The Crooked Moon – D&D 2024 (5.5e) Review

Is Avantris Entertainment’s debut folk horror book for D&D worth the hype?

At a glance

What to expect from The Crooked Moon

Contents	The Crooked Moon
Pages	638
Species	13
Classes	0
Subclasses	15
Backgrounds	13
Feats	14
Spells	40
Magic iems	26
Monsters	85
Maps	59
Campaigns	1
Adventures	15

In the table above, I’ve outlined what you can expect in the book itself but there’s quite a bit more to it than just that

The campaign itself is huge, spanning levels 1-13 while post game content takes players up to level 20. There’s setting lore, brand new mechanics (like fateweaving and dark bargains), curses and even multi-phase boss fights with battle maps.

In case you couldn’t tell from the page count, this is a massive book (nearly triple the length of most 1st party releases). Naturally, the real question is whether it’s any good.

How good is the content?

Subclasses are largely well-balanced and interesting

3rd party D&D releases are notorious for pushing the boundaries on power-levels (looking at you Grim Hollow). The Crooked Moon doesn’t eschew this stereotype completely, but it pushes those boundaries much less.

In terms of potency, subclasses range from outstanding (like the path of the experiment, college of whistles, warrior of the pestilent haze, occultist and philosopher) to fairly average (like the harvest domain, circles of the old ways and wicker and crimson sorcery). Everything else fits fairly neatly in between.

The good news is, I never felt like I would need to ban any of these subclasses for being overpowered. Some push those boundaries, but mostly, the subclasses are nicely balanced. There’s also no bad options here.

It’s also nice to see all subclasses kind of justifying their place. The occultist feels like a good fit for a wizard that explores the knowledge of the occult. The sinner is a jynx rogue that rides their luck and the path of the experiment is an alchemically infused barbarian that again, adds a different dynamic beyond the established subclasses.

I didn’t love everything about every subclass. I nitpicked about the harvest domain’s frustrating shifting of features that felt more about fortune than tactics. I also felt the old ways druid took too long to get good at it’s main capabilities (being a party tank). But neither of these are bad subclasses and Avantris should be commended for creating compelling subclasses with balance and interesting mechanics.

You can see how I rated each subclass below and check out my guides for them too:

• Path of the experiment barbarian – 5/5
• College of whistles bard – 5/5
• Harvest domain cleric – 3/5
• Circle of the old ways druid – 3/5
• Circle of wicker druid – 3/5
• Barrow guard fighter – 4/5
• Warrior of the pestilent haze monk – 5/5
• Oath of castigation paladin – 4/5
• Grim harbinger ranger – 4/5
• Sinner rogue – 4/5
• Crimson sorcery sorcerer – 3/5
• Great fool patron warlock – 4/5
• Horned king patron warlock – 4/5
• Occultist wizard – 5/5
• Philosopher wizard – 5/5

Species differentiate themselves from existing options

While many souls arrive in Druskenvald via the ghostlight express, others arise within the different regions of the land. Where they arise determines the species they are born as. The Crooked Moon gives us 13 new species with primarily monstrous origins. From werewolves and gargoyles to harpies and spiders, there’s plenty of options.

And they’re nicely balanced too. No species is overpowered (though 2 possess flight which can be the bane of some DMs). Some interesting mechanics crop up too like the ability to cast bless with a bonus action or eldritch gibbering which might debuff nearby enemies.

I found these to be a solid set of species that justify their place and can work alongside a variety of builds.

Feats are OK, but too many are lacklustre

The 14 feats are mostly origin feats to fit the new backgrounds we get. I found that some were built for a certain theme, but in execution, were a bit lackluster. Ghostlight medium was one of these where it was both kind of situational and low impact at the same time. Unreflected was another like this. How often are insight checks made against you. And how often do people attempt to hide in a crowd?

It’s not all bad though. Cult initiate gives access to warlock spells, altered gives you a choice of a solid, physical enhancement like +1AC or swimming capabilities and fate gambler can provide a steady stream of heroic inspiration and temporary hit points.

Ultimately, I felt the options here were middling.

New mechanics are hit and miss

There are 3 new mechanics used in The Crooked Moon. One of these is fateweaving which is more of an adventure design than a mechanic. The way this works is the adventure is designed with certain personal goals built into it and events linked to those goals. Players can choose a thread for their fate to be woven into and the DM can draw on these as players progress through the adventure with 6 personal objectives occurring throughout the campaign.

These vary from a player having lost their memory and receiving apocalyptic visions to finding a way to not be placed at the whims of the creature they made a pact with when they die. There are 13 of these and on the face of it, this seems like a useful way to give player characters their own place in the story to shine.

Dark bargains represent gifts received from some unknown, powerful entity that the players can make a bargain with. These dark bargains are sort of like powerful feats, but with drawbacks. For example, bestial awakening lets you gain the polymorph spell (a level 4 spell being higher than any other feat provides), but, silvered weapons will ignore resistances and immunities and prevent you healing for a while.

This may seem familiar to those that have read Ravenloft: The Horrors Within, and that’s because it’s very much like the dark gifts you can receive as feats. These are more flexible though in that they’re not designated as feats, and yet treated as more special and unique too.

I wasn’t a big fan of the dark gifts from The Horrors Within. I didn’t feel they went far enough to be enticing gifts. On the other hand, The Crooked Moon does do this, at least with some of these bargains. The drawbacks are varied too meaning some of these are great, like the previously mentioned bestial awakening. I also really liked hand of death which gives advantage on constitution saving throws and lets you heal yourself when at 0HP, but can’t be used again until a humanoid dies and you’ll receive half healing for a while. You’ll also make it harder for nearby creatures to pass death saving throws and won’t be able to heal others from 0HP.

But the value here is inconsistent. Cheat fate will let you succeed a saving throw, but your next 3 saving throws will be made at disadvantage, I’m not sure that’s a great trade off. And yes, the designers did account for players trying to make inconsequential saving throws to overcome the drawbacks. But this drawback felt like too much.

Finally, there are chaotic curses. These are much more whimsical than serious mechanical debuffs. They’re intended to last 15-30 minutes of gameplay before overstaying their welcome and ending. While I sort of agree with this, I kind of felt that too many of these are just silly or un-impactful (like getting a pumpkin head for a bit.

Overall, I think these mechanics are unevenly executed. Chaotic curses just feel a bit pointless, dark bargains have value in some instances while fateweaving is a genuinely good concept, but largely relies on the execution (more on that later).

Some of my favourite spells from a 3rd party release

Spells generally land really well. Nothing is overpowered (though a few options edge that way) but many are unique options. Some also lean into the wickedly grim setting (like buried alive).

I’ve felt a little mixed about many 3rd party spell lists, but this is probably the best one I’ve seen so far!

Lore rarely goes as deep as it should

The lore starts out well. It’s a folk horror setting that drags people into its realm before their souls are lost to the afterlife. There they become trapped in a misty realm ruled by an evil being.

Those familiar with Ravenloft may find that a familiar description. That’s because Druskenvald originated as a domain of dread in Legend’s of Avantris’ actual play series. But once you shift away from the lore already established by the Ravenloft setting, the lore becomes much thinner. Phillip Druskenvald takes over the land as it’s ruler, but we aren’t told why or how. Apparently, not even he can remember.

But most explanations are exactly as paper thin as this. One character is described in this way “None know the vagrant’s origin, how he came to cooperate with Phillip, or his ultimate aims.” Hardly a backstory for a DM to work with.

This paper thin lore continues throughout the book where interesting concepts are thrown around, but never really executed into any real depth. This is the polar opposite of the recently released Horrors Within, the latest book on Ravenloft. Here we get characters and ideas for each domain that aren’t overly broad, but there’s detail in the backstories, motivations and events. The lore is just deeper and more useful so that when I use that character in my campaign, I know exactly who these individuals are and why they act the way they do.

It’s a shame because the lore has plenty of nice concepts, but it’s almost an illusion of good lore. At a practical level, DMs would have to do a lot to flesh out the characters and world into something meaningful, despite the huge size of the book.

It’s not bad lore, it just lacks some of the depth I really wanted from the setting.

The adventure is a fun romp through Druskenvald

The campaign in the book is meaty, taking characters from levels 1-13 with extra content to take them up to level 20. It’s a fun romp through Druskenvald. It perhaps lacks some originality, taking cues from Cyre, the Mourning rail, death house from Curse of Strahd and other places, but this is no bad thing. It definitely leans on some of these tropes though.

It does perhaps lack the depth of characters, motives and intense despair and horror that something like Curse of Strahd manages. The villains are less compelling, their motives less personal and the evils less horrific. Curse of Strahd oozes with the effects of its villain and his actions. They permeate everything that happens and the despair feels very real. The Crooked Moon is much more heroic in nature and less interconnected.

For example, later in the campaign, we’re introduced to some adventurers turned bad, which kind of equates to, they were taken over by an evil spirit. It’s fine as a backstory, but lacks the depth of a character like Strahd or really any other Darklord you’d find in The Horrors Within.

It is at least easier to run than Curse of Strahd with events being more sequential whereas Curse of Strahd is a sandbox that barely even guides you through any kind of sensible order of events. Where Curse of Strahd needs a separate guide to run it easily, The Crooked Moon can be picked up easily more easily by a DM.

If you want deep characters, then The Crooked Moon might falter. If you’re happy to roam around being heroic, then I think you’ll probably have a great time. I am after all, comparing this to one of the all time greats of D&D campaigns.

Monsters are interesting with unusual abilities and weaknesses

A look through the bestiary reveals some appropriately grim and nasty creatures that players might face. There is some variety in creature types. Some are genuinely horrifying, others are very whimsical. Like other parts of the book, there can at times be a mismatch in the tone on display.

Mostly though, these look like interesting creatures with some unique abilities (like the crooked man’s ability to break limbs when he grapples). Creatures tend to have more weaknesses too which could be fun to discover and exploit. For example, the herald of fools takes extra damage and d20 tests against it have advantage when it’s speed is 0. It’s niche, but if you find it, this could be a fun exploit.

At times though, this can become somewhat ineffectual as the weaknesses can be very discreet. For example, one creature can have you pass saving throws against it if you possess the wing of a moth. This could be a learning process for players as they hear stories and rumours, but otherwise, you’d never expect this to trigger.

Largely though, this seems like a solid set of monster stat blocks.

Art and design is solid and easy to follow

When it comes to designs, the book is easy to read through and has a clear structure that shows quality and attention to detail. It has a whimsical folk charm while being suggestive of the darkness that permeates the setting.

Artwork is generally good, sometimes very good, but never reaches the higher echelons of quality that recent Wizards of the Coast’s books have achieved. This is a somewhat unfair comparison. This is a 3rd party studio and the art does well at conveying the vibe of the setting.

One thing it does better is the maps. You can take a look at the haunted crooked house maps as an example. It much more clearly depicts not only what’s in the house, but also how it’s structured in a 3d model that I found significantly more useful for actually understanding how the floors interact.

While most artwork is good, I did feel like the whimsical side at times became too whimsical. The earlier artwork tends to be great, but some of the campaign artwork felt like it had come out of the Looney Toons which kind of took me out of the vibe I felt they were going for.

Overview

The Crooked Moon is a debut release for Avantris Entertainment and they do a good job. It’s well presented and you can tell there’s been care in the presentation and even language included. Mechanically it’s solid and generally attempts new things.

The lore is a little thinner than I’d like and villains are perhaps lacking in the backstory department. We could nitpick a little at mechanics with some options not being as impactful as intended (like the old ways druid or some of the dark bargains options) but those are mostly nitpicks.

Largely though, this is a solid release that fulfils on the promise of folk horror and has plenty for DMs and players to enjoy.

4/5

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