The year’s DnD release schedule is finally in full swing. D&DBeyond subscribers now have access to 2026’s debut sourcebook, Ravenloft: The Horrors Within. Spooky D&D fans get a lot of new tools to play with here. Most, though, are most excited to find out how the new class options tick.
I’m reading through the new Ravenloft book, and I’ve got plenty of strong opinions on the DnD classes. At first glance (though I’ll be doing some build tinkering and testing before my full review), there are some clear winners and losers among the bunch.
Winner: Spirits Bard
The College of Spirits was one of my least favorite options for the fifth edition Bard. The flavor was delightful, and the roleplaying opportunities were plentiful. However, the build was just so damned inconsistent. Tales From Beyond gave you a random buff in exchange for your Bardic Inspiration, while Spiritual Focus ignored how situational a buff to Bard spells with material components was.
The new College Bard is far more consistent. Spirits From Beyond (swapping ‘Tales’ for ‘Spirits’) now lets you apply the random buff when you spend your Bardic Inspiration in the usual way. Plus, you can spend a bonus action and a die to pick the specific part of the table you want to activate.
That’s a big win in the strategy department. Some of those table options have been nerfed slightly, but it’s a welcome rebalance nonetheless.
At level six, you still get to roll an extra d6 to buff a damage or healing spell, but you’re no longer required to use your Arcane Focus in that spell’s casting. The downside of this added flexibility is that Spirits Bards can no longer use their level-six subclass features to temporarily learn a new spell. Instead, you get a buffed version of Spirit Guardians that’s always prepared, castable for free once a day, and gives your allies half cover. That’s not a bad trade-off.
Loser: Reanimator Artificer
The Reanimator has seen so many buffs since it first appeared in playtesting. Jolt to Life now gives downed characters far more than a single hit point. Your reanimated companion has more hit points, a better strength score, and a slightly more consistent damage output. You no longer get Revivify at a discount, but you can cast Raise Dead without its costly components.
Despite this, I’m still non-plussed by the subclass. The spell list, unchanged from playtesting, is pretty average. The companion’s damage scales slightly better, but it’s still not an overwhelming force on the field.
Yes, it’s nice that my companion has Blindsight, but it still feels like a less effective Steel Defender companion. And that subclass got abilities that buffed my core character, not just my buddy. One of the biggest issues with D&D’s companion subclasses is they don’t give the main character enough to play with – and the Reanimator has very little to get excited about until the higher tiers of play.
Winner: Hollow Warden Ranger
The brand-new Ranger subclass was extremely popular during playtesting, but it’s changed a lot since. Many of these changes could be considered nerfs. Your Wrath of the Wild armor class is significantly diminished, Spike Growth has been axed from an already-excellent spell list, and the chance to deal damage with Rot and Violence is gone.
It’s not all bad, though. In fact, this is still a subclass I’m champing at the bit to play. Spike Growth has been swapped for Steel Wind Strike at the highest levels. Hungering Might is untouched, and Wrath of the Wild no longer requires you to concentrate on Hunter’s Mark to maintain its benefits. Plus, Wrath of the Wild now gives us a free opportunity attack when a creature in melee damages your allies.
Rot and Violence now limits reactions and health regeneration, while Ancient Endurance no longer costs a spell slot to bring you back from zero HP. The Hollow Warden certainly feels a little different from its first draft, but it remains a contender for one of the best Ranger subclasses.
Winner: Phantom Rogue
The Phantom Rogue was a mid-card subclass for me in its original 5e form. It was flavorful and picked up some excellent powers after a few tiers of play, but it was far from the best Rogue option. This is still true – in fact, very little about the subclass has changed for 5.5e. But the changes that have been made are some welcome quality-of-life tweaks.
Your early abilities are identical, but ninth-level feature Tokens of the Departed is much more generous. You now automatically start each day with two soul trinkets (or more at higher levels), though you can still create some (up to your maximum) through the usual reaction after killing a foe.
Your trinkets can now be destroyed to cast Augury rather than to create its own unique method of spiritual commune. Plus, you can now cast Speak with Dead without a spell slot once per rest, targeting a regular corpse or the target of one of your trinkets.
The last major change is to your capstone, Death’s Friend. You regain a trinket when you roll initiative rather than at the end of a long rest, which is handy for those moments when you haven’t killed anyone in a while.
Winner: Shadow Sorcerer
The Shadow Sorcerer is one of the trickier subclasses to place in the category of ‘winner’ or ‘loser’. Its early features have been buffed, with Eyes of the Dark now offering blindsight and Strength of the Grave offering significantly more healing power. But things get a little trickier when we consider the subclass’ flagship ability, Hound of Ill Omen.
Originally, this allowed you to spend three Sorcery Points to summon a modified dire wolf. Your pet came with temporary hit points, could move through other creatures and objects, and always knew where a particular target was, even if they were hiding.
Now, this feature just lets you cast Summon Beast, without spell prep or material components, in exchange for three Sorcery Points. That comes with pros and cons.
Creatures within five feet of your summoned creature have disadvantage on saves against your spells (yay). Your buddy is no longer incorporeal or hunting a specific target (boo), and unless you choose the flying option from Summon Beast, its speed is significantly reduced (also boo).
However, Summon Beast gives your buddy multiattack (yay), a better Strength score (yay), and more strategic flexibility (yay!). I want to test this subclass out further before I’m certain, but my first impression is that this is more a win for Shadow Sorcery than it is a loss.
Loser: Undead Warlock
The Undead was already a forgettable subclass option thanks to its relatively disappointing damage output. Now, D&D has decided to make it worse by nerfing many of its features. Taking this book in isolation, this just looks like a shit Shadow Sorcerer.
Spells like Phantom Steed and Death Ward have been axed from the spell list – differentiating the Warlock from other Ravenloft subclasses, but making it weaker in the process. Form of Dread is entirely unchanged, except you squeeze in a few more uses per day.
Grave Touched is the only feature that gets significantly better, allowing you to bypass necrotic resistance and ignore exhaustion levels. It’s downhill from there, though.
Necrotic Husk heals you better when it picks you up, but the damage you deal with it is now locked behind a Constitution saving throw – and has a worse base modifier. On the bright side, you can now use it once per day rather than in 1d4 long rests’ time. Lastly, there’s Spirit Projection, which is identical, except it no longer allows you to regain hit points when dealing necrotic damage.
If this had been a broken subclass before, I might have understood. But I feel like the forgettable has just become even more forgettable.
Winner: Grave Cleric
I’ve always had a soft spot for the Grave Domain, an all-rounder of a Cleric subclass. There’s obviously drawbacks to this update built into the 5.5e system, namely that you don’t get any of your features until level three. But, overall, I think the tweaks that have been made are a net good for the subclass.
It sucks to lose Bane and Antilife Shell from the spell list, and we no longer have the Eyes of the Grave ability, but I’ll live. Especially when I consider that Circle of Mortality now deals a pinch of extra damage when you hurt a creature that’s already missing HP.
One of the more contentious changes is those made to Path to the Grave. The previous version could give a target vulnerability to an attack’s damage, while this one just gives you the chance to deal extra radiant or necrotic damage. That sounds like a nerf, but the range of the feature has been doubled. Plus, the curse you place gives the target disadvantage on attack rolls and saves until you trigger the damage.
Sentinel at Death’s Door now only applies to Bloodied creatures, but it also halves incoming damage as well as canceling any critical hits. And as for your capstone, Keeper of Souls restores HP equal to twice your Cleric level rather than the Hit Dice of the enemy. The Grave Cleric subscribes to 5.5e’s overwhelmingly prevalent design philosophy – reliable characters are the most fun.
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Source: Wargamer
