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Returning 35 results for 'settings of rules dark variety'.
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft
Dark Fantasy Settings Sinister individuals leave their marks upon dark fantasy domains, whether as oppressive architecture, unavoidable propaganda, or scars upon an exploited environment
. Alternatively, the setting might exhibit the effects of a disaster—perhaps an event that gave rise to brutal powers. Such scars appear both upon the setting and upon its inhabitants. Dark Fantasy Settings d8
Monsters
Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden
Dark Devotion. The fanatic has advantage on saving throws against being charmed or frightened.
Spellcasting. The fanatic is a 4th-level spellcaster. Its spellcasting ability is Wisdom (spell save DC
he's tight with Levistus. He rules the roost by sheer force of personality, though it chafes him that Hethyl Arkorran has more respect and influence within the cult. Kadroth doesn't involve Avarice
Monsters
Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden
Dark Devotion. The cultist has advantage on saving throws against being charmed or frightened.
Icy Doom. When the cultist dies, its corpse freezes for 9 days, during which time it can’t be
Levistus, the archdevil who rules Stygia, the sixth layer of the Nine Hells, from the confines of an ice prison from which he cannot escape.
Most of the cultists are Icewind Dale natives who would
Monsters
Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden
Dark Devotion. The fanatic has advantage on saving throws against being charmed or frightened.
Spellcasting. The fanatic is a 4th-level spellcaster. Its spellcasting ability is Wisdom (spell save DC
","rollDamageType":"piercing"} piercing damage.The Knights of the Black Sword are a secret society of cultists devoted to Levistus, the archdevil who rules Stygia, the sixth layer of the Nine Hells, from the
Monsters
Monstrous Compendium Vol. 4: Eldraine Creatures
Queen, who rules from a castle called Dynnistan. It isn’t known whether these legends are based on any true experience or are simply the result of imagination trying to account for a terrifying and
called lich-knights or fell horsemen.
In stark contrast to the knights of Eldraine, the deathless riders are without virtue of any kind. They are few in number—unless many more lurk in the dark
Monsters
Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse
":"Acid Spray","rollDamageType":"acid"} acid damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.A hive lord rules each kruthik hive. When the hive lord dies, the surviving members of the
floor with their sharp legs.
In addition to having an acute sense of smell, kruthiks can see in the dark and can detect vibrations in the earth around them. They take the scent of their own dead as a
Monsters
Mordenkainen's Fiendish Folio Volume 1
, built for a specific purpose. Some are fortresses, designed to keep wanderers from the material world away. Others are far more sinister, dark realms where evil dreams take root and become ghastly
, but plenty of speculation surrounds the xills’ true nature and the demiplane that spawned them.
An Ancient Remnant. A variety of theories attempt to explain the xills and their origin. The one
monsters
Dragonlance and Ravenloft campaign settings. If you want to give Soth a unique relationship to the Domains of Dread, consider these possibilities:
The nature of Soth’s curse creates aspects of
effects end immediately.
Lord Soth’s Lair
Lord Soth rules from Nedragaard Keep, a twisted, copy of his accursed fortress on Krynn, Dargaard Keep. Nedragaard Keep grows and withers over time like
Human
Legacy
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Species
Basic Rules (2014)
dash of nonhuman blood, revealing hints of elf, orc, or other lineages. Humans reach adulthood in their late teens and rarely live even a single century.
Variety in All Things
Humans are the most
, humans champion causes rather than territories or groups.
Human Names and Ethnicities
Having so much more variety than other cultures, humans as a whole have no typical names. Some human parents
Species
Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse
in a variety of ways: a forked tongue, snake eyes, a snakelike nose, or some other ophidian characteristic. However a yuan-ti looks, they have the power to pursue great good or evil in the multiverse
.
Creating Your Character
At 1st level, you choose whether your character is a member of the human race or of a fantastical race. If you select a fantastical race, follow these additional rules
Criminal / Spy
Legacy
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Backgrounds
Basic Rules (2014)
than most people to the world of murder, theft, and violence that pervades the underbelly of civilization, and you have survived up to this point by flouting the rules and regulations of society
.
Skill Proficiencies: Deception, Stealth
Tool Proficiencies: One type of gaming set, thieves’ tools
Equipment: A crowbar, a set of dark common clothes including a hood, and a pouch
Aasimar
Legacy
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Species
Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse
dark eyes
3
Starkly colored hair
4
An unusual hue tinting your shadow
5
A ghostly halo crowning your head
6
Rainbows gleaming on your skin
Creating Your Character
At
1st level, you choose whether your character is a member of the human race or of a fantastical race. If you select a fantastical race, follow these additional rules during character creation.
Ability
Backgrounds
Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus
Folk Hero Origins
Folk heroes might rise from a variety of circumstances, or their origins might be a secret as they do their work anonymously. If you wish, you may roll on the Folk Hero
dozen adopted grandparents inviting you in for a meal.
3
Seeing a lost patriar after dark in the Outer City, you guided the wayward noble through back streets to safety. The patriar repaid your
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Player's Handbook (2014)
have been published as official settings for the D&D game. The legends of the Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance, Greyhawk, Dark Sun, Mystara, and Eberron settings are woven together in the fabric of the
mysterious ways to one another and to other planes of existence, such as the Elemental Plane of Fire and the Infinite Depths of the Abyss. Within this multiverse are an endless variety of worlds. Many of them
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Basic Rules (2014)
have been published as official settings for the D&D game. The legends of the Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance, Greyhawk, Dark Sun, Mystara, and Eberron settings are woven together in the fabric of the
mysterious ways to one another and to other planes of existence, such as the Elemental Plane of Fire and the Infinite Depths of the Abyss. Within this multiverse are an endless variety of worlds. Many of them
Species
Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse
exuberance with them and learning new languages as they went.
Harengons are bipedal, with the characteristic long feet of the rabbits they resemble and fur in a variety of colors. They share the keen senses
fairy or the harengon in this section, follow these additional rules during character creation.
Ability Score Increases
When determining your character’s ability scores, increase one score by 2
Kalashtar
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Species
Eberron: Rising from the Last War
in a variety of ways. Kalashtar have symmetrical, slightly angular features, and their eyes often glow when they are focused or expressing strong emotions.
Kalashtar can’t directly communicate
for any noble cause.
10
You are obsessed with Dreaming Dark conspiracies.
Hunted by Nightmares
The virtuous spirits tied to the kalashtar fled from the dream-realm of Dal Quor to escape
Hexblood
Legacy
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Species
Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft
shades, long hair that regrows if cut, and an irremovable living crown. Along with these marks, hexbloods manifest hag-like traits, such as darkvision and a variety of magical methods to beguile the senses
player, unless the DM rules otherwise.
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
Reborn
Legacy
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Species
Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft
sensations or visions of the past to come rushing back.
Rather than sleeping, reborn regularly sit and dwell on the past, hoping for some revelation of what came before. Most of the time, these are dark
, but you aren’t any longer. You now possess only your lineage’s racial traits.
When you create a character using a lineage option, follow these additional rules during character creation
Monsters
Fizban's Treasury of Dragons
table to help select spells for a spellcasting dragon. (Though the Monster Manual doesn’t explicitly include dragon turtles in the variant rules for making a dragon a spellcaster, you can apply
those rules to these aquatic dragons.)
Dragon Turtle Personality Traits
d8;{"diceNotation":"1d8","rollType":"roll","rollAction":"Trait"}
Trait
1
I speak slowly and deliberately
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Dungeon Master’s Guide (2014)
, Greyhawk, Dragonlance, and Mystara don’t stray very far from those assumptions. Settings such as Dark Sun, Eberron, Ravenloft, Spelljammer, and Planescape venture further away from that baseline. As you create your own world, it’s up to you to decide where on the spectrum you want your world to fall.
The Big Picture This book, the Player’s Handbook, and the Monster Manual present the default assumptions for how the worlds of D&D work. Among the established settings of D&D, the Forgotten Realms
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Ravenloft: The Horrors Within
and now rules the mortal realm. Villain Torments In dark fantasy adventures, a villain’s power is often rooted in the villain’s own suffering. Choose from or roll on the Dark Fantasy Torments table to
desperate or reluctant heroes resisting evil. Even in the grimmest settings, desperation and hope fan the flames of resistance. Adventure Hooks Plots in dark fantasy adventures range from street-level
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Heroes of the Borderlands
Resting Unlike in the other two adventure settings, the keep is a safe place to rest and resupply. The characters can freely take Long Rests in the keep. For more on resting, see the D&D Beyond Basic Rules.
Tiefling
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Species
Basic Rules (2014)
possible sense, they still look human. However, their infernal heritage has left a clear imprint on their appearance. Tieflings have large horns that take any of a variety of shapes: some have curling
. Their skin tones cover the full range of human coloration, but also include various shades of red. Their hair, cascading down from behind their horns, is usually dark, from black or brown to dark red
Species
Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide
possible sense, they still look human. However, their infernal heritage has left a clear imprint on their appearance. Tieflings have large horns that take any of a variety of shapes: some have curling
. Their skin tones cover the full range of human coloration, but also include various shades of red. Their hair, cascading down from behind their horns, is usually dark, from black or brown to dark red
Backgrounds
Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus
underbelly of civilization, and you have survived up to this point by flouting the rules and regulations of society.
Skill Proficiencies: Deception, Stealth
Tool Proficiencies: One
type of gaming set, thieves’ tools
Equipment: A crowbar, a set of dark common clothes including a hood, and a pouch containing 15 gp
Criminal Origins
Criminals are pervasive in Baldur
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Lost Mine of Phandelver
adventure. It also introduces the world of the Forgotten Realms, one of the game’s most enduring settings, and it teaches you how to run a D&D game. The Basic Rules contain the rules you need to adjudicate situations that arise during the adventure.
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Tales from the Yawning Portal
Using This Source Tales from the Yawning Portal contains seven adventures taken from across D&D’s history. The introduction of each adventure provides ideas on adapting it to a variety of D&D
settings. Use that information to place it in your campaign or to give you an idea of how to adapt it. These adventures provide the perfect side quest away from your current campaign. If you run published D
Genasi
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Species
Elemental Evil Player's Companion
accustomed to a variety of different people.
GENASI ON ATHAS
Although any world that includes one or more elemental planes can feature genasi, on Athas, the world of the Dark Sun campaign setting
classes
Player’s Handbook
Paladin’s oath is a powerful bond. It is a source of power that turns a devout warrior into a blessed champion.
Paladins train to learn the skills of combat, mastering a variety of weapons and
level 1 features, which are listed in the Paladin Features table. See the multiclassing rules to determine your available spell slots.
Paladin Features
—Spell Slots per
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft
Dark Fantasy Torments For Darklords in dark fantasy settings, power is at the root of their suffering. Perhaps their rise to dominance led them to sacrifice what mattered to them most, or they
secretly seek to be rid of their might but fear being without it. Dark Fantasy Torments d8 Torment
1 The Darklord’s regime is fraught with spies and saboteurs, increasing the Darklord’s paranoia
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft
similar to settings that appear in your Darklord’s past, or take inspiration from the Settings tables in the “Genres of Horror” section later in this chapter. Combine Locations and Visceral Details
creations of the Dark Powers and the domain is the only reality they know, but what logical and psychological leaps might an outsider need to make to sleep at night?
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Ghosts of Saltmarsh
-bound adventures. New rules for various ships, how to crew and captain them, and how to pit them against each other provide adventurers with new modes of exploration. Beyond this, details on a variety
have been updated for the current edition of the game, revealing deadly shores for brave crews to explore anew. Along with these adventures returns one of D&D’s most famous seaside settings: the port
Compendium
- Sources->Dungeons & Dragons->Mythic Odysseys of Theros
who profess to be in Ephara’s service. Those who become excessively focused on rules and justice could overstep their bounds, using the law to oppress countercultural or nonconforming populations. The
Ephara’s Villains table suggests a variety of foes that might arise from among the god’s followers. Ephara’s Villains d6 Villain
1 A neighborhood leader enacts punitive laws, preventing
Kenku
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Species
Volo's Guide to Monsters
might sound like fun, but it can prove distracting and could slow down the game.
Kenku Names
Given that kenku can duplicate any sound, their names are drawn from a staggering variety of
.
Kenku thieves, con artists, and burglars adopt animal noises, typically those common in urban settings. In this manner, kenku can call out to each other while those who overhear them mistake them for