The latest Dungeons and Dragons sourcebook includes a ton of horror-inspired options to customize player characters, including a new category of feats.
Dungeons and Dragons – Dark Gifts Explained
Ravenloft – The Horrors Within released recently and provided a ton of new tools for both Dungeon Masters and players. In addition to a laundry list of new subclasses and four new playable species, the book also provides players with the chance to take on a Dark Gift.
Dark Gifts are a special kind of feat that provide players with a particular benefit, but also come with some sort of horror-themed cost or downside. As always, players should consult with their DMs become taking on a Dark Gift, to ensure that it matches the theme, power level, and general vibe of the game that the DM is planning. Similarly, DMs should consult with their players during a session zero before introducing Dark Gifts.
Here is a quick breakdown of all nine Dark Gifts included in the new sourcebook:
- Aberrant Anatomy – Exposure to alien horrors like those of the Far Realm has warped your physical form in supernatural ways.
- Echoing Soul – You experience echoes from a past or alternate life.
- Gathering Whispers – You are haunted by a cacophony of whispering spirits only you can hear.
- Living Shadow – The shadow you cast is animate and ever-present – sometimes it even acts according to its own will.
- Mist Walker – You know how to slip through the Mists’ grasp, but this freedom comes at a price: If you remain in one area for too long, the Mists find you and drain your life force.
- Second Skin – There is another side of you that most people never see: a beast, a terrifying avenger, or a walking nightmare.
- Symbiotic Being – A second being resides within your body, offering knowledge and assistance while furthering its own agenda.
- Touch of Death – Deathly power resides within you, bursting out at the slightest provocation.
- Watchers – Something unnatural is always watching you, taking the form of scurrying vermin and other eerie creatures.
Each individual feat has unique benefits and consequences. We won’t go into the detailed rules for all nine, but here is one example of how things play out with the Living Shadows Dark Gift:
Grasping Shadow. You learn the Mage Hand spell and can cast it without spell components. Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma is your spellcasting ability for this spell (choose when you select this feat).
Lengthened Strike. When you make a melee attack roll as part of the Attack or Magic action on your turn, you can increase your reach for that attack by 10 feet, as your shadow stretches to aid you. You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Proficiency Bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a Long Rest. The Living Shadow Dark Gift gives one’s shadow an appearance and will of its own.
Ominous Will. Immediately after you make a D20 Test and roll a 1 on the d20, your shadow attempts to exert its will. Make a Wisdom saving throw (DC 13 plus your Proficiency Bonus). On a failed save, you have the Incapacitated condition until the start of your next turn, at which point you must roll on the Shadow’s Will table to determine what you do during that turn.
It’s easy to see from this one example how the Dark Gifts come with powerful perks, but serious consequences that can put the player in danger. On average, the Dark Gifts feel a bit more powerful than the average feat, which makes sense since players are also taking on the risk of the consequences, as well.
That should be everything players need to know to get started with Dark Gifts. Detailed rules for each of them can be found in Ravenloft- The Horrors Within.
Be sure to check back soon for lots more Dungeons and Dragons and other TTRPG news and updates.
Dungeons and Dragons is available now physically through local game shops and digitally through services like D&D Beyond and Roll20. Ravenloft – The Horrors Within is also available now physically and digitally.
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