D&D’s Dungeon Masters just fixed one of Ravenloft’s best features for 5.5e

Top-of-the-line issues about Dungeons & Dragons‘ new official precise play present, Dungeon Masters, is that the present is allowed to tease and introduce options that may quickly seem within the official tabletop recreation guidelines. The primary season of the present ties with the upcoming Ravenloft: The Horrors Within ebook, which can replace D&D’s in style horror setting for the present 5.5e guidelines. Episode 5 of Dungeon Masters simply gave followers a peek at what one of the vital essential guidelines updates will appear to be.

[Ed. note: Spoilers for Dungeon Masters episode 5.]

After being introduced in episode 4, Lividity, the Scion of the Three Rogue performed by visitor star Alex Ward (who’s at present a participant in Critical Role Marketing campaign 4) takes middle stage in episode 5, introducing additional strife within the adventuring group of Professor Crem de la Crem (Neil Newbon), his spouse Zora Thornska (Devora Wilde), Eloin Emberleaf (Christian Navarro) and Wesley (Mayanna Berrin). Lividity has beef with Eloin, however she nonetheless joins the get together of their quest to seize three banshees to placate Lord Soth, the Darklord of the realm of Sithicus, the place they’re at present trapped. Early within the episode, the get together stops to take an extended relaxation, and Ward reveals he has to roll for the downside of Lividity’s Darkish Reward feat, Mist Walker.

Launched in D&D’s best-selling journey, Curse of Strahd, Darkish Presents symbolize a tough cut price between a personality and the Darkish Powers, the sinister entities which might be the true rulers of Ravenloft’s Realms of Dread. In Curse of Strahd, these items have been accessible solely within the Amber Temple, and so they required a personality to the touch one of many mysterious amber sarcophagi current there. Chris Perkins, the journey’s principal designer, explained that this feature was developed with Tracy Hickman, the creator of the unique Ravenloft module who additionally labored on Curse of Strahd. The Darkish Presents have been later expanded and built-in into the essential guidelines of the sport in Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft.

Ravenloft: The Horrors Inside turns Darkish Presents into Origin Feats that may be chosen by 1st-level characters. The results and disadvantages have been additionally reworked, and Dungeon Masters gave us a glimpse of how the latter work within the case of Mist Walker. Now, a personality with this Darkish Reward has to cross a Structure saving throw with problem 13 earlier than making an attempt a brief relaxation: in case of failure, the consequences of the remainder are negated. Whereas the total particulars are unclear from Ward’s transient rationalization within the episode, it is nonetheless a serious shift from the earlier model.

The precept behind Darkish Presents is that the powers bestowed come at a price. In Curse of Strahd, this typically concerned disfigurations or obsessive persona traits (hilarious for DMs, not a lot for the characters). Nevertheless, in Van Richten’s model, the drawbacks of the Presents have been typically negligible as a result of they triggered solely when the participant rolled a 1 on a d20 or in different slender circumstances. Mist Walker’s new downside, Poisoned Roots, turns each place the place the Gifted participant takes a relaxation right into a harmful space that might sap their vitality, however solely after quite a lot of weeks equal to their Structure modifier. That is annoying for gamers who’ve a base the place they spend the downtime between adventures, however unlikely to be a nuisance in any other case.

Utilizing Mist Walker as a reference, we will surmise that the Darkish Presents’ drawbacks will come into play extra typically, thus balancing the highly effective boons granted by the feat. This might additionally present additional choices for narrative improvement throughout play, making this a constructive guidelines replace. Nevertheless, it nonetheless would not beat the consequences of the unique amber sarcophagi: nothing challenges a participant like studying that “the beneficiary of this Darkish Reward should eat bones or grave grime to outlive.” Yuck.