Is Tier 2 D&D 5E's Sweet Spot?

 What's your favorite level to play in Dungeons & Dragons?

Personally, in terms of long campaigns, I've never gotten higher than level 13 (finishing Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus in an Adventurer's League setting, though run by a personal friend (who introduced me to AL)). I have played one one-shot as a level 18 Artificer (which was as cool as I'd hoped - Armorer with an AC of 25. For some reason I get really excited about being nearly impossible to hit).

As a DM, outside of one-shots (which have included two at level 18) the two major campaigns I've run have had players get to level 9 in the original and then level 12 in my current one (the latter using Milestone leveling, which has been faster, though I think if I were better at encounter design, and perhaps had the Xanathar encounter building system available earlier, I'd have gotten them up faster in the old campaign.)

I think that tier 2 might be the best-polished level range in 5th edition.

Now, naturally, this is super subjective. Some people like the simplicity and high stakes of tier 1 (having no resurrection magic and few enough hit points that people can die from massive damage relatively easily) and I certainly feel a rush of power on a character that's at tier 3 or 4.

But to my mind, Tier 2 is when the game feels the most like what you want D&D to feel like, from both a DM's and a player's perspective. And I think it's telling that many of the published adventures - especially its most popular ones - tend to focus mostly on tier 2. Curse of Strahd only goes up to level 10, and Tomb of Annihilation just barely peaks into tier 3 in its last level.

Let's start, actually, from a DM's perspective. I'll be honest: I find running level 1 and 2 one-shots to be maybe the most stressful as a DM. The players have so few options and so few hit points, that a single crit could permanently kill a player character if the dice happen to roll a certain way. This also severely limits your options in terms of what kind of monsters you can use - you pretty much have to go with super low-CR monsters that are all somewhat indistinguishable - a single melee attack that does like 1d6+1 or +2 damage. If a player character dies in combat at these levels, it's not really because of any failed strategy, and it's not even likely to be because of a string of bad luck - things are precarious.

Going into tier 3, though, you start to run into a different problem: pretty soon, it's really hard to get your players to feel like they're in any real danger. The rate at which they can take down a monster with hundred of hit points becomes blindingly fast. You basically need to build encounters where the monsters have a major tactical advantage in order to pose a serious threat. This gets even crazier at tier 4, but the point stands.

From a player perspective, I'll confess that I'm always happy to feel more powerful. While I don't think a DM should consider their role to be the players' "opponent," (that'd be a big conflict of interest given that they're also the game's referee) the very fights where a DM feels like they perhaps didn't provide a difficult enough challenge are ones that, as a player, I might be really happy with for tactically outmaneuvering the monsters and taking them down precisely and efficiently.

So I'm not going to really get into tiers 3 and 4 being any worse for a player (I freaking love getting three attacks as a fighter, and I loved getting my third spell slot and third eldritch blast when my Warlock hit 11). But on the other side of things, the jump from level 4 to level 5 feels truly transformative. It might be cliche, but getting Fireball as a Wizard or Sorcerer suddenly makes you feel like you're doing the kinds of massive things you're supposed to as that class. And getting a second attack on any martial class/subclass (or a second Eldritch Blast) makes every turn feel significantly more substantial - there's nothing more frustrating than finally getting to your turn and then just missing on your single attack, and while it's also frustrating to miss twice, I think that somehow doesn't feel as bad, because it's a string of bad luck rather than a single instant of BS.

Tier 2 feels like a level in which resources are limited enough to make each expenditure feel like a major choice, but you also have enough health and spell slots that you can afford to go hard in a big fight without feeling necessarily like you're going to be running on empty for the rest of the day.

Naturally, this is all subjective, and I could imagine that some old-school experienced players might love the insane complexity of tier 4. Tier 3 is also fun because it's where people start to go beyond just "powerful adventurers" and into real superhero mode. And to be clear, I have fun with the game at any level.

But there is something special about tier 2.

Comparing Half-Martial Subclasses

 There are plenty of half- or third- casters in D&D - Paladins, Artificers, and Rangers all gain access to spellcasting, but they're stuck with lower-level spells, only ever getting up to 5th level (and those only by tier 4). Fighters and Rogues also each half a subclass that grants them spellcasting, but they get spells at an even lower rate than the aforementioned classes, capping out at 4th level spells and with a spell list that is mostly limited to a couple of schools of magic. Warlocks are the odd class that is, technically, a pure caster (and gets up to 9th level spells at the same rate that any Wizard or Cleric would) but generally has to rely more on cantrips (particularly one cantrip) in battle.

The thing is, most of these classes are fine being like this, because their main strength is their martial capability, which is more reliable and consistent than spells - my Eldritch Knight Fighter rarely casts spells other than Mirror Image and Shield, and can mostly just rely on his standard attacks (and Green Flame Blade or Booming Blade).

On the flip side, a Wizard has access to a profound amount of spellcasting, but they're typically not able to swing around a giant sword, and usually have to run away (or teleport away) if a creature gets into melee with them, as they're unlikely to survive the onslaught.

But there are some pure caster classes that aren't so fragile, and are actually built to enter the fray.

Now, before I begin, I'll note that some pure casters are actually built fairly well to step into combat anyway. Clerics tend to get pretty decent armor, and about half of their subclasses give them heavy armor and martial weapons, along with bonus damage on their melee attacks - despite being full casters meant to mostly cast spells, they are capable of wading into melee and surviving decently. Druids also have a bit of this as well, as they can technically wear medium armor (as long as it's not made of metal) and shields, and a cantrip like Shillelagh even allows them eschew strength and dex and still hit plenty hard with a big old stick.

But I'm going to focus primarily of five subclasses that turn classes that are generally meant to hang out at the back into those that can mix it up on the front lines. We're going to talk Valor and Sword bards, Moon Druids, Hexblade Warlocks, and Bladesinger Wizards.

Let's start with the Bards.

The broad concept for Bards is that they are meant to be Jacks of All Trade, Masters of None, and so there's always been a tradition of Bards fighting with a weapon when they're not casting spells through music. I suppose I ought to include College of Whispers bards here as well, given that they do have one major feature that boosts melee damage. But the rest of their subclass features are fairly agnostic to whether you're playing as a caster or a brawler.

    The College of Valor was one of the first two subclasses in the Player's Handbook.

Immediately, you get proficiency in medium armor, shields, and martial weapons, so with a modest dexterity investment, you can get an AC of 18 at level 3. You also get to use your Bardic Inspriation die to boost the damage of attacks or one's AC, though you can't use this on yourself.

At level 6, you get the Extra attack feature, which is a staple for any melee-based class.

At level 14, you get the ability to make a melee attack as a bonus action if you use your action to cast a Bard spell, similar to an Eldritch Knight's Improved War Magic.

    The College of Swords, which came out with Xanathar's Guide to Everything, I think largely improves upon Valor to be a little more unique.

Sword bards don't get shields, and only get the scimitar as an extra weapon proficiency, but they still get medium armor. You also start to get to use a weapon as a spell focus, which I believe means that you get to use that hand for somatic components (which makes Warcaster less necessary.) You also get either the Dueling or Two-Weapon Fighting style (likely taking scimitars if dual-wielding or a rapier if going with dueling.)

And even more at level 3, you get Flourishes, which are a bit like a Battle Master's Maneuvers, using your BI dice as superiority dice. Your speed also increases by 10 feet every time you take the attack action.

Again, at level 6, you get extra attack - pretty standard.

At level 14, you can just roll a d6 instead of expending a BI die to use a flourish, which means that you can truly use one every turn without every worrying about running out (though with a lower possible effect given that it's just a d6.)

And Bards only get three levels with subclass features, so that's it. Let's move on to Circle of the Moon.

    Circle of the Moon druids are the subclass that focus most on the iconic Wild Shape mechanic, shifting into animal forms when they fight. At level 2, you get to pick higher-CR beasts to turn into, and the maximum level of those forms goes up at a much faster rate than they do for other druids, so by level 18 you can take on a CR 6 beast's form.

You also get to shift as a bonus action, which makes it much more practical to do in combat, as you don't have to waste a turn transforming, and you can expend spell slots to heal yourself while transformed as a bonus action.

At level six, your beast form attacks become magical, which is a pretty standard thing for any class or subclass relying on natural weapons, as there's no other practical way to allow them to damage a monster that's immune to mundane weapons.

At level 10, you can expend both uses of Wild Shape to turn into one of the four classic elementals from the Monster Manual, which are much tougher than the beasts you could use at this level.

Finally, at level 14, you get to use Alter Self at will, which I'll be honest and say is maybe a little underwhelming compared to what came before, but still very flavorful.

    Next, we get the Hexblade Warlock. Now, technically any Warlock can go melee, and the Pact of the Blade is built around doing this. But I think the Hexblade is so good at this that I'd be hesitant to do so with any other subclass.

At level 1, you get Hex Warrior, which gives you medium armor, shields, and martial weapons. But on top of that, you also get the ability to designate one of your weapons (as long as it's not two-handed) as a Hex Weapon, and use your Charisma instead of Dexterity or Strength when attacking with it. And if you wind up taking Pact of the Blade (hint hint) this will apply to any of your Pact Weapons as well (and thanks to Pact of the Blade, you could have this as any kind of melee weapon - feel free to swing around an eldritch maul using nothing but your force of personality!)

And we're not done: you also get Hexblade's curse, a once-per-short rest debuff you can place on a target as a bonus action which causes your attacks to deal extra damage (equal to your PB,) crit on a 19, and heal for an amount equal to your Warlock level plus Charisma modifier if they die.

At level six, when a humanoid dies near you, you can use a reaction to draw out its spirit as a Specter (with temp hit points equal to half your warlock level and a bonus to attacks equal to your Charisma modifier) that lasts until your next long rest (or if it's killed.)

At level ten, if something has your Hexblade's curse on it, you can use a reaction to give it a 50% chance to automatically miss you if they attack you.

Finally, at level 14, you can move your Hexblade's curse to a new target when the old one dies instead of healing from it.

    Last but not least, we have the Bladesinger Wizard. This was initially printed in Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide, but saw some revision (mostly just making it available to non-Elves, and as someone with maybe a more Warcraft-style conception of Orcs, I've always though that any class that features something called a "Bladesong" would have to be an orcish tradition, which is why I rolled up a Half-Orc Bladesinger - and got insanely good stats!)

At level 2, you get a whole bunch of things: first off, you get proficiency in light armor and a single one-handed melee weapon (I'd recommend a finesse weapon, given that you're going to be in light armor). You also get proficiency in performance, which is mostly flavor.

You also get the eponymous Bladesong. You can use it PB times per day (so 2 at level 2) and for a minute, you get a bunch of buffs - your speed increases by 10 feet, and you get an AC boost equal to your Intelligence modifier. You also get advantage on Acrobatics checks and a boost to your Concentration saving throws equal to your Intelligence (for both Concentration and AC, the minimum is a bonus of 1.)

At level 6, you get Extra attack, but you also get to replace one of those attacks with a cantrip (which is a somewhat better version of an Eldritch Knight's War Magic, as you keep your bonus action.)

At level 10, you get Song of Defense, which allows you to use a reaction to expend a spell slot and prevent 5 times the level of the slot's worth of damage if you get hit by any kind of damage, but only if you're in your bladesong.

Finally, at level 14, you get to add your intelligence modifier (minimum of 1) to the damage of your melee attacks while your bladesong is up.

    So what do we think?

    One that stands out, not necessarily for strength but for being different, is Circle of the Moon. Because you're relying on the stat blocks of beasts (or elementals,) you will tend to have a much lower hit bonus and AC than you would using your own form and stats. That being said, the fact that a wild shape form's hit points stack on top of your own mean that you can act as a huge damage sponge (the healing capabilities are also nice.)

I think that College of Valor is pretty clearly less exciting and interesting than College of Swords. Valor feels a bit too timid in its features (a common issue for PHB subclasses) while Swords gives you some interesting and unique things. Frankly, I'd more or less consider Swords to have rendered Valor obsolete for the most part.

The Hexblade is interesting - I've played a Hexblade who was actually a pure Blastlock, and the subclass works fine and is competitive with other subclasses even when the subclass is clearly meant to cater to Bladelocks. The Hex Warrior feature - both in the higher AC you can get and the crucial fact that you get to use Charisma for your attacks - is so profoundly good that I honestly can't really imagine making a Bladelock that isn't also a Hexblade - in the hypothetical 6th Edition, I'd make that a feature of Pact of the Blade, and perhaps make the armor proficiencies an invocation.

In fact, in this way, Hexblade and Moon Druids have something in common - they can both focus on their casting stat and not worry about a separate ability score for their attacks.

Also, the fact that you get all this at level 1 makes the Hexblade a fantastic one-level dip for other classes. I could totally see a Sword Bard grabbing this to allow them to just get Dex to 14 and then put everything else in Charisma. A Hexblade/Paladin is also a classic multiclass combination - if you want to easily get a +5 Aura of Protection (though you'll still want 15 Strength to properly wear plate armor.)

Finally, we have the bladesinger. I might be biased as the Bladesinger I rolled up had 19 Intelligence and 18 Dexterity at level 1 (not to mention 16 Con), so he's not going to have to worry about either of those stats being too low. Just getting any armor as a Wizard can be nice (even if Leather's base is only 11, once you get any armor, you can get +3 armor, so my aforementioned character in +3 studded leather armor would get an AC of 23 while in Bladesong, and that's before we even mention ability score improvements (so maybe make that 25).

What I think I like most about the Bladesinger is that there are so many things that help them get around the fact that wizards aren't generally supposed to be in melee - the Intelligence AC boost can give them an actually respectable Armor Class, and the bonus to concentration saves and the ability to prevent damage as a reaction are both really good to keep them chugging along. The only real downside is the same that the melee bards and any non-Hexblade Bladelock have, which is that you'll need both good Dexterity and good Intelligence to be fully effective (I would strongly recommend against picking a strength-based weapon, and given that you have to pick a one-handed weapon and that using a shield or anything in your off-hand other than I guess your spell focus cancels Bladesong, you should definitely choose a Rapier... or a whip if you want the reach.)

Obviously, as with all of these things, you should just pick the class that speaks to you. I think that, mechanically, if you're looking to play a martial class that has full access to high-level magic, the Hexblade is maybe your purest choice. But I also know lots of people don't like the way that Pact Magic works.

Moon Druids get insane at high levels. At level 18 you can cast any of your spells that don't require material components while in your wild shape and by level 20, not only do you get to ignore material components (as long as there's no cost and it isn't consumed) but you also get infinite wild shapes, which makes it insanely hard to kill you (if you drop out of your Earth Elemental form, which has a hefty 126 hit points, you can just use a bonus action on your turn to shift back into a brand new, 126-HP form). But that's level 20.

Imagining Types of Ravenloft Campaign

 The Ravenloft setting is weirder than most, with maybe only Planescape and Spelljammer potentially out-weirding it.

In Curse of Strahd, the most recent official venture into the setting until Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft comes out in about two weeks, the domain of Barovia is cut off entirely. The Mists of Ravenloft surround the valley region, and the player characters cannot leave until they have achieved victory in slaying the vampire Strahd von Zarovich (though the Dark Powers never let him stay dead for long).

The reason the original adventure module was called Ravenloft was that the big dungeon (as most D&D modules were built around dungeons at the time) was Castle Ravenloft, a massive gothic castle. The name was iconic enough to become the name of the setting, even if its technical name in-universe is the Demiplane of Dread, or the Domains of Dread.

I think the intention at that time was to treat Ravenloft as more of a typical D&D setting, and so the various domains were placed in cohesive world. That world was dominated by a continent called The Core, though some realms, like the Mummy-themed Har'akir, existed on islands across the sea. The domains really seem to be connected geographically, with mountain ranges in Barovia extending into others domains, and it really makes the whole place seem like a real, physical realm, albeit one that is suffused with dark magic.

In Realms of Terror, they describe how the various Dark Lords were able to control the Mists, closing off or opening their domains as they chose. In fact, Dark Lords Strahd and the Lich Azalin were known to team up now and again and have wacky adventures.

Curse of Strahd presents Barovia as profoundly isolated, and suggests that, apart from the Vistani (who have the unique ability to come and go as they please,) no one seems to know much about anyone coming and going, except for adventurers being drawn into the realm via the Mists from the Prime Material Plane.

In 5th Edition, the idea of "The Core" and the notion that the domains are connected physically - as if, were you to somehow cause the Mists to blow away, you'd see just an unbroken landscape - has been dispensed with. Each domain of dread is truly its own little pocket-world, and travel via the Mists is more of a metaphysical journey.

What does this mean for campaigns or adventures set in Ravenloft?

The way I see it, there are three primary forms that an adventure set in Ravenloft can take.

The first, and simplest, is the "brief nightmare." This could be a one-shot or a short adventure in which the players find themselves in a domain and must accomplish some quick goal to escape. This could be like escaping from a haunted house, defeating a deranged slasher (the "Relentless Killer" monsters, I suspect, will be that sort of thing,) or fending off a siege of zombies. The key is that this is a short-term crisis that can resolve swiftly. If "The Rider's Bridge" is what I think it is - a tiny domain out of the Legend of Sleepy Hollow in which the players encounter a Dullahan (aka Headless Horseman,) that seems like a perfect fit. The appeal here is that you can really focus in on a single mood, and it makes for a great one-shot or departure from a campaign with a different overall vibe, especially if you want a Halloween option.

Next, there's the "escape from the domain" style of adventure. This would be modeled on Curse of Strahd, in which the players spend a significant time - even a full (though likely not to 20) campaign trying to find some way to defeat the domain's Dark Lord and escape back to their home plane. In this case, you could have many component quests that all add up to defeating the big bad. The appeal here is that you can really delve deep into a given domain, fleshing out what's going on within it and making a really compelling villain of your Dark Lord.

Finally, there's the "epic horror" adventure. This likely harkens back to the old school style of campaign. Even if the domains aren't physically connected, you could still have ways for people to cross the Mists and journey to other domains. Perhaps you start off in some lower-stakes domain like Richemoulout (assuming Jacqueline Renier isn't that much more dangerous than a standard Wererat) and then travel through the Mists to other domains. The plot might become something epic - like a power struggle between the Dark Powers and the Raven Queen, perhaps with the Shadowfell trying to better incorporate the Domains while the Dark Powers seek to keep them separate. I think you could also have a really interesting plot in which some Archdevil is trying to take the soul of a Dark Lord, while the Dark Powers wish to keep it - and maybe the campaign could be about uncovering why the Dark Powers are doing this in the first place.

There are, obviously, some other kinds you could do. One concept I had a while back was a comedic-style campaign in which Rudolph van Richten recruits you to throw a massive party at Castle Ravenloft and get all the Dark Lords to show up, and then blow the castle up with explosives rigged in the crypts. It'd be called "Dead Man's Party."

Another factor to consider is where your player characters are from. Curse of Strahd assumes that PCs are from a more typical setting like the Forgotten Realms, and that the Mists take them. But, especially with the Gothic Lineages, Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft looks like it will create more opportunities for a player to come from the Domains of Dread, which means they're fighting on home turf. That could really change the vibe of an adventure - a human ranger from outside of Waterdeep might be eager to get back to their familiar woods, but a reborn artificer who woke up on a slab in Viktra Mordenheim's laboratories might feel that Lamordia is the only home they could ever really know, even if it's objectively horrible.

Alien, Horror, and D&D

 While Ravenloft is a storied and beloved campaign setting for D&D, there's an inherent challenge with adapting D&D's typical fantasy to a horror setting.

As I've written about earlier, horror often comes from disempowerment. And even if the dangers are very real, the tone with which you approach a story can create a very different feeling.

Let's talk about Alien and its sequel, Aliens.

If we were to use the terms suggested by Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft, I'd say that we're looking at Cosmic Horror and Body Horror as the two major horror elements in the story. I'm not calling it Cosmic simply because it takes place in space, but because the Xenomorph is meant to be disturbingly beyond our comprehension. I actually think the Body Horror elements are even stronger - while the xenomorph's life cycle is bizarre and its behavior is frighteningly predatory, the weirdest and creepiest thing about it is how oddly familiar it, or aspects of it, are. The phallic and yonic imagery dreamed up by concept artist H. R. Gieger is part of what made the xenomorph so iconic.

In the first movie, a working-class group of space travelers - basically a group of space truckers - go and investigate a weird signal coming from another planet, and they find an alien spacecraft, along with what seem to be some kind of eggs, one of which opens up, causing a strange parasite to attach itself to one of the crew members faces. However, he doesn't die, and the parasite falls off, seemingly dead. But later, we discover that the crew member who had been attacked has actually been gestating an alien within his abdomen, and the alien bursts out of him in a shocking, gory scene, killing him. The little alien quickly grows, and begins hunting the crew members, killing all but Ellen Ripley, the one reasonable person who wanted to follow the strict quarantine protocols, and who escapes from the lost ship, barely surviving by pushing the alien out into the vacuum of space.

The tagline was "In space, no one can hear you scream," and structurally, the xenomorph worked a lot like classic slasher villains in the vein of Jason Voorhees or Michael Myers. (Alien actually predated Friday the 13th by a year.)

The second movie, Aliens, was made by director James Cameron, as opposed to Ridley Scott, who did the first one. Cameron's take was just as if not more popular, but it shifted things significantly. The movie begins 57 years after the events of the first one, in which Ripley has finally been recovered in cryo-sleep, explaining why she hasn't aged much in the intervening half-century. However, she discovers that the planet they found with the alien egg has now become a colony with plenty of human inhabitants. When the colony's communications have ceased, and Ripley goes with a group of space marines to investigate and find out what's going on. What they find is a colony utterly infested with xenomorphs. Ripley transforms from desperate survivor to action star, even returning to the alien queen's nest with an improvised machine-gun-taped-to-a-flamethrower in order to wipe out the colony for sure.

The xenomorphs in Aliens are no less lethal than the first one was in the original movie. And, much like the first movie, the movie's all about a dwindling group of people getting wiped out by the monsters.

But it feels totally different.

And I think a major reason for that is that the heroes of Aliens are badasses, soldiers who are equipped (even if under-equipped and surely unprepared) for a fight against the monsters, whereas the first movie was a bunch of civilians with no real ability to fight off a genuine terrifying monster.

And I think that's the thing with D&D - the player characters in a D&D party are all built to fight monsters. It's kind of the whole premise of the game. Yes, if you send a group of level 2 characters to fight a colony overrun by Red Slaadi (which I think is the best D&D equivalent to the Xenomorph, including the chest-bursting) they're probably going to get slaughtered, but it's much more likely they'll go down with a fight than be picked off screaming in terror.

I should note, though, that this is actually why I'm so into Ravenloft, at least in theory. I can appreciate good horror, even enjoying it on occasion, but the truth is that I really prefer a kind of fantasy in which you can beat the monsters.

To be fair, plenty of horror has the heroes prevail in the end, sometimes by killing or otherwise defeating the monsters directly. But I'm particularly drawn to the kind of narrative in which no matter how scary a monster is, a person who's smart and capable enough can protect others from the danger. I like the idea of a badass monster-hunter, and that's precisely what a D&D party in Ravenloft is positioned to become.

Domains According to 2nd Edition's Ravenloft: Realms of Terror, Versus What We Know About Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft

 I have a PDF of the old 2nd Edition "Ravenloft, Realm of Terror" campaign setting book I got on DM's Guild. While this was, I'm given to understand, a pretty important sourcebook for defining the Ravenloft setting (I could be wrong but I think it's the first to make it a true setting that went beyond the original Ravenloft adventure modules of 1st Edition,) I should start this post off with the huge disclaimer that new editions change things.

There are a number of ways in which cultural standards have changed in the past 30 years, and more importantly, the type of stories that a big brand like Dungeons & Dragons wants to put out there. For example, there was a pretty clear expectation that most players would be men back in those days, and things were written from a somewhat myopically male point of view. You'll notice that some of the domains in Van Richten's have had their Darklords' genders switched. I don't think that these (or at least not all of these) are meant to be retcons - in some cases it's a daughter or other female inheritor taking over.

Some of the changes also reflect developments in the story. For example, one of the most famous Darklords, Azalin the Lich, appears to have succeeded in some sort of escape or ascension (which might explain how he can now be a group patron for a party!)

Some of these domains are brand-new, and some might have been introduced after the Realm of Terror book came out. Likewise, some of the older domains look like they're either on the cutting room floor or are relegated to the brief "other domains" list at the end of the chapter.

In 2nd Edition, the Demiplane of Dread was a bit more like a landmass, with a continent of sorts called The Core, which allowed occasional transit through the Mists to other parts of the realm. In 5th Edition, my understanding is that they're trying to go for more of a metaphysical realm. There's no straight line to draw between a point in Barovia and one in Darkon, but that doesn't mean you can't travel from one to the other if the Mists allow it. My take on this would be that if you head into the mountains northwest of Krezk in Barovia, you might wind up in Falkovnia or something, but if you go back directly the other way, there's no guarantee that you'll return to Barovia.

Anyway, let's talk domains. There are a lot, so... here goes.

Barovia - You know this place. It's the setting of Curse of Strahd, and is spooky gothic vampire land. The prototypical domain with the prototypical Darklord.

Bluetspur - This is a mountainous region with mind flayers - not a ton of detail, but it seems to have a strong Cosmic Horror vibe. Presumably the God-Brain is an Elder Brain.

Borca - This place is described somewhat generically, but there seems to be a theme of poison. The characterization of Ivana Boritsi, its Darklord, will, I imagine, change, as it's all about her basically killing men by sleeping with them. Notably, it seems there's a second Darklord in Van Richten's, so I expect a major rework. Notably, the other Darklord in Van Richten's is Ivan Dilisnya, who in Realm of Terror is the Darklord of Dorvinia, Ivana's cousin, who is a mad poisoner who presides over a land that trades between various corrupt factions.

The Carnival - There's no mention of this one in Realms of Terror, and I suspect it's a new one. At the very least, I suspect that you could throw in some Rakdos stuff from Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica pretty easily in any kind of horror-carnival.

Darkon - Under the Lich Azalin, Darkon looks like it was a totalitarian police state, with a secret police known as the Kargat. There is a description in the tweets that included the table of contents that suggests that these days, Azalin is gone and there's a glowing star in the sky (that the sun and moon pass behind, suggesting it's closer than other celestial bodies) while the Darklord is the "Inheritors of Darkon," which I could imagine is some remnant of his tyrannical regime or maybe something else.

Dementlieu - This is one they've been talking about having changed significantly. In the original lore, Dominic d'Honaire was a sort of manipulator behind the scenes of a regime with significant social stratification. In Van Richten's, Saidra d'Honaire is the Darklord, in a society where everyone is lying about who they are and she can apparently disintegrate people whose lies are revealed in her many glamorous balls, with the intended vibe being a kind of "twisted fairy tale," presumably drawing on everything from Cinderella to Masque of the Red Death.

Falkovnia - Vlad Drakov was largely based on Vlad Tsepesh (my Hungarian-ness wants be to write that as Cepes, but he was Romanian) as a bloodthirsty tyrant who is always trying to conquer other lands and runs a state entirely governed by martial law. In Van Richten's, the Darklord is Vladeska Drakov, and apparently Falkovnia is in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. So, bit of a change there.

Har'arkir - In Realms of Terror, Har'akir is listed as an island (remember that in Realms of Terror, the whole place is a big continent called The Core) Its Darklord Ankhtepot successfully achieved immortality as a Mummy Lord and is now regretting that he has to spend eternity this way. It's also a land that is filled with vast interconnected dungeons under the blazing desert. One of the things they've been talking about with the re-think of this realm is to make it easier to play as part of the culture from which Har'akir arose, rather than as imperialist tomb-robbers in an "exotic" land.

Hazlan - While in Realms of Terror this is simply the home of a Red Wizard of Thay named Hazlan, who rules as a tyrant, I think the vibe they're going for in Van Richten's is that it's basically a place full of unethical magical experiments

I'Cath - This is, I think, a new realm. All I know about it is that its Darklord is named Tsien Chiang, which I'd imagine gives this an East Asian vibe.

Kalakeri - This is, I believe, also a new realm, based on Indian folklore.

Kartakass - This seems to be a kind of music-themed region, ruled by a wolfwere (which I guess is a wolf who can turn into a human) Bard. I vaguely remember hearing about a wolfwere pirate, but I'm not sure if this is that, as Realms of Terror describes this more as a dense woodland than the kind of place you'd expect to find a buccaneer.

Lamordia - This frigid land was home to Doctor Victor Mordenheim and his flesh golem monster, Adam, though Van Richten's places Viktra Mordenheim as its Darklord, with teases that she's continually making bodies for "golem-hunting mercenaries." Obviously, this one is a take on Frankenstein, with what's described as body horror and mad science.

Mordent - This is the location of the House on Gryphon Hill (which I believe was the "sequel" to the original Ravenloft module,) a house haunted by Lord Wilfred Godefory, the ghost of a nobleman who killed his own family. I suspect that this is meant to give you the quintessential "haunted house" vibe.

Richemoulot - Here, Jacqueline Renier, a wererat, rules. It seems to be a largely urban domain, but one that is in ruins and disrepair - infested with rats. Also, Realms of Terror seemed to have an editorial mix up because they put this after Tepest, when they're supposed to be in alphabetical order.

Tepest - this realm is, in Realms of Terror, ruled by a coven of hags, though Van Richten's suggests that Mother Lorinda (likely also a hag, given the context) is the true Darklord. The villages within seem to be plagued by wicked spirits, which might include a sizable goblin population, and have grown superstitious.

Valachan - In Realms of Terror, this is ruled by a vampire known as Baron Urik von Kharkov. In Van Richten's we have "Chacuna."

Now, many of the realms that get only brief mentions in Van Richten's are found in Realms of Terror.

Cyre 1313, The Mourning Rail: Given that Cyre is from Eberron, which was introduced about a decade after Realms of Terror, it's not shocking to not find this in the book. But context suggests that this is a train that might have traveled across or through Cyre. Cyre was suddenly obliterated at the end of the Last War in an event called The Mourning, and I wonder if that event shunted this train into the Demiplane of Dread. That the train's number is 1313 does sort of make me wonder if the train itself is malevolent, like Blaine the Mono from the Dark Tower series. Can you tell I'm excited to read about this one?

Forlorn: this realm is basically just a castle and its surrounding area, ruled by an unnamed ghost.

Ghastria: There is no mention of this in Realms of Terror, so it's either new or just newer than that book.

G'henna: Not to be confused with Gehenna, the outer plane where Yugoloths come from, this is ruled by a mad priest to a non-existent god who warps the flesh of dissidents and criminals into the unfortunately-named mongrelfolk (something you might have seen in Curse of Strahd.)

Invidia: This small realm is ruled by a witch named Gabrielle Aberre, who seems to sow discontent and conflict.

Keening: A bleak land with no inhabitants other than zombies and wights, this is ruled by an unnamed banshee.

Klorr: No mention of Klorr in Realms of Terror.

Markovia: Here, Frantisek Markov has basically created the Island of Dr. Moreau, where he has transformed animals into "beastmen," and uses visitors as raw parts to graft onto animals to elevate them.

The Nightmare Lands: This region seems to have no lord, and only has a group of rather normal nomads who traverse the ever-shifting region.

Niranjan: No mention of this in Realms of Terror.

Nova Vaasa: This aggrarian realm is ruled by Malken, the alter-ego of Sire Hiergaard, in a classic Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde story.

Odaire: Again, not mentioned in Realms of Terror.

The Rider's Bridge: I believe I heard this one mentioned - I think this is a tiny realm that is literally just a bridge like out of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, with, I'd assume, a Dullahan as the main monster.

Risibilos: Again, unmentioned in Realms of Terror

Scaena: No mention.

The Shadowlands: Well, back when I felt the need to give my setting its own cosmology, I called my Shadowfell equivalent The Shadowlands. There's no mention of this in Realms of Terror.

Sourange: This mostly swamp-like domain is ruled by a zombie master named Anton Misroi. I suspect there's a kind of Lousiana-bayou vibe here.

Staunton Bluffs: This seems to be one of the few reasonably safe, if boring, places in the Demiplane of Dread, ruled by a ghost named Sir Torrence Bleysmith, who generally leaves people alone if they don't bother him.

Tovag: No mention.

Vhage Agency: I don't know what this is, but if it's a monster-hunting agency I'm so freaking excited to read about it, even though we'll probably only get a couple paragraphs.

Zherisia: A disease, hunger, and crime-ridden city called Paridon makes up most of this realm, ruled by a doppelganger that most people don't know exists, but he stalks the place as a serial killer, likely based on Jack the Ripper.

All right, so that's the gist of what's going on in each of the domains - or at least what was going on in 2nd Edition, and for those domains that aren't new.

Of the featured realms (those from the first list,) it looks like each gets about 4-12 pages of description, including its Darklord and a page or two about "adventures in [name of realm,]" which I think is meant to inspire ideas for them. For the "other domains" (the second list,) it looks like each description is less than a page - page 170 alone has descriptions for Keening, Klorr, Markovia, The Nightmare Lands, Niranjan, and Nova Vaasa, so don't expect a major deep dive.

Thankfully, given the breaking of The Core, it's very easy to create new Domains and fit them into the non-landscape of the Ravenloft setting. I think you can run a very tight game set within a single setting (if The Rider's Bridge is what I think it is, it'd almost have to be a one-shot.) But I think you could also weave a campaign throughout the setting as well.

In a lot of ways, Ravenloft is probably the most modular campaign setting, given that you can easily have the Mists come in and sweep the party away, and have them escape back into their previous world once the adventure is complete.

A lot of what I just wrote up there will be wrong, but I wanted to give at least a brief notion of what's going on with these places.

Table of Contents for Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft Revealed

 In a post by Lysa Penrose, a DM's Guild creator who was sent an early copy of Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft, she included a photo of the table of contents for the upcoming campaign setting book.

As someone whose favorite holiday is Halloween, I've been very eager to get my hands on this spooky addition to 5th edition. So, let us all indulge in our obsessive nerdery and go through the chapters.

The first chapter, after an introduction, is character creation. This includes the three "Lineages" that take the place of race, mechanically, which include the Dhampir, Hexblood, and Reborn. Supposedly there are ways to reincorporate your character's original racial features a bit more, though I don't know the details. This chapter also includes the College of Spirits for Bards and the Undead Patron for Warlocks. This also includes the "Dark Gifts," which seem like they'll work a bit like Supernatural Gifts in Theros, but as more of a trade-off with a potential downside. One example we've been able to see is having a shadow that moves on its own, which is mostly beneficial but can sometimes cause problems for you.

The second chapter is about building a domain of dread. The chapter has a section on creating a darklord, then creating a domain, and then some parts about various genres of horror, including the six they've been posting about (Gothic, Cosmic, Body, Folk, Dark Fantasy, and Ghost Stories) as well as a catch-all for other subgenres.

The third chapter is the biggest, and concerns the various canonical Domains of Dread - each with a segment on its Darklord(s) and suggestions for adventures to set there (I wonder what Barovia will have other than "Curse of Strahd.") Here's the list of domains and their listed Darklord or lords:

Barovia - Strah Von Zarovich

Bluetspur - The God-Brain

Borca - Ivana Boritsi and Ivan Dilisnya

The Carnival - Isolde and Nepenthe

Darkon - Inheritors of Darkon (notably not Azalin, who might have escaped?)

Dementlieu - Saidra d'Honaire

Falkovnia - Vledeska Drakov

Har'akir - Ankhtepot

Hazlan - Hazlik

I'Cath - Tsien Chiang

Kalakeri - Ramya Vasavadan

Kartakass - Harkon Lukas

Lamordia - Viktra Mordenheim

Mordent - Lord Wilfred Godefroy

Richemoulot - Jacqueline Renier

Tepest - Mother Lorinda

Valachan - Chacuna

There's also a segment at the end for several other domains that each get their own brief write-up (several share page numbers, so I'd expect these to be just a couple paragraphs at most.) The one that drew my attention the most was "Cyre 1313, The Mourning Rail," which was clearly drawn in from Eberron and looks to be a train. Could it be a train that was crossing the kingdom of Cyre when it was destroyed by the Mourning? I actually wrote a leg of an adventure on a haunted train (inspired by the Ghost Train in Final Fantasy VI, so yes, you do have to fight the train at the end) and would love to see how this compares.

The "additional domains" are, again, likely not going to be deep descriptions, but the names included are: Cyre 1313 The Mourning Rail, Forlorn, Ghastria, G'henna, Invidia, Keening, Klorr, Markovia, The Nightmare Lands, Niranjan, Nova Vaasa, Odaire, The Rider's Bridge, Risibilos, Scaena, The Shadowlands, Sourange, Staunton Bluffs, Tovag, Vhage Agency, and Zherisia.

Furthermore, the chapter lists people you'll find in the Mists. These include the Keepers of the Feather (presumably Wereravens,) The Vistani (here's hoping they manage to do better to avoid racist tropes!) and a small section on other groups.

Next, still in the third chapter, is a list of NPCs that your party might encounter: Alanik Ray and Arthur Sedgewick, The Caller, Erasmus van Richten, Ez d'Avenir (I wonder if they shortened Ezmeralda just to fit her name in here?) Firan Zal'honan, Jander Sunstar, Larissa Snowmane, Rudolph van Richten (the "author" of this book,) and the Weathermay-Foxgrove Twins.

The fourth chapter is about running horror adventures, and I think likely includes guidance both for making the game spooky, but also to help make sure everyone's actually having a fun time using safety features. There are also mechanics for things like curses, "haunted traps," and such. This also includes what looks to be a 20-page adventure called The House of Lament.

Finally, chapter five is the Bestiary, which includes a segment on horror monsters in general, and then gives us the goods. Here's a list of the monsters in that chapter:

Bodytaker Plant - with another block for Podlings (clearly a take on Invasion of the Body Snatchers)

Boneless - I think this is what happens to the flesh of corpses whose skeletons have been raised by necromancers (you know, assuming it hasn't rotted already)

Brain in a Jar - this might actually be a reprint from Rime of the Frostmaiden

Carrion Stalker

Carionette - it's a spooky doll that can take over your body!

Death's Head

Dullahan - classic Headless Horseman, though it should be fey if they're sticking with Irish folklore

Gallows Speaker

Gremishka - with individual and swarm varieties. I think these are supposed to be Gremlins like in the movie Gremlins.

Jiangshi - Chinese "hopping vampires."

Loup Garou - I think this is just the French term for werewolf, but I assume this is a bit different.

Necrichor - maybe an ooze, like a portmanteau of "necrotic" and "ichor?"

Nosferatu - this is just another term for vampire, though tends in modern media to be more associated with the bald, gaunt, perpetually monstrous variety rather than the attractive, dashing type like Strahd.

Priests of Osybus

Relentless Killer - in Slasher and Juggernaut varieties. I wonder if this is meant to be your Jason Voorhees or Michael Myers kind of foe.

Star Spawn Emissary - in Lesser and Greater varieties. Cosmic horror monsters - wonder how they stack up with the ones from Mordenkainen's.

Strigoi - a sort of ghoul or vampire. I'm not sure if this is the same thing as the Striga (as seen in the Witcher series.)

Swarms - We've got your Maggots and Scarabs (the latter surely for Har'akir).

Ulmist Inquisitors - with three types: Inquisitors of the Mind Fire, the Sword, and the Tome. No idea whether these are humanoid, undead, fiends, aberrations, or maybe even murderous celestials?

Unspeakable Horrors - I mean, what's to say?

Vampiric Mind Flayer - Is it a vampire who underwent cereomorphosis or a mind flayer turned by a vampire? Either scenario is probably very bad.

Wereraven - Presumably reprinted from Candlekeep Mysteries, and one of the few creatures likely to be helpful to a party.

Zombies - We've got a Swarm of Zombie Limbs, a "Zombie Clot" (which seems to be like those World War Z big old piles of zombies) and Plaguespreader Zombies.

And finally, the book ends with a Spirit Board (with some great art that was used to tease the book's release.)

Phew!

Genies as Patrons, NPCs, Villains, and Parents

 My favorite Disney film as a kid was Aladdin. I'd actually been familiar with the story from 1,001 Arabian Nights prior to its release in 1992, when I was six years old, but as is often the case with Disney adaptations of classic fairy tales and similar legends, the movie became my main touchstone with the story.

Naturally, the biggest draw to me was Robin Williams' Genie, whose fast-talking, well, Robin Williams-ness, was exactly the sort of manic energy that would send deep roots into a young kid's mind. The Genie is profoundly likable, and there's also something deeply sad under it all where his over-the-top performative behavior is all part of a desperate attempt to get Aladdin to like him enough to grant him freedom.

Most fantasy in Western culture is, unsurprisingly, based on folklore that comes from Europe, but the djinn have a long and storied role in Middle Eastern folklore, and like most folklore creatures, they take on different roles depending on the writer. In some cases, the djinn were wicked spirits, but the stories I always found more interesting is that they were simply another humanoid people. In some stories, they are made of smokeless fire, and I believe some interpretations have them being made of fire in the same way that humanity was, in the Genesis story, created out of earth.

In D&D lore, they take this idea of Genies being tied to elements and run with it, making them elemental denizens of the elemental planes.

That already makes them fairly unique. Most elementals in D&D (and fantasy in general) are barely sapient, mostly just living embodiment of aspects of nature, most classically divided into the four classical elements of Western alchemy.

The Genies of D&D are divided similarly, but they are far more human-like than other elementals we encounter (with a few exceptions like Azer.) Evidently, genies in D&D are human-like enough that they can have children with humanoids, which is how we get the Genasi playable race.

The lore in the 5th Edition Monster Manual (I'm just going to set aside the thing about them all having slaves - while I get that this is in part to show how different their worldview is from the mortal races, it carries some unfortunate cultural biases and stereotypes that I'd suggest downplaying - basically, if you want to get into slavery as a theme in a campaign, you can, but do so thoughtfully and bearing in mind the implications of what you put out there) gives the following origin for genies: when the soul of a sentient creature melds with the primordial matter of an elemental plane.

The soul is altered enough that the genie doesn't remember any previous life. That being said, the soul will determine aspects of the genie's personality and to an extent their appearance. Genies are only formed this way, and don't have their own genie parents, but this connection to life is what allows them to sire genasi offspring with mortals - though that's said to be quite rare.

Opulence is a big deal for genies, and seems to be a major way that they establish their power within genie society. Having the most ornate palace with the most servants (voluntary or otherwise, I guess) grants them status.

Tasha's Cauldron of Everything introduced the Genie patron for Warlocks. I actually love this as an option (damn it, there are like four Warlock characters I want to play... actually yes, that's literally true) given that Genies run the gamut of alignments. While the Monster Manual gives specific alignments for its four genie types, these are not beings of the Outer Planes, and so I'd say that you could probably find a broad variety of alignments amongst them. I think you could say that they might have personality traits that are thematic with their element - the air-based djinni (which is a little confusing given that "genie" is just an anglicized spelling of djinni, but in D&D every djinni is a genie but not all genies are djinn) might be, well, flighty and shifty, or the fire-based efreet might be passionate and determined.

Anyway, as a patron, a genie might have complex plans, or they might be simply interested in obtaining greater wealth. Frankly, I could imagine that a genie might form a pact with a warlock purely in the interest of having a powerful adventurer that they can claim as their servant.

One of the most potent reasons for bringing a Genie into a campaign is that they can grant wishes to other creatures - providing access to the Wish spell. Wish is explicitly the most powerful spell in the game, but players will only ever see it at level 17 and up (and then only among a few classes).

While the practical adventurer's use of Wish is typically just a free "I can cast any 8th or lower level spell with a single action and no expensive components required," Wish can often be crucial to rescue characters who are beyond the limits of typical resurrection or restoration magic. If a player character is turned by a vampire, for example, you need a Wish spell to turn them back without killing them and then reviving them using either True Resurrection (which is itself a 9th level spell) or Reincarnate (which you could argue doesn't really work.)

A genie could help out of benevolent intent or in exchange for something, but you could make an adventure of finding one that is powerful enough to grant a wish. Also, the genie is capable of interpreting the wish's wording, which could lead to unintended consquences.

This differs from a deal with a devil, though - a devil is fundamentally evil. Genies aren't inherently evil. So, while a devil is never going to agree to a deal that doesn't allow them to do some greater evil (even if you word it carefully enough that you aren't the recipient of that evil,) the party won't necessarily know if the genie they're dealing with will give a generous and benevolent interpretation or a cruel and/or self-serving one.

While genies are mostly known for granting wishes to mortals, I don't think there's anything that explicitly says they can't use them for themselves. Clearly, there's some limit, either on power or imagination, that prevents ambitious genies from just taking over the universe with these spells, but genies could easily serve as the "man behind the man" kind of villain. Maybe there's some warlord who suddenly takes over a kingdom and becomes insanely powerful out of the blue. The party could seek to investigate and discover that they've been able to do so with the help of a genie.

A genie can also serve as the type of villain who's less cruel and more callous - simply seeking to steal and loot in order to add to their riches. You might thus have an antagonist who's not so much an embodiment of pure evil, but simply a criminal leaving chaos in their wake as they rob the material plane of riches.

Classically, genies in folklore often offer to grant wishes in exchange for being released from a vessel that holds them. One could imagine that a genie that spent ages trapped in some tiny vessel might seek to bring ruin upon the mortal world, or maybe more specifically a part of the world where they were trapped. In some Islamic traditions, King Solomon was able to control djinn, and I could imagine taking that as inspiration to imagine some legendary wise ruler from a past era who captured a powerful genie (or many) and trapped them in jars or lamps or what-have-you. Maybe that leader is long-dead, but the genies that they captured would love to take vengeance on that leader's kingdom.

Now, let's talk parents.

Genasi are the offspring of mortals (typically humans) and a genie. While D&D has plenty of hybrid races, like half elves and half orcs, along with many humanoid races that are distantly related to other magical beings, like Dragonborn or Tieflings, I think Genasi are the only ones who are most typically the offspring of a humanoid and an extraplanar magical being. (Granted, you could easily flavor a tiefling as being the literal child of a fiend and a mortal or an aasimar as the child of a celestial and a mortal, but that's not generally how the lore is written.)

Having a genie parent must be very, very weird. Genies, as we saw earlier, don't have parents themselves. And because of that, they don't have siblings either. That means that genies typically don't have any families (at least not by blood.) They're also ageless. A genasi character might have siblings, but they have at least one parent for whom this whole "family" thing is a totally new concept.

I imagine most genasi don't know their genie parent, and might never have even visited the elemental planes. Thus, a character's quest could be to track down their absent parent (the air genasi druid in my first campaign was left in a basket on her human father's farm, so they don't all have to be absentee dads,) which would require becoming a big enough adventurer to travel across planes.

That being said, I think that having dead or missing parents is such a common trope for RPG characters that it's fun to subvert it. Your genie parent might be super-enthusiastic about being a parent (in part because it makes them unusual among their kind,) and if they're a kind and benevolent genie, they might even have an advantage in not carrying their own family baggage - able to focus their affections and attentions on their child.

In fact, my concept for a Genie warlock is actually to play a Genasi character whose patron is his dad (I generally like the aesthetic of the air genasi, but it's hard to turn down a fire genasi's darkvision and an efreeti warlock's access to fireball,) and in contrast with many warlock patrons, the two would have both a close and communicative relationship and also a really affectionate one.

There are only four stat blocks for genies in 5E, all of whom are Large, CR 11 Elementals. But I think that they're brimming with enough really interesting personality that you can do a lot with them.