The Master of Gryphon Hill: Using Wilfred Godefroy

 I believe the second Darklord ever introduced to D&D (though Azalin might have also shown up in that module,) Lord Wilfred Godefroy is the ghost of a murderous megalomaniac who continues in death to want dominion over others.

He's also one of the lower-CR Darklords in Horrors Within, at only CR 6 (I think the only lower ones are Ivana Boritsi and Ivan Delisnya, who are both 5). We actually don't have a lot of legendary creatures with a CR lower than 10, so this is kind of an exciting opportunity.

As the Darklord of Mordent, Godefroy is the hauntingest ghost of the ghost domain.

Ghost stories have to tread a fine line: they live in the uncanny, the liminal space between what is a familiar human (or humanoid at least in a fantasy world like those of D&D) person and something monstrous and terrifying.

In the past year or so I watched through the first three Netflix series that Mike Flanagan did. While the vampire one, Midnight Mass, was my favorite, the first two, The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor, which are inspired by the works of Shirley Jackson and Henry James, respectively, deal with haunted houses.

Both are houses that, like the House on Gryphon Hill, are haunted by not one but many ghosts. In the case of Hill House, at least in Flagan's version, it's the house itself that is the monster, though some of the ghosts there further its evil by drawing other souls to become trapped within it. In Bly Manor, there's a clearer genesis for the haunting, but again, it becomes something of a snowballing tragedy, as the actions of selfish and/or desperate, or even just compulsive spirits draw other souls to become trapped.

Another important point, though, to these is the gradual emergence of the horror. There's an amazing reveal in Flanagan's Hill House (I make the distinction because the Jackson novel has a very different plot) about how the house has been tricking the family all along that I'm going to avoid spoiling here (might touch on it later past a spoiler break) that I think can be a really powerful tool in a story like this.

But I think that even if you want to have a villain (especially Darklords) show up early on in a campaign, these appearances don't need to be full confrontations. Especially in a ghost story, a brief glimpse of a ghost is the right way to introduce them.

In Ravenloft, the Domains reflect and are kind of an aspect of the Darklord, and I think we can definitely pull this with Mordent and specifically the House on Gryphon Hill.

Here's my proposal:

The party arrives in Mordent at level 1, or level 3 at max - this should be the beginning of a Ravenloft campaign if not just a limited tier 1 adventure. They are welcomed by the locals, who are eager to have some capable adventurers around to help with local problems. They are given a house to act as their headquarters. But the Mists warp their perception of it:

While the party is maybe even warned not to go to the House on Gryphon Hill, and the house they are presented with is on the other side of Mordenshire or even potentially in a different town, and has a different name, the truth is that they're getting turned around: the house they are in is the House on Gryphon Hill.

It's separated enough from town that when they visit, it's not obvious that they're coming from it, but characters will have strange moments where they find themselves on the road to Gryphon Hill, periodically.

The house, as it appears to them, is well-furnished and kept up, and they have a handful of short, spooky quests while coming back to the false safety of the house. But after several days staying there, in the middle of the night, a random party member wakes up to use the restroom, and as they walk down the hall, they suddenly feel a presence behind them. They're subjected to Godefroy's Possessive Aura, and if they fail the save, they just stand there until morning comes and the party finds them as if they were sleepwalking. If they succeed, they turn around and glimpse Lord Godefroy staring at them, looking furious, before he vanishes.

Now, yeah, these aren't part of his stat block precisely - the Possessive Aura only charms a creature for a minute and reduces their speed to 0. And despite being a Ghost, Godefroy weirdly doesn't have the ability to slip into the Ethereal Plane, but I'd allow it at least in a non-combat situation.

While the party is likely to be genre-savy enough to freaking move out of the house at this point, there will probably be some compelling reasons for them to stay.

You could run this as a single horror-movie scenario that all takes place over the course of a single night, the doors locking the party into the house. But I'd be more interested in a slow-burn. Maybe other potential solutions - staying in inns, camping out on the moors - wind up being untenable. Or, perhaps, the party does relocate but needs to go back to the house. Perhaps an ally, like one of the Weathermay-Foxgrove twins, was seen entering the house.

Now, a good haunted house has a good cast of ghosts. I'd build the adventure around a number of distinct ghost characters. Especially if the party is likely to fight the ghosts, try to use different stat blocks: Shadows, Specters, Ghosts, Wraiths, etc., and even potentially non-incorporeal undead like Wights or Revenants.

Each spirit that is highlighted in the adventure should have their own distinct backstory, some distinctive visual identifier and MO. For example, in Flanagan's Hill House, there's a man in a bowler hat who haunts the house, and he follows one of the siblings who survived the house back when they briefly lived there in the 90s, always floating behind him as a metaphor for the substance addiction he now struggles with.

The spirits need not be malevolent, but their actions might terrify or even do harm to those with whom they interact. A terrified murder-victim might lash out in what they think is self-defense, and might not be able to calm down until they are assured that nothing can hurt them anymore. A rakish thief might violently defend the treasure that they sought to pilfer until that treasure is destroyed or removed from the house. None will go away simply by defeating them in combat - their stories need to be resolved in order to allow them to find peace and stop threatening the inhabitants of the house. A t

Now, Godefroy's role in this is that he's going to actively work against the party in their efforts to resolve these stories. Ghosts tend to be fixated and obsessed with particular desires, like the rest of their mind has faded and left only this compulsion. Godefroy probably understands his ghostly nature a little better than others, but the fixation remains on control, and so he doesn't want to lose the power he feels he gets by keeping these ghosts trapped and agonized.

He can certainly attack the party, but he might also attack the other spirits that the party is trying to soothe.

I think Godefroy is probably pretty aggressive. Sticking to narrow rooms and hallways, he can use his incorporeal movement to escape if his HP gets low, in case you don't want to risk relying on his Darklord regeneration to get him back. There are probably a lot of locked doors (even doors that might become locked) that could give him greater time to escape by entering a locked room, then descending through the floor, and eventually coming somewhere the party couldn't possibly pursue him.

Also, I think he'd likely employ some hit-and-run tactics. If the party is helping some Poltergeist resolve their issues, he might come in, blast the spirit with his Hunting Rifle, and then slip away.

Ghost stories are often told as the aftermath of tragedies, and Godefroy has some tools to encourage such tragic events - if he can get someone with his Possessive Aura (which admittedly isn't terribly hard to get out from if you don't mind drawing Opportunity Attacks) he can then redirect attacks against him at the charmed creature - getting PCs to damage each other could create divisions or at least guilt.

At 2900 xp in his domain (though this only adds an extra Legendary Resistance) he's theoretically a high difficult encounter on his own for a group of 5th level players. I'm honestly a little skeptical about that, as he only has 72 HP and deals 9 or 10 damage with his two attacks. He does, of course, get some more damage out of his legendary actions.

I do generally think that I'd have this whole plot primarily in tier 1, maybe letting the party do a couple adventures at levels 1 and 2 before the haunting of their headquarters becomes clear.

And then, I think, the first true full-on fight with Godefroy is where the truth of where they are gets revealed.

If you want to move on, either ending the adventure or moving on to another domain of dread, you can do that. If you want to stick around in Mordent, Godefroy is going to need some minions when he appears again.

Cthulhu Fhtagen! Using Big Green in D&D

 One of the splashier entries among the Darklords of Ravenloft: Horrors Within is Cthulhu, the most iconic of eldritch abominations from the Lovecraft mythos, whose most famous story (maybe aside from The Shadow Over Innsmouth) is The Call of Cthulhu.

This isn't the first time Big Green from R'lyeh has shown up in D&D. Way back in 1980, the sourcebook Deities & Demigods added stat blocks for many gods from real-world mythologies, as well as figures from the works of Michael Moorcock and HP Lovecraft - the latter of whom had been licensed from Arkham House publishers, only for there to be a snafu because Arkham House had already licensed the Cthulhu mythos characters to Chaosium (which makes the stories Call of Cthulhu RPG), which TSR (D&D's then-publisher) thought was legitimate but evidently broke the terms of the deal between Arkham House and Chaosium.

I don't know what licensing tricks they pulled off this time - maybe the license changed, or maybe Cthulhu is in the public domain now - but anyway, we've got the quintessential aberration with 5E stats.

Now, Cthulhu has a CR of 25, which means that he'll be a challenge even to high-level characters. But this is also not remotely a monster you want to just show up without warning for a quick fight (unless you're aiming for comedic absurdity).

Frankly, I think that Ravenloft in general is going to work better as a setting if things really don't go past level 10, which will keep mid-teen-CR monsters like Strahd, Harkon Lukas, Ebonbane scary. And I think that actually encountering Cthulhu should be a hopeless fight unless you have some massive advantage.

In Call of Cthulhu, the most direct account of the monster (the only character who actually reports seeing the monster itself. Himself? I doubt that Cthulhu cares much about human gender identities, but Lovecraft was regressive even for a guy in the 1920s, so we can probably assume that he'd have just presumed that Cthulhu was male) is from a ship captain whose crew stumbles across a risen R'lyeh in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and must flee the massive monster, splitting its head in half with the keel of their boat, only for Cthulhu's flesh to knit itself back together as the ship speeds away.

But also, we should bear in mind that Cthulhu's fame has built him up as a more formidable monster than he's actually meant to be. He's not a god (even as much as actual gods really exist in Lovecraft) but more a kind of ancient priest-emperor. That said, he should remain utterly alien in motivation and nature.

Ravenloft's "Innsmouth" setting is a bizarre mix of the bleak and barren landscapes far from human civilization that are more akin to R'lyeh or the "Mountains of Madness" in Antarctica, but also with living mortals in rotting, decrepit settlements that are more akin to the actual coastal Massachusetts town of the same name.

Horrors Within presents Innsmouth as being a land of rival cults - specifically those to Olhydra (the lord of evil water, among the cults of Elemental Evil), Dagon (the ancient demon lord who has the same name as the actual central figure of worship from Shadow Over Innsmouth,) and Zhudun the Corpse Star, one of the Elder Evil stars (like Hadar). You can actually gain renown with various cults in your adventures there.

    I... frankly don't think that's what I'd do with it.

While the rival cult factions are not actually that out-of-place in an adventure inspired by Lovecraft's works, the greater formula is an ordinary (and boy did Lovecraft have some narrow definitions of ordinary) person encounters something strange and disturbing, and the more they uncover, the worse it gets, until they either narrowly avoid calamity or are driven insane.

For example, the Call of Cthulhu is about a man who inherits his uncle's (I think) notes on research about a global cult dedicated to this monstrous creature. The uncle has just died, and the narrator tells the reader about the various stories his uncle had found, including an artist who, like many other creatives he talked to, dreamed of Cthulhu and felt compelled to create a likeness of them, or some police officers who broke up a strange cult ritual in the tropics worshipping Cthulhu, or a sea captain who actually saw the thing himself. Everyone aware of Cthulhu seems to be dropping dead, evidently murdered by the cult, and we find out that our narrator, penned in by paranoia, has also died.

Dangerous knowledge is at the forefront of the terror of Cthulhu - either knowledge that just breaks your sense of meaning in the world or that becomes a lethal liability as people who find out what you know come after you. Only one of the characters in the story ever actually sees the monster, but the rippling terror radiates out and hits everyone.

In this sense, while Cthulhu feels right for a horror-themed game, you might want to bend the rules of Ravenloft. It feels like we ought not to even understand what the Dark Powers could do to torment Cthulhu, and perhaps he's not actually a Darklord, but maybe something else that the Domains of Dread need.

To preserve the horror of Cthulhu, I would use him more as a "background event." He's gargantuan, so we could see him doing terrifying things off in the distance. But for his kaiju-level power to land, making sure that characters would likely go down after a single round of attacks would sell the idea that this guy ought not to be engaged with.

With a +17 to hit and saving throw DCs of 25, there's a good chance that unless the party has some really insane armor, most of this stuff is going to land consistently. His standard attack pattern will probably do about 100 damage roughly, so he'll still be a real terror at level 10, when most characters still have less than 100 HP.

But you should definitely make use of Cthulhu before the party is even close enough to fight him. And here are the tools to do so:

Cthulhu can cast Dream and Geas both 3 times per day. He can also use Geas while visiting someone in their dreams.

With a DC of 25, barely anyone will ever succeed on their saves against these spells at low levels. Also, the damage from Geas could be lethal at very low levels.

Mystery is a big part of Cosmic Horror - the distinction is that while finding the truth brings relief and satisfaction in a mystery story, the truth in cosmic horror has far more disturbing implications and may very well make the investigators wish they had left things well enough alone.

Cthulhu is utterly alien but also incredibly intelligent, and while he's far more powerful than mortals and would not think of them in any empathetic way, he knows how to manipulate them. Thus, he could appear in a Dream spell as something much more familiar. If you want to foreshadow the reveal of who is manipulating the party, you could give this dream messenger a really uncanny feel to it, with unnatural speech patterns and maybe a strangely "off" face.

But I'd slow-play it. Don't even bust out Geas to start with. The dream messenger should point the party toward reasonable goals. Maybe the party is on an adventure searching for some criminal or villain, and the dream messenger gives them an important hint. The hint would push them toward something that is actually Cthulhu's agenda - moving some ancient stone that serves as a lock or something.

Cthulhu is an utter time abyss, probably billions of years old, so the ultimate utility of what he pushes them into doing might not even be clear by the end of the campaign.

Cthulhu is probably very indifferent to what mortals actually care about, and so the threat he presents might be less about his agenda than some misguided worshipper. Zealots raging against the falsehoods of their worlds or becoming nihilistic with despair at the meaninglessness of it all might seek out Cthulhu either to give them purpose or to free them from any moral fetters.

In fact, Cthulhu might not even want to be released from his "prison," but the people who have convinced themselves that he's trapped there engage in a plot to rouse him. Indeed, Cthulhu might actually be the figure that guides the party to stopping his own cult in order to get them to stop bothering him, and should they awaken him, he might just kill everything around him like a human swatting flies in their kitchen.

So yes, while I think that a climactic boss fight against Strahd or Harkon Lukas or Viktra Mordenheim is a great climax to their stories, I'd generally say not to try to prepare a fight with Cthulhu that the party stands any chance of actually winning - or rather, they shouldn't be able to win by dropping him to 0 HP. A "win" should be to just escape alive.

But that will be a challenge: Cthulhu's attacks will grapple targets, and then he has a tentacle attack that he can use on grappled creatures to suck HP out of them. He has various teleportation abilities (both for himself, grappled creatures, and one that can force-teleport others) and warps space around himself, creating difficult terrain that deals damage to creatures within it.

I actually think that against a party of late-tier-3 or tier 4 characters, it's a fairly straightforward combat to run. He's pretty beefy with 385 HP, so unless you have some insanely optimized players, he'll last a decent number of rounds, but I don't think his abilities are going to be insurmountable to a high-level group. That's why I think if you want his impact to land really well, you've got to make sure to use him at earlier levels.

Undead Warlock vs. Death Knight

 First off, we're taking a little departure with this one: this is a multiclass build. For me, I think there's just such amazing utility to starting with one level of Fighter if you want to go Bladelock that I can't really justify not doing it.

But I need a story to justify it. I had previously built this character with the 5.0 version of the subclass and not even really a Bladelock. Our hero (more of an antihero) was a courtier in a lofty hall of a nobleman, but when treacherous fey visitors turned on his childhood friend/liege lord and slaughtered everyone in the manor, he was walled up Casque of Amontillado-style in one of the walls of the basement. There, he suffocated to death and was caught in a liminal void for countless years, until a mysterious voice contacted him, instilling life into him once more as a Reborn. Emerging from the haunted ruins of the manor in which he had done his life's work, he followed the directions of the voice to a ruined tower, and therein, he found an entire knightly order that had been corrupted into undeath by those same treacherous fey, and cursed to never leave their tower. The knights offered to imbue him with power if he would act as their agent in the world, and thus he became a Warlock.

The tweak to the story is that, likely rather than a pure bureaucratic functionary, he was likely a member of some kind of honor-guard for his friend, hence beginning as a Fighter.

With that out of the way:

Something about the Undead patron to me feels particularly good for a Bladelock - while you could certainly fight in the name of a Demon Lord or an angelic avenger (actually, a "thornblade" for a coven of hags sounds cool too) I've always loved Death Knights (WoW is a big reason why) and it seems like a servant of Death Knights really ought to be more martial in nature.

    Classes:

We're trying to lean as hard into Warlock as possible. Once we secure Devouring Blade at level 12 (Fighter 1/Warlock 11) we might consider putting a bit more into Fighter to get Action Surge and a subclass, but that's outside of our purview right now.

The single level of Fighter does the following for us, though:

We get Weapon Masteries, including Graze, which will be the one we benefit from the most.

We get Medium and Heavy Armor Training. We're actually going to lean toward heavy armor because we'll need a reasonable Strength for both the Heavy weapons we want to use and the feat we'll want to take at Warlock 4.

We also get Con save proficiency, which will help us with concentration.

Once we have that first level, we're going to pour everything into Warlock, and stick with it for the rest of this 10-level build.

    Stats:

Primarily, we want to start with a 17 in Charisma and a 13 in Strength, and then try to get a decent Con - I don't typically like to dump more than one stat, so you're probably getting a 14 in Con.

    Invocations:

We're going to take most of the Blade-focused Invocations we can here. Pact of the Blade naturally at Warlock 1, and then Thirsting Blade and Eldritch Smite at Warlock 5. We'll also grab Devil's Sight, partially because Reborn don't get Darkvision, but even with other species, this lets us do Darkness shenanigans. Lifedrinker is a possibility, but I'm skipping it in favor of Lessons of the First Ones to take Tough and bolster our HP - we need to split ourselves a little between Strength, Charisma, and Con, so this will make up for both our mostly d8s of hit dice and probably not getting more than a +2 to Con. Tough effectively makes our hit dice d12s for the purpose of calculating our max HP. Finally, we'll grab Pact of the Chain as well, getting a nicely flavorful Skeleton familiar, though even though we can use them in combat, we probably won't. I'm also taking Agonizing Blast so that we can still use Eldritch Blast as a ranged option when we need to.

    Gear:

Thanks to starting as a Fighter, we'll start off with Chain Mail. Now, one thing we have to deal with is that we actually will be slowed if we take Splint or Plate, because we're not going to have more than a 14 in Strength, at least until much later in our careers. If we can get better, magic Chain Mail, that'll be great, even if it only gives us the AC of Splint or Plate.

We're going to stick with a Greatsword as our main weapon - I don't think we'll have the feats to invest in both Great Weapon Master and Polearm Master, as we'll still want to take Charisma-boosting options after level 4. That's fine, these hit very hard and have Graze.

    Feats:

We're going to grab Great Weapon Master at level 4, which will boost our Strength to 14.

    Spells:

Ok, now for the big one:

We only have two Pact slots at level 10, but they're both 5th level.

The main spells I'd focus on using are Spirit Shroud and Armor of Agathys.

Both use a bonus action to cast, one providing a bit of damage along with some resilience, and the other boosting our damage. Thanks to Tough and our armor, we should be a fair amount more resilient than your typical Warlock. Agathys is great, and in theory we can even refresh its Temp HP with Form of Dread, though against a Death Knight (maybe even one of our patrons?) its effects won't be that useful aside form the Temp HP.

Given that we have Thirsting Blade, we won't be using spells like Green-Flame Blade or Booming Blade. Again, I'd grab Eldritch Blast for a ranged option, but the rest would probably be more utility spells.

    Attack Sequence:

With our pact Greatsword in hand (doing either psychic or radiant damage - necrotic is no-go against a Death Knight) we're going to start off by casting Spirit Shroud. At 5th level, this will add 2d8 to each of our attacks, doing our choice of radiant, necrotic, or cold damage (we'll go radiant again). It's similar to Conjure Minor Elementals, but has worse damage scaling but only takes a bonus action to cast. Given how OP CME is, I think that still means this is a very solid spell. Also, CME isn't a Warlock spell.

We probably want to save our remaining spell slot to either re-up Spirit Shroud or use it on a crit for Eldritch Smite. At 5th level, Eldritch Smite does 6d8 damage, but we can make up for that if we hit three times with Spirit Shroud. But a crit would make it very worth to blast out some insane damage. Armor of Agathys could be an option if we are worried about survivability - it can also put out a lot of damage to attackers when cast at this level, but you need to hope that the Death Knight rolls low damage.

Notably, as Reborn, we might have Necrotic resistance, which would be great in a fight like this, but we also probably aren't taking it because we will get that anyway for being a 10th level Undead warlock.

    Damage Output:

Notably, we only have a +4 to Charisma, so we're not going to be hitting quite as often. That said, Graze is going to help us out a lot. The calculation is actually quite simple, as ultimately we're just making two attacks that are buffed up.

With Spirit Shroud up, we're now dealing 2d6+2d8+4 radiant damage per hit, so that's 20 damage on average, with 16 more on a crit. That said, because we have Graze, we can actually just guarantee the 4 and throw the hit and crit damage together.

With a +8 to hit, we'll land an attack on a roll of 12 or higher, so 45% of the time. Add in the 5% chance of a crit, and you get 50% of 16, or 8, and then add in the guaranteed 4 each turn to get us 12 damage per attack, or 24 damage per turn.

If we do land a crit, we will be adding 12d8, or about 54 damage on average.

Still, I'm honestly a little surprised at how underwhelming this damage is.

Oh! I forgot Great Weapon Master!

So, let's rewind:

We're actually now hitting for 2d6+2d8+4+4 on a hit, or 24 on average, and adding 16 on a crit.

Again, we're going to pull 4 out of that and add it in later for Graze, so we'll look at 20 damage on a hit.

20x45% is 9 (such round numbers!) and 5% times 16 is .8, so it's really 9.8, and then adding in the guaranteed 4 to give us 13.8 per attack, which gives us 27.6 damage per round. Certainly a bit better, but still a little underwhelming.

However, while we've used our bonus action on this turn to cast Spirit Shroud, on subsequent turns, we will get to make a Hew attack if we land a crit. With two attacks, the chance that happens is 9.75%.

Without the extra 4 from GWM, we're going to do 12 average damage on an attack (as we calculated before, ) so in the 9.75% of the time we get to do this, we're adding 1.17 damage per round, bringing us up to 28.77, which still feels pretty low.

    Ok, so we're switching our gameplan:

We're basically a Death Knight ourselves. And what does a Death Knight have? An army of skeletons.

If we assume we can find a whole bunch of bones, we're going to cast Danse Macabre, ideally before combat. We raise 5 Skeletons, and each skeleton is going to get a bonus equal to our Charisma modifier to their attack and damage rolls. This winds up actually giving them a +9 to hit, and their attacks (probably using bows to avoid being too close to the Death Knight) deal 1d6+7 damage on a hit.

If we can't cast ahead of time, we'll do this at the start of combat and immediately have them attack.

Each has a 50% chance to hit. 1d6+7 is an average of 10.5 damage, and they do an extra 3.5 on a crit. So that's 5.25 plus .175, or 5.425 damage per attack. There are five of them, so with our bonus action to command them, we're doing an average of 27.125 (already basically outpacing our previous plan).

Now, our bonus action is now spoken for, so we're just making our two melee attacks on our turn, and this time without Spirit Shroud. So, we'll deal 2d6+8 on a hit and add 2d6 on a crit, or 11 and 7. We can remove 4 guaranteed damage and calculate 11x45%, or 4.95 and then the 7x5%, or .35, for 5.3, add in the guaranteed 4 for Graze and we get 9.3 damage per attack, or 18.6 damage from us if we don't need to spend our action on Danse Macabre.

Thus, our damage becomes 45.725 and holy moly that's freaking incredible.

Two notes, one good and one bad.

The good note is that we actually don't need our bonus action after the first command if the command is simply "keep shooting at the Death Knight and spread out while staying in regular range with your shortbows," as the skeletons should continue to follow a command until it's completed. Thus, we can now get our Hew attacks in if we get them.

The bad note is that the Skeletons are going to be very fragile - the spell doesn't boost their survivability at all, and so they're prime targets to be wiped out by Hellfire Orb. Keep them spread out as much as you can to avoid losing too many to one.

Danse Macabre was a fun spell introduced in Xanathar's, but it mostly wasn't as good at higher levels when you started fighting monsters with resistance or even immunity to nonmagical weapon damage. But as that as a concept has been excised from 5.5, spells like this have gotten way better.

You will need to find corpses to animate - you can also make zombies with it, but skeletons are much better damage-dealers - but hopefully with a Death Knight you'll have plenty of bones around (though it's also unlikely that those bones are all inert).

Spirit Shroud will get a bit better when you can get 11 levels in Warlock and grab Devouring Blade (you might consider using it with Eldritch Blast when you are Fighter1/Warlock10, as EB will upgrade its number of beams a level earlier). But if you can keep those skeletal archers alive, Danse Macabre is honestly a really good source of damage.

Horrors WIthin: Darklords and Mist Travelers

 I adore Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft. And the biggest disappointment in Ravenloft: Horrors Within is that so much of the new book rehashes stuff we already got just five years ago. But if there's one thing that was missing from that book, it was the lack of bespoke stat blocks for its iconic Darklords. While I understood the philosophical idea of having, say, Viktra Mordenheim use a fairly low-CR humanoid NPC stat block like a Spy, the actual choice of stat block didn't really reflect the character - a Spy has middling Intelligence, whereas Mordenheim is meant to be an evil genius.

Thus, I'm happy to say that the Darklords featured in Horrors Within do have their own stat blocks, and while not all are going to be major threats on their own to high-level parties, that's fine. A confrontation with Ivana Boritsi or Ilya Desilinya in Borca makes perfect sense as a finale for tier 1 rather than tier 3.

Outside of the stat blocks, there's also good guidance for what happens if the party kills a Darklord before the climactic boss fight - Darklords always come back, but there's greater detail about how the mists claim the bodies of the Darklords when they're slain, and how you can flavor the clear implication that things aren't over yet.

I believe every Darklord is a legendary creature, and while clearly several of them are similar to existing monsters, they have their own unique abilities.

Of note, the line-up of featured Domains in Horrors Within is not the same as that in Van Richten's, so if you were hoping to get the Darklords of Richemulot, I'Cath, or Bluetspur, you're out of luck. However, we have new domains of Innsmouth, the Shadowlands, and Sithicus, each of which grant you their respective Darklords.

We'll go in order of their Domains, alphabetically.

Strahd von Zarovich:

The OG Darklord himself, Strahd looks fairly similar to how he's appeared in books like Curse of Strahd, and is not all too dissimilar to the Vampire stat block from the Monster Manual. He is a spellcaster, and unlike the Umbral Lord, there's a somewhat more classic Wizard selection of spells (including Fireball, which I think he's always had). CR 15 like previous versions, I think the spellcasting (he can include Fireball in his multiattack) is the main distinguishing feature from standard vamps.

Ivana Boritsi:

Now a legendary CR 5 Humanoid, Ivana has several poison- and plant-themed abilities. (I guess you could use her for Poison Ivy if you wanted to do a Batman campaign?)

Ivan Delisnya:

Like his cousin and co-Darklord, Ivan is also a CR 5 humanoid. He has various mechanical abilities, like a Deadly Contraption that can clamp onto a foe, or the ability to trap the area with caltrops.

Azalin Rex:

While story-wise he seems to have successfully escaped (though we get more details on it, and it's complicated) we do get a version of the Lich, who's CR 23. He's not too dissimilar from the Monster Manual Lich, but he can siphon spells with his Counterspell to use them himself.

Saidra D'Honaire:

A much more distinct statblock, which is CR 9, than the generic "Wraith with Disintegrate" from Van Richten's, Saidra now has two forms - her socialite, masked form and her serial-killer-in-the-streets form of the Red Death, though this is more of a cosmetic change that can mask her identity than something that changes her abilities. Her most interesting ability is Truth of Die (feels very Lies of P) in which she demands a character identify themselves and then casts Disintegrate on them. If the target lied about their identity, they get disadvantage on the save. And she has another feature that says she always knows if she hears a lie.

Vladeska Drakov:

The tyrannical dictator of Falkovnia, Drakov is a very martial Darklord, a CR 12 humanoid who uses a Pike and throws spears that can impale (restrain) targets. She can even call in an artillery strike, and is very much built to fight alongside soldiers (who she can also put in the way of attacks meant for her).

Ankhtepot:

The OG Mummy Lord, this guy is CR 17, can fly, and has a recharge ability that is basically a less powerful, touch-range Power Word Kill.

Hazlik:

The former Red Wizard, Hazlik is CR 14 and somewhat similar to an Archmage in stats, but can make Wild Magic surges with a bonus action, creating randomized effects.

Cthulhu:

Yes, the most famous of Lovecraft's monsters, Cthulhu is a CR 25 gargantuan aberration. Certainly the highest-CR Darklord, while tough in combat, he's also got some powerful remote abilities, able to cast Dream and then Geas through the dream with a very tough spells ave DC of 25.

Ramya Vasavadan:

One of two Death Knight Darklords, Ramya normally disguises herself to appear still alive, and struggles to retain control of her domain while her fiendish siblings contend with her. Similar in capabilities to a Death Knight, she's actually somewhat lower CR, at 15, and when her disguise drops, nearby creatures can be frightened by the true appearance, which appears if she drops below 80 HP or if she uses her Vengeful Fire (a recharge ability similar to a Hellfire Orb).

Harkon Lukas:

The faux-friendly traveling musician with a beast lurking beneath the surface, Harkon is a CR 14 Monstrosity that is similar in a lot of ways to a Loup-Garou (I mean, he is one, but slightly tougher) but with health regeneration (that the standard Loup-Garou lost) and performance abilities that can charm and deal psychic damage (his legendary actions have him kind of cycle between his humanoid and wolf form). (I don't know about you, but I feel like he makes for an amazing Southern Gothic villain.)

Viktra Mordenheim:

The mad scientist and amoral crafter of flesh golems, Mordenheim is a CR 7 humanoid. She has some abilities that buff nearby construct allies, and both a lightning attack and a set of syringes with various serums that she can inject people with.

Wilfred Godefroy:

The greatest ghost of Gryphon Hill, Godefroy is a CR 6 undead with your standard incorporeal undead stuff. He has an aura of ghostly spirits that can possess foes, and hunts down the living with his spectral hunting rifle.

Ebonbane:

An evil sword forged of the fragments of all the evils that the heroic paladin Kateri Shadowborn defeated, Ebonbane is both a small CR 13 construct as well as a sentient artifact weapon that can be wielded by those who survive the process of attuning to it. Ebonbane can only act on its own within its keep, but in addition to slashing out at foes, it can possess bodies of the dead to act as its wielder and devour the souls of those who attempt to wield it.

Lord Soth:

The OG Death Knight, Lord Soth may or may not actually be in Ravenloft - the one in Sithicus is either a copy or perhaps he travels between his domain and the world of Krynn each night. Anyway, Lord Soth is a CR 19 undead that is similar to a Death Knight, but a little tougher and has some extra magic, as well as a once-a-day emanation that can frighten and inflict psychic damage that might instant-kill creatures.

Mother Lorinda:

The delusional, mad green hag of Tepest is a CR 8 Fey that has some similar features to a Green Hag, but can also disguise herself into "Mother," the benevolent harvest deity of Tepest, in which she can cast Charm Person as a bonus action. This form drops if she's reduced to 50 HP, and when that happens, nearby creatures can become frightened and get disadvantage on saving throws while they are.

Chakuna:

The only Darklord that isn't evil, Chakuna reclaimed her home from the colonialist man-hunter Urik von Kharkov, but had to take on the mantle of Darklord to keep him out of power. She's a werepanther, a CR 11 monstrosity, who has various abilities to help her hunt down those who enter the Trial of Hearts, including a barbed spear that inflicts an ongoing wound.

    Mist Wanderers:

There are also a few potential allies for parties to find, and have their own unique stat blocks. Given that these are more likely to be on the players' sides, they're not legendary creatures, but they do tend to have some interesting abilities.

Ez D'avenir:

Ez is a CR 8 humanoid with a mix of melee and magic abilities. She has a few bonus action options, which can bolster allies in various ways, or impose a curse once a day on a foe that can gvie them vulnerability to a damage type (and can move it around like Hex if the target dies). So, a very good ally to have!

Madam Eva:

The Vistana fortune-teller, Madam Eva is a CR 10 Humanoid with various magical abilities, including a very potent recharge ability that can deal a bunch of necrotic and psychic damage in a Fireball-sized sphere and frighten foes that fail the Wisdom save against it.

Rudolph Van Richten:

A CR 5 humanoid, Van Richten has a couple weapons that deal some bonus radiant damage, a recharge ability that can deal psychic damage and frighten foes in a cone, and some limited spellcasting ability.

Gennifer Weathermay-Foxgrove:

A CR 3 druidic apprentice of Van Richten's, she has some magical abilities including a recharge ability that can deal radiant damage and stun nearby Undead. However, she's also cursed by a werewolf, and if she drops to 0 HP, she becomes one, so be sure to keep her up!

Laurie Weathermay-Foxgrove:

Gennifer's sister and fellow apprentice to Van Richten, Laurie is also CR 3, and is more of a martial character, with weapons that deal a little extra radiant damage and a reaction to deflect attacks against her or her allies.

    For all the complaints I had about the bestiary rehashing so many creatures, this a pretty fantastic selection of unique characters. I really like the idea of having brief quests (maybe going into a single small dungeon) with one or two of these allies - perhaps investigating a haunted house with the Weathermay-Foxgrove twins or defending a Vistani caravan from attackers with Madam Eva.

Reanimator vs. Death Knight

 Ok, I know I did an artificer build already, but I'm quite enamored with the Reanimator Artificer - I doubt it's the most powerful Artificer subclass, but it's got a lot of flexibility that I think could be super fun.

My initial backup character in our Curse of Strahd campaign was going to be a Battle Smith Artificer from Lamordia, flavoring his Steel Defender as a flesh golem. But this subclass fits that archetype even better (it's the most Lamordia subclass).

There will be a lot of overlap here with the Armorer build we started this series off with. Once again, it'll be pretty optimal once we hit level 11 to hand a spell-storing item to our Homunculus Servant with Lightning Bolt in it, but we're doing this at level 10.

There will also be a little more of an action-economy pile-up because this is a pet class and thus regularly demands our bonus action. Let's get into it:

    Reanimated Companion:

Each time we create a companion, we can choose some options for how to customize it. While I think Gaunt is a good option much of the time, against a Death Knight that has immunity to fear, I'd probably lean toward either Moist or Bloated - the former dealing more damage if the Death Knight attacks it, but the latter giving us some more battlefield control.

We will also pretty much always want to take Arcane Conduit, which will let us add some damage to our Evocation and Necromancy spells.

    Spells:

I actually think Shocking Grasp works really well as a cantrip for this subclass, as once we have Arcane Conduit, we can always cast it through our companion, making the melee range less of a problem. We'll pack Fire Bolt as an alternative just in case (we don't go True Strike because it's a Divination spell and thus doesn't get the damage bump).

Now, Animate Dead might feel sort of outdated now that Summon Undead is a thing. We do need to use a bonus action to command our undead minion from this as well, but we can give a broad command that they'll follow on subsequent turns. Thus, I'd probably try to get a Skeleton and just have them stand off at max range and keep shooting at the Death Knight. It's not a ton of damage, given the low hit chance, though.

Actually, if we figure that the Skeleton's hitting for 1d6+3, or 6.5 on average, versus just hitting the DK with a lightning bolt, which deals 28 average damage on a failed save, it would take a lot of attacks on average to match that damage output. Over a whole adventuring day, the Skeleton might be better overall, but in a boss fight, we might want to just favor damage-per-round over damage-per-day.

As before, we can slap Dragon Breath on our Homunculus Servant. This does mean we delay sending in our companion, but their damage is pretty low on its own, so I don't know that that's a huge problem.

Weirdly, we don't actually have a concentration spell in this case. We could slap Enlarge any of our friends who make lots of attacks - a dual-wielder is probably the best choice here, but mainly anyone with Extra Attack. But I won't include that in the calculation here. It does mean that we basically just get started on turn 1.

    Magic Items:

Mainly, I'd get a +2 Wand of the War Mage to boost our spell attacks (this will also boost our companion's attacks, I believe). Defensively, we can get +1 Half Plate and a +2 Shield, which can get our AC to 22.

We might consider a Wand of Magic Missiles as well, and give it to the Homunculus. If we do, we'd skip Dragon's Breath. The damage on Dragon's Breath will be 10.5 on a failed save, while a 1st level Magic Missile will be 10.5 guaranteed (well, on average). Hey, you know what? We're totally doing that. (We could upcast it too, but we'll assume we're spreading out the uses to maximize its damage potential just for our purposes here). This then also opens up our bonus action to send our companion in immediately.

Depending on what else we want to do, we have some options: Mind Sharpener could be very helpful if we get hit with a Hellfire Orb, but generally, we're going to try to stay out of melee range, and thus we might not worry so much about our AC and favor instead a Cloak of Protection or even some Half Plate of Necrotic Resistance - something that's probably worth picking up if you're in an undead-heavy campaign (unless you're an Aasimar or Chthonic Tiefling, of course).

    Feats:

I was tempted to get Elemental Adept for Lightning damage, but this really only barely improves our damage - a d4 goes from 2.5 on average to 2.75, and a d6 goes from 3.5 to 3.67. It does let us bypass resistance, which could be good against incorporeal undead, but I think there are better choices.

Naturally, we grab Warcaster at 4, and then at 8, we could either cap our Int or grab another General Feat. I liked taking Fey Touched for this (maybe the Fey are spooky wicker-man types, and the Misty Step spell is related to the Mists of Ravenloft). This does mean our Int is only 19 by level 10, but we compensate for this a bit by grabbing a +2 Wand of the War Mage.

    Attack Sequence:

Going all out, we're going to already have our Homunculus at the ready with their Wand of Magic Missiles. With six charges on the wand, we can probably afford to upcast the spell each turn by at least a bit, but I wouldn't go higher than 2nd level. I'm going to assume we're just doing this at 1st level. The damage calculation here is super-easy - each does 1d4+1 damage and we get 3 darts, so that's 3.5x3, or 10.5 damage each round, for up to 6 rounds, which I'd certainly hope would be more than enough to take out the Death Knight.

We have a +10 to hit with spells thanks to our Wand of the War Mage, though our spell save DC is just 16. The spell attack bonus should carry over to our companion.

So, we'll be starting off with our action to cast Lightning Bolt on turns 1 and 2. It's actually fine (even good) if we let this pass through our reanimated companion, as they can choose to fail and get healed up for our roll, so we actually want to try to position our companion directly between us and the Death Knight (or alternatively, put the Death Knight precisely between us and our companion). If we have low initiative and the companion takes damage, we can send them in first.

I'd never waste a spell purely on healing the companion, as it's just an action and a spell slot of any level to get a new one, though we can Shocking Grasp them to pump a little healing into them (it's effectively a 1st level Cure Wounds to them at this level).

Then, with a bonus action, we command our pet to run up to the Death Knight and hit them with their Dreadful Swipe. If there's extra movement, we should try to have the companion move away from any allies - they'll prevent opportunity attacks if they hit with their attack - because their Death Burst does not distinguish friend from foe.

    Damage Calculation:

First off, we get an average of 10.5 damage from our Homunculus.

Our companion will hit for 1d4+4 Necrotic damage. Unfortunately, Death Knights are immune to this. Hm. Well, let's assume it's some equivalent-difficulty foe that isn't. That's 6.5 damage on a hit and an extra 2.5 on a crit. With a +10 to hit, we're talking about a 55% hit chance. 6.5x55% is 3.575 and then 2.5x5% is .125, so that's 3.7 damage.

Note that if we do want to account for this damage immunity, we could cast Dragon's Breath on our companion (or on the homunculus and give our companion the wand). We'd delay our Lightning Bolts for a turn, and the companion would still need another turn to get in range, but once they did. At 2nd level, that does 3d6 damage on a failed save or half as much on a success. The DK has a +6 to dex saves and magic resistance, so that's a 20.25% chance to fail and a 79.75% chance to succeed. So, 20.25%x10.5 is 2.13ish and 5.25x79.75% is 4.19ish, so we've got about 6.32 damage per round. It's a bit of a toss-up, as you're also delaying some stuff by doing this. I'm going to just take the simple route and assume we're using the same normal attack.

Now, on turns 1 and 2, we'll be casting Lighting Bolt. Thanks to Arcane Conduit, we can add 4 to the damage. This thus does 32 damage on a failed save or half as much on a success. (I realized we can just cut the success chance in half and multiply it by the total damage to get the same thing). So, 39.875% (half of 79.75%) plus 20.25% is 60.125%, and that times 32 is 19.24 damage.

Thus, all of these taken together are 10.5 from the Wand of Magic Missiles, 3.7 from our companion's attack, and 19.24 from our Lightning Bolt, for a total of 33.44.

Alternatively, if we have our companion use the wand and our homunculus fire its normal attacks, they do 1d6+2 force damage on a hit if cast at base level, but we'll probably try to have them cast at 3rd level instead by this point, if we can cast it before we have a long rest, which would make it do 1d6+3, which is actually the same hit damage and a little better crit damage. Mainly, this gets rid of our last source of Necrotic damage and so it should all hit the DK fine.

Also, if we have Magic Missile upcast at 2nd level, its damage becomes 14, so a flat 3.5 damage increase per turn (but only sustainable for 3 turns). That would put us to 36.94, and then again a bit of a bump if we shuffle the roles of our two pets.

Honestly, that's not too bad.

However, after turn 2, we will be out of 3rd level spell slots. Now, Witch Bolt is an option - cast at 2nd level, we'd deal 3d12 damage on a hit and the could use a bonus action to do 1d12 damage automatically to the Death Knight. To do so, we'd be unable to command our companion, but that might change our strategy.

Instead, we have the companion use 3 charges on turns 1 and 2, doing 17.5 damage. On turn three, now out of Lightning Bolts, we cast Witch Bolt at level 2. This does 2d12+4 lightning if it hits, or 17 damage, with an extra 13 damage on a crit. We have a 55% chance to hit, so that's 17x55% plus 13x5%, or 10 damage on average. We then, I guess, just use a bonus action to tell our companion to find some place safe to hide. Then, on turns 3 onward, we use a bonus action to deal 6.5 damage to the Death Knight and I guess save spell slots for healing or something and shoot Fire Bolts, dealing 2d10+4 damage on a hit (15 average) and 11 more on a crit (8.8 average damage).

It's a bit of a mess to figure out precisely what we get "per turn," given how much our actions change, but certainly in those first two turns, we're probably looking at somewhere around 40, which is very respectable.

Horrors Within: General Monsters

 So, there's an extensive bestiary in Ravenloft Horrors Within, but I'll warn you: most of them are revisions of the creatures presented in Van Richten's.

To be fair, there have A: been several new additions and B: they've made some refinements (though in one case, I'm a bit upset about it) and C: there's also a new bespoke statblock for every featured Darklord (though the line-up has changed a little from Van Richten's, gaining a few but losing some others, as the featured domains aren't the exact same list). I'll be covering those in a separate post (again, just giving vibes and gist). There are also named NPCs like Rudolph Van Richten or Madam Eva who aren't Darklords but whom I'll cover in the Darklord post.

I believe every monster from Van Richten's has a reprint, from the Carrionette to the Greater Star Spawn Emissary.

So, let's go over the new monsters. I'm not going to give a full breakdown of their stats (at a certain point I worry about copyright infringement, but also because I don't have the energy to do so) but I'll give the vibes and I think intended uses of the new monsters.

Elder Thing:

One of several monsters taken directly from the stories of HP Lovecraft, the Elder Things are I think technically plants (though as for creature type, they're aberrations) that had an ancient civilization in what is now Antarctica in the story At the Mountains of Madness. These are CR 14 large aberrations that can fly very fast, and has attacks that can charm, punish spellcasting, and inflict exhaustion.

Gremishka:

While this was featured in Van Richten's, I wanted to note that the monsters are now a single stat block and always CR 2. Their magic allergy just changes them into a medium swarm of tiny creatures and alters some of their attacks after regaining some HP. Basically your Gremlins.

Gug:

Another monster from Lovecraft (though I don't recall which story,) Gugs are Huge CR 12 aberrations that act as meaty brutes who can restrain and kind of chew several creatures that they stick in the maw that splits their faces vertically.

Mi-Go:

Another Lovecraft monster, I think from "Fungi from Yuggoth," as these are actually fungal monsters who come from Pluto (aka "Yuggoth") and have weird technology with which they use to steal brains. Medium CR 9 Aberrations, they can fly and pry peoples' brains out to put in canisters (which might become something like a Brain in a Jar).

Mist Horror:

CR 3 Large undead, these are cloud-like spirits who are invisible within fog or mist (including The Mists of Ravenloft) and can inflict psychic damage and fear.

Mist Wanderer:

This represents people who travel through the Mists, and can certainly be used as your default statblock for the Vistani, the itinerant peoples who call all domains their homes. Killing one can inflict a curse on you, and they have a little more spellcasting.

Mordenheim's Monster:

First off, WotC? We know you know exactly what you were doing with this art. The "step on me, mommy" of flesh golems, these are significantly beefed-up versions at CR 12. They seem suited for brutal hit-and-run tactics, and can grab and then either crush or throw grappled creatures, and have a bonus action leap that can deal AoE damage. Naturally, Elise, Viktra Mordenheim's former lover that she resurrected as a flesh golem, is the prime example of this creature, but other creations of hers can take this form.

Nightgaunt:

Another Lovecraft monster (though again, I don't recall from which story,) Nightgaunts are somewhat dmeonic/gargoyle-looking monsters that swoop down, grab victims, and then can rocket up into the sky either to keep their victim away from friends or potentially just drop them. Oh, and their heads unfold like the demogorgons from Stranger Things. At CR 8, they're the lowest-CR of the Lovecraft monsters.

Relentless Nightmare:

An addition to the family of slasher-movie monsters (though I can't recall if this is basically the one from Vecna Eve of Ruin,) the Relentless Nightmare curses targets with its spear, preventing them from recovering from exhaustion and then also inflicting exhaustion with their gaze. They're a legendary CR 11 fiend, and so a little less powerful than the Juggernaut in theory, but exhaustion is nasty and, worse, if it still has cursed targets, it can't permanently die, eventually respawning near one of them. (Basically, the Freddy Kreuger to the Juggernaut's Jason Vorhees).

Shoggoth:

Another Lovecraft monster, and one also from At the Mountains of Madness, these were created as servitors to the Elder Things, but rebelled. They're conceptually similar to a Gibbering Mouther, though they don't absorb victims. They can grapple foes and then potentially launch them. Interestingly, they're particularly susceptible to being charmed, and they love being subjected to extreme cold. They're Huge CR 11 aberrations, and can swim and climb.

Strahd Skeleton:

Empowered skeletal soldiers, Strahd Skeletons are CR 4 and have undead fortitude and a vampiric sword that reduces max HP with its necrotic damage.

Waxworth:

Constructs made of wax to imitate a humanoid person, they seek to kill and replace the people they're based on, and might even forget what they are if they succeed. They can slow targets with gobs of wax, but also slow themselves if they start to melt because of fire damage (to which they are vulnerable).

Yithian:

The last Lovecraft monster (other than Cthulhu,) Yithians are strange alien scholars, CR 15 Large aberrations, from the story The Shadow Out of Time. Not necessarily malevolent in intent, they still do some messed up things. They can possess people and vanish as their will takes over the person's body, and they can grab and drain life out of targets.

    Returning Monster Changes:

Again, I'm not going to go in super deep, and monsters where I didn't notice any profound changes I've left out, but here are some takeaways:

Dullahans:

These are no longer legendary (indeed, in Van Richten's, they used the short-lived Mythic tech). They can still behead people, and in this case, the heads they take become Death's Heads. They also have some ways to inflict fear. They're also built to be mounted, with some features that help them protect their mounts. While not legendary, I think they're complex enough that I don't know I'd toss a ton of these at a party - better to have them show up at the absolute minimum level for a hard encounter (factoring in their mount, probably) to make them scary.

Gallows Speakers:

I believe these are now much bigger (they're Huge) and also possibly higher CR (6 - though I think they've generally been pretty strict about keeping them at the same CRs). They have an aura that can cause players to attack one another and a recharge ability that can terrify targets into shrieking along with it, preventing verbal components of spells.

Loup-Garou:

I actually loved that the Van Richten's version of this finally gave us a werewolf that truly required a silver bullet (or weapon of some sort) to take them down. Sadly, as the whole "silver" thing has been completely excised from werewolves in 5.5, the danger has shifted entirely into the werewolf's curse (and, you know, a bunch of damage). Like the lycanthropes in the Monster Manual, the bite inflicts a curse now that activates if the creature drops to 0 HP, turning them into a werewolf when this happens. It's still a legendary CR 13 monster (now a monstrosity, consistent with other 5.5 lycanthropes) but also, Harkon Lukas has his own separate stat block as well.

Relentless Slasher:

The lesser of the Relentless Killer monsters, this one no longer inflicts a bleed effect, instead just doing a ton of necrotic damage on a hit (which probably actually means it's doing more damage overall).

Relentless Juggernaut:

Sadly, there's less flavor of the environment working at the Juggernaut's will, like shards of glass or wooden spikes snagging fleeing characters. The art here, incidentally, seems to go more for Pyramid Head from Silent Hill 2, and I think this would be a reasonable stat block for that figure.

Strigoi:

These guys now have a very deadly attack that will leave behind nothing but skin if they kill a target with their proboscis. Also, they now have a recharge bonus action to summon a swarm of mosquitos around them that can poison and damage foes.

Unspeakable Horror:

The "modular statblock" idea that we had in some of the mid-5.0 books seems to have been abandoned, so we now just have a singular stat block for these amorphous monstrosities. They now lean into the warped and incomprehensible nature of them, giving disadvantage on all attacks against them as well as creating a fear aura that can paralyze foes. They seem quite nasty, frankly.

Vampiric Mind Flayer:

Their mind drain now inflicts exhaustion levels - a bit of monster tech that I anticipated with the redesign of exhaustion.

    And there you have it.

Again, there are a lot of reprints here, but actually going through it, I think that the number of new monsters (and I haven't even covered Darklords and other named NPCs) is actually pretty hefty.

Horrors Within: Backgrounds, Origin Feats and Dark Gifts

 Ok, we might have bit off more than we can chew with that title, but let's try it anyway!

Ravenloft: Horrors Within gives us four new backgrounds, two standard Origin Feats, and then several Dark Gifts, which have been redesigned to now function as alternative "Origin Feats with a downside." They're actually not unlike Complications from Draw Steel.

Let's get started:

(Note, I'm going to skip background equipment.)

    Haunted One:

Appearing first in Curse of Strahd, Haunted Ones are plagued by a traumatic, horrific event (aka 75% of D&D backstories).

Ability Scores: Con, Wis, Cha

Feat: Survivor (see below) or a Dark Gift of your choice

Skills: Arcana, Survival

Tool Proficiency: Gaming Set of your choice

    The old Haunted One was actually really flexible, letting you choose your skills, though it came with zero gold. This is going to naturally suit Clerics, Druids, Warlocks, Bards, and Sorcerers best, as it doesn't boost any weapon-based abilities. Survivor is kind of an alternative to Alert with a little help against fear and charm effects.

    Investigator:

You're a relentless seeker of truth. Weirdly seems to overlap with the Inquisitive from Eberron (though that was more specifically a Private Eye type).

Ability Scores: Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma

Feat: Sharp Eye (see below) or a Dark Gift of your choice.

Skills: Insight, Investigation

Tools: Disguise Kit

    Sadly, the ability scores here are not a great spread, as while anyone with any spellcasting will be happy to take one of these, you don't get to then give your secondary bonus to something like Con or Dex. Rarely does a PC rely on two mental stats for their class abilities.

    Mist Wanderer:

Here, you might take this as a member of the Vistani, or anyone else who wanders the Domains of Dread.

Ability Scores: Dex, Con, Wis

Feat: Choose a Dark Gift (Mist Walker recommended as the default)

Skills: Survival, Stealth

Tools: One kind of Artisan's Tools

    Mist Walker, to spoil later stuff, is not quite as onerous as it was in Van Richten's. The ability spread here works great for any Dex or Wis-based character. Naturally, Monks and Rangers are going to love all three of these abilities.

    Spirit Medium:

You have a connection to the spirits of the dead, acting as a conduit for them to interact with the living, for good or ill.

Ability Scores: Con, Int, Wis

Feat: A Dark Gift of your choice (Gathered Whispers recommended as the default)

Skills: Insight, Religion

Tools: One type of gaming set of your choice.

    The huge oversight is that this doesn't work well for a College of Spirits Bard, as you can't get Charisma. Again, my biggest issue with 5.5 (other than WotC's bias toward reprinting stuff from 5.0) is that backgrounds are as restrictive as the old Races/Species were. Brings us back to the post-Tasha's 5.0 glory days when we could really pick whatever we wanted! (Make a custom background that uses most of this, I say).

Origin Feats:

I separate out the standard Origin Feats simply because they're listed separately from the Dark Gifts, but make no mistake, a Dark Gift now functions as an Origin Feat.

Sharp Eye:

When you take the Search or Study action (basically any Int or Wis ability check) you can give yourself advantage on the roll. You can do this PB times per long rest, but you only expend the use if you succeed on the roll.

    I hadn't actually noticed the bad luck protection element here on my first read of it, so I actually think this is pretty solid. Naturally it's less combat-focused, but I actually think that some of the combat-focused Origin feats aren't really worth it. Great for your party's main scout or researcher.

Survivor:

You get two benefits:

First, if you roll initiative and get a 9 or lower on the d20, you can reroll it (and must use the new roll).

Second, when you fail a save to avoid or end the Charmed or Frightened condition, you can take a reaction to add your PB to the roll, potentially turning it into a success. You can take this reaction once per long rest.

    The second part is very limited in use, but could come in clutch. The first part is interesting when comparing it with Alert. Advantage on Initiative means a d20 becomes 13.825 (didn't do the math, just looked it up). This would make the average 12.975 (this I did do the math on) assuming you always roll it if you land a 9 or lower. And that kind of makes sense, advantage might improve a 14 to a 17 or something, while this only boosts your average roll when you roll low.

    That means the secondary part is really what distinguishes this from Alert, and I still think Alert wins overall, but to be fair, a Ravenloft campaign is very likely to have a lot of Charm and Fear effects.

Dark Gifts:

Dark Gifts take the place of an Origin Feat, though a character might also earn a Dark Gift in the middle of a campaign for plot reasons. Each gives you a benefit and then a (usually rare) downside.

I would really approach these Dark Gifts more from a RP/Storytelling point of view than for pure power, though it's interesting to know which ones would be particularly useful.

    Aberrant Anatomy:

Like the reveal at the Shadow Over Innsmouth, your exposure or hidden lineage related to alien horrors of the Far Realm has warped your anatomy.

You can hold your breath for 1 hour. You also gain proficiency in Perception if you lack it, and also gain Expertise in it. You also get Blindsight out to 15 feet.

If you roll a 1 on a d20 test (I'm just going to say if you get a natural one from here on out) the aberrant influence threatens to overwhelm you. You must make a Con save (DC equal 13 plus your proficiency bonus) or be stunned until the end of your next turn.

    Those are some pretty good benefits. Play a class with Con save proficiency, maybe? Actually, a Sorcerer who focuses a lot on spell attacks could really reduce the danger here by using Innate Sorcery for advantage.

    Echoing Soul:

Echoes of past lives flit into your consciousness.

You have proficiency in two skills of your choice, and you can choose one skill with which you have proficiency and gain Expertise in it. When you finish a long rest, you can swap which skill has expertise.

You also learn an additional language.

After you roll a nat 1, your memories threaten to overtake your current identity. Make a Con save (DC 13 + PB). On a failure, you're Incapacitated until the end of your next turn, and your speed is halved while incapacitated.

    Definitely good for classes that focus a lot on skills. The downside isn't as bad as Aberrant Anatomy, but nearly as much.

    Gathered Whispers:

You are haunted by a cacophony of whispers only you can hear.

You learn Message and can cast it without material components. You also automatically have Augury prepared. You can cast it without a spell slot or spell components once per long rest.

When you are hit with an attack roll, you can use a reaction to channel the haunting spirits around you to protect you with a scream, adding your PB to your AC. You can use this PB times per long rest.

If you roll a nat 1, you have to make a Wisdom save (DC 13 + PB) or have the Deafened condition until your next turn. While deafened, you have disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks.

    This is super-good. It's not quite the Shield Spell (it only works on one attack per use and isn't as big of a bonus until level 13) but still quite good, and frankly, the downside isn't too bad, especially if you're a caster who mostly does saving-throw-based spells.

    Living Shadow

Your shadow is somewhat autonomous and ever-present, and can act on the world around you.

You learn Mage Hand. Also, PB times per long rest, you can extend the reach of a melee attack by 10 feet.

If you roll a nat 1, you must make a Wisdom save, DC 13+PB. On a failure, you're Incpacitated until the start of your next turn, at which point you must roll on the "Shadow's Will" table, rolling a d8.

1: You don't take an action or bonus action, and you use all your movement to move randomly in one of the four cardinal directions.

2-6: You don't move or take a bonus action, and you take the Attack action to make one melee attack against a random creature within reach (if there is none, you take no action).

7-8: You have the prone condition and your turn ends.

    It's certainly the most fun downside so far, and if you wind up attacking a foe, it might wind up working out for you. The benefit is ok, but the flavor is delightful.

    Mist Walker:

You are adept at traversing the Mists, but the Mists seek to drain your life force if you stop anywhere for too long.

When you enter the Mists with the intent of reaching a specific domain, you act as a Mist Talisman keyed to that domain, allowing you to arrive in the chosen region as long as the Darklords have not closed the borders.

When you take damage or fail a saving throw to avoid the Grappled or Restrained condition, you can take a reaction to teleport up to 15 feet to an unoccupied space you can see. You can do this PB times per long rest.

If you finish a long rest, the wordl around you in a 10-mile radius starts to siphon the life from you. When you finish a short rest in that area, you make a Con save (DC 13+PB). On a failure, you don't benefit from the rest.

    I actually think this is not too bad: while you might be wary of this on a class that relies a lot on short rests (Fighter, Warlock, Monk) this doesn't affect Long Rests in any way. And while a 10-mile radius will cover a pretty wide swath of many domains, some are far larger, so you might not even have too much trouble as long as your party is on the move.

    Second Skin:

There is a second form you take on - whether a ghastly beast, terrifying avenger, or walking nightmare. (Wow, this is actually very good for a Barbarian concept I had).

You always have Alter Self prepared, and can cast it once per long rest for free. When you use your free use of the spell, it doesn't require concentration.

Certain circumstances can involuntarily trigger the change - you roll on the Change Catalys table to determine what it is. After seeing your catalyst, you make a Charisma save (DC 13+PB, you know the drill) and on a failure, you instantly cast Alter Self without a spell slot. If you've already expended that free use of it, you are instead Stunned until the start of your next turn.

Change Catalysts:

1: Seeing a particular phase of the moon.

2: Smelling the scent of a certain type of flower

3: Hearing temple bells ringing

4: Hearing a particular melody (shades of Father Gascoigne's music box?)

5: Touching pure silver with your bare skin

6: Seeing someone who resembles a specific individual

    Another route here to do the Werewolf thing, though it's pretty loose in flavor. I think DMs will need to be cautious about over-exposing them to their catalysts, though it might be exciting to have the party need to go somewhere where the catalyst is present - a field of roses somewhere in Sithicus, for example.

    Symbiotic Being:

A second being lives in your body, offering knowledge and assistance while pursuing its own agenda.

The symbiote cannot be targeted and if you or the symbiote dies, the other does as well. You gain proficiency in either Arcana, Deception, History, Intimidation, Insight, Investigation, Nature, Religion, Perception, or Persuasion. You also learn one additional language.

When you fail a saving throw, you can expend a hit die, and roll it and then add it to the saving throw, potentially making it succeed. You can do this PB times per long rest.

When you roll a nat 1, the Symbiote attempts to take control of your body. Make a Charisma saving throw (DC 13+PB). On a failure, you're charmed for 1d12 hours, and must obey the Symbiote's commands and further its goals, as determined by the DM. When you take damage, you can repeat the save and end the condition on a success.

At the DM's discretion, if you act against the symbiote's agenda, you might have to make the saving throw anyway.

    That last bit is a big lever to give to DMs. As a DM, try to make the agenda not necessarily clash with the party's goals, at least not all the time. An affable (even if sinister) symbiote I think makes for a better story.

    Touch of Death:

You learn Chill Touch, can cast it without spell components, and the necrotic damage it deals ignores resistance.

You also have disadvantage on Death saving throws.

    I hate this one. It's almost strictly worse than Magic Initiate: Wizard. It's a dangerous downside with very little upside. And worst of all, it's boring.

    Watchers:

Something is always watching you, taking the form of eerie creatures and vermin.

You always have Beast Sense and Speak with Animals prepared, and can cast each for free once per Long Rest.

When you take the Search action (aka most Wisdom checks, except I think Animal Handling, which is Influence) you can add a d4 to the ability roll.

You have disadvantage on saving throws against the Scrying spell, and when you roll a nat 1, you must make a Wisdom saving throw as paranoia overwhelms you (DC 13+PB). On a failure, you have disadvantage on all d20 tests for a minute, but you can repeat this save on the end of each of your turns, ending it early on a success.

    I think this is a real flavor win. And it's fun on a high-wisdom character. Paranoia is such a potent theme in horror, and I think leaning into that (and also letting the DM narrate weird watchers like the Staring Cats of Ulun-Dar is super fun).

Overall Thoughts:

I like the Dark Gifts, and I think making them alternate Origin Feats gives them a mechnical identity that really makes it easy to slot them into your character. I'd highly recommend that if you run a Ravenloft campaign, you should encourage people to take these at character creation. Most are actually pretty potent (too bad Touch of Death sucks).

It's a bummer that none of the four backgrounds work with Strength. Again, I think that backgrounds (even with their fantastic art) are the biggest weakness in 5.5, and one that you're always basically going to want to customize out of, which makes it less exciting to get new ones. If it were just starting equipment, skills, and origin feats, I think it'd be far better.

I think our next big look will be at monsters - probably a broader overview rather than a deep dive on every single one.