A Feat Most Foul: A Look at Dark Gifts from Ravenloft: Horrors Within

Ravneloft: Horrors Within tempts players with an offering of nine Dark Gifts, a category of feat that can be taken by players with their Dungeon Master’s permission, or given out by DMs as a reward (or consequence) during a Ravenloft campaign. Each Dark Gift features a selection of beneficial traits, but also comes with a terrifying downside.

In this article, we’ll explore three of these Dark Gifts and how DMs can use them to draw their players into the horrific landscape of Ravenloft and its Domains of Dread.

Check With Your Players First

Before bringing horror to the table, hold a Session 0 or similar group conversation to establish expectations, including what players do and don’t want to explore and where their hard and soft limits are. This is especially important before bestowing lasting changes on a character such as Dark Gifts.

• Gaining Dark Gifts
• Aberrant Anatomy
• Living Shadow
• Touch of Death

Gaining Dark Gifts

SEAN A. MURRAY

Dark Gifts are feats born from sinister bargains, eerie visions, and whispered promises from powers best left unnamed. With the DM’s permission, whenever you would gain a feat from the Origin category, you can instead gain a Dark Gift feat. The DM can also bestow a Dark Gift feat during an adventure, reflecting an insidious deal with a Darklord, the Dark Powers, or some other nefarious being.

Aberrant Anatomy

Leroy Steinmann

Aberrant Anatomy is the perfect Dark Gift to award a player who has ventured too close to the powers of the Far Realm or drawn the inscrutable attention of a Great Old One, perhaps even Cthulhu himself.

If a DM wishes to reveal this feat mysteriously and with suspense, secret notes delivered during a Long Rest would be an excellent approach.

Your players are setting up camp for the night—or what passes for it in the Domains of Dread—and you slip one a note that simply says “As sleep envelopes you, you wearily close your eyes. All three of them….”

The next day the player finds their character has gained the benefits of the feat, but the nagging will remain; what did that note mean? The revelations in flesh only get more horrific from there.

Aberrant Anatomy

Dark Gift Feat (Prerequisite: Ravenloft Campaign)

Exposure to alien horrors like those of the Far Realm has warped your physical form in supernatural ways. You gain the following features.

Breathless. You can hold your breath for 1 hour.

Extrasensory Perception. You have proficiency in the Perception skill, if you lack it. You also gain Expertise in that skill.

In addition, you have Blindsight with a range of 15 feet.

Warping Flesh. Immediately after you make a D20 Test and roll a 1 on the d20, the aberrant influence infecting your form flares, wrenching control of your flesh. Make a Constitution saving throw (DC 13 plus your Proficiency Bonus). On a failed save, you have the Stunned condition until the end of The Aberrant Anatomy Dark your next turn.

Living Shadow

Bokun An

Whenever there is light, there is shadow, and with the Living Shadow Dark Gift, it takes on a life of its own. Through this feat you gain the Grasping Shadow and Lengthened Strike traits, granting you a deathly reach that may catch foes off-guard.

However, your animate projection comes with a will of its own and at any given moment it may attempt to dominate yours. When your Living Shadow intervenes, you may find yourself being moved against your will, attacking at random, or even dropping to the ground.

A character who lingers too long in the dark domain of Mordent might find the realm lingers with them in the form of a Living Shadow. This Dark Gift could start not as a presence in the physical world, but a voice that whispers to the character in the twilight moments between light and dark.

It could offer encouragement of deeds both fair and foul, before revealing its tangible presence through the boons of the feat itself. This feat opens up fun opportunities for roleplay, both between DM and player, and for the player on their own as they act out speaking to a shadowy ally only they can hear.

Living Shadow

Dark Gift Feat (Prerequisite: Ravenloft Campaign)

The shadow you cast is animate and ever-present—sometimes it even acts according to its own will. You gain the following features.

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.

Touch of Death

SEAN A. MURRAY

Death may be common within the Mists of Ravenloft, but it’s not always permanent, and with the help of a cleric—or some other power—an adventurer may return from beyond the veil. However, sometimes the hero's soul isn’t the only thing that comes back, and a grim hitchhiker may follow them.

With the Touch of Death Dark Gift, the bearer is imbued with an empowered version of the Chill Touch spell. However, those that move closer to the veil than most will find it easier to be pulled through—this feat comes with a penalty to your Death Saving Throws.

This feat could be a grim reminder for any character that’s been resurrected within the Dark Domains of Ravenloft, the mark of the reaper still hanging about them since their raising.

Touch of Death

Dark Gift Feat (Prerequisite: Ravenloft Campaign)

Deathly power resides within you, bursting out at the slightest provocation. You gain the following features.

Death Touch. You learn the Chill Touch spell and can cast it without spell components. Necrotic damage you deal with this spell ignores Resistance. Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma is your spellcasting ability for this spell (choose when you select this feat).

Pull of the Grave. You have Disadvantage on Death Saving Throws.

Some Gifts Cannot Be Returned

With Dark Gifts at your disposal as a DM, or as a tempting option for players to choose of their own free will, adventuring within Ravenloft becomes even more terrifying. With these nine options, you and your players are bound to find something that both delights and disturbs within the pages of Ravenloft: Horrors Within.