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

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.

 

[SkidAce]

The digital format on D&D Beyond is a web format, you cannot download a copy. You can, of course, jump through some hoops to convert the webpages into another file type, but DDB doesn't support that natively.

Like all digital purchases, you are purchasing a license to the content, you do not "own" it. If DDB gets canceled in the future, so do all of your purchases.

Personally, I'm cool with the way DDB is set up, use it a lot, and plan to purchase this book. Others are not fans of how digital books like this work, at least not on DDB.

I printed a backup to pdf in about 2 minutes.

Not a beautiful product, will continue to use Beyond...but I have it in case.

 

[SkidAce]

I picked up Sany Peterson's Cthulhu Mythos a couple years ago which seems much more exhaustive than this. So even though I'm an avid CoC player, probably not picking this one up anytime soon.

I have both.

/mythos fan

 

[orangefruitbat]

2024

Spoiler: Great Cthulhu

View attachment 412300

That's a pretty scary stat-block, but I have one question.

Spoiler

It says that Cthulhu automatically fails his saving throw against Banishment when cast with a 9th level slot, but that it also has 6! Legendary Resistences. So how many 9th level banishment spells do you need to get rid of this thing - one or seven?

 

[SkidAce]

On the D&D Beyond sources page it is under partnered content like all 3PP content, not Sourcebook or Adventure sections which are for official material only. Look down there on the bottom right.

View attachment 412298

Thats true, but if you are used to useing the menu drop down...

 

[Professor Murder]

So I am curious. This is labeled as a Chaosium product on a WotC platform. Curious to know how much Chaoium worked on this or is it just brand synergy?

 

[popuman]

A unexpected surprise. Bought it. Read it. Great job by Mike Mearls. Nice addition to D&D Beyond. Monster stats, spells, subclasses, and the Passions mechanic are all bangers.

Unfortunately, I had to submit a support ticket because even though I enabled in my sources when using their Character Builder and my account’s entitlements synced after purchasing said content, I couldn’t create a character using the subclasses listed on the book. I thought this morning’s scheduled maintenance would have resolved it. It didn’t.

Checking their Discord, several users are having the same issue.

Update: It looks like the developers resolved the issue a few minutes ago. Testing the Character Builder, and I can now see the new subclasses there.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I feel this statement is misleading as it implies that the Cthulhu Mythos was not already in 5e. I am sure there are others, but Sandy Petersen's Cthulhu Mythos (anyflip link) came out in 2018 for 5e. It is quite an interesting book IMO with interesting boss monster mechanics.

More than one person can bring a squamous horror to a party.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

So I am curious. This is labeled as a Chaosium product on a WotC platform. Curious to know how much Chaoium worked on this or is it just brand synergy?

Per Mearls earlier in this thread, he worked on it with freelancer Treantmonk.

 

[Nikosandros]

Per Mearls earlier in this thread, he worked on it with freelancer Treantmonk.

My understanding is that third party products on DDB are written by non-WotC, folks, but their implementation on the site is done by WotC.

 

[Zaukrie]

My understanding is that third party products on DDB are written by non-WotC, folks, but their implementation on the site is done by WotC.

That's what we've been told, agreed.