Faolyn
(she/her)
In my group, I tend to read a lot of RPGs and then write up reviews for them for my friends to read. This is primarily to help me actually read the book (ADHD is an expletive-deleted, lemme tell ya). Many of my friends had heard good things about Daggerheart, but after reading my review their opinions have ranged from "that sounds like a really good game" to "I HAVE SO MANY IDEAS!!!" And there's been a couple of "so, uh, how hard would it be for you to convert your Level Up game to Daggerheart."
Which is why I'm here now. One of the players is playing a Wielder, a class created for LU by Andrew Engelbrite. The basic idea is that you're bonded to an artifact weapon or suit of armor and draw your powers from it. It doesn't really match to any of DH's classes (the Seraph/Divine Wielder is probably the closest). The problem is the player is really, really invested in the class's idea and I'm not sure they'd be happy at reskinning a Seraph.
So, just in case this conversion actually happens, I wrote up both a Wielder class and most of the associated Relic domain. I'm trying to make the domain kind of generic, just in case I come up with another class that can use it or someone wants to switch it out. But I thought I'd get some opinions before I spent too much more time on it.
Does anyone have any thoughts? Ways to improve it or make it more balanced? (For whatever degree of balanced is actually needed for this game.)
Wielder
Domains
Blade and Relic
Starting Evasion
9
Starting Hit Points
6
Class Items
TBD
Wielder Hope Feature
Enchanted Enhancement: If your bonded artifact is a weapon, Spend 3 Hope to reroll a your damage dice. If your bonded artifact is armor, Spend 3 Hope to force an attacker who just hit you to reroll their damage dice.
Class Features
Bonded Artifact
Choose either a physical or magical weapon or suit of armor of your tier or lower to be your bonded artifact. Once you have chosen your bonded artifact, you can’t choose another. While this Artifact is equipped, you gain the following benefits:
• If the item is a weapon, you ignore that weapon’s burden and can choose to inflict either physical or magical damage on a successful attack. Additionally, you gain a bonus to your damage roll equal to your Proficiency.
• If the item is armor, you ignore any penalties to your Evasion score it would cause and its Base Score increases by 1. Additionally you can mark an additional Armor Slot to reduce the severity of either the physical or magical damage you take.
The bonded artifact automatically increases in Tier when you do, becoming Improved at Tier 2, Advanced at Tier 3, and Legendary at Tier 4.
Your bonded artifact is all but indestructible, as only the most powerful of forces can truly damage it. If your artifact is broken or lost, your mystical connection to it will tell you the direction it’s in, and you can repair it as normal during downtime.
Wielder Subclasses
Torchbearer
Play the Torchbearer if you want to uphold the ideals of a long line of heroes—or villains—who have wielded your artifact before you.
Spellcast Trait
Presence
Foundation Feature
Torchbearer Form: Mark 2 Stress to Transform yourself into your Torchbearer Form; this may resemble a more powerful version of you, your outfit may change, you may become wreathed in a magical aura, or you may seemingly turn into a completely being. This lasts until you take Severe damage or until your next rest. During this time, you gain either a +1 bonus to attack rolls (if your bonded artifact is a weapon) or your Severe threshold increases by 1 (if your bonded artifact is armor). You also gain a +1 bonus to Presence checks.
Specialization Feature
Wisdom Passed Down: You gain a new Experience, based on the life of someone who wielded the artifact before you. You can use a Downtime move to bond with a different previous wielder and switch out this Experience with one from that individual instead. When in your Torchbearer form, if you utilize this Experience, the bonus it gives you is increased by 1.
Mastery Feature
Truest Form: You invoke the pure power of your artifact and spend 3 Hope, causing you to grow to twice your size and glow with magical light. This lasts until you take Severe damage or until the end of the scene. When you inflict damage, you can spend a Hope to make it direct damage. Additionally, all adversaries are temporarily Mesmerized by you and your allies are emboldened by your appearance. Allies who can see you can clear a Stress and gain a hope, while adversaries have disadvantage on rolls made to notice or react to creatures other than you.
Empowered: When in Torchearer form, if casting a spell would require you to spend two or more Hope or mark two or more Stress, reduce the amount you must spend or mark by 1.
Entrusted
Play the Entrusted if you want to be joined to a living, sentient artifact.
Spellcast Trait
Instinct
Foundation Feature
Living Artifact: Your artifact is intelligent and alive in some way. It has a personality, can sense its surroundings, and can communicate with you, and possibly with others as well. It has Instinct, Presence, and Knowledge scores; the GM will assign a +2, +1, and a +0 to them, and can mark up to 4 Stress. It also has two Experiences at +2 and and one or more motives, determined by the GM. If you roll a critical success, the artifact gains 1 Hope, to a maximum of 3 Hope; it can only use this Hope to utilize an Experience or to activate your Hope Feature. When it utilizes one of its Experiences, you gain the bonus to your roll.
You can Spend 1 Hope to have your artifact Help an Ally—either you or another ally. If your artifact helps an ally other than you, you can also help that ally.
Specialization Feature
Self-Powered: Your artifact can move on its own, although it must stay within Far range of you. If your artifact is armor, it removes itself from your body. Place a number of tokens on your sheet equal to your Spellcast trait on your sheet. Your artifact can attack or cast spells as if it were you. If it would take damage, remove one token from your sheet and mark 1 Stress for both you and the artifact. When all the tokens have been removed, or either you or the artifact have marked all Stress slots, the artifact vanishes and reappears on your person. The artifact can’t move again until you have completed a long rest.
Mastery Feature
Working In Tandem: When your bonded artifact is equipped and you take damage, the artifact can spend 1 Hope to reduce the severity of the damage by two levels. When you are using the Self-Powered feature, you can mark 1 Hope instead of removing a token and marking Stress.
Relic Domain
Relic is the domain of mystically-created or imbued objects. Those who follow this domain either have a deep connection to a particular object, or the ability to make objects that surpasses most smiths and artisans. These objects are also called relics and are of great value for their bearers. It is through these relics that the magic flows.
Glamour
Level 1 Relic Spell
Recall Cost: 0
Your relic is covered in an illusion that makes it appear as a mundane object until you use the relic in an action or you purposefully end it, at which point your relic will appear as it normally does. The illusion can be recast for free on your next rest.
Sparks of Power
Level 1 Relic Ability
Recall Cost: 1
Your relic burns with elemental power. On a successful attack, or when you would take damage from a melee physical attack, you can mark 1 Stress to cause the attacker or your target to mark 1 Stress and be temporarily On Fire, Frozen, or Electrified, your choice.
Immovable
Level 1 Relic Spell
Recall Cost: 0
Make a Spellcast Roll. A creature that attempts to move your relic without your permission must make a Strength Reaction Roll with a Difficulty equal to the result of your Spellcast Roll in order to do so. However, each time the creature takes an action while holding your relic, they must make a new Reaction Roll. If they fail, the relic becomes immovable again.
If the relic is within Far range of you, you can mark 3 Stress to call it to your hand.
Protective Aura
Level 2 Relic Spell
Recall Cost: 1
Make a Spellcast Roll (13) and mark a stress to grant an ally within Close range +1 Evasion to one attack that is targeting them.
Obvious Prestige
Level 2 Relic Ability
Recall Cost: 0
When your relic is in clear view, mark a Stress to gain advantage on a Presence check.
Sidereal
Level 4 Relic Spell
Recall Cost: 2
Make a Spellcast Roll (12). On a success, use your relic to momentarily open a portal to another point you can see within Far range. Spend a Hope to teleport to that point. Another creature can attempt to pass through the portal with you by making a Resistance Roll and marking 2 Stress.
Take Strength
Level 5 Relic Ability
Recall Cost: 2
When you critically succeed on an attack, spend up to 2 Hope to clear up to 2 Hit Points or Stress, or 1 of each.
Surrounded by Show Offs
Level 6 Relic Spell
Recall Cost: 2
Make a Spellcast Roll (15). On a success, place a number of tokens equal to your Spellcast trait on this card, and illusory duplicates of you, prominently wielding or displaying your relic appear close by. When you are targeted and take damage, mark 1 or 2 Stress to remove a token, reduce the damage you take by one or two thresholds, and remove one of your duplicates.
Relic-Touched
Level 7 Relic Ability
Recall Cost: 2
When 4 or more of the domain cards in your loadout are from the Relic domain, gain the following benefits:
• +1 bonus to your Spellcast rolls.
• Once per long rest, if casting a spell would cause you to mark the last of your Stress or spend the last of your Hope, you can roll a d6. On a 1-3, you don’t mark or spend that final point.
True Form
Level 8 Relic Spell
Recall Cost: 2
Make a Spellcast Roll (15) and spend 3 Hope. On a success, you grow to enormous size. Your Evasion is reduced by -1, but your damage thresholds both increase by 3, and your physical attacks inflict an additional 2d12 damage.
Power Unleashed
Level 10 Relic Ability
Recall Cost: 1
Make a Spellcast Roll (18). On a success, once per long rest, you can deal direct damage to a target.
Which is why I'm here now. One of the players is playing a Wielder, a class created for LU by Andrew Engelbrite. The basic idea is that you're bonded to an artifact weapon or suit of armor and draw your powers from it. It doesn't really match to any of DH's classes (the Seraph/Divine Wielder is probably the closest). The problem is the player is really, really invested in the class's idea and I'm not sure they'd be happy at reskinning a Seraph.
So, just in case this conversion actually happens, I wrote up both a Wielder class and most of the associated Relic domain. I'm trying to make the domain kind of generic, just in case I come up with another class that can use it or someone wants to switch it out. But I thought I'd get some opinions before I spent too much more time on it.
Does anyone have any thoughts? Ways to improve it or make it more balanced? (For whatever degree of balanced is actually needed for this game.)
Wielder
Domains
Blade and Relic
Starting Evasion
9
Starting Hit Points
6
Class Items
TBD
Wielder Hope Feature
Enchanted Enhancement: If your bonded artifact is a weapon, Spend 3 Hope to reroll a your damage dice. If your bonded artifact is armor, Spend 3 Hope to force an attacker who just hit you to reroll their damage dice.
Class Features
Bonded Artifact
Choose either a physical or magical weapon or suit of armor of your tier or lower to be your bonded artifact. Once you have chosen your bonded artifact, you can’t choose another. While this Artifact is equipped, you gain the following benefits:
• If the item is a weapon, you ignore that weapon’s burden and can choose to inflict either physical or magical damage on a successful attack. Additionally, you gain a bonus to your damage roll equal to your Proficiency.
• If the item is armor, you ignore any penalties to your Evasion score it would cause and its Base Score increases by 1. Additionally you can mark an additional Armor Slot to reduce the severity of either the physical or magical damage you take.
The bonded artifact automatically increases in Tier when you do, becoming Improved at Tier 2, Advanced at Tier 3, and Legendary at Tier 4.
Your bonded artifact is all but indestructible, as only the most powerful of forces can truly damage it. If your artifact is broken or lost, your mystical connection to it will tell you the direction it’s in, and you can repair it as normal during downtime.
Wielder Subclasses
Torchbearer
Play the Torchbearer if you want to uphold the ideals of a long line of heroes—or villains—who have wielded your artifact before you.
Spellcast Trait
Presence
Foundation Feature
Torchbearer Form: Mark 2 Stress to Transform yourself into your Torchbearer Form; this may resemble a more powerful version of you, your outfit may change, you may become wreathed in a magical aura, or you may seemingly turn into a completely being. This lasts until you take Severe damage or until your next rest. During this time, you gain either a +1 bonus to attack rolls (if your bonded artifact is a weapon) or your Severe threshold increases by 1 (if your bonded artifact is armor). You also gain a +1 bonus to Presence checks.
Specialization Feature
Wisdom Passed Down: You gain a new Experience, based on the life of someone who wielded the artifact before you. You can use a Downtime move to bond with a different previous wielder and switch out this Experience with one from that individual instead. When in your Torchbearer form, if you utilize this Experience, the bonus it gives you is increased by 1.
Mastery Feature
Truest Form: You invoke the pure power of your artifact and spend 3 Hope, causing you to grow to twice your size and glow with magical light. This lasts until you take Severe damage or until the end of the scene. When you inflict damage, you can spend a Hope to make it direct damage. Additionally, all adversaries are temporarily Mesmerized by you and your allies are emboldened by your appearance. Allies who can see you can clear a Stress and gain a hope, while adversaries have disadvantage on rolls made to notice or react to creatures other than you.
Empowered: When in Torchearer form, if casting a spell would require you to spend two or more Hope or mark two or more Stress, reduce the amount you must spend or mark by 1.
Entrusted
Play the Entrusted if you want to be joined to a living, sentient artifact.
Spellcast Trait
Instinct
Foundation Feature
Living Artifact: Your artifact is intelligent and alive in some way. It has a personality, can sense its surroundings, and can communicate with you, and possibly with others as well. It has Instinct, Presence, and Knowledge scores; the GM will assign a +2, +1, and a +0 to them, and can mark up to 4 Stress. It also has two Experiences at +2 and and one or more motives, determined by the GM. If you roll a critical success, the artifact gains 1 Hope, to a maximum of 3 Hope; it can only use this Hope to utilize an Experience or to activate your Hope Feature. When it utilizes one of its Experiences, you gain the bonus to your roll.
You can Spend 1 Hope to have your artifact Help an Ally—either you or another ally. If your artifact helps an ally other than you, you can also help that ally.
Specialization Feature
Self-Powered: Your artifact can move on its own, although it must stay within Far range of you. If your artifact is armor, it removes itself from your body. Place a number of tokens on your sheet equal to your Spellcast trait on your sheet. Your artifact can attack or cast spells as if it were you. If it would take damage, remove one token from your sheet and mark 1 Stress for both you and the artifact. When all the tokens have been removed, or either you or the artifact have marked all Stress slots, the artifact vanishes and reappears on your person. The artifact can’t move again until you have completed a long rest.
Mastery Feature
Working In Tandem: When your bonded artifact is equipped and you take damage, the artifact can spend 1 Hope to reduce the severity of the damage by two levels. When you are using the Self-Powered feature, you can mark 1 Hope instead of removing a token and marking Stress.
Relic Domain
Relic is the domain of mystically-created or imbued objects. Those who follow this domain either have a deep connection to a particular object, or the ability to make objects that surpasses most smiths and artisans. These objects are also called relics and are of great value for their bearers. It is through these relics that the magic flows.
Glamour
Level 1 Relic Spell
Recall Cost: 0
Your relic is covered in an illusion that makes it appear as a mundane object until you use the relic in an action or you purposefully end it, at which point your relic will appear as it normally does. The illusion can be recast for free on your next rest.
Sparks of Power
Level 1 Relic Ability
Recall Cost: 1
Your relic burns with elemental power. On a successful attack, or when you would take damage from a melee physical attack, you can mark 1 Stress to cause the attacker or your target to mark 1 Stress and be temporarily On Fire, Frozen, or Electrified, your choice.
Immovable
Level 1 Relic Spell
Recall Cost: 0
Make a Spellcast Roll. A creature that attempts to move your relic without your permission must make a Strength Reaction Roll with a Difficulty equal to the result of your Spellcast Roll in order to do so. However, each time the creature takes an action while holding your relic, they must make a new Reaction Roll. If they fail, the relic becomes immovable again.
If the relic is within Far range of you, you can mark 3 Stress to call it to your hand.
Protective Aura
Level 2 Relic Spell
Recall Cost: 1
Make a Spellcast Roll (13) and mark a stress to grant an ally within Close range +1 Evasion to one attack that is targeting them.
Obvious Prestige
Level 2 Relic Ability
Recall Cost: 0
When your relic is in clear view, mark a Stress to gain advantage on a Presence check.
Sidereal
Level 4 Relic Spell
Recall Cost: 2
Make a Spellcast Roll (12). On a success, use your relic to momentarily open a portal to another point you can see within Far range. Spend a Hope to teleport to that point. Another creature can attempt to pass through the portal with you by making a Resistance Roll and marking 2 Stress.
Take Strength
Level 5 Relic Ability
Recall Cost: 2
When you critically succeed on an attack, spend up to 2 Hope to clear up to 2 Hit Points or Stress, or 1 of each.
Surrounded by Show Offs
Level 6 Relic Spell
Recall Cost: 2
Make a Spellcast Roll (15). On a success, place a number of tokens equal to your Spellcast trait on this card, and illusory duplicates of you, prominently wielding or displaying your relic appear close by. When you are targeted and take damage, mark 1 or 2 Stress to remove a token, reduce the damage you take by one or two thresholds, and remove one of your duplicates.
Relic-Touched
Level 7 Relic Ability
Recall Cost: 2
When 4 or more of the domain cards in your loadout are from the Relic domain, gain the following benefits:
• +1 bonus to your Spellcast rolls.
• Once per long rest, if casting a spell would cause you to mark the last of your Stress or spend the last of your Hope, you can roll a d6. On a 1-3, you don’t mark or spend that final point.
True Form
Level 8 Relic Spell
Recall Cost: 2
Make a Spellcast Roll (15) and spend 3 Hope. On a success, you grow to enormous size. Your Evasion is reduced by -1, but your damage thresholds both increase by 3, and your physical attacks inflict an additional 2d12 damage.
Power Unleashed
Level 10 Relic Ability
Recall Cost: 1
Make a Spellcast Roll (18). On a success, once per long rest, you can deal direct damage to a target.
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