Dark gifts or dark duds? See which of the new feats for D&D 2024 are worth taking and which deserve to be lost in the mists.
Ravenloft: The Horrors Within is the latest rules expansion for D&D 2024 (5.5e) and comes packed with options for your NPCs. Some of those options come in the form of brand new feats. 2 of these are origin feats and the other 7 are dark gift feats which can be used as an alternative to origin feats if the DM allows it.
Dark gift feats have been adapted from the dark gifts found in Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft. 6 of these come repackaged with a 5.5e refresh and 1 is brand new. The 2 origin feats are also completely new feats.
Below I’ve gone through each of these feats, evaluating how good I think they are, what’s changed and how best to use them.
Origin feats
Sharp eye – 2/5
Related background: Investigator
Good for: Scout and knowledge builds like rogues, rangers, artificers and wizards.
Ability: Advantage on search or study action a few times each long rest.
Changes: N/A
Tactics: This is going to be best on scout classes, followed by intelligence and knowledge builds. You’ll be best off using it for really urgent or risky checks like finding a hidden creature or investigating a deadly trap.
Problem here is it’s only usable a few times per day and most instances of using these actions can be a tad inconsequential making it easy to waste a use. But waiting on a crucial time to use it is difficult to judge and may lead to it just being wasted.
Survivor – 3/5
Relevant background: Haunted one
Good for: Anyone that wants improved initiative.
Ability: Reroll initiative rolls of 9 or less and use a reaction to add proficiency bonus on a saving throw against charmed or frightened once per long rest.
Changes: N/A
Tactics: I think the impact here on low rolls is higher than the alert feat at early levels, but it’ll only help you 45% of the time. Alert will help you on every initiative roll. However, alert gets more powerful as you increase levels whereas this doesn’t change.
The enhancement against frightened and charmed is OK. I’m not sure it’s as good as alert’s initiative swapping feature. Essentially, I’d rather take alert, but this is decent too.
Dark gift feats
Aberrant anatomy – 4/5
Background: Haunted one, investigator, mist wanderer or spirit medium
Good for: Scouts, but anyone can benefit here, especially those without alternatives for handling invisibility.
Ability: Can hold your breath for 1hr, gain perception proficiency and expertise and gain 15ft blindsight.
Rolling a 1 on a d20 test may result in becoming stunned for a turn.
Changes: N/A
Tactics: Blindsight is a great way for handling invisibility and usually isn’t accessible from level 1. Perception is a really useful skill and expertise in it is strong. Holding your breath is also situationally very useful.
The drawback is rough though. Occasionally becoming stunned is quite problematic. It’s a constitution saving throw though, so constitution proficiency will help. The resilient feat could be of use here too.
Echoing soul – 3/5
Background: Haunted one, investigator, mist wanderer or spirit medium
Good for: Those that need more skill proficiencies. Party faces and scouts often need a lot of proficiencies, but any class will benefit. This is especially the case for classes like paladins, warlocks and sorcerers who might need to play as a party face with limited skill proficiency (unlike a bard, for example).
Ability: 2 skill proficiencies and 1 changeable expertise. You also learn a language.
Rolling a 1 on a d20 test may result in becoming incapacitated for a turn.
Changes: You now gain an expertise and a 1 on a d20 test now leads to incapacitated rather than a random effect.
Tactics: This is a bit better than the skilled feat in terms of benefits (3 proficiencies Vs 2 proficiencies and an expertise). The expertise is changeable which is very helpful too.
Incapacitated as a condition isn’t as bad as stunned. You can still move, take bonus actions and aren’t necessarily easier to hit, but it’s still a pain.
Gathered whispers – 4/5
Background: Haunted one, investigator, mist wanderer or spirit medium
Good for: High AC builds are more likely to be able to turn a hit into a miss and will usually be the tanks taking the most attacks. The spells are for out of combat and spellcasting acumen doesn’t really come into it so a spellcasting build isn’t necessary here.
Ability: Can cast message and augury without material components and get one free casting of augury. You can add your proficiency bonus to your AC as a reaction a few times per long rest.
Rolling a 1 on a d20 test may result in becoming deafened and have disadvantage on ability checks and attack rolls for a turn.
Changes: Gain augury as a spell and unearthly scream will work on deafened characters and can be used more often. Also a 1 on a d20 test now leads to incapacitated rather than a random effect.
Tactics: Message and augury are decent spells, the AC boost is quite good as a defensive ability.
Deafened is rarely much of a problem. Disadvantage on ability checks isn’t usually a problem either as you can usually wait a turn to use these. Disadvantage on attacks is more of a problem, but many characters, especially spellcasters, can easily get around this by casting a saving throw spell.
Living shadow – 4/5
Background: Haunted one, investigator, mist wanderer or spirit medium
Good for: Anyone can benefit from the utility of mage hand. The extended reach is only good for those making regular melee attacks. It’s really good for hit and run tactics but could also be useful just for reaching other creatures. I’d say it’s most useful for something like a rogue, monk or things like blade warlocks or valor bards.
Ability: Learn the mage hand spell and can extend the reach of a few melee attacks by 10ft.
If you roll a 1 on a d20 test, then you may gain the incapacitated condition and do something random on your turn.
Changes: Now works on melee attacks made using the magic action as well. Previously, rolling 1 on a d20 test would result in a nearby creature randomly being helped or hindered on their next d20 test.
Tactics: Mage hand is just great utility and doesn’t rely on a strong spellcasting ability so is usable by anyone. Extended reach is going to work well to reach enemies a bit further away or for hit and run tactics. The drawback could theoretically be better than most other dark gifts, but also worse if you end up hitting an ally.
Mist walker – 2/5
Background: Haunted one, investigator, mist wanderer or spirit medium
Good for: Anyone that’s likely to be grappled or prone a lot. This could be anyone, but perhaps melee builds more than ranged.
Ability: Can travel through the mists of Ravenloft to other domains as if you have a mist talisman. When you fail a grapple or restrained saving throw, you can teleport 15ft as a reaction a few times per long rest.
You may not get the benefits of a short rest if within 10 miles of the place you made a long rest.
Changes: Teleportation out of grapples and restraints instead of misty step and previously might gain a level of exhaustion if resting within 10miles of your last long rest location (with a higher DC).
Tactics: Travelling between domains is practical rather than mechanical. It sits in a similar space as planar travel; if your DM wants you travelling between domains, you’ll all get a way to do this, if not, then you likely all won’t have a way to do this. I see this more as a practical dark gift a DM might grant a party to aid this.
Teleporting from grapples and restraints can be really good depending on how much this stuff is coming up. However, this feels like one buff and a plot benefit rather than the usual 2 buffs for dark gift feats.
On top of this, the drawback is really significant. I doubt most players are travelling 10 miles between most rests and losing the benefits of a short rest is very problematic! This will be a regular saving throw that will affect your character not just for a turn, but until you next rest up. Absolutely don’t play a warlock with this dark gift!
Second skin – 3/5
Background: Haunted one, investigator, mist wanderer or spirit medium
Good for: Those that want to disguise themselves or occasionally be great at swimming.
Ability: Can cast alter self and can do so once without a spell slot or concentration. This can also be triggered by an unusual catalyst (though you’ll be stunned for a turn if you’ve already expended the free use of alter self).
Changes: Alter self can now be cast without concentration. You no longer retain aspects of your altered form, the save DC is a little easier and you can now be stunned if you’ve expended your use of alter self.
Tactics: Alter self itself is decent and dropping concentration on the spell can be handy. It’s great for disguises and aquatic encounters and because one use is without concentration, this allows you to concentrate on another spell (maybe if you’re fighting underwater). I struggle with natural weapons on this spell because you can’t really build for unarmed combat specifically for this as it won’t be active often enough. Unfortunately, unarmed combat really needs building into to work.
The interesting thing here is that you may get an unexpected transformation which isn’t really a drawback unless you’ve used your use of alter self. Either way, how often this happens may be largely dictated by the DM.
For me, this is weaker than other level 2 spell granting feats like fey touched and shadow touched as you only gain 1 spell and it comes with drawbacks (it’s also likely to be used less). It’s not bad though.
Symbiotic being – 4/5
Background: Haunted one, investigator, mist wanderer or spirit medium
Good for: Higher hit dice characters like barbarians, fighters, rangers and paladins.
Ability: Gain a skill proficiency, a language and a few chances to improve a saving throw with a hit die. You can also become charmed by the symbiote for several hours when you roll a 1 on a d20 test.
Changes: Previously didn’t gain an extra language (but your symbiote did), can no longer recover from 0HP when using sustained symbiosis for death saving throws and you get more uses of this now. Triggering the symbiote’s charm no longer occurs when going against its will.
Tactics: A skill and a language are alright, but mainly you’re here for the resilience that comes from the improved saving throws which can be very useful. High hit dice will help most and multiclass characters may even want to save their best hit dice for this. Primarily though, you’ll want to use it for nasty effects and saving throws you only fail by a small amount.
The drawback is a super interesting one in the hands of a cunning DM. Try not to be too savage with your player on this and I’d recommend having a personality and goals primed for your symbiote. Remember, it still wants its host to survive and succeed so try not to do anything too daft.
Touch of death – 1/5
Background: Haunted one, investigator, mist wanderer or spirit medium
Good for: No-one. This is a dark gift distinctly lacking in the gift department.
Ability: Gain chill touch as a spell and it ignores resistance to necrotic damage. You also gain disadvantage on death saving throws.
Changes: Previously combined the damage of chill touch with an unarmed strike. The ignoring of necrotic resistance was previously for all attack rolls, not just those using death touch. It also allowed you to cause damage while grappling a creature. There was previously no mechanical drawback to this dark gift.
Tactics: This is a really poor option and is only appropriate for flavour. Chill touch is challenging as most spellcasters don’t want to be in melee range, and those that do likely have better options (like a paladin’s weapon attacks and smite spells). It’s not useless because spellcasters can end up in melee combat, but this will be the exception rather than the rule. If you can find a build where chill touch is optimal, then I guess it’s one of the higher damage cantrips. Reality is, the drawback is worse than the buff so it’s really hard to recommend this for anyone. It’s also significantly worse than the 2014 version of this dark gift which had some interesting applications.
Watchers – 1/5
Background: Haunted one, investigator, mist wanderer or spirit medium
Good for: Not many characters really. Maybe high wisdom characters might fare best here like clerics and rangers and those with pet companions.
Ability: You know beast sense and speak with animals and can cast each once without a spell slot. Add 1d4 to ability checks made as part of the search action. You have disadvantage on saving throws against the scrying spell and on a d20 test roll of 1, may have disadvantage on d20 tests for up to a minute.
Changes: Previously gained advantage on investigation and perception checks for an hour and became immune to being blinded during this time. Also led to disadvantage on charisma checks against certain creatures (watchers).
Tactics: The 2 spells are decent enough, especially if you have a pet like a familiar or primal companion. Improved searching is alright too and the disadvantage against scrying is so situational that it’s barely worth considering. Disadvantage on d20 tests for a minute is quite brutal, especially as you’ll now have disadvantage on the saving throws to end the condition.
I’m not convinced the benefits outweigh the negatives nearly enough here. Especially as this is potentially one of the nastier drawbacks (especially if afflicted for more than 1 turn). Definitely avoid this if you have a low wisdom.
Are the feats in Ravenloft: The Horrors Within any good?
The original dark gifts suffered from being quite bloated with some awkward flavour mechanics. These updates certainly streamline these options and simplify the drawbacks here too. My main issue though is I feel the dark gifts should be tantalisingly powerful for some power-hungry adventurer, and while there’s some decent options here, none of them feel like they’re more powerful than even a decent standard feat. When you balance in the drawbacks, it’s rare that I feel I’d really want these feats.
Similarly with the origin feats, the best option is an alert alternative, but it is inferior to that feat.
Where these feats shine more is in the vibes department. There’s some really tasty roleplaying opportunities here, especially with things like a symbiote attached to your mind or a trigger that could cause you to transform. None of these opportunities feel too intrusive either making it easy to integrate into gameplay.
Ultimately, I think these feats are OK if you’re looking for something wickedly thematic more than something mechanically impressive. None of them inspire me to new kinds of builds or gameplay approaches though, which is maybe a missed opportunity. Still, they’re OK if all you want is a dark gift to grant your players.
What do you think of the feats from Ravenloft: The Horrors Within? Let me know in the comments below.
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