Daggerheart General Thread [+]

[zakael19]

Not even sure I'm going to be able to play this game in meatspace, but I wanted that shiny LE. And I'm not exactly a theatre kid or a critter. This game is just that cool.

I snuck a copy despite having already paid for the PDF! I'm way more into this now then I ever expected.

 

[Agamon]

S

I snuck a copy despite having already paid for the PDF! I'm way more into this now then I ever expected.

Same. I avoided news about this game intentionally to start with...too many FRPGs. But I fell down a YT rabbit hole a few weeks ago, and now I'm running it for one of my groups when we're done the Marvel game we're in the middle of.

 

[FrozenNorth]

That’s not my experience. Daggerheart is much faster than 5E. Same players with a decade of 5E experience and zero Daggerheart experience. And Daggerheart was still faster.

I would say “it’s different”. Throw a single solo against a party. That combat will probably be (I) faster than a throw-away combat in 5e; and (ii) feel more impactful for the resources it expends.

It also isn’t necessary to throw a bunch of combats against the party to expend their resources before the big boss.

But more “on-level” combats will probably take as long as 5e.

So overall, the impression is that combat feels more stream-lined.

 

[overgeeked]

Hm, maybe a Mark type of thing as the class feature a la the Ranger? Spend a hope and make an attack, on success "when they deal damage to anybody but you, they must mark a stress; something else." One subclass around moving to marked targets, one around shielding allies or something?

Yeah. Something like that. I’ll check the ranger for parts to steal.

I decided to actually crack open my 4E books to see what’s what and I’m reminded yet again just how much 4E influence Daggerheart wears on its sleeve.

Class features. Swordbond. Teleport your weapon to your hand within 10 squares. Recreate a broken weapon.

Swordmage Aegis. Mark a target if they attack someone else you can either: 1) teleport to them and attack (assault), or; 2) reduce the damage caused (shielding), 3) teleport them to you and attack (ensnaring).

Swordmage Warding. In 4E you get an AC bonus, in Daggerheart that would be an evasion bonus. But the theme, the fighter without armor is already in the Valor power Bare Bones. Not sure where to draw the line on mechanical conversion vs thematic.

Subclasses are assault, shielding, and ensnaring. Assault is marking plus teleport to target. Shielding is marking and reducing damage at range. Ensnaring is marking and teleporting your target to you.

Other than the specific powers/spells, that’s basically the class. I think a lot of the flavor came from the individual spells. Quite a few centered around teleports.

 

[Nikosandros]

The Core Set is back in stock (although with limited quantities) in the EU store. I've decided to get a copy for myself

 

[Nikosandros]

The Core Set is back in stock (although with limited quantities) in the EU store. I've decided to get a copy for myself

... and it's already out of stock again!

EDIT: Apologies, that is not true.

 

[Aldarc]

For those who are interested in positive coverage:

 

[Ruin Explorer]

It also isn’t necessary to throw a bunch of combats against the party to expend their resources before the big boss.

Yes this is pretty noticeable.

But more “on-level” combats will probably take as long as 5e.

That's not been my experience, but even it's true for some (I'm assuming it was for you? If you haven't played and are speculating I think you'll be surprised) I think it's important to note that an "on-level" combat in DH, i.e. a full-budget encounter, is the direct equivalent of Deadly+ encounter in 5E. Not like, far, far Deadly+ but Deadly+.

Whereas a 5E 2014 "Normal" encounter would be like, what if you both went 1-2 Tiers down monster-wise and spent half the monster budget in DH terms. They'd need to invent new, extra-weak monsters to do it properly (T0). And a 5E 2014 "Hard" encounter would be similar except maybe you only go one Tier down with the monsters (but still spend only half the budget). Even a perfectly on-budget Deadly encounter (i.e. not Deadly+) in 5E 2014 is probably equivalent to what, going a Tier down and spending the full budget, or doing the correct tier but spending half the budget or something?

(Not using 5E 2024 as a comparison as I think it tweaks this and I forget how.)

 

[Imaro]

Yes this is pretty noticeable.

That's not been my experience, but even it's true for some (I'm assuming it was for you? If you haven't played and are speculating I think you'll be surprised) I think it's important to note that an "on-level" combat in DH, i.e. a full-budget encounter, is the direct equivalent of Deadly+ encounter in 5E. Not like, far, far Deadly+ but Deadly+.

How are you arriving at this conclusion? Not saying you're wrong but I dont remember anything in the book giving ranks to budget amounts.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

How are you arriving at this conclusion? Not saying you're wrong but I dont remember anything in the book giving ranks to budget amounts.

It doesn't, it doesn't list budget amounts at all, there's only one budget.

I'm talking about the default encounter in DH. In terms of how dangerous it potentially is, it's equivalent to Deadly+ in D&D terms, because a default encounter is quite capable of wiping of killing PCs, and you don't have to increase the budget to create a boss encounter (you just focus it on fewer participants, usually).

The mitigating factor though is Fear spend. By spending more or less Fear you can make an encounter more or less dangerous. I'm assuming for the above that you spend maybe 4-8 Fear (a little more than the book indicates but the book seems to underestimate Fear gain IME) and that the players roll pretty averagely.