I have loved everything about the concept of the Swanmay all the way back to 2nd Edition. Now as a DM, I finally have a way to introduce them into the party! I love that you made this for us! It is well-crafted, and well-thought out. The lore is sharp and concise, and blends in seamlessly to the 5th Edition ecosystem. I do have a couple of nit-picks (which I will talk about in the discussion section), but overall this is fantastic. Great job!

This product is fantastic! At first, I thought it a bit expensive for DM Guild, but I took the gamble anyway, and it was worth it. It is very well polished.

This product is valuable to any DM that is ... a) Running a Forgetten Realms campaign just before or during the Sundering shenanigans. This is when Shade, the Netherese Shadovar, and Shar was just running amok in Cormyr, Sembia, the Dalelands, and Waterdeep. b) Running a campaign in the Shadowfell. The Shadowfell is filled with dangers and undead, but also cities and people. These are some of those people. c) Wants to give players that LOVE THE DARKNESS the thing which they crave, without making them evil or buddies with the undead by default.

I fall under category "a". My players are right in the thick of the plots and machinations of the Princes of Shade just before the Sundering starts happening. They are facing the Empire of Netheril at its most dangerous and this product gives me the tools I need to make that danger very thematic and flavorful. It is also a very accurate adaptation of the abilities that we've grown to love from the Shadovar and their servants from novels by Troy Denning (The Sentinel), Erin M. Evans (Lesser Evils, The Adversary), and Paul S. Kemp (The Erevis Cale Trilogy, The Twilight War Trilogy). This product allows you to bring those shadow-steeped foes to life in your own adventures. Or better yet, allows your players to harness and master the powers of darkness itself!

Now, we could quibble over balance issues and whether some of the archetype abilities are "off-color" for a particular class. But you don't have to. Just like the PHB and DMG, you can use this as a starting point. You can use this product as a collection of darkness-based abilities and creatures that you can mix and match to best suit your taste and the power level of your campaign as a DM. Because each of the archetype's abilities are so unique and so flavorful, you can't go wrong even if you just take one or two and put them where you think they can have the best effect in your story.

For example the "Darkmire" feature is brilliant in its simple elegant design, but utterly terrifying when unleashed by an NPC foe on the party.

So $3 may seem like a lot relative to all the other DM Guild publications, but in this case I believe this product is worth it.

This is EXACTLY what I needed for an upcoming session featuring an NPC druid that worships Eldath (the Forgotten Realms goddess of peace, springs, calm water, and tranquil forest groves). It does have more of a cleric feel, but is certainly not as militant or combat-oriented as an actual cleric, whcih is good for followers of a peace goddess of water. I am surprised that they do not have Create or Destroy Water as a Circle Spell, but other than that, this archetype hits all its marks. Well done!

These are very well balanced, and flavorful character options. Enough power to make a differnce, but not so much that they are taking advantage of dragon broodmonthers. I particularly like the College Of Diplomacy for my campaign, but all the option here are good. Sure we can nit-pick every little ability to death, but the concepts and content as a whole are rather brilliant. There is a lot of material for players and DM's to work with to bring plenty of life to their characters, and numerous opportunities for some rather fun adventure hooks with these options.

All in all, very creative and well done.

Very well done indeed. It is flavorful, unique, doesn't create a whole new set of dice rolling that may slowdown the game. It works withing the existing framework of spells and spell lists. And it is not overpowered by any stretch, but a creative wizard player could definitely go to town with a lot of the features. I like it a lot, and can't really think of anything concrete that would make it better. Again, well done.

Very good job by Kittenhugs. This is a very well-balanced, flavorful, distinct, but not overpowered Monastic Tradition option. The Rising Phoenix feature in particular is elegantly well-balanced by using the existing monk feature of Unarmored Movement to both empower and limit at the same time. Cloak Of Calima at 17th is what we should I expect from a top-tier final class feature; it just shuts low-level foes down, and makes even mid-level foes think twice before engaging in combat. All in all, very well done.