Every Dark Gift | Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft | D&D

[@OtterThunder]

Some of these dark gifts give me a flavor text idea. My friend made a warlock with that medical condition where they can't feel pain, so I keep track of their hitpoints. Now I imagine that the reason they feel no pain is because that pain is being transferred to someone else, like a distant family member or some poor soul his patron decided to curse.

[@tuxyb4263]

These are supposed to be used for horror but I could easily see some of these used for comedic relief, specifically the shadow dark gift

[@TheodoreMinick]

Comedic relief is part of horror. ;)

[@justinvenable917]

Whispers....Shadow Cacophany Mushu: All right that's it! Dishonor! Dishonor on your whole family! Make a note of this: Dishonor on you! Dishonor on your cow!

[@dancarl761]

@@justinvenable917 I was thinking the same thing!! And the older ancestors joining in as well!

[@atomictree5000]

@@justinvenable917 I LOVE IT!!

[@mikegould6590]

I love the idea of having a snarky shadow who drops sass

[@SquIDGAmiG62]

So literally just Peter Pan's shadow

[@TrenchCoatDingo]

Dr. Facilier

[@Rubymagicalgirl88]

Prince of Persia, you spend half the session being criticized.

[@adromea5628]

Midna

[@zEr-ne5ri]

Or (note spoilers for The new Ducktales do not proceed and less you are at least watched The episode called The beagle birthday massacre you have been warned) just like Lena

[@fraidnaught9067]

I really hope that the eventual Feywild sourcebook has Fey Gifts that work in the same positive+drawback fashion.

[@Poniksei]

yes that would be so cool

[@crazy36069]

You get one of the best parts of find familiar with the symbiotic being: Frigging help action. Everything you do can be done with advantage, and even better, if the symbiotic being has a better stat than you in something, then you can give them the help action. This is so good!!!

[@crazy36069]

Also, if you are a pact of the chain warlock with watchers, you can say that one of the watchers is your familiar, or all of them if you want to change the form of your familiar a lot; just some rats, bats, and spiders is all these are, definitely no imps and quasits!

[@Danny191]

Polearm bugbears are going to love the Living Shadow gift

[@BiowareNut]

At that point, you may as well just make a ranged character.

[@miguelfernandezcamarero3966]

Make him a Rune Knight and it will become a melee sniper

[@godofzombi]

And take superior technique fighting style for the Lunging attack maneuver. And now we got melee artillery.

[@thisismyboat]

Bugbear rune knight polearm with martial adept to lunge with shadow gift.

[@DojoBelok]

World Tree Barbarian too.

[@Xynth25]

I love the Whispers gift. Have a character I'm putting together for my GF's game that's essentially a wandering lawman, and I love the thought of the souls of the wicked he's killed in defense of others being bound to and haunting him.

[@alarin612]

That's a great take on the "haunted by those I've killed" trope. It's usually done with a bad guy or redeemed character haunted by the evil they've done, but in yours they're lives he had to take pursuing justice. Almost as if he suffers this injustice to balance out the good he's done for others. Very evocative and cool.

[@squishgod9094]

Bugbear Assassin Rogue with a Whip and the Shadow gift. Assassinating from 25 feet away with a melee weapon

[@chronowolf137B]

30 with lunging strike

[@Zai-kyu]

The more I hear, the more hyped I am. Been DMing for over 20 years and this is by far one of the books I have been the most excited for. My goal is to run Curse of Strahd, and then roll into the other Domains of Dread as an ongoing campaign.

[@AnathemaMysticalcel]

Wow! I loved that opening. "How TOD&D" it's just too good!

[@capy-karma186]

I like how Dark Gifts kinda feel like Traits from Fallout. I miss those so much.

[@Nikuthulhu]

Aw Yeah! Rogue and Venom team up across Ravenloft!

[@crazy36069]

This is perfect for warlock. They already made a spooky deal with their spooky patron, so why not have the patron give the warlock something extra? Maybe you made a deal with a hag who is now your patron and the only price is the drawback from your dark gift.

[@XanderDraft]

The dark gifts is what sold the pre-order for me, the lineages are nice but the ability to take these is something that will always tempt even when not in raven loft games as they add not only flavor but also several question marks about your character. The mist walker is the only one I would exercise caution when taking as unless you no longer need long rests or can move around great distances freely....that being said I fully plan on taking all of the dark gifts at least once. Id have to create the ideal backstory and theme and do some optimizing but the dark lure of succumbing to greed and taking them all is a possibility worth considering, if one can endure the madness.

[@tomasdelgado5233]

The symbiote option I think is a good random thing to add if you have a character that insists on eating raw meat. They roll constitution and if you roll a nat 1 you can roll a d6 or d4 for conditions or effects.

[@ReallyRobEgan]

I'm really liking how this just makes my mind wander and trying to figure out how to incorporate these. I'm already thinking of how to reflavor the swarm as sets of eyes growing on your body somewhere, like your back or arms. I'm excited for the book and to see what else there is to work with.

[@procrastinator99]

Do you watch Critical Role?

[@ReallyRobEgan]

@@procrastinator99 I'll catch highlights here and there, but largely no. It's too long of a format for me.

[@theblindbuildergrandminuti5648]

I made a dahmpir with the beast barbarian path to make them mechanically grow into their power, it I liked the idea of her having living hair instead of a tail transformation, and adding the parasite mechanic as part of this spirit would be great.

[@justintack5205]

I love the idea of taking the Dark Gifts and reflavoring them based on your campaign needs. In my upcoming solo Hoard of the Dragon Queen campaign, the DM is considering giving me a literal Dragonheart-like situation using the parasite, as though my character's heart had been replaced with the last vestige of a dying dragon.

[@miguelfernandezcamarero3966]

The symbiot one reminds me of that Futurama episode where Fry has a city of worms inside of him. Cool concept for my next character :)

[@benjaminfrost2780]

I agree that these gifts could be used outside of Ravenloft. Mistwalker being the more difficult one to translate outside of it but yeah.

[@Glader96]

I'm thinking about talking to my DM about getting the Watchers Dark Gift but with an adjusted negative that isn't so prevalent. I'm playing an Dhampire Undead Warlock investigator and one of my Eldritch Invocations is the one that allows unlimited Speak with Animals, so having a small crowd of little animals following him around might be super useful.

[@saturnc.2270]

I love the dark gifts so much!! Such a good opportunity for more flavor- I’m currently playing a character loosely based on Frankenstein with the Gathering Whispers gift, and the voices originate from all the people their parts come from- sooo so so much fun!!

[@AZDfox]

Imagine the Watchers gift with the Swarm Keeper Ranger

[@Year2047]

Yes.

[@godofzombi]

Pact of the chain warlock with symbiote. But your familiar and the symbiote are always arguing.

[@justanotherdayinthelife9841]

The little swarm last gift had me think immediately of the comic book character Darkness..then it made me think of the Borrowers for a Bard character...then the thought of having all of them being little copies of that character and acting like MeSeeks.

[@Big_walt1]

Living shadow? Mini Maui?! You're welcome!

[@theorycrafters7281]

I had thought about that as well

[@Year2047]

I had a rogue get immolated in a game. I loved playing him and Echoing Soul would be great if he got stuck in Ravenloft. Might make him a Phantom Rogue this time around.

[@wineguides]

I am curious to see how this will be implemented on beyond

[@EvolvingShadows]

I want it now! Thanks for delving into it for us. Love your channel! Why do I get the feeling that your background is your living room and that's a dry ice machine?! Thank you Todd for doing what you do.

[@glidderbeard7326]

Can a shadow demon have a living shadow? Also, one of the versions of Avren should have a living shadow, very Peter pan like. I see Avren breaking into someone's room while chasing his shadow down and trying to pin it back to himself, maybe that's how he he re-meets the current Sofieus through time, or maybe even how he met Widdle.

[@ravengreen8739]

So using the echos too finally make my steel dragon currently living as a human.

[@AllenChildersArts]

Echoing Soul with a Chronurgist or an Echo Knight would be excellent for a Wibbley Wobbley Timey Whimey Doctor Who Vibes.

[@wyvern723]

My copy comes today, and I'm super excited!

[@jasonmed2119]

For symbiot was feeling Vamp Hunter D

[@danswofford7222]

hmmm damphir lineage and a symboite on hes hand..... now you really have Vamlire Hunter D

[@darschpugs4690]

and in some ranger monster slayer with some Tasha's goodness and you're all set. Deft Explorer gives simple, yet cool, abilities based around exploration. Canny (level 1) doubles proficiency in a Skill of your choice. I’m thinking Perception is a good candidate for this ability. Roving (level 6) adds 5 feet to your walking speed and grants a climbing and swimming speed equal to your walking speed. the climb speed is redundant as you already have spider climb, but we are after that extra five feet of movement and the swim speed. Take mobile feat for even more movement speed and some nice bonus goodies as your speed increases by 10 feet. When you use the Dash action, difficult terrain doesn't cost extra movement on that turn and When you make a melee attack against a creature, you don't provoke opportunity attacks from that creature for the rest of the turn, whether you hit or not and this nets us a total 50 feet walking speed, if your a small size dhampire or a dwarf that is a dhampire you can take squat nimbleness for an extra 5 feet of movement as well as increase dex or str by 1, and pick up athletics or acrobatics skills and advantage on those skills to escape a graple, though that breaks the theme of D a lil as he is tall and lithe. . go all in on dex, use dueling fighting style with a katana, so on the first hit of the turn when everything comes online at 3rd level a katana strike can look like 1d8 + 4 (Dex) + 1d6 (Slayer’s Prey) + 1d6 (hunter’s mark) +2 (dueling). You get banishment eventually, and you can reflavor it to the hand symbiote sucking in the monster like in the movies and sending it to another plane :)

[@aliceofspades]

I love all of them! Well done, D&D! :D

[@JoeStoryteller]

thanks for the episode and sharing the teasers; really looking forward to this campaign book

[@deadpoolrwbyfan8419]

I get that these are supposed to have downsides, but Watchers effectively gives you permanent disadvantage on Persuasion and Deception checks, in exchange for an hour of advantage on 2 checks. That seems pretty out of balance, even if Perception and Investigation are strong ones to have advantage on

[@kylescott9031]

Only if people can see them and a lets say DC 15 Animal Handling Check to hide them isn't bad, there are ways around the downsides we'll know more with the book coming out but for now it's pretty cool.

[@NobleKos]

i want to like second skin, i created a Dhampir paladin that was a subject of an experiment to merge vampire with Werebat. I wanted to have claws pop out of my hands get bat-like features and have that mean something in combat besides "you look like man-bat now and that's it." I want the natural weapons that come with alter self, making me drop my weapons and go full on beast on them. if you give a spell, dont nerf it without any real reason.

[@deanospimoniful]

I like gifts. What could possibly go wrong?

[@aubreyackermann8432]

I mean, it would be rude to refuse a gift, so... I guess you have all of them now

[@nickr1818]

7:40 Todd, get out of the house! it's on fire!

[@Living_Life242]

1) I like the idea of someone with Watchers living out in some desolate desert or tundra with little food or life and a community forms to hunt the endless supply of animals that keep appearing out of nowhere. ‘It’s not a curse, all these crabs are a bountiful blessing from our god.’ 2) Halflings can reroll 1s once per turn, almost completely mitigating the “negative” effects of spirits and shadow. They basically aren’t even cursed anymore. 3) What sort of non-spectral/magical creatures could you use for the Symbiotic Being? An Oblex that decided experiencing/farming memories is more interesting than just eating them once? An Intellect Devourer that somehow messed up eating your brain and now the two of you are awkwardly stuck sharing the same body? 4) Swarm-keeper Ranger + Watchers = Skitter from Worm being a terrifying biblical plague

[@fatrobin72]

If you roll a 1... Ahh so 25% of the time... I like those odds...

[@conoromalley6355]

Hi I love the video and your speaking pattern, but visuals/text overlays would be suuuuper helpful! I'm very visually oriented and not auditory. Thanks for considering & keep up the hype~

[@jasonmanness7941]

i'm wondering if the death touch mechanically works with monk Martial Arts/flurry of blows.

[@jamestreppa7833]

You take an action to make an unarmed strike. You aren't taking the attack action. It works similar to the booming blade/green flame blade mechanic.

[@jasonmanness7941]

@@jamestreppa7833 yeah this is how i translated it as well. Its still pretty strong, especially for a necrotic damage focused character.

[@godofzombi]

If you are a way of mercy monk, you can do the touch of death, then use your Hands of harm to spend a Ki point for extra necro damage and then (the optional) Ki-fueled attack ability will trigger, letting you make a unarmed strike as a bonus action. This is ofc limited by the amount of Ki points you have, but if you really want to hit one guy real hard, this the way I'd do it.

[@cosmoniums5990]

@@godofzombi you could do that, or you could take 5 levels into land Druid to get access to haste so you can make the attack action. I’m not too knowledgeable on good multiclassing, but I think this is a good combo of the two class features. (You could possibly take another class dip in fighter as well to get an action surge.)

[@raymondnunez530]

Whoa these Dark Gifts are so cool!!!!

[@patrickslayter9946]

About to be in a Ravenloft Campaign and I am tempted to make a Grave Domain cleric who has been given the dark gift of the Watcher by the Raven queen. Make them a Kenku or Aarakocra.

[@snieves4]

I wanna play a life cleric with death touch

[@darschpugs4690]

sounds fun, just remember the watchers are there to watch you

[@darschpugs4690]

@@snieves4 omg paladin using lay on hands with death touch lol

[@Wysperr]

/flaily arms I love theeeeeese. So excited for this book.

[@GREW50ME_Gaming]

Making a 1 dangerous isn’t good. It just increases the chances that you’ll have to do a bunch of book keeping.

[@Year2047]

I want to see Todd’s old character Apple Grapple in a game get Touch of Death to go along with their poison skin and cloak of flies.

[@dmassive85]

Using symbiotic being in the palm of a dhampir just to make vampire hunter D.

[@Year2047]

Beat me to it. Still what class is D?

[@darschpugs4690]

@@Year2047 monster slayer ranger.

[@Year2047]

@@darschpugs4690 probably some fighter thrown in at higher levels as well.

[@joshuahendershot196]

Let's not forget that the eyes giving you advantage on perception/investigation gives you a flat +5 to your passive perception/investigation

[@berserkervtuber6285]

I want to add some dark gifts to my undead warlock now.

[@Nic_S.]

Would love a Video on the Survivors and the Stress/Fear features

[@BlasphemousActs]

My Long Death monk would love Death Touch fits him so well

[@lord6617]

13:30 Wow, you need to watch Vampire Hunter D. This is your homework, watch both Vampire Hunter D movies, you'll thank me afterwords.

[@MisterRandom2]

I'm going to have my warlock's symbiote constantly complain about being stuck inside a gnome's head all day.

[@theblindbuildergrandminuti5648]

WoW I need to clear up this grapple thing, that could really be the key to my grapple build, or one of the killer NPCs in another campaign.

[@dionmager1068]

I want to have the watchers thing and just constantly be followed by a hoard of beavers

[@HaloFTW2408]

As long as these aren't forced onto players (or the players agree with the DM that the DM can do so at their discretion), I absolutely love these. The flavour sounds awesome, and as you said the players agree to the negatives when they choose to take one of these. This is absolutely something I want to see more of.

[@NelsonReyesJr]

I hope that smoke in the background wasn't your house catching fire.

[@Year2047]

Would living shadow’s extra distance also apply to arms of the astral self, astral self monks get? Can it stack onto the eldritch claw tattoo as well?

[@justintiffin-richards6840]

TODD you house seems to be on fire!... Mmm... maybe is just the Mystic Morbid Mists of the Todd Van Kenreck

[@Troommate]

Want to double down on swarm and get watchers dark gift + swarm ranger :D

[@matthewdykeman8149]

It's too bad that Swarmkeeper sucks. I'll stick to asking my DM to let me use the Vermin Lord or Hive Lord homebrews.

[@michaelsnow1736]

I don’t see the obvious benefit to Second Skin, at least beneficial enough to deal with forced transformations.

[@des-trina]

To me, the symbiote was a Vampire Hunter D reference, first and foremost.

[@Gav_EXE]

Is there really no downside with Touch of Death? Doesn't sound like there is one (unless hugs are important to you).

[@ianmorse9381]

I imagine it damages people who use Touch range spells on you, like Cure Wounds. If not, it should.

[@ethanrajczak3041]

Cure wounds immediately becomes a gamble for the healer, spellcasters might not wanna buff you with touch based spells, and within a roleplay sense you may be disliked or deemed cursed and not allowed certain things normal PCs would have.

[@mew90p]

Wow, I want to get my hands on this content.

[@rokkkrinn2793]

Somebody Vaping behind you? Lol! Also, on that Death Touch power, do you add any stat bonus to the attack and damage rolls?

[@darschpugs4690]

that is a good question, i been wondering if ii could stack it with a monks unarmed strike. this iis the exact text from the book Death Touch. You can focus your deadly touch against your foes. As an action, make one unarmed strike. On a hit, the target takes an additional 1d10 necrotic damage. This damage increases by 1d10 when you reach 5th level (2d10), 11th level (3d10), and 17th level (4d10). Inescapable Death. When you hit a target with an attack roll and deal necrotic damage, you ignore the target’s resistance to that damage. Withering Contact. When you start your turn grappling a creature or grappled by it, the creature takes 1d10 necrotic damage. since iit says make one unarmed strike as an action i assume it weould get the monks unarmed strike damage added as well and could be used as part of the dhampire bite since it technicaly counts as an unarmed strike too....

[@godofzombi]

Halflings. Rolled a 1. What, me worry?

[@panflutehero1]

Is apple grapple meta now?

[@brian.francisco]

So, echoing soul Halfling?

[@kuroibara2530]

Dm just let me flavor my kalastar's symbotic entity as a quori. Look forward to seeing how it works out

[@nathanhall2012]

Peter Pan shadow !? Sign me up.

[@Qyshawn]

My homebrew world is deeply connect to the shadow plane and tgese would be perfect for the society operating there

[@Atlas_Forge]

Bugbears 10ft reach plus dancing shadow and make it a Shadow Monk. Not a PC, make it a Rival to ur parties goals. Nightmare fuel.

[@0whatman]

I wish all of these were good in power level, the watchers one is more downside than upside and not thst much upside for example

[@Karak971]

The swarm one gives me big Daughters of Dimitrescu vibes

[@matthewdykeman8149]

It's a better SwarmKeeper Ranger, then the actual Archtype.

[@snieves4]

Symbiote- so your twin and you didnt fully develop?

[@j.justin1511]

Another amazing video. Another sad video where Meagan sits just off-screen and vapes like hell. Can we get her some help? ; )

[@darschpugs4690]

i thought that was a smoke machine to add the Mists of Ravenloft for ambiance lol

[@j.justin1511]

@@darschpugs4690 Yes. You have it right. Jokes are best when they need to be explained. I'll do better. :P

[@DrReaperJones]

So I can make Odin, venom, Peter pan and voldamort

[@SunWukongSonGoku]

Well this explains a lot -_-

[@SunWukongSonGoku]

it seems da-new-DM-homie did not in fact, home-brew a thing for his DM/PC... I'm glad I looked up "session 0" type stuff for this. Talks must be had.

[@KnightessTTV]

You left out the best idea for the Second Skin. Werewolves!

[@RoninWolfos]

Living shadow... LUCCI!! 😑

[@bergy4958]

Get ready to see players wanting to play Halflings with echoing soul etc... As a DM the lucky trait would not apply for this.

[@AxiomofDiscord]

Without making Ravenloft basically an official heavily "house rule" setting it never feels horrific or mysterious. The thrill of horror and mystery is dead in modern D&D and I find most players will never let you do so with the rules. So basically I see Ravenloft and DarkSun being ghosts of the past at this point. It is not what I want but I just don't think it makes dollars anymore so sadly I have to let it go and if given the chance play the game I want to play but that would mean making my own system and no one gets money.

[@alanschaub147]

Does anyone else suspect that Todd made an evil pact and accepted dark gifts? 😉

[@alexinfinite7142]

Second in!

[@pitchforksdragon1252]

Here is my comment for the algorithm. LIKES FOR THE LIKE GOD! COMMENTS FOR THE COMMENT THRONE!

[@broke_af_games9661]

Ahhhhhh stop swaying my opinion of this book. I might not be thrilled with the "world" i'm kind of starting to like what I see

[@simondiamond9628]

I'd personally only take a Dark Gift if the mechanical benefits of the gift in question actually outweighed the risks associated with taking the gift in the first place. (Otherwise, there's really no point to it.)

[@godofzombi]

Or play Halfling to mitigate the chances of you rolling a 1. Deathtouch seems to me the most bang for your buck, with the least amount of downsides.

[@simondiamond9628]

@@godofzombi, that line of thinking pre-supposes that a person wants to play a Halfling, and/or that these "Dark Gifts" are so good that they automatically warrant playing a Halfling. And no matter how it's spun, it still sounds like a trap as it pigeonholes players into one race. I see no reason to play a Halfling Monk of any sort, just to take full advantage of "Deathtouch". Even with Feats (like Tavern Brawler), I don't think that's still a good enough trade off to make an effective unarmed fighter.