Playing With Dark Gifts, a Double-Edged Sword for Characters

Dark Gifts, introduced in Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft, allow player characters to acquire additional proficiencies, languages, or abilities from forces beyond their comprehension. You can pick a Dark Gift at character creation (with your DM's approval) or acquire one through gameplay. For example, if your character dies, a mysterious figure might appear before you, promising to bring you back to life and grant you a modicum of their power. In exchange, they would bind themselves to you, the consequences of which would be a mystery for a time.

While these gifts bestow tremendous power akin to boons, they also come with drawbacks. Any high-stakes campaign featuring players unafraid of taking risks will benefit from the inclusion of these baleful rewards.

Playing with Dark Gifts

While Dark Gifts come with mechanical benefits and drawbacks, they also come with a lot of roleplay opportunities. You might be tormented by shapeless spirits that, over time, reveal themselves to be the very creatures you have killed over the course of your campaign — and you can only be freed of them by atoning.

When reviewing the available Dark Gifts or dreaming up your own, keep these questions in mind:

  • How does the character acquire their Dark Gift? Did one of the Darklords of Ravenloft contact a player character in a time of need? Did a sentient polearm that a character stumbled upon in a ruin telepathically begin wooing its finder with visions of unparalleled combat prowess? As a Dungeon Master, if you are introducing a Dark Gift mid-campaign, you might want to take aside the player whose character is being offered the Dark Gift. You can talk in private about what it offers and drawbacks without spoiling the mysteries of it to other players.
  • What are the Dark Gift’s benefits and drawbacks? Dark Gifts embody the idea that impressive power comes at a price. A character resurrected by a Darklord might get a second chance at life, but they might also be compelled to entrap new victims within the Darklord’s Domain of Dread on a regular basis. A fighter using the sentient polearm might find himself dealing incredible damage against his foes, but the bloodlust-infused weapon might also drive him to attack comrades on rolls of a natural 1. These particulars should be clear to the player before they choose to accept the Dark Gift. It might be useful to think of a Dark Gift as similar to a deal with a devil, where the giftee has a clear idea of the dangers they might court but chooses to accept the risk anyway. As a player, be prepared to lean into the drawbacks. A moment of vulnerability can be a great way to add depth to your character.
  • Can the Dark Gift be removed? Infernal contracts are tremendously tough to wriggle out of, and Dark Gifts should be similarly difficult to undo, if the player even wants to attempt such a thing. At the least, undoing the Dark Gift should be a milestone worthy of a campaign’s finale. Perhaps a character who has been resurrected by a Darklord must brave the mists of Ravenloft and slay their patron in order to gain true freedom. The fighter with the polearm might be unable to part with the weapon unless he reunites it with the corpse of the ancient drow warrior who once wielded it.

Gathered Whispers Dark Gift

Sample Dark Gift: Living Shadow

The Living Shadow is a Dark Gift that appears in Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft. It grants a player a shadow that seems to have a mind of its own and can even assist in combat. The handiness of this Dark Gift is counterbalanced by the fact that the shadow occasionally moves of its own volition and might act out a character’s darker impulses.

Characters with this Dark Gift might seem completely normal to casual observers until a close look is paid at the shadow, which might have any of the following quirks:

Shadow Quirk
d6 Quirk
1 My shadow often holds weapons or bears wounds that don’t exist.
2 When I’m distracted, my shadow panics and tries to get other people’s attention, as if it’s desperate to escape me.
3 When it’s not being watched, my shadow makes threatening gestures or creeps toward people.
4 My shadow’s movements mirror mine incorrectly—when I raise my left hand, my shadow moves its right.
5 My shadow fiddles with or occasionally breaks Tiny, nonmagical objects.
6 There’s a slight but noticeable delay between my movements and those of my shadow.

The Living Shadow has the following features:

  • Grasping Shadow: A character with this Dark Gift learns the mage hand cantrip and can cast it without components. The hand’s appearance appears as a shadowy mass that is not bound to the caster’s shadow. The player can choose between Intelligence, Wisdom or Charisma for their spellcasting ability.
  • Shadow Strike: When a character makes a melee attack roll, their shadow will stretch and increase the attack’s reach by 10 feet. This ability can be used a number of times equal to the player’s proficiency bonus per long rest.
  • Ominous Will: Immediately upon rolling a natural 1 on a d20 after making an attack roll, ability check, or saving throw, the player character’s shadow shows its unpredictable will and might prove either helpful or hindersome. The next time the player or a creature within 30 feet makes an attack roll, an ability check, or a saving throw, a d4 must be rolled. If the d4 gets an odd result, the total decreases by the number rolled. On an even result, the total increases by an amount equal to the number rolled. This effect can occur only once per short or long rest.

While all sorts of character builds could find the Living Shadow to be a useful Dark Gift, martial characters have the most to gain from Shadow Strike. A fighter using a pike to attack an opponent from 10 feet away can now attack from 20 feet away, and a rogue that is low on hit points can utilize the Shadow Strike for Sneak Attacks that would otherwise be risky without getting into close range. Rogues without magic will also benefit from Grasping Shadow, since the freedom to cast mage hand can come in handy when picking a pocket or investigating a dungeon door.

For thematic flavor and roleplaying potential, a Battle Master fighter would be an interesting pairing with Ominous Will — especially when the cool and collected tactician suddenly rolls a natural 1 and finds that their Superiority Dice have no effect on the whims of a living shadow.

Qiphira Kara, the Stealthy Shade

The thief’s eyes boggled from his hooded head as the shadows by the fireplace came alive, forming an inky black silhouette. Was this a summoned devil? Some kind of arcane security system? Impossible! He’d surveyed this townhouse for the past week and chosen it for the lack of guards. There hadn’t been a single sign of magic!

The silhouette suddenly moved like lightning across the room. The thief felt goose pimples rise on the back of his neck as the figure reappeared beside him, almost as if it had melded with his shadow. A whispery voice that sounded vaguely feminine tickled his brain.

“Decent breaking and entering, but not nearly as slick as I used to do it,” the voice murmured, sounding amused. “Little man, how’d you like the once-in-a-lifetime chance to become one with the Stealthy Shade?”

Qiphira Kara, a neutral evil half-elf, is an example of how the Living Shadow can be flavored. Once a wealthy Baldur’s Gate socialite, Qiphira spent her days cavorting with nobles at Upper City parties. At night, however, Qiphira led a double life as the Stealthy Shade, a master thief who eluded the authorities and stole precious baubles from high society folk.

The Stealthy Shade only met her downfall when pilfering a collection of magical artifacts from a visiting contingent of Thay Red Wizards. One of the items she stole was a cursed opal that self-destructed in her possession, transforming her into her namesake — a shade. Qiphira has the statistics of a shadow, and can telepathically communicate with any rogue character who is neutral- or evil-aligned. She is unable to leave a one mile radius of the site where she was cursed, and constantly stalks the area, searching for crafty thieves who might be willing to accept her Dark Gift. If she finds a worthy individual, she will confront them — mid-heist, if possible — and explain that she can greatly aid in their career. All she asks for in return is the chance to relive her old glories and the opportunity to murder any Red Wizard that crosses her path.

If a player character accepts Qiphira’s gift, the Stealthy Shade will walk the world once more as the character's Living Shadow. The half-elf will also telepathically communicate with the player from time to time, often making remarks about how the thievery trade has fallen in the years since her demise. She won’t hesitate to sardonically criticize the Flaming Fist mercenaries and Watch of Baldur’s Gate, and if the Ominous Will ability is instigated, Qiphira might criticize the player character as well, depending on her mood!

When in the presence of Thay Red Wizards, Qiphira will fly into a fury, demanding that the player character initiate combat. Anyone observing the character's Living Shadow during these moments will see it lurch forward with daggers at the ready. Dungeon Masters might consider asking for a Persuasion check to calm Qiphira down, or have the player risk losing control of their character.

Slaying the Red Wizards who booby-trapped the opal will free Qiphira’s soul and end the Living Shadow Dark Gift, offering an intriguing long-term goal for player characters who grow tired of the Stealthy Shade or who hope to avenge her.

Give players the gift of darkness

The Living Shadow is only one of the Dark Gifts found in Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft. Other examples include a deadly touch that deals necrotic damage with unarmed strikes and a symbiotic being that turns player characters into something akin to Spider-Man’s nemesis Venom. Whatever Dark Gift you choose, just remember to tempt your players with the promise of great power — and then let their desperate, dark circumstances unfold with the whims of the dice!

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Jeremy Blum (@PixelGrotto) is a journalist, gaming blogger, comic book aficionado, and fan of all forms of storytelling who rolled his first polyhedral dice while living in Hong Kong in 2017. Since then, he's never looked back and loves roleplaying games for the chance to tell the tales that have been swirling in his head since childhood.

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