D&D Modules and Characters
samhain - Character Design and Lore
My player wants to play an Arcane Trickster/Undying Warlock in my Curse of Strahd campaign. He plays a jack - o - lantern-headed character who guides souls to rest and gives out candy. As my player is an experienced player and likes embodying the "hero" archetype, I had to make his Warlock Patron, Samhain, fit to his character's personality and ambitions. Here's how I fit the character patron class into Curse of Strahd with lore, quest design, weapon design, spells, feats, and abilities. Created using InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, Natural Crit, Mid-Journey.
PAges with added artwork (Illustrator)
Samhain's Herald, Concept Art (Generated by Midjourney)
Changes
- Tied the Festival of the Blazing Sun and wider Ravenloft lore with Samhain
- Tied the Gulthias Tree to the White Tree as a passageway for souls in Barovia, solving the plotholes of how Barovia works in Shadowfell
- Made a neutral good patron for my player to fit his play-style (heroism, sense of responsibility to others)
- Destroying the Gulthias tree is now a meaningful story beat
- Gave a reason as to why souls such as Ireena's and Sergei's are unable to escape Barovia, which is a more in-depth exploration than chalking it up to the "curse" such as in the module
- Gives the players a reason to kill Vampyr in the Amber Temple pre-Strahd battle in Lunchbreak Hero's game mod
- Feats and boons are more personalized, buffing the player for a CR21 Strahd battle in the endgame
- Created meaningful items that are tied into the campaign plot-hooks and a personality for the character that is refreshing amidst the gothic backdrop of Strahd
- Set the framework to build on Barovian lore and the introduction of the quests to save Samhain
- Created two NPC guides for the warlock PC
- Abilities/feats/spells build on the theme of the character and Undying/Arcane Trickster build to add a different layer of spell types
My player's character sheet
A feat i made re-flavoring a Cleric's Lvl 3 Ceremony Spell
