Daggerheart General Thread [+]

[Ruin Explorer]

So to add, I mentioned this in another thread, but notably:

1) The combat was extremely fast. This is huge for us - we're using to games where combat kind of drags on, especially in heroic fantasy RPGs.

Even 5E, I'm afraid, is one of these. With DH we were resolving mid-size serious combats in 10 to 30 minutes. The big boss fight took maybe 40, but that was because there was a lot going on and a lot of description. This was particularly striking because this is the first time any of us have played this - so we can expect it to get faster, if anything!

2) But the combat doesn't seem to sacrifice tactical depth or the feeling like your decisions (on either the DM or PC side) matter. It actually felt like combat was more tactical and thoughtful than 3E or 5E (not quite as much as 4E, but for playing 5x to 10x faster than 4E combat, I can live with that!). Even at L1, you have significant mechanical options and this is bolstered significantly by being able to describe what you're doing without being limited by Feats and Skills and so on.

3) The spotlight system just works really well for us and we didn't miss initiative or detailed tracking of various actions in practice.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Interesting that your optimiser thought that Druids were OP but got put down to 0HP. Does that suggest that, in actual gameplay, they are not as over powered as they seem on paper? What do you think based on your play experience?

Oh I think they're pretty powerful, he just played very aggressively and didn't back off to drink a healing potion when he should have if he wanted to not die, because he was really getting into the combat! The Rogue, notably, took about as much punishment as him, but did back off, so when the enemy used their attack and sent both of them flying in a flaming explosion doing 2 HP of damage to each, the Rogue was on left on 3HP (exactly the amount he'd rolled on his healing potion just before that) and the Druid was sent to zero! But it worked out thanks to Risk It All!

As his L2 ability the Druid picked the Conjure Swarm spell and I can tell Tekaira Armored Beetles is going to get some usage next time out! Also he's looking forward to being able to turn into a Pouncing Predator rather than a mere Pack Predator!

 

[Seramus]

Absolutely phenomenal AAR! I really appreciate the time you took to write it, and explaining your decisions along the way.

 

[dbm]

The Rogue in particular burned through Stress extremely fast with their shadow-to-shadow teleport and was joking about how their HP were a "second Stress bar",

I was reminded by the live-play that once a character is at 0 stress they are Vulnerable. Did that come up?

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I was reminded by the live-play that once a character is at 0 stress they are Vulnerable. Did that come up?

No we definitely weren't aware of that rule - I'll note it for future!

The one thing I wasn't super-clear on was why some abilities cost Stress and others Hope, it didn't seem completely consistent with regards to how powerful or usable they were, and I presume that the designers have some criteria, but I haven't been able to work them out.

 

[nyvinter]

I would say that more powerful things should cost stress since that's a more limited resource than hope, but also if an ability is cool you also kinda want the player to be able to use it. But I see a lot of melee and protective abilities cost stress as well, and I assume it's because they feel those things could be offset with the vulnerability.

 

[Neonchameleon]

I would say that more powerful things should cost stress since that's a more limited resource than hope, but also if an ability is cool you also kinda want the player to be able to use it. But I see a lot of melee and protective abilities cost stress as well, and I assume it's because they feel those things could be offset with the vulnerability.

In 4e terms Hope is your encounter resource, Stress your daily. And yes martials get daily abilities; in general the fighter-type ones are round either not taking or even healing hit point damage.

The vulnerability is mostly to make burning all your stress scary - and to make stress draining abilities impactful. (Also when out of stress you can't spend it and abilities that would inflict it do hp damage instead).

 

[nyvinter]

In 4e terms Hope is your encounter resource, Stress your daily. And yes martials get daily abilities; in general the fighter-type ones are round either not taking or even healing hit point damage.
Yes, I know what they are thank you, you're not alone in having read the rules. I was talking about why something cost stress and not hope, not the difference of what the resources meant.

Abilities that cost stress all nudge you closer and closer to vulnerability, that's why there's a lot of them in blade and bone.

 

[Imaro]

In 4e terms Hope is your encounter resource, Stress your daily. And yes martials get daily abilities; in general the fighter-type ones are round either not taking or even healing hit point damage.

Eh... you can clear stress on a short rest, so I'm not sure I would declare it a daily resource. The other factor is that the number of Hope is really determined by the number of rolls your GM calls for and what you roll. Which is to say I don't think there's as clean or as direct a corollation here as you are stating.

 

[dbm]

Yes, in some ways Hope will churn faster as it can be generated by action rolls, where as Stress is only recovered by resting? Or possibly there are abilities that allow Stress to be recovered?