Ravenloft for D&D 2024: Complete Player and DM Guide

Introduction

Ravenloft: The Horror Within is the D&D 2024 book for horror. Its setting is the Domains of Dread: lands trapped in the Mists, each built as a prison for a villain called a Darklord, whose crimes drew the notice of the mysterious Dark Powers.

The book has five chapters and an appendix. Chapter 1 gives players seven subclasses, four species, four backgrounds, and a new feat category called Dark Gifts. Chapter 2 details sixteen major domains, sketches more than twenty minor ones, and adds a random domain table. Chapter 3 is the DM's campaign chapter: setting models, Darklords, escape, recurring allies, atmosphere, and Haunted Bastions. Chapter 4 covers ten horror genres and the rules for building your own Darklord and domain. Chapter 5 is a bestiary, and the appendix covers the tarokka deck.

This guide follows that order: character options first, then the domains, then the tools for running the campaign. Before any of it, have a session zero conversation about what kind of horror your table actually wants; the book tells players to do the same.

Character Options

Every option below needs DM approval. The rules live in the maintained class, species, feat, and background guides linked here; this section covers what the book adds and how the pieces connect. The book also asks players to think about what frightens their character and to avoid undercutting the mood by laughing off every danger.

Seven Subclasses for Classes You Already Play

The book adds no new class. It adds seven subclasses, each themed around a piece of Gothic horror such as undeath, spirits, or shadow.

Each class guide rates its Ravenloft subclass alongside that class's other options on the same scale. The Artificer itself comes from Eberron: Forge of the Artificer, so the Reanimator needs that book's class as well.

Four New Species

Dhampir, Hexblood, Lupin, and Reborn all need DM approval like any sourcebook species, and none requires a Ravenloft campaign.

Eleven New Feats: Two Origin Feats and Nine Dark Gifts

The book adds two Origin feats, Survivor (rerolling low Initiative and a once-per-rest bonus against the Charmed or Frightened condition) and Sharp Eye (Advantage on checks made with the Search or Study action), for players who want horror flavor without a cost.

It also adds a new category, Dark Gift feats, which represent sinister bargains. With the DM's permission, you can take a Dark Gift whenever you would gain an Origin feat, and a DM can bestow one during an adventure. Each has a Ravenloft Campaign prerequisite. There are nine:

• Aberrant Anatomy: Blindsight and Perception expertise; a natural 1 on a D20 Test can leave you Stunned.
• Echoing Soul: two skill proficiencies, a language, and swappable Expertise; a natural 1 can leave you Incapacitated.
• Gathered Whispers: Message and a free Augury, plus a Reaction that adds your Proficiency Bonus to AC; a natural 1 can leave you Deafened.
• Living Shadow: a component-free Mage Hand and extra melee reach; a natural 1 can hand your turn to your shadow.
• Mist Walker: travel through the Mists as if carrying a Mist talisman and a teleporting Reaction; lingering in one area makes your rests fail.
• Second Skin: a free, Concentration-free Alter Self; a rolled catalyst can force the change on you.
• Symbiotic Being: an extra skill, a language, and Hit Dice to bolster failed saves; a natural 1 can leave you Charmed by the symbiote.
• Touch of Death: a Chill Touch that ignores Necrotic resistance; you have Disadvantage on Death Saving Throws.
• Watchers: Beast Sense and Speak with Animals and a bonus to Search checks; you have Disadvantage on saves against Scrying.

Five of the nine drawbacks trigger on a natural 1; the other four are constant costs or situational triggers. Ratings and full mechanics are in the Dark Gift Feats Guide.

Four New Backgrounds

Mist Wanderer and Spirit Medium grant a Dark Gift of your choice in place of an Origin feat (the book recommends Mist Walker and Gathered Whispers respectively). Haunted One lets you choose Survivor or a Dark Gift, and Investigator lets you choose Sharp Eye or a Dark Gift, so you decide how deep your character's ties to the Dark Powers run. Compare all four in the D&D 2024 Backgrounds Guide.

Domains of Dread

Every domain is shaped around its Darklord: a tyrant, monster, or sinner who can't leave and keeps reliving whatever doomed them. Most Darklords can open or close their borders at will, and most who die return after 1d10 weeks. Chapter 2 gives sixteen domains full write-ups, each with genres, hallmarks, Mist talismans, and an aligned tarokka card.

Skim the table first to see all sixteen at once, then read the longer entries for the six domains with the most table-ready material, or jump to the one your campaign is heading toward.

All 16 Domains at a Glance

Barovia: Where the Cycle Never Breaks

Barovia is the domain everything else is measured against. Count Strahd von Zarovich rules from Castle Ravenloft above a land of wolf-prowled forests, treacherous mountains, and superstitious villages that distrust strangers as possible agents of the count. Strahd rarely interferes in his people's lives, but he viciously executes anyone who flagrantly breaks his laws. The village of Barovia teeters on ruin, and its few opponents of Strahd gather at the Blood of the Vine tavern under the count's quiet watch.

What sets Barovia apart is a story engine. Strahd, a retired conqueror, made a pact with dark powers to win Tatyana, the villager engaged to his younger brother Sergei. On their wedding day he murdered Sergei and drank his blood; Tatyana fled, leaping from the castle and vanishing into the Mists, and the pact made Strahd the multiverse's first vampire. Tatyana now reincarnates in every generation, and Strahd always finds her and always drives her away with the same cruelty. Her incarnation can be anyone, even a player character, and the book includes tables for who she is and how she's connected to Strahd.

Barovia's map is full of usable sites: the Amber Temple, where ancient mages imprisoned vestiges of evil; Argynvostholt, the ruined mansion of a knightly order Strahd destroyed; Old Bonegrinder, a windmill where night hags make magical pastries that drop eaters into a joyful stupor; the Abbey of Saint Markovia above Krezk; and Vallaki, a walled town whose mandatory festivals punish anyone who won't join in.

The book's Barovia campaign runs from level 1 to 10: arrival from the Mists and shelter in Barovia, Krezk, or Vallaki (levels 1-5), hunting relics and Strahd's history (levels 6-8), and a final push against the count (levels 9-10). Strahd knows whenever a creature enters his domain or dies violently in it, and he can cast his voice on the wind or show his face in the clouds without fighting. That's the key to running Barovia: Strahd doesn't need to appear to be a threat.

Dementlieu: A City That Refuses to See Itself

In Port-a-Lucine, Dementlieu's city, nothing is what it appears to be, and everyone knows it but no one says so. Terrible food is called gourmet, and bad art is called avant-garde. Even the countryside of Chateaufaux, where nobles supposedly summer and farms supposedly send goods, doesn't exist. Duchess Saidra d'Honaire holds a Grand Masquerade every week, and guests who fail to charm her are denounced as impostors and reduced to ash.

Saidra grew up poor, convinced by her father that she was secretly royal. A mysterious grandmotherly stranger granted her wish to attend a coronation masquerade, and at midnight the gems on her gown released a poison that killed everyone there. Now, between masquerades, she removes her mask and stalks the streets as the Red Death, a murderous spirit that preys on liars, the struggling, and anyone who reminds her of where she came from.

The city has its own hooks: the House of Wax, where Alexandre du Cire replaces nobles with wax duplicates and imprisons the originals in the basement; the Great Library, whose "peerless" collection holds fewer than a thousand titles; and a string of disappearances tied to creatures hiding in plain sight. The book's campaign turns on an infiltration, with the party preparing for and sneaking into the Grand Masquerade to reach a suspicious noble. Run Dementlieu when your table wants horror that plays like a heist.

Kartakass: Fame Is the Bait

Kartakass feels staged. Flowers burst into bloom, songbirds sing themselves hoarse, and every local believes fame awaits anyone worthy. Each settlement is run by a meistersinger, the town's mayor and its leading artist, and many animals act as if awakened.

Underneath, Kartakass is werewolf country. Its Darklord, the bard Harkon Lukas, collects talented proteges, steals their work, and binds them with Harkon's Bite, a cursed wolf-tooth necklace that turns the wearer into a werewolf serving him, until he grows bored and consumes them. In Harmonia, the Crystal Club runs the same racket as an institution: rumor says performers who fail to impress are exiled, but membership is really restricted to lycanthropes, and the truth about failed performers is bloodier.

The predation here is aspirational: victims come to Harkon hoping he'll make them famous. The book's campaign follows that arc. A mother hires the party to bring home her son Frantosh, who ran off to Harmonia to perform and has fallen in with Harkon; by the time the characters catch up, he's wearing the necklace, and his solo show decides whether Harkon keeps him or discards him.

Innsmouth: A Prison That Dreams

Innsmouth is the book's cosmic horror domain, and its Darklord is Cthulhu, at CR 25 the highest-rated Darklord in the book. The island is alien: bloodstone statues of profane gods, the head of a half-melted, eight-eyed colossus rising from the sea, and the Vaults, a labyrinth under the mountains that opens into caverns with their own weather and skies.

Four cults compete for the island:

• Cult of the Chthonic Night wants to free Cthulhu.
• Cult of the Drowning Wave wants to sink Innsmouth into the home of Olhydra, Prince of Evil Water.
• Cult of the Heavenly Doom, led by the vampire Celesta Grayl, wants to open gateways and join Zhudun, the Corpse Star.
• Cult of the Scaly Abyss, a sahuagin-led group, wants to draw the demon lord Dagon to feed on Cthulhu.

The cults treat strangers as useful allies. Characters who reach Renown 10 with a cult can be inducted and receive that cult's Dark Gift.

Cthulhu works through dreams, showing people visions of escaping the domain through the same rituals that would free it. Following those dreams can lead to Cthulhu's Vault, but performing the ritual would release Cthulhu on the multiverse, so the escape route is also the trap.

Lamordia: The Doctor Wants Her Heart Back

Lamordia is a frozen land of steam and amoral science. Ludendorf, its largest city, runs on steam-powered factories and boiling sewers, and Ludendorf University pays people for "flesh rights" to their future cadavers. Dr. Viktra Mordenheim, the Darklord, is its most accomplished and least remorseful scientist.

Viktra wants something back. When her lover Elise died of an incurable disease, Viktra built the Unbreakable Heart, a nonmagical clockwork organ, and was fitting it into Elise's corpse when constables burst into the lab. Viktra woke in Lamordia without either. Elise lives again as a Mordenheim's Monster, hiding at Hope's Heart in the Isles of Agony with other victims of Viktra, who call themselves the Children. Viktra can't re-create the heart and sends mercenaries after Elise.

That gives Lamordia a clean moral fork: the party can work for Viktra, for Elise, or against both. The rest of the map supports it, from Neufurchtenburg's refineries processing radioactive minerals from the Sleeping Beast mountains to the Forest of Rust, where Ludendorf dumps its scrap. Run it for body horror with an argument attached.

Sithicus: A Death Knight Far From Home

Sithicus is tied to Krynn, the world of Dragonlance, through its Darklord, the death knight Lord Loren Soth. Violet phantasmal flames from Krynn's Cataclysm burn among endless elven ruins, the sky shows Takhisis's dragon constellation, and the black moon Nuitari is visible only to evil beings.

Soth finds the domain beneath him. He knew the rigid order of knighthood, and Sithicus is chaotic, its people apathetic, with no worthy foe to fight. From Nedragaard Keep, a warped copy of his fortress on Krynn, he sends undead soldiers to hunt Caradoc, the ghostly knight he blames for his imprisonment. Powerful shadows shaped like dragons, knights, and figures from Soth's past guard pillars of the Cataclysm's fire.

Soth keeps the borders closed, but he still thinks of himself as a true knight. He may help people who present themselves as honorable warriors or know his history, and two successful DC 20 Charisma (Deception or Persuasion) checks, the second while offering something he covets, can make him Friendly long enough to let characters leave. That makes Sithicus the domain for a party of paladins, knights, or anyone with a code to appeal to.

The Rest of the Domains of Dread

These ten domains have full entries in the book too; start with the table row and the paragraph below, then read the book's section before running one.

Borca has two Darklords who loathe each other: Ivana Boritsi, a genius poisoner who heads the family behind a vast perfume and medicine business, and Ivan Dilisnya, a childishly cruel stalker whose clockwork creations live among the townsfolk of Lechberg. The noble families wage a shadow war of lies and assassinations, favoring stylish poisons, clockwork devices, and public embarrassment.

Darkon has no Darklord. Azalin Rex vanished during the Hour of Ascension, which destroyed Castle Avernus and put a golden star called the King's Tear in the sky. Since then a ravenous fog, the Shroud, has split the land into four regions and consumes whatever it touches, while ambitious rivals compete for Azalin's power. Humanoids who die there rise as undead the next night unless burned.

Falkovnia is under siege. Every month a new zombie legion emerges from the Mists, and Lekar, the last living city, holds out behind crumbling walls defended by General Vladeska Drakov and her crimson-armored Talons. Anyone who talks too loudly about fleeing is impaled as a traitor, which makes Drakov both the city's defender and its terror.

Har'Akir is a desert of tombs where the mummified pharaoh Ankhtepot rules from a pyramid called Pharaoh's Rest. He cares nothing for his domain and wants only his ka, the missing piece of his soul, so he can take his funeral barge to the afterlife. Priests in Muhar, the only permanent settlement, run daily life in his name.

Hazlan is a magocracy ruled by the zulkir Hazlik, who poses as its greatest wizard while hiding that he can no longer learn new magic. The Eye of Hazlik symbol, which locals think wards off dangerous magic, is really a sensor for his surveillance. Whenever anyone other than Hazlik and his allies casts a spell with a level 5+ slot, it rolls on the Wild Magic Surge table.

Kalakeri is locked in civil war. Maharani Ramya Vasavadan, an undead horror hidden behind illusions, holds the Sapphire Throne in Jadurai against her rebel siblings Arijani and Reeva, and her Tower of Traitors is built from her enemies' skulls. Humanoids slain in combat there rise a day later as Wights.

Mordent is the ghost story domain: spirits rise and carry on in abandoned estates, and the Darklord is the ghostly Lord Wilfred Godefroy. Mordentshire is also home to Rudolph van Richten, whose herbalist shop connects him to monster hunters across the domains, and to the Weathermay family's Heather House.

Shadowlands has an object for a Darklord: Ebonbane, the sapient sword of Kateri Shadowborn, founder of the knightly Circle. Ebonbane lurks in the Phantasmal Forest of fallen Avonleigh, and the Circle's knights are cursed so that foes they defeat return seeking revenge.

Tepest runs on folk horror. The ancient hag Lorinda, who betrayed her coven, poses as a goddess called Mother and protects the village of Viktal from the fey-haunted valley in exchange for worship and sacrifice. Would-be parents must bargain with Mother or the fey for children.

Valachan is a survival-horror hunting ground. Chakuna, a werepanther from the village of Oselo, killed the old Darklord Urik von Kharkov and took his power by eating his heart; her own heart is hidden beneath a temple and binds her to the land. She forces visitors into the Trial of Hearts, a deadly race through jungle full of displacer beasts and carnivorous life, and every death in it feeds the domain.

Other Domains of Dread and Random Domains

Beyond the sixteen, the book sketches more than twenty smaller domains with a short entry each. Examples include Bluetspur, ruled by an exiled illithid elder brain called the God-Brain; Cyre 1313, an Eberron lightning rail forever fleeing the Mourning with only the dead aboard; G'henna, a starving land whose prophet Yagno Petrovna invented the god Zhakata; and Souragne, where the sadistic warden Anton Misroi drowned during a prison riot and rose as an undead warden still hunting inmates. They suit a single session or a surprise cameo, or can serve as seeds for a domain you build with Chapter 4's tools.

The Random Domains of Dread table is a d100 roll for where the Mists deposit characters who wander in unprepared. Each entry lists the tarokka cards aligned with and opposed to that domain, tying the result to the tarokka deck in the book's appendix.

Running a Ravenloft Campaign

This section covers the book's DM tools. A Ravenloft campaign turns on a few decisions: how characters enter the Mists, how many domains they'll see, how central a Darklord is, and whether escape is possible. The book frames these as questions to answer before the first session and revisit as the campaign develops.

Building a Horror Campaign

How the Mists Pull Characters In

Chapter 3 groups its setup questions into four sets. Campaign Characters asks whether the characters are natives or were taken from elsewhere, how many domains they know, and why the Dark Powers noticed them. Campaign Themes asks what horror media inspires you, which genres and domains you want, and whether a Darklord's history and downfall will drive the plot. Setting Mysteries asks how strange the Domains of Dread feel and whether people travel between them. Starting Your Campaign asks whether the characters meet through a shared tragedy, a Darklord's summons, or a moment of terror. Write your answers down; the rest of your prep hangs off them.

Three Setting Models

The book doesn't fix how the domains relate to each other. It offers three models:

Darklords as Recurring Villains, Not Boss Fights

A Darklord's menace isn't rooted in its stat block. The book says it's built over adventures as evidence of the villain's wickedness piles up. Give each Darklord one to three simple goals you can reinforce, chosen from a list that includes maintaining a lie, escaping their prison, seeking a revelation, enforcing order, and correcting a tragic event. Reveal the Darklord through rumors and legends, direct evidence of their evil, flattering lies from them or their servants, and primary sources like journals, letters, or neglected artwork. Spread these across sessions instead of dumping them in one scene.

The book lists types of Darklord allies: advisers, copies (lesser versions of the Darklord), creations, devotees, grudging allies, incidental allies, a majordomo, and "mini Darklords" who control part of a domain. Defeating them gives the party a sense of progress while the Darklord stays the real threat. A Darklord who takes an interest in the party might also act as a possessive quest giver and offer a sinister Blessing, such as the Mark of the Dread Lord.

Defeating a Darklord in combat usually doesn't finish them. The domain doesn't change, fear doesn't fade, and the Darklord returns after a short time; while they're gone, their domain powers end, their servants lack orders, and the borders open. A true downfall is a dramatic defeat that undermines their grip on the domain, built from the villain's origins and goals, such as destroying the source of their power, helping a captive escape, isolating them from their servants, or recovering a relic that is anathema to them. If the party beats a Darklord early, the book suggests using the absence for an adventure that wasn't possible before, or letting the domain turn its attention to the characters.

Escaping Ravenloft

The domains are as escapable as you want. The Mists might take characters for one adventure and return them, escape might mean nothing to natives, or escape can drive the whole campaign. If it does, settle a few questions: is escape possible against the Dark Powers' will, who knows how, what does the method cost, and will it affect only the party or ripple across the domains? The book's escape seeds range from activating a soul-fueled device called the Rift Spanner to finding Azalin Rex, or even freeing Cthulhu.

Running Horror at the Table

Enemies and Allies Across Domains

Some NPCs belong to no single domain. The book's Mist Wanderers include the detective Alanik Ray and his husband Arthur Sedgwick, monster hunters Ez d'Avenir and Savra Sunstar (a dhampir hunting her vampire father), and riverboat captain Larissa Snowmane, who ferries travelers between domains. It also describes factions that travel: the Church of Ezra, the knights of the Circle, the wereraven Keepers of the Feather, the vault-keeping Order of the Guardians, the Strahd-freeing Priests of Osybus, the psionic Ulmist Inquisition, and the Vistani, who know the hidden paths between domains. A Mist Wanderer who shows up in three domains feels very different from three unrelated strangers.

Setting the Atmosphere

The book's atmosphere advice is low-tech. Play somewhere with few distractions. Dim the lights if you can, while leaving enough light to read. Build playlists in advance from music without lyrics that isn't tied to popular media, and raise or lower the volume with the tension. Keep props simple: a whiteboard, a handwritten letter from a Darklord, or the tarokka deck.

Describing Horror Without Naming It

Instead of naming a monster, describe it in stages: how the environment, animals, weather, or shadows react before it arrives; what it sounds like and what parts show first as it approaches; how it smells and breathes up close; what its attacks and grip feel like; and how it reacts and what spills out when wounded. You can also ask players to fill in details ("It emits the worst smell. What is it?") and decide whether their answers are real or only perception.

Pacing and Delivery

Constant terror numbs players, so the book compares good pacing to a roller coaster: build suspense, release it, then build again. Slow down to stretch tension and speed up for action. End sessions on a cliffhanger, such as a new threat, a complication, higher stakes, or a sudden foe. And keep some people and places reliably trustworthy, because constant betrayal makes players hesitant.

Hot Take: Skip Innsmouth for your first Ravenloft campaign, even though Cthulhu is the flashiest Darklord in the book. A CR 25 prisoner who acts only through dreams gives players nothing to push against for months. Barovia or Lamordia hands them a villain they can meet, bargain with, and hate by session three, and that's where Ravenloft horror actually lands.

Genres of Horror

Chapter 4 organizes its horror advice around ten genres. Six get full treatment (principles, villains, torments, settings, adventures, and monsters); disaster horror, occult detective stories, psychological horror, and slasher horror get shorter principles. Use the table to scout a tone, then pick one or two per Darklord or domain.

Four Genres With the Most to Work With

Gothic horror is Ravenloft's home genre. Keep the villain's evil from being obvious at first and drop hints before the reveal. Test the heroes' beliefs and morality, give them heart-wrenching sacrifices, and let decaying, foreboding locations carry the mood.

Body horror comes with warnings worth following. Gore is usually a byproduct of the real subject (fear of change, difference, mortality, or disease), and it isn't required at all. The book also says outright: don't portray real disabilities as monstrous.

Ghost stories hinge on structure. Once you reveal the tragedy behind a haunting, make the way to resolve it clear. Small objects like a locket or portrait can carry the clues, and a spirit tied to a character, such as an ancestor, hits harder than a stranger's ghost.

Folk horror runs on the gap between insiders and outsiders. Strange traditions flourish in isolated or private communities, members hide their beliefs from strangers, the beliefs themselves may not be true, and specific details (celebrations, symbols, trappings) make a tradition feel eerie.

Creating Your Own Domain

If none of the published domains fit, Chapter 4 walks you through building one: first the Darklord, then the domain as an extension of that villain's torment.

What Makes a Darklord

Step 1, Choose Genres: pick one or more genres to shape the villain. Step 2, Determine Their Past: decide who they were before they turned to evil, what ambitions and flaws drove them, and how they caught the Dark Powers' attention; the Dark Catalyst table offers prompts for the negative emotions that twisted them. Step 3, Determine Their Identity: use each chosen genre's villain identity and villain torment tables to decide what form their evil takes and how the Dark Powers torment them.

Give the villain a wicked ambition, an unobtainable goal that fueled their corruption and drives their conflict with adventurers, such as cheating death or reclaiming a lost love. Then decide how their torment keeps what they want visible but out of reach, and which allies, rivals, and victims make their situation worse.

What Makes a Domain

Step 1, Choose Genres: usually the Darklord's genres, with new elements mixed in if you like. Step 2, Develop Details: the book's questions cover the domain's sounds, smells, colors, and symbols; where else the Mists appear; the sky and weather; the culture's attitude toward the Darklord; what it fears, considers taboo, and celebrates; and what is scarce. Tie at least some of these back to the Darklord's past, because the domain exists to torment them. Step 3, Create Adventures: use your genres' adventure hooks and settings. Step 4, Choose Monsters: use each genre's monster lists, or reskin existing creatures.

You don't need every answer before the first session. Develop the parts your players care about and let the rest emerge in play.

Haunted Bastions and New Monsters

Two more DM topics have their own homes in the maintained guides. The Bastions guide's Ravenloft section covers Haunted Bastions, and the Monster guide's Ravenloft section covers Chapter 5's creatures, including the Strigoi, Rudolph van Richten, and the Weathermay-Foxgrove twins.

Related Guides

• Dark Gift Feats Guide
• D&D 2024 Species Guides
• D&D 2024 Backgrounds
• D&D 2024 Class Guides
• D&D 2024 Feat Guides
• Bastions Guide
• Monster Guide
• Eberron for D&D 2024