available to certain Dungeons & Dragons classes." Strahd was also #8 on Game Rant's 2020 "10 Must-Have NPCs In Dungeons & Dragons Lore To Make Your Campaigns Awesome" list — the article states that "DMs planning on introducing Curse of Strahd or modifying it into their campaign may reveal Count Strahd as a villainous NPC. He may even be incorporated as a Warlock Patron, with the Warlock's story arc eclipsing in their arrival in Barovia. An alluring and attractive villain, Count Strahd can easily become a favorite villain with his cunning, unpredictable, and chilling nature." Henry Glasheen, for SLUG Magazine, highlighted that "up until the release of Ravenloft, almost every adventure module was just a shoestring of dungeon traps and monster encounters meant to test the valor and endurance of the player characters. [...] The Hickmans were sick of the seemingly random nature of these campaigns, and longed for a rich, complex villain—the kind that you could find in a book but rarely, if ever, in a campaign. So, they invented Count Strahd von Zarovich. To this day, he’s one of the best-written and most interesting villains of Dungeons & Dragons. He toys with the players, tempting them with the possibility of immortality and dark power. Yet, he also suffers the sting of his own twisted ambitions, a fatal hubris that drives him and sustains him. He’s a complex and entirely likeable villain, and that’s what makes him so dangerous". Ari David, for CBR, wrote: "Out of all of the great evils in the many worlds comprising the D&D multiverse, Count Strahd von Zarovich eternally remains one of the most feared. [...] Strahd is more than a shallow Dracula knock-off. Beneath his sinister cat-and-mouse games lies the broken heart of a once-great warrior. His fall into villainy was fueled by pride, jealousy, and love. Despite this, he is a prisoner bound to his domain, doomed to repeat a cycle of violence. His popularity with D&D fans remains strong in large part due to his humanizing backstory. He's a somewhat unique figure amongst a rogue's gallery of evil dragon gods, devil princes, and zombie wizards". On Strahd's portrayal in Vampire of the Mists (1991), Rob Bricken, for Io9, wrote: "Mists is primarily about Jander and Strahd and their uneasy camaraderie, since Jander doesn’t really have anywhere else in Barovia to go, yet Strahd is also immensely evil on occasion. [...] There’s