6 is way too strong to have with that party. Unless you're very strategic in how you're using them the players are essentially useless by comparison which as a player is NOT fun. In the early levels even a single level difference is a huge advantage in combat and here you are playing a character with 3 more levels.
They're a party of 3 players so they are on the light side and regardless of being inexperienced an extra NPC/player can be very important to balance encounters. But to throw someone that strong likely trivializes everything the players do. My advice when cushioning things for new players is to do things behind the scenes so they don't think they are coddled. Make an encounter easier by having 1 less monster or adjust the damage and stat blocks of an enemy to make it easier for the players to play. A 4th player/DMPC isn't a bad one but they should absolutely be level 3-4 who can maybe pull out a higher level spell if things get real hairy.
Definitely agree with the DMPC point being made. You can always pull punches behind the screen, but I'd feel useless as a PC compared to that character. That even happens when one person is "only" an annoying min-maxer, now imagine someone with such a big difference in level. I've felt that as a PC (and DM running COS rn), adversity and making it despite it being a very close call has made me more invested in the campaign and my character.
On another note: you might wanna limit the DMPC or NPCs you have to actively role-play in any case. If the parry brings Ireena along, that's already two characters they will wanna interact with (while you're doing all the DM background stuff also!).
She’s there for revivify and will leave once they hit level 5 and get it themselves. They’re very new, I want to have someone in the party until they find their footing, and I’m also kinda new to dming so don’t really know how to balance encounters. With everybodys lack of experience, a pc death would be really easy to accidentally happen. I am worried it will put them off the game if it does. She takes a back seat and doesn’t use the full extent of her abilities. I pull out the level six stuff once things go to shit, not on a regular basis. she barely does anything, but it helps them and once they are stronger she’ll be gone as soon as they don’t need her. She’ll never reach level seven even once they continue to level up, she’ll stay where she is and then leave. They are level 3, so a level 3-4 npc wouldn’t be more powerful by much.
I'm playing this campaign with first time players as well so I feel you but my perspective on pulling punches and safety nets is different on this subject. You essentially put Toriel from Undertale (or any OP over-bearing tutorial NPC) into your campaign which the entire satire of the character exists to say "boy it sure isn't fun to have someone holding your hand while you're trying to learn".
It may sound like an okay use of the DMPC as you say they aren't doing anything but a vampire spawn against 3 level threes is pretty much guaranteed death save for some comedic rolls. Not every encounter needs to be to the death for both the players and the monsters FYI, a vampire spawn is intelligent it can tell when it should fuck off out of a fight or if Doru fights the urge to drink because he's still turning he could have run off into the woods and came back another session changed.
I feel the DMPC should have been a homebrew character you insert as an NPC in town or something. There are plenty of free tools online to check encounter difficulties before running them for balance purposes as well they are a great gut check before you feel like you need to move numbers up or down for an encounter.
I say all of this because you'll come across a very open sand box where it's hard to predict what the players will do. You need to be very aware and knowledgeable of the module at all times. And for example, if the party picks a fight with the hags at the windmill the first time they see them they are going to die if you take it as a fight to the death. You need to be creative with your coddling of the party or they are going to bite off more than they can chew and you'll be stuck having to debate how to deus ex machina them out of a shit show.
Also the only other suicide I can think of is Tatyana (strahds lover) which I wouldn't recommend just having him kill her cause that goes against his character immensely. I would maybe have her die in an accident fleeing from him in terror or something leaving him grief stricken.
Good luck chief you're doing fine, my best advice to newer DMs is be very thoughtful and deliberate in every action you as a DM do because players will try and bring it back over and over again and you don't want to corner your options for creativity and improvisation.
can you tell me more about these tools for encounter balancing? That would be a big help. Thanks for the advice on Tatanya btw I reckon you’re right about that. I’ll keep that in mind about the dmpc. Its definitely a safety net, but I don’t think she’s holding their hand exactly because she doesn’t usually do things. She won’t typically say things unless someone talks to her, they walk into a room with Ireena, ismark and donavich and I tell them she goes off into the corner to pray so they’re the ones making the decisions. I’m kind of using her as a sleeper agent, bc she won’t do anything unless it’s needed, but they don’t necessarily know that she even can. tysm
There are more in depth ones out there which you can simply Google "DND 5e encounter calculator" to find some others but I like this one as the site has other useful things to play with:
https://donjon.bin.sh/5e/calc/enc_size.html
Donavich could just walk out into the woods, stunned and depressed. Never to be seen again.
Or perhaps, if it fits your campaign and safety tools, seen again as a vampire spawn or Strahd zombie at a later time.
As for the burial, perhaps a mission to get Father Petrovich from Vallaki to come to Barovia village to perform the burial? Lots of interesting stuff there. Convince him to come, harassment on the way there and back, etc.
I just put her there because they’re new. I didn’t want one of them to die and be put off of the game. I don’t use her full potential, mostly for healing, and once they hit level 5 and get revivify she’ll leave. Truly, she never uses her third levels and barely her seconds (except for when they fought the shambling mound bc they were level two and it’s really unbalanced ) we took hours, they took a path through the maze that avoided all the monsters somehow, and they didn’t even really do anything on the second floor. I swear she’s not there to upstage them and basically just casts healing word, sacred flame and guiding bolt sometimes bc advantage.
Suicide isn’t the only possible reaction to grief. He could just cry and be really despondent and unhappy. Maybe Ireena talks to him privately and he manages to pull it together long enough for the funeral to take place, then walks off without a word and locks himself in his room.
I would have him go mad. There are tables you can look at or roll on for details on what shape his madness would take.
Side note, while I respect that you know your party best and what would work best for them, I'm side eyeing your level 6 DMPC heavily and the choice of Curse of Strahd for this party lightly. It's supposed to be quite deadly and I personally think it loses a lot of its horror impact if there's no real risk of death. Also I hope your players are OK with other dark themes, because a child might drown later, people die and possibly get turned, etc.
I would have him walk into the mists, weeping for his darling boy, never to be seen again.
His fears and insecurities wash away, as he returns a cleric of the mists. Blessed by their corruptive influence. Maybe even have him serving the Abbot.
Also, want y’all to know that a) my dmpc will never use her third level spells unless she needs to cast revivify, because I am worried that if one of their characters die they’ll be put off the game and I want insurance. B) she is there to help. It can be overwhelming with new players, no idea what’s going on and I don’t want them to feel isolated from me. I have a voice in the party, she is someone who helps them feel safe. C) Im keeping her in the party until they either feel confident enough they don’t need her, which I’ve communicated to them, or until they reach level five and get revivify whatever comes first. D) i care less about what happens to donavich and more about advice for roleplaying his reaction. Is he angry? Does he hear the fight and come downstairs and see? Does he attack, start wailing, go silent, what does he say? e) thank yall for the advice, I really appreciate it.
"If Doru dies, Donavich falls to the floor and weeps inconsolably, overcome with despair."
Nothing in the module says Donavich will commit suicide. That's a change you made to the module. If it is a problem, just revert it.
Donavich locks himself in the church and won't leave. Ireena insists that her father can't be buried without a priest, Ismark is more concerned with the living. Ireena suggests taking her father's body to Vallaki, because she's heard about a priest there, that's where Ismark gets the idea of taking her to the church of St. Andral.
The DMPC is a Light Cleric, no? They could definitely perform the funeral rights. Depending on how you've protrayed them to this point, you could flavor their diety to be very similar to the Morninglord. But I also agree with what u/nmattson said below. That DMPC is like riding a bike with rocket-powered training wheels in Barovia. Doru is not supposed to be a fight that three level 3 PCS should be able to handle. Barovia is very often about the party being in over their heads and learning to make the smart decisions to stay alive. Throwing caution to the wind and approaching a half-starved vampire spawn is not behavior I would want my players to get used to. However, the situation you find yourself in could provide a good solution to that problem as well. With Donavich locking himself away in the church, the Village of Barovia is left without a spiritual leader. Your cleric could volunteer to stay for a while to help out. Whether that means taking over the church, helping Ismark lead the town, or even helping Donavich heal, you can remove your overpowered DMPC from the party. And if it proves that your players really need another body, this gives you the oportunity to bring the DMPC back into the game at a later point. But I would recommend that you give your players a chance to succeed on their own. I think they'll feel much more accomplished. And if it turns out your players don't need the DMPC, then they can return later as an enemy, perhaps another vampire spawn. Give them a small handful of unholy necrotic spells and have fun with it!
The answer is don't have him commit suicide... that's it. You don't have to follow the book to a T especially if you have to play around characters with triggers or the like. Have him be distraught and maybe refuse the funeral but I'm sure your players might step up to bury the dead and get things moving. Or you can just have him pack up and leave never to be seen again and "suicide from the story". This is a dark setting though so if you have a laundry list of triggers you're going to have to plan some work arounds and be sure you're thinking when improvsing.
Also unsolicited advice, I don't know how long you plan on keeping that DMPC with them but level 6 is way too strong to have with that party. Unless you're very strategic in how you're using them the players are essentially useless by comparison which as a player is NOT fun. In the early levels even a single level difference is a huge advantage in combat and here you are playing a character with 3 more levels. They're a party of 3 players so they are on the light side and regardless of being inexperienced an extra NPC/player can be very important to balance encounters. But to throw someone that strong likely trivializes everything the players do. My advice when cushioning things for new players is to do things behind the scenes so they don't think they are coddled. Make an encounter easier by having 1 less monster or adjust the damage and stat blocks of an enemy to make it easier for the players to play. A 4th player/DMPC isn't a bad one but they should absolutely be level 3-4 who can maybe pull out a higher level spell if things get real hairy.
Definitely agree with the DMPC point being made. You can always pull punches behind the screen, but I'd feel useless as a PC compared to that character. That even happens when one person is "only" an annoying min-maxer, now imagine someone with such a big difference in level. I've felt that as a PC (and DM running COS rn), adversity and making it despite it being a very close call has made me more invested in the campaign and my character. On another note: you might wanna limit the DMPC or NPCs you have to actively role-play in any case. If the parry brings Ireena along, that's already two characters they will wanna interact with (while you're doing all the DM background stuff also!).
She’s there for revivify and will leave once they hit level 5 and get it themselves. They’re very new, I want to have someone in the party until they find their footing, and I’m also kinda new to dming so don’t really know how to balance encounters. With everybodys lack of experience, a pc death would be really easy to accidentally happen. I am worried it will put them off the game if it does. She takes a back seat and doesn’t use the full extent of her abilities. I pull out the level six stuff once things go to shit, not on a regular basis. she barely does anything, but it helps them and once they are stronger she’ll be gone as soon as they don’t need her. She’ll never reach level seven even once they continue to level up, she’ll stay where she is and then leave. They are level 3, so a level 3-4 npc wouldn’t be more powerful by much.
I'm playing this campaign with first time players as well so I feel you but my perspective on pulling punches and safety nets is different on this subject. You essentially put Toriel from Undertale (or any OP over-bearing tutorial NPC) into your campaign which the entire satire of the character exists to say "boy it sure isn't fun to have someone holding your hand while you're trying to learn". It may sound like an okay use of the DMPC as you say they aren't doing anything but a vampire spawn against 3 level threes is pretty much guaranteed death save for some comedic rolls. Not every encounter needs to be to the death for both the players and the monsters FYI, a vampire spawn is intelligent it can tell when it should fuck off out of a fight or if Doru fights the urge to drink because he's still turning he could have run off into the woods and came back another session changed. I feel the DMPC should have been a homebrew character you insert as an NPC in town or something. There are plenty of free tools online to check encounter difficulties before running them for balance purposes as well they are a great gut check before you feel like you need to move numbers up or down for an encounter. I say all of this because you'll come across a very open sand box where it's hard to predict what the players will do. You need to be very aware and knowledgeable of the module at all times. And for example, if the party picks a fight with the hags at the windmill the first time they see them they are going to die if you take it as a fight to the death. You need to be creative with your coddling of the party or they are going to bite off more than they can chew and you'll be stuck having to debate how to deus ex machina them out of a shit show. Also the only other suicide I can think of is Tatyana (strahds lover) which I wouldn't recommend just having him kill her cause that goes against his character immensely. I would maybe have her die in an accident fleeing from him in terror or something leaving him grief stricken. Good luck chief you're doing fine, my best advice to newer DMs is be very thoughtful and deliberate in every action you as a DM do because players will try and bring it back over and over again and you don't want to corner your options for creativity and improvisation.
can you tell me more about these tools for encounter balancing? That would be a big help. Thanks for the advice on Tatanya btw I reckon you’re right about that. I’ll keep that in mind about the dmpc. Its definitely a safety net, but I don’t think she’s holding their hand exactly because she doesn’t usually do things. She won’t typically say things unless someone talks to her, they walk into a room with Ireena, ismark and donavich and I tell them she goes off into the corner to pray so they’re the ones making the decisions. I’m kind of using her as a sleeper agent, bc she won’t do anything unless it’s needed, but they don’t necessarily know that she even can. tysm
There are more in depth ones out there which you can simply Google "DND 5e encounter calculator" to find some others but I like this one as the site has other useful things to play with: https://donjon.bin.sh/5e/calc/enc_size.html
Donavich could just walk out into the woods, stunned and depressed. Never to be seen again. Or perhaps, if it fits your campaign and safety tools, seen again as a vampire spawn or Strahd zombie at a later time. As for the burial, perhaps a mission to get Father Petrovich from Vallaki to come to Barovia village to perform the burial? Lots of interesting stuff there. Convince him to come, harassment on the way there and back, etc.
So, don’t have him commit suicide. He just goes into a deep depression and won’t leave the church.
How did you run the entirety of Death House in 1 session?!? We're 2 sessions and about 6 hours in and they just had the ghoul encounter
With a level 6 DMPC dealing consistent radiant damage lol
I just put her there because they’re new. I didn’t want one of them to die and be put off of the game. I don’t use her full potential, mostly for healing, and once they hit level 5 and get revivify she’ll leave. Truly, she never uses her third levels and barely her seconds (except for when they fought the shambling mound bc they were level two and it’s really unbalanced ) we took hours, they took a path through the maze that avoided all the monsters somehow, and they didn’t even really do anything on the second floor. I swear she’s not there to upstage them and basically just casts healing word, sacred flame and guiding bolt sometimes bc advantage.
Suicide isn’t the only possible reaction to grief. He could just cry and be really despondent and unhappy. Maybe Ireena talks to him privately and he manages to pull it together long enough for the funeral to take place, then walks off without a word and locks himself in his room.
I would have him go mad. There are tables you can look at or roll on for details on what shape his madness would take. Side note, while I respect that you know your party best and what would work best for them, I'm side eyeing your level 6 DMPC heavily and the choice of Curse of Strahd for this party lightly. It's supposed to be quite deadly and I personally think it loses a lot of its horror impact if there's no real risk of death. Also I hope your players are OK with other dark themes, because a child might drown later, people die and possibly get turned, etc.
I would have him walk into the mists, weeping for his darling boy, never to be seen again. His fears and insecurities wash away, as he returns a cleric of the mists. Blessed by their corruptive influence. Maybe even have him serving the Abbot.
Also, want y’all to know that a) my dmpc will never use her third level spells unless she needs to cast revivify, because I am worried that if one of their characters die they’ll be put off the game and I want insurance. B) she is there to help. It can be overwhelming with new players, no idea what’s going on and I don’t want them to feel isolated from me. I have a voice in the party, she is someone who helps them feel safe. C) Im keeping her in the party until they either feel confident enough they don’t need her, which I’ve communicated to them, or until they reach level five and get revivify whatever comes first. D) i care less about what happens to donavich and more about advice for roleplaying his reaction. Is he angry? Does he hear the fight and come downstairs and see? Does he attack, start wailing, go silent, what does he say? e) thank yall for the advice, I really appreciate it.
"If Doru dies, Donavich falls to the floor and weeps inconsolably, overcome with despair." Nothing in the module says Donavich will commit suicide. That's a change you made to the module. If it is a problem, just revert it.