So this is my 2nd time running CoS. The last time we got to Vallaki and then the pandemic hit and I was unable to reassemble my group to start where they left off.

Now a new group wants me to DM a game so I figure this is a new chance to try again. The last party was huge, 7 players, and yet they all managed to escape death house just barely. The new party is 3 players. I'm worried I'll have a tpk if I run as written. Even last time with 7 I made it less deadly, and yet I knocked multiple players and killed one.

This time I plan to add a cleric NPC to the party. He will dole out heals if he can and be nice as can be. Really make the party like him. Then we get to the basement and they have the option to sacrifice him. He is so nice he may even offer. If they don't, hell breaks lose and maybe they escape. If not... hell still breaks lose.

If they don't sacrifice him and escape, they find a chest outside. Once they open it is not actually a chest, it is a coffin, a coffin with the NPC cleric inside. When the party turns to look for the cleric they instead see Strahd, who welcomes them to Barrovia and departs.

I stole this idea from someone for the last time, the player who died. I'm not sure who first said this idea.

My questions are, will one npc be enough? Is this a good idea at all? If it is a TPK do I restart them, or have the Dark Powers intervene? If one player dies do I make them a ghost, or restart them? How have you all handled death at death house?