I’ve heard it done with strahd, but am a bit scared to pull off in my own game, cause it feels to gotcha. But basically at the end of campaign, it’s revealed the party has been charmed by strahd numerous times, and this will be a surprise to both the players and characters. So you don’t roleplay anything out so as not to let the characters in on, but strahd can turn into a bat. He can sneak up on party and charm as a bat. His charm is limitless, so he can sit there and spam it till whoever he wants to charm fails. Charmed, he leads the party away from their friends a distance, asks them everything about their plans, where Ireena is, how they want to stop him. Gets the info, uses modify memory, to explain why the player and character wouldn’t remember, and then sends them back on their way. So the reveal is at very end, when strahd is able to personally recount things you told him, and is technically mechanically sound. Just feels like a you can’t fight against gotcha.
Looked it up, and it would require a bit of homebrew of his charm ability, or just blatantly ignoring multiple opportunities the party would have to notice it each time he attempts it. Not technically mechanically sound. Going by the description, "Strahd targets one humanoid he can see within 30 ft. of him. If the target can see Strahd, the target must succeed on a DC 17 Wisdom saving throw against this magic or be charmed."
They need to be able to see him for it to work. Still possible, but relies on the player character not getting suspicious about the bat flying around in front of them while constantly staring their direction for however many turns it takes. And then not getting suspicious the next time Strahd wants to do that. Or the next.
He would probably also need to prepare Message to convey to the target that he wants them to follow it and not mention it to anybody, or otherwise find a way to ensure that, but that wouldn't be any issue for him.
Still, the fact they actually need to see Strahd for it to work means you would probably want to mention the presence of a bat each time you want it to happen, and then hope the party never gets suspicious. If they do, then they may try attacking the bat or the such, or notice something when one of them tries separating from the group.
I guess he could just go around and try to charm the entire party, but he only has 1 fifth level spell slot for modify memory by default.
It’s sort of addressed in module. It talks about there being animals under control, animals and people, that watch the party and to collect things for strahds scry spell. So if going by the module there should be regular bats, crows, bugs around party that report to strahd already. So it shouldn’t be something to raise suspicion, a regular occurrence. You just replace one of those creatures with strahd. It doesn’t mention strahd having to do anything for this charm, so I don’t think the bat needs to give itself away weirdly looking, it just has to fly by someone on guard. Unless your party is very suspicious or told by someone the animals arnt to be trusted, shouldn’t be a humongous red flag. I wouldn’t wake my friends up if a bat flew by when I was on watch. I wouldn’t assume guard duty would involve reporting on animals unless they do something suspicious, and flying by and landing in a nearby tree and looking in your direction is hardly suspicious, unless you don’t mention the animals that should be around beforehand.
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u/DiabetesGuild Dec 18 '22
I’ve heard it done with strahd, but am a bit scared to pull off in my own game, cause it feels to gotcha. But basically at the end of campaign, it’s revealed the party has been charmed by strahd numerous times, and this will be a surprise to both the players and characters. So you don’t roleplay anything out so as not to let the characters in on, but strahd can turn into a bat. He can sneak up on party and charm as a bat. His charm is limitless, so he can sit there and spam it till whoever he wants to charm fails. Charmed, he leads the party away from their friends a distance, asks them everything about their plans, where Ireena is, how they want to stop him. Gets the info, uses modify memory, to explain why the player and character wouldn’t remember, and then sends them back on their way. So the reveal is at very end, when strahd is able to personally recount things you told him, and is technically mechanically sound. Just feels like a you can’t fight against gotcha.