Powers Check
Powers Checks (an abbreviation of Dark Powers Checks) are a mechanic unique to the Dungeons & Dragons setting of Ravenloft. Intended to be a way to enforce mechanically the roleplaying/thematic background element of how the Dark Powers rewards villains by gifting them with both unnatural powers and malefic curses, the basic idea is that when a player characters commits certain sinful acts, such as murder, betrayal, using a necromantic spell, blasphemy, etc, the player rolls a Percentile Die. This is compared to a large table that combines various sins and sin modifiers (acts of passion tend to be more likely to draw their eyes than cold-blooded, dispassionate malice, for example); if the player rolls equal to or less than this number, then they have caught the attention of the Dark Powers and are infused with spiritual taint. The more times this happens, the greater their powers - and their curses - grow, until ultimately they become monsters or even full-fledged Darklords.
Act of Ultimate Darkness
In Ravenloft canon, there are some acts so foul, so horrible, so monstrous, that no Powers Checks are required; those who commit them just automatically get the Dark Powers' attention. For PCs, this is generally an automatic failed Powers Check, but for NPCs, this could even cause them to leap from "normal person" to "Darklord" in a single fell swoop.
Precisely what counts as an Act of Ultimate Darkness is left to the DM's discretion. For example, Strahd von Zarovich, in one night: turned himself into a vampire to try and preserve his youth, murdered his brother to take his brother's wife, murdered all the guests at his brother's wedding to disguise what he'd done, and tried to mind control the woman he "loved" so he could turn her into his vampire bride - which caused her to curse him and leap to her death from the parapets of Castle Ravenloft.
Terror Track
Powers Checks are intended to build towards a specific theme; the end result should be a coherent set of powers and curses that ultimately creates a recognizable monster. The term "Terror Track" is thusly used to define a specific set of Powers Check-gated gifts & curses that build towards a specific creature end-goal - for example, one of the earliest uses of the term in the boxed set "Domains of Dread" for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition, gives us the Terror Track of the Vampire.
Unfortunately, much like the general powers and curses of a failed Powers Check in general, the effort of inventing a Terror Track is left up to the DM. The Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition provides three sample Terror Tracks; the Ringleader, the Brute, and the Coward. Fans have responded by trying to create Terror Tracks for other DMs to use, resulting in them being scattered over various Ravenloft netbooks.
In Quoth the Raven #9, Terror Tracks are provided for the Kuo-toa, the Sahuagin and the Reaver.
In the Undead Sea Scrolls 2002, Terror Tracks are provided for the Aswang and the Upir Lichy.
The largest source of Terror Tracks, however, can be found in the article "Terrible Transformations" for The Book of Shadows, which features twenty different Terror Tracks! Uniquely, it's the only one of its kind that focuses on rules for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Terror Tracks, whereas the other five mentioned above are written for Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition.
- Skin Thief
- Banshee
- Boneless
- Chosen One
- Dream Spawn
- Ettercap
- Gargoyle
- Ghoul
- Grimlock
- Heucuva
- Lich
- Mist Horror
- Reaver
- Red Widow
- Sea Spawn Master
- Shadow
- Werejackal
- Wererat
- Zombie Lord
Redemption
Unlike in some games, Ravenloft Powers Checks are not certain doom for your player; redemption is as much a part of Gothic Horror as damnation, after all. It's not easy, and you can never reach the heights of purity again, but it is possible through roleplaying and mechanical actions to purge yourself of the dark gifts and curses, climbing back towards normalcy.
Reception
The intent behind Powers Checks was to act as a curtail on Murderhobos. Did it work? Well... honestly, probably not; many players find Powers Checks either never come up, or else annoying in how they seem deliberately tailored to screw over the players - the 3.5 "Ravenloft Player's Handbook" was widely critiqued for how many extra sources of Powers Checks it added, including leveling up in certain classes, and even before then there were absurdities like the Speak with Dead and Deathwatch spells (which, respectively, let you ask a few questions of the deceased and let you check how much HP creatures have) causing Powers Checks.
To say nothing of munchkins deliberately aiming for Powers Checks because the penalties were often roleplaying centric and thusly worth it for the mechanical benefits of the powers.
In Later Editions
Powers Checks were deeply rooted in TSR's approach to D&D, and so they didn't really sit too well with WotC. In 4th edition, the concept was dropped (if only because a dedicated Ravenloft setting never resurfaced there), with instead the player being suggested to come up with spooky background or character traits to represent brushes with the dark powers. The closest that 4e got to Powers Checks were a pair of Themes called the Haunted Blade and the Misshapen, which gave the character powers tied to a brush with dark forces.
In 5th edition, Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft scrapped the idea of Powers Checks entirely and replaced them with Dark Gifts: an entirely voluntary option that the player can pick at starting level, or earn through play, that grants them distinct boons, at the cost of largely cosmetic "spooky" drawbacks. As a result, the book contains a specific array of Dark Gifts, consisting of the following. Each grants a couple of minor powers, but comes with a drawback.
Echoing Soul: You have a connection to past incarnations, were magically swapped into your current body, or you have a deep spiritual link to another being - there's a d6 table to roll on to randomly generate the specifics. Regardless, you experience intrusive echoes of one or more entirely different lives; on the plus side, this gives you two free skill proficiencies and a bonus language. The downside is the Intrusive Echoes trait; if you trigger the downside by rolling a 1 on an attack roll, ability check or saving throw, you become overwhelmed by foreign visions and memories, which you determine by rolling on a d6 table. You might end up charmed or frightened by a random creature for 1 minute, blinded for a turn, halve your speed for a turn, be incapacitated for a turn, or even get to reroll the triggering roll because you awoke a memory of a past triumph. Fortunately, Intrusive Echoes can only happen once per short rest.
Gathered Whispers: You're a spiritwalker, somebody who can naturally perceive the spirits of the deceased or denizens of other planes, and thus have to deal with them endlessly haunting you. d6 table to explain who the haunts are. It gives you the positive traits Spirit Whispers (Message as an SLA) and Sudden Cacophony (1/day, add Proficiency Bonus to AC vs. an attack - doesn't work against deaf assailants). The negative trait is Voices from Beyond, which forces you to roll on a d4 table; you might end up with Disadvantage on your next attack roll/ability check/saving throw, be deafened for 1 minute, be frightened of a random creature for a turn, or get the benefits of a free Augury spells. Voices from Beyond triggers when you roll a 1 on an attack roll, ability check or saving throw, but can only happen once per short rest, just like the Intrusive Echoes trait.
Living Shadow: Like the name says, your shadow is mysteriously animate all on its own. Ever heard of a little Disney movie called "The Princess and the Frog"? You're basically Dr. Facilier. Positive traits: Grasping Shadow (Mage Hand SLA) and Shadow Strike (give yourself +10feet of reach with a melee attack Proficiency Bonus times per day). Downside: Ominous Will, which causes the next creature to make an attack roll, saving throw or ability check within 30 feet to roll a d4; they add the even number as a bonus and subtract the odd number as a penalty.
Mist Walker: You have spent so long traversing the infamous Mists of Ravenloft that you have gained an unparalled connection to them, for both good and ill. The positive traits are Misty Step (cast Misty Step 1/day, and if spellcaster, gain it as a bonus spell) and Mist Traveler (you don't need Mist Talismans to reach domains; you just need to know the domain's name). The downside is Poisoned Roots: Once you finish a long rest, the terrain in a 10-mile radius becomes spiritually poisoned against you. You can only stay in such an area for weeks equal to your Constitution modifier, and if you overstay, you gain 1 level of Exhaustion each time you complete a long rest there which can't be removed until you move on. Basically, this is an adapatation of the Static Burn curse that the Vistani suffered in 2nd and 3rd edition.
Second Skin: You have a Jekyll & Hyde-esque ability to transform into a strange secondary form, which you can either specifically designate or generate through a roll on a d6 table. There's only a single benefit here; Transformation, which lets you cast Alter Self (Change Appearance only) on yourself 1/day and adds Alter Self to your spells list if you're a spellcaster. But, if you use this SLA, then when you return to normal, you'll retain some visible trait of your previous form until you complete a long rest. Rather than the standard "critical fail" triggered downside, this Dark Gift's downside is Involuntary Change, where exposure to a catalyst (either determined or chosen from a d6 table) forces you to pass a DC 15 Charisma save or automatically shapeshift via your Alter Self SLA. Basically, this gift is pretty much all fluff, as there's not a lot of crunch wrapped up in transforming this way.
Symbiotic Being: You're Venom. Seriously. That's it. You have a physical living creature with its own indepentent mind and personality fused to your body. There's a d6 table to generate manifestation, and they include a living tattoo, crystaline growths, and basically an homage to Vampire Hunter D (or Voldemort in the very first Harry Potter novel). You gain the traits Entwined Existence (Symbiote has its own Int, Wis and Cha scores, and gives you free proficiency in either Arcana, Deception, History, Intimidation, Insight, Investigation, Nature, Religion, Perception or Persuasion) and Sustained Symbiosis (1/day, you can sacrifice a Hit Dice to either boost a saving throw or to automatically critical succeed a Death Saving Throw). The downside is, of course, Symbiotic Agenda - your symbiote has its own goal that it wants to achieve, and if you try to pass up an opportunity to pursue that goal, you have to pass a Charisma save (DC 12 + symbiote's Cha modifier) or else it takes over you, represented as a Charm effect that lasts 1d12 hours. You can either create the symbiote's agenda, or roll on the provided d6 table.
Touch of Death: Your flesh courses with malevolent energies or supernatural venom, allowing you to bring death to whoever brushes your skin. There's a d6 table to suggest how this might have been caused and manifests. Your positive traits are Death Touch (as an action, make an unarmed strike that does +1d10 Necrotic damage, boosted by +1d10 at levels 5, 11 and 17), Inescapable Death (your attacks ignore Necrotic Resistance), and Withering Contact (if you start your turn grappling or being grappled, the other guy takes 1d10 Necrotic damage). Surprisingly, there's no explicit downside to this ability! Although a sneaky DM could rule that the ability can activate involuntarily outside of combat and cause you to accidently kill someone you touch. Point is, you better get used to not being able to hug things anymore.
Watchers: You are the object of interest to ethereal spirits, which manifest themselves in Tiny-sized bodies made of shadowstuff and constantly hang arond you, even if you try to drive them away. There's a d8 table of example forms that these watchers might take, from ravens and rats to drifting religious symbols or animated objects. For a positive trait, you get Borrowed Eyes, which lets you invoke the power of the Watchers to gain Adventage on Investigation & Perception checks plus Immunity to Blindness for 1 hour 1/day. The negative trait is Dread Presence: you have Disadvantage on saves against Scrying, and if your Watchers are visible, you also suffer Disadvantage on Deception, Performance and Charisma checks. You can disperse these Watchers with a minute's work and a successful DC 15 Animal Handling check, but it only lasts for 1 hour and can only be done 1/day.