RUDOLF VAN RICHTEN' S
GUIDE TO RAVENLOFT
🧙🏻HEXBLOOD / HAGSPAWN🧙🏻
Where wishing fails, ancient magic can offer a heart’s desire—at least, for a time. Hexbloods are individuals infused with eldritch magic, fey energy, or mysterious witchcraft. Some who enter into bargains with hags gain their deepest wishes but eventually find themselves transformed.
These changes evidence a hag’s influence:
☆ Ears that split in forked points
☆ Skin in lurid shades
☆ Long hair that regrows if cut
☆ Irremovable living crown
Along with these marks, Hexbloods manifest hag-like traits, such as darkvision and a variety of magical methods to beguile the senses and avoid the same.
While many Hexbloods gain their lineage after making a deal with a hag, others reveal their nature as they age—particularly if a hag influenced them early in life or even before their birth. Many Hexbloods turn to lives of adventure, seeking to discover the mysteries of their magic, to forge a connection with their fey natures, or to avoid a hag that obsesses over them.
🧙🏻Heir of Hags🧙🏻
One way hags create more of their kind is through the creation of h
Hexbloods. Every Hexblood exhibits features suggestive of the hag whose magic inspires their powers. This includes an unusual crown, often called an ElderCross or a Witch’s Turn. This living, garland-like part of a Hexblood’s body extends from their temples and wraps behind the head, serving as a visible mark of the bargain between hag and Hexblood, a debt owed, or a change to come.
🧙🏻Hexblood Origins🧙🏻
A bargain with a Hag or other eerie forces transformed your character into a magical being. Roll on or choose an option from the Hexblood Origins table to determine how your character gained their lineage.
Hexblood Origins
d6 | Origin
1 | Seeking a child, your parent made a bargain with a hag. You are the result of that arrangement.
2 | Fey kidnappers swapped you and your parents’ child.
3 | A coven of hags lost one of its members. You were created to replace the lost hag.
4 | You were cursed as a child. A deal with the spirits of the forest transformed you into a hexblood, now free of the curse.
5 | You began life as a fey creature, but an accident changed you and forced you from your home.
6 | A slighted druid transformed you and bound you to live only so long as a sacred tree bears fruit.
🧙🏻Hexbloods in the Domains of Dread🧙🏻
When creating a Hexblood, consult with your DM to see if it’s appropriate to tie your origins to one of the following Domains of Dread :
Kartakass. Whimsical witches make their homes in the forests of Kartakass. They eagerly grant the wishes of locals seeking grand fortunes for their children.
Hazlan. The bizarre magic of this crumbling domain exposes the populace to supernatural forces, occasionally giving rise to hexbloods.
Tepest. Many of the children in the town of Viktal are Hexbloods who exhibit their supernatural natures from a young age. Each youngster is considered a gift from the town’s patron deity, who is known as Mother.
🧙🏻Hexblood Traits🧙🏻
You have the following racial traits.
Creature Type. You are a Fey.
Size. You are Medium or Small. You choose the size when you gain this lineage.
Speed. Your walking speed is 30 feet.
Ancestral Legacy. If you replace a race with this lineage,
you can keep the following elements of that race:
any skill proficiencies you gained from it and any climbing, flying, or swimming speed you gained from it.
If you don’t keep any of those elements or you choose this lineage at character creation, you gain proficiency in 2 skills of your choice.
Darkvision. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light and in darkness as if it were dim light. You discern colors in that darkness as shades of gray.
Eerie Token. As a bonus action, you can harmlessly remove a lock of your hair, 1 of your nails, or 1 of your teeth. This token is imbued with magic until you finish a Long Rest.
While the token is imbued in this way, you can take these actions:
Telepathic Message. As an action, you can send a telepathic message to the creature holding or carrying the token, as long as you are within 10 miles of it. The message can contain up to 25 words.
Remote Viewing. If you are within 10 miles of the token, you can enter a trance as an action. The trance lasts for 1 minute, but it ends early if you dismiss it (no action required) or are incapacitated. During this trance, you can see and hear from the token as if you were located where it is. While you are using your senses at the token’s location, you are blinded and deafened in regard to your own surroundings. When the trance ends, the token is harmlessly destroyed.
Once you create a token using this feature, you can’t do so again until you finish a long rest, at which point your missing part regrows.
Hex Magic. You can cast the Disguise Self and Hex spells with this trait. Once you cast either of these spells with this trait, you can’t cast that spell with it again until you finish a Long Rest. You can also cast these spells using any spell slots you have.
Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma is your spellcasting ability for these spells (choose the ability when you gain this lineage).
BECOMING A HAG
Hags can undertake a ritual to irreversibly transform a hexblood they created into a new hag, either one of their own kind or that embodies the hexblood’s nature. This requires that both the hag and hexblood be in the same place and consent to the lengthy ritual—circumstances most hexbloods shun but might come to accept over the course of centuries. Once a hexblood undergoes this irreversible ritual, they emerge as a hag NPC no longer under the control of the hexblood’s player, unless the DM rules otherwise.