The Mists of Ravenloft drift across worlds, sowing fear and abducting unsuspecting souls. These forces don’t claim individuals at random, though. The fear of innocents, the turmoil of the corruptible, the resolve of the truly heroic—the Dark Powers savor these traits. Whether for a night or an eternity, Ravenloft seeks heroes of all sorts and pits them against their greatest nightmares.
This chapter explores how to create a character prepared to face the horrors of Ravenloft, while also forging ties to the haunted pedigrees and grim fates common to the Domains of Dread. This chapter offers you, the player, the following tools and choices:
Haunted Heroes
Explore your role in creating a tale of terror and how you might design a character that contributes to frightful adventures.
Lineages
Consider an origin that ties you to a grim progenitor or inexplicable experience. Lineages can serve as your character’s race or overshadow your previous race.
Dark Gifts
Determine whether the Dark Powers of Ravenloft have exerted their influence upon you, granting you a double-edged supernatural gift.
Subclass Options
Consider choosing the College of Spirits bard or the Undead patron warlock subclasses to give voice to ageless forces.
Backgrounds
Choose a fateful cast to your origins with optional features for any background. The haunted one and investigator backgrounds also explore how mystery might drive your character.
Horror Trinkets
Learn what
Haunted Heroes
Ravenloft encourages you and your group to safely explore the thrill of all manner of ghost stories, mysteries, and other tales of terror. While chapter 4 guides DMs in how to craft atmospheric adventures, the spookiest scenarios will fall flat if you and the other players aren’t prepared to engage with some degree of suspense. By the same token, the DM can’t craft an enjoyably spooky experience if they’re not aware of your interests in and thresholds for participating in fear-focused adventures. This section highlights elements common to frightening D&D games, features that you should be mindful of as a player and that will help you create a character prepared to participate in suspenseful adventures.
But it all begins with one question: Are you sure?
Invitation to Nightmare
You’ve been invited to play a scary game. What does a horror adventure or campaign mean? Who’s it supposed to be scary for, you the player or your character? Is it scary like a mystery cartoon or a slasher movie? What content makes it scary? What do you not want to see in a horror story?
These are all legitimate questions and ones you should have answers to before participating in a fear-focused D&D adventure. Horror, as a genre, covers broad swaths of material. What you shrug off other players might find personally unsettling—everyone’s experiences and tolerances are distinct and real, even if they differ from your own. Before creating a character, ask your DM and the rest of the group the aforementioned questions, along with any others that come to mind. Chapter 4 encourages DMs to facilitate pregame discussions to make sure the entire group agrees on content, boundaries, and tools to keep the terror fun. Think of this as establishing a film-like rating and content warning for the story you’ll all be creating. If you’re uncertain about aspects of the game, ask about them—before the game, during play, or whenever a concern arises. Everyone’s comfort and enjoyment of spooky adventures are what matter most!
Prepare to Be Scared
When planning to play a scary adventure, create a character prepared to be scared. Consider how your character reacts to being frightened and how that affects the creepy atmosphere of the adventure. Don’t consider fear a tactical disadvantage or something to be avoided. As part of playing a frightening game, you’re a participant in building and reinforcing a sense of dread for everyone at the table. If your character laughs in the face of every danger, they undermine the adventure’s threats and its broader atmosphere.
When creating and playing your character, consider courage not as the absence of fear but as the process of overcoming it. How might your character react in surprise before they rally to overcome the terror they face? Do they scream, flee, or freeze? Or might they throw themself into battle, perhaps recklessly or for too long? Record a default reaction on your character sheet so you can respond consistently when shocking events occur.
Beyond this, discuss with your group how much fear ties into the game’s rules. Would you prefer to keep frightful reactions narrative, or would you like to use game rules that present additional challenges and benefits? Ask your DM about the possibility of using the rules for inspiration to motivate fearful character reactions, as detailed in the “Fear and Stress” section of chapter 4. Using this system, a character who possesses particular fears and uses them to guide their responses to horrific scenes might earn inspiration for reinforcing the adventure’s frightful atmosphere. The DM might not employ these rules every time something frightening occurs, but your group might use them as a way to highlight individual fears and build an adventure’s overarching sense of dread.
From the Mists or Beyond?
Not everyone exploring the Domains of Dread comes from those grim lands. Work with the DM to determine your character’s origins. Has your character lived their entire life among the Mists? Or do they hail from another D&D setting, a place of your own design, or a more mysterious homeland?
If you decide your character calls some corner of Ravenloft home, ask your DM which domains they could originate from. The DM can provide details from chapter 3 to help inform your decision. Although humans predominate many of the Domains of Dread, adventurers in Ravenloft can belong to any race in the Player’s Handbook or other sources. The domains of Darkon, Dementlieu, and Hazlik, for example, all feature particularly varied populations.
If you decide your character is from some other world, collaborate with the DM to determine how you came to the Land of the Mists. As they’re familiar with true terrors, inhabitants of the Domains of Dread rarely mistake characters from even the most outlandish worlds for actual monsters.
Know Your Fears
Knowing what frightens your character provides insight into their past and can motivate their behavior. A character’s fear of cats might stem from a terrible sight they witnessed at their grandmother’s home, while a fear of earthquakes might hearken back to the experience of being trapped after a tremor. Consider two or three things that unsettle your character, what they tell you about their past, and if those fears shape who they are now.
Evil Inside
This book assumes you’re playing a character who pits themself against fearful foes. That said, if you’re eager to play a character with a shadowy past or sinister origins, the lineages and Dark Gifts presented later in this chapter provide such opportunities. How a character engages with the evil inside themself can make for exciting conflicts. Be sure that your choices allow your character to remain a reliable part of your adventuring group, though, and not a near-villain the other heroes only tolerate.
Habits of Horror Heroes
Playing horror adventures is similar to telling ghost stories around a fire. You and the game’s other players are allies in creating a fun, safe, moody atmosphere for your game. Contribute to this by keeping the following elements in mind:
- Focus on the Game. Atmosphere requires attention. You’re not embracing or contributing to the adventure’s moody atmosphere when you’re focused on something else.
- Limit Comedy. Be aware that comedy breaks tension. Nothing dispels an ominous atmosphere like jokes, be they in character or otherwise.
- Player Fears Versus Character Fears. Understand the difference between scaring characters and scaring players. If you know a player has a fear of spiders, never employ that knowledge when contributing to a creepy scene.
- Consent Is a Priority. If a plot leads you to consider a path involving another player’s character, always ask that player’s permission before acting. Their enjoyment is more important than shock value.
- Know What’s Too Far. If a game gets too intense or goes a direction you don’t want to explore, make sure you and the other players have a method for raising concerns mid-game and support one another in doing so. Techniques for facilitating this are further explored in chapter 4.
- Add to Your Own Terror. Feel free to make horrific circumstance worse for your character. If your character has a fear of goats and the DM describes some eldritch horror, don’t hesitate to ask if the creature has hooves or hourglass eyes.
- Enjoy the Struggle. Not everyone can expect to escape a horror story unscathed. While your character should do everything they can to survive and triumph over challenges, any scars they gain along the way are part of what makes the horror meaningful and memorable.
Lineages
In the Land of the Mists, power and dread lie in the simple question “What happened to me?” The following lineages are races that characters might gain through remarkable events. These overshadow their original race, if any, becoming their new race. A character might choose a lineage during character creation, their transformation having occurred before play begins. Or, events might unfold during adventures that lead your character to replacing their race with this new lineage. Work with your DM to establish if you’re amenable to such a development and how such stories unfold.
What Happened to Me?
The lineages provided in this section represent a physical and magical transformation that alters you in fundamental ways. You can still appear as you once were, but you’ve changed in significant ways that might overwrite your once physical or magical capabilities. A dragonborn who becomes a dhampir, for instance, loses their connection to their draconic ancestry as the deathless power of vampirism surges through them. Once able to exhale destructive energy, the dragonborn now feels a powerful hunger inside, and their bite is now able to drain life. Some racial traits might remain after you gain a lineage, a possibility captured in the Ancestral Legacy trait. Keep this in mind when you explore the details of how you change after gaining a lineage subsequent to character creation.
Creating Your Character
At 1st level, you choose whether your character is a member of the human race or of one of the game’s fantastical races. Alternatively, you can choose one of the following lineages. If you choose a lineage, you might have once been a member of another race, but you aren’t any longer. You now possess only your lineage’s racial traits.
When you create a character using a lineage option here, follow these additional rules during character creation.
Ability Score Increases
When determining your ability scores, you increase one of those scores by 2 and increase a different score by 1, or you increase three different scores by 1. You follow this rule regardless of the method you use to determine the scores, such as rolling or point buy.
Your class’s “Quick Build” section offers suggestions on which scores to increase. You’re free to follow those suggestions or to ignore them. Whichever scores you decide to increase, none of the scores can be raised above 20.
If you are replacing your race with a lineage, replace any Ability Score Increase you previously had with these.
Languages
Your character can speak, read, and write Common and one other language that you and your DM agree is appropriate for the character. The Player’s Handbook offers a list of widespread languages to choose from. The DM is free to add or remove languages from that list for a particular campaign.
If you are replacing your race with a lineage, you retain any languages you had and gain no new languages.
Creature Type
Every creature in D&D, including every player character, has a special tag in the rules that identifies the type of creature they are. Most player characters are of the Humanoid type. A race option presented here tells you what your character’s creature type is.
Here’s a list of the game’s creature types in alphabetical order: Aberration, Beast, Celestial, Construct, Dragon, Elemental, Fey, Fiend, Giant, Humanoid, Monstrosity, Ooze, Plant, Undead. These types don’t have rules themselves, but some rules in the game affect creatures of certain types in different ways. For example, the text of the
Dhampir
See the Dhampir entry.
Dhampirs in the Domains of Dread
When creating a dhampir, ask your DM if it makes sense for your character to have ties to one of the following Domains of Dread (detailed in chapter 3):
Barovia
In the shadow of Castle Ravenloft, tales flourish of those who love or descend from vampires. You might have such a connection, but dread what would happen if others in your insular community found out.
Darkon
The Kargat, this shattered domain’s secret police, supposedly know the secret of immortality. Perhaps you joined and advanced through their lesser ranks, known as the Kargatane, and were rewarded by being transformed into a dhampir.
I’Cath
At night, the starving city of I’Cath is overrun by vampiric jiangshi (described in chapter 5). You were left with a cold hunger after an encounter with one of these unquiet ancestors.
Hexblood
See the Hexblood entry.
Hexbloods in the Domains of Dread
When creating a hexblood, consult with your DM to see if it’s appropriate to tie your origins to one of the following Domains of Dread (detailed in chapter 3):
Hazlan
The bizarre magic of this crumbling domain exposes the populace to supernatural forces, occasionally giving rise to hexbloods.
Kartakass
Whimsical witches make their homes in the forests of Kartakass. They eagerly grant the wishes of locals seeking grand fortunes for their children.
Tepest
Many of the children in the town of Viktal are hexbloods who exhibit their supernatural natures from a young age. Each youngster is considered a gift from the town’s patron deity, who is known as Mother.
Reborn
See the Reborn entry.
Reborn in the Domains of Dread
When creating a reborn, consult with your DM to see if it’s appropriate to tie your origins to one of the following Domains of Dread (detailed in chapter 3):
Har’Akir
You died and endured the burial rites of this desert realm, yet somehow a soul—yours or another’s—has taken refuge in your perfectly preserved remains.
Lamordia
You awoke amid the bizarre experiments of an amoral scientist. They consider you their finest creation or have a task for you to fulfill.
Mordent
You emerged from the mysterious device known as the Apparatus, your body a lifeless shell and your past a mystery.
Dark Gifts
The Dark Powers influence many who struggle within their clutches, tempting both the innocent and ambitious with whispered promises. These sinister bargains are rarely spoken, coming in dreams or mysterious visions, but their terms are always clear and their prices terrible.
A character can select a Dark Gift from the “Dark Gifts Descriptions” section. This supernatural gift expresses both a mysterious power and insidious influence. Work with your DM to determine how your character gained this Dark Gift. Is it the manifestation of a family curse? Is it a reward for a sacrifice you made at a forgotten shrine? Did you bargain with a voice whispering from a mirror, the sea, or the Mists? Does the Dark Gift compound with your other character choices to reinforce your unique origin? Each Dark Gift can be expressed in various ways, with the following options exploring various manifestations to spark your imagination.
Dark Gifts are intended for starting characters, but characters who don’t choose one might be presented with opportunities to gain a Dark Gift as their stories—and desperate circumstances—unfold.
Dark Bargains
Characters who don’t have a Dark Gift might gain one in the course of their adventures. At the DM’s discretion, sinister forces might contact a character and offer them a Dark Gift in return for some service or future favor. If a character already has a Dark Gift, accepting such a bargain causes them to lose their current Dark Gift and gain a new one. A Dark Gift gained as a result of such a bargain reflects the agenda of the being or beings offering the bargain, be it the Dark Powers, a Darklord, or a more mysterious force. The particulars of the Dark Gift and how it will affect a character must be clear to a player before they choose whether or not to accept.
The offer of a Dark Gift might manifest in a dream, in a moment of frozen time, or when the character is alone. Typically, only one character is aware of a bargain, its terms, and whether or not it was accepted.
The DM might have a mysterious force intervene and offer a Dark Gift whenever a desperate or thematic instance presents itself, such as in any of the following cases:
- A Darklord will negotiate with a party only if a character seals the deal by accepting their Dark Gift.
- Time stops while a character is on the brink of death. A mysterious voice offers to save the character’s life, but only if they accept its Dark Gift.
- An experiment or magical accident goes wrong. The DM allows a character to accept a Dark Gift or some other peril as a result.
- A character breaks a vow or suffers a curse (see chapter 4), gaining a Dark Gift as a result.
- A character touches a mysterious amber sarcophagus, and a force within entreats them to accept its influence in the form of a Dark Gift.
Dark Gift Descriptions
This section presents a selection of Dark Gifts in alphabetical order.
- Echoing Soul
- Gathered Whispers
- Living Shadow
- Mist Walker
- Second Skin
- Symbiotic Being
- Touch of Death
- Watchers
Subclass Options
At 3rd level, a bard chooses a Bard College. At 1st level, a warlock chooses an Otherworldly Patron. This section offers the bard for the bard and warlock Otherworldly Patron for the warlock, expanding their options for those choices.
Backgrounds
The following background features explore origins suited to characters in horror adventures. Optional features and characteristics for characters of any background suggest how portentous forces might influence anyone’s life. Additionally, the haunted one and investigator backgrounds provide options for characters shaped by or determined to reveal the mysteries surrounding them. Finally, a selection of horror trinkets provide characters options to carry their own personal terrors.
General Background Features
This section presents optional features for any background. You may replace the standard feature of your background with any one of the options presented here.
- Inheritor
- Mist Wanderer
- Spirit Medium
- Trauma Survivor
- Traveler
Generational Background Features
You can use background features to connect characters between campaigns. Characters who have previously adventured in Ravenloft, such as those from a previous Curse of Strahd campaign, make good candidates for being your new character’s mentor or relative. Alternatively, the deed of your characters in past adventures might have impacted your new character, throwing them into action or danger. Whatever details you and your DM decide upon, such connections can forge the continuing legend of a whole family of heroes.
If you’re interested in exploring this, the Inheritor background feature provides a token that might be passed on from a previous character. Perhaps it’s a signature tool, a journal, or a dormant (or misplaced) magic item. Work with your DM to detail this inheritance and how it can factor into future adventures.
Horror Characteristics
Characters in a horror-focused campaign might have distinct motivations and characteristics. Use the following tables to supplement your background’s suggested characteristics or to inspire those of your own design.
Horror Character Personality Traits
| d12 | Personality Trait |
|---|---|
| 1 | I had an encounter that I believe gives me a special affinity with a supernatural creature or event. |
| 2 | A signature piece of clothing or distinct weapon serves as an emblem of who I am. |
| 3 | I never accept that I’m out of my depth. |
| 4 | I must know the answer to every secret. No door remains unopened in my presence. |
| 5 | I let people underestimate me, revealing my full competency only to those close to me. |
| 6 | I compulsively seek to collect trophies of my travels and victories. |
| 7 | It doesn’t matter if the whole world’s against me. I’ll always do what I think is right. |
| 8 | I have morbid interests and a macabre aesthetic. |
| 9 | I have a personal ritual, mantra, or relaxation method I use to deal with stress. |
| 10 | Nothing is more important than life, and I never leave anyone in danger. |
| 11 | I’m quick to jump to extreme solutions. Why risk a lesser option not working? |
| 12 | I’m easily startled, but I’m not a coward. |
Horror Character Ideals
| d12 | Ideal |
|---|---|
| 1 | Adrenaline. I’ve experienced such strangeness that now I feel alive only in extreme situations. |
| 2 | Balance. I strive to counter the deeds of someone for whom I feel responsible. |
| 3 | Bound. I’ve wronged someone and must work their will to avoid their curse. |
| 4 | Escape. I believe there is something beyond the world I know, and I need to find it. |
| 5 | Legacy. I must do something great so that I’m remembered, and my time is running out. |
| 6 | Misdirection. I work vigorously to keep others from realizing my flaws or misdeeds. |
| 7 | Obsession. I’ve lived this way for so long that I can’t imagine another way. |
| 8 | Obligation. I owe it to my people, faith, family, or teacher to continue a vaunted legacy. |
| 9 | Promise. My life is no longer my own. I must fulfill the dream of someone who’s gone. |
| 10 | Revelation. I need to know what lies beyond the mysteries of death, the world, or the Mists. |
| 11 | Sanctuary. I know the forces at work in the world and strive to create islands apart from them. |
| 12 | Truth. I care about the truth above all else, even if it doesn’t benefit anyone. |
Horror Character Bonds
| d12 | Bond |
|---|---|
| 1 | I desperately need to get back to someone or someplace, but I lost them in the Mists. |
| 2 | Everything I do is in the service of a powerful master, one I must keep a secret from everyone. |
| 3 | I owe much to my vanished mentor. I seek to continue their work even as I search to find them. |
| 4 | I’ve seen great darkness, and I’m committed to being a light against it—the light of all lights. |
| 5 | Someone I love has become a monster, murderer, or other threat. It’s up to me to redeem them. |
| 6 | The world has been convinced of a terrible lie. It’s up to me to reveal the truth. |
| 7 | I deeply miss someone and am quick to adopt people who remind me of them. |
| 8 | A great evil dwells within me. I will fight against it and the world’s other evils for as long as I can. |
| 9 | I’m desperately seeking a cure to an affliction or a curse, either for someone close to me for myself. |
| 10 | Spirits are drawn to me. I do all I can to help them find peace. |
| 11 | I use my cunning mind to solve mysteries and find justice for those who’ve been wronged. |
| 12 | I lost someone I care about, but I still see them in guilty visions, recurring dreams, or as a spirit. |
Horror Character Flaws
| d12 | Flaw |
|---|---|
| 1 | I believe doom follows me and that anyone who gets close to me will face a tragic end. |
| 2 | I’m convinced something is after me, appearing in mirrors, dreams, and places where no one could. |
| 3 | I’m especially superstitious and live life seeking to avoid bad luck, wicked spirits, or the Mists. |
| 4 | I’ve done unspeakable evil and will do anything to prevent others from finding out. |
| 5 | I am exceptionally credulous and believe any story or legend immediately. |
| 6 | I’m a skeptic and don’t believe in the power of rituals, religion, superstition, or spirits. |
| 7 | I know my future is written and that anything I do will lead to a prophesied end. |
| 8 | I need to find the best in everyone and everything, even when that means denying obvious malice. |
| 9 | I’ve seen the evil of a type of place—like forests, cities, or graveyards—and resist going there. |
| 10 | I’m exceptionally cautious, planning laboriously and devising countless contingencies. |
| 11 | I have a reputation for defeating a great evil, but that’s a lie and the wicked force knows. |
| 12 | I know the ends always justify the means and am quick to make sacrifices to attain my goals. |
Horror Trinkets
Sinister deeds and festering evils take many forms, sometimes as stories and sometimes as physical scars. All manner of talismans, mementos, criminal evidence, mysterious devices, cursed relics, and physical impossibilities might embody just such scars—