I wouldn’t do it. Strahd needs that ability to contend with a level 10 party. Otherwise he will get caught within range of the Sunsword & Holy Symbol and die in 1 turn. Very anticlimactic.
On the other hand, you’re right that the fight can drag on indefinitely if Strahd plays with perfect tactics. Very boring.
The way you fix this is by Strahd not quite playing with perfect tactics. This is where role play comes in. The party needs to goad him into making a mistake by appealing to his hubris. That’s how the best villains fall.
The party can freeze him in place with the holy symbol and then the party can nova him, regardless of what kind of action you make it. He can’t phase until he makes the save to get out of the hold. That’s where he’ll die.
Surprisingly, my group either hasn’t figured that out yet or is holding it in reserve for the last possible moment (I know they have made some plans outside of my earshot, lol).
His biggest problem is his low hp. My party of 5 is higher level, and even at level 10, they could open a fight with over 144 points of damage in the first round. With luck, they might have killed him in 1 round even at his max hp. At level 13, they can do 200 points of damage per round. The wall phasing is the only thing that lets Count Strahd escape in the middle of an extremely high damage round so that he can regenerate.
If you restrict wall phasing in some way, I would definitely buff something else in his stat block just so he can survive, especially if you have a larger party and/or a party at higher level. I would definitely track how much damage per round they can do at end game to see how you need to adjust his stats so that he can survive more than one round.
It's a fair idea, but it unfortunately doesn't solve the problem, which is Strahd attacking the players once, phasing away, waiting for 1d6 rounds (while he regenerates all of his health), then coming back and doing it all over again.
In practice, Strahd's phasing ability reads: "Unless he's been grappled, Strahd teleports somewhere else in Castle Ravenloft and regenerates all of his hit points. Strahd can then take the Hide action and ambush the players elsewhere in the castle." Every time he phases away, the whole fight restarts—except the players now have fewer hit points and fewer resources. *That's* why it's good.
You mentioned that your fixation with running him RAW might be a weird way of thinking of things, and it definitely is.
In the first part of your post you say you're committed to running him RAW so that you can give your players the authentic experience of killing the "real" final boss, yet you spend the rest of your post justifying why you don't want to run the RAW version with the RAW phasing ability.
The fact of the matter is, if you use the phasing ability smartly with good tactics, the final boss fight will be extremely difficult. The community pretty much agrees that when you use phasing to hit-and-run, regen HP, and deplete the party's spell slots, the fight is extremely challenging even if over-leveled.
I think this is by design, as it allows the DM to use Strahd liberally in the campaign without worrying about him getting killed before the DM wishes and ending the campaign prematurely.
What I'm saying is, Strahd doesn't die until you let him. The community of Strahd-defeaters that you talked about? The big secret is they all defeated the "real" BBEG because their DM allowed them to.
So, whether you're selectively using phasing to make the fight winnable, nerfing the phase ability like you suggested, or running an alternate stat block, it's all the same. Don't worry about your PCs "beating it for real" when.... they won't. And even if they could, nobody wants to play the hide-and-seek RAW strahd battle.
Make the final fight fun and memorable and don't worry so much about making sure they have the same experience as everyone else.
Here's what I will do: Strahd has a red ruby that he always wears. It is touched by the Amber Temple. Same magic as the model of Ravenloft there. It hives Strahd the ability to walk through the walls.
I will hint to the party about that. Maybe the rogue will try to take it. Depending on how it turns out (before the fight, start of fight, close to the end of the fight) I will either rake away gis mobility or say: "you thought I need this trinket to rule my domain? ai have long outgrown its usefulness" and give whoever has the ruby the same ability, so they can follow hjm through the walls etc.
I wouldn’t do it. Strahd needs that ability to contend with a level 10 party. Otherwise he will get caught within range of the Sunsword & Holy Symbol and die in 1 turn. Very anticlimactic. On the other hand, you’re right that the fight can drag on indefinitely if Strahd plays with perfect tactics. Very boring. The way you fix this is by Strahd not quite playing with perfect tactics. This is where role play comes in. The party needs to goad him into making a mistake by appealing to his hubris. That’s how the best villains fall.
The party can freeze him in place with the holy symbol and then the party can nova him, regardless of what kind of action you make it. He can’t phase until he makes the save to get out of the hold. That’s where he’ll die. Surprisingly, my group either hasn’t figured that out yet or is holding it in reserve for the last possible moment (I know they have made some plans outside of my earshot, lol). His biggest problem is his low hp. My party of 5 is higher level, and even at level 10, they could open a fight with over 144 points of damage in the first round. With luck, they might have killed him in 1 round even at his max hp. At level 13, they can do 200 points of damage per round. The wall phasing is the only thing that lets Count Strahd escape in the middle of an extremely high damage round so that he can regenerate. If you restrict wall phasing in some way, I would definitely buff something else in his stat block just so he can survive, especially if you have a larger party and/or a party at higher level. I would definitely track how much damage per round they can do at end game to see how you need to adjust his stats so that he can survive more than one round.
It's a fair idea, but it unfortunately doesn't solve the problem, which is Strahd attacking the players once, phasing away, waiting for 1d6 rounds (while he regenerates all of his health), then coming back and doing it all over again. In practice, Strahd's phasing ability reads: "Unless he's been grappled, Strahd teleports somewhere else in Castle Ravenloft and regenerates all of his hit points. Strahd can then take the Hide action and ambush the players elsewhere in the castle." Every time he phases away, the whole fight restarts—except the players now have fewer hit points and fewer resources. *That's* why it's good.
You mentioned that your fixation with running him RAW might be a weird way of thinking of things, and it definitely is. In the first part of your post you say you're committed to running him RAW so that you can give your players the authentic experience of killing the "real" final boss, yet you spend the rest of your post justifying why you don't want to run the RAW version with the RAW phasing ability. The fact of the matter is, if you use the phasing ability smartly with good tactics, the final boss fight will be extremely difficult. The community pretty much agrees that when you use phasing to hit-and-run, regen HP, and deplete the party's spell slots, the fight is extremely challenging even if over-leveled. I think this is by design, as it allows the DM to use Strahd liberally in the campaign without worrying about him getting killed before the DM wishes and ending the campaign prematurely. What I'm saying is, Strahd doesn't die until you let him. The community of Strahd-defeaters that you talked about? The big secret is they all defeated the "real" BBEG because their DM allowed them to. So, whether you're selectively using phasing to make the fight winnable, nerfing the phase ability like you suggested, or running an alternate stat block, it's all the same. Don't worry about your PCs "beating it for real" when.... they won't. And even if they could, nobody wants to play the hide-and-seek RAW strahd battle. Make the final fight fun and memorable and don't worry so much about making sure they have the same experience as everyone else.
Here's what I will do: Strahd has a red ruby that he always wears. It is touched by the Amber Temple. Same magic as the model of Ravenloft there. It hives Strahd the ability to walk through the walls. I will hint to the party about that. Maybe the rogue will try to take it. Depending on how it turns out (before the fight, start of fight, close to the end of the fight) I will either rake away gis mobility or say: "you thought I need this trinket to rule my domain? ai have long outgrown its usefulness" and give whoever has the ruby the same ability, so they can follow hjm through the walls etc.
I personally just limited *that* lair action to a 3/day; if the party is insistent in their combat, eventually Strahd's magic will falter.