The Book of Barovian Barbarity
This is a short supplement of Barovian Races designed for inclusion in the Ravenloft Setting, typically within Barovia while in the Curse of Strahd campaign, though these creatures may wander outside of that setting under extremely rare circumstances.
A Note On Spoilers
This book is written to contain as few spoilers as possible, certainly none regarding the story, but if you care about knowing what sort of non-hostile humanoids one might find in Barovia... well let's just say if you dig deep enough, expect dwarves.
About Barovia's Diversity
The setting of Barovia, traditionally, lacks dwarves, halflings, gnomes, elves and such. In fact, the most variety we seem to get is humans, dead humans, and humans that are no longer human. This is wildly out of place for any usual dungeons and dragons campaign setting; though it is of course the author of the original tale's choice.
To strike a balance, each of the following races is considered rare. There might only be a few of them in Barovia at a moment-- mostly in your party, but also consider maybe switching the race of some NPCs that the party will come across. For the most part, the Vistani should remain human, but Barovians can be of any of the below races.
Playing as a Cursed Race
Additionally, as these races are more horror-themed, they have a feeling of darkness about them. They are grotesque in some ways, and alien in others. Inside of Barovia, this doesn't change much-- Barovians are already weary of outsiders, and are unfamiliar with most other races, so they might look at a Blood Elf the same way they look at a Kobold. They don't know what it is, don't know what it wants, and so they range from indifferent to fearful of it.
However, if you take these races outside of that setting, please consider what it would mean to have twisted, vile looking variants of usually normal races. Imagine your happy little inn has an elf walk in that looks almost vampiric in nature. They would certainly not attack on sight, as it's obvious the creature is alive and non-hostile, but it would cause them to likely treat the Barovian Subrace the same way that a Barovian would treat a more traditional D&D race.
Additionally, there's no real set rule on what happens to cursed races when Strahd is defeated. Are they cured, returned to their original life? Or, in my opinion more likely, have they become something completely new and separate from what they once were? That's up to the DM, and really only controls whether or not these races would be allowed outside of the Barovian setting.
Table Of Contents
If you like this supplement
Check out the link for my 50 page homebrew book: Pip Fizzlebang's Ode to Eccentricism!
This Document may be UPDATED
Click here to see the latest version.
Updates
- Version 1.3
- Added Warlock Patron (The Coven).
- Version 1.2
- Updated Blood Elf lore to incorporate the story of Patrina Velikovna.
- Changed blood elf's Restless Hunger to be a little less punishing, and simpler to keep track of.
- Changed "Elf Weapon Training" to "Clawed and Fanged." Feels more thematic.
- Version 1.1
- Updated Tibbit to require an Action to shapeshift.
Blood Elf
Backstory
When the Dusk Elf Patrina Velikovna tried to marry Strahd, her village stoned her to death that way she would not be corrupted. As punishment, Strahd slew many of their men, and all of their women, so that they would know the loneliness he suffers. Of those slain, some took dark gifts offered to them, so that they could come back to life. In cruel irony, these elves returned to life in a twisted way; they became like the vampire they hated most. This began the race known as the Blood Elf. Though they are truly living, they share the vampire's cold, calculating, loveless disposition.
As a Blood elf, you have an animalistic hunger to you, stealthily and ritualistically murdering your prey in your native forests of Barovia. You see it not as evil, but rather a part of existence. You eat people, sometimes, but that's not necessarily a bad thing, if you weren't the one to kill them. Besides, is it really so different to hunt and eat a deer, which your wood elf ancestors would hold more sacred?
Traits
Ability Score Increase Your Wisdom score increases by 1.
Superior Darkvision. Your darkvision has a radius of 120 feet.
Sunlight Sensitivity. You have disadvantage on attack rolls and on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight when you, the target of your attack, or whatever you are trying to perceive is in direct sunlight, or carrying a source of light such as a torch.
Clawed and Fanged. You are proficient with your unarmed strikes, and they deal 1d4 slashing or piercing damage.
Fog of Barovia. You can attempt to hide even when you are only lightly obscured by foliage, heavy rain, falling snow, mist, and other natural phenomena.
Restless Hunger: Your curse prevents your body from healing properly. You gain all usual benefits from Long Rests that you normally would, however you do not regain spent Hit Dice. However, you gain the ability to drain a recently deceased corpse of blood as a vampire would the living; doing so causes you to regain spent hit dice, based on your victim (see chart below). If this would put you above your maximum, it instead puts you at your maximum and you gain the immediate benefit of healing as if you had expended one hit dice. Undead creatures and long deceased corpses only restore half the amount of hit dice.
Sanguine Memories When you drain the blood of your victim, you gain knowledge from their memories, as if you had cast Detect Thoughts on them a few moments before they died, they automatically fail any saves to resist.
Restless Hunger Chart
| Victim | Regain |
|---|---|
| Bloodless creatures (skeletons, constructs), Size tiny or smaller | 0 |
| Size Small | 1 |
| Size Medium | 2 |
| Size Large or Larger | 3 |
A note on sunlight sensitivity: In Barovia, there's almost never direct sunlight unless a Daylight spell is cast, due to the consistently bleak forecast. Because of this, I've added the "while carrying a source of light" stipulation. Outside of Barovia, you may want to remove that part.
Introducing Blood Elves to your campaign: They would stalk the woods around Barovia in small packs (2d4), hunting animals, werewolves, and humanoids to feed on indiscriminately. They're not mindless, however, and would likely try to get to know the PCs before making a decision on if the party is food or not. Mentioning that they have interacted with Strahd would likely allow the party safe passage; the Blood elves would fear upsetting him, even if they have no allegiance to him. Likewise, if the party protrays themselves to be strong and confident, the Blood Elves may befriend them, like wolves adding a lost cub to their pack. However, any sign of weakness will be exploited, and they would be made food.
Tibbit (Werecat Gnome)
Backstory
As lycanthropy struck Barovia, one race seemed particularly susceptible to it. As gnomes love small animals, they were caught off guard as diseased cats attacked their villages. As such, nearly every Barovian Gnome was infected, either dying from it or becoming a Werecat-- and that was a few hundred years before Curse of Strahd takes place. No living Tibbit remembers what it was like to be anything other than a Tibbit.
As a Tibbit, you are the in a constant state of deception. In humanoid form, you are mistaken for a child from your youthful features; in cat form, you are mistaken for a real cat. As such, Tibbits who once delighted themselves with lavish displays of fireworks and shows enjoy blending into a crowd, convincing humans to give them food and gold, while pickpocketing those who do share willingly.
The Tibbit is not evil; they have simply lost all they had when their village was plagued, and have since resorted to deception for survival. As they lack a true society, many of them are loners and cautious of groups, and almost never tell others of what they truly are. To the few they do, however, they are fiercely loyal and compassionate.
Traits
Ability Score Increase: Instead of the +2 intelligence normally recieved by gnomes, you recieve +1 to your Charisma and +2 to your Dexterity.
Stealthy Conversationalist: You gain the Message cantrip, and may cast it without material, verbal, or somatic component.
Werecat Transformation: As an action, you may assume either your humanoid form, or your cat form. As a shapeshifter, you are also immune to spells and effects that would force you to take a form unwillingly, such as Polymorph.
Cat Form Traits: While shapeshifted as a cat, you retain all your normal statistics except the following-- your size becomes tiny, your armor and weapons meld into your skin, becoming useless but inseparable from you. Magical items may retain their function but assume a more appropriate form-- such as a collar-- at the DM's discretion. You cannot speak-- therefore, you cannot cast any spell requiring a verbal component. You may, however, use a magical item or cast a spell that does not require verbal components.
As a small, dextrous animal, you become annoyingly hard to hit. Your armor class becomes 12 plus your Dexterity Modifier, and you have advantage on Dexterity saving throws. Your movement speed becomes 40, and your Darkvision is extended by 30ft. In this form, your unarmed attacks are considered finesse weapons dealing piercing damage.
Potential Builds: As a finesse weapon, your claws could be combo'd with a Rogue class to deal sneak attack damage; as a monk you could use the additional wisdom modifier to your armor class to have a massive 22 AC (assuming 20 Wis and 20 Dex), while at the same time increasing the damage of your claw attacks. Alternatively, a Sorceror could use their spell points to remove the components of a spell, allowing them to cast in cat form. And there's no rule that cats can't dance-- feel free to use that as a Bard's Performance for inspiration. Tibbits are inherently versatile!
Introducing Tibbits in your Campaign: Tibbits have no allegiance to anyone but themselves and those who would help them survive-- as such, they're willing to make deals with Hags, vampires, Vistani-- anything they find interesting, weird, and beneficial. Perhaps the cat wandering in Ravenloft is a Tibbit. Maybe the Bonegrinder hags use a Tibbit to lure more children. Maybe the Vistani keep one with their wagon, as it is a free spirit as much as they are. There's very rarely more than 1 tibbit in an area, but there's always places to fit them in!
Mongrelfolk (Human Variant)
traits
Ability Score Improvement: As a mongrelfolk, you recieve +1 to two abilities of your choice, instead of the +1 to all stats that a human would normally have.
Modifications and Sideeffects: Your character was designed to be better, stronger, faster than other humans by taking the best parts of various species... what we did not expect, was the side effects.
Select or randomly choose up to 3 Modifications, available on the table below. These alter your character cosmetically but also offer a mix of potential benefits. For each Modification past the first, roll to recieve a Side Effect, which is a drawback from having that additional modification.
For both modifications and side effects: reroll if you recieve a duplicate result, and you may not choose the same twice.
Modifications:
| 1d10 | Modifications |
|---|---|
| 1 | You have large, owlish eyes, gaining 60ft of dark vision. |
| 2 | You have webbed hands with suction cups on your fingers, gaining a swim speed and climb speed of 30ft. |
| 3 | You have 2 gorilla like arms... that is, 2 right arms. You can add your ability modifier to the damage of off-hand attacks. |
| 4 | Your feet are enlongated, giving you the appearance of a dog's legs. You gain 10 to your movement speed. |
| 5 | You have batlike wings that are a bit too small for your body-- you can use them to glide safely from any height, moving 10ft for every 5 feet of vertical drop. |
| 6 | You have gills on your neck and an air sac under your chin, allowing you to hold your breath for an hour and breathe underwater. |
| 7 | You have a long, froglike tongue that can be used to grab anything within 10ft. If the item is 10lbs or lighter, it is pulled safely into your mouth, otherwise it is simply stuck to your tongue. If the target is alive, make a ranged attack against it's armor class; on a hit, it is considered grappled. |
| 8 | Your skin can be made to reflect the environment you're in, providing camoflauge. You can attempt to hide even when you are only lightly obscured by foliage, heavy rain, falling snow, mist, and other natural phenomena. |
| 9 | You have a forked tongue and corrosive spit-- you gain the Acid Splash cantrip. |
| 10 | You have one ear like a dog (any breed, your choice). You gain advantage on perception checks to listen. |
Note on Side Effects: Players who get very specific Side Effects might avoid triggering them (such as ignoring social skills completely)-- offer them rewards for leaning into such flaws, such as Inspiration. Keep these secret. It's more fun if the other players don't know that their mongrelfolk rogue might be steering them around traps that don't exist.
Side Effects:
| 1d10 | Side Effect |
|---|---|
| 1 | You're a compulsive liar, and derive too much pleasure from it, almost as if you want to get caught. You must always, in a social situation, first try to lie your way out before trying to persuade or intimidate. On failure, begin laughing monstrously, giving away your deception completely. |
| 2 | You are a coward, gaining disadvantage on saving throws against fear effects. Additionally, when you or an ally is critically hit or reaches 0hp, you must make a saving throw equal to DC15 or become Frightened of the creature triggering the saving throw. |
| 3 | You're incredibly clumsy. When you roll a Dexterity saving throw, Stealth, or Acrobatics check and get a result below 10, you trip and loudly fall prone. |
| 4 | You are a loner, suspicious of everyone. Your DM may ask you, at any point, to roll an insight check against a player or NPC's persuation roll. If your result is lower, you believe that person is lying. |
| 5 | You're dellusional. When you would roll an investigation or perception look for something, such as a trap or secret door, and roll beneath a 10, you become absolutely certain you that what you were looking for is there. |
| 6 | You are obsessed with surgery like that which made you, and wildly unqualified to perform it. When an ally is at 0hp and you begin your turn in line of sight of them, you must make a Wisdom save (DC 15). On a failure, you must use your movement and action to get as close to that person as possible, performing a medicine check if you did not use your action to dash toward them. When you would make a medicine check and fail, the fallen creature recieves a failed Death Saving Throw. |
| 7 | You think you know way more than you do. When an ally makes a History, Arcana, or Religion check, you must also make one. If you fail the check, you blurt out a wrong, potentially dangerous answer, giving your ally disadvantage on his check. If your result is higher, your ally believes your answer to be correct. |
| 8 | You have night terrors. If you sleep during a long rest, roll a d20. If the result is 5 or less, you awaken screaming loudly. You and those awoken by you instead gain the benefits of a short rest. |
| 10 | You have a morbid fascination with death. When a creature that you can see dies, you must make a Wisdom Saving throw (DC 10 + the CR or Level of the recently desceased). On a failure, you become Stunned, staring at the corpse for long as it remains in your line sight. You make make an additional saving throw at the end of each turn, and every time you take damage. |
Warlock Patron: The Coven
Your patron is a coven of powerful hags. Though you do not know their purpose for you, they bestow you with great gifts. Their errands may seem meaningless to you, even counter productive, but the twisted and long-seeing minds of the coven always have a plan. You are not considered part of the coven, though it may be your goal to one day join, if you're able...
Expanded Spell List
The Archfey lets you choose from an expanded list of spells when you learn a warlock spell. The following spells are added to the warlock spell list for you.
| Spell Level | Spells |
|---|---|
| 1st | Hideous Laughter, Grease |
| 2nd | Augury, Phantasmal Force |
| 3rd | Slow, Lightning Bolt |
| 4th | Confusion, Faithful Hound |
| 5th | Contagion, Insect Plague |
Hex Bag
Starting at 1st level, the coven has shown you how to create Hex Bags. When you would cast a spell, you can instead channel the energy into a small cloth bag containing the material components for the spell, if any, and specify a trigger. The trigger can be a command word, when any creature touches the bag, or when any creature walks within a specific distance of the bag. Hex Bags are light enough to be thrown 30ft as an action.
When triggered, the spell first targets the creature that triggered the activation of the spell, then the creatures closest to it (if the spell has more than one target and cannot target the same creature twice).
If you place a part of that creature (flesh, hair, blood) into the Hex Bag, you can command the Hex Bag to either only target that creature or to ignore it, in which case it will never target that creature (though Area of Effects such as Fireball may still affect an ignored creature). This allows you to safely handle bags with a "touch" trigger, but can also be used to target specific victims.
The Hexbag exists until triggered, or until you dismiss it as a bonus action. You can only have one active at a time, and creating a new one dismisses the old one automatically.
This mechanic is designed to really play off the witch archetype of being a stealthy spellcaster. Bake a touch triggered Hex Bag into a cupcake and have someone else serve it to a king. Drop a proximity triggered Confusion hexbag in the sleeping guard's barracks, so they wake up and brawl. Leave one in your treasure chest, so that only you can safely open it. Nothing quite like coming back to your tent to find a thief rolling on the ground from Hideous Laughter!
Hex Doll
Starting at 6th level, the coven has shown you how to create Hex Dolls. Targeting a creature you can clearly see or are very familiar with, you can conjure such a doll as an action, targetting that creature. The Hex Doll you create resembles a grotesque image of that creature, and can be used to transfer spells to that creature when they would not normally be in range (see their Arcane Transfer ability).
Creating a new Hex Doll while another Hex Doll is alive destroys the old one. A Hex Doll dies when either it's HP is reduced to 0, the witch dies, or the creature it resembles dies. The Hex Doll is light enough to be thrown 30ft as a bonus action.
The Hex Doll's statistics are on the Witch's Toys page.
Witch's Assistants
Beginning at 10th level, you may cast Animate Objects once per long rest. In addition, you gain a Witch's Broom (see stat block), which is friendly to you. If it is destroyed, your coven will send you a new one, but it takes 1d4 days to arrive to you. You may not have more than one at a time.
The Witch's Broom's statistics are on the Witch's Toys page.
Bewitching Sight
Starting at 14th level, your eyes take on some of the properties of a Hag's. You may cast Eyebite once per Long Rest.
As well, you may tell if an object is magical simply by looking at it within 10ft of it, learning what school of magic it is, if any. You may make an Arcana check to see if the object is cursed, succeeding on a 10 for common and uncommon magical items, 15 for rare, 20 for very rare, or 25 for legendary. Once you have examined a particular item in this way, you may retry to examine it for 24 hours.
Witch's Toys
Hex Doll
Tiny Construct, Same alignment as Witch
- Armor Class 13
- Hit Points 5 (2d4)
- Speed 20ft.
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 4 (-3) 15 (+2) 11 (0) 10 (0) 10 (0) 7 (-2)
- Condition Immunities charmed, poisoned.
- Senses Blindsight 30 ft, but blind past that distance.
- Languages Understands the languages of its creator but can’t speak.
- Challenge 0 (0 XP).
Antimagic Susceptibility. The Hex Doll is incapacitated while in the area of an antimagic field. If targeted by dispel magic, the Doll must succeed on a constitution saving throw or fall unconscious for 1 minute.
Made for you. On creation, a Hex Doll is made to resemble a horrific, distorted version of a particular person or creature. That doll's Arcane Transfer only works against that target. If a part of that creature (flesh, hair, blood) is embedded in the doll as a bonus action, its blindsight is doubled, and it always knows the distance and direction to its target creature.
Reactions
Arcane Transfer. While within sight of the creature the Hex Doll was made to resemble, the hex doll remains linked to that creature. While linked, the Hex Doll may use its reaction to transfer the effects of a spell that would target or affect the Hex Doll. The spell is resolved using that creature's statistics for AC and saving throws, with the creature suffering any effects of the spell in the Hex Doll's place. If a spell would target or affect both the doll and the creature it resembles, the creature makes its save with disadvantage, but is only effected once.
Witch's Broom
Small construct, Same alignment as Witch.
- Armor Class 15
- Hit Points 17
- Speed 50ft.
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 10 (0) 17 (+3) 10 (0) 3 (-4) 5 (-2) 1 (-5)
- Damage Vulnerabilities: Fire.
- Damage Immunities Poison, Psychic.
- Condition Immunities Poisoned, Blinded, Charmed, Deafened, Exhaustion, Frightened, Paralyzed, Prone.
- Senses Blindsight 30', passive perception 7.
- Languages Understands it's Witch, but cannot speak.
- Challenge 0 (0 XP)
Antimagic Susceptibility. The broom is incapacitated while in the area of an antimagic field. If targeted by dispel magic, the broom must succeed on a constitution saving throw or fall unconscious for 1 minute.
False Appearance. While the armor reamin motionless, it is indistinguishable from a normal broom.
Magical Mount It can be ridden, but is limited in it's capacity. While carrying a creature, it's speed is reduced by 10 for each size category over Tiny, and it cannot carry creatures of size Huge or larger. Also, you must grip the broom with at least one hand while riding it at all times, or you will fall off.
Actions
Multiattack The broom makes two melee attacks. Broomstick. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5ft., one target. Hit 5 (1d4 + 3) bludgeoning
Reactions
Animated Attack. If the broom is grabbed, the broom makes a Dex check against the creature's Strength check. If the broom wins, it flies out of the creature's hand and makes a melee attack against it with advantage on the attack roll.