Champions of the Mists

Champions of the Mists is a 1998 splatbook for the Ravenloft setting of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition. Intended as a source for "heroic characters" in the Demiplane of Dread, it provides a brief breakdown of how the different "archetype classes" (warriors, rogues, wizards and priests) approach heroism in Ravenloft, but it is largely focused on a combination of new kits and new heroic NPCs to serve as allies or patrons to the party or individual players.

Kits

There are a grand total of 14 kits in this book, and as per TSR standards, they run the gamut from useless to incredible, leaning more towards the former since this is AD&D Ravenloft we're talking about.

Our first kit is the Accursed; an adventurer who's picked up a nasty curse but continues to soldier on in hopes of breaking it. To enter this kit, you need to have a curse of Frustrating, Troublesome or Dangerous level (Ravenloft in AD&D and 3e has five different intensities of curse to govern just how screwed you are; they go Embarrassing - Frustrating - Troublesome - Dangerous - Lethal). You also need the willpower to soldier on despite this curse, which is represented by having a Wisdom score of 12 - with a further +2 Wis required for each tier over Frustrating. For advantages, you get to pick one of these three powers below if you've got a Frustrating curse, two of them for a Troublesome curse, and you get all three with a Dangerous curse. The downside is a) you have to have a curse, and b) if you lose that curse, you lose the kit's benefits. And DMs are encouraged to strip you of the kit's benefits if you manage to find a workaround for your curse because, again, this is Ravenloft and it runs on Fuck You.

• +2 to Proficiency checks where a knowledge of curses is useful.
• +1 to saves against Fear, Horror and Madness.
• 1/day, increase current and maximum HP value by +1d4/1d6/1d8 for the duration of one fight.

The Cold One is somebody who has survived exposure to intense concentrations of negative energy, which has left them with stunted emotions and a metabolic rate closer to a corpse's than anything living, as their life/death balance has been permanently swayed closer to undead. To take this kit, you need Constitution 16+ and to have survived a near-death experience at the hand of an undead creature. For benefits, the Cold One is treated as being an undead creature by "dumb" undead (Walking Dead, ghouls, shadows, and any "higher" strain with Low level intelligence), which means they will usually not be hostile and prefer other characters over the Cold One if they are. Also, they gain a +2 bonus to Fear, Horror and Madness saves (+3 if caused by the undead), they only need half the usual food, they only lose 1 HP ever 2nd round if using the "Hovering at Death's Door" rules, and they are invisible to infravision. And they get Endurance as a bonus proficiency too.

The downside? Cold Ones can't register low temperatures, meaning that while they don't feel the cold, they still take damage from it, but they're also overly sensitive to high temperatures, taking +1 damage per die from fire damage and, if the DM feels like a dick, being unable to invoke fire spells if they are spellcasters. Their unnatural chill disturbs regular humanoids and animals alike, and the disruptive effect on their bodies causes them to require +25% more sleep, halves their natural healing rate, and gives them a -2 Dexterity penalty. You might think "oh, I'll just grab some magic", but no, you're screwed over there - the book specifically says:

"Some magical items may enhance a cold one's Dexterity, but nothing short of a wish spell can physically improve it. Magical items, such as gauntlets of dexterity, may artificially enhance a cold one's Dexterity, but potions and the like have no effect. A manual of quickness in action does nothing for a cold one, although it still disappears if the character reads it."

And if all that ain't bad enough, the DM can also freely add their own bullshit daily, weekly or monthly "bodily maintenance" requirement, which can be anything from taking a tepid bath or drinking a cup of blessed tea to sacrificing available spells for the day to needing to imbibe an elixir of rare ingredients. If the cold one fails to perform their maintenance, they'll start losing 1 Constitution per day until they either perform it or die.

It's telling that the idea behind this kit was revived in 3e as a feat that nowhere near screwed you over this badly.

The Eremite is our first crunch-based kit; restricted to Human, Half-Elf and Half-Vistani Wizards, the Eremite is described in its own text as a "cross between a druid and an alchemist". They're basically spellcasters focused on brewing potions. Taking this kit requires Intelligence 15 and Constitution 12. Mechanically, they're all but identical to wizards, with brewing potions replacing daily memorization, but for the following changes - good and bad:

• Gain Herbalism as a bonus proficiency.
• Eremites can only learn spells that have a range of "0" or "Touch".
• All spells cast by an eremite have a "casting time" of 1d4+2, representing the fact that you're just chugging a potion (or splashing it on someone).
• An eremite can give a prepared potion to an ally, who can then "cast that spell" on themselves by drinking the elixir. This lets eremites ignore the usual targeting restrictions on spells like "Gaze Reflection".
• An eremite has a 5% chance per level (maximum 75%) to recognize a traditional D&D potion on sight.
• Once an eremite "spell potion" is opened, it must be used in that same round, or it goes inert.
• Eremite spell potions have a limited shelf-life; if they have level-based effects (such as the damage of a Burning Hands potion), they lose 1 level's worth of potency per week until they become useless, whilst otherwise they just go inert 1 week after being brewed. Shelf-life can be extended for 1 week per casting of the Freshness cantrip.
• Eremite spell potions have the same potion compatibility issues and "potential for breakage when hit" problems as standard D&D potions.
• Eremites can only store their potions in containers made of natural materials, such as glass or clay; use anything else, and there's a 25% chance the potion spoils and is wasted.

And now we go back to background-centric kits with the Fugitive. Obviously, this is a character who's being hunted by a powerful, determined enemy of some kind, from a crime syndicate, the law, a powerful monster or even a full-fledged Darklord. Requiring 12s in Intelligence and Wisdom, the fugitive gets Disguise as a bonus proficiency, +2 to surprise checks, +5% hide in shadows (even if not a thief), and the ability to use hide in shadows to try and blend into a crowd. The downside? Lower starting cash (only 2d4*10 GP), the inability to gain henchmen or followers, and a -2 penalty to the morale of the party's henchmen and followers. Oh, and the fugitive must take at least one proficiency in a small, easily concealed weapon.

The Ghostwatcher is a character with the ability to see the spirits of the dead, which requires a Wisdom score of 15. The bonus of this is a permanent, innate ability to see anything that is on the Ethereal Plane, immunity to Fear checks caused by ghosts, and immunity to the bullshit "seeing a ghost makes you age 10 years" rule. The downside? Firstly, the ghostwatcher can't actually communicate with the dead unless the ghost can speak to the living or the ghostwatcher has access to something like Speak With Dead. Secondly, once a ghost realizes the ghostwatcher can see them, this can be all kinds of trouble - not all ghosts are happy to be seen, after all. Thirdly, communicating with a ghost nearly always requires a Horror check, since ghosts tend to be born out of incredibly horrific and/or heartbreaking circumstances. Finally, other people generally regard ghostwatchers as spooky, creepy, or just plain nuts.

Returning to the world of crunchy kits, we have The Green Hand, a member of a secret order amongst the priesthood of Osiris dedicated to preserving the sanctity of the grave by destroying undead and tomb-raiders alike. As a result, they're almost always natives of the Amber Wastes cluster, which will make them stand out in the non-Egyptian lands of the Core like sore thumbs. Membership is highly exclusive: Cleric of Osiris (which requires being a Neutral Good Human, Half-Elf orHalf-Vistani) with 16+ Wisdom. They identify themselves by carrying ceremonial weapons; stats of a footman's flail, but adorned with Har'Akiri hieroglyphics that signal membership. Also, they must have never engaged in tomb-robbing or pilfering from dead bodies. The kit grants Religion as a bonus proficiency, allows them to place a Final Blessing on the bodies of the dead to make them impervious to all effects that would cause them to rise as the undead (can be used 1/day, affects corpses equal to experience level, requires expending a Bless spell), and makes them immune to Powers Checks caused by casting necromantic spells, so long as those spells are not being used for evil purposes. The downside? A member of the Green Hand must perform a burial rite over the bodies of their slain enemies. This ritual requires 1 turn per Hit Die of the enemy, and that time is spent per enemy - if you kill 10 3-HD quevari, you gotta perform the ceremony 10 times, taking 3 turns each time to properly commemorate the soul of a worthy adversary. And if you fail? Well, the neglected dead have a 10% chance per Hit Die of coming back as an incorporeal undead of some kind, and more importantly, you don't get the EXP for killing them.

The Invisible is a Rogue who acts as a secret agent for one of the various secret societies scattered throughout the Demiplane of Dread. They need Intelligence 12, Charisma 14, and to pick a secret society they belong to; this requires them to maintain an Alignment of the same value associated with that society, which is an AD&Dism that was dropped in 3rd. Invisibles are, due to their strong fundamental belief, highly resistant to involuntary alignment changes; they gain a +4 to saves to resist such effects, and can even make a save vs. spell to resist forced alignment changes that would normally be irresistible. They also start with twice the normal gold as an ordinary rogue, gain Read Lips as a bonus proficiency, gain +5% Hide in Shadows and Move Silently, can attempt to Hide in Shadows to blend into crowds, and can summon aid from their society once per month, in the form of a team of mission-specific henchmen (1 per 2 levels) who'll remain assigned to them for 1 day/level. The downside is, of course, that the Invisible needs to both preserve the secrecy of the society they belong to, maintain its tenets of behavior, and obey whatever orders are given to them from on high; if they fail, they lose the kit's benefits and will be hunted down by an assassin team of 1d4 invisibles with a collective level of twice the PC's own. Oh, and the invisible also lowers the encounter reaction of anyone whose alignment doesn't match the invisible's own by one step.

The Knights of the Shadows are a secret society of pseudo-paladins operating out of the Shadowlands cluster and dedicated to battling evil, which isn't exactly the easiest thing to do in Ravenloft. This kit is only available to Human, Dwarf or Half-Vistani Avengers, and requires 15s in both Wisdom and Charisma. Aside from gaining Local History as a bonus proficiency, these Avengers gain the spellcasting abilities of a Paladin of the same level (though enemies make their saves at a +1 bonus, because the Knight's magic isn't as strong). However, their identity revolves around taking a specific group or area as their charges, from as small as a single family to as large as an entire domain. This dedication to protecting those chosen people manifests as a Charisma bonus when interacting with that group - the smaller the group, the higher the bonus, from +5 down to +1. The drawback is that anyone who isn't part of that in-group resents and distrusts your character, and will gladly stab them in the back in accordance with their personality/alignment, up to and including potentially selling your character out to the local Darklord. Because of course the one thing Ravenloft was missing was to play up the "obnoxiously xenophobic villagers" trope even more than it already did.

The Monster Hunter is a pseudo-Ranger or a less-shitty Avenger, in that it's a kit about a character dedicated to hunting down a specific type of monsters - something relatively broad, such as vampires, therianthropes, fiends, ghosts, the Walking Dead, etc. To take this kit, you just need 13s in Strength, Constitution and Intelligence - weirdly, the "basic info" summary says it's open to all classes, but the Requirements writeup says it's restricted to Human, Half-Elf orHalf-Vistani characters. This is stupid, so ignore that. The Monster Hunter gets a +2 bonus to ability checks and proficiency checks directly dealing with their chosen enemy (such as using the bonus Tracking proficiency to hunt them down), and a +2 bonus to damage rolls against them. The downside? Firstly, as the Monster Hunter builds a reputation, their chosen enemy will be more likely to look out for them, resulting in them gaining a +2 initiative bonus. Secondly, Monster Hunters are packrats even by adventurer standards, amassing vast stockpiles of weapons and trinkets to deal with the laundry list of variant monsters and salient weaknesses, which is mechanically enforced by them needing to carry at least a "moderate" encumbrance level of gear at all times except where the DM rules otherwise. Finally, if the Monster Hunter doesn't actively hunt for their chosen enemy, or study them in a book, at least once per week, they get slightly rusty and their bonuses all drop to +1 until the Monster Hunter goes back on the hunt, whereupon they revert to +2 in 1d20 hours.

The Order of the Guardian is a member of a monastic order dedicated to seeking out evil or cursed magical items and destroying them - or at least sealing them away in hidden vaults so they can no longer plague mortals. This kit is open to any class from the "Priest" category, so long as they have a Good alignment, Constitution 15, and Wisdom 17. They gain a bonus proficiency in Ancient History, have a (5% per level, maximum 75%) magic resistance against Enchantment spells and psionics that control the mind, and have a 5% per level chance to know something useful about any magical objects, artifacts and relics they encounter. The drawbacks? Firstly, their hermetic nature means they lack innate access to the "Common" school of nonweapon proficiencies. Secondly, they are sworn to oaths of poverty; they can keep only 10% of any money they earn for themselves, and at least 10% of the remainder must be donated to the Order. They also cannot own any more magical items than the following: 1 suit of magical armor, 1 magical shield, 2 magical weapons, 4 other magical items.

The Pistoleer is, obviously, a proto-gunslinger, dedicated to the use of smokepowder weaponry. Originating from the northwestern core, this kit can be taken by Human, Half-Elf, Half-Vistani, Halfling and Gnome characters with Dexterity 15 and Intelligence 12. They gain Weather Sense as a free proficiency, and +2 to checks made with it in any domain in the Demiplane of Dread. For other bonuses, they gain a +1 to all Charisma-based checks with fellow pistoleers, start with a free wheellock belt pistol, and treat all pistols as having a weapon speed factor of 7. The only downside, aside from needing to try and keep weapons, ammo and smokepowder to hand when needed, is that pistolers suffer a -1 Charisma check penalty against elf, dwarf and Vistani characters, due to their cultural biases against the weapon.

The Psychic is essentially a kit version of the Psionicist, available to any character with an Intelligence of 14, that doesn't actually use the psionics rules of the time. Instead, these psychics have the innate ability to pick up psychic resonance from a touched object (functions as using the Object Reading psionic power) and people (functions as Detect Evil; target can resist with an Int check if they have at least Average intelligence). They also gain Direction Sense as a free proficiency. The problem, of course, is that entering any place with a significant history of terror, or using the aforementioned object reading power, is very likely to expose the psychic to Fear, Horror, or Madness checks. Also, they can't benefit from mind-shielding magical items without obstructing their own powers.

The Redeemed is a kit intended to represent a former villain who has fought their way back from the bring and is now on the side of good again. This requires a Good alignment, Constitution 12 and Wisdom 15. Redeemed characters gain a +2 bonus to willpower-based saves, which stacks with the bonuses from Wisdom. The downside? They cannot keep company with companions who commit evil acts (just like the paladin... remember how much fun that rule was?), they must obey a vow of poverty (no more than 10 magical items, must donate at least 10% of all wealth to charity), and they are half-again as likely to fail a Powers Check (for example, a 10% Powers Check is a 15% one for the Redeemed).

Finally, the Spiritualist is a specialist wizard who can be summed up as "White Necromancer": whilst they respect the wisdom and knowledge of the dead, and are willing to seek it out, they also believe in the sanctity of the grave, so they specialize in laying the undead to rest rather than creating them. They have the same requirements as a standard necromancer (Human only, Int 10, Wis 16), but must be of a Good alignment. In addition to the standard benefits and penalties of being a necromancer (+1 to saves vs. necromancy, enemies suffer a -1 to saves vs. your necromantic spells, cannot learn Illusionist or Enchanter spells), they have a number of unique powers. Firstly, they get +2 to all Fear and Horror saves caused by incorporeal undead. Secondly, they get a +4 to saves against the aging attacks of ghosts. Finally, they can learn the following wizard and cleric spells as if they were Wizard-Necromancy spells of the same level: Astral Spell, Past Life, Trap the Soul, Speak with Dead, Restoration/Energy Drain, Undead Ward. The downside? Firstly, due to their beliefs, spiritualists cannot learn necromancy spells that create corporeal undead creatures or deal with manipulating corpses. Secondly, due to their status as specialist wizards, spiritualists suffer a -15% penalty to checks to learn non-necromancy spells. Finally, and most damningly of all, most people in the Demiplane of Dread won't be able to tell the difference between a spiritualist and a necromancer, so if the spiritualist is found out, expect angry mobs to be out for their blood soon after.

NPCs

• Brother Dominic: Head of the Order of the Guardians.
• Ivan Dragonov: A master werewolf hunter who has ironically become a Loup-Garou himself, and now uses its power to better hunt his quarry.
• Gondegal: A former king from the Forgotten Realms turned mercenary, and now a Knight of the Shadow dedicated to leading a revolution against the brutal reign of Vlad Drakov, Darklord of Falkovnia.
• Hermos: A disfigured giant who serves as foreman and spiritual leader for The Carnival.
• Tara Kolyana: The latest incarnation of Tatyana, now a traveling anchorite of Ezra.
• Hilda & Friedrich Kreutzer: Husband and wife spiritualists who starred in the novel "Mordenheim", in which they became caught up in the latest struggle between Lamordia's darklords.
• Alanik Ray: Elfin Sherlock Holmes.
• Larissa Snowmane: Protagonist of the novel "Dance of the Dead".
• George Weathermay: Uncle to the Weathermay-Foxgrove Twins, ally of Van Richten, dedicated to saving his niece from the doom he fears he has brought upon her.