Undead Patron Warlock (Horrors Within)

 This is one of my favorite subclasses. An undead warlock patron has always felt like a no-brainer, and after the really underwhelming Undying patron from SCAG (which wasn't even necessarily undead) the true, full Undead patron that we got in Van Richten's became one of my favorite Warlock subclasses instantly.

Warlock subclasses got one major change in 5.5, giving them all of the spells associated with their subclass rather than merely expanding their options. Notably, this does also mean that sometimes your Patron spells will be spells you could have taken anyway.

Many a Darklord could serve quite well as an Undead patron, from Strahd to Azalin to Lord Soth. So, it's very much a good choice for Ravenloft, but I think it works in basically any D&D setting quite well.

Let's get into it:

Undead Spells:

1st: Bane, Rack of Sickness

2nd: Blindness/Deafness, Phantasmal Force

3rd: Speak with Dead, Summon Undead

4th: Greater Invisibility, Phantasmal Killer

5th: Antilife Shell, Cloudkill

    Naturally, Warlocks need to use spells that scale well if they're natively 1st-to-4th level. Greater Invisibilty sadly doesn't upcast. Summon Undead is probably the go-to concentration spell for us (having used it a lot on my Wizard, the 5.5 update for it has made the Ghostly and Putrid options quite powerful, as long as foes aren't immune to fear or poison, respectively).

Level 3:

Form of Dread:

As a bonus action, you can beocme an avatar of your patron, gaining the following benefits for 1 minute or until you are incapacitated or end the form voluntarily. You can do this Cha times per long ret. The benefits are:

Facsimile of Life: You gain temp HP equal to 1d10 plus your Warlock level.

Fearless Form: You have immunity to the Frightened condition and end it if you are frightened when you activate the form.

Frightful Avatar: Once per turn, when you hit a creature with an attack, you can force them to make a Wisdom saving throw or be frightened until the end of your next turn.

    I think this is totally unchanged (maybe it was PB times per Long Rest in Van Richten's) but it's a solid option that should be available most combat unless you're in a real grueling dungeon-crawling campaign.

Level 6:

Grave Touched:

You get the following:

Arcane Necrosis causes Necrotic damage you deal to ignore resistance. Also, once per turn, if you cast a spell that deals damage, you can make that spell's damage Necrotic.

    Once again, I think this is unchanged. Given that Warlocks have Force as their main damage type, this on its own isn't going to often be much of a benefit. Also, I think very few monsters have resistance rather than full immunity to Necrotic.

Dreaded Necrosis allows you, when you hit with an attack that deals Necrotic damage while  you're using your Form of Dread, you can roll one additional damage die once per turn.

    As a reminder, the new Pact of the Blade allows your Pact Weapon to deal Necrotic, Psychic, or Radiant. So this should work for Bladelocks as well. This is the main reason to use Arcane Necrosis, even on a reliable spell like Eldritch Blast, unless you're fighting ghosts or something. Basically, turn one of those hits into a crit.

Undead Endurance prevents you from gaining exhaustion from dehydration, malnutrition, or suffocation, and you don't need to sleep and can't be magically put to sleep.

    So, no worries about food or drink, and you don't have to breathe. Depending on the campaign, this might not come up or it could be quite helpful. (Notably, I made a Reborn Undead Warlock for a very brief West Marches campaign, and so there's a little redundancy there).

Level 10:

Necrotic Husk:

You get the following:

Necrotic Resilience gives you resistance to Necrotic damage, and this becomes full immunity if you're in your Form of Dread.

Unholy Resuscitation allows you to cause an explosion of deathly energy if you drop to 0 HP. Each creature in a 30-foot emanation of your choice makes a Con save, taking 2d10+Cha necrotic damage on a failure or half on a success, and then your HP becomes twice your Warlock level and you gain 1 level of Exhaustion. You can use this once per short or long rest.

    Couple things: first off, you can use this far more frequently than before. The old version required you to finish 1d4 long rests, one of the rare features that didn't necessarily come back the next day. That's a buff. The potential very subtle nerf is that it doesn't say if you "would" go to 0 HP. Instead, it's if you do, then these things happen. Thus, technically, in a strict reading, you do momentarily go unconscious, which means that you'd drop concentration and Form of Dread if that happened.

    As a DM, I'd probably rule that this should work like other features that allow you to avoid going down, but it's a weird little wrinkle in there.

Level 14:

Superior Dread:

Your Form of Dread is improved in the following ways:

Dread Resistance gives you resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage.

Ghostly Flight gives you a fly speed equal to your speed (and you can hover). You can also move through creatures and objects as if they were difficult terrain, taking 1d10 force damage if you end your turn inside one (is that here in, like, all of these Horrors Within subclasses?)

Profane Casting lets you cast Conjuration and Necromancy Warlock spells without any spell components unless there are costly or consumed ones.

    This is the only really huge change to the old version, replacing Spirit Projection. The old feature required you to park your physical body somewhere out of the way while you spirit gained these benefits. This is more elegant, but not as funky. It also lasts shorter, as the old Spirit Projection lasted an hour.

    But, this is probably better, as you're probably using Form of Dread anyway, and the old version of this could only be used once per long rest.

Overall Thoughts:

Up until level 14, this feels very much like a slight tune-up and update rather than a significant redesign, and honestly, even Superior Dread is largely just refining the existing feature.

But that's fine, because Undead Warlocks were already a solid subclass. Given how Warlock subclasses have changed in 5.5, I'm happy to have a revision for this one - I'd honestly thought it would have been a good choice for the Player's Handbook.

Anyway, that brings us to the end of the Horrors Within subclass review. I'm going to look at some other things, like Species, Dark Gifts, and probably go over a few of the monsters as well.

Shadow Sorcery (Horrors Within)

 While the Aberrant sorcerer has given it some competition, the Shadow Sorcerer is the OG spooky guy. (Fun fact, both of the subclasses used by Laudna in Campaign 3 of Critical Role are revised in this book).

There are some significant tweaks here from the version found in Xanathar's, but a cursory look makes them largely seem like an improvement. So, let's take a look.

Shadow Spells:

1: Bane, Inflict Wounds

2: Darkness, Pass Without Trace

3: Hunger of Hadar, Nondetection

4: Greater Invisibility, Phantasmal Killer

5: Contagion, Creation

    There are some useful spells here, but a few that aren't great - Inflict Wounds is not as good as it used to be as it's now a Con save rather than an attack (especially given Sorcerers love making spell attacks now). Notably, we will get another spell with this subclass, but it'll work differently.

Level 3:

Power of Shadow:

You gain the following:

You have Darkvision out to 120 feet and Blindsight out to 10 feet. If you cast a spell that creates an area of Darkness (like Darkness or I think Hunger of Hadar) you can see normally through the spell's darkness.

    The blindsight is new and the old version allowed you to see through the Darkness spell only, and only if you cast it using 2 Sorcery points. So, yeah, this is a buff through and through - except in the rare, rare cases where you don't have 2nd level spell slots to spare but you do have 2 SP to spend.

Strength of the Grave lets you make a Charisma saving throw if you would drop to 0 HP, the DC being 5 plus the damage taken. On a success, your HP becomes a number equal to your Charisma modifier plus your Sorcerer level. After you succeed on this save, you can't use this until you finish a long rest.

    Sorcerers be squishy, and this makes you more resilient, though at higher levels those DCs are going to start potentially being far too high to beat, like if you take a Dragon's breath or something. Notably, the old version of this didn't work if you got hit with radiant damage or a critical hit, so it's for sure a buff.

Level 6:

Beasts of Ill Omen:

You can spend 3 Sorcery points to cast Summon Beast as a bonus action and without expending a spell slot and without needing material components. The summoned creature appears as a beast made of shadow, and enemies within 5 feet of it have disadvantage on saving throws against spells you cast. When you cast the spell, you can modify it to not require concentration, but this reduces its duration to 1 minute and ends early if you cast the spell again.

    Ah! They wised up and closed the "well, I'll just keep summoning them" strategy like the Great Old One Warlock can with Summon Aberration. This is very much the equivalent of the old Hound of Ill Omen, but a pretty major overhaul.

    Notably, we don't actually have Summon Beast prepared, so we can't just spend a spell slot to upcast it at some high, good-scaling level. We're also going to have to spend the equivalent of a 3rd level spell slot worth of SP to cast it but only get it at its base 2nd level. That said, the beast will at least have attack scaling with our spell attack bonus, compared to the old version's flat +5 to hit.

    Now, there's a fiddly thing here regarding combat sequence: Summoned creatures from spells like this act on our initiative, but immediately after our turn. Thus, technically speaking, we can't summon, say, an Air beast (a Raven, naturally) and fly them in with 30 feet of fly speed, then cast our spell on the targets, and then fly it out with its remaining 30 feet and avoid opp attacks thanks to Flyby. I think a reasonably generous DM would allow this, but it'd also be reasonable to be a stickler here.

    Also of note, the Beast will have fewer HP than the Dire Wolf we got with the old version (especially because the Dire Wolf also got some bonus Temp HP). So, it's a bit more fragile if the monsters decide to target your beast.

    Sorcerers are a little less focused on concentration spells, but the option to go concentration-free is certainly a good thing to have.

Level 14:

Shadow Walk:

While in dim light or darkness, you can take a bonus action to teleport up to 120 feet to an unoccupied space that's also in dim light or darkness.

    This is unchanged. It's situational, but hopefully (especially if you're in Ravenloft) there will be lots of darkness to use. We can, of course, also cast Darkness to give ourselves at least one end of the teleport.

Level 18:

Umbral Form:

When you use Innate Sorcery, you can adopt a shadowy form to gain additional benefits while it's active. You can use htis feature once per long rest, or expend 6 Sorcery points to restore a use of it. The benefits are:

Incorporeal Movement, allowing you to move through creatures and objects as if they were difficult terrain, taking 1d10 force damage if you end your turn within a creature or object.

Shadow Resilience, which gives you resistance to all damage except force or radiant.

    Couple changes here: first, that it ties into Innate Sorcery, which wasn't a think in 5.0. Second, you get a free use of it, which is actually great. Also, the old version would end if you got incapacitated. Lastly, insanely subtle difference - the old version did a flat 5 force damage to you if you stopped inside an object, rather than 1d10.

    Naturally, the damage resistance is going to be the biggest thing, and is welcome at any level. And again, a free use is very nice.

Overall Thoughts:

Sorcerers are pretty well-off as a class anyway, and I think that this subclass gives us a nice update to the previous version. I'd totally play this.

Phantom Rogue (Horrors Within)

 Rogues have always been one of the more inherently "dark" classes, despite not (at least at base) having magical capabilities. The Phantom's primary subclass feature allows you to deal a little extra damage to secondary targets, which not only helps with the Rogue's actually slightly low damage output (which you might not realize is even an issue for them unless you do a lot of complicated math) but also gives you some "cleave" that martial classes rarely get.

The Phantom is also dripping with flavor, especially when you start collecting trinkets from dead foes.

Now, I've heard that people felt the subclass wasn't buffed as much as it should have been. Also, after a cursory glance at it, I'm not even sure what they changed, so let's go in and compare and contrast and see how we think of the Phantom now.

Level 3:

Wails from the Grave:

When you deal Sneak Attack damage to a creature on your turn, you can target a second creature you can see within 30 feet of the first creature. Roll half your Sneak Attack dice (rounded up) and the secondary creature takes Necrotic damage equal to the roll. You can use this Dex times per long rest.

    Two subtle changes: First, you can only use this on your turn, while the other allowed you to get it on a reaction attack. Given its limited uses, I don't know that that's a huge issue, but it might be bigger later on. The other, even subtler one, is that it used to use your PB rather than Dex modifier. This means more uses early on, but fewer uses in tier 4. That trade is probably worth it. It is only about 3 uses per day, and the damage isn't massive - it caps out at 5d6, which is decent but not huge at level 19. In a tier 1-2 campaign, we're talking never more than about 10 damage.

Whispers of the Dead:

When you finish a short or long rest, you can choose one skill or tool proficiency you lack and gain it, losing it when you use this to gain a different one.

    Flexible proficiency is certainly useful, especially on a Rogue. I suspect most often this will just linger on the same option most of the time. But this is, I think, brand-new, so it's nice to have. Just gotta figure out which skill you're likely to need.

Level 9:

Tokens of the Departed:

You gain two Soul Trinkets (tiny objects that might have a randomly determined appearance/form) that will always linger within 30 feet of you. They grant the following:

Death's Knell: When you deal Sneak Attack damage on your turn, you can destroy one of your soul trinkets to use Wails of the Grave without expending a use of it.

Life Essence: While you have at least one soul trinket, you have advantage on Death and Constitution saving throws.

Spirit Query: You can take a magic action to destroy one soul trinket and cast Augury without spell components and using Con as your spellcasting ability. If you know the creature that the trinket was associated with, you can ask the creature's spirit one question instead of casting the spell. In this case, the spirit appears to you and answers concisely as possible in a language it knew in life.

When a creature you can see within 30 feet of you dies, you can use a reaction to gain another Soul Trinket. You can have a maximum of two trinkets at a time, and this maximum goes to 3 at level 13 and 4 at level 17.

When you finish a long rest and have fewer than 2 trinkets, you gain them until you have 2.

    So, this is a really important mechanic, primarily to let you use Wails of the Grave more often. For that reason, I really wish that you got this at level 3. This is honestly just a problem with Rogues overall (something I really wish they'd fixed in 5.5,) which is that subclasses have to wait an insane time to get their second subclass features. Couple changes here: first, the old version didn't let you cast Augury, which is a pretty nice spell to have (basically to ask the DM "is what I'm about to do a bad idea?") But the nerf here is that you can carry fewer trinkets. It's not always easy to do, but Rogues generally like to have their reaction ready for some kind of opportunity attack, or for Uncanny Dodge, and while I don't think you're going to need to use this every turn, I also wish that it didn't take your reaction to get a soul trinket.

    Ah, one detail I initially missed is that the old version didn't give you any "free" soul trinkets until you hit level 17 (and then only 1 per long rest). So this is nice.

Voice of Death:

You can cast Speak with Dead without a spell slot, and requiring no spell components, using Dexterity as your spellcasitng modifier (why does Augury use Con? Also, in what way does a spell without a DC or attack even need a modifier?) You can do this once per short or long rest. Also, when you cast the spell, you can target one of your soul trinkets instead of a corpse, speaking with the spirit of the creature it's from.

    This is new, and is some pretty cool and flavorful utility. I do think this will mean you're going to have to track where you got your trinkets, and DMs will have to figure out if there's anything interesting that that random Werewolf #3 knew. But it's certainly in-flavor for you to be able to interrogate the dead.

Level 13:

Ghost Walk:

As a bonus action, you can take on a spectral form for 10 minutes or until you end it. You can do this once per long rest, or can destroy a soul trinket to restore its use. While transformed, you get a fly speed of 10 feet and can hover, attack rolls have disadvantage against you, and you can pass through creatures and objects as if they were difficult terrain (taking 1d10 force damage if you end your turn within an object).

    Very subtle change, but it is a buff: you used to have to use a bonus action to end this (though there's no real detriment to using all 10 minutes). The fly speed can be useful, but probably won't see much use in combat. Still, this is a nice thing to have, and pretty flavorful.

Level 17:

Death's Friend:

You get the following:

Death's Lament: When you use Wails of the Grave, the primary target also takes the Necrotic damage.

    This is the same as before. I wish you had the option to burn this even if a secondary target wasn't in sight, which wouldn't deal as much overall damage but would make the feature usable in a solo-monster boss fight. Alas.

Draw of Death: When you roll initiative, you gain a soul trinket if you have none remaining.

    This replaces something that was incorporated into the Tokens of the Departed, but it means that you'll always be able to use at least one use of Wails of the Grave per combat, which is nice. Oddly, I actually think you're better off burning soul trinkets before using your "free" uses of the feature in order to benefit from this.

Overall Thoughts:

So, I always liked the Phantom, even if I was drawn more to the Soulknife when Tasha's came out. This does have a lot of fun utility, and I think that the revision here is definitely a buff, even if some wish that it would have been buffed farther.

The added spells here are nice: Speak with Dead is certainly situational, but can be very helpful. For DMs, I'd say make sure that you're giving the Phantom plenty of fights with multiple foes, both so that they can make use of their extra damage and also recharge their Soul Trinkets.

Hollow Warden Ranger

 Ok, so we touched on this in a recent "vs. Death Knight" post, so some of this will be familiar, but I'm going to really be focusing on analyzing the power and design of the subclass.

Rangers didn't really get the love that they ought to have gotten in the 2024 PHB, with a weird emphasis (actually not present in the 2014 Ranger) on Hunter's Mark, a spell that's great in early levels but doesn't scale in a fun and exciting way and also prevents you from using more interesting, higher-level spells (seriously, so many Ranger spells are concentration).

All that being said, the Ranger still has limited spellcasting capabilities, and that does give it a bit of an edge, even if that spellcasting feature feels hamstrung in a way that it isn't for Paladins or Artificers.

But lo and behold, I think the Hollow Warden is almost surely the new best Ranger subclass - though it will only really get that distinction if you're willing to mix it up in melee (hey, why else would they have a D10 hit die?)

Flavor-wise, the Hollow Warden is meant to be the extra dirty stalker of the wilderness, with something of a cryptid vibe to it. (We don't have any Domains of Dread that have that Pacific Northwest feel, sadly, but it feels like something you could do).

Hollow Warden Spells:

1st: Wrathful Smite

2nd: Alter Self

3rd: Phantom Steed

4th: Dominate Beast

5th: Steel Wind Strike

    Some solids options and some less exciting ones. Phantom Steed will help with traversal, but it's not terribly reliable in combat because the mount has effectively 1 HP (though you don't fall off it if it's destroyed). Wrathful Smite and Steel Wind Strike are good (though as a half-caster, Steel Wind Strike might not be as exciting at level 17). Alter Self is situational. Dominate Beast I think is probably going to be far better for out-of-combat situations, as you're almost certainly not fighting Beasts mid tier 3.

Level 3:

Wrath of the Wild:

As a bonus action, you can expend a use of Favored Enemy (which normally gives you free casts of Hunter's Mark, starting with 2 uses and eventually getting up to 6, basically scaling with your PB if you don't multiclass) to take on a monstrous form, like growing bloody antlers, twisted shadows, etc. The transformation lasts 1 minute or until you're incapacitated or die, or end it voluntarily. While transformed:

Ancient Armor: You gain a +1 bonus to your AC (and then +2 at level 11 or higher).

Prowling Retribution: When a creature within 5 feet of you deals damage to you or one of your allies, you can make an Opportunity Attack against them.

Unnerving Aura: When you transform and at the start of each of your turns, creatures of your choice within 10 feet must make a Wisdom saving throw or become frightened until the start of your next turn.

    These are all great, but I think Prowling Retribution is the really amazing thing here. Indeed, it might incentivize you to go with a heavier weapon, even going Strength for something like a Glaive or Greatsword, though I believe the math still probably favors dual-wielding (and thus you might as well go Dex with finesse weapons). This also actually winds up improving the value of Hunter's Mark, though you'll need to cast that on a subsequent turn. The only downside here is that you might have more fights in a day than you can use this feature (and a fight with lots of stunning enemies could waste that use as well). Let's also not forget the Fear effect, which is very good.

Level 7:

Hungering Might:

You gain a bonus to Con saves equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum of +1)

Also, once per turn when you a creature with an attack while transformed, you can regain HP equal to 1d10+Wis if you are bloodied when you hit.

    Both solid - the first part lets you focus more on boosting your Wisdom. Naturally, due to the requirement that you be bloodied to get the healing here, you're going to try to ensure you can't use this very often.

Level 11:

Rot and Violence:

This gives you the following while you're transformed with Wrath of the Wild:

Menacing Aura makes it so that creatures that have failed their save against your Unnerving Aura can't regain HP or take reactions until the start of your next turn.

    Fewer monsters these days regain HP, but the no reactions thing is nice.

Strangling Roots lets you activate the Sap or Slow mastery in addition to the normal mastery of the weapon you're using.

    Sap is going to make this melee-focused Ranger a bit more resilient, which is great, and doesn't sacrifice the normal necessities like Nick.

Level 15:

Ancient Might gives you two features:

Ominous Strikes lets you add your Wisdom modifier to the damage of attacks you hit with against Frightened creatures.

    Notably, this is not limited to once per turn, and even if we didn't get them with Unnerving Aura, we can do a Wrathful Smite for another chance at getting this bonus damage. If we're dual-wielding with the dual-wielder feat, we could potentially be making as many as 5 attacks per round (including the frequent opportunity attacks). Sucks if our foes are immune to fear, but this could add up quite a bit. Also, note that unlike earlier features, this doesn't require that we be transformed, nor does the target need to be frightened of us (if an ally has imposed the condition on them, that also works).

Persistent Wrath does require Wrath of the Wild, but if you're reduced to 0 HP while it's active, you can instead change your HP to twice your Ranger level. Once you use this, you can't do so again until you finish a long rest or expend a 4th or higher level spell slot.

    So, at this level it's a 4th level spell slot for an emergency 30 HP heal. A 4th level Cure Wounds with +5 to Wisdom would be 41. I think that's well worth it - I mean, you'd for sure rather expend a 4th level spell slot than go down (and, notably, lose Wrath of the Wild).

Timeless gives you full immunity to the Exhaustion condition.

    No qualifiers here - no matter what happens to you, you cannot get Exhaustion. And that's becoming a more common thing with monsters in 5.5. Pretty good.

Overall Thoughts:

This is probably the best subclass for Rangers now. But despite that, I have one little tweak I wish they'd make: I wish we could expend a spell slot to get more uses of Wrath of the Wild. Until level 5, we only have two uses a day, and while you also often don't have more than two combat encounters a day in tier 1, you're also far more likely to get knocked out at those levels, which means losing it mid combat.

Turning Favored Enemy into a resource that can go to other things, much as Druids do with Wild Shape, is actually a great new design space to work in for the class. I only wish, then, that you got one use back on a short rest, the way that comparable features like Wild Shape, Channel Divinity, and even Rage work now.

But yeah, while I think this subclass does have to pull more than its fair share of weight because of the flaws with the Ranger, there are some really amazing elements to the subclass that could make for a very cool and capable character.

Control Resonant Story Trailer and Release Date

 Well, it ain't coming out before my birthday (which is on Monday, and it's a Big One) but we have a release date and we got a new trailer for Control Resonant.

The date: September 24th. The trailer, well, here:

Big takeaways:

First off, it looks like they're not going to be coy about us finding Jesse. The Faden siblings seem to team up at some point, and if we're getting it in a trailer, I assume it's at most halfway through the game's story. Honestly, after the hell that Jesse went through in the first game only to get the weird Hiss-corrupted Dylan and then Dylan in a coma, getting to see the two of them seemingly with their right minds together is nice.

Dylan's role at the FBC is, of course, going to be an interesting one: we see someone (is it Arish?) who seems none too happy about working with Dylan, claiming he's not even human, and it looks like Dylan's been fitted with some kind of control device (maybe even an explosive to kill him if he turns on them?)

But surely the most welcome and wonderful thing the trailer gives us is more Dr. Darling videos, which were truly such a highlight of the first game.

We're nearly four months out, but you can be sure I'm going to be going hard into this game the moment it's available.

Grave Domain Cleric (Horrors Within)

 Another subclass I'm intimately familiar with - one of my consistent players in my 6-year Ravnica campaign is a Grave Cleric and former member of the Orzhov Syndicate.

I've actually seen a lot of Grave Clerics, from Caduceus in Campaign Two of Critical Role to multiple home games. It was a very solid subclass out of Xanathar's. I know there are some big changes here, but are the buffs, nerfs, or sidegrades?

Domain Spells:

Cantrip: Spare the Dying

1st: Detect Evil and Good, False Life

2nd: Gentle Repose, Ray of Enfeeblement

3rd: Revivify, Vampiric Touch

4th: Blight, Death Ward

5th: Dispel Evil and Good, Raise Dead

    Ok, so, they lose Bane and gain Detect Evil and Good (which I suspect also means they lost Eyes of the Grave). Also, they lose Antilife Shell and gain Dispel Evil and Good. I don't think I've seen my player ever cast Antilife Shell, but I suspect that they'd lament losing Bane, especially to replace it with a spell that they kind of already got anyway with Eyes of the Grave.

Level 3:

Circle of Mortality:

You get two benefits.

Pull of Death lets you add a d4 of Necrotic damage once per turn to damage you deal to a creature that's missing any HP via a spell or an attack roll. The damage goes up to 1d6 when you hit level 11.

    It's not much, but given that this stacks up with Divine Strikes/Potent Cantrips, it's a something. And that "missing any HP" qualifier is most of the time - a spell like Toll the Dead almost always gets its higher damage mode.

Return to Life lets you cast Spare the Dying with a bonus action.

Additionally, if you would roll one or more dice to heal a creature with 0 HP via a spell or Channel Divinity, you don't roll and instead just take the maximum.

    This is basically the same as before, except that it doesn't increase the range of Spare the Dying because that's now baked into the spell. Admittedly, at lower levels, this is a slight nerf because it's only a 15-foot range at tier 1, but thereafter it's functionally identical.

Path to the Grave:

As a bonus action, you present your holy symbol and use Channel Divinity to curse one creature you can see within 30 feet of you until the start of your next turn. While cursed, the creature has Disadvantage on attack rolls and saving throws.

When you or an ally hits the creature with an attack, you can end the curse early (no action required) to make the attack deal extra Necrotic or Radiant damage (your choice) equal to your Cleric level.

    So, a lot to unpack: The old version made the target Vulnerable to all damage of the next attack that hit it, but took an action. So, it's a very different feature overall. The new one realistically allows you to gain the damage benefit.

    But also, the benefit is a flat amount of damage, so no matter if the Monk hits for just one of their attacks or the Paladin lands an insane crit-smite, the damage this feature will deal will be 3-20 damage, depending on your level. The insane burst potential that you can get with this has for sure been nerfed. But A: that seems to be a design goal for 5.5E and B: there are other pretty solid benefits that this gives you.

    For sure, for pure damage potential, this is a nerf. But I'm tempted to say that overall it's a sidegrade.

Level 6:

Sentinel at Death's Door:

When you or a bloodied creature you can see within 60 feet of yourself is hit with an attack roll, you can take a reaction to halve that attack's damage (round down). Also, if the triggering attack was a critical hit, it now just counts as a regular hit. You can use this Wis dimes per long rest.

    Again, one quite big buff and one significant... limitation. Notably, you can use this on yourself any time, but to use it on a friend, they need to be bloodied. That said, if you figure the old version of just cancelling a crit more or less halved the damage that the attack did, this lets you do that on far more attacks. And then, effectively, you're quartering the damage that a crit would do.

    This is a feature that will run out if the DM is rolling well. The bloodied restriction, in a sense, forces you to conserve it until you really need to use it. Once again, I think there are arguments for this being a buff and some for its being a nerf, but I think overall it's probably a buff, even if it might not feel as good when you can't cancel the crit on the first round of combat.

Level 17:

Divine Reaper:

You get two benefits:

Enhanced Necromancy lets you expend a use of Channel Divinity when you cast a Necromancy spell of 5th level or lower that targets one creature, or a spell from the Grave Domain spells table a secondary creature in range. (You still need to expend material components for each target if it requires costly or consumed components).

    So, this is actually from the Death Cleric - which does have a lot of thematic overlap with the Grave Cleric (even if they're also kind of opposite numbers). Naturally, a lot of spells that fit this, like resurrection magic, will still consume lots of components, but even if I think Blight is underpowered, hitting two targets with it is certainly better.

Keeper of Souls allows you to heal yourself or a creature you can see within 60 feet of yourself when an enemy dies within 60 feet of you. The healing is equal to twice your Cleric Level (so 34 when you get this). You can't use this if you're incapacitated. Also, you can use it once per short or long rest, unless you expend a 6th or higher level spell slot to restore your use.

    The old version had no limitation in use except that it happened only once per round (and, like this, doesn't take any action on your part) but the healing was the number of hit dice that the monster had. That actually winds up rarely being all that many. Like, an Ancient Red Dragon only has 26 hit dice. But, it's also totally free to use as much as you like. This is a beefier heal, but it's a serious resource to expend if you want to use it again (though coming back on a short rest is pretty generous).

Overall Thoughts:

    This subclass got a pretty thorough reworking. I suspect that those who were already familiar with and fond of the Xanathar's Grave Cleric will probably feel some ambivalence and even reluctance to embrace this version. But I think if this were brand new, it'd probably be pretty well-received. I truly don't think we can call this a nerf to the subclass, but it's certainly different than it was.

College of Spirits Bard (Horrors Within)

 One of two reprints from Van Richten's, I always loved the idea of the College of Spirits Bard, but I also know that some felt that the subclass missed the mark a bit because of how costly the central Spirits from Beyond feature was.

I think (I think) that they fixed it.

Let's get into it:

Level 3:

Channeler:

Ok, first things first, you get Guidance, which gains a range of 60 feet when you cast it.

    Good cantrip, more flexible. No complaints.

You gain a set of Playing Cards, and gain proficiency with them, and you can use it or various other objecs as a spell focus (crystals, orbs, candles, ink pens).

    Pure flavor. Well, ok, if your campaign has a lot of gambling, sure, this technically gives you a benefit.

Spirits from Beyond:

When you take a bonus action to grant a creature Bardic Inspiration, you also call forth a random spirit, determined by rolling a BI die and referring to the Spirits from Beyond table. Thereafter, the spirit lingers with you until you unleash it or finish a short or long rest.

You can also use Controlled Channeling - expending a BI die as a bonus action to choose a specific spirit from the table, though only from those on the table your current BI die can roll.

As a Magic action, youc an unleash one of your channeled spirits, picking a target within 30 feet for the spirit's effect. If a save is involved, you use your Bard spell save DC.

    So: the big difference here is that you can now both grant Bardic Inspiration to allies and get a random spirit. The old version was an either/or, but now you'll be getting these spirits automatically while you're doing what Bards usually do. That is a big improvement. And, if you really need the specific functionality of a particular spirit, you can grab that at the cost of giving your ally Bardic Inspiration.

Now, buckle up: here are the spirits:

1: Beloved: Heals the target for a roll of your BI die plus your Charisma modifier.

2: Sharpshooter: The target takes Force damage equal to your BI die plus Cha (should we just call it 1dB?)

3: Avenger: Until your next turn, any creature that hits the target with a melee attack takes 1dB Force damage.

4: Renegade: The target can immediately take a reaction to teleport up to 30 feet to an unoccupied space it can see.

5: Fortune Teller: the target has advantage on D20 Tests until the start of your next turn.

6: Wayfarer: The target gains Temp HP equal to 1dB plus your Bad level, and while it has these Temp HP, their speed is increased by 10 feet.

7: Trickster: The target makes a Wis save, taking 2dB psychic damage and becoming Charmed until the start of your next turn. On a successful save, they take half damage only.

8: Shade: The target becomes invisible until the start of its next turn or until they make an attack roll, deal damage, or cast a spell. When the invisibility ends, each creature in a 5-foot emanation originating from the target must make a Con save or take necrotic damage equal to 2dB.

9: Arsonist: The target makes a Dex save, taking fire damage equal to 4dB on a failure or half as much on a success.

10: Coward: The target and each creature of your choice in a 30-foot emanation from the target must make a Wis save or beocme frightened until the start of your next turn. While frightened, their speed is halved (round down) and they can take either an action or bonus action, not both.

11: Brute: Each creature of your choice in a 30-foot emanation from the target makes a Strength save. On a failure, they take 3dB thunder damage and are prone. On a success, half damage only.

12: Priest: The target rgains HP equal to 2dB and one of the following conditions on them ends: Blinded, Charmed, Deafened, Paralyzed, Poisoned, or Stunned.

    I decided not to go one-by-one with the old list, but again, I think it's pretty huge that these are going to be available any time you're using the conventional use of Bardic Inspiration, which means this feature is going to see tons of use all the time.

Level 6:

Empowered Channeling gives you two benefits:

Power from Beyond lets you gain a bonus once per turn to the damage or healing of a Bard spell when you expend a spell slot. You roll 1d6 and add it to one of the spell's damage rolls or the total healing done.

    I think the best value you'll get for this is going to be an AoE damage spell. If it's the total healing done, then I don't think it will replicate across something like Mass Healing Word. It's not nothing, but it's not a lot either.

Spiritual Manifestation gives you Spirit Guardians, and lets you cast it once for free per long rest (that free casting of course not benefiting from Power from Beyond, but subsequent casts should do fine).

Furthermore, once per short or long rest, you can modify Spirit Guardians to now grant you and your allies Half Cover while within the emanation.

    So, Spirit Guardians is among the best Cleric damage spells, and this is both on-theme and also quite good. Naturally, we could pick this up at higher levels with Magical Secrets, but getting it for free means we can focus on picking up other powerful spells. (I was never really into Bards, but 5.5 has made me think maybe I should be?)

Level 14:

Mystical Connection:

When you roll on the Spirits from Beyond table, you can roll the die twice and choose which of the effects to bestow. If both dice roll the same number, you can just choose any effect on the table.

    Subtle thing here: I think that this technically gives you access to the Brute and Priest options one level early, if you get the 10% chance of rolling the same on two d10s. Interestingly, this actually gets slightly nerfed when we upgrade to a d12 die. This is far from a mind-blowing feature, and arguably a little underwhelming as a subclass capstone, but it's still good to have.

Overall Thoughts:

Really I think that the one little change to Spirits from Beyond has done a lot to make this subclass work better. Again, it's probably not the best Bard subclass, but I don't think the thing's broken, and I think it could be a very fun and flavorful choice.