Become the monsters with these 3rd party character options from Ghostfire Games.
Grim Hollow is a 3rd party supplement created by Ghostfire Games. It’s set in the dark fantasy world of Etharis where monsters are rampant, as are all sorts of dark magic, curses and other grim consequences you can unleash on your players.
One of the new options unique to Grim Hollow is the inclusion of transformations. These are options PCs can receive that can literally alter their character’s form and capabilities. Such transformations typically occur when affected by a powerful force such as a curse, ritual or the influence of an artefact.
In most cases, these transformations are quite sinister, turning the recipient into something monstrous like a lycanthrope, vampire or a hag. Some less monstrous transformations can be bestowed, like becoming a seraph, but even these transformations are double-edged swords. Each transformation comes with both boons and flaws to make such transformations a grave choice to make, and perhaps one born out of desperation.
We backed the Grim Hollow Transformed Kickstarter so we could dive into this supplement. Below, we’ve gone into detail on how these transformations work analysing how useful (or problematic) they are and whether we think they’d make a good addition for your table.
At a glance
- Transformations allow you to gradually turn into some of the monsters you might encounter
- Each comes with powerful boons and flaws
- The boons tend to outweigh the flaws leading to potential power imbalances
- Flaws can also be a little problematic for general gameplay
- Despite this, transformations offer an interesting and unique option for characters that want to try heading down a different path
How do transformations work?
Transformations can occur for all manner of reasons. These might be chosen by the character or imposed upon them.
However, players can become quite attached to their characters. For this reason, I’d recommend always talking to your players and establishing whether this is something they would like for their character and in the game. Personally, I’d approach this by seeing whether any players would want an opportunity for a transformation for their character and which one and then weave this into the campaign somehow in the future. This can be a great thing to raise at a session zero.
Mechanically, there are a few steps to a transformation:
- Trigger – Something triggers the transformation like an exceptionally evil or good act, the completion of a ritual or making a pact with a powerful creature.
- Determine what transformation has occurred – Decide what the character has been transformed into (see the next section for a full list).
- Determine what stage transformation you receive – Transformations become more potent the higher your level. There are 4 stages spanning levels 1-20 and this will determine which boons and flaws you can receive.
- Determine boons and flaws – Read through the entry for that transformation to determine what boons and flaws you receive. Some of these will include options the player can choose.
What transformations are available?
There are 12 transformations to choose from in the Grim Hollow Player’s Guide, each with different boons and flaws. They are:
- Aberrant horror
- Fey
- Fiend
- Hag
- Lich
- Lycanthrope
- Ooze
- Primordial
- Seraph
- Shadowsteel Ghoul
- Spectre
- Vampire
How good is each transformation?
The transformations swing in power with powerful boons that are the equivalent of often, fairly good class features. These are somewhat balanced out by having some flaws which can be quite problematic.
Still, a character with a transformation will be more potent in combat than those without them. This means that each transformation is a powerful and potentially, unbalancing option. Equally, most transformations will harm your capabilities in social situations and can even make other things quite problematic too.
Which transformation is best for your character depends on the kind of character you’re playing. Below I’ve briefly detailed what boons and flaws each transformation can gain and what types of characters will benefit most (and least) from these new capabilities. Bear in mind that different boons and flaws kick in at different levels and you won’t receive every boon available as you’ll often choose from a few options.
Aberrant horror
Aberrant horrors are those that have been afflicted with an unspeakable, eldritch transformation. This often involves developing grotesque appendages and psychic capabilities as well as a horrifying visage that can continuously change.
Boons
- Temporary hit points each short rest
- Improved AC at the sacrifice of some speed (temporarily)
- Eldritch limbs grant enhanced attacks
- Improved hit and run capabilities
- Ability to frighten others
- Free restrained attempt when creatures move close to you
- Enhanced attack damage by expending spell slots (though this is an expensive way to get a bit of extra damage)
- Poison resilience and poison damage to those close to you
Flaws
- A random malformation each day can range in severity from a faster movement speed or advantage on death saving throws, to literally just dying or halving your hit point maximum. These aren’t permanent states, but the negatives are a more likely outcome (and death only occurs at stage 4 which should be easily remedied with a cleric)
- Can easily have non-evil creatures become hostile towards you
- At later stages, the odds of getting a more negative flaw from unstable form are increased
Who it’s good for
I’d say it’s best for melee combatants. Aberrant horrors hit harder and can take a bigger beating than most. Add to this things like the ability to restrain those that get too close, better AC and some automatic poison damage and they’re well suited for martials. Anyone that deals with hit and run tactics (like rogues and monks) can also benefit a fair bit here too.
Who it’s bad for
The party face! You don’t want to accidently reveal your grotesque form and ruin your chances of sweet-talking your way round a problem. I’m not convinced they work well for full spellcasters either. Most of their features work best in close proximity to other creatures or rely on attacks or high strength or dexterity. That’s not to say that there’s nothing to gain here, but if you’re primarily relying on spellcasting, this isn’t the best option.
Fey
The fey are creatures of mischief, prone to act according to their own whims with complete disregard for the concerns of others. They’ll gladly snatch an infant child if it takes their fancy or invoke a fickle curse upon a mortal being. Either way, this might result in a fey transformation.
Boons
- A damage resistance
- Bonus action teleportation (without using a spell slot)
- Ability to cause conditions on enemies in a fairly large area
- Some new spells known
- Manifest natural weapons for enhanced attacks
- A paralyzing magical feature
- Enhanced invisibility
Flaws
- Disadvantage on your first saving throw against a spell after each rest
- The need to offer tribute to the fey court
- The possibility of a level of exhaustion when bloodied
- Disadvantage on death saving throws and vulnerability to a damage type.
Who it’s good for
High charisma characters in particular. Many of the features rely on a high charisma and/or a high spellcasting ability. There are some resilience features and, at higher levels, features that can deal extra damage which might work for some martials, but broadly, this isn’t what fey transformations are best for.
A combination of these functions though can work best. Paladins and some warlocks and bards might really benefit from an extra attack with their bonus action with some enhanced damage for instance. Teleportation can be great for anyone though.
Who it’s bad for
Pure martials probably gain the least from this transformation, especially at stages 1 and 2.
Fiend
Fiends are bargainers. Fond of souls and the temptations that can draw mortals to evil, they will seek to bargain and manipulate. And when a mortal succumbs to such advances, a transformation might be the result.
Boons
- Damage resistances
- Enhanced attacks
- Ability to make and benefit from contracts
- Invoke fiery brands that cause debuffs
- Summon fiends
Flaws
- Disadvantage on death saving throws
- Revealing your true form to potentially make NPCs hostile towards you
- Take damage on a natural 1
- Creatures that know your true name may be able to control you.
Who it’s good for
The fiend transformation can work well for anyone, though if you expect to cast mostly levelled spells rather than making weapon attacks or casting cantrips, you may find yourself not using infernal smite much. Charismatic characters may also feel they can get more from their devilish contracts, but this isn’t necessarily a direct mechanical benefit.
Who it’s bad for
Any class can work for a fiend transformation, but again, you may find that spellcasters mostly using levelled spells have less opportunities to deal extra damage with infernal smite. I imagine non-charismatic characters may not do as well convincing others to sign contracts either.
Hag
Hags are a type of fey creature, but deserve their own special classification in Grim Hollow’s transformations. They are repulsive creatures filled only with malevolence and cruelty. They prey on the desperate and manipulate any request for a deal into one that serves their own twisted ends. And you can become one with this transformation. Lucky you!
Boons
- 13+ dex unarmored AC
- An extra saving throw proficiency
- Darkvision
- Enhanced capabilities in water
- Imitation
- Enhanced deception and persuasion and magical damage
- Turn invisible
- Have natural weapons
- Enhanced charm person spell
- Free castings of disguise self
- Additional claw attack
- Spell slot recovery
- Create a hag eye or gasdra companion
- Frighten and eventually kill others with your appearance
- Learn a shadow steel curse
Flaws
- Those that see your true form become hostile to you and you have disadvantage on persuasion checks
- Can become exhausted by seeing your own appearance
- Once per day, a hit with an iron or steel weapon might stun you
- Acts of pure goodness can cause you physical harm and frighten you
- Gain levels of exhaustion each day if you do not feed on a vile food source or if you eat normal food.
Who it’s good for
High dexterity, high charisma characters, especially those that make non-spell attacks a lot. This is mainly because of the enhanced AC for a Dex build and the additional attack (which I believe is on top of the extra attack feature).
The use of face skills as well as charisma for your save DC makes this important too, but you’ll need to make sure you hide your true appearance. All of this fits things like rogues, Valor and dance bards and maybe even a dexterity build for a fighter or paladin. Warlocks can also fit the bill here too. Sorcerers and wizards can get around their lack of armor proficiency here but will struggle to make use of the enhanced attacks. With their charisma focus, sorcerers make a much better option than wizards though.
Who it’s bad for
Low dexterity builds, low charisma classes and those that rarely make weapon attacks.
Lich
Liches are undead, skeletal beings that have performed evil acts to stave off the effects of death.
Boons
- You don’t require air, food or water and don’t age
- You can enhance spellcasting or attacks
- Create zombies
- Cause binding curses
- Cause extra effects (like healing) when you kill someone with a spell
- Be able to concentrate on 2 spells at once (with limitations and drawbacks)
- Enhanced undead minions
- Self-regeneration
- An extra spell slot and extra spells known
Flaws
- You gain a soul vessel which fuels your abilities (this feels a lot like a boon)
- Seeing your true nature will make non-evil NPCs hostile to you
- Having an uncharged soul vessel will cause certain drawbacks
- Eventually, if your soul vessel is destroyed, so are you
Who it’s good for
Liches lean most into improved spellcasting with full casters those most able to benefit from their powers. Having said this, you can also build a lich with enhanced attacks which can benefit all sorts of martials. In fact, an attack as a bonus action could benefit characters without much use for their bonus action or rogues who may really want to land a sneak attack.
Advantage on reaction attacks is really going to help martials with feats like sentinel, or even more so, monster hunters who can regularly make reaction attacks.
Who it’s bad for
Maybe monks who already use their bonus action for attacks and with hit and run tactics, will likely make less reaction attacks and they don’t cast spells. They also get force damage on their attacks by level 6 making a lot of lich abilities a bit redundant.
Lycanthrope
Lycanthropy is a curse that makes one part man and part beast. They have the ability to transform into a beastial aspect of themselves which is most commonly a wolf, but can be all sorts of creatures. Many lycanthropes struggle to control their beastial nature, giving way to violent bouts, but over time, these can be controlled.
Boons
- Transform into a hybrid beast form
- Mark foes in a way similar to hunter’s mark
- Gain damage resistances
- Transform into an animal form
- Increase hit points
- Increase natural weapon damage (especially against bloodied creatures).
Flaws
- Becoming bloodied can send into a feral state
- Become sensitive to silvered weapons
- Disadvantage on intelligence ability checks and saving throws
- Later becomes more prone to becoming feral
Who it’s good for
Martials. Enhanced damage and resilience make lycanthropes great for martials of all kinds. Stealthy characters can do quite well as a lycanthrope too.
Who it’s bad for
Spellcasters will suffer a lot with challenges with spellcasting while in your various forms. Those relying on knowledge skills will suffer a lot too.
Ooze
Oozes are gelatinous entities that can be incredibly deadly. They are also capable of transforming their prey permanently on the rare occasion they don’t consume them entirely.
Boons
- Blindsight
- Amorphous form
- Transparency
- Disguising form
- Longer reach
- Climb speed
- Enhanced grapple
- Damage and condition immunities and resistances
- Weapon corrosion
- Damage to those that hit you
- Engulf enemies
- Split in 2 when bloodied
- Object mimicry
Flaws
- Slower move speed
- Disadvantage on charisma ability checks
- Blinded beyond your blindsight distance
- Vulnerable to radiant damage
- Disadvantage on dexterity saving throws and ability checks and the possibility of losing your grip on your mind.
Who it’s good for
Oozes are mainly best for tanks who can expect to be attacked a lot and activate things like their corrosion and resistances. In many ways, they can make great scouts and stealth experts, but be aware that at stage 3, you get disadvantage with dexterity saving throws and ability checks which will hamper this. Equally, disguises are a stealth and charisma ability, but both of these are problematic for an ooze once you hit stage 2/3.
Who it’s bad for
Ranged characters. I’d also say that party faces like bards will have a rough time.
Primordial
Primordial beings are built from the elemental building blocks of the universe and those that undergo a primordial transformation are able to harnass these elemental powers.
Boons
- Increased constitution
- Elemental affinity
- Enhanced ranged attacks
- Enhanced healing
- Enhanced fire damage
- Enhanced temporary hit points
- No need to sleep, breathe or eat
- Damage resistance
- Use a reaction to strike someone with elemental energy
Flaws
- Disadvantage on death saving throws
- Disadvantage on d20 tests when your nature is revealed
- Can develop vulnerabilities to some damage types and spread the damage you receive to others
- Take increased damage when rolling a 1 on a saving throw
Who it’s good for
Ranged characters will do well with a primordial transformation. Especially those that can heal and deal fire damage which is mainly going to mean spellcasters.
Who it’s bad for
Melee damage dealers and those without spellcasting or healing capabilities.
Seraph
Occasionally, a celestial being may choose a mortal to imbue with power. These mortals are transformed into seraphs and become representatives of celestial causes on the mortal planes. Typically, these are individuals that are pure in character.
Boons
- Resistance to radiant damage
- Temporary flight
- Enhanced weapon and cantrips damage
- Reaction healing (and at higher levels, condition removal, temporary hit points and enhanced d20 tests)
- Grant occasional extra attacks to allies
- Manifest a powerful bow
- Grant critical hits in exchange for a level of exhaustion
- Save an ally from being dropped to 0Hp in exchange for a level of exhaustion
Flaws
- Disadvantage on death saving throws
- Potentially blind nearby allies and attacks against you temporarily have advantage
- Become weakened against evil if corrupted by yours or an ally’s evil act
- Natural 1s weaken you
Who it’s good for
Most of the seraph’s boons are most potent when close to allies and in the midst of combat. They also work best when making lots of attacks or using cantrips a lot. Because those using cantrips are probably also using lots of levelled spells, it means that seraphs tend to be better as martials. This means the likes of fighters, barbarians and paladins are some of the best options.
Who it’s bad for
Those that fight at range and don’t stick near allies much or will be too far from the action to provide aid.
Shadowsteel Ghoul
Corrupted metal, known as shadow steel, makes a great enhancement to curses, but those that wield such powers begin to gradually be transformed into a shadowsteel ghoul.
Boons
- Gain the shadowsteel adept feat and shadowsteel curses take less time to cast and are more likely to succeed
- Make a weapon magical and gain temporary hit points when reducing to 0HP with it
- Advantage on saving throws against spells
- +1 AC when not wearing armor
- Gain the shadowsteel master feat and expend hit dice to restore spell slots
- +4 damage with shadowsteel weapons
- Gain a claw attack that can cause curses and exhaustion
- Spells can work more often against one target
Flaws
- Lose 2 points in an ability score
- No allies (this may affect features that other party members might want to bestow on you), no creatures are friendly towards you and disadvantage on charisma ability checks
- Healing only restores half hit points
- When reduced to 0HP, cause damage and stunned to those around you
Who it’s good for
To use shadowsteel curses, you need to be a spellcaster, and ideally, a full caster to gain access to these curses at a reasonable level (the lowest level curse is a level 3 spell). But there’s also a fair bit of weapon related features too. This means there’s something for everyone, but especially for weapon wielding full casters like warlocks and Valor bards.
Unfortunately, face skills are a problem for shadowsteel ghouls making these classes poor in other senses. But clerics and druids might benefit more. They’re resilient, and the shadowsteel ghoul can make them reasonably adept at attacks too. Rangers and artificers are a decent option too, but will get these curses at later levels.
Who it’s bad for
Party faces. They’ll really struggle with charisma checks. Non-casters will find a few redundant abilities too.
Specter
Specters are ghostly entities whose body and soul have been rent apart, often violently, until their body is no longer bound to the mortal plane. Maintaining their sense of self and even just their presence once such a transformation has taken hold, is rare and requires phenomenal fortitude.
Boons
- Resistance to necrotic damage and you stop aging
- Can sometimes inflict extra damage on melee attacks and can eventually cause paralysis
- Incorporeal movement
- Free castings of an enhanced blink spell
- Gain a fly speed and can cause frightened while flying
- Cause multiple creatures to take extra damage when hit
- Can possess others
Flaws
- Disadvantage on death saving throws
- Regain half as many hit points
- Can become confused when bloodied
- Take damage when rolling a 1 on a d20 test
Who it’s good for
Spectres work best for melee warriors with things like enhanced damage and the ability to paralyse. Incorporeal movement and flight helps too, allowing you to shift between the parts of the battlefield you need to be in. Because of this, they also make great scouts and stealthy characters. This makes the likes of monks, rangers and rogues ideal, but they’re also a good fit for other martials like fighters, barbarians and paladins.
Who it’s bad for
Anyone not making many melee attacks. This includes most full spellcasters, but can also be a problem for ranged martials too.
Vampire
Becoming a vampire offers immortality, but at the price of an undead existence. While it grants unholy vigor, many of life’s pleasures are also lost as a consequence.
Boons
- Bite attack that can also heal
- Enhanced strength/dexterity
- Climb speed
- Faster move speed
- Improved hiding
- Darkvision
- Necrotic resistance
- Advantage on dexterity saving throws
- Avoid dropping to 0HP once per long rest
- Charm others
- Additional attacks
- Free castings of gaseous form
- Gain sangromancy magic that can expend hit point dice for extra damage and restore uses with your bite attack
- Create vampire spawn under your control
- Summon rats, bats and wolves
- Free castings of misty step
- Regenerate when below 60HP
Flaws
- Must feed regularly from a creature with mortal blood
- Must be invited into a residence or be disadvantaged
- Sunlight eventually causes you problems
- Your true form can be accidentally revealed and may cause others to be hostile to you
- Being unconscious, incapacitated or stunned and struck with a critical hit from a piercing weapon can kill you completely
Who it’s good for
To be taking advantage of bite and claw attacks, you’ll want to be a capable melee combatant of some kind. At the same time, you’ll need to be careful that this doesn’t weaken your general attacks, especially if you make more attacks than a vampire can. This can be problematic for fighters and monks (especially as monks will have their bonus action occupied with even more attacks). Paladins may also struggle with smites not working with claw and bite attacks.
Stealthy martials are likely your best option (other than monks). This means rogues and rangers. Clerics might also make a decent option, especially with necrotic cantrips like roll the dead. They can work well with charismatic classes too. Certain bard builds could work well here, especially valor bards.
Who it’s bad for
Full spellcasters that don’t engage in melee combat, especially sorcerers and wizards. Monks can also be a problem too as there’s too much conflict with existing features.
Should you allow transformations at your table?
This is very much a personal choice and is really about what you and your table enjoy. But it’s worth being aware of the good and bad aspects of transformations in Grim Hollow before making that decision.
Good aspects of transformations
- Flavour: Transformations really bring in some new and exciting flavour options for players to try.
- Tempting curse: They also make the lure of gaining a cursed state quite appealing. The boons are potent, but the flaws are definitely problematic too.
- Flexibility: There’s lots of flexibility in how transformations can occur allowing you to easily weave them narratively into the campaign.
- Lots of variety: There’s also a lot of options available. More than just the standard vampire, lycanthrope, undead tropes we might normally expect.
- Unique abilities: And it’s exciting that they produce completely new and unique abilities that just can’t be grabbed elsewhere.
- Scaling capabilities: Unlike your species, a transformation grows in potency with different stages allowing the transformation to become more powerful (and problematic) with time. This makes it scale better than a once and done change.
Bad aspects of transformations
- Some unbalancing features: It’s worth being aware that some features are very powerful and that this may affect the balance of play. For example, some transformations add another attack to a character’s capabilities. Players without a transformation may feel underpowered while balance of encounters may need adjusting.
- Some features require lots of work: For example, devilish contracts really requires going out of your way to make deals. Some groups may find this fun, others may find it a drag as one character pulls the rest of the group away from their main objective while they negotiate contracts to fuel their abilities. Or the ooze’s ability to corrode weapons which has a cumulative effect which must then be tracked for potentially multiple weapons.
- Some features require effort from the DM: Queen’s command from the fey transformation, for example, requires roleplay and preparation from the DM as well as intervention to imprison for 100 years (and subsequently aid the player in escaping this punishment) which all sounds like a lot of effort if the player doesn’t offer adequate tribute.
- Some features feel difficult to enforce: For example, a hag transformation means that when you see your reflection, you might gain a level of exhaustion. The problem here is that no player will choose to look at their reflection while any DM that enforces seeing a reflection will seem petty and will frustrate the player with quite a big negative.
With all that in mind, would I use transformations at my table? To be honest, while I love the ideas on show here, I probably wouldn’t use them in their current state. The swings in power and the effort required behind some of these feels like too much effort. Instead I’d probably adapt the ideas here, keeping those that seem good and adapting problematic abilities. I’d probably also ensure that power swings are less substantial (both for boons and flaws).
That doesn’t mean I think they’re a bad idea for your table and they are certainly functional in their current state. But for a more seamless experience, I think some adaptation would be useful.
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