Dhampir and Other Species To Be Included in Astarion's Book of Hungers

The dhampir will be among several playable species included in the digital exclusive Astarion's Book of Hungers, which is currently only available as part of a $159.99 "Ultimate Bundle." Announced today during a panel on the upcoming Forgotten Realms content at Gen Con, the dhampir will make its return in the upcoming "digital DLC" for the Forgotten Realms books. An Ultimate Bundle was also put up for pre-order on D&D Beyond, which includes 8 species. Assumably, the dhampir and seven other species will appear in Astarion's Book of Hungers and perhaps split with one other unnamed DLC that's also included in the bundle. A third DLC, Netheril's Fall, is an adventure of unspecified length.

The fact that the dhampir and other species content will be included as "digital DLC" is interesting for several reasons. D&D previously made three species - the grung, locathah, and tortle - available exclusively as digital content. However, all three were released to benefit charity, with the tortle eventually making its way into Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse. So, while this wouldn't be the first time that D&D made player-facing content exclusive digitally, the intent (charity versus "Digital DLC") is certainly different. Additionally, it's unclear whether these digital DLCs will be available to purchase separately or if they'll only be available via the Ultimate Bundle, which includes physical and digital copies of the Forgotten Realms books, plus the three DLC packets.

 

[Kurotowa]

I'm 98% certain the dhampir and related feats will appear in the Horror based Ravenloft product coming out in 2026 with the subclasses.

Your paying for the Asterion stuff and early access.

I was having the same suspicion, now that a Ravenloft something seems likely. Which yes, does somewhat negatively impact my willingness to buy this digital supplement. But $15 these days ...it isn't a lot of money. If I go out for a bowl of pho I'm paying more than that. So if people say the material is good, I might grab it anyway.

 

[Dire Bare]

So, Heroforge has done collaborations with a lot of RPG publishers (Hit Point Press, KB, Coyote and Crow, etc) for specific unique parts as promotion for their game. Skycastle (HF parent company) just announced a colab with Daggerheart to have three of their unique species (a frog race, mushroom race and ape race) in Heroforge, along with some outfits and decals. However, each pack must be purchased separately for $8.00 per pack. This is the first time we have ever been charged for specific items in HF. These parts are not included in their Pro subscription either (which was needed for things like kitbashing or community sharing) either.

The community is in active revolt over the notion of paying ala carte for the parts. The Discord is flooded with complaints, Reddit is a sea of griping, and the community tab is filled with dozens of figures holding "no dlc" signs and middle fingers. People are cancelling their pro subscriptions as well.

It's been implied that they could not have gotten the rights to do the DH species without a revenue sharing agreement either, which is souring people towards Darrington.

The colab has been a terrible failure so far with Darrington and Skycastle taking massive heat for enpoopification of HF and gouging paying customers for exclusive content. People are moving to other mini makers as well from it.

My point of Darrington is 100% capable of charging you for dlc access. They are no better than WotC in that regard.

Thanks!

Wow!

I shouldn't be surprised that folks are up in arms, even if I think the Darrington and HeroForge collab is completely reasonable.

Well, hopefully for Darrington and HeroForge, it's a loud minority making all the noise.

 

[Charlaquin]

Well, sure, if you're going to be hyperbolic about it.

Could the digital only material we'll be getting in a few weeks have worked in some sort of print/digital product format? Sure.

This was not the tune you and others were singing when this first came up. But, I appreciate you coming back to this (IMO more reasonable) position now.

But would it have been worth doing financially? WotC doesn't seem to think so. And that makes sense to me, and it doesn't bother me.

Well of course they wouldn’t think it’s worth doing financially, if they think they could make more by going all-digital. That doesn’t mean they couldn’t have put this material into a physical product and still profited, but the margins are certainly larger on a digital sales. Which is exactly why it behooves anyone who buys their products and wants them to continue to be available in physical format to do what they can to keep WotC from thinking that digital only is a viable model. Because it’s literally their job to make as much profit as possible. As soon as it looks like they stand to gain more by going all-digital than they would stand to lose by offering a print option, that print option will be gone.

If others are disappointed the material won't be available in print . . . reasonable disagreement, I'm good with it.

Sure. Like I said, if you just don’t have a problem with digital-only, then that’s a reasonable disagreement. It was the specific framing of there being no viable way for this material to get printed that I think is unreasonable. Like, literally I was asked if it was between digital only or nothing, would I prefer nothing, and when I said I don’t think that’s a realistic dichotomy, the thread exploded into dozens of pages of argument over that point.

 

[Charlaquin]

The community is in active revolt over the notion of paying ala carte for the parts. The Discord is flooded with complaints, Reddit is a sea of griping, and the community tab is filled with dozens of figures holding "no dlc" signs and middle fingers. People are cancelling their pro subscriptions as well.

Good for them! I wish the D&D fandom was so engaged in protecting their own interests as consumers.

 

[Dire Bare]

This was not the tune you and others were singing when this first came up. But, I appreciate you coming back to this (IMO more reasonable) position now.

Well of course they wouldn’t think it’s worth doing financially, if they think they could make more by going all-digital. That doesn’t mean they couldn’t have put this material into a physical product and still profited, but the margins are certainly larger on a digital sales. Which is exactly why it behooves anyone who buys their products and wants them to continue to be available in physical format to do what they can to keep WotC from thinking that digital only is a viable model. Because it’s literally their job to make as much profit as possible. As soon as it looks like they stand to gain more by going all-digital than they would stand to lose by offering a print option, that print option will be gone.

Sure. Like I said, if you just don’t have a problem with digital-only, then that’s a reasonable disagreement. It was the specific framing of there being no viable way for this material to get printed that I think is unreasonable. Like, literally I was asked if it was between digital only or nothing, would I prefer nothing, and when I said I don’t think that’s a realistic dichotomy, the thread exploded into dozens of pages of argument over that point.

Are you sure about that?

I really don't remember anyone claiming that these three digital-only releases were ONLY possible (financially) as digital-only releases. Only worth doing financially in this format, that's seems reasonable, even if everyone doesn't see it that way or would prefer it otherwise.

 

[Charlaquin]

I think it is important to remember that WotC is making this thing exclusive to their platform as well. I don't think DH has a platform, and I don't expect they will release thing solely to Demiplane (for example).

That said, every RPG company that sells material you can't get in print is selling "DLC" so I am not sure why folks are worried about it.

DLC is an inherently anti-consumer model of monetization. It’s acceptable for small companies that can’t afford to compete in the arena of print media. But for those who can afford to, the only thing that keeps them selling physical products is consumer pressure. If one cares about keeping physical media alive, one has good reason to demand the producers of the media they consume offer physical options whenever possible.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I was having the same suspicion, now that a Ravenloft something seems likely. Which yes, does somewhat negatively impact my willingness to buy this digital supplement. But $15 these days ...it isn't a lot of money. If I go out for a bowl of pho I'm paying more than that. So if people say the material is good, I might grab it anyway.

Even if there is a Ravenloft "something" - possible, but far from certain, it's more likely to be an adventure than a book of species. I wouldn't expect dhampr in anything but the vampire product. It's not like they are massively popular.

 

[Charlaquin]

Are you sure about that?

I really don't remember anyone claiming that these three digital-only releases were ONLY possible (financially) as digital-only releases. Only worth doing financially in this format, that's seems reasonable, even if everyone doesn't see it that way or would prefer it otherwise.

Yes, quite sure. I’ll find one of the relevant posts and edit a link to it into this post.

 

[Dire Bare]

DLC is an inherently anti-consumer model of monetization. It’s acceptable for small companies that can’t afford to compete in the arena of print media. But for those who can afford to, the only thing that keeps them selling physical products is consumer pressure. If one cares about keeping physical media alive, one has good reason to demand the producers of the media they consume offer physical options whenever possible.

DLC is anti-consumer?

Not this consumer. I'm fine with it. Prefer it for some small releases, like the three digital-only products releasing soon.

 

[Remathilis]

Even if there is a Ravenloft "something" - possible, but far from certain, it's more likely to be an adventure than a book of species. I wouldn't expect dhampr in anything but the vampire product. It's not like they are massively popular.

They (and reborn and hex blood) were in VGR. If they reprinted them with changes (I highly suspect dhampir will be undead type) they will be in the next Ravenloft/horror book.