Grim Hollow: The Player’s Guide!

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Tyson Fraleigh - August 26, 2021

Darkness has arrived in Etharis. There is no hope, no heroes, no grace here. There is only pain, suffering, and evil. This is the land of Grim Hollow…

Grim Hollow is a D&D 5e setting for all you grim dark lovers out there. Grim Hollow games are all about survival and doing your best to make the world a better place against all odds. Take on ancient evils or become one yourself!

Grim Hollow: The Player’s Guide offers a lot of customization to your 5e game. You have undoubtedly heard of the guide before on YouTube, Kickstarter, everywhere. But is it worth chipping in the twenty-five bucks?

Oh, my friend – you have no idea what magic is in here. Let me just mention a little bit of the delicious content in this PDF.

Sangromancy

Finally, a blood magic system that isn’t just flavour! Sangromancy is one of the coolest additions to 5e magic system because it not only utilizes spell slots, but also your hit dice to cast spells. Your hit dice will dictate how much damage or healing you deal as per the casting of the spell.

You may think this is a little punishing, especially at early levels. However, it is worth noting that Grim Hollow is meant to be a grim dark game. It’s meant to be a little punishing, making your question your endurance for survival at every step of the way.

If you want to really dive into sangromancy but don’t want to constantly worry about losing access to your spells if you expend all your hit dice, don’t worry. Play as the wizard subclass School of Sangromancy, which gives you bonus d12 dice to use instead of your hit dice!

Advanced Weapons

For those looking to spice up their combat capabilities, advanced weapons are here! Advanced weapons offer additional abilities and benefits for using better quality weapons. This includes abilities such as Swift, which allows you to make an attack roll at advantage if your missed the prior attack, or Precise, which scores a critical hit on 19s – 20s.

Of course, these abilities are entirely optional. However, if you are a DM looking to spice up the combat in your game, or you are a player who wants to dive into some new tricks, give these weapons a try!

Inspiration & Corruption

Inspiration & Corruption offer two new dice pools for your party or DM to use throughout the game. The mechanic is simple – every good act you perform, the party gains a d6 Resolve die. If you commit an evil act, the DM gains a d6 Beast die.

Resolve dice can be used by the party to offer a moment of good fortune. This could include additional healing on a short rest or a re-rolled death save.

Beast dice can be used to make a grave situation much more dangerous. This could include rolling a die to increase the enemy numbers, or even attempt to make one of your PCs fail a death save (if you are a special kind of monster).

These dice pools can only reach a maximum pool of six. The party can choose to spend all Resolve dice, giving everyone advantage on all rolls, deal double damage, and take half damage for one round. If the DM obtains six Beast dice, the DM can spend these dice to summon enemies to your location, regardless of your condition. The Beast can manifest in different ways, but always results in two things – catastrophe to the surrounding communities and a long-term enemy/condition for your party to have to deal with.

Lastly, there is also a Neutral table that both the DM and the party can utilize with their Resolve or Beast dice. These abilities range from trying to cast a spell based strictly on observation, or deal extra damage. Regardless, these abilities can be just as powerful as your own dice pool, so make sure to double check your options before using them!