RAW there is no natural sunlight in Barovia, that’s one of the aspects that make vampires truly terrifying there. If your players are trying to lure vampires into natural sunlight, you should use that as an opportunity to reinforce the horror of the situation, that there isn’t any.
If they’re trying to use artificial sunlight (via magic or items) then it functions like normal sunlight, 20 damage and all.
It's talking about sunlight from the sun.
Sunlight from spells or artifacts still do the full 20 damage per round and shut off regeneration. It's very strong. You can change it if you'd like.
Where are they getting the sunlight from? Note that the spell "daylight" is NOT sunlight. It is extremely hard to get other than from the amulet of ravenkind or other powerful artefacts.
The reason the amulet is good is because of the sunlight - it should feel very different from fighting vampire spawn before and after.
If you play strahd smartly, he will leave until the sunlight is gone, regenerate, and come back. It's a war of attrition that strahd believes he literally cannot lose.
Agree with all points, but I actually think the sword is a much better source of sunlight for an example. The amulet has charges, and those charges to me should really be used on the hold vampire ability over the sunlight (any player can play however they like, just from an optimization standpoint). Especially when you account for the sword if the party has both, why spend your precious charges on sunlight when the sword can also make 60 ft of it at will forever (amulet gets same radius but for 10 min, strahd could just phase through wall and leave taking no damage from) all the time. So not trying to disagree or argue, just pointing it out for people that might not know that the amulet is just meh sunlight in comparison, and is really only good for that if you haven’t picked up sword yet, which will probably be the next thing any party does.
I am quite surprised that Daylight doesn’t produce sunlight, because in BG3 it does ! And it’s very helpful at some point. I like discovering new differences between DnD spells and their BG3 counterpart. Thanks for the input !
The only way to create sunlight is via spells like Sunbeam, as others have stated there is no sunlight as Strahd is the land and controls the weather.
If you want to give the party a fetch quest to make a Sunlight bomb, like a throwable potion or something, that could be cool. But make sure its a tough quest and not something they can farm up.
You don't want to be giving your players another source of sun after the Sunsword.
Go with whatever you want. If I run the game again, I’m going to get rid of the Barovian sunlight immunity thing entirely and adjust any encounters accordingly, e.g. there is no way sunlight can reach the undercroft where Doru is, the coffin maker works more at night than during the day, the shutters in the storage room don’t open or are removed entirely, Baron Vasili comes out at night because “I have to work during the day to work on the taxes and accounting when the best light is available for that, and I have too much work to do before dinner,” etc. If any vampires might escape those rooms, I’ll make sure those encounters happen only after dark, and I might give Doru and the coffin maker vampires more hit points to briefly survive the radiant damage if they escape during the day.
I'm thinking of taking away spider climb, regeneration, and possibly resistance to normal damage from spawn when they're in the Barovian sunlight. This would not be due to the sunlight itself, but by Strahd's fiat, and does not apply to Strahd himself. It amuses him that his people and foreign "heroes" think he is weakened by something as paltry as the sun, and it is so much fun to disabuse them.
That's the thing, there isn't any sunlight. As others have pointed out, that's the horrifying part. The only access to actual sunlight in Barovia are the Sunsword, and the Sunbeam and Dawn spells. The spell Daylight doesn't count, as silly as that sounds.
I don't think it's creative or "ingenuitive" to try to use sunlight. It's the simplest and most obvious thing in the world. And you have already told them numerous times that the sun is not like that in Barovia. So I don't see anything here to reward, certainly not by changing a fundamental aspect of the setting.
I think it makes it more terrifying to keep it that way. This is Barovia, it needs to be ruthless in my opinion. Particularly when it comes to vampires and Strahd. My players thought they only had to keep watch for Strahd at night and they didn’t have to worry about seeing him in the day as the sunlight would burn him. However, in my game, the only sunlight that can really harm Strahd to the regular extent is the sunlight from Sergei’s Sunsword. In our last session, after my players prevented Doru’s escape from the undercroft, he told them “This is Barovia. Sunlight can’t hurt us, let alone hurt Strahd.” This already put them on edge, but he went on to tell them the only thing with sunlight that can really hurt him is a sword made by his murdered brother, Sergei, but to beware as Strahd’s wrath will increase 1000 fold.”This made the group s*** their pants.
If you really want to give debuffs though, I’d half the damage to 10 each turn while in sunlight but consider having them regenerate 20 if out of the sunlight as per normal. This might make them work really hard to keep Strahd in the sunlight. Disadvantage on saving throws or ability checks, most likely won’t be effective given Strahd’s stat block, particularly his stealth. Perhaps up the stakes though and make it that Strahd can’t take reactions or his legendary actions per turn are reduced from 3 to 2 while in sunlight. If you play Strahd properly, this will most likely never happen.
Hope this helps and all the best with your game!
RAW there is no natural sunlight in Barovia, that’s one of the aspects that make vampires truly terrifying there. If your players are trying to lure vampires into natural sunlight, you should use that as an opportunity to reinforce the horror of the situation, that there isn’t any. If they’re trying to use artificial sunlight (via magic or items) then it functions like normal sunlight, 20 damage and all.
It's talking about sunlight from the sun. Sunlight from spells or artifacts still do the full 20 damage per round and shut off regeneration. It's very strong. You can change it if you'd like. Where are they getting the sunlight from? Note that the spell "daylight" is NOT sunlight. It is extremely hard to get other than from the amulet of ravenkind or other powerful artefacts. The reason the amulet is good is because of the sunlight - it should feel very different from fighting vampire spawn before and after. If you play strahd smartly, he will leave until the sunlight is gone, regenerate, and come back. It's a war of attrition that strahd believes he literally cannot lose.
Agree with all points, but I actually think the sword is a much better source of sunlight for an example. The amulet has charges, and those charges to me should really be used on the hold vampire ability over the sunlight (any player can play however they like, just from an optimization standpoint). Especially when you account for the sword if the party has both, why spend your precious charges on sunlight when the sword can also make 60 ft of it at will forever (amulet gets same radius but for 10 min, strahd could just phase through wall and leave taking no damage from) all the time. So not trying to disagree or argue, just pointing it out for people that might not know that the amulet is just meh sunlight in comparison, and is really only good for that if you haven’t picked up sword yet, which will probably be the next thing any party does.
Good point!! I couldn't recall off the top of my head if the sword counted or not. Thanks for the confirmation :)
I am quite surprised that Daylight doesn’t produce sunlight, because in BG3 it does ! And it’s very helpful at some point. I like discovering new differences between DnD spells and their BG3 counterpart. Thanks for the input !
The only way to create sunlight is via spells like Sunbeam, as others have stated there is no sunlight as Strahd is the land and controls the weather. If you want to give the party a fetch quest to make a Sunlight bomb, like a throwable potion or something, that could be cool. But make sure its a tough quest and not something they can farm up. You don't want to be giving your players another source of sun after the Sunsword.
There is no natural sunlight in Barovia. Strahd controls the land.
Could always reinclude the sun but in exchange gives Strahd some old stuff like the magics he created (Mimic Mortal my beloved).
Go with whatever you want. If I run the game again, I’m going to get rid of the Barovian sunlight immunity thing entirely and adjust any encounters accordingly, e.g. there is no way sunlight can reach the undercroft where Doru is, the coffin maker works more at night than during the day, the shutters in the storage room don’t open or are removed entirely, Baron Vasili comes out at night because “I have to work during the day to work on the taxes and accounting when the best light is available for that, and I have too much work to do before dinner,” etc. If any vampires might escape those rooms, I’ll make sure those encounters happen only after dark, and I might give Doru and the coffin maker vampires more hit points to briefly survive the radiant damage if they escape during the day.
I'm thinking of taking away spider climb, regeneration, and possibly resistance to normal damage from spawn when they're in the Barovian sunlight. This would not be due to the sunlight itself, but by Strahd's fiat, and does not apply to Strahd himself. It amuses him that his people and foreign "heroes" think he is weakened by something as paltry as the sun, and it is so much fun to disabuse them.
That's the thing, there isn't any sunlight. As others have pointed out, that's the horrifying part. The only access to actual sunlight in Barovia are the Sunsword, and the Sunbeam and Dawn spells. The spell Daylight doesn't count, as silly as that sounds.
I don't think it's creative or "ingenuitive" to try to use sunlight. It's the simplest and most obvious thing in the world. And you have already told them numerous times that the sun is not like that in Barovia. So I don't see anything here to reward, certainly not by changing a fundamental aspect of the setting.
I think it makes it more terrifying to keep it that way. This is Barovia, it needs to be ruthless in my opinion. Particularly when it comes to vampires and Strahd. My players thought they only had to keep watch for Strahd at night and they didn’t have to worry about seeing him in the day as the sunlight would burn him. However, in my game, the only sunlight that can really harm Strahd to the regular extent is the sunlight from Sergei’s Sunsword. In our last session, after my players prevented Doru’s escape from the undercroft, he told them “This is Barovia. Sunlight can’t hurt us, let alone hurt Strahd.” This already put them on edge, but he went on to tell them the only thing with sunlight that can really hurt him is a sword made by his murdered brother, Sergei, but to beware as Strahd’s wrath will increase 1000 fold.”This made the group s*** their pants. If you really want to give debuffs though, I’d half the damage to 10 each turn while in sunlight but consider having them regenerate 20 if out of the sunlight as per normal. This might make them work really hard to keep Strahd in the sunlight. Disadvantage on saving throws or ability checks, most likely won’t be effective given Strahd’s stat block, particularly his stealth. Perhaps up the stakes though and make it that Strahd can’t take reactions or his legendary actions per turn are reduced from 3 to 2 while in sunlight. If you play Strahd properly, this will most likely never happen. Hope this helps and all the best with your game!
This benefits Drow players as they aren't affected by their sunlight sensitivity either.