D&D 5E [Let's Read] DM's Guild Ravenloft Sourcebooks

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Rotwald is a rustic domain, and as far as I can tell has no relation to the town of the same name from Ravenloft’s pre-5th Edition Valachan. Western Rotwald is home to open plains and villages of friendly yet magic-intolerant locals, with Lake Tranen in the center providing rivers that serve as the lifeline for civilization. The Rotwald Forest occupies the east, a dangerous place full of all kinds of monsters that nobody ventures into unless they have a death wish. The monsters of the forest are a persistent danger to the western villages, and finding ways to guard against their incursions dominates day-to-day life, be it practical defenses such as walls or word-of-mouth superstitions that may or may not work. The Nordsilber Mine is just as important as the river, for it is used both to mint currency and supply the population with silver weaponry. No one person owns the mine, as a democratic council of miners sees to its operation.

The inhabitants of the domain are known as Gromanites, who have a common creation story of an ancestor named Gromund who fathered 30 sons and 30 daughters, all of whom were kidnapped by monsters before their father rescued them by slaying them all. Buying his children enough time to escape, they scattered across the land, becoming the people of Rotwald today. He is now worshipped as a mortal saint reflecting lofty ideals such as community, protecting the innocent, and accepting others. Reflecting their ancestor, polyamory and extended family units are common, and family members are defined as “who sits with me by the fire” in addition to biological relations.

All sorts of monsters can be found in Rotwald, from blights to hags to werewolves and more. Even many mundane animals in the forest are often giant-sized dire versions. We do have a new stat block for a Living Curse, a CR 4 undead that has a special possession attack that inhabits a creature and imposes upon them the effects of a Bestow Curse (and a list of other folkloric curses) for those so possessed. There is a foul cave known as the Spawning Pit in the easternmost reaches of Rotwald Forest, continually creating monsters so that the darklords and other monster hunters in the domain face an endless war.

Rotwald has two darklords, the siblings Hans and Margrit Jager. They were born to a family of woodsmen hunters, the survivors of a vicious attack by hags and their monstrous minions. Hans and Margrit traveled from town to town, using their talents to scrape by as orphans. When they got old enough, they returned to their homeland to kill the hags and their servants. Unsatisfied, Hans and Margrit swore that “all monsters must die” and continued plying their new trade as monster hunters. Eventually, they came to a village that had positive relations with a group of mages known as the White Witches. Seeing no difference between hags and rustic spellcasters in general, the Jager siblings ventured into the woods and slaughtered them. This news soon got back to the village, and an angry mob was formed to bring them to justice. Hans and Margrit killed the mob, and also everyone else in the village, believing them to be willing associates of monsters. Even worse, they found themselves enjoying ending so many lives.

So the Dark Powers gave them a domain of their own, where they can hunt all the monsters they want. While the siblings are unknown to the populace at large, only coming into settlements to replace and repair tools and weapons, they are so blinded by bloodlust and hate that they cannot tell the difference between monsters and non-monsters. And so they have claimed the lives of many innocents.

Hans and Margrit Jager have their own unique stat blocks, but what they share in common is that they’re both CR 11 human Rangers. They have a variety of proficient skills, ranger spells, are adept at both melee and ranged combat, as well as Legendary Resistance and Actions along with having darkvision, regeneration, and immunity to exhaustion to make them better hunters. Margrit has a higher Strength score and favors wading into the thick of things, while Hans fights with a heavy crossbow and prefers hit and run sniping tactics.

Thoughts: I don’t have any strong opinions on Rotwald. While I do get the Jager sibling’s curse and the futility of their endless war, the Spawning Pit’s creations feel like the bigger threat to the domain’s people. Typically, the darklord is the main threat or primary cause of the land’s woes, so while it is their prison and they don’t care about innocent casualties, their crusade feels more like a side problem than the main one.

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Scelus is one of our two Industrial-era domains, a sprawling urban hell of factories, crowded tenements, polluted air and rivers, and warring crime syndicates who effectively run the government. The reigning aristocracy and business magnates are either crime lords themselves or allied with them, and the common folk suffer lives of sickness and drudgery. The omnipresent pollution has led to the festering of Scum, sludge-like amoeboid colonies infused with demonic magic that can spawn various ooze monsters. The Scum also corrupts people living near it over time, causing them to grow progressively more violent, insane, and sadistic. A drug known as dross can be brewed using Scum as an ingredient, which grants temporary hits points and immunity to the charmed and frightened condition as benefits, but side effects make it harder to regain hit points naturally, addiction where the user is unable to feel anything without getting high on the drug, and cannot rid themselves of Scum corruption without magical healing.

Scelus is a port city, surrounded by the ocean to the south and mountains to the north. It is divided into four districts, each ruled over by a major crime syndicate. Brineside is the docks and run by the Canners, responsible for supplying much of the city’s food and whose factories are full of indentured servants. Downfall was the former slum known as Pinewood that got burned down 10 years ago, and is made up of ruins inhabited by salvagers. The Raze reigns here, burglars and fences who are willing to do virtually anything for the right price. Greylock Heights is home to the city’s upper class, and a secret society of drug-dealing occultists known as the Circle entered into warlock pacts with entities known as the Dark Ones. They regularly kidnap people to offer up as sacrifices to their patrons, and they’ve recently found ways to make contact with the darklords of other domains. Ironskin Hold is a smoggy neighborhood in the mountains, home to the city’s mining industries. The Aurumite syndicate run the city’s mines, banks, and smithies, and has a monopoly over protective gas masks that they use to ensure the loyalty of their citizens.

Scelus’ various crime lords have fantasy and supernatural angles to them. The Raze’s upper leadership is actually one doppelganger assuming multiple identities, the Aurumites are ruled by a gold dragon corrupted into evil by Scum, and the Circle is run by a nothic who was a former wizard stripped of his power. The Canner’s are the closest in having a down-to-earth non-supernatural leader, a woman who puts up a “sweet, kindly motherly” front to Canners but is ruthless against everyone else.

Beyond the humanoid element, monsters which are common in Scelus tend to be morphic, aberrant, and/or oozelike in nature, such as Oblexes, mimics, and black puddings. “Slasher horror” style Relentless Killers from Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft are also present here. Our sole new monster is a Putrid Ooze, a CR 6 creature whose poisonous pseudopods can infect a target with a random disease.

The domain’s darklord is Azalea, the daughter of a bladesmith whose father was murdered after refusing to make weapons for a local gang. She dedicated her life to revenge against the crime lord who put out the hit on him. While Azalea became an accomplished warrior, she needed a magical edge and researched dark magic, eventually making contact with an unknown entity who offered her power in exchange for giving it the souls of the murdered to consume. It was Juiblex, the demon lord of slime and oozes, and she accepted its bargain. Azalea became an accomplished killer, tracking down and slaying the various gangsters, growing in power with every life she took. But one day, she ended up claiming an innocent casualty: after murdering the crime lord in his sleep, his wife woke up and was about to scream, but Azalea silenced her.

At that moment the woman realized she crossed a moral threshold, but Juiblex wasn’t about to lose her. It mentioned that Azalea’s crusade didn’t have to end there, that the city was still full of evil souls in need of killing. She lost whatever moral fabric she had left, and the Night of Widows went down in history as she went from house to house, killing not just criminals but their friends and family members who had nothing to do with their misdeeds. Azalea earned the nickname the Widowmaker, and the powers of a darklord. She doesn’t remember her old life, but still acts the same: as a serial killer who only knows how to stop crime with violence. The more she kills, the more Juiblex gets a hold in the domain, as Scum infestations continue to grow.

In terms of stats, Azalea is a CR 15 half-elf with Rogue and Warlock abilities, specifically the Assassin and Fiend subclasses. Her spells tend to focus on debuffs and battlefield control, using a dagger and sneak attack as her main method of offense. She has Legendary Resistance, and Legendary Actions allow her to teleport, move and take the Hide action, or cause a grievous wound that continues damaging the target and reducing its maximum hit points until staunched via healing.

Thoughts: I like Scelus’ variety of criminal factions with their own unique themes and supernatural backing. The Scum infestation being a supernatural infestation is also cool, and it gives me strong vibes of Dishonored, a game series I love. As for its darklord, I feel that she’s a bit too close in theme to Rotwald’s, although I’d regard her more highly as her crusade is more directly tied into the domain itself and the crime syndicate’s systemic nature reflects the fact that indiscriminate violence won’t make things better.

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Sgail is our other Industrial-era domain, albeit it takes place in a sleepy seaside hamlet rather than a claustrophobic urban center. The village of Sgail relies heavily on fishing to make a living, but its inhabitants are rude and distrusting of outsiders. It is a dark and gloomy place, with torrential downpours occurring at least once a week and thick fog fills the bay from morning until mid-day. There are stranger things that become apparent when staying here for a time, such as the fact that the fish have extra eyes or that every timber has a patch of mold growing in it. The townsfolk are aware of these things, but do their best to ignore them. The island of Longstone is home to Trinity Lighthouse, which has been abandoned and its light glows on its own during dark nights with a strange purple hue. A smaller island known as Noc’s Reef has been forgotten by most inhabitants, holding coral-choked shrines to undersea gods where sea spawn gather after the island’s floods over in order to worship away from human eyes.

Monsters in Sgail tend to be aquatic and aberrant, like aboleths and deep scions, as well as water elementals and water weirds. Our new monsters include different varieties of sea spawn: Wretches (CR ¼, weaker versions of the base monster that are forced into doing labor others of their kind don’t want to do), Snappers (CR 3, have shark-like maws that can swallow Medium and smaller creatures), Urchins (CR 5, covered in poisonous spines), and Cephalids (CR 7, big bruiser types with grappling tentacles).

The domain’s darklord is Captain Thomas Darling, the captain of the Harvest Queen which is the largest ship in town. He is a quiet, introverted man that rarely shows emotions and doesn’t care for much besides his work, and most in town don’t really know much about him. His backstory is that he was a sailor ever since he was a child, retiring as a lighthouse keeper and settling down once he got too old for the job. His wife died in childbirth, but his daughter Grace survived. She had a close brush with death at ten years old, coming down with an incurable illness. Captain Darling found himself unable to watch his daughter waste away, so he took to sailing again. One day, a giant sea monster attacked his ship, and dragged him below the depths. Darling came face to face with Arkyvathigoss, the Sire of the Deep, a godlike Lovecraftian entity who saw potential in the Captain. In exchange for becoming his servant, Arkyvathigoss would grant Grace a new life. He accepted, although the terms of Darling’s servitude were to bring the god of the deep people for it to devour, which he did by tricking his latest crew into sailing out into the ocean.

Content Warning: Child Death, Assisted Suicide

Arkyvathigoss was satisfied with Thomas Darling fulfilling his end of the bargain, so it deposited a mucus-covered cocoon upon the deck. It held Grace inside, now a monstrous being of flesh and tentacles. She was still in pain, and begged for her father to kill her. It was at this point that Thomas Darling knew he committed one act of great evil after another: betraying his crew, and causing his daughter even more suffering. He killed her, and the Mists claimed Darling as well as Arkyvathigoss.

Thomas Darling is still a servant to Arkyvathigoss. He still hopes to revive his daughter, but not in the way it was done before. He knows better than to trust the Elder Evil, but still brings out sacrifices in the belief that the entity would destroy all of Sgail if not satisfied. As for Arkyvathigoss, it is not the domain’s darklord but is equally trapped, its undersea realm now confined to a much smaller sea cut off from the rest of the planes. The various aquatic monsters serve it, out of fear if not loyalty, and deep scions are its favored spies in town where they pose as regular humans.

In terms of stats Captain Darling is a CR 15 warlock who has a swim speed and can breathe underwater, attacks with a harpoon that can pull struck targets back towards him, can summon spectral tentacles to attack and grapple targets, and oddly his Legendary Actions are a misprint of Azalea’s abilities. I checked his stat block in d’Avenir’s Pocketbook, and noticed that they are to move or summon/attack with a tentacle. In spite of being listed as such, Darling has no warlock spells, so his major means of offense are harpoons and tentacle summons.

As for Arkyvathigoss, it can manifest an Aspect of itself which is a CR 28 aberration. It can fight multiple tentacles, fling grappled objects and targets as a thrown attack, can swallow grappled targets, and has two different AoE attacks: a gaze from its cone that paralyzes targeted creatures, and burst of energy dealing psychic damage and forces targets to move in a random direction on a failed Intelligence save. Its legendary actions include its physical attacks, the energy burst, and summoning an aboleth minion.

Thoughts: It may not be the biggest or most diverse domain in terms of adventuring material, but Sgail hews close to the Innsmouth-style Lovecraftian seaside vibe, and I like how its darklord still has a human element in spite of the more alien influences of the Elder Evil and related monster. Even though he’s not the strongest threat, Thomas Darling is still perpetuating the cycle of death and misery rather than defying his patron, which keeps the domain ever-vulnerable to Arkyvathigoss’ depredations.

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Content Warning: Child abuse, including the torture and murder of children, is an omnipresent theme throughout this domain’s writeup.

Winterhall (once again, no header) is our second brand-new domain. It is a boarding school specializing in teaching the magical arts, and its student body is separated into three houses based on age range: preteens, adolescents, and adults, with the elementary school-aged children the most numerous and the adults the least. The campus is surrounded by forest and remains cold for most of the year, and exemplifies the “tyrannical teachers” trope seen frequently in children’s media albeit cranked up to Ravenloft’s levels of horror. Winterhall poses as a respectable institution that delivers scholarship letters across the planes, but shortly after students arrive do they realize it’s a prison and they’ll never leave. But there is a fate worse than death, as students who consistently fail to perform or cause too much trouble are “expelled.” In reality they have their minds drained by the headmistress and turned into thrulls, creepy psionic husks with shrunken heads who serve as Winterhall’s prefects.

Pretty much every subject and facility has some sadistic adult (usually a literal monster such as a hag, efreeti, and the like) whose purpose is to make student’s lives a living hell. For example, the gymnasium has dangerous obstacle courses and regiments that can inflict injuries; the library is run by a nagpa who casts Feeblemind on anyone who makes any kind of noise, and the building is designed as a confusing maze whose bookshelves constantly shift in order to prevent students from finding what they need; students are disciplined by being imprisoned overnight in a public restroom converted into a row of cells, and monsters from the forest regularly come out to bang and rattle the bars of the cells; and homework is made to be difficult beyond the means of student’s grade levels. Even scoring highly will cause scorn and division, as a higher average of test scores merely causes the faculty to increase the minimum for passing grades from then on out. Students who die are revived by the school nurse, done to show that even death is not an escape.

What’s the purpose for all this child abuse? Well, that lies with the background of the domain’s darklord, Headmistress Amelia Read. A tiefling born to an impoverished peasant family, a wizard by the name of Diana recognized her magical talent and offered her family the option to tutor Amelia. Diana’s insight proved correct, and Amelia became an accomplished mage. Viewing her like a daughter, Diana entrusted her estate to the tiefling, and from the resources and connections of her tutor Amelia was able to become an even greater wizard. But magical research proved pricey, so she decided to teach magic to children and formed a boarding school to fund her efforts. Amelia hated children, and at first she wanted to coast on by teaching noble scions easy-to-learn cantrips. Amelia began expanding the classes to more advanced courses, selfishly motivated by the idea of molding young minds into a new generation of wizards loyal to her. By the time the tiefling was approaching the end of her life, she feared that her magic would be unable to delay the inevitable. She ended up researching ways to become a lich, which required one to commit an act of unambiguous evil. That very act would be to trick her students into a ritual designed to devour their minds and add their intellect to hers.

Amelia was able to become an immortal lich, but she also became a darklord. However, unlike most liches she still required sustenance by devouring the minds of others. The minds of adults couldn’t feed her, so she’d have to rely exclusively on children, and the smarter the child the more filling. Her new school of Winterhall was created to provide a steady stream for this, and filled her faculty with all sorts of social rejects and exiles in need of a safe haven. The punishing curriculum is designed partly out of Amelia being a hate-filled person who still resents children, and also in the belief that the students who could weather it would provide the strongest minds of all.

However, showing her true face and wickedness caused students to resent her, which caused a violent yet failed rebellion. So now she poses as a sweetly-saccharine headmistress who acts unaware of how bad things are at the school and fills children with false hope and promises that things will get better. In terms of stats she is a CR 22 lich, but has no phylactery and much less spells. She can cast Fireball and Tasha’s Mind Whip at will, and most of her spells revolve around enchantment. Instead of Frightening Gaze and Disrupt Life as is typical for liches, she has a Mind Drain Attack (mislabeled Soul Drain in the Legendary Actions) that deals psychic damage and she regains hit points equal to the damage dealt.

All sorts of monsters can be found in Winterhall, usually as faculty or being some kind of servant. Undead are quite common, as are Brains in Jars and Mist Apparitions. Thrulls come in two varieties: Hall Monitors (CR 4, spider climb and blindsight make them good at catching up to hiding students, are immune to enchantment spells and psychic damage, can create psionic lassos as a ranged attack and teleport itself as well as willing and grappled targets) and Tormentors (CR 8, big bruisers whose slam attacks also create AoE shockwave cones and can mentally grapple a target, paralyzing and charming them on a contested Athletics vs Intelligence check).

Thoughts: Using Winterhall in a typical session will be harder than others, even if the idea of an evil magic school serving as a prison can make for an offbeat adventure or campaign. First off, adult PCs who are visiting the domain are likely to see through the Headmistress’ kind act and realize something’s up, that someone in charge of such a hellish place doesn’t use her power to reign in sadistic teachers. Additionally, there are few things that bring out someone’s anger and desire for justice than people who sadistically torture and murder children, so many gaming groups are going to be very eager to ignore academic politics and want to go around murdering the teachers. The book notes that the NPC teachers and darklord were made to be high CR monsters on purpose to make parties act in a subtler way. But while I can see this working for some gaming groups, others may find it too depressing and disempowering, where the most they can do is make the best of a bad situation in finding ways to save the children without rolling for initiative.

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Normally this would be a lengthy entry of its own, but as I covered pretty much every prior monster and NPC we only have two entries to discuss here. The first is a Bandit Lord, a CR 6 humanoid who is primarily a melee fighter but unlike most bandits has three proficient saves (Strength, Dexterity, Wisdom) and Legendary Resistance and Legendary Actions. The latter don’t have anything truly unique, just bonus movement and an attack. The Hunter is a CR 5 humanoid who is akin to a veteran spell-less Ranger, having proficiency in various outdoorsman skills, equipped with silver arrows and daggers, a single Favored Enemy, and can Mark Quarry which basically acts like Hunter’s Mark.

Thoughts So Far: Sgail is my favorite of the last four domains, with Scelus a second. Winterhall is perhaps my least favorite, although I don’t necessarily think that it’s a bad domain, only one that is of limited use due to the subject matter. I did find that Rotwald’s and Scelus’ darklords to be a bit too similar, and in being right up next to each other the similarities are harder to ignore.

Final Thoughts: With a dozen domains of various themes and a grab-bag of lineages and subclasses, Ezmerelda’s Guide to Ravenloft is a book packed full of content bound to be useful for most Ravenloft DMs. The domains are versatile in subject matter, potential adventures, and levels of play, which is a plus. However, I have noticed recurring similarities among its darklords that feel repetitive: noble background, turning to dark magic to become immortal, and so on. There were also sections in need of another editing pass, such as mislabeled monster names or Captain Darling having the Legendary Actions of the darklord of the prior domain. But they weren’t so frequent from my reading that they took away from the bright spots. I heartily recommend this book to anyone looking out for intriguing fan-created domains.

Join us next time as we visit the Last Waffle Shop in Barovia, a darkly comedic domain and mini-adventure!
 

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A more comedic take on the horrors of fast food retail, The Last Waffle Shop in Barovia is a collection of 6 encounters for various tiers of play. Taking place in a domain consisting of a single building, Barovian Chicken and Waffles is a gloomy hole-in-the-wall specializing in food reminiscent of the real-world Waffle House, and just like that franchise it attracts an absurd amount of violence. Its darklord is a human by the name of Oleksii, tasked with managing the store. Nobody knows the history behind the shop, and his own tales give vague origins that change by the day. The reality is that Oleksii was cursed after the Dark Powers ate at his establishment, giving them a bad stomach ache for three days. Oleksii is thus cursed to always be on the brink of saving up enough money to retire, but myriad financial troubles and sabotage of the restaurant’s operations pushes this goal a little bit back. He is also in debt to various supernatural entities, including a few warlock patrons, and he is unable to leave more than 15 feet from the store. Unless it’s in the Village of Barovia, at which point he can leave for 1d4+1 days before teleporting back.

Barovian Chicken & Waffles travels the Domains of Dread as well as other planes of existence across the Multiverse, and its patrons typically reflect locals who don’t realize that the place is anything more than a simple (if a bit weird) eatery. Sample inhabitants and locations are given based on setting and domain, such as it being in a shady alley in Borca and the food has a 25% chance to be poisoned, or if in Eberron it’s occupied by soldiers on shore leave during the Last War; warforged customers pretend to eat out of politeness’ sake. The regular faces include the illithid barista known as Gary, an employee named Viktor who became a ghost after being locked in the pantry and continues to tidy the place unbeknownst to Oleksii, an alkilith demon haunting the bathroom which causes it to be perpetually out of order, and an ogre zombie dishwasher. We even have a menu that’s a separate PDF handout, listing various food items and their costs, along with a humorous Disclaimer which reads like the warnings you see on medicine labels (“in the case of pregnancy please consult with your health care professional”).

Oleksii reacts with jaded resignation whenever he witnesses or is told about the strange and dangerous things that unnaturally occur around the restaurant. For example, bringing up Vicktor’s death will only earn a response that the ghost won’t be paid overtime, and revealing the existence of a portal to the Abyss in the bathroom will cause him to use it as a place to dump trash.

The six mini-adventure encounters all focus on different areas and people populating the restaurant, such as a dine-and-dasher who is actually a talented martial artist who escapes by the classic “ninja log” decoy trick upon falling to 0 hit points, or beating some batter-turned-ooze back into the bowl in the kitchen.

It’s up to the DM how many of these quests are available at once: a few at a time in case the domain becomes a recurring location, or all at once and the PCs can do as many or as little as they want. But for those parties that do all of it and thus earn some measure of respect from Oleksii, there is one final possible adventure where he hands them a letter from Anna, his supposed betrothed asking to meet on the shore of Lake Zarovich. As she was supposedly eaten by a giant frog long ago, Oleksii thinks this to be a trick. He is indeed right, as a group of oblex (shapeshifting ooze monsters that mimic other people’s forms) have secretly taken over a neighborhood in Vallaki, and one of the oblex is mimicking Anna. Nobody else in Vallaki realizes that anything’s off, and if the PCs confront Anna or try to pry into her affairs the rest of the oblex will attack. The product doesn’t give specific numbers, suggesting that it be enough to give the feeling of being surrounded and overwhelmed. Once the oblex are killed, other townsfolk in Vallaki will form a mob to try and arrest the party members, and won’t listen to reason. Returning to Oleksii with the news will be met with disbelief, as he sticks to the original story of Anna’s death. The book notes that the entire experience is meant to feel unsatisfying and underwhelming, presumably in a dark comedy way, but that DMs may still think to reward the party with level-appropriate rewards. The elder oblex leader does in fact have a suitable reward: Anna’s Betrothal Ring, a magic item that can cast wish one time. Oleksii either doesn’t know or wants to admit anything supernatural about it, insisting that it’s a fake imitation.

Overall Thoughts: Although quite cheap at $2.50, this product’s usability hinges on knowing what best makes your gaming table laugh. The encounters are all over the place in terms of recommended level, so it’s far from being balanced if one were to run it as a typical adventure locale. It does brush up hard against the serious tones of a typical Ravenloft campaign, so it would be hard to use it as a recurring element unless one’s campaign is similarly silly. As for myself, I liked it and can see myself running it as an offbeat Halloween one-shot.

Join us next time as we review Vestigial Appendages, an arsenal of 20 magic items themed after the wicked imprisoned entities in the Amber Temple!
 

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Curse of Strahd is rather light on magic items, particularly in regards to magic weapons. It’s likely that the Sun Blade will be the only one many gaming groups ever see. Vestigial Appendages adds 20 new magic weapons to the module, all tied lore-wise to one of the Vestiges from the Amber Temple. Their placement in Curse of Strahd can be done as an additional Tarokka reading, placed in an area in the same fashion as the other three treasures (Tome of Strahd, Holy Symbol of Ravenkind, Sun Blade). Alternatively, they can be placed elsewhere in Barovia, most likely in the hands of a powerful NPC or part of a significant treasure hoard. Each weapon is rare, has its own unique artwork in the book, a +2 bonus on attack and damage rolls, applies some persistent penalty while wielded in line with the Vestige, and requires attunement. For DMs who incorporate them into other Tiers of play, the book has suggestions for lowering or raising their power.

I won’t go over every weapon in this post, instead highlighting about half of the ones I find the most interesting.

Chaos Acument of Zrin-Hala is a warhammer that harmlessly sparks electricity in the hands of the attuned. A bolt of lightning jumps out at a selected target within 20 feet whenever it’s used to make a knockout or killing blow, and foes who fail a Constitution save to halve the damage cause another bolt to jump out from the warhammer, which can be done up to 5 times. Its one-time curse upon attunement is that the wielder forgets minor or major events from their life based on whether they succeed or fail a Wisdom save.

Drizlash’s Chelicerae is a longbow made out of chitin that appears to squirm in the wielder’s hands. It can cast a Web spell in tandem with making an attack, and can also summon a Swarm of Insects under DM control that either erupts around a struck target on a critical hit or from the weapon itself on a critical fumble. Its curse is that the attuned becomes disinterested in food that isn’t meat or insects, and suffers psychic damage whenever they take a short or long rest where they haven’t consumed at least one piece of meat or insect.

Khirad’s Persuasion is a rapier that whistles as it’s swung and quietly titters just enough for the wielder to barely hear it. It has 3 charges that can be expended to perform the Dodge action as a bonus action. Its curse causes the wielder to be unable to take fights seriously, uncontrollably laughing during battle when taking certain actions, and has disadvantage on Intelligence and Wisdom saves while in combat.

Pinion of the Grave Wyrm Tarakamedes is a glaive carved from a single large piece of bone. It has 3 charges that can be expended when taking the attack action in combat, where the wielder instead targets all creatures within 10 feet as part of a whirling attack, and targets also become prone if they fail a Dexterity save. Its curse is that its cumbersome nature imposes disadvantage on Acrobatics skill checks.

Seriach’s Hellish Incisor is a morningstar whose offensive end is a mass of gums and teeth constructed from infernal creatures, smelling of sulfur. It has three charges that can be expended to deal bonus fire damage on a successful hit, and whenever it delivers a knockout or killing blow it has the chance to summon an allied hellhound if the wielder makes a DC 15 Charisma ability check. Its curse makes the attuned smell of sulfur, imposing disadvantage on Charisma ability checks and saving throws, along with Stealth against creatures that can smell.

Tenebrous’ Accord is a quarterstaff with an immobile homunculus sitting at its end. It can absorb up to 3 souls, which must come from a slain creature of CR ½ or lower. A soul can be spent to inhabit the homunculus, animating it for 10 minutes or until destroyed, and a destroyed homunculus reforms at the staff’s end. Its curse causes the attuned to automatically fail all Stealth checks against undead, as such monsters are inextricably drawn to their presence.

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Vampyr’s Embrace is a longsword that is not like the other weapons here. First off, it’s sentient and can telepathically communicate, urging the wielder to give in to base emotions. It also holds the original soul of Rahadin’s, which is placedinto the sword by Strahd’s father. The current Rahadin is implied to be something worse.* Vampyr’s Embrace has three charges, and how many are in the sword impose various buffs and debuffs: if no charges remain the wielder has disadvantage on attack rolls, but if there’s one or more charges then bats, rats, and wolves of all sizes will not attack the wielder. Charges may be added whenever the wielder successfully performs a melee attack against an enemy with blood and no charged abilities have been used. A charge may be spent to either deal 1d12 bonus necrotic damage, Dodge as a bonus action, or add 1d8 to a saving throw.

*Not a fan of this change to canon, as this robs Rahadin of agency in his complicity in the genocide of his people.

Vampyr has a much higher standard than the other vestiges. Anyone who first tries to attune to the weapon has their consciousness teleported into a circular room without any allies or gear (not even clothes) and has to fight 10 wolves and 1 dire wolf at once. This is Vampyr’s trial, and if he is satisfied with the PC’s battle prowess then they will return to their body and attune to the weapon. The weapon has no real curse besides the penalty from lack of charges and its own telepathic whispers.

Yrrgra’s Shadowpiercer is a hand crossbow that is black with gold inset, and dark steam continuously emanates from the weapon. It has three charges that can be spent to target a creature’s shadow, letting a crossbow bolt teleport through it and out of another creature’s shadow within the wielder’s vision, treating themselves as originating at that particular shadow for range purposes. The weapon also deals 2d6 necrotic damage when used this way. Its curse is that when not resting in complete darkness, the attuned rolls each hit die twice spent during short rests and take the lower result, and can only regain up to half their hit point maximum during long rests.

Zantras’ Arresting Quip is a net that self-repairs over the course of an hour if damaged. Creatures restrained suffer disadvantage on mental ability checks while they remain tangled in the net. Its curse causes the wielder to become overconfident, making their mind vulnerable to psychic damage.

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Zhudun’s Decrier is a flail with two chained heads, one brimming with radiant energy and the other with necrotic energy. Whenever a successful attack roll is made, an even result on the die deals 1d4 bonus radiant damage or 2d4 vs undead. An odd result instead deals 1d4 bonus necrotic damage, or 2d4 vs celestials. Its curse caused the attuned to suffer disadvantage on death saving throws.

Overall Thoughts: I certainly don’t mind the addition of themed weapons to Curse of Strahd, and tying their lore to one of the Vestiges is a neat means of foreshadowing those entities’ foul nature should a party journey to the Amber Temple. I also like how each magic weapon is of a different type, barring two of them being quarterstaffs. Only five out of the twenty are simple weapons, but as several of the martial weapons are of types that can be equipped by more roguish classes such as Bards and Monks, this arsenal isn’t of use only to traditional warriors.

That being said, the sinister origins of these weapons can cause PCs in the know to be reluctant to use them, particularly for the more overtly “dark magic” ones such as Vampyr’s Embrace or Seriach’s Hellish Incisor. Also, the curses tend to vary in their penalties; some PCs will be hardly impacted, while others will be much worse. For instance,Pinion of the Grave Wyrm Tarakamedes relies on a skill that is situational in play, but the disadvantage on Intelligence and Wisdom saves from Khirad’s Persuasion makes the wielder very vulnerable to a lot of mind-affecting abilities which Strahd and several other monsters in the module are fond of using. And while it’s equally “rare” as the others, Vampyr’s Embrace feels more special and broadly useful, in that it has not one but 4 unique benefits. I can understand this, given Vampyr’s prominence in Strahd’s downfall, but at the very least I would’ve made it Very Rare, if not Legendary.

Join us next time as we review Aspects of Fate, containing nearly half a dozen Tarokka-themed subclasses!
 

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The Tarokka deck has a special place in the broader Ravenloft universe. Originating as a means to generate treasure and character placement in the Castle Ravenloft modules, the Tarokka has expanded to other uses, such as the stand-alone Prophet’s Gambit card game to items with magical properties when used in the hands of a Vistana. Needless to say, homebrewers have expanded on the Tarokka in their own ways as covered in prior posts in this thread, and today we have a supplement for subclasses themed around the cards.

Each subclass in Aspects of Fate requires the player (not the PC) to draw from a Tarokka deck in order to determine the abilities of various class features. For groups that don’t own such a deck, alternatives are provided for using the rules with regular playing cards as well as traditional tarot cards. For in-game requirements, only two of the subclasses (Kismet Rogue and Cartomancy Wizard) require the PC to have a Tarokka deck as an item for certain abilities.

Seerknight Fighter is our first subclass, and actually the most complicated one in terms of page count and options. It represents a warrior who learns how to manipulate fate in order to gain split-second glimpses of insight in battle to perform sublime maneuvers and avert doom. They are similar to the Battlemaster Fighter in that they can learn special abilities known as Glimpses, can gain more as they level up, and they recharge their uses on a short or long rest. The subclass is a bit MAD as the save DC is based on Wisdom, not a skill most Fighters use.

At the end of a long rest the player draws three Tarokka cards in order, with them representing the Future, Present, and…Future, which I presume is a mistype as there is a “Past” card listing for all of the game mechanic results. Tarokka cards drawn this way are known as sight cards, and at the end of a short rest the player has the option of shuffling any remaining cards back into the deck to draw three new ones. Each Glimpse has a default feature that triggers when it’s used, and any Tarokka card can be spent to activate it, even if it doesn’t match the Glimpse’s title. However, if the card does match, it also activates the corresponding Past, Present, or Future ability. Glimpses pertain to specific cards: individual High Deck cards along with the Masters of Stars, Coins, and Glyphs. Swords is an exception, as it can trigger with any card in that Suite and is a Glimpse the Seerknight automatically starts with by default.

The Seerknight’s initial class features grant them proficiency in either Insight or Perception, learn either the Dancing Lights or Light cantrip, and learn three Glimpses. One of them must be Swords but the two others can be any of their choice. They learn two additional ones at 7th, 10th, and 15th level and can replace a learned one with another at any time they level up. At 7th level the Seerknight can study a space up to 30 feet diameter for 1 minute and see a particular event in the past, whose length and time placement is both based on their Wisdom modifier. They can only perceive time in one such space per long rest, but can use this ability an unlimited number of times as long as they do it in a new area per use.

At 10th level the Fighter can see into the Ethereal Plane up to 60 feet when they’re not incapacitated, and they can also draw two of every sight card for Past, Present, and Future after a rest. At 15th level creatures hit by their weapon attacks suffer disadvantage on saving throws against Glimpses used by subsequent weapon attacks this turn, and at 18th level they can see through magical darkness and automatically detect and save against magical illusions. Once per long rest they can see through up to 30 feet of solid objects as an action, and whenever they spend a sight card can activate any number of Past, Present, or Future abilities for a matching Glimpse rather than just one of them.

Now, what about the particular Glimpses? I won’t cover all of them due to the sheer amount, but instead highlight some of the more interesting ones.

Swords can be spent when the Fighter makes a weapon attack roll, rolling an additional d20 and taking the highest result. Its Past Value adds the value of the card to the attack roll with a Master of Swords being 10, Present does the same but adds to the damage, and Future lets the Glimpse apply to the next attack made against that creature, even from an ally.

Master of Stars lets the Fighter learn two cantrips with a casting time of one action, and the base effect lets them forego one of their attacks as part of the Attack action to cast one of these cantrips; Past lets them automatically break a creature’s concentration when they hit with a weapon attack, but this can be done only once rather than multiple times with each attack; Present makes an attack roll with one of the learned cantrips have advantage, or if it provokes a saving throw the target has disadvantage; Future lets them replace any number of attacks made as part of the Attack action with one of the cantrips.

Beast is activated by an action, and grants the Fighter advantage on Dexterity saves vs effects they can see for a number of hours equal to their Wisdom modifier; Past grants them enhanced sense of smell, letting them recognize distinct styles and detect creatures within 30 feet; Present increases their speed by 10 feet; Future grants advantage on Survival checks to track creatures; all of these effects persist while the Glimpse’s base feature is active.

Broken One’s base effect is used on a successful weapon attack, making the target incapacitated for 1 turn on a failed Constitution save; Past lets the Fighter learn its two lowest ability scores if it failed that earlier save; Present makes the target paralyzed instead; Future lets the Fighter add the damage of the initial attack to their next glimpse save DC while the creature remains affected by the base effect.

Donjon is used as a reaction on a successful weapon attack by the Fighter, transporting the target into a harmless demiplane for 1 turn if they fail a Wisdom save; Past lets the Fighter use it for free without spending a reaction as they “saw it coming;” Present deals psychic damage equal to Fighter level to the target while inside the demiplane; Future causes the creature to still believe they’re in the demiplane and need to make Intelligence saves to break the illusion, and the Fighter can concentrate on the effect as if it were a spell for up to 1 minute.

Executioner is spent as a reaction on a successful attack, causing the target to instantaneously gain vulnerability to the damage of the attack; Past lets the Fighter do it for free without spending a reaction; Present lets the Fighter kill the creature if it would end up with fewer hit points than their Fighter level; Future lets the next attack against that creature gain the glimpse’s base benefits.

Ghost lets the Fighter cast Detect Thoughts on one creature as an action, and can be done as part of the Attack action; Past lets the Fighter learn the target’s darkest secret on a failed Wisdom save; Present makes the Fighter’s weapon attack deal psychic damage instead of its normal damage type and leaves no physical marks; Future makes it so that the creature’s attacks have disadvantage against the Fighter, but doesn’t specify a duration. As the flavor text reads “your insight into the creature’s thoughts give you the upper hand in battle,” I mean that to read for the rest of the combat encounter.

Marionette lets the Fighter forego one attack to target a creature within 30 feet. If it fails a Wisdom save, it uses its reaction to make an attack against another creature of the Fighter’s choice; Past lets the Fighter use it as part of an action rather than an attack, and can roll Stealth opposed by the target’s Perception to remain unnoticed if done this way; Present lets the Fighter forego more than one attack if the target has Multiattack, but can only forego as many attacks as the target has attacks to spare; Future causes a creature attacking the Fighter to roll a Wisdom save, attacking another creature of the Fighter’s choice if they fail or automatically missing if the target’s unable to attack anyone else.

Seer lets the Fighter cast Augury without material components; Past negates the chance of getting a random reading; Present lets them ask one yes/no question pertaining to the course of action being read by the spell; Future makes it so the Fighter gains advantage on one ability check made while carrying out the course of action if the result is “weal.”

Tempter lets the Fighter cast Suggestion without material components; Past makes it so the target doesn’t remember being influenced by the Glimpse; Present lets the Fighter forego an attack to use the Glimpse as part of the Attack action; Future doubles the duration of the base effect.

Thoughts: This is my favorite subclass in the book. The Seerknight has a great variety of options, useful in both combat and out-of-combat utility stuff. Its middle-level features such as reading into the past and seeing in the Ethereal Plane are nifty, and although they don’t compete with the broad powers of actual spellcasters they are the kinds of things that you’d see more use in a setting such as Ravenloft. The various Glimpses are cool too, and the Seerknight certainly isn’t starved for options.

My main criticisms of the class are it being reliant on Wisdom, even if that thematically makes sense. There’s also the mistype on listing Future twice for the three-card draw, and the fact that outside of Swords it is overall rare to get an appropriate matching card for a Glimpse. While non-Sword Glimpses still have base effects, the guarantee of getting a matching card is a 1 in 54 chance. Even with the 10th level feature that lets them draw 2 sight cards instead of one, the doubling of odds is still less of a chance than gaining a natural 20 on a d20. Thus, the Seerknight’s Past/Present/Future abilities will matter less for build concerns vs the base effects, being more akin to nice things you get once in a while rather than planning for them during adventuring.

School of Cartomancy Wizard represents one who entrusts the will of the cards to guide them and their magic. Their initial class feature has them able to cast Augury once per long rest, and they incorporate a deck of Tarokka cards into their spellbook. The wizard can copy a spell whose value is equal to or less than a numbered suite onto a card instead, and masters and high decks can hold spells of any level. Whenever they finish a long rest, the player draws five cards. Any cards drawn that have inscribed spells are prepared automatically and don’t count against the Wizard’s limit, but they can only have a maximum amount of bonus spells equal to half their class level when done in this fashion.

At 6th level cards drawn this way grant the Wizard from a short list of choosable additional benefits if a card belongs to the Suite of Stars, such as making it so enemies cannot surprise them or they gain advantage on initiative rolls, but only up to two such benefits can be active at one time. At 10th level any spells from their card spread are easier to maintain concentration on, as they auto-succeed on such checks unless the damage is greater than their wizard level + Proficiency Bonus, and they gain the benefits of Evasion for lowering damage from Dexterity save effects. Their 14th level capstone lets them draw two separate spreads of 5 cards each instead of one, and count all such cards as “conditionally prepared” until a spell is cast from one of the spreads. Once this is done, the cards from the other suite are lost and no longer count as prepared as the “divergence collapses.”

Thoughts: This is a pretty cool subclass with good features, and really simulates the idea of a mage who relies on both the randomness of a Tarokka deck but also having backup plans from supernatural foresight. One would think that a PC would just inscribe all of their spells onto Stars cards. But as the level of spell a card can hold depends on its number, the class is still encouraged to “wait out” putting low-level spells on higher-value cards and instead patiently wait until they get better slots upon leveling up. The class features are broadly useful for a variety of builds, such as being able to better maintain concentration on certain spells being great for most casters.

Kismet Rogue represents people with extraordinary luck, where circumstances just seem to go their way. Their initial 3rd level features grant them a bonus equal to their Proficiency Bonus on Deception, Performance, and Persuasion checks when incorporating a Tarokka deck into their social activity, like telling someone what they want to hear via a made-up fortune with Deception. They can also perform a Fate of the Draw, foregoing benefiting from advantage on a roll with a proficient attack or skill to instead have the player draw from the Tarokka deck. They can do this a number of times per short rest equal to their Wisdom modifier plus Proficiency Bonus. Half the card’s number is added to the roll, the bonus being a minimum of their Proficiency Bonus if it would be lower. Masters are considered a 10, and High Deck cards are set aside and the deck is drawn from again. A suit of Coins drawn for an attack roll causes that attack to become a critical hit if it successfully hits.

At 9th level the Rogue can use Fate of the Draw to add the result to death saving throws, and Coins cards restore hit points (half their maximum for Master, 1 hit point for all others). At 13th level any High Deck cards used during Fate of the Draw let the Rogue cast a spell relevant to that card as an action, using their Wisdom for attack rolls and save DC and they usually have a shorter duration than the default spell. For example, Donjon grants a casting of Arcane Lock, Seer grants Augury, and Broken One grants Hex. Their 17th level capstone lets them add the full value of Fate of the Draw results to damage rolls, the value for Coins cards are doubled for this damage, and their total number of uses for Fate of the Draw in general is equal to their Rogue level.

Thoughts: The initial feature of Fate of the Draw is actually underpowered, as in terms of probability advantage is equivalent to a +5 bonus. As Tarokka card suites only go up to 10, that’s a +5 bonus at best. It’s thus most useful for crit-fishing when the Rogue has a good chance of hitting by default and getting Coins is a low yet still respectable 1 in 4 result. Their 9th level feature, on the other hand, is really good in that it grants increased survivability when it really matters. Even presuming that none of the other party members can get to the Rogue in time, they have 3-5 rounds before they either stabilize or die, and as Coins restores hit points there’s a 25% chance each round that a card is spent on them getting back up from dying. The High Deck spells are neat, but due to their random nature and being relatively low-powered for 13th level PCs they’re more of a flavor thing than a reliable tactic. In short, I’d rank this as an average subclass: has some nice features, but not broadly useful at all tiers of play.

Omen Domain Cleric represents priests and priestesses who serve gods of prophecy and foresight, using their glimpses of the future to act in tune with the present and avert the more calamitous visions. Their bonus spells include divination stuff like Augury and Commune, but also include quite a bit of defensive magic such as Glyph of Warding and Protection from Energy. At 1st level they gain proficiency with painter’s supplies and learn the Guidance cantrip, and also at 1st level the player draws a number of cards from a Tarokka deck equal to the Cleric’s proficiency modifier after completing a long rest. A card can be spent to paint a glyph onto a flat, stationary surface with 1 minute of preparation, and its effect is dependent on the card: Swords deals AoE damage when a creature passes nearby, Stars forces an immediate concentration save to maintain a spell and imposes disadvantage on all such saves for 1 minute, Stars makes the glyph invisible and it silently alerts the Cleric whenever a creature passes within 5 feet (or opens something if painted onto a container/lock/etc), and Glyphs and High Cards can have any of these effects.

Their Channel Divinity option at 2nd level lets them declare a goal they want to achieve within a week, and the DM gives an omen of a possible obstacle to it. At 6th level the Channel Divinity option can store a prepared spell of 1/3rd their Cleric level in a glyph, or create one of their 1st level Suite-based glyphs as an action instead of 1 minute. At 8th level they add Wisdom modifier to the damage of cantrips, and at 17th level their glyphs gain improved uses such as Swords causing the stunned condition on a failed Dexterity save and resetting after 1 minute, Stars radiating a short-range antimagic field, and coins poisons those who trigger the glyph for 1 hour if they fail a Constitution save.

Thoughts: Given the subclass’ reliance upon divination spells and glyphs that require a minute to set up, Omen clerics are of situational use depending on how well the party can prepare for encounters ahead of time. The 2nd level Channel Divinity is also reliant upon DM Fiat, as the text says that the omen “may be cryptic or mysterious” rather than explicit in the obstacle it outlines. The fact that the glyphs are triggered by any creature vs being able to select who can and cannot makes friendly fire a concern and thus limits their usability. That being said, being able to imbue cleric spells into glyphs can be useful, as the glyphs last for hours (Wisdom modifier plus Proficiency Bonus) and characters can just trigger them via movement vs the Cleric needing to spend actions to cast them.

Fate Warlock Patron represents a powerful being that holds the destiny of reality in its hands or is a servant of fate itself. It might not even be a unique entity so much as fate itself as a concept. At 1st level the warlock chooses what Aspect of Fate they embody based on one of the four suites, which provide an advantage on a certain skill check (Athletics for Swords, Arcana for Stars, Persuasion for Coins, Religion for Glyphs) for the spell’s duration whenever they cast a leveled spell. Their expanded spells are partially determined by this suite: one set of spells are available to all warlocks of this subclass and tend to be divination, while the other set is based on theme. For instance, Sword spells are all various kinds of Smites, while Glyphs tend to be divine in nature such as Spiritual Weapon and Death Ward. Also at first level, they draw a Tarokka card at the end of a short or long rest, and can spend the card to force a creature to reroll a certain type of roll, such as an attack roll against the warlock if the card is Swords or a save vs a certain effect for the others: Evocation spell for Stars, charm effect for Coins, incapacitating effect for Glyphs. High Cards can reroll any of the four listed effects. If the card matches their Aspect of Fate, the Warlock chooses whether they succeed or fail on that roll.

At 6th level the Warlock gains persistent resistance to a damage type based on their Aspect as long as they’re not incapacitated, and can grant this resistance to a nearby creature for 1 turn but lose the resistance themselves. They can also use the benefits of their drawn card reroll on an ally as a reaction. At 10th level the Warlock becomes a living representation of one of the cards from the High Deck, granting them some thematic ability. For instance, Raven lets them summon a raven with 18 Intelligence as an action once per long rest that can answer a question to the best of its ability before disappearing; Tempter grants them persistent advantage on Deception and Persuasion checks and creatures charmed by the Warlock forget their face 1 minute after the charm condition ends; or Ghost, which lets the warlock turn ethereal for a number of minutes equal to their Charisma modifier once per long rest.

At 14th level once per long rest, the Warlock can shield themselves and an additional number of targets based on their Charisma modifier + 1 from an effect requiring a saving throw, and said creatures gain resistance to all damage for 1 turn.

Thoughts: At the very least, the Fate Warlock becomes a good diviner just from their expanded spells. Certain suites are more useful for the class than others barring multiclass options: for instance, Swords is ideal for melee and gish types, but as Hexblade is the primary bladelock subclass the smites aren’t as useful as just doing Eldritch Blasts from a safe distance. The spending of a card to reroll or auto-fail/succeed on particular rolls can have great synergy based on build: Coins is good for enchanters, while Stars is good for those with Fireball and other classic blasty spells. The damage resistance at 6th level is a bit situational as they tend to be rather rare types, barring swords which is slashing damage. As for the 10th level High Deck features, I do like the diversity of options one can choose, although not all are made equal. For instance, Ghost’s ethereal nature is very broadly useful, while the Raven is basically an additional roll of a skill check with a total +4 bonus. But overall, this looks to be a pretty strong subclass.

Overall Thoughts: The incorporation of a Tarokka deck for subclasses is a cool idea, and I like the ones for Fighter, Warlock, and Wizard. I wasn’t as wowed by the Cleric’s and Rogue’s, but they don’t strike me as outright bad either. As this product is only a dollar, it’s certainly no great cost, and I would recommend it to anyone who is intrigued by the options covered.

Join us next time as we read Countess Von Zarovich, a guide for running a female Strahd!
 

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Earlier in this thread we covered She Is the Ancient, which built off the idea of making Strahd Von Zarovich a woman and the implications this entails for a campaign. Although far from the only gamer to do this, turning this idea into a fleshed-out paid-for product is quite rare. Countess Von Zarovich is one such book, and whereas She Is the Ancient changed the genders and backstories of far more NPCs in CoS, this book focuses first and foremost on the main villain. In addition to new material, it is a collection of essays, as well as characterization and DMing tips on elements to handle subjects that you wouldn’t ordinarily get with a default male Strahd.

Countess Von Zarovich is split into three chapters plus five appendices, with the Introduction discussing the design goals for this book and reasons why DMs might opt for applying Rule 63 to Strahd.

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This chapter covers broader discussions on gender-swapped characters and media portrayals of women beyond just Curse of Strahd. It discusses a history of classic portrayals of vampires in media, particularly female vampires who tended to be more sexualized and also how they were the oldest film portrayals of lesbians in media. It also discusses how female villains (vampire or no) are often less likely to be viewed as irredeemable or predatory by society, and similar topics. In the coverage of Strahd, the book notes that while the original character displays many tropes of predatory men using their power to abuse and possess women, a simple gender change won’t lessen this by default. The book also theorycrafts the idea of Barovia being a patriarchal society, and how that would have shaped Strahd’s formative years. From what obstacles she’d have to overcome into becoming a noted military leader, and to what extent she would accentuate stereotypically masculine or feminine expressions. For this last part, the book has no single right answer, instead asking the DM various things such as whether Strahd would be more comfortable in a suit or dress, would she wear her hair more simple and short or longer and elegant, how this would affect her Vasili Von Holtz disguise, and so on.

There’s a sidebar for talking about ways to project a powerful aura as a female Strahd via roleplaying, like avoiding comically high-pitched voices and that she should sound “commanding and arresting, not pleading or suggestive” given her background. There’s also talk on alterations to Strahd’s name, as it has a “strong, masculine-sounding presence” by default, and if she would have been given or later chosen a more traditionally feminine name like Strahdova, Stroya, or Strahd von Zarovichna. The book also goes over some common tropes for female characters, vampires and monsters, and what purpose they can serve and what to look out for. For instance, the portrayal of lesbians as sexual predators in fiction was often done with vampires both for titillation purposes and homophobic messaging. The book thankfully doesn’t say to make Strahd misunderstood or to make Tatyana/Ireena a man to avoid this, but it suggests how the DM can avoid sending bigoted messaging, such as allowing a wider variety of LGBT representation in the module besides Strahd’s unhealthy obsession.

The book also talks about how to handle PCs making unwanted sexual advances towards Strahd at the table: basically, the book points out that this would be inferred as a blatant show of disrespect towards the ruler of Barovia in-game, and Strahd is not one to forget such a violation. In other words, it asks how a DM would run a male Strahd being shown such disrespect by a PC. The chapter’s final section talks about “Physical and Emotional Violence,” how different villains in media use coercion and the threat of it to establish their villainous nature. There’s a sidebar noting that the DM should ensure a healthy separation between player and character distress, and ways to avoid making Barovia and the battle against Strahd feel too depressing to avoid player burnout.

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This chapter talks about larger worldbuilding considerations beyond the personal. For instance, it talks about the possibility of Barovia as a demiplane gradually shifting towards a matriarchal society due to Strahd’s rulership. Beyond just the various town burgomasters being women, it discusses how women would have the final say on major decisions and dominate various businesses. Exceptions are provided, such as the Church of the Morninglord still having male priestly leaders due to a holdover of the Valley before its conquest by Strahd. Or the idea of Vargas Vallakovich being openly defiant against Strahd, as the family patriarchs refuse to bow down to Strahd and women leaders in general. Additionally, a matriarchal society may place greater (perhaps sacred) emphasis on motherhood, leading to situations where pregnant women would be considered untouchable by werewolves and other monsters. And also that the hags of Old Bonegrinder may not be cannibalizing children, but instead harvesting nightmares from captive children to imbue their pastries with magic.

Additionally, the book adds a new faction of witches inhabiting Berez, who can exist in a matriarchal Barovia or the standard one, and are known to be a haven for exiled women looking to start a new life. They learned various means of crafting magical trinkets, and parties who get on their good side gain exclusive access to their services, with a sample list of items grouped by rarity and accompanying cost in time and gold to create. There’s also a section on Jeny Greenteeth, a hag from the Adventurer’s League version of Curse of Strahd that acts as a magic service shop. In Countess Von Zarovich, Jeny still serves that purpose, but is instead a powerful human rather than a hag, and in addition to casting spells for gold she also has a 1d20 chart of favors for the party to do in order to finalize the magic. They are appropriately strange and folkloric, such as obtaining 13 strands of hair from Madam Eva’s head, payment in the form of a vial of blood from a beast they killed with their bare hands, or letting Jeny polymorph a PC into a toad for an hour to affectionately pet as she misses her old pet toad.

The chapter’s final major section touches upon Castle Ravenloft and its various inhabitants and quests. I won’t go over all of them, but will highlight some significant entries. There is one section that isn’t directly related to the Castle, namely Strahd’s relationship with Tatyana/Ireena. One idea discusses gender-swapping Ireena, and the fact that reincarnation doesn’t necessarily need to always be the same gender. In fact, Ismark may be the one targeted by Strahd’s predations and not Ireena, effectively swapping their roles and backstories.

Another idea is that in order to avoid elements of Strahd’s abusive “romance” with Tatyana/Ireena, to instead have it so that Tatyana was Strahd’s biological daughter. She received a disease incurable even by magic, so Strahd made a deal with the vestiges at the Amber Temple in order to save her. But such an act required turning Tatyana into a vampire, who became a monster that Strahd was forced to kill, sending Barovia into the Mists. In this case, Strahd’s goal is not to gain Ireena as a vampiric bride, but to be doomed to kill her daughter again and again. Each time Tatyana reincarnates, she is destined to see Strahd as (quite rightly) a monster responsible for most of Barovia’s woes.

Beyond these changes, specific NPCs in the Castle have some noted variants. For instance, Strahd’s brides are given unique personality traits, backstories, and statblocks, the latter being derived from DragnaCharta’s Curse of Strahd Reloaded overhaul guide.* As for Gertruda, a suggestion to avoid sexual predation elements of her originally being charmed into admiring Strahd and awaiting him in his bedchamber, she instead may be a nanny tasked with watching over Zhoya and Kai, a pair of vampire children. Alternatively, Gertruda can be a lady-in-waiting if the gaming group won’t be comfortable with the idea of possibly fighting evil undead children.

Zhoya and Kai also get unique backstories and stats, being turned into undead by a former consort of Strahd who believed this would earn her favor. Instead, Strahd was disgusted at forcing such a state upon children and had her locked in a crypt. Zhoya and Kai are treated compassionately by Strahd, who still remain physically and emotionally stunted in childhood and mostly take to crafting new magical toys in order to entertain themselves. Toys which can be dangerous magic items, and possible rewards for PCs who manage to do errands for the two, such as fetching them a state-of-the-art clockwork construct from Blinsky.

*And is listed as a cited source in the Appendix for footnotes.

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This is our final chapter and the shortest one, detailing a birth-to-undeath overlay of a female Strahd’s life. It follows the general story beats of default Strahd, but with some changes. For example, Strahd’s mother was initially infertile, and became so via a potion brewed by Baba Lysaga who surreptitiously put some of her own blood in it to ensure that the child will be magically talented. Or how the King and Queen showed favoritism towards Sergei, and little to none towards Strahd, who grew to resent this. King Barov, however, was himself a cruel man who began to appreciate seeing a bit of himself in Strahd, and sought to fashion her into a ruthless military officer. While she earned respect and fear, it still paled in comparison to Sergei, who was to be crowned ruler. The nobility’s push to have a native family rule over the valley of Barovia rather than a conquering warlord, pushed Tatyana and Sergei to be seen as ideal candidates.

Faced with the knowledge she’d never be truly loved and respected for her accomplishments nor gain her heart’s desire, plus her own mortality possibly dooming her to be a footnote in history, Strahd was told about the Amber Temple’s dark magic via Patrina. Her months of research in that dreadful place placed her on the path towards becoming a vampire, and her extended absence worried Tatyana and Sergei. The two learned of her location via one of Strahd’s friends, who then became angered at this “betrayal.” Another touch is that when Tatyana’s reincarnations are bitten by Strahd, that unlocks prior lifetimes’ worth of memories, which is how Ireena (who was initially fond of Strahd) realized how wicked Barovia’s ruler truly is.

There are five Appendices in this book. The first one, the Lilac House, is an optional encounter and location of Tatyana’s original homestead, where it and the surrounding landscape are magically preserved by Strahd to not change and decay from age. It is not particularly deadly, and primarily serves as a means to fill in the backstory of Ireena’s original incarnation, plus a possible Tarokka treasure via the Fortunes of Ravenloft replacement for the Nine of Coins (which would ordinarily be in Castle Ravenloft’s Treasury). The second appendix is a list of women villains in both fiction and the real world, although not all of them I feel are necessarily appropriate for inspiration for Strahd specifically. It feels more like a general listing of “the worst women ever” vs “here’s some female villains who really fit the vampire mastermind mold.”

The third appendix is more appropriately relevant, listing some inspirational media of female vampires, and similarly villainesses with supernatural horror themes such as Jennifer’s Body. The fourth appendix is a list of stat blocks for new and altered NPCs, such as Strahd’s consorts (basically vampire spawn but more powerful and with some unique actions and traits like Ludmilla being a druid), Jeny Greenteeth (mage who specializes in a variety of magic), and the vampire kids Kai and Zola (vampire spawn artificer-style mages that can create weapons and construct minions). The final appendix is a series of footnotes, with a handy list of hyperlinks to the original sources and “Go Back” entries that take you back to the page number in which they were first mentioned in the book.

Overall Thoughts: Countess Von Zarovich does a good job in outlining the various tips and considerations for a campaign with a female Strahd, and adds onto that with new content. The various design decisions are well thought-out and consistent, while also allowing for leeway and suggestions for the needs of individual campaigns. My major complaints tend to be on the smaller side of things. For example, in a Barovia where mothers and children are given greater protection, I’m not really buying the idea that the Old Bonegrinder coven would be easily able to evade persecution by kidnapping children and harvesting their nightmares as opposed to killing and eating them.

I would recommend this book as a useful tool for DMs to mine ideas for a female Strahd. I cannot recommend it for more traditional Curse of Strahd campaigns, as the outright new content such as the witches of Berez aren’t enough to justify buying the entire thing.

Comparisons will inevitably be made between Countess Von Zarovich and She Is the Ancient. I reviewed the latter book and overall wasn’t fond of it, so my opinion is that Countess is superior. As to reasons why, it doesn’t try to lessen or have implied sugarcoating of female Strahd’s predatory behavior, and the campaign changes made are more tightly focused, better organized in the book, and don’t make additions simply for the sake of things. There’s also the fact that I found out via the SitA author’s comments on the DM’s Guild page that she used generative AI in making portraits for the various NPCs via the site ArtBreeder. The artwork in Countess doesn’t appear to be made in that fashion and I recognize several of the pieces from traditional tabletop artists, so that’s another point in this product’s favor.

And thus concludes my October slew of reviews for DM’s Guild Ravenloft sourcebooks! Barring several days of absence in the final week, I almost managed a near-daily posting rate in covering 21 products. This year has been my most successful one yet in terms of total reviews, and I’m happy that I got the opportunity to share some otherwise overlooked books with readers. Who knows what next year will bring?

While I will be taking a well-deserved break for the time being, this month of November I have plans to review Devabhumi, a new 5e/Pathfinder 2e setting based on the legends and folklore of India.
 
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