A few months ago, I saw a great video laying out the concept of the 1 HP Dragon, which I then read more about in the originating blog post. Basically, the idea is to avoid combats that are battles of HP attrition, and instead make very scary enemies very scary by having layers of puzzles standing between you and victory, not just ten billion HP.
The author proposes three types of ‘armour,’ which are really just problems that the party has to solve to actually have a chance at fighting, much less killing, the monster: Legendary Armour, Permanent Armour, and Situational Armour.
Legendary armour doesn’t always apply: it’s for big, huge enemies where you have to go on a quest to even begin to understand how to kill them.
Permanent armour is sort of what it sounds like: permanent, often physical features of the enemy, like a dragon’s scales or claws, or the fact that it’s huge and strong.
Situational armour is more like an action the enemy can take to make things harder: a dragon can fly out of reach or light everything in the surroundings on fire.
This is all explained much better at the original post, which you should go read, but I think this very basic rundown already makes it clear how this could apply to Strahd.
The final combat of Curse of Strahd straddles a very fine line between challenging and annoying, because he can heal himself and just turn into mist and flee whenever things are going badly. It’s really good combat design for 5e, because you end up burning a ton of resources just running around the castle trying to catch him, so when you actually face him, it’s challenging despite the magic items and radiant damage that could make killing him trivial.
Daggerheart already doesn’t work that way. While throwing up a bunch of obstacles in hopes of generating more Fear to use against the party when fighting Strahd makes sense in theory, in practice, because Hope and Fear are random (though there are environmental moves you could use to make Fear likelier than Hope), trying to deliberately drain resources isn’t as effective as using up spell slots and class abilities in 5e.
I also have a party who, as I’ve discussed before, like having a sense of purpose. They want to feel like they’re pursuing the story, not just wandering around in a sandbox, and while Curse of Strahd does a good job of leading you to most of the locations on the map organically just by searching for the three objects or your fated companion, after reading about the One HP Dragon, I was really drawn to making it even more explicit that the entire journey is part of the puzzle to figure out how to kill Strahd, and everything they do and everyone they meet could be a key to that. I also know that most of them would find having to chase Strahd around the castle while he keeps disappearing immensely frustrating rather than fun.
Creating a One HP Strahd feels like an answer to both of these questions.
So I complied a list of all of Strahd’s ‘armour,’ which it seemed logical and convenient for the newly-recruited Ezmeralda to know and be able to tell them about. Some of the items, like his undead resilience (resistance to all damage, except from holy weapons) have pretty clear solutions in the game (the Sunsword). But others (like his ability to turn into mist) I don’t have an answer for. I’ve made it as clear as possible to them that I don’t have secret solutions waiting in the game. If they come up with a scheme, I’m going to be generous and collaborative about deciding whether a plan will work. If they want to invent a solidifying potion and slip it into Strahd’s blood goblet, let’s do it.
Any items of armour they can’t find a solution for before attacking Strahd, they’ll just have to deal with during the fight itself. I also like this, because it allows them to concentrate on knocking out the things they really don’t want to deal with—which is to say, the things they’ll find least fun to encounter in combat. If there’s something they think will be more fun to try to solve in the moment, they can save it.
Finally, I think this really fits thematically. As I’ve said before, the characters are all native Barovians who are reincarnations of key figures from Strahd’s past, and the theme that is emerging really clearly is the idea that no one can save you but yourself. No outsider adventurer will rescue Barovia, it must be for the Barovians to save themselves. So having to traverse the land, to recruit allies, to think expansively and continually about how everything they do could possibly serve a purpose, really suits the story that’s emerging. They aren’t strangers getting to know a strange land, they’re people who need to encounter and reckon with the realities of their own home.
We’re months if not a year or more away from actually encountering the 1 HP Strahd, so I have some time to think about what the challenge at the heart of the ‘combat puzzle box’ will be. But I’m so excited to have introduced this structure, and will keep you updated on how it goes!