r/daggerheart

Failure with hope, success with fear

I really have problemes to find good outcomes which are not to bad or too good depending on the situation. I dont want to punish my players too much just because they had a success with fear, or want to give them too much because they had hope while failing
Do you have any generell suggestions

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u/Chemical_Tap6088 — 2 hours ago

A wizard gets "a small magical pet" in equipment. My DM says "It doesn't say familiar, so it can't follow commands or do things."

What is this? Why doesn't it say familiar? I think it's because daggerheart is entry level, and they don't expect "familiar" to be a word players are ~familiar~ with. There is no domain card that gives a familiar either. DM thinks it is just fluff that doesn't do anything.

Do you rule it as a familiar or as a nothing? Please don't say "it's up for interpretation" because my DM is incapable of thinking outside the box and only says "that's not what the book says."

Edit: I wanted it to go flip a switch. Dm said it didn't know how to follow commands like that.

Edit: It turns out that familiars do exist, but wizards don't get access to them. That was my mistake for making that assumption.

Edit: I apologize for my frustrated tone when talking about my dm. That stems from a larger problem that has nothing to do with wizard equipment or accepting dm rulings.

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u/Thunderdrake3 — 10 hours ago

Godwin, Firbolg Ranger

Art by me. I coloured my art and decided to post it again. This is Godwin, my friends Firbolg Ranger from our campaign. In my campaign setting Firbolgs are born of unions between Fauns and Giants, embodying both the nomadic grace of the desert and the enduring might of the deep Hollow. Neither fully accepted by Faun nor Giant societies, they serve as cultural intermediaries, peace-brokers, and wanderers—souls forever caught between two worlds. Firbolgs typically inherit some of the size and resilience of their Giant lineage with the horns, animalistic features, of the Fauns. Their skin tones range from earthen stone to sun-touched bronze, often marked by mossy hair, curling horns, or faint bioluminescent tattoos passed through Giant bloodlines. Among the Fauns, they are seen as blessed but strange, too large, too slow, too solemn. Among the Giants, they are considered fragile and fleeting, too quick to change, too small to endure. Many Firbolgs act as ambassadors, caravan guides, and traders between these often-separate peoples, carrying messages and goods through desert wastes and Hollow tunnels.

u/hesitant-bivalve — 6 hours ago
▲ 31 r/daggerheart+1 crossposts

Colossus idea

My idea for a tall skeleton colossus fight in daggerheart is to use the whiteboard as a vertical map. Each player can use one magnet for their character. I think switching from a classical fight on a horizontal map to this will be very cool :)

Of course, a fire could accidentally spread on the battlefield and force the players to climb the colossus ;)

What do you guys think?

u/Halker93 — 11 hours ago

Daggerheart Environment Tier 1+ Story Seeds - Divine Feast

Art by me! Another Daggerheart environment and story seeds for you, folks! Hope you like em!

Text Version:

Divine Feast

Tier 1 Daggerheart Environment

Tier 1 Exploration
A rich feast table set for giants.

Impulses: gluttonous consumption, polite reflection.

___
Difficulty: 11
Potential Adversaries: Giant Rat, Guards (Bladed, Archer, Head)
____

FEATURES

Made Much Larger - Passive:  PCs need to make Agility Rolls to make significant elevation changes, as there are no stairs or handholds intended for people their size; any motion requiring an Agility Roll normally performed here suffers disadvantage unless the environment is used creatively.

How do the PCs get on the table in the first place?  How sturdy is the food underfoot?

Sea of Rats - Action: Spend a Fear.  Unleash four times as many Giant Rats as there are PCs; they descend to eat everything on offer, PCs included.  This summons the Hand.

How are the Giant Rats moving around, and could the party travel via the same means?  What finally set them off?

The Hand - Reaction: A giant figure, incomprehensible in nature, is sitting eating.  Whenever a creature disturbs the food or a PC Rolls with Fear while out of hiding, the hand descends—dealing 1d10+2 damage to all within Very Close of the source of the disturbance.

Who, or what, is this giant?  Do the PCs know?  Do they want to?  Can they?

Story Seeds

Hall of the Mountain King
A giant who dwells within a tall mountain is known to hoard lavish wealth from across the lands—surely he wouldn’t notice a little going missing?  A trip looking for a treasure vault turns to a lunge to the larder as they navigate this too-large landscape, however, and finally they find themselves on a giant’s table set for a feast.

Are the PCs here to rob the giant?  Confront him?  Get something specific that they or a contact has a right to?

Cruel Shade of Size
The party has offended, wittingly or otherwise, a goddess of vindictive justice.  Passing under an awning’s shade at a crooked angle, they find themselves suddenly much shrunk.  Through happenstance, they quickly find themselves on a table set for dinner.  They need to figure out how to appease the goddess, regain their former size, and avoid getting squished or eaten by rats—all at once!

Who is this deity?  What did the party do to offend her?  What can be done to break her curse if she can’t be convinced to do so herself?  What could make amends for their transgression?

u/enrimbeauty — 9 hours ago
▲ 84 r/daggerheart+2 crossposts

Hand-drawn artwork for my Weird West cosmic horror Daggerheart campaign

I've been building a Weird West cosmic horror campaign built on Daggerheart, where the party plays ordinary people (a gunslinger, a doctor, a preacher, a shaman) rather than heroes. Against outlaws a revolver is enough but not against what sleeps under the desert :)

I wanted the art to match that tone, so I commissioned traditional illustrations from Alessandro Paderi, an Italian illustrator who works in ink and pencil. Sharing a few pieces here, because I think his take on "frontier dread" turned out beautifully.

A question for other GMs running horror in Daggerheart: how do you handle the visual side at the table? Do you show creature art the moment the party meets something, or do you hold it back and let descriptions do the work until the horror is fully revealed? I keep going back and forth on this.

All artwork by Alessandro Paderi, commissioned by me and shared with his permission. No AI was used in the creation of this artwork. The campaign is an independent production compatible with Daggerheart, created under the Darrington Press Community Gaming License. Not affiliated with Darrington Press or Critical Role.

https://preview.redd.it/ggnleokle6bh1.png?width=637&format=png&auto=webp&s=3937dbf5f03595f9565d3dec1682be5ec711de3f

https://preview.redd.it/ynmc8r4ie6bh1.png?width=638&format=png&auto=webp&s=5a19f669e1060445afcb55b62f342ee480b66839

https://preview.redd.it/n5imztvfe6bh1.png?width=637&format=png&auto=webp&s=8608db783aa93a6ff6c654d240269867f4fa77b5

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u/Expensive-Tell-3505 — 14 hours ago
▲ 13 r/daggerheart+1 crossposts

Warrior Subclass- Call of the Raider [Updated]

Call of the Raider 1.0 | Heart of Daggers

When faced with brutal conditions, warriors must band together in order to survive. Play as a Call of the Raider Warrior if you want to charge forth headlong into battle while relying on your comrades to watch your flank.

Im back for another Sunday Funday with the updated Call of the Raider subclass. Besides some wording changes, most of it remained the same. The biggest change was to the specialization feature Roar of Resistance which, with some helpful input, I kept to being a more limited feature, but improved its effectiveness and allowed it to additionally remove fear from the GM with a roll with Hope.

I have posted the subclass to Heart of Daggers for all to enjoy. Stay tuned as I drop my second new subclass shortly.

u/SnowdInn_Games — 11 hours ago
▲ 13 r/daggerheart+1 crossposts

Seraph Subclass - Fate Carver

The gods pluck at the strings of fate, and now you have been granted the power to do the same. Play as a Fate Carver Seraph if you want to bring hope to your allies knowing destiny is on their side.

For my next Sunday Funday post, I bring to you a different kind of Seraph. One that holds up the front lines by bolstering your allies' conviction with the strength of destiny. Grant a bit of luck to your allies and frustrate your foes in doing so. As always, please share any feedback you have as, just like with the Call of the Raider Warrior, I will update this subclass to post on Heart of Daggers next week. Many thanks, and you can check out the Call of the Raider updates here

Once more, art credit to me, myself, and I.

u/SnowdInn_Games — 11 hours ago

Is there anything a GM can do about the warrior's opportunity attack?

I don't want this to come off as a GM vs player type of thing! I am just wondering are there any mechanics that prevent a BBEG from getting pinned for the rest of the fight if the warrior gets near them? Just wait for the warrior the roll low? I understand it is a powerful ability and of course don't want to undermine a PC but just worried for combat design for myself

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u/smitysmote — 17 hours ago
▲ 6 r/daggerheart+1 crossposts

Encounter Feedback Needed

I am working on an encounter using a format/template created by u/laser-brain. The format fit what I was looking for and helps manage the mental load at the table.

To cut to the chase, I’ve started creating encounters inspired by the Crota’s End raid from the game Destiny 2 (a group favorite). I have friends that are bummed about the end of service, and are wondering what comes next. I’ve mentioned playing ttrpgs and that Daggerheart would be a great experience.

A link to the Google doc I’m working off of is below. Appreciate and thoughts and/or feedback. Thanks y’all!

Caladwen’s End - Entering The Abyss

u/manin_highcastle62 — 10 hours ago

Experience with Warlock Class so far?

I am really interested in Multiclassing my Wizard with Warlock at Level 5, but am unsure about the new domain. I would be interested in hearing your experiences: Has anyone here played Warlock or had a Warlock in their Party? What are your experiences with it so far? Should I wait until it gets officially released or is it already fun? Thanks in advance!!

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u/Karpfilicious — 23 hours ago

Does anyone else roll for Initiative?

I come from many years of D&D as a DM and have done around five Daggerheart sessions and we have been rolling for initiative and using the order. Does anyone else do this?

To clarify, I don't roll for villains and they go when fear is rolled. The order is just to determine who among the players is going. My players prefer this because no one feels like they are taking more time than others.

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u/Rappkea — 1 day ago

Projects | a homebrew variant for our West Marches Game

This is a proposed alternate system for Projects in my West Marches game of Daggerheart - a response to many of the fourteen players wanting to engage with the system and me offering some concrete uses for thier hard earned handfuls of gold.

As always, actionable feedback and feedforward much appreciated!

u/Much-Market-4497 — 1 day ago

Dúvida de iniciante em relação a balanceamento de HP

Estou finalizando os planejamentos da minha campanha e me peguei em um grande dilema enquanto preparava as fichas de monstro. Percebi que vários monstros que deveriam ser mais resistentes (pelo menos os de nível 1-4) tem uma quantidade de HP entre 7 e 10 e seus thresholds mais altos que os demais, mas mesmos que eu faça um gigante com threshold 15/20, 8 de HP significa que mesmo que os jogadores tirem 1 nos dados de dano, o monstro resistiria a apenas 8 ataques, o que pra mim que venho de outros sistemas parece muito pouco.

Eu entendi errado essa parte do sistema? Onde eu estou me perdendo?

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u/Musodasvariedades — 1 day ago

Naval Battles / Dogfights of ships on sea Mechanic Ideas

Hello! I'm writing a solo campaign for my wife for a little trip. Because its summer it's gonna be pirate themed. I have a bit of all the classic pirate tropes, but I'm struggling with the Naval Battles between 2 ships or even between a ship and a port/fort.

I'd like the adventure to have at least one sea battle, as I want to introduce a rival ship that would be bugging until they eventually fight. I could make them fight in land, but thematically make sense that they could fight at sea and then board each-other.

Originally I thought about the classic countdown as if it was a chasing scene, but instead of a persecution, as they're getting closer they exchange cannon shoots with each other, so the shoots and damage on the ships are flavor text as the real action is getting closer.

But maybe there are other approaches that are more interesting and that's why I want to ask you guys. If any of you have any suggestions, recommendations or direct reference to mechanics that people has already use in this way.

It's been like 9 months since I've really been doing any DM duties and I'm a bit rusty, so I appreciate any approach. Thank you for your time and tips!

TLTR: I need some ideas for naval battle mechanics. Nothing too complicated, but engaging.

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u/gerigrinerd — 1 day ago

How to use Fungril Network ability as GM?

I dont know "beginner question" is the right tag for this but I am new to daggerheart and I am planning on running a daggerheart game in my own setting. While looking at ancestries I saw fungril and its network ability and I can decide if I should allow fungril or not. How do you use this ability?

What kind of uses did you see for this ability? Normal uses I can imagine is contacting a fungril to ask base level information about a place party planing to visit or creating a spy web among fungrils. Tbh fungril spy agency would be hard but how can I deal if my players try to ask everything to other fungrils?

I dont want to ban a race because of its abilities but I know my players and I know if one of them takes fungril, they will attempt to use this ability for every piece of knowledge they will find. Because you can do things like "Hey dear fungrils, do any one of you know what is the god with 4 arms and a snake body?" and honestly I dont know how can I balance this. If I dont give them a reasonable information it wont be fair for them, if I give information it wont be fair for me because its like a shortcut to most information.

For example one of my players once had a weapon made of magical quicksilver. They once tried opening a lock with this quicksilver and I found it clever and allowed them, but for the rest of the campaign he tried to open every single lock the same way. I am not blaming them for creative use but I know they are very persistent if they find easy shortcuts.

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u/9Napier — 1 day ago
▲ 0 r/daggerheart+1 crossposts

DnD 5e vs Daggerheart

With Daggerheart: Hope & Fear on the horizon, I've been returning to the system lately. So, for any TTRPG enthusiast curious to get into Daggerheart before the expansion releases, or any D&D fans looking to refresh themselves on the system, here's a quick comparison between Daggerheart and D&D 5e! Hope it's useful! 🌟⚔️

Read the article here!

Turning Daggerheart into a Roguelike?

I've been really inspired by Dungeon Crawl Carl recently, and was wondering if it would be possible to create a similar experience using Daggerheart. I'm aware that a TTRPG based on the books is already in the works, but I want to see how this could work with a domain card system. I also want to generally see how the rules could be bent to offer a roguelike experience, and I'd appreciate some feedback:

Basically, every single character starts at "level 0" with "default stats" (6 HP, 6 Stress, 10 Evasion, Minimal Trait increases, regular equipment) as well as their community card and one level 1 domain card of their choice. Once they go through a tutorial, they'll reach "level 1" which gives bonuses to Traits up to the normal amount and an additional level 1 domain card.

All the domain cards are shuffled into face-down decks, one for each level. When a player gains a domain card beyond the first, they have to either draw two cards from the domain deck of their level or three cards from one deck of a previous level. They then choose a card and add it to their Vault. Any unchosen cards are added to the player's face-down "Personal Deck". On a future level-up, the player can choose to draw three from their Personal Deck, rather than from another domain deck.

Domain cards can also be awarded for performing certain in-game tasks, gaining "achievements", and/or beating certain bosses. There may also be mechanics that reference the size of your Personal Deck or that may mess with the domain decks. Other ideas I have are giving players "rerolls" as rewards, which will allow them to reshuffle cards they drew into the domain deck and draw new ones, and "Future Sight", which will allow players to look at the top two cards of a domain deck.

Once characters reach level 2, they gain an ancestry, class (thus modifying their Health/Stess/Evasion), and their Foundation ability as well as any other bonuses they would normally gain upon leveling up. Players can use the abilities of domain cards they have, regardless of their class's domains. From now on, their leveling is the same as normal, except they draw from domain decks rather than choosing domain cards.

The floors right after Tier increases (2, 5, and 8) would be like Storyline Floors, and may also grant more abilities. One idea is that after Tier 3 (level 5) and before a player draws from a domain deck, they may swap one domain card in their Personal Deck with one in a willing player's. If a player does this, they instead draw 2 cards from their Personal Deck, with the traded card as the third option. (Not sure how I would get a "trading domain cards" mechanic to work. Would love suggestions!)

All other rules stay the same. Though I may add/take away rules campaign-depending.

This is still in the planning stages, but I would love some feedback and helpful questions to help keep this interesting and fun but also not too cumbersome!

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u/Sir_Wack — 1 day ago