Native PCs are intended to be the adventurers for Ravenloft. Outlanders are rare. Now on our server that isn't the case for the rareness and I am not advocating that it should be that way.
I'm just saying that, yeah, we're allowed to be Barovian adventurers and all that. People who think natives = npcs are not doing it right. Though they're allowed to play NPCs if that is what float their boats.
Barovians especially respect and advocate warriors regardless of their ethnic background. Wizards are unlikely, but those mountains seem to scream ISOLATE YOURSELF AND STUDY POWER. Sorcerers and bards exist. Rangers and Druids could find their place. There are native traditions of divine magic.
Get at it dogs.
Just don't go about going "HELLO I AMT A BAROVIAGND PALDAIN AF HELM FOR NO RAISIN!" - that's just not what is cool.
Also Vallaki could use a whole lot of fixing up. The city is too big and doesn't really make much sense.
I'd love to see the size of Vallaki taken down to something like 50% and a basic divide of rich half and poor half. There is WAY TOO MUCH space that is underused. Like I am certain I could hide a body in Yusuf Hakim's and no one would find it just because I bet most people don't even know who that is... because no one is exploring the big and empty Vallaki. Vallaki needs a REDUCTION!
Essentially a poor half with the tigans. A market area in the literal center of town, where the "middle folk" live. And then a separate area that contains the rich people supposed boyars and rich people. In the background the imposing terg ruin Vallaki was built on, the citadel. The walls would only be accessed at select ramps. (None of those stupid ramps) and could be paroled by the garda FROM the citadel so there would be night patrols. Essentially just two areas and with walls all around. They could take all the current NPCs and shops and just put them in the market and maybe some of the fancier stuff where "richtown" would be.
They need to remove the wererat spawns from inside the city and leave any sillyness like that for the sewers below. The giant rats are fine and could be a direct and horrific result of what is down below. The sewers I'd love to see taken from that weird Renaissance/Steampunk mess and turned into a series of caves with a cess pit and some drainage holes to get down. Why does Vallaki have a modern sewer?
Why is the WALLED fortress town filled with monsters? Theres nothing in game that explains it to us, at least, I haven't found anything. If anything it would make more sense that they'd have relative safety (except plague rats inside the walls that might be more than malevolent after dark in some of the nastier places...) behind the walls.
Temple just needs to be encouraged as a place of healing and respite rather than a BILLY JOE'S AMAZING UNDEAD SAFARI FUNHOUSE. Make people work it and adventure, right now (and I don't really blame people too much) there's no reason to go anywhere. The Temple is safe and it has a direct route to a decently doable area directly. Now it even has a LOL HERE HAVE SOME DMG VERSUS UNDEAD TO MAKE IT AMAZING stuff.
I'd love for them to use the Krofburg tileset to redo Vallaki and the village. That tileset makes a lot more sense for Vallaki and Barovia's cultural level. Even if it is a trade city, it doesn't have to be that big. Cities in the middle ages were not that big. The cool stuff was usually inside the small "inner city" part where the castle/bailey/whatever fortification was, and everything outside of it was farmlands where people would try and get behind the walls during war/siege/disaster.
tl;dr Vallaki needs to be made smaller and safer. Monster spawns need to be kept below and outside of its walls to encourage a reason to go in at night (also make a little more sense). Essentially being outside the safety of the walls is dangerous/adventurous. The Morninglord temple needs to have its entrance to the crypts removed/destroyed/locked so people actually use the routes below and its other entrances to get inside.
Right now Vallaki is just too big and no one really seems interested in scoping the place out due to there being no reason to look around there outside maybe a DM quest.
