Heroes of Horror

Heroes of Horror is a splatbook for Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 that is full of useful content and advice for running horror themed adventures. It has new rules, character classes, prestige classes, spells, feats, items, monsters, and more. It is worth checking out if you are running a horror adventure even if you aren't playing 3.5.

New Demigod

The book introduces Cas the moose headed demigod of spite.

New Rules

The book adds several new optional rules for running horror games. One of theses new mechanics is taint. Physical taint is represented by the corruption score, and mental taint is represented by the depravity score.

New Monsters

• Bane Wraith: A more powerful wraith. It can use illusions to appear to be a living person. It can read people's minds to find out who their loved ones so it can hunt them all down. Humanoids it kills come back as regular wraiths.
• Bloodrot: A liquid undead resembling an Ooze formed from the remains of somebody who died from being melted in acid. It infects enemies with a magical disease called blood fever that is difficult to cure and can hide inside of the bloodstream of anybody who is infected. Those infected with blood fever will also attract more bloodrots to them since they can also sense infectees over long distances.
• Bog Imp: A lawful evil fey creature that lives in swamps that have the ability to make people sink into the swamp and drown. Elves who are killed this way turn into new bog imps.
• Boneleaf: An aberration that resembles a plant. It has razor sharp leave and can lure people towards it with illusions. Multiple boneleaves in an area are actually parts of the same entity connected by underground nerves, so what one boneleaf learns, all the ones connected to it also learn.
• Corruption Eater: An aberration resembling a ghoul with a tongue covered in small mouths. It drains the corruption score of those it hits with it's bite attack, and it has a breath weapon that increases the target's depravity score. It is vulnerable to attacks by enemies that have zero corruption and depravity.
• Taint Elemental: A creature made of taint. It's attacks can greatly increase the enemies corruption score.
• Dusk Giant: Dusk giants are man eating giants that change size depending on how much flesh they have recently eaten and get more befit from eating intelligent creatures. They can grow up to 20 feet tall when well fed, and shrink down to just over 6 feet tall when starving. Their magical abilities also increase when they are well fed, and they always are surrounded by an aura of shadow that darkens bright lights and causes despair.
• Cadaver Golem: Similar to a flesh golem but more intelligent. It can gain new skills and abilities by adding new body parts to itself. A similar monster with the same name but somewhat different traits later appeared in 4th edition.
• Grey Jester: An evil fey creature resembling a jester that can permanently steal all joy from anyone who laughs or otherwise feel good in it's presence, and may turn them into slaves called bleak ones if they have less than or equal hit dice than the grey jester.
• Phantasmal Slayer: A ghostly creature that looks like the viewer's worst fear. Anybody who sees a Phantasmal Slayer is affected as though hit by the phantasmal killer spell. It's touch can cause the victim to instantly drop dead from fear.

Templates

• Tainted Minion: If a humanoid's corruption score becomes too high, they drop dead and rise as a tainted minion.
• Tainted Raver: If a humanoid's depravity score becomes too high, they are driven permanently insane and become a tainted raver.
• Unholy Scion: If you want the villain of your campaign to be the Antichrist, this is the template you should apply to them. It is pure evil before it has even been born yet. The mother of an unholy scion is permanently under the scion's control by an effect similar to the charm person or charm animal spell, even while the scion is unborn, and it can also see through the mother's senses and use it's spell like abilities through them.