Daggerheart To Release Official Hope & Fear Expansion

Darrington Press has announced the first expansion for Daggerheart, which adds four new subclasses, a new domain, and several other new character-building options. At the onset of PAX Unplugged, Darrington Press announced Daggerheart: Hope & Fear, the first expansion for the Daggerheart TTRPG. The new expansion, which will launch in Summer 2026, contains 4 new classes - the Witch, Warlock, Brawler, and Assassin, each of which comes with two subclasses. Also included is the brand new Dread Domain, which is tied to Witch and Warlock classes. There will also be over 130 adversaries and 28 new environments in the books, along with four new Campaign Frame.

A Standard Edition and a Deluxe Edition will be released for Daggerheart: Hope & Fear. Both versions come with the book and associated cards, with the deluxe edition featuring a gold foil box, dice, alternate art covers, and a rip pad with various sheets for the game. The Standard Edition (which runs about 200 pages) will retail for just $39.99, while the Deluxe Edition runs for $119.99.

A full description of the new expansion is below:

Daggerheart: Hope & Fear comes with a book (around 200 pages) and a box containing cards and a rip pad of blank adversary sheets!

Inside the book, you’ll find:

• New character options, including 4 new classes: the Witch, Warlock, Brawler, and Assassin, each with 2 unique subclasses!
• 130+ new adversaries and 28 environments, plus a rip pad of blank adversary sheets to help you easily create your own
• 100+ weapons, armor, item, and consumable options
• 4 new Campaign Frames introducing new worlds and settings for you to explore

The cards include:

• A completely new Dread Domain, unlocking ghastly, macabre magic core to the new Witch and Warlock classes.
• Subclass Cards for all 8 new subclasses
• 6 Transformation Cards: A completely new mechanic, transformations represent changes or augmentations to characters in Daggerheart. During a campaign or at character creation, transform into a Vampire, Werewolf, Reanimated, Shapeshifter, Ghost, or Demigod!
• 6 new Community Cards: Duneborne, Hearthborne, Frostborne, Warborne, Freeborne, and Reborne
• 6 new Ancestry Cards: Skykin, Tidekin, Earthkin, Emberkin, Gnome, and Aetheris

 

[SteveC]

the Dread Domain is bad and needs more sensitivity. I'm confused. Are we talking like Ravenloft Dread Domain? A Domain of actual Dread. Where is does indeed suck all of the time?

That's odd. I'm not sure what the issue would be with the dread domain. Did I miss something and the word "dread" has new connotations? I'm not trying to start anything but I admit to not being in the know about that. I'm just doing an adventure in Barovia, and the DM is all over talking about it being one of the "domains of dread," so I'm genuinely curious.

 

[zakael19]

I'm assuming @Aldarc 's thrust was about associating the Witch class which is highly gendered in folklore and culture with the first Domain they've added that is basically negative / cruel.

The Witch class itself + the subclasses are lovely.

 

[darjr]

lol they watched the trailer together.

 

[Wolfram stout]

I am a lesson learned kind of guy. I mean waiting a month longer than I wanted for the core book was not as big as a deal as I made it out to be, but no waiting this time.

It's funny the standard book at $39.99 seems almost too low (not complaining, but I was expecting $50ish usd) and the deluxe is too deluxe for me (I don't care about the extra bits and bobs).

But yeah, instant pre-order. Now to try to forget about it till late next spring.

 

[Parmandur]

Good price for a book and the cards. Not my Jam, but at prices that low I might have to invest in the system.

The whole cards thing irritates me, but this game is moving onto my Borthday/Christmas wishlist at this point. Too unsure if I want it myself to invest dkrectly, but good fodder for a gift suggestion for an interesting surprise.

 

[Reynard]

Yeah. I will definitely preorder. The bigger question for me is will I buy the Fantasy Grounds version. That's the VTT I use, and I love Smiteworks (impeccable customer service) and DH, but i also run DH TotM and kind of don't need a VTT for it.

In the end I will probably buy it to support Smiteworks but might not actually use it.

 

[Simon The Hunter]

Yeah, I pre-ordered when I got the email about it.

 

[MostlyHarmless42]

I'm assuming @Aldarc 's thrust was about associating the Witch class which is highly gendered in folklore and culture with the first Domain they've added that is basically negative / cruel.

The Witch class itself + the subclasses are lovely.

You mean as opposed to the Warlock, which is also a gendered term for male spellcasters that also has the same dread domain that is negative cruel.

The problem isn't the domain name. The issue is calling the class a "Witch", though of course the irony being that if they hadn't made a Witch there would already be 100+ homebrews out there with the same class name already.

The other issue is that it is hard to truly encapsulate an archetype like a witch with only a handful of words and without offending someone or leaving out entire swaths of what make up the fantasy of the class. Like I'm pretty sure almost everyone would agree that a witch should have sage, but if you ask 10 different people what second domain it should have you'd probably get 12 different answers.