Horrors Within Species Review

 Horrors Within gives us revisions of the three Gothic Lineages from Van Richten's, and adds in the obvious missing option, the Werewolf-like Lupin.

Van Richten's presented these options with a likely scenario that you would actually transform into one of these mid-campaign, but this version treats them simply as their own stand-alone species.

Dhampir:

Dhampir are partial vampires, still-living daywalkers like Blade or Alucard from Castlevania. You might be descended from a vampire or have been only partially converted by a vampire bite.

As before, you get a 35 foot movement speed, 60 feet of Darkvision.

Likewise, as before, you get a climb speed and at level 3, this allows you to move on vertical and upside-down surfaces without your hands.

A new benefit is that you have resistance to Necrotic damage. However, you lose Ancestral Legacy (the thing that largely interacted with other species options or gave you two skill proficiencies if you didn't take anything from another species).

You also lose Deathless nature, so you have to breathe.

Vampiric Bite has been tweaked slightly. It now allows you to alter your Unarmed Strikes, rather than counting as a simple melee weapon (which does mean a nerf for Dhampir Monks). Otherwise, it appears the same, using Con for attacks and damage and dealing 1d4 piercing damage. Empowering the bite works the same, letting you, PB times per day, either heal for the piercing damage done or give yourself a bonus to the next ability check or attack roll you make in the next minute equal to the piercing damage dealt.

    Broadly, I think this is a slight nerf to the species, though it depends on whether you want more skills or would give that up for necrotic resistance.

Hexblood:

Hexbloods are Hag-like people infused with fey magic.

As before, you count as Fey. You also get Disguise Self and Hex, which you can cast each for free once per long rest, or with your spell slots.

Eerie Token works the same way.

Indeed, I think that this species is identical to the old one, except that it loses the Ancestral Legacy feature.

    So, we must consider this a nerf as well. Again, I don't think it's the end of the world, given that species don't add that much power to a character (or at least shouldn't) but it's weird that they get nothing to compensate the loss of Ancestral Legacy, while the Dhampir do.

Lupin:

The only brand-new species, Lupin are the result of a kind of botched werewolf infection. Stuck in a permanent hybrid form but retaining their own free will, Lupin give us that werewolf fantasy.

Lupin are humanoids with 30 feet of movement. They have Darkvision out to 60 feet.

Feral Pounce gives your unarmed strikes slashing damage rather than bludgeoning, and when you hit a creature with an unarmed strike, you can use the damage and shove options once per turn.

    So, that's actually part of the Grappler feat, which is nice.

Howl allows you, as a bonus action, to force creatures of your choice within 15 feet of you to make a Wisdom save (DC based on your Con) or have disadvantage on attack rolls and saving throws until the start of your next turn. You can do this PB times per long rest.

    That's actually pretty good - the range is wide enough to use this even on a squishy spellcaster, and while the DC is probably not as good as your class features, it can potentially hit a lot of targets.

Werewolf Instincts gives you your choice of Perception, Stealth, or Survival proficiency.

    Given how many skills all the other ones are losing, this is nice, and all three of these skills are somewhat useful, indeed two of them are quite good to have.

     Overall, I like the Lupin. The unarmed strike thing is unlikely to do much for you unless you're a Monk or, like, Dance Bard, though if you want to just get a little extra damage while grappling foes, that's also nice.

Reborn:

As before, you're Humanoid with a 30-foot speed (given all the changes to healing spells and even letting Turn Undead avoid friendly targets, I think they should have just ripped the bandaid off and let us play as Undead).

You have advantage on death saves, you don't get exhaustion from not eating, drinking, or breathing. You don't need to sleep an can finish a long rest by spending 4 hours in an inactive state, and magic can't put you to sleep.

You no longer get advantage on saves against being poisoned (or diseased, but that's not really a thing in 5.5) but you can now choose between Cold, Necrotic, and Poison resistance (previously you just got poison resistance).

Knowledge from a Past Life now grants you proficiency in one skill of your choice, and PB times per long rest, you can add a d6 to a failed ability check.

    So, the bonus skill is new, though given that Ancestral Legacy is gone, it's more of a net nerf. One slight buff here, though, is that you get to wait until you fail a check to use the bonus d6. The old version let you roll the d20 before deciding, but implied you didn't get to find out if that was a success or failure.

Overall Thoughts:

    I think one of the major criticisms for this book overall is that the ratio of new stuff compared to stuff we had in Van Richen's is low. I actually really like the Lupin here, but the other three species here (the Hexblood in particular, unless I'm missing something) are not only not changed by much, but mostly feel nerfed.

    There are some nice new things in the book, don't get me wrong. But again, the whole pitch of 5.5 was that it would be backwards-compatible, and I don't really see much of a reason to use the new versions of the Dhampir, Hexblood, or Reborn when I already have the Van Richten's versions.

    Again, Lupin is cool. And while I need to slap myself any time I feel tempted to play a Ranger, I must admit I think a Lupin Hollow Warden does sound kind of cool.