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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 9485889" data-attributes="member: 6750502"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/KPm7UBH.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /><a href="https://www.dmsguild.com/product/463007/Ezmeraldas-Guide-to-Ravenloft" target="_blank">Product Link</a>Product Type: Character Options, LocationsCoS-Required? NoBearing clear influence from Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft in its title, Ezmerelda’s Guide is an impressive 170 pages of new content for both players and Dungeon Masters. Originating as two smaller Pocketbook supplements (<a href="https://www.dmsguild.com/product/365905/Van-Richtens-Pocketbook-to-Ravenloft" target="_blank">Van Richten’s</a> and <a href="https://www.dmsguild.com/product/413389/dAvenirs-Pocketbook-to-Ravenloft" target="_blank">d’Avenir’s</a>) Ezmerelda’s adds two brand new domains not present in the older sourcebooks. Additionally, this product has relevant Content Warning sidebars for domains dealing with heavier topics, along with a sidebar in the introduction compiling the more common ones throughout the book.With four lineages and six subclasses, there’s a lot more PC-friendly material here than in Van Richten’s Guide. For those who don’t own that book, lineages are akin to a “template” race, representing an additional layer to an existing race (a dwarf dhampir, for instance) which carries over a limited subset of the original race’s abilities, or replaces them entirely if the player wishes them to be flavor. This is a trait known as Ancestral Legacy, where they can choose to keep their race’s bonus skill proficiencies and movement speeds, or discard them in exchange for proficiency in two skills of their choice. All such lineages can be either Medium or Small size, chosen at character creation, to reflect their diverse origins. The ones in this book also all have darkvision and the Humanoid type, save for the Warped which is an Aberration.Arcanoblood represents humanoids imbued with raw magic, causing their blood to be replaced with a gel-like fluid coursing through their veins. They have advantage on Perception checks relying on hearing or smell, proficiency in the Arcana skill, choose bonus sorcerer cantrips and spells at 1st, 3rd, and 5th level, can cast Detect Magic at will, and a number of times per long rest equal to PB (proficiency bonus) they can gain advantage on one save against a magical effectLycan represents people who have physical traits and powers in line with mundane animals. They are most commonly beings who were partially cured of lycanthropy but retain some less-powerful traits, but can also reflect a variety of origins such as magical rituals and experiments, curses, and the like. They have the (shapechanger) subtype, their walking speed is 35 feet, gain advantage on Perception checks relying on hearing or smell, can howl as an action at will causing hostile creatures within 30 feet to become Frightened on a failed Wisdom save,* and once per short or long rest can transform into a beast-humanoid hybrid that grants temporary hit points, +1 Armor Class, and natural weapons that are 1d6 unarmed strikes with the Light property.*Enemies can still move towards them, but such movement is halved.Shade represents a person who lost a piece of their soul to the Shadowfell, willingly or otherwise. Their skin turns gray and their eyes glow with a dull white light, and wisps of shadow trail from their bodies. Their darkvision is great at 120 feet, at 5th level they can see through even magical darkness, are proficient in Stealth, can Hide as a bonus action while in dim light or darkness, are resistant to necrotic damage, can teleport as a bonus action up to 60 feet while in dim light or darkness a number of times per long rest equal to PB (and turn invisible for 1 round at 3rd level upon doing so if desired), and as a bonus action can halve the radius of up to 3 light sources within 60 feet at will.Warped represents someone whose body and mind was transformed by aberrant forces, such as a Great Old One patron, a mad scientist’s experiment, or raw nightmares becoming real. They have the Aberration type instead of Humanoid, see in shades of purple instead of gray with their darkvision, and learn Mage Hand and Dissonant Whispers at 1st and 3rd level. They are the most versatile lineage here, where they can choose two Aberrant Mutations from a list of 8, including options such as gaining a swimming speed and ability to breathe underwater, can squeeze and occupy spaces as narrow as 6 inches, a tentacle arm that adds 5 feet to reach with that limb, or the ability to speak telepathically with any creature you share with within 60 feet.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/j7nEdXu.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />We have six new subclasses, which hew heavily on the martial side of things. Four of them are for warrior-style classes: the Barbarian, Fighter, Paladin, and Ranger, while the two casting ones are for the Artificer and Sorcerer.Stitcher Artificer is like the Battle Smith in that they get an NPC companion, although with a more Dr. Frankenstein aesthetic in building undead minions. They gain proficiency with alchemist’s supplies, the Medicine skill, and the ability to turn a Small or Medium creature into a Stitched Minion. Such minions uses the typical outline for Tasha’s-era NPC companions, are unaligned undead with good Strength and Constitution but terrible mental ability scores, immune to lightning and poison damage, are immune to the charmed, frightened, exhaustion, and poisoned conditions along with Channel Energy so your PC cleric doesn’t have to worry about friendly fire. They can absorb lightning damage to self-heal, meaning that a party with Shocking Grasp or Lightning Lure can basically heal it to full when not pressed for time, and they have Undead Fortitude as per a zombie, making them quite resilient. However, the Minion slowly breaks down over time, having its maximum hit points reduced at the end of every long rest.The Stitcher’s bonus spells are invariably necrotic in nature, with the exception of Call Lightning which gets included for Mad Scientist vibes. At higher levels they gain the ability to heal their minion via a defibrillator-style Jump-Start, the minion gains buffs when healed via lightning damage, can take organs and body parts from corpses and graft them onto their Minion to give them certain special abilities from the creature’s corpses with some reasonable limitations (must be biological in nature, can’t be Legendary Resistance/Actions, Multiattack, etc), and the 15th level capstone makes the Minion stop decaying and three times per long rest they can choose to succeed on a saving throw instead of failing.Path of the Witchblood Barbarian represents warriors whose very bodies are infused with dark magic. Their initial 3rd level abilities let them add Charisma to their Armor Class on top of the base Unarmored Defense, and have a 10% chance (19-20 on a d20) each time they’re attacked while raging to have their Eldritch Instincts kick in and make the attack automatically miss. Initially this grants them 3 buffs: they double their rage damage bonus, their bonus damage from rage is converted to force damage, and attacked enemies suffer penalties to Armor Class equal to the Barbarian’s Charisma modifier. The Barbarian can opt to have the Instincts automatically trigger a number of times equal to PB per long rest. At higher levels their jump distance is tripled and they can walk on walls and ceilings, and their Instincts get more buffs such as immediately moving half their speed to an attacking creature, can force an attacker to suffer from a single-target Slow spell (no save), and can take one action or one bonus action from a limited set of options such as Attack, Dash, etc.Dread Knight Fighter represents a warrior who draws upon the darkness itself for power. They are a front-loaded subclass, initially gaining darkvision 120 feet (or +60 feet if they already have darkvision, can see in magical darkness at 7th level), proficiency in Intimidation, learn the Thaumaturgy cantrip, and can gain points of Darkness whenever they attack a creature with a weapon attack or use Action Surge or Second Wind. Darkness points are the bread and butter of this subclass, whose maximum possible amount is double their PB. Dread Knights begin to emit a constant vortex of shadow that acts as a selective AoE attack dealing necrotic damage when they have 3 or more Darkness, and whose total radius and damage increases with level. At 7th and higher levels they gain various bonus action attacks that require spending Darkness points, such as Death Grasp that deals necrotic damage and pulls a target 30 feet towards the Fighter, Obliterate which imbues their weapon with bonus necrotic damage and makes a struck target suffer a penalty to Armor Class equal to the Fighter’s proficiency bonus, or Boneshadow which forces enemies to subtract d6 from attacks, save, and ability checks when they’re within the vortex. Their 18th level capstone lets them maintain consciousness when falling to 0 hit points while they have at least 1 Darkness point, and won’t truly die until their Darkness points are reduced to 0.The Dread Fighter loses all of their Darkness points after 1 minute passes and they haven't damaged or been damaged by a hostile creature or trap, so the PC is encouraged to be liberal with spending them in combat.Oath of Darkness Paladin represents someone who pledged allegiance to the Dark Powers, traveling the planes in search of corruption to study and defeat, so as to bring their souls into Ravenloft and perhaps find a worthy candidate for Darklord. Their bonus spells revolve around shadow and “dark magic” stuff like Evard’s Black Tentacles and Summon Shadowspawn, plus some thematically-appropriate ones such as Detect Evil and Good and Hold Monster. Their channel divinity options let them either see in magical and nonmagical darkness up to 120 feet for 1 hour, or create a protective barrier of Mist that can either imprison foes within or protect from outside forces. Either way, it costs an action and 5 feet of movement to cross the barrier, and creatures either inside or outside the barrier have half cover from the other side depending on whether it’s for imprisoning or protecting. Their aura subtracts d4 from saving throws of hostile creatures who also treat the paladin and their allies as having light obscurement. At 15th level the paladin can conjure a Cloak of Shadows on themselves or an ally as a bonus action, granting them +2 Armor Class. Their 20th level capstone transformation grants them raven wings for a fly speed, immunity to necrotic damage, can create shadowy tendrils as 60 foot reach melee weapons, and creatures who die within their aura can be no-save banished to the Domains of Dread.Accursed Ranger represents someone who bears a curse with a physical mark, but they learned to turn the powers of this curse onto others. Their bonus spells are mostly debuff and shadow magic themed options, and their initial 3rd level ability lets them curse a target they attack up to once per turn. The target gains a d8 Affliction die, and they have the choice of either spending it on their next attack, save, or ability check and subtracting the result, or holding onto it until the start of the Ranger’s next turn where they roll the die and suffer that amount of untyped damage. The curse is removed at the end of the target’s turn if they succeed on a Charisma saving throw. The subclass’ higher-level features all grant new and improved uses of this Affliction Die, such as the Ranger suffering one Affliction die themselves in exchange for rolling it to add to a failed attack, save, or ability check, dealing bonus necrotic damage to Afflicted targets, a bonus action AoE once per short or long rest that imposes Affliction dice on multiple targets, and increasing said Affliction Die to a d10.Blighted Origin Sorcerer represents a spellcaster whose soul has been touched by the Blight, the essence of the original Gulthias tree. Their bonus spells are plant and decay-themed such as Contagion, Entangle, Speak with Plants, and Spike Growth,  and they can learn Wall of Thorns as a sorcerer spell. Their initial 1st level abilities let them deal necrotic damage to nonmagical plants they touch, and Vampiric Decay which lets them gain temporary hit points whenever they damage creatures with a leveled spell a number of times per long rest equal to their PB. At higher levels they can summon ethereal thorns as a counterattack whenever they are damaged and still have temporary hit points, gain resistance to necrotic damage and immunity to diseases and the poisoned condition, can sprout vine-like limbs as a bonus action at will which grants them +5 feet reach and a climbing speed, and their 18th level capstone lets them regain hit points equal to the amount of temporary hit points gained whenever they use their Vampiric Decay.Thoughts So Far: While there’s a healthy amount of lineage and subclass options for players, the real meat of the book is in the domains of dread which take up 120 pages, with NPC and monster stat blocks making up 32 more. Thus, you only really get your money’s worth if you're running a Ravenloft game rather than playing in one.For the Lineages, they all seem to have strong and flavorful choices, although the Shade is pretty strongly pushed into having a stealth role. Arcanoblood is a clear standout in having the broadest useful features, with at-will Detect Magic and their variable bonus spell and cantrip selection that is suitable for all sorts of classes. Other races that get bonus spells, like Tieflings, tend to have their choices locked into specific spells.Regarding the subclasses, the Stitcher is even more heavily reliant on its companion than the Battle Smith’s, although it makes up for it by being able to give said companion some pretty nice moves. The infinite free healing that it can get via lightning cantrips may be something to look out for, however, and combined with being able to graft the abilities of defeated creatures onto it can make this a potentially overpowered subclass. The Witchblood Barbarian I’m not so fond, for it relies quite a bit upon Charisma which isn’t a useful stat for a Barbarian and thus MAD. As the player will be rolling a d20 every time they’re attacked while raging and don’t have Eldritch Instincts, that can really bog down the game. The Dread Knight Fighter is a pretty neat class, with a variety of offense and battlefield control choices, and the ability to see in nonmagical darkness is nicely paired up with the Darkness spell and Warlocks with the Devil’s Sight invocation.The Oath of Darkness Paladin sounds rather cool thematically, but given that it implies that they’re outside the Domains of Dread its flavor works against it for use in the actual Ravenloft setting as it becomes yet another generic “dark knight” type. Its abilities hew quite strongly towards the defensive angle, like the AC-boosting cloak, debuff aura, and mist barriers, which is a nice touch for a class that tends to hew towards damage bursts with Smites. I like the Accursed Ranger’s Affliction die mechanics, forcing targets to either choose worse performance or suffering damage, although the subclass’ sole focus on said mechanic makes them less versatile and overall lack utility in comparison to stuff like the Fey Wanderer or Gloom Stalker.Finally, the Blighted Origin Sorcerer is cool in terms of theme but again doesn’t really grab me. Besides the temporary hit point-based magical enhancements, much of their class features don’t really stick out. Damaging nonmagical plants with a touch feels a lot more flavorful, and for plant monsters the Sorcerer shouldn’t be engaging in melee. The tendril vines are also underpowered and situational for the level they kick in at (14th). Same goes for the necrotic and poison/disease resistance and immunities, that are at once highly appropriate flavor-wise yet also kick in too late at that same level.Join us next time as we explore the first four of the dread domains!</blockquote>

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