In the latest episode of D&D’s new actual play series, Dungeon Masters, we get a preview of some changes to Ravenloft’s Dark Gifts.
If you’ve been watching D&D’s new actual play series, you’ve seen a bit of Ravenloft in action. The PCs tromp through the darklands of the Demiplane of Dread in an effort to try and help/appease/deal with Lord Soth. And in the most recent episode, we got a glimpse of one of the changes in the upcoming new Ravenloft book. Because a guest star showed off one of the new Dark Gifts.
Dungeon Masters Previews New Ravenloft Dark Gift Mechanics
So what are Dark Gifts? In-game, these are bargains made with, or “blessings” bestowed by the Dark Powers. These rule the Mists of Ravenloft and trap and torment the Darklords (and hapless adventurers) within. Practically speaking, these have been extra little abilities your character can pick up through play. At the DM’s discretion.
In play, these were abilities that granted you something minor, like, say, access to the Message Cantrip. As well as something a little more active/major, like the ability to add your Proficiency Bonus to your AC, or increasing your reach by 10 feet. You get the idea.
They all came with a drawback, but that typically only would trigger if you rolled a natural 1 on the d20. However, the new Ravenloft book will change the whole paradigm, as we saw in the episode. Now, Dark Gifts have been reconfigured to be like Origin Feats. And they come with drawbacks that feature a lot more frequently.
In Dungeon Masters we get to see a character with the Dark Gift, Mist Walker. While we don’t know the revised mechanics (if any) the original Dark Gift allowed a character to cast Misty Step, as the name suggests (and as WotC loves to give out randomly). Also you can go to whatever Domain in the Mists you want to.
In the new episode, though, the character with the Dark Gift has to make a DC 13 Con save before attempting a short rest. This ties back to the original Dark Gift’s drawback, Poisoned Root, but features much more frequently. So hopefully the Dark Gifts have been rebalanced to allow for both more frequent drawback triggers but also more powerful character abilities.
We’ll have to wait and see how it all shakes out.
Look for Ravenloft: The Horrors Within this summer!
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