LEGO Dungeons & Dragons walkthrough: Strahd von Zarovich and Halfling Druid
Learn the true purpose of Strahd von Zarovich’s crystal chalice and how the LEGO Minifigures team elevated the Halfling Druid’s accessories with our latest D&D designer deep dive.
71047 Dungeons & Dragons is on shelves now, and Brick Fanatics took the opportunity to sit down with LEGO Minifigures Creative Lead Esa Petteri Nousiainen and LEGO graphic designer Tore Magelund Harmark-Alexandersen to chat through all 12 of these colourful characters. The latest pair up for discussion are Strahd von Zarovich and the Halfling Druid, a duo that couldn’t really be further apart in style and personality.
You can find a full list of all our D&D interviews so far at the bottom of the page, and you can find all the 71047 Dungeons & Dragons minifigures you want in the wild using the Brick Search app.
Strahd von Zarovich
One of four specific named villains in 71047 Dungeons & Dragons, Strahd von Zarovich is also one of the earliest baddies from the entire D&D canon. He debuted all the way back in 1983’s adventure module Ravenloft, and is considered to be among the most iconic Dungeons & Dragons antagonists. That made him a natural choice for this series – and also meant he was one of the simplest characters to translate into LEGO.
“This is one of the named characters that had very consistent reference [material],” Tore says. “I believe there was a comic book at one point which gave us a lot of beautiful illustrations. This is basically what he looked like, and we interpreted it as well as we can on to a boxy torso. We didn’t find any pictures from the back and what that looked like, so instead of trying to create something that could only be wrong, we chose to simply print a cape.
“If you lose the fabric cape, you still have one, because a simple red back would also be weird. And then on one side of the head he has this battle-ready angry face, and the other side shows that he is super charming and super cunning, which I guess is one of his most powerful traits.”
“Isn’t that how vampires always are?” jokes Esa.
“I think so, yeah,” laughs Tore. “At least the ones I’ve encountered.”
Strahd may be one of the simpler minifigures in 71047 Dungeons & Dragons, but he’s also one of the few to include three different accessories, each of which is relevant in some way to his character. “You encountered rats in the [Ravenloft] adventure,” Esa explains. “It’s a very generic, low-level enemy. But we wanted to spice it up a little bit and make it a bit more menacing in a new colour, so black with red eyes. And then he has a big sword and a crystal chalice. What he drinks from that, I don’t know.”
“Prune juice,” Tore smiles.
Halfling Druid
The Halfling Druid risks being the most overlooked of 71047 Dungeons & Dragons’ seven customisable heroes (with the possible exception of the Dwarf Barbarian), but there’s actually quite a lot going on with this pint-sized character. What pulls focus immediately though is that incredibly intricate hood with antlers, one of two brand new elements the druid is rocking.
“We knew that some kind of new headgear would be needed, as we have never really done anything quite similar,” Esa says. “That was very interesting to work on with the element designer. Then they have a staff with a red flower, and a little bird, as druids [often] have animal companions. We were thinking about a couple of different options for the animal, but I can’t really remember why we decided to do the bird.
“But after we decided it’s the bird, we knew that we wanted to do these earthy tones. We’ve done this bird many times in red and blue and yellow, but we have not really done natural colours, like a sparrow or something.” The dark tan bird stands apart from its more colourful counterparts in one other way, too: the top of its head is also printed.
“I mean, we only had to print the eyes and the beak on the little bird, but we would like to just give it a bit extra, because the world of D&D is so deep and detailed that we didn’t want an element to look too naked next to all the extravagant printed parts and sculpted parts,” Tore says. “So I think this little print on the top of the head just elevated it.”
As with the other generic classes and races across 71047 Dungeons & Dragons, such as the Elf Bard and the Gith Warlock, the team leaned into prototypical imagery when coming up with the torso prints for the Halfling Druid. This particular minifigure is rocking unprinted (albeit dual-moulded) short legs, but their torso is bang up to the level of other characters across this series.
“Again it’s talking about the icons, and for druids, it’s about magic from nature, leaves and herbs,” Tore explains. “I think having that big staff with the leaves on and the flower, it’s like the axe – it’s a very clear icon. And I also wanted to emphasise this on the decoration. So we have these muted nature colours, and elements from nature like the claws hanging in the leather necklace.
“There are some feathers, there’s a little oak leaf on the back of the torso, and he has a belt buckle that looks like it’s carved out of bone or wood – you decide. And then he has a slightly determined and a very friendly face. He’s someone who is in balance with nature, and [that’s] usually depicted as someone who is in balance with himself. So he’s nice and friendly.”
The second new element (beyond that hood) is the druid’s patterned cape. “It has this sort of leaf pattern,” Tore says, “which again ties to the staff and the whole nature aspect.”
You’ll find both the Halfling Druid and Strahd von Zarovich among the 12 characters that comprise 71047 Dungeons & Dragons, which is in stores now. Hunt down your favourites using the minifigure scanner in the Brick Search app, which is available now on iOS and Android, and catch up with all our deep dives into this series so far below.
- Elf Bard and Aarakocra Ranger
- Gith Warlock and Tiefling Sorcerer
- Tasha the Witch Queen and the Lady of Pain
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- I like to think of myself as a journalist first, LEGO fan second, but we all know that’s not really the case. Journalism does run through my veins, though, like some kind of weird literary blood – the sort that will no doubt one day lead to a stress-induced heart malfunction. It’s like smoking, only worse. Thankfully, I get to write about LEGO until then.
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