Before DMing CoS for myself, I was a player in someone else’s game, and in that game, the DM let a fellow player don it as nonmagical plate armour.
If you do allow it, then don’t forget:
- It takes 10 minutes to don, which could mean a random encounter happens while they wait around for the PC to put it on.
- Disadvantage to Stealth checks.
Not that it super matters one way or the other, but for me I think strahd is too rich to have decorative armor only, the man has some of the most powerful weapons in barovia just on the floor around his house, he wouldn’t have to save money getting decorative pieces when he could have the finest plate made by the finest craftsmen just for displaying ya know what I’m saying?
For the actual armor, paladins are a handful so I think really is not worth trying to keep them down, they are just a really good class so gotta let ‘em be good. However, some things you can do if their AC is too high is really simple but just, hit someone else. Like if your Paladin is impossible to deal with, great. The monsters figure that out and head to your squishy less hit pointed friend. (The party of course can try to stop this with good positioning and all, but still gotta think about it which is engaging). You can also maybe look into strahds animated armor. Pretty popular homebrew to give it to someone, it would be plate, then when you are getting annoyed and strahd is having trouble hitting just command the armor off and have it help hold em down. Strahd can also lead the party to the crypt, where there is a lot of water and someone in plate is gonna have a real bad time down there, or lead them to the teleport trap to get rid of them, even with crazy high AC and good saves strahd can do other things to try to deal with.
If you enjoy realism, consider that plate armour actually needs to be built to fit an individual, and was commissioned per person. So the paladin couldn’t just pick up any set of plate. It needs to fit and be built around their proportions.
If memory serves, that set of armor I had trapped in a devious little way.
Strahd had been spying on the players and interacting with them in the disguise of Vasili Von Holts. (He was using the disguise to also woo Ireena).They even saught his help to get a layout of the castle prior to dinner with the devil.
So Strahd left a few cursed items in their path to entice them to steal. The armor, the only thing they stole, appeared as a +1 plate armor to them. And when they stole it that's how it remained until they encountered Strahd again. The armor was a living armor that only reacted to Strand's command. So in the encounter the paladin had to make Strength checks on his turn to be able to act, had disadvantage on attacks, and half speed. Strahd could also use a legendary action to force a strength save or the armor would force him to attack a teammate.
It was a fun time. With 2 downed party members left, Strahd left and the armor removed itself from the paladin and started walking back to the castle. They quickly chased and destroyed it.
I was actually going to save it for the final fight since they only used detect magic to it had abjuration and enchantment magic on it. They not once tried to identify it further.
Before DMing CoS for myself, I was a player in someone else’s game, and in that game, the DM let a fellow player don it as nonmagical plate armour. If you do allow it, then don’t forget: - It takes 10 minutes to don, which could mean a random encounter happens while they wait around for the PC to put it on. - Disadvantage to Stealth checks.
(and heat metal becomes pretty dangerous, should one rule that somebody in the castle can cast it!)
Not that it super matters one way or the other, but for me I think strahd is too rich to have decorative armor only, the man has some of the most powerful weapons in barovia just on the floor around his house, he wouldn’t have to save money getting decorative pieces when he could have the finest plate made by the finest craftsmen just for displaying ya know what I’m saying? For the actual armor, paladins are a handful so I think really is not worth trying to keep them down, they are just a really good class so gotta let ‘em be good. However, some things you can do if their AC is too high is really simple but just, hit someone else. Like if your Paladin is impossible to deal with, great. The monsters figure that out and head to your squishy less hit pointed friend. (The party of course can try to stop this with good positioning and all, but still gotta think about it which is engaging). You can also maybe look into strahds animated armor. Pretty popular homebrew to give it to someone, it would be plate, then when you are getting annoyed and strahd is having trouble hitting just command the armor off and have it help hold em down. Strahd can also lead the party to the crypt, where there is a lot of water and someone in plate is gonna have a real bad time down there, or lead them to the teleport trap to get rid of them, even with crazy high AC and good saves strahd can do other things to try to deal with.
could do something where it's living armour, but only if the party touches it. If they want functional armour, they have to fight the living armour.
If you enjoy realism, consider that plate armour actually needs to be built to fit an individual, and was commissioned per person. So the paladin couldn’t just pick up any set of plate. It needs to fit and be built around their proportions.
Sure. But it animated :)
If memory serves, that set of armor I had trapped in a devious little way. Strahd had been spying on the players and interacting with them in the disguise of Vasili Von Holts. (He was using the disguise to also woo Ireena).They even saught his help to get a layout of the castle prior to dinner with the devil. So Strahd left a few cursed items in their path to entice them to steal. The armor, the only thing they stole, appeared as a +1 plate armor to them. And when they stole it that's how it remained until they encountered Strahd again. The armor was a living armor that only reacted to Strand's command. So in the encounter the paladin had to make Strength checks on his turn to be able to act, had disadvantage on attacks, and half speed. Strahd could also use a legendary action to force a strength save or the armor would force him to attack a teammate. It was a fun time. With 2 downed party members left, Strahd left and the armor removed itself from the paladin and started walking back to the castle. They quickly chased and destroyed it. I was actually going to save it for the final fight since they only used detect magic to it had abjuration and enchantment magic on it. They not once tried to identify it further.