Astarion’s E book of Hungers in all probability would not include sufficient content material to justify its $15 price ticket except a participant is totally set on enjoying a dhampir or a vampire-adjacent character of their D&D marketing campaign. Launched at this time alongside the vast launch of the brand new Forgotten Realms books, Astarion’s E book of Hungers includes a new species (the dhampir, receiving some minor changes from its final look in Von Richten’s Information to Ravenloft), three new backgrounds, and a group of vampire-themed feats. Additionally included within the set are a handful of latest monster statblocks and three stripped-down adventures within the vein of the 2024 Dungeon Grasp’s Information, all of that are set within the Rat’s Run Tavern and are themed round Astarion’s prolonged vampire spawn household.
The brand new journey content material can also be the primary of a brand new sort of product for Dungeons & Dragons – digital “DLC” tied to the discharge of a bodily product. Astarion’s E book of Hungers is one among three DLC for the brand new Forgotten Realms books and may be bought both by way of a bundle with the Forgotten Realms books or individually for $15. The value level is the place I am actually combating this content material. Primarily based on the $60 worth level of Heroes of Faerun and the 194-page rely, one would count on this DLC to have round 50 pages of content material in it. It is laborious to get an actual web page rely on this because it’s digital, nevertheless it actually feels loads skinnier than that.
The content material itself is not disappointing – the dhampir accommodates some minor updates from its final iteration to make the lineage into an ordinary species. Among the feats may be mixed to create both a flavorful vampire aspirant or a holy vampire slayer. The brand new monsters are fascinating, particularly the brand new devils which can be tied to Mephistopheles. Nevertheless, I actually anticipated a bit extra from this DLC. On the very least, we may have gotten a historical past of Astarion himself, particularly as he is the central character of the e book. I suppose Wizards is banking on anybody who bought this e book to have already performed by Baldur’s Gate 3, however I am simply shocked that there is no more of a give attention to Astarion outdoors of a few fast adventures through which gamers are anticipated to avoid wasting him from his vampire kin.
I’ve anticipated extra digital-exclusive paid content material on D&D Past for an extended whereas, a minimum of since Hasbro executives complained that D&D was “undermonetized.” The important thing to those releases is to seek out the fitting worth level and the correct amount of content material. To be blunt – Astarion’s E book of Hungers is not it. Perhaps if the worth have been decrease or if there was extra content material, this is able to really feel much less like a money seize and extra like true add-on content material. Whereas I do not thoughts what we received, I really feel like the worth level dictated extra. Perhaps the opposite DLCs can be extra sturdy, however Astarion’s E book of Hungers fell brief.
