NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jacob Lewis" data-source="post: 9708394" data-attributes="member: 6667921">Let's look at the tip you're referring. I'll reprint it directly from the Core Rulebook, so we're all on the same page (20):That tip doesn’t contradict the game’s ethos—it reflects it. It’s framed specifically for players unsure how to begin in a battle-focused campaign, and it still encourages balance (“combat and… something useful outside of combat”). The point is to align choices with the style of the campaign, not to steer every player toward optimization. That’s a flexible design principle, not a contradiction.Daggerheart doesn’t pretend that combat doesn’t exist—it just doesn’t prioritize it above character growth, group storytelling, or narrative freedom. The rulebook consistently reinforces that your table decides what matters most, and the mechanics are there to support—not dictate—that focus.The quoted passage on page 20 doesn’t prescribe an optimization strategy. It doesn’t say “this is how Experiences should be used.” It says: if you're unsure, consider the campaign tone, and it’s never a bad idea to include something that supports combat. That’s practical scaffolding for players who don’t yet have a strong narrative hook for their character—and even then, it advises balancing combat usefulness with something else. And in this case, it specifically references a battle-focused campaign as the context for that advice. Not because every campaign is battle-focused, or every character should be built this way. It’s the safe bet. It’s decent general advice for someone who’s still figuring things out. It’s not a cheat code or the secret to “playing it right.”That’s especially clear with Experiences. These aren’t feats or skill trees—there’s no list to min-max from. They’re intentionally open-ended, giving players the space to define their character’s growth in their own terms. And because they cost Hope to use, they’re not passive bonuses. They don’t shape how players build their characters—they mark moments where the story itself is asserting weight. That makes them less about consistent advantage, and more about narrative punctuation.</blockquote>

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