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D&D Ravenloft: The Horrors Within Review - A New Era Of Terror Begins Now
Дата публикации: 04-07-2026 15:30:12
Ravenloft: The Horrors Within is a new Dungeons & Dragons book focusing on the Domains of Dread with updated options and fresh advice for DMs.
Основное содержимое страницы с новостью.
Image via Wizards of the Coast
Published Jul 4, 2026, 11:30 AM EDT
Scott Baird is a CBR contributor with over a decade of experience talking about video games, board games, and tabletop RPGs. Scott's career includes contributing to Dexerto, Cracked, Dorkly, and Gamepur.
The Mists have appeared once more, with the Domains of Dread opening their gates and welcoming Dungeons & Dragons adventurers to visit them via Ravenloft: The Horrors Within. The latest sourcebook updates the Ravenloft campaign setting and adds some much-needed improvements over earlier versions of its characters and content.
Unlike most D&D campaign settings, Ravenloft doesn't consist of a single world. Instead, it's a series of pocket planes called the Domains of Dread. Each Domain explores a horror theme tied to a subgenre or specific monster, such as zombie apocalypse, haunted mansions or cosmic entities. Individual Domains of Dread are each ruled by a Darklord, an immensely powerful individual with limited control over their realm, but who is as much a prisoner as the players and must be overcome in order for the party to escape.
Ravenloft: The Horrors Within Revives Beloved Subclasses
Image Via Wizards Of The Coast
Ravenloft: The Horrors Within is a sourcebook with information for both players and Dungeon Masters. To ensure the players stay away from the spoiler sections, the opening chapter is solely focused on character content, including subclasses, backgrounds, species, and Feats. The only notable absence is new spells, which is surprising, considering the scope for horror-themed magic in Dungeons & Dragons.
There are seven subclasses in Ravenloft: The Horrors Within, most of which are revised versions of existing options to coincide with the 2025 D&D rules' update. The only wholly new subclasses are the Reanimator Artificer, which has a focus on Frankenstein-style constructs, where living beings are brought back as servants, and the Hollow Warden Ranger, who grows more powerful when striking enemies.
The Reanimator is a mixture of healing and offense, with spells that can bring allies back from the brink of death, while unleashing necromancy and lightning magic against foes. The class' main gimmick is the Reanimated Companion, who is an undead servant that grows stronger as they level up, similar to the Drakewarden's Drake. The Renanimator is a great addition to D&D from both a flavor and a mechanical standpoint. However, players might struggle to integrate them into a group with a Cleric or a Paladin.
Right off the bat, the Hollow Warden is stronger than most Ranger options, as it gives them access to the Paladin's Wrathful Smite spell. Their main gimmick is transforming, usually in response to an enemy attack or failed Saving Throw, making them an excellent choice for a combat-focused campaign. Like the Reanimator, this could be a tough class to use with non-Ravenloft campaigns, though their connection to nature makes this a bit easier, as they can be portrayed as more animalistic than monstrous.
The College of Spirits Bard and the Undead Patron Warlock have returned from Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft. Those who loved drawing cards or rolling dice for the ghost summoning feature of the College of Spirit but were frustrated by its randomness can now select one, so long as it's equal to or lower than the Bardic Inspiration die roll. Meanwhile, the Undead Patron took a hit, but only because the current Dungeons & Dragons rules switched the subclass level to three, meaning it takes longer for them to receive unique powers.
Baldur's Gate 3 fans can celebrate, as the Grave Domain Cleric has returned from Xanathar's Guide to Everything, though its abilities have been shuffled around. They've lost the Eyes of the Grave ability, but it has been replaced with the much stronger Path to the Grave power, inflicting Disadvantage on enemies, which is a tremendous boost to its arsenal, making the delayed access to subclass powers worth it.
Also returning from Xanathar's Guide to Everything is the Shadow Sorcery subclass, which also had its powers pushed to level three. Fortunately, the Sorcerer received a ton of new abilities in the recent Player's Handbook, including free spell choices. This has resulted in Shadow Sorcery adding awesome choices like Hunger of Hadar and Greater Invisibility, along with powers like Eyes of the Dark getting improved. Crucially, Hound of Ill Omen has been changed to Beast of Ill Omen, so they don't have to summon monster dogs anymore.
Finally, the Phantom Rogue from Tasha's Cauldron of Everything has been updated, with Wails from the Grave having way more uses per day. Otherwise, the class is mostly unchanged. That being said, it was already one of the better choices for Rogue players.
The Dark Urge From Baldur's Gate 3 Returns In Ravenloft: The Horrors Within
Image Via Wizards of the Coast
There are four Backgrounds in Ravenloft: The Horrors Within, and one will be instantly recognizable to Baldur's Gate 3 players, as the Dark Urge's mandatory Haunted One is here. It's joined by the Investigator, who tries to solve crimes, the Mist Wanderer, who explores the Domains of Dread, and the Spirit Medium, who regularly converses with the dead. These are solid options with a lot of flavor and can easily work in other campaigns.
Ravenloft: The Horrors Within has four species: Dhampir, Hexblood, and the Reborn from Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft, and the Lupin. The Dhampir are living people with undead powers; the Hexblood are connected to hags; the Reborn are reconstructed lifeforms; and the Lupin have traces of lycanthropy.
In terms of changes, the Dhampir has gained resistance to Necrotic damage; the Reborn can have natural resistance to Cold, Necrotic, or Poison; and the Hexblood no longer loses access to their senses when using Remote Viewing, which are all relatively minor in the grand scheme of things.
There are already several animalistic shapeshifting species in Dungeons & Dragons, but the Lupin is different in that they're always in their wolflike state, which could be troublesome, depending on the campaign setting. The main reason for the non-Sonic the Hedgehog fans in the audience to pick a Lupin is for the incredible Howl ability, which has the potential to give enemies Disadvantage on attack rolls and saving throws for the turn, which can be massively debilitating, especially towards boss monsters.
Perhaps the best addition to the player-facing content in Ravenloft: The Horrors Within are the Dark Gift Feats, which have traits that might be familiar to those who completed Curse of Strahd. These Feats grant benefits but also come with drawbacks, some of which trigger when rolling a 1 on a D20, kind of like a Wild Magic Surge. In a game so obsessed with giving characters benefits, it's refreshing to see options that can backfire, which are going to make them a popular choice, just by virtue of seeing how much chaos they can cause.
The Domains Of Dread Are Back (And More Fleshed Out)
Image Via Wizards Of The Coast
The Domains of Dread and their Darklord rulers are the true stars of Ravenloft. Their enclosed nature makes them the perfect location for horror campaigns, as players have no one to help them, and there's no quibbling about why Elminster or Mordenkainen haven't shown up to blow up the Darklords. These are fiefdoms that are cut off from the rest of the multiverse, meaning there's no one to help the party when they get trapped there.
The second chapter of Ravenloft: The Horrors Within is entirely focused on each Domain of Dread and its rulers. It's here where the presentation in Ravenloft: The Horror Within, which is excellent throughout, really starts to shine. Each Domain of Dread section is gorgeous, with full-page illustrations of each Darklord, maps of each region, and artwork scattered throughout showing the beasts and abandoned locations within the haunted realms.
The Domains of Dread have their own specific rules and limitations that can be imposed on the party by the Darklord (Dungeon Master), with detailed information about the kinds of horror encountered there, the monsters that roam the land, and the various factions at play. Notably, each Domain has its own adventure, with 17 in total ranging from levels 2 to 16. It's easy enough to file off the serial numbers and turn these into standalone quests that are disconnected from Ravenloft, should Dungeon Masters need something quick to run.
Meanwhile, Lord Soth from the Dragonlance campaign setting makes his return to Ravenloft, having lost his Darklord status years earlier due to real-world legal issues, leading to all kinds of lore silliness. Thankfully, the issues are resolved, and Lord Soth is now officially part of Ravenloft again, albeit with weaker stats than when he appeared in Shadow of the Dragon Queen, losing out on his ability to cast a spell for free during his turn.
The Domains of Dread section is a joy to peruse, with a ton of information that Dungeon Masters can mine for content. There's also a wide level range for the Domains and Darklords, so there are options for all tiers of play. Not every Darklord needs to be an unstoppable vampire or death knight: they can be poisonous nobles, like the revolting members of the Boritsi and Dilisyna clans, or science villains, like Viktra Mordenheim.
For the returning Ravenloft groups, the biggest addition is Innsmouth, a Domain of Dread seeped in the works of H.P. Lovecraft, with Cthulhu himself appearing as its Darklord. Chances are, players aren't going to be taking down Cthulhu in a straight fight, which is why Innsmouth is focused more on the cults that reside there, all competing for the right to be eaten first by the water ruler.
The only real disappointment is the Barovia section, as it's pretty much the same content fans have been seeing since Curse of Strahd, with the big vampire himself taking a hit in power level. Sure, he has more hit points, but his spellcasting ability has been seriously curbed, meaning he has fewer spells and slots. Outside a static Barovia, the Domains of Dread are bursting with content, with plenty of advice for DMs to run them effectively.
Ravenloft: The Horrors Within Has Excellent Guidelines For Creating & Running Horror Games
Image Via Wizards Of The Coast
It's one thing to throw a bunch of spooky character classes and monsters at a group, but actually creating a horror campaign is a lot more difficult than it sounds. See, Dungeons & Dragons tends to descend into chaos and comedy at the drop of a hat, thanks to friends getting together and putting on silly accents for their characters.
The other thing to consider when running a horror campaign is that Dungeons & Dragons is, at its core, a power fantasy. Horror games like Call of Cthulhu and Shiver have player characters who are very squishy and prone to dying within the space of a single botched dice roll. Meanwhile, Dungeons & Dragons characters can technically survive a fall from orbit, and even if that takes them out, they're only a spell away from coming back, good as new.
Arguably the best section in Ravenloft: The Horrors Within is Chapter 3, which focuses on building horror effectively, breaking it down into genres, and helping Dungeon Masters run games in both the existing Domains of Dread and create whole new campaigns in the Mists. These resources are the highlight of the book for new Dungeon Masters, as they'll help prevent the next trip to Barovia from falling into a farce, should that be what the group wants.
There are also some excellent guidelines for ensuring player comfort in Ravenloft: The Horrors Within. This is due to the nature of horror being more personal than most Dungeons & Dragons adventures, which means there is a greater chance of content crossing the line. Most modern Dungeons & Dragons books offer guidelines for Dungeon Masters to communicate the themes and level of adult content in their games, but Ravenloft: The Horrors Within doubles down on these notices, as they're more important here.
The Cthulhu Mythos Comes To D&D In Ravenloft: The Horrors Within's Monster Section
Image Via Wizards Of The Coast
The final chapter of Ravenloft: The Horrors Within is focused entirely on monster stat blocks, some of which are for creatures that appear in the Domains of Dread adventures. The best addition to the Dungeons & Dragons rules is the inclusion of creatures from the Cthulhu Mythos. Sure, there have been Lovecraft adaptations in Dungeons & Dragons dating back to the original Deities & Demigods in the '80s, but Ravenloft: The Horrors Within marks the official 5e debut of creatures like Mi-Go, Shoggoth, Yith, and even the mighty Cthulhu himself.
Thankfully, Dungeons & Dragons characters don't have to contend with the Sanity mechanics of the Call of Cthulhu RPG, meaning they can hack away at the many-limbed monstrosities from the darkest parts of the cosmos with glee. Just be aware that Lovecraft's creations aren't to be trifled with, with even the weakest of them being a mid-level CR monstrosity, and the strongest (Cthulhu) matching the ancient dragons in terms of power.
The rest of the creatures in Ravenloft: The Horrors Within run the gamut in terms of level and archetype, giving Dungeon Masters plenty of content to use. Most of the monsters aren't mutually exclusive to the Ravenloft campaign setting, and those that are can easily be tweaked to make them work in other games. Madam Eva might be a crucial part of Curse of Strahd, but her stat block can easily be tweaked and given to any powerful witch or sorceress.
The monster section of Ravenloft: The Horrors offers a significant amount of fresh options for Dungeon Masters, and that could be worth the price of admission on its own for homebrewers, especially those who want to run a horror campaign of their own.
CBR Exclusive · Quiz
WHICH FINAL FANTASY
HERO ARE YOU?
The Crystal Has Chosen You
From the slums beneath Midgar to the shores of Spira, from the burning ruins of Vector to the edge of a godless future — Final Fantasy’s greatest heroes carry worlds on their shoulders. Each one is a different answer to the same question: who do you become when fate asks everything of you? Fifteen questions. One destiny.
⚔️ FFVII Cloud Strife Ex-SOLDIER
✨ FFVI Terra Branford Magitek Warrior
🌊 FFX Tidus Star Blitzball Player
⚡ FFXIII Lightning L’Cie Warrior
BEGIN YOUR QUEST →
01
The party is falling apart before the final dungeon. You: Every hero faces the moment the mission starts to crack.
ASay nothing. Walk forward. They’ll follow or they won’t. BChannel your fear into magic and trust it carries you through. CCrack a joke, lighten the air — and mean every word underneath it. DOrder them to focus. Emotion is a luxury for after the battle.
ADVANCE →
02
Your past is catching up with you. How do you carry it? In Final Fantasy, no hero escapes who they were.
ABuried deep. It leaks out in ways I don’t always control. BIt haunts me. But I refuse to let it define what I become. COpenly. I talk about it, process it — it’s part of who I am. DLocked away. The mission is now. The past can wait.
ADVANCE →
03
What is the source of your greatest strength? Power in Final Fantasy always comes from somewhere real.
ACold, focused skill — trained to the point where emotion becomes unnecessary. BSomething ancient inside me I’m still learning to understand. CThe people I love. Take them away and I’m just a kid. DSheer will. I have no destiny — I carve my own path.
ADVANCE →
04
You must give something up to save everyone. You choose to sacrifice: The hardest choices reveal a hero’s true values.
AYourself — quietly, without telling anyone it was a choice. BYour power — better to be human than dangerous to those you love. CThe future you imagined — as long as the people you love get theirs. DYour freedom — duty over everything, always.
ADVANCE →
05
Someone tells you to smile more. You: Small moments reveal the biggest personalities.
ASay nothing. They wouldn’t understand if you explained it. BTry to. And mean it a little more than yesterday. CYou’re already smiling. That’s just your face. DGive them a look that answers the question permanently.
ADVANCE →
06
A prophecy names you the chosen one. Your reaction? Fate is Final Fantasy’s oldest weapon — and its greatest test.
ASkepticism. Destiny is what you make — not what you’re handed. BFear. What if you’re not worthy of what’s being asked of you? CReluctant acceptance. If it has to be someone, it might as well be me. DRefusal. No one — not gods, not fate — gets to decide your story.
ADVANCE →
07
Your battle style in a crisis is: The way you fight is the way you live.
ALimit Break. I absorb the damage until I can end it in one devastating blow. BMagic. The battlefield bends to whoever controls it. CImprovise and support — keep everyone alive long enough to win. DCalculated aggression. Strike first, strike hard, leave no opening.
ADVANCE →
08
The crack in your armor is: Even the legendary have a weakness in the stats screen.
AI construct walls so well I sometimes forget the people on the other side. BI doubt myself when it matters most. The power is there — the belief isn’t always. CI carry everyone else’s pain so naturally that I forget to carry my own. DI push people away before they can see that I need them.
ADVANCE →
09
An ally betrays the party. Your response: Trust is the most fragile currency in the Final Fantasy world.
AI saw it coming. I already have a contingency. BHeartbreak first, then forgiveness — if they can earn it. CTry to understand why before I condemn them. DFury. Then professionalism. Then we deal with it after the mission.
ADVANCE →
10
The world is ending. What keeps you moving? Final Fantasy always asks this. The answer defines everything.
AA face. One person whose future I refuse to let disappear. BThe belief that life — even imperfect, even painful — is worth defending. CLove. Ridiculous, impossible, unearned love for the people beside me. DRage. A future I was denied that I will claw back with my own hands.
ADVANCE →
11
Strangers meeting you for the first time would say: First impressions in the overworld matter.
A“Intimidating. Doesn’t waste words. I’m not sure he likes anyone.” B“Quiet — but there’s something extraordinary just beneath the surface.” C“Warm, loud, a bit much — but genuinely the best person in the room.” D“Controlled. Professional. Like every move is already calculated.”
ADVANCE →
12
You discover everything you believed about yourself was a lie. You: Final Fantasy loves this moment. So does character.
AShatter — then rebuild, piece by piece, into something realer. BIt explains everything. Now I can finally stop pretending. CLaugh, cry, question everything — then decide who I want to be instead. DAccept it, adapt, move forward. Dwelling is a luxury I can’t afford.
ADVANCE →
13
What does the party mean to you? No hero wins alone. But why they need others varies.
AThey make me something I can’t be alone. I hate that it’s true. BThe first place I’ve ever felt safe enough to become myself. CEverything. My reason for fighting. My reason for waking up. DPeople I respect — and would die for, though I’d never say it.
ADVANCE →
14
The world that shaped you was: Every hero is a product of the world that broke them.
AA corrupted machine that devoured people and called it progress. BA place where power was stripped from those born with it and weaponized. CBeautiful, flawed, and condemned — which made every day of it precious. DA system of rules and gods that expected compliance — and got defiance.
ADVANCE →
15
Standing before the final boss, you think: The last save point is behind you. This is what you’ve been building toward.
A“This ends here. For everyone I couldn’t protect before.” B“I don’t know if I can win. But I know I have to try.” C“I’m scared. And I’m going in anyway, because that’s what love looks like.” D“You made this personal. That was your only mistake.”
REVEAL MY HERO →
THE CRYSTAL HAS SPOKEN YOUR FINAL FANTASY HERO
Your scores appear below. The character with the highest number is your match — read their description to discover which legend of the Final Fantasy universe has always lived inside you.
⚔️ FINAL FANTASY VII Cloud Strife
✨ FINAL FANTASY VI Terra Branford
🌊 FINAL FANTASY X Tidus
⚡ FINAL FANTASY XIII Lightning
You are formidably capable and brutally self-contained. You built walls so high that even you sometimes forget there’s someone worth knowing on the other side of them. Your strength is real — but it was forged in grief, and part of you has never fully left that burning town. What makes you extraordinary isn’t the sword or the silence: it’s that underneath all the cold precision, you still care about people with an intensity that frightens you. The ones who earn your trust don’t just gain an ally. They gain someone who will walk into the end of the world for them, without ever saying a word about it.
You are extraordinary and don’t fully believe it yet. Something inside you — something ancient and luminous and untameable — has always been there, waiting. Others have tried to control it, define it, weaponize it. What they never understood is that your power isn’t the dangerous part: it’s your heart. The capacity to love that you spent so long being afraid of is your greatest strength. You are not a weapon. You are not what was done to you. You are what you choose to become — and that choice, made quietly, every day, is the most heroic act in the game.
You feel everything at full volume and refuse to apologize for it. Where others calculate, you leap. Where others grieve in silence, you cry out loud and then help everyone else back to their feet. You understand instinctively that love is not sentimental — it’s the most courageous thing a person can do. You walked into a journey you didn’t fully understand for people you had only just met, and you gave it everything you had. That isn’t naïveté. That’s the rarest kind of bravery: the kind that smiles on the way into the dark.
You are relentless in a way that unsettles people who don’t know you — and humbles the ones who do. You buried everything soft about yourself because the world required it, and you made yourself into something no fate, no god, and no system could stop. What people mistake for coldness is actually grief in armor: you loved someone so completely that losing them rewired everything. Underneath the discipline and the precision is a person who would unmake the laws of the universe for the people they love. And has. More than once.
↻ PLAY AGAIN
Ravenloft Is Better Than Ever With D&D's Updated Rules
Image Via Wizards Of The Coast
It's strange to think that Ravenloft was once one of the least popular Dungeons & Dragons campaign settings, to the point where it lacked sourcebooks in several editions. Curse of Strahd changed all that, with its strong characters and open-ended nature resonating with players worldwide. Now, fans love the Domains of Dread for how different they are from standard Dungeons & Dragons campaigns and for how their adventures can be both compact and impactful.
Ravenloft: The Horrors Within is an excellent resource for any Dungeons & Dragons group. The revamped sections on the Domains of Dread are a step up from the ones in Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft, while the adventures and monsters will provide lots of options for Dungeon Masters. A great deal of the content can also be used for other campaigns, especially the stuff for player characters, as it involves minimal tinkering to make the subclasses and Backgrounds function in the main Dungeons & Dragons settings.
The gothic horror landscape of the Domains of Dread might not seem like the ideal setting for Dungeons & Dragons, but the countless people who explored Barovia have proven that fantasy fans love their dark storylines. Ravenloft: The Horrors Within provides endless opportunities for adventure, ones that go beyond the standard saving-the-world formula and are more about getting out with one's head still on one's shoulders.
Franchise Dungeons & Dragons
Original Release Date January 26, 1974
Publisher Wizards of the Coast, TSR Inc.
Designer E. Gary Gygax, Dave Arneson
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