D&D 5E (2024) Ravenloft: The Horrors Within preorder page lists the book's contents

You can now pre-order preorder Ravenloft: The Horrors Within over on D&D Beyond--the ultimate bundle costs $149.99, while the book alone comes in at $59.00. There are pages for the new DM screen, map pack, and Tarokka cards as well. The pre-order page lists the book's contents.

• 16 Domains of Dread, including the new cosmic horror domain Innsmouth.
• 17 Darklords for your party to face or flee from, equipped with challenging stat blocks.
• 7 subclasses (including the new Reanimator and Hollow Warden), 4 species, 4 backgrounds, 2 Origin feats, and 9 Dark Gifts for building tortured protagonists.
• 10 genres of horror from gothic to dark fantasy.
• A bestiary of 41 monstrosities and 10 domain denizens for your party to encounter.
• 47 maps and 28 digital quickplay maps for Maps VTT.
• Digital Pre-order Bonus: the Mists of Ravenloft Digital Dice Set, Ravenloft Play-Along Pack, and D&D Encounters: Shadows of Sithicus mini-adventure.

Tonight, your party’s greatest nightmare... is the one you create.

Bring fear to the table with the Ravenloft: The Horrors Within Ultimate Bundle, the complete horror toolkit with everything you need to create a personalized horror campaign – and strike fear into the hearts of your players.

The Ultimate Bundle includes:

• Physical and digital versions of Ravenloft: The Horrors Within, containing 16 Domains of Dread, 17 Darklords, 7 subclasses, 4 species, 4 backgrounds, 11 feats, 68 monsters and 47 maps including 28 digital quickplay maps for Maps VTT.
• Physical Ravenloft: The Horrors Within Tarokka Deck for weaving terrifying twists into your campaign with 54 fully illustrated cards.
• Physical Ravenloft: The Horrors Within Dungeon Master’s Screen for keeping your plans enshrouded in mystery.
• Physical and digital versions of the Ravenloft: The Horrors Within Map Pack for plotting out eerie encounters for your party.
• Digital Pre-order Bonus: the Mists of Ravenloft Digital Dice Set, Ravenloft Play-Along Pack, and D&D Encounters: Shadows of Sithicus mini-adventure.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

I'm skeptical about something that was very much from Mystara now being the "half-werewolf" species, when I strongly feel that Shifters from Eberron fill that niche.

 

[Remathilis]

I'm skeptical about something that was very much from Mystara now being the "half-werewolf" species, when I strongly feel that Shifters from Eberron fill that niche.

Mystara lupins were always tied to lycanthropes, even in the Basic lore. They attacked each other on sight, lupins were immune to werewolf lycanthropy, and rumors that the two species shared common origin were all elements.

And if we can survive rakasta being merged with tabaxi, and tortles getting placed in the Forgotten Realms, the lupins being part of Ravenloft is not a big deal..

 

[Ruin Explorer]

View attachment 437411
This art has "Ebonbane" as the file name, too!!

Sick AF (complementary)!

Actual art-art in my D&D books, rather zzz-worth stuff? Whoa.

I'm skeptical about something that was very much from Mystara now being the "half-werewolf" species, when I strongly feel that Shifters from Eberron fill that niche.

A cynical person, or even a somewhat skeptical one might suspect that WotC are kinda thinking to move away from reaching for Eberron, for whatever reason, and preferring to use IP they feel like they have total control over when given the option. Alternatively and even more cynically, one might perhaps see them wanting to "add value" by featuring a race nobody already has, whereas you could have the other three from the previous 5E Ravenloft. This isn't new or wild, I kind of immediately think of Blackhands Street Weapons 2020, where Pondsmith showed some real joking-not-joking faux-not-faux contempt for the 2020 fans by basically saying what amounted "I know you slavering dog-people will buy this book just for the one (1) new gun I am putting in it" (not the first time Pondsmith appeared to be appalled by like, 80%+ on 2020's fans). I don't think WotC are being contemptuous here, to be clear, or having a "bad attitude" at all, I just think it's the same "even one new thing" attitude a bit.

 

[Imaro]

I'm skeptical about something that was very much from Mystara now being the "half-werewolf" species, when I strongly feel that Shifters from Eberron fill that niche.

Do shifters really feel like they're horror oriented though? They always felt more pulpy adventure than horrific to me. Hoping Lupin end up being a more horrific take.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I REALLY wanted a Ravenloft themed Ouija board when VRG came out. Hasbro owns both, it's free branding opportunities!

Fingers crossed we've left the era of WotC not taking easy shots like this.

The fact that VRG had a nearly full-sized replica in the back of the book makes me suspect it may have been created specifically to pitch a separate product that didn't get greenlit.

That said, Etsy has a surprising number of off-brand homemade spirit boards, many of which look extremely spooky by virtue of being made of wood and hand-carved and -burned. Put that on the table and I suspect players would get right into the Ravenloft mood.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Do shifters really feel like they're horror oriented though? They always felt more pulpy adventure than horrific to me. Hoping Lupin end up being a more horrific take.

It wouldn't take much to make shifters feel more horrific. I think the setting's tone is what matters with them.

I agree that "dog people" isn't particularly spooky, but it's a niche that WotC has ignored for an amazing amount of time at this point, so I suspect that's part of the motivation. I suspect we're going to see good boys and girls in a lot of non-Ravenloft games from here on out.

 

[Remathilis]

Do shifters really feel like they're horror oriented though? They always felt more pulpy adventure than horrific to me. Hoping Lupin end up being a more horrific take.

The lore we've seen is they are either afflicted with lycanthropy that didn't "take" or the descendants of such, permanently stuck in hybrid form and unable to switch to human or animal form. They have darkvision, claws with some sort of rider effect, a howl that causes disadvantage to foes for 1 round (prof/day), and a bonus nature-like skill.

One hopes either a mix of druid/CotM or the Second Skin dark gift can recreate a proper shapeshifting werewolf.

Shifter imho doesn't feel monstrous enough. Prior to 2025, they were humans who get a few animalistic features (claws, fangs, etc) rather than turning into an animal hybrid form. And 2025 implies they might be more animalistic in both shifted and unshifted forms! Generally though, they seem more Thundercat than werewolf.

 

[Imaro]

It wouldn't take much to make shifters feel more horrific. I think the setting's tone is what matters with them.

I agree that "dog people" isn't particularly spooky, but it's a niche that WotC has ignored for an amazing amount of time at this point, so I suspect that's part of the motivation. I suspect we're going to see good boys and girls in a lot of non-Ravenloft games from here on out.

I agree. Palladium Fantasy did a good job with this concept. Their Wolfen aren't intrinsically horrific but definitely feel more savage than Shifters while having an established civillization IMO... Im hoping for Lupin to be more along these lines maybe with some heavy Underworld vibes...

 

[Paul Farquhar]

You can see some of the lupin details in one of the preview pages. The are permanently in hybrid form and cannot shift. They have a bite attack, but I can't see if it can be used as a bonus action like the Longtooth shifter. The also get a howl ability prof bonus per day, but I can't see exactly what it does. Mechanically they look rather like leonin from Theros in fact.

You can refluff shifters to make lycanthrope-themed characters (including -rats, -bears, -panthers etc), but you don't want to tell players "you must buy the Eberron book" or reprint something that isn't specifically designed for Ravenloft in the Ravenloft book. So Lupin is for people who want a wearwolf themed character but don't want to buy Eberron. I would be happy for players to mix and match whatever suited their character concept best.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I REALLY wanted a Ravenloft themed Ouija board when VRG came out. Hasbro owns both, it's free branding opportunities!

It doesn't have the same capacity for true randomisation that a deck of cards does, and relies on the DM to cheat and spell out something they have already decided.

Thus it has less gameplay value. Using the cards to create homebrew domains is an example of the extended gameplay value the deck has.