Six monsters from the Ravenloft: The Horrors Within bestiary that I’m most excited to drop on my players

The Season of Horror is in full swing in the Dungeons & Dragons multiverse, capstoned by the recent release of Ravenloft: The Horrors Within. While we’ve covered what’s inside this haunted tome, there wasn’t enough time to truly delve into the 151 pages of horrifying monster goodness. We’re back today with a closer look at the creatures from this section. In addition to quite a few cosmic creeps with too many eyes or arms, there are several stat blocks for the monster hunters that make a living banishing evil from the Domains of Dread.

The macabre bestiary begins with tips for Dungeon Masters that will help make monster encounters more frightful. Just like a good horror movie, the suspense intensifies with unsettling descriptions, superstitious townsfolk, and eerie foreshadowing.

The monsters are, as usual, presented in alphabetical order, but they are also organized by Challenge Rating in a table at the beginning of this section of the book. This way you can quickly find the perfect monstrosity to drop on your party, from the CR 1/2 Bodytaker Podling to the CR 21 Greater Star Spawn Emissary. Many of these creatures are carried over from the previous iteration of this guide, Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft, though quite a few are brand new and all are updated for the 5.5e ruleset.

If you’re looking for a spooky someone to add to your next game, here are six monsters from Ravenloft: The Horrors Within that are on my short list for adding into my next creepy session.

The Domains of Dread that serve as the setting for Ravenloft: The Horrors Within are a series of spooky, inescapable realms separated by haunted mists. Should your players wander too far from their objectives into the swirling fog, you might decide to conjure a Mist Horror in their path. This malicious vapor appears to each viewer as their greatest fear, so the Cleric might see a gigantic phantasmal serpent while the Ranger sees the same Mist Horror materialize as a hot bath and a fresh set of clothes.

Many of the newly added creatures in this edition are directly from the works of H.P. Lovecraft. If you can get over the horrible social viewpoints of the man, then there are six monsters fully integrated into the fabric of D&D 5.5e from Elder Things to Yithians. I am a big fan of the muscular, vertical-mouthed, grave-dwelling Gug and can easily see a party surprised by one when exploring a mausoleum and expecting no more than some pesky skeletons. The cosmic beastie that I am most excited about is the gargoyle-like Nightgaunt. These winged cosmic horrors like to scoop up their victims and drop them from great heights — I can’t wait to see if my players remember to use their Rings of Feather Falling before impacting the alien landscape.

I can envision a Death’s Head Tree as the centerpiece of an adventure that involves a village being terrorized every night by flying, disembodied noggins. Finding out that these heads are the unnatural fruit of a monstrous tree seems like the perfect mid-campaign reveal, and the epic climactic showdown between the party and a tree that lobs exploding heads sounds quite memorable. There are new stat blocks for different types of head like Aberrant and Petrifying, and there’s even a table to roll what kind of head is the latest to float free of the grotesque branches (I hope it’s another shark).

If you’re into body-swapping and murderous copies of your players, then the Waxwork might be the perfect addition to your next macabre session. These lifelike sculptures are convinced that they are the original and any evidence to the contrary tips them into a murderous rage towards their “clone.” This seems like the perfect encounter to draw out with your party: glimpses of a figure resembling the party’s Fighter in a shadowy corner of the tavern, some light two-places-at-once shenanigans while the group is split up, and a final showdown between the real deal and the wax copy.

As the Darklord of the frigid techno-horror realm of Lamordia, Dr. Viktra Mordenheim performs unspeakable experiments in order to explore the boundaries between life and death. Her constructs, known as Mordenheim’s Monsters, are stitched-together reanimations that often have a mind of their own. I always love an encounter with a powerful foe where I need to prepare for the party to use reason, logic, and trickery or just all of the torches and fire spells they have prepared.

I could go on all day about the horrifying abberations and ghouls that I am eager to antagonize my players with, but sprinkled throughout the bestiary are forces of  good (or at least not-quite-evil) that can serve to ally with or assist intrepid adventurers. The Weathermay-Foxgrove Twins, Gennifer and Laurie, are a caster/melee combo with a checkered past and a penchant for solving paranormal mysteries. They seem like the perfect NPCs to guide a party through a grisly campaign by offering advice, giving quests, and mentoring any aspiring monster hunters among your players.

Overall, the bestiary was quite fun to read through and gave me a large number of ideas and inspirations for future sessions where I might want to turn up the spooky factor. I do wish that a higher ratio of the included creatures were new as opposed to 5.5e updates to stat blocks from a book that is barely five years old, but the updates will still help run a 5.5e game.

Ravenloft: The Horrors Within is now available for $59.99 (print) or $39.99 (digital), so head down to your local game store and pick up a copy if you’re feeling dreadful.