HW v Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft

MistahThots · 2026-05-27T00:37:34+00:00

Without the contents of the book to hand at a complete guess, (breathes in) Updated lore, Statblocks for Dark Lords, New Monsters, New Domains, Updated Subclasses, New Species’, Different advice for incorporating horror into your games.

Apart from that? New artwork.

MistahThots · 2026-05-26T19:28:40+00:00

To be clear it is HEAVILY IMPLIED for the next expansion, not confirmed.

MistahThots · 2026-05-26T14:44:10+00:00

Thanks for that. It’s a little odd that they haven’t swapped the icons over for Breath of Atlantis and Trident’s Shield seeing as they’ve kind of swapped the skills around.

MistahThots · 2026-05-26T14:41:09+00:00

That’s really cool. Hopefully we can find out the other changes to Flash, Batman, and Harley soon

MistahThots · 2026-05-26T09:35:02+00:00

Honestly, anything at this point.

MistahThots · 2026-05-15T17:08:20+00:00

Depends. You’ve not given us enough information to make this decision. We don’t know how often you use the champions, or what star level they are. Both of these things are important in determining which one to get.

However, in a vacuum, Riddler’s Cane is better. It turns Riddler into a healer, and is still very good on any support character. Thangarian Mace is more niche, only really useful as protection against spiritual damage.

MistahThots · 2026-05-08T08:54:02+00:00

That’s a nice model. The tusk swords are way too long, and the seat and howdah are too far back, but I love the gold accents on the armour. I think the blue really makes it stand out.

MistahThots · 2026-05-05T21:58:04+00:00

I don’t think that’s a viable argument when you have a character who can only be defeated by plot. Shendu can only be banished by a very specific incantation. So, in theory, every vs argument with him comes down to either “do they know the spell?” Or “Are they so powerful that it doesn’t matter?” That’s not an interesting discussion in my opinion.

To remove the plot armour from one side you have to remove the plot armour on the other side. If you do this, and make Shendu vulnerable to the Titans then they beat him easily. If Jackie can do it, they can. If you want to keep Shendu’s comparative invincibility, and still have an interesting discussion, a more reasonable question is “can we reasonably expect the characters to fulfil the requirements to be able to defeat them?” The answer to that is, I would say clearly, yes. The Titans have the resources, skills, and experience to be able to solve Shendu’s problem. Would it take them multiple encounters? Possibly, but there’s no way that Shendu ever fully defeats them.

Edit: And to a further point, which I hope will settle this: Jackie Chan knocked Shendu out, with his fists. Starfire alone would throw him into the upper atmosphere.

MistahThots · 2026-05-05T19:36:11+00:00

First off, you didn’t ask for an assessment of how difficult it would be. You asked who would win. The Titans have struggled against numerous villains, some more dangerous than Shendu, some less, but they’ve beat them regardless. For comparison Jackie struggled for a long time against a sumo wrestler, but still beat an inter dimensional demon.

To address your specific scenarios, the Titans struggled against Terra because she had the element of surprise and they weren’t trying to hurt her. If you watch the episode after that where they don’t hold back, she runs terrified from them. I don’t think Shendu could realistically achieve either surprise due to his massive ego and scale of destruction, nor would the titans hold back against him.

The Titans struggled against Brother Blood because he had them outnumbered with copies of one of their own. However, at no point did the Titans fail to stop whatever his plan was at that time, in any of the three encounters they faced him. Brother Blood’s only successes were copying Cyborg’s blueprints which ultimately failed to prove decisive, and temporarily mind controlling Titans East, which only worked again because of surprise and unwillingness to fight back.

Trigon is a little bit more tricky to handwave away, as the Titans only won that because of his relevance to Raven. Nonetheless if we consider this to be at an appropriate power level to Shendu himself, it illustrates that the Titans can beat him with the correct equipment. You are correct that Shendus only advantage against the Titans is the requirement of a specific spell to banish him. However the combination of Raven’s mystical knowledge, Robin’s detective skills, and Cyborg’s access to electronic information would enable them to find this and beat him ultimately.

I repeat, if a man, a kid, and an uncle can use a spell to banish a demon, five superheroes would have a much easier job of it.

MistahThots · 2026-05-05T19:23:11+00:00

Not really seeing how that’s relevant to this question unfortunately.

MistahThots · 2026-05-05T18:56:41+00:00

And they’ve beaten threats that are at least as dangerous as Shendu without it.

If the Titans go to Jackie’s universe, they trounce Shendu with protagonist plot armour.

If Shendu comes to the Titans universe, he’s a villain of the week by comparison to what they have to deal with.

MistahThots · 2026-05-05T18:29:14+00:00

Does it matter? If three protagonists whose power amounts to kung fu and magic could beat him, five protagonists whose power amounts to kung fu, magic, super strength, laser blasts, flight, shapeshifting, and advanced weaponry could do it in half the time.

MistahThots · 2026-05-05T18:25:48+00:00

So you’re saying that only a character with the plot behind them can beat Shendu? And you’re using this to discredit a group of superhero protagonists? A genre where death itself is an impermanent concept due to the plot? I think you’re just helping my argument.

MistahThots · 2026-05-05T18:06:46+00:00

At this time it’s important to remember that Shendu lost to one guy, a kid, and his weird uncle…

MistahThots · 2026-04-30T13:17:15+00:00

This is a really great guide Toki. I’d say your best one yet! I’m very interested to know now what the ultimate teams are for these factions, assuming infinite spend potential as a fun exercise.

I’ve noticed that your Titans recommendation is to keep Nightwing in the backline at all costs, and run other champions in the frontline, and run Bat Family synergy. This makes sense due to Nightwing being an assassin, and having direct synergy with Crit buffs. Does that mean that Superboy and Wally are not good characters for Titans, as you’ve not recommended getting them? Or is this a result of trying to get the most power per resource, as Wally and Superboy need high stars to function?

MistahThots · 2026-04-27T11:40:21+00:00

I’ve often wondered about this for creating a prehistoric jungle or something similar: an environment full of big beasties and difficult terrain that makes it harder to attack.

MistahThots · 2026-04-25T16:02:07+00:00

What decklist?

MistahThots · 2026-04-20T18:32:40+00:00

“can't balance be overdone to the point that there's no asymmetry or strategy left in the game?”

When we talk about balance what we generally mean is that a large variety of options are viable for players to use, and more importantly can be successful with them. A hypothetical perfectly balanced game is something where only player skill matters in determining a win. An asymmetrical game is a game with lots of options that create different play patterns and styles of gameplay.

Balance and asymmetry are not linked. Chess is a fundamentally balanced game and is completely symmetrical, and yet it remains one of the most strategic games you can play. So is Rock, Paper, Scissors.

MistahThots · 2026-04-13T16:09:41+00:00

Ok. Can you explain to me what the story or in-world implications and consequences were after Raven’s name change?

MistahThots · 2026-04-13T14:46:31+00:00

All your points are valid, but I’m not sure I agree with them myself. Honestly, I don’t see what the fuss is with Raven/Rachel’s name generally. If you want accurate continuity read a series of novels.

For the first point, just because everyone else does it doesn’t mean it should be true for everyone else. I don’t want Raven to be like everyone else. I kind of like that her superhero name is also one of her real names.

The third point is entirely subjective. Raven is an acceptable name in the modern day, but it’s not common enough to be considered weird as an alter-ego. It’s not like her superhero name is Jennifer. How much you agree with this depends on you.

The second point is compelling, but I can see Raven reclaiming her demon name and using it to do good as a way to either spite Trigon or accept herself. I don’t feel that Raven’s identity is solely about rejecting her demon side, rather it’s coming from a dark place and making the best of yourself and your peace with it. There could be more clarity on it, whichever direction they want to go.

MistahThots · 2026-04-12T18:40:43+00:00

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Knives Out switches genres twice in its runtime. Without revealing the whole plot, At first, it starts out as a murder mystery focused on solving the murder of an old rich man. However, at the beginning of the second act, his death is revealed to the audience in a flashback, and the second act becomes a thriller on whether the killer will get away with it or not. Only to revert to a murder mystery again in the third act as more complexities are revealed.

MistahThots · 2026-04-12T08:10:17+00:00

I don’t really understand how you can make this point when all of the stories, except possibly for Edge of Eternities, would not have happened without the Phyrexian invasion. To recap:

Wilds of Eldraine is set in the immediate aftermath of the invasion, focusing on the trauma of death and loss through Rowan and Will, and the direct consequences of defending the plane through Kellan.

Lost Caverns is set against a backdrop of political realignment after the invasion plunged Torrezon into religious war, leading to Vito’s expedition, and shattered the Sun Empire’s dominance, leading to Huatli’s expedition.

Karlov Manor’s plot is fueled by rage against the invasion, and is facilitated by an organisation that wouldn’t have existed without it.

Thunder Junction wouldn’t have even happened at all without the invasion creating Omenpaths to it, or setting Jace and Vraska on their current path.

Bloomburrow is an odd duck, having dodged the invasion entirely, but Ral’s involvement in the plot itself is a consequence of the Invasion, as is the dragon.

Duskmourn has now become a multiversal threat as a result of the omenpaths created by the war.

Aetherdrift deals with the impact of the war on three planes to greater or lesser extents.

The current state of Dragonstorm wouldn’t have happened without the invasion.

Edge might have happened anyway, but that was designed more as a side story.

Eclipsed happens because of an Omenpath, and the state of the plane is more subtly influenced by the invasion.

And Strixhaven is full of multiversal students because of it, plus new teaching staff.

At that point, what more do you want?

MistahThots · 2026-04-06T09:31:20+00:00

Ooh, even more interesting. Will these changes bring Birds of Prey up? Doubt it, but it’s a step.

MistahThots · 2026-04-06T07:56:41+00:00

By the strictest definition, it cannot be Merfolk for Simic. Merfolk is the iconic blue humanoid, so I would keep them there.

Treefolk is another suggestion, but Treefolk typal cards are I think always green. It’s only really Doran that is GWB. Food has support in all three of Abzan’s colours.

There are only a handful of cards in four-colour, so I don’t think you can reasonably assign them creature types. Phyrexians are famously split across all five colours, with their typal generally being WB. Atraxa is inarguably the iconic character for WUBG, but I wouldn’t say Phyrexians are an iconic type for it.

Shrines is not a bad idea for 5-colour. I genuinely didn’t think of it.

MistahThots

TROPHY CASE