A new Dungeons an Dragons sourcebook has been announced. The location? Ravenloft, the setting for Curse of Strahd. Where sourcebooks like Mythic Odysseys of Theros focused on a Greek Mythology-esque adventures, Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft is good old fashioned horror. Besides a new setting, there are new backgrounds, character lineages, and subclasses. Also instructions on making your own domains. Note: All that is written is Unearthed Arcana, which means it is unofficial, so it can change to the official release of Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft.
Some of the lineages are: dhampir, hexblood, and reborn. Dhampir are basically stuck between death and life, and have hungers, like vampires. You also get to put a +2 and +1 to any stat you want, as long as it does not go above 20. They can also speak Common and one language of your choice, with DM’s approval of course.
Hexblood were infused with eldritch, fey, or even witchcraft. With hexblood, hags often want to get their hands on hexbloods, mainly because hags can cause hexblood to exist. Much like dhampir, the player get to put a +2 and +1 into any stat, as long as it doesn’t go over 20. Hexblood also get Dark Vision, Fey Resilience (advantage on being charmed), Hex Magic (can cast disguise self and hex magic) and you get a magic token. With the magic token, you can do a verity of interesting abilities like being able to send telepathic messages to someone holding the token.
Reborn are already dead, or they are stitched together by magic or science. Reborn get at +2 or +1 to any stat as long as it does not go over 20. Reborn do not have to eat, drink, breathe or sleep, have advantage on diseases or being poisoned and get poison resistance. Reborn also get advantage on death saving throws. Also, magic cannot put Reborn to sleep, and Reborn get at long rest in 4 hours. They also use knowledge from a past life (1d6 bonus to skill check) and resets once per long rest.
Two new subclasses are College of Spirits Bard and Pact of Undead Warlock. The College of Spirits Bard is more or less D&D Spirit Mediums. They have a spell casting focus of a candle, crystal ball, talking board, tarokka deck, or skull. Bardic Inspiration works a bit different. The Inspiration die roll is a different story. For example, if you roll a five it is a story about an avenger which means that for 1 minute, whenever a creature the target can see within 30 feet of it is damaged by a creature, the target can use its reaction to deal force damage equal to a roll of your Bardic Inspiration die to the attacker. They also get Spiritual Session at 6th level, which allows to learn one spell from any list, and must match your character’s level. At 17th level, they get to use a Bardic Inspiration, without spending it.
In closing, I think this would be perfect for a gothic horror story TTRPG campaign. The book is now available for preorder. Personally, I can’t wait to see what unique characters people will make.
