I’ve started running Curse of Strahd and have been having a ton of fun making wacky homebrew things for my party and tweaking the module. Unbeknownst to the players so far, I have made them all a secret Dark Power trying to use them to usurp Strahd and Vampyr, and they’re just waiting to offer their dark gift.
For example, I have a druid with some fire giant ancestry who loves Produce Flame and is their front line, so he’ll be offered a slightly weaker Rage with the Path of the Storm Herald desert feature to use once per long rest. The celestial warlock would get charges to boost his Eldritch Blast damage and some secondary healing in exchange for sapping his life.
Giving my players powerful upgrades alongside typical class advancement can make some encounters harder to balance around, but as long as we’re all having fun who cares about balance??
As a DM, I love when my players absolutely love or gravitate towards an NPC I made. So many times my players latch onto an NPC and it becomes their mascot. It also works really well as a tool for plot hooks or to give players engaging side quests to chase.
Players: “oh man, Stink Eye was the best, I’m still waiting for the reveal that he is the real big bad”
Me furiously trying to recall some ad-libbed NPC from years ago: “oh yeah, Stink Eye, he’s a great…pirate? Man?..”
“Oh yeah, Stink Eye! What do you all remember about them? What do you think they’ve been up to?”
Get them to jog your memory.