Analysing the Darklord Stat Blocks From Ravenloft: The Horrors Within

Seeing if the Darklords truly invoke dread.

Strahd Von Zarovich

The first vampire

Darklord of Barovia

Who is he?

The very first vampire. He killed his family and guests in a jealous rage and drank their blood in an unholy rite. He is now tormented by a love he can never obtain in his domain of Barovia.

Stat block analysis

This is largely an adaptation of the Curse of Strahd and Eve of Ruin stat block somewhat combined and updated to the 2024 design philosophies. Overall, Strahd ends up stronger than the Curse of Strahd version, but that’s typical within D&D 2024 design. Some of the main updates include (comparing primarily against his Curse of Strahd iteration):

• An extra legendary resistance and legendary action while in his domain (I imagine that’s usually where players encounter him).
• More hit points (+60 to be precise).
• Faster movement speed.
• The ability to cast fireball in place of an attack.
• No more regeneration at the start of each turn (the main nerf to this version).
• Can grapple and cause damage with his attacks instead of one or the other.
• Can shapeshift and charm as a bonus action instead of an action.
• Can no longer summon bats, rats or wolves.
• Has fewer spells known.
• Can now cast command as a legendary action.
• Can now move half his speed and attack as a legendary action rather than separate legendary actions for both. However, he can’t use bite as a legendary action any more.

Largely, this is a better and more fluid stat block that allows Strahd to accomplish more with his turns and dominate the battlefield more easily. However, there are a few issues.

First off, his grapple DC has been reduced from 18 to 14. This is very low for an expected party of level 10 and a creature of 18 strength that’s supposed to be a boss that’s adept at grappling. I know he can grapple more easily now, but that’s oddly low and grapple isn’t a massive problem for players. I’d whack this back up to 18.

My other issue is that his spellcasting is a bit lacklustre considering that he is also supposed to be a powerful wizard. Level 5 spells certainly should be available and maybe even a little higher, even for a level 10ish party. I’d have liked to see more of the wizard Strahd in this stat block (even if I know the idea is to streamline spellcasting a bit).

I guess the other thing to be wary of is that charm can be something that’s used every bonus action to slowly bring party members under his influence basically locking them out of combat and making them pawns to his bite. That may not be particularly satisfying for players. I think I’d be more inclined to make this charm harder to resist, but only last a turn (perhaps with no disadvantage against creatures hostile too him).

It’s nearly a really good set of changes, but I think it stumbles with a few design flaws that maybe aren’t too hard to rectify, but require some DM effort which generally isn’t what you want.

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Ivana Boritsi

Ambitious aristocrat that plays with poison

Darklord of Borca

Who is she?

Overlooked for her youthfulness, Ivana is actually exceedingly capable. Born of noble heritage, she poisoned her family for overlooking her excellence and for the depravity they demonstrated in keeping her apart from the man she loved.

Stat block analysis

Ivana is a master poisoner and has a deep understanding of plants. She puts this knowledge to use with toxins. This is showcased in the poison damage she deals and the effects some of her toxins cause. One of these will cause affected targets to deal less damage while another will knock affected creatures prone. She can also charm in a similar way to Strahd (though is limited to once per 5 turns).

I think that largely, this is alright apart from the very long charming as a bonus action (so can easily be used without wasting an action). This essentially locks a character out of a large chunk of an encounter without a direct method to end the condition, which again, can be frustrating.

It does also feel like she could have maybe had more plants she could chuck into the fray for a few more effects. Maybe something like spike growth.

This is a perfectly fine stat block for its CR though, especially with some plant minions to occupy characters too.

Ivan Dilisnya

Childish aristocratic with broken body and clockwork contraptions

Darklord of Borca

Who is he?

Ivan never really grew up. He never wanted the responsibility of leading his household, yet he was given it in place of his more competent cousin, Ivana. While he’s often considered an innovator and a genius, he is really just childish, petty and a wicked manipulator.

Stat block analysis

Ivan is more about restricting movement which is a little more unique. He attaches clockwork toy contraptions to body parts which deal damage if the target moves. He can also spread caltrops using a legendary action. Is not loads, but at the level, seems about right.

The challenge with Ivan is that he lacks durability, but also does little at much range. This quickly makes movement less important as he’s often going to get into melee range anyway. Some kind of ranged or hit and run capability would have been ideal here I think.

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Azalin Rex

Tyrannical wizard-king who won’t be caged

Darklord of Darkon

Who is he?

A lich and a tyrant who demands obedience. Azalin was trapped in the domain of Darkon, unable to progress his arcane powers. Determined to not be caged, he strove to break free leading to his hour of ascension, from which time he has never been seen since.

Stat block analysis

Azalin Rex should be a bit more powerful than an average lich (which is already quite powerful and worthy of being a BBEG/darklord on its own). If we compare him to a lich, we can see a very similar stat block with some changes:

• A CR of 23 rather than 21
• Increased hit points (+75)
• Increased wisdom (+3)
• Eldritch burst gains a ranged version of 120ft
• Gains the fireball spell (which he casts at level 5 at will) and an extra use of scrying per day
• Can steal knowledge of a spell when counterspelling it allowing him to cast it himself
• Loses the ability to cast the shield spell
• Eldritch teleport replaces deathly teleport as a legendary reaction allowing Azalin to teleport and use eldritch burst or paralyzing touch once he’s teleported rather than leaving behind an emanation of damage
• Gains forbidden knowledge as a legendary reaction, losing disrupt life and frightening gaze. This lets him cause damage and stun 3 targets for a turn

The changes from an ordinary lich aren’t massive, but the 3 big changes are substantial in the way they make you play Azalin.

Ranged eldritch burst allows him to hang back more if necessary (though he can just use fireballs and lightning bolts at will anyway). teleportation as a legendary reaction changes things a lot too as before you might wait to teleport until there were nearby enemies to damage, now you can just use this to stay out of reach and blast eldritch bursts. Or even worse, pick off individual characters (maybe spellcasters) by teleporting next to them and using paralyzing touch.

Forbidden knowledge makes Azalin a save or suck specialist with 3 more saves against the stunned condition this time.

However, this leads on to a major concern with how Azalin plays. It’s quite easy for him to simply causing paralyzing touch. There’s no saving throw so it all relies on his attack roll and your AC. Unfortunately, this is +12 meaning he probably has more than a 50% chance of landing this. If we assume you meet him in Darkon, he theoretically has 7 opportunities per round to cause this!

We can even replace one of these with a triple attempt at stunned. With an intelligence saving throw and a DC of 20, it’s easy enough for him to target anyone that isn’t a wizard or artificer with an almost guaranteed saving throw failure (as intelligence is almost certainly dumped by most other characters). Now you have 9 chances for a round of basically doing nothing. Enough to disable most parties every turn!

A lich can manage 3 attempts at this per round and must beat AC rather than using an intelligence saving throw meaning you’re likely to disable 1-2 party members per turn. Rough, but not completely disabling. My issue with Azalin is he could easily disable entire parties for the vast majority of an encounter which is no fun for anyone.

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Saidra d’Honaire

Ruler of illusions and despiser of lies

Darklord of Dementlieu

Who is she?

A wraith who refuses to accept who she really is. She is ashamed of her humble birth, instead, masquerading as nobility and acting as if she is not in truth, a being of undead power. She demands that all accept the facade she has created, destroying those that unmask her illusions or do not demonstrate adequate decorum.

Stat block analysis

Saidra d’Honaire is a wraith and is based initially on the wraith stat block, but she’s undergone some major additions including:

• A big boost to initiative from +3 to +11
• More hit points (+23)
• Gains a lie detector ability
• Has 3/4 uses of legendary resistance per day
• An enhanced life drain that requires a saving throw instead of an attack
• An option to make 3 attacks with her necrotic burst
• Has some spellcasting including charm person, fear and a disintegrate ability that is saved with disadvantage if the target lies
• She can shapeshift between her duchess and red death forms with a bonus action
• Using her legendary actions, she can turn invisible

There’s a bunch of interesting things to play with here, including some charm person for a more social intrigue encounter (perhaps that descends into combat). Her lie detector is quite interesting too as a mechanic and occasionally slipping into invisibility is quite unnerving.

While mechanically accurate to the character, I’d be careful with her truth or die feature. This will cast disintegrate, perhaps with disadvantage, against players that are likely somewhere between levels 6-10. That’s an average of about 75 hit points that will pretty much permanently kill a character and it will probably do so to players of this level without even whittling down their hit points. That’s the ultimate save or suck spell and a death that may just feel cheap for players. I’d maybe remove the no standard resurrections element of this disintegrate, only use it when the players lie consistently (and after warnings) or just remove it altogether.

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Vladeska Drakov

General resisting endless waves of undead

Darklord of Falkovnia

Who is she?

Betrayed by the nobility that once hired her mercenary group, Vladeska then set about taking her revenge, slaughtering the nobility and razing settlements. The land was taken in by the mists of Ravenloft, and now she wages an endless struggle against hordes of zombies that terrorise the land.

Stat block analysis

Unusually for basically any stat block, Vladeska’s actions can be somewhat reliant on others to action (though there’s nothing mechanical stating she needs others). This includes calling on artillery and ballista fire.

She’s a proper general and I like how she can restrain with her impaling spear a couple of times per round. This is at least easy enough to end for PCs, but at the cost of an action. In fact, she’s very much about plenty of low level conditions with AoE prone and causing frightened here and there.

She’s not the highest damage creature at this level (she’ll be out-damaged by Saidra d’Honaire at 3CR ratings lower than her). Instead, she manages to be more tactical. I would suggest though that she probably deserves a 3rd attack at this level. Otherwise, I quite like how they’ve handled her.

Ankhtepot

Mummified priest searching for his lost soul

Darklord of Har’Akir

Who is he?

Ankhtepot has always believed he should have been pharaoh, but as high priest, was always overlooked. Eventually, he committed regicide, expecting the people to embrace his rule. Instead they killed him and his priests, transforming him into a mummy.

Stat block analysis

Ankhtepot uses an adapted mummy lord stat block. There’s quite a bit of change here though including:

• Lower initiative (-4)
• A little more HP (+17)
• Some ability score changes (+4 intelligence and +1 wisdom)
• CR increased by 2 to 17
• Loses undead restoration, gaining darklord restoration instead (basically he’s restored slower, but it’s more fool proof)
• Negative energy burst is more accurate and deals a tad more damage
• He makes 4 negative energy burst attacks and can replace one with a casting of power word stun. A mummy lord uses negative energy burst or rotting fist and dreadful glare
• On that note, Ankhtepot neither has dreadful glare or rotting fist
• Power word stun is more debilitating than dreadful glare, but deals no damage. This is more than compensated for by 2 extra attacks though
• Has a touch of death power that just kills a creature if they have 80HP or less or damages them equivalent to 2 negative energy bursts if not
• Has a few different spells including divination, mage hand, power word stun and sunburst, losing insect plague and thaumaturgy
• Loses the whirlwind of sand reaction with nothing to replace it
• He can teleport using his legendary actions though, but will damage and magically age creatures where he teleports to instead
• Can also use hand of fate to harm and push/pull a creatire as a legendary action

Ankhtepot is certainly a fair bit different from other mummy lords with a decent amount more damage, more stunning, some better spells and some variety in his legendary actions. I would perhaps suggest that without rotting fist, Ankhtepot perhaps leans more into a ranged attacker than a melee attacker.

Touch of death is quite interesting for some guaranteed big damage if you’ve whittled creatures down enough on hit points. There’s a good chance you’ll roughly know if they qualify for instant death as they may have declared themselves bloodied.

One concern may be the potential use of power word stun every turn (a level 8 spell combined with attacks). That’s the stunned condition over a potentially extended period of time that has no initial saving throw. Fortunately it’s a con save which is generally high, but without proficiency and getting this quite high, the odds of success are likely still stacked against the players. This isn’t as bad as for Azalin Rex, and you may simply decide to cast sunburst, go all out on damage or use touch of death so I don’t think this is a big problem, but maybe be aware of not just disabling all your players all the time.

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Hazlik

Arcane experimenter of Thay

Darklord of Hazlan

Who is he?

A powerful red wizard of Thay, Hazlik suspected his lover, Indreficus, of betraying him, so transformed him into a portal. This actually placed Indreficus into endless pain and Hazlik was to be punished. Instead he escaped through the portal to Hazlan where his magical experiments blight the land and he must endure the constant condemnation of Indreficus.

Stat block analysis

Hazlik is using an adapted version of the archmage stat block with the following differences:

• A lower AC (-1)
• Higher initiative (+6)
• Lower HP (-16)
• Oddly, a higher dexterity by 2, despite the lower AC
• Legendary resistance 3/4 times per day
• Makes one less arcane burst attack and each burst is less powerful
• A higher spell save DC (+1)
• Lightning bolt is cast at level 5 rather than level 7 and cone of cold is cast at level 5 rather than level 9
• Has a bonus action wild magic surge rather than a bonus action misty step
• Has legendary actions that give him better teleportation than misty step

It’s an odd mix of buffs and debuffs here. I think the intent is to balance out the fact that Hazlik has legendary actions and reactions which an archmage doesn’t. For this reason, I get that arcane burst needs nerfing a little as Hazlik has the potential for 7 of these per round rather than the archmage’s 4. Misty step is shuffled out for wild magic surges but is replaced by improved teleportation through his legendary action. Those nerfs feel reasonable in the context of other changes.

What does seem odd is the lowered AC despite the increased dexterity compared to an archmage. Having said that, it’s the archmage that’s fudging the numbers there as in more literal terms, they should have 15AC. The 2024 monster stat blocks do this a bit and personally I don’t mind as long as it’s balanced.

I do think that what’s perhaps a more unusual nerf is the upcasting of lightning bolt and cone of cold. Perhaps this is to avoid casting level 9 spells and 4 arcane bursts per round plus a wild magic surge.

It feels odd to nerf Hazlik in these ways compared to an archmage, but realistically, if you ignore the archmage’s stat block (which most people will), it’s actually a fun, wizardly darklord to throw at players.

Cthulu

Eldritch horror of godly power

Darklord of Innsmouth

What is it?

A threat to the entire multiverse, Cthulu for now, remains trapped in the domain of Innsmouth. His presence extends beyond his domain though, sowing the seeds of its release and its eventual emergence into the multiverse.

Stat block analysis

Cthulu is a nightmare for spellcasters. It has high mental stats and saving throws (making it tough against most saving throw spells) can use befuddlement to prevent spellcasting for the combat (and more) against one creature (especially if it targets the party cleric) and can easily teleport around the battlefield allowing it to target spellcasters in melee while it avoids martials.

On top of this, Cthulu is most at home in water. The problem for spellcasters is if you go under the water, using spells with a verbal component (which is most spells) will lead to suffocation.

I am surprised that it doesn’t have a feature that causes the frightened condition. It also seems to lack any kind of psionics that feel like classic Cthulu capabilities. It possibly feels kind of low level for a multiverse ending threat too (CR25). I’d have taken it as an actual god-like threat meaning it should exceed the CR of a demigod like Vecna (CR26). There’s likely a practical element here (keeping CRs manageable to more likely levels of gameplay.

What we end up with is a more interesting, teleporting kraken. Fun in isolation, but does it quite live up to the Cthulu legacy? I’m not sure.

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Ramya Vasavadan

Betrayed death knight

Darklord of Kalakeri

Who is she?

Reborn as a death knight following the betrayal of her siblings, Ramya continues to battle her siblings for rule over Kalakeri. She commands a host of loyal undead to aid her in this struggle.

Stat block analysis

Like Lord Soth, Ramya is a death knight and as such, uses an adapted form of their stat block with the following changes:

• -2 AC
• +3 initiative
• -6 strength, +9 dexterity
• A lower CR by 2
• An extra legendary resistance and legendary action in her domain
• Weaker and slightly less accurate dread blade attacks
• A slightly easier to resist and less damaging version of hellfire orb called vengeful fire
• Loses the command, destructive wave and dispel magic spells and gains create undead
• Gains an illusory disguise as a bonus action which can frighten if removed
• 1 less AC added with parry
• Words of silence replaces fell word causing damage and silencing the target

Overall, Ramya is intended as a slightly weaker version of a death knight (where Lord Soth is intended as a more powerful version). She swaps strength for dexterity which helps boost her initiative.

Primarily, she’s built to command undead minions, enhancing them and can create them herself. I’d also suggest that her ability to disguise self is important for early combat or before battle, allowing a Mid-combat debuffing of nearby enemies.

You may also want to play her on a mount allowing her to move more quickly around the battlefield. She can simply have phantom steed cast and ready to ride.

She’s got a few tricks up her sleeve to deal with groups through vengeful fire and spellcasters through words of silence. I’d also suggest using dread authority each round to disable an opponent temporarily.

Overall, she works reasonably well.

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Harkon Lukas

Lycanthropic performer

Darklord of Kartakass

Who is he?

Obsessed with the accolades of acting, Harkon never seems able to find the adoration of his audience. He gathers protégés who he transforms into werewolves to ensure their loyalty.

Stat block analysis

Harkon Lukas’ stat block appears to be a combination of the updated loup garou stat block and some cut elements of the old loup garou from Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft. Here’s how it differs from the 2024 version:

• Less AC (-2)
• More initiative (+5)
• Lesa strength (-3), less constitution (-2) but more charisma (+3)
• +1 CR at 14
• The option for an extra legendary resistance and legendary action in his domain
• Blood frenzy is cut from the 2024 loup garou, but granted to Harkon Lukas giving him advantage on attack rolls against injured creatures
• The same goes for regeneration allowing him to heal 10HP each turn
• Rend is renamed as swipe and he’s less likely to hit by -2
• Bite deals slightly less damage, is less likely to hit and the curse element has a slightly lower DC
• Gains enthralling performance letting him charm creatures in a 30ft emanation
• Gains crushing insult as a legendary action letting him damage creatures in an emanation.

Interestingly, Harkon Lukas takes quite a few nerfs to accommodate some additional capabilities like an extra legendary action, regeneration and advantage on most attack rolls plus some AoE damage.

Some may complain at this seeming weakness, but a more competent creature is not necessarily more powerful and I think this hints at the more intelligent and charming nature of Harkon over the more brutish nature of many loup garous.

Ultimately, he’s a more interesting variant of a loup garou that with regular advantage, should still be landing hits more often.

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Viktra Mordenheim

Mad scientist obsessed with returning life to the dead

Darklord of Lamordia

Who is she?

Mordenheim is a genius scientist but rather than use her genius for good, she instead creates horrific constructs and undead. All this is to seek to recreate her greatest invention, the unbreakable heart.

Stat block analysis

Viktra is intended to fight alongside her constructs. She’s at her best as a bit of a disruptor and while she’s OK at range, she’ll disrupt more in melee. The problem is, she isn’t overly tough. This means she’ll want a meat shield of constructs next to her that she can continuously swap places with as she makes jabs with her syringe.

It’s a symbiotic relationship with her constructs as she’ll grant them temporary hit points if they’re really close each turn.

She requires a bit of careful tactical consideration, but is an interesting, lower level BBEG if used well. I’d probably be more inclined to her deadly serum or mind-altering serum to prevent hit points recovery and impact concentration rather than slowing creatures down considering this is likely to be more of a melee brawl anyway.

I think this is a fun stat block and quite interesting for her level.

Wilfred Godefroy

Spectral lord of the dead and the living

Darklord of Mordent

Who is he?

Wilfred commands the legions of ghosts that never depart to the afterlife. Instead, they remain trapped in Mordent and stuck under Godefroy’s control. He uses this power to coerce the living to obey his whims by threatening to torture their departed loved ones.

Stat block analysis

Wilfred Godefroy is a ghostly Darklord, but doesn’t seem entirely based off of any of the incorporeal undead currently in the monster manual other than having things like incorporeal movement and a slam attack like a poltergeist.

He’s going to give a few complications for players, especially at lower levels, which he’s intended for. He’s got a lot of resistances and immunities (including resistance to bludgeoning, piercing and slashing damage). He can also pass through walls allowing him to slip into sight, make attacks, then disappear again through the wall. PCs may need to ready actions or get on either side of a wall to deal with him.

You can also play him in melee and use his possessive aura to charm creatures and then use them as meat shields against attacks. In fact, it’s easy enough to mix melee and ranged attacks with teleportation letting you shift easily from one part of the battlefield to another.

This is another that I think with careful preparation, could be really fun to play.

Ebonbane

Sentient, vengeful blade

Darklord of The Shadowlands

What is it?

A blade formed of evil magic. Ebonbane can be wielded by the strong-willed, but even then, they must resist the constant desire to sate Ebonbane’s immense bloodlust.

Stat block analysis

Ebonbane is a bit unique. Usually it’s wielded by another, but in Shadowborn Manor, it can be a creature in its own right and move without being wielded. The statblock is for this hovering, sword-only version of Ebonbane. If you want someone wielding Ebonbane, there are magic item rules for this too.

Ebonbane could be kind of an interesting foe as at the end of the encounter, you at least have a longsword +3 in your possession with extras once the blade revives. Alternatively, a worthy wielder can let it allow someone to wield it fully.

Possess dead is also a fun incentive to make sure you have some cannon fodder in an encounter so they can be easily killed and possessed for the temporary hit point boost. Even better, possess a dead PC for some ultimate cruelty as they hack down their former friends. Just take care there as doing so may prevent raising dead if the characters don’t have nearby access to life restoration.

Ebonbane is very much a melee combatant which will make it vulnerable. You’ll likely want to be imposing blinded through runic flare quite often just for the safety that can bring.

As a magic item, ebonbane is definitely enticing for players. A +3 longsword with +3d6 necrotic damage against humanoids and celestials is very nice on high melee attack builds. Advantage against spells and magic is also really good. There’s just the issue of going on killing sprees every now and again which could pose a problem and is the drawback here. This is another fun option for a darklord.

Lord Soth

Death Knight of corrupted honour

Darklord of Sithicus

Who is he?

Once a knight of Krynn, Soth is tortured by the chaotic, undisciplined land over which he rules. With no one worthy to challenge him or be his equal, he broods in his keep where banshees sing of his immense failures.

Stat block analysis

Lord Soth is a death knight, and as such, has a stat block heavily influenced by that of other death knights. But there are plenty of changes too including:

• Lower AC (-2)
• Mor HP (+29)
• Lower initiative (-6)
• Higher strength (+2) and charisma (+2)
• Higher CR (19 rather than 17)
• Restores slower than other death knights (but in line with other darklords)
• Gains an extra legendary resistance and legendary action in his domain
• Forsaken brand is slightly more likely to hit than dread blade, but does a little less damage
• Cataclysmic fire is less damaging than hellfire orb (average of -27 damage per target) but slightly harder to resist (+1 to the save DC)
• Lord Soth loses the main spellcasting feature, but instead gets some spells he can cast as a bonus action instead. He loses command (though this can be used as a legendary action), phantom steed and destructive wave, but gains hold person and banishment with a slightly better DC and can cast these spells without sacrificing his action
• He also gains face of death for a 60ft emanation that damages and frightens
• Loses the ability to parry
• Soth’s command casts command at a higher level than dread authority but he loses the fell word legendary action

There are a couple of oddities in Lord Soth’s stat block. It’s odd that his initiative is much lower and so is his AC. It’s also odd that he deals a bit less damage than a standard death knight (despite the higher challenge rating). It’s also strange that he can’t parry either.

But he does get some benefits. Those bonus action spells in particular can be quite nasty, especially the level 5 banishment. Face of death is also quite a nice finishing blow to prevent a bit of healing word or cure wounds from recovering a downed PC.

If I were to hazard a guess, I think they wanted quicker, more dynamic combat here so they made Soth less resilient and less damaging, but allowed him to do more overall. I think I kind of get that, and in isolation, this feels like a good stat block for a BBEG. It just feels odd to nerf some things so much. Especially initiative.

Mother Lorinda

Haggish deceiver with misguided familial ambitions

Darklord of Tepest

Who is she?

Mother Lorinda desperately wants a family, but her desires are twisted and warped. She creates monstrous creatures that she considers her children which then cause terror and destruction. As a hag, she is also full of deception and uses her illusions and charms to present a very different form of herself.

Stat block analysis

Mother Lorinda is a green hag and is loosely based on this stat block, but she has a considerably higher challenge rating (8 compared to the usual 3) giving her a bunch of extra tricks up her sleeve. In fact, they diverge so much that it’s not even worth running a one to one comparison.

If you’re using Mother Lorinda, you may want to consider using her in water. She’s just at home in the watery depths as she is on land, but your players probably aren’t giving her a big advantage. Because she can breathe underwater, she can also cast spells down there too without suffocating.

She’s also intended to be played as a trickster illusionist. Mimicry can fool players into being lured into a trap, her spells like disguise self, minor illusion and invisibility can all deceive as to her presence and even mother’s visage will give her a completely different and more charming appearance. You might often want Mother Lorinda’s true nature to be veiled.

I’d maybe suggest that she’s intended to use a few spells at range like ray of sickness and blight, while using the likes of Mother’s brand teleportation to jump into melee range of spellcasters and less hardy PCs. You can even use Mother’s visage to reduce saving throws and then use the likes of blight and slow to harm and frustrated enemies.

I think Mother Lorinda works well as an enhanced green hag.

Chakuna

Werepanther that protects her land as a deadly hunter

Darklord of Valachan

Who is she?

Chakuna is not your typically evil Darklord. Instead, she hunts the domain of Valachan to protect her people from potential threats, including strangers in her land. Her capabilities as a werepanther help her to prowl silently and make deadly attacks.

Stat block analysis

Chakuna is a werepanther, though she is more powerful than average. As such, she is loosely based on the weretiger stat block, though she’s that much more powerful (CR 11 Vs CR 4), that while she shares some features in common, that there’s so much changed or enhanced that there’s little point comparing the 2 of them.

While Chakuna can deal some decent damage and has a fair bit of resilience, she’s intended to be used as a hit and run specialist. You can easily use her bonus action to prowl, letting her move and hide. You can then use a legendary action to launch a spear without giving away your position. There are more legendary actions she can use to move and attack. This will leave her a little vulnerable, but she can rinse and repeat on future turns.

This is an interesting Darklord to play and I think she holds up nicely mechanically. You may want her to fight in places with lots of cover to make hiding easy, but considering she lives in a jungle, that shouldn’t be too hard.

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Are the Darklord stat blocks any good?

There are lots of good stat blocks to use here with interesting abilities and unique ways of using them. Some of the stat blocks enable mechanics outside of combat too (as many Darklords will have non-combat encounters). Saidra’s lie detector or mother Lorinda’s mimicry and disguises are 2 of these.

However, there are some odd elements that blemish what could have been a strong set of villains. Strahd’s easily escaped grapple, Azalin’s excessive disabling and some of Lord Soth’s nerfs just don’t feel like they were designed carefully enough or properly playtested (though at least Soth is perfectly playable as is).

Some have criticised some of the nerfs to certain stats, and I’ve pointed these out above, but I don’t think I necessarily mind the trade offs in some stats for others. In reality, adding in legendary actions and legendary resistances is a big buff and to keep the challenge ratings right, some abilities did need nerfing. It’s also fair to point out that different types of creatures have different capabilities and not every Darklord is necessarily the ultimate version of the creature they are, they just happen to be one that has captured the attention of the dark powers.

Its worth pointing out that although Cthulu is alright as stat blocks go, it suffers from lacking some of Cthulu’s more eldritch powers.

In reality, for the most part, these are mostly fun and unique villains to play with, it’s just a shame that important stat blocks like Strahd’s, Azalin’s and Cthulu’s miss the mark a little from a design perspective that a little more care might have resolved.

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Which Darklord are you excited to face/use? Let me know in the comments below.

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