D&D General Cthulhu by Torchlight Brings Mythos To D&D

The supplement is called Cthulhu by Torchlight and includes subclasses, feats, and spells designed for 5E.
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Dungeons & Dragons 5E lead designer Mike Mearls' latest project combines his current and former employers--on D&D Beyond you can now access a digital exclusive product from Chaosium which brings the Cthulhu Mythos to D&D 5th Edition.

The supplement is called Cthulhu by Torchlight and includes subclasses, feats, and spells designed for 5E.

Cthulhu by Torchlight adds a new subclass to each of the character classes in the new Player’s Handbook, along with over two dozen Mythos-themed spells, a new background, and new Origin feats. For DMs, it holds over 20 horrid monsters of the Cthulhu Mythos. Rules for Passions and Dreadful Insights amplify roleplaying by putting mechanics behind your characters’ personality, while the skill challenge rules provide a framework for investigation, interaction, and other non-combat encounters.


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Cthulhu by Torchlight was just announced on Treantmonklvl20's Patreon channel, because he helped work on it (mostly on subclasses, some on monsters) with Mike Mearls, who is the lead designer on this book.

This book, which is now newly available on DnDBeyond, combines Call of Cthulhu and 5th edition D&D. Videos drop tomorrow (I think) on YouTube.

LINK

Summary of contents:
New Subclasses to play. 12 subclasses, one for each class in the PHB:

Barbarian: Path of the Spell Scorned - abilities to counter magic
Bard: College of Drama - A bard who gets the entire party involved in hijinks, often with party-wide disguise
Cleric: Apocalypse Domain - The world is ending, and this guy is here to foretell your doom
Druid: Circle of the Symbiote - You've embraced nature so much it's now growing out of you (Swamp Thing)
Fighter: Hero - Inspiring Leader (Tanis from Dragon Lance, some elements of a Warlord class)
Monk: Warrior of Cosmic Balance - When the Cosmos spins out of alignment, your job is to kick it back into place.
Paladin: Oath of the Guardian - A very tanky paladin. You are the one who protects others. Can forgo using weapon mastery to mark foes instead (no action).
Ranger: Trail Warden - Good at teamwork, keeping party out of trouble, tactically cunning. At mid levels can cause whole party to both move and hide as a reaction.
Rogue: Shadow Stalker - Rogue who is learning Shadow Magic, independent power source not slots, spent on shadow magic abilities, separates own shadow as scout.
Sorcerer: Hungering Dark - Shadow Magic, create shadows across battlefield for control, can create magical darkness you can see through AND your allies can see through
Warlock: The Exalted Assembly of the Feline Court - Pact with the Feline Powers that stand against the darkness. Can turn into a cat, 9 lives
Wizard: Bibliomancy - Alter your spells in fundamental ways by studying the science of magic. You're a hacker of spells.

Spells: 25 New Spells, some aimed at subclasses, some aimed at the setting.
Feats: 5 New Feats
Monsters: Cthulhu monsters to fight/survive (including stats for Cthulhu)(23 new monsters)
New Rules: Rules for Skill Challenges, Rules for Investigations in D&D. Pendragon-style role playing edge with a Passion System with a role playing trait your character can trigger to explain why your character is going into danger which comes with a mechanical bump that is "a little bit juicier" than just getting heroic inspiration.
Magic Items: Tomes of Forbidden Knowledge magic items (5), which can threaten your sanity but grant power, and 2 more new items.
Background: One new background





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Secondary world full blown fantasy combined with horror is right up my alley. That said, I think it's already pretty well-served by a lot of products. Heck, even specifically "Lovecraftian 5e" has already been done pretty extensively by Sandy Petersen's Cthulhu Mythos book and the various campaigns that support it.

Granted, I think that's post-Chaosium Sandy Petersen, but what; are they trying to compete with their own grandmaster? It's like Journey trying to compete head to head with Steve Perry or something.

I dunno. I'll probably check it out, even though I don't really play 5e anyway. Mearls' own 3e Darkness & Dread wasn't a bad product, and shows that he understands the territory well enough.
 


I’m reminded of this old gem:
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d20 was probably a bad system for Call of Cthulhu, but the introductory adventures that came in this book were excellent, and playing through them remains among my fondest gaming memories.

This product does seem like kind of the inverse, though.
 
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Secondary world full blown fantasy combined with horror is right up my alley. That said, I think it's already pretty well-served by a lot of products. Heck, even specifically "Lovecraftian 5e" has already been done pretty extensively by Sandy Petersen's Cthulhu Mythos book and the various campaigns that support it.

Granted, I think that's post-Chaosium Sandy Petersen, but what; are they trying to compete with their own grandmaster? It's like Journey trying to compete head to head with Steve Perry or something.

I dunno. I'll probably check it out, even though I don't really play 5e anyway. Mearls' own 3e Darkness & Dread wasn't a bad product, and shows that he understands the territory well enough.
This product looks like it's very deeply connected to 5E systems and has subclasses that work within or without a mythos framework. If my main campaign ever headed back to Freeport, this would be a no-brainer. (Decades old spoiler for the Freeport Trilogy, I guess.)
 


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