Starting Daggerheart campaign. Any pitfalls?

[Vael]

Cosign on the importance of Stress. I actually think stamina potions are actually more important than healing potions. Oh, and be sure to use consumables proactively, this isn't 5e where it's often valid to wait until a PC falls before using a potion.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Don't be afraid to spend actions on trying to inflict conditions (knocking the enemy over, etc).

I would slightly counterweight this by saying don't get obsessed with it. The Katari in our group kept trying to use Retracting Claws to inflict "free" Vulnerable before attacking and then rolling with Success with Fear so I immediately got the spotlight, and it's like well, obviously the enemy will then use that spotlight to ditch the Vulnerable so we just together achieved exactly nothing except me gaining a Fear!

Cosign on the importance of Stress. I actually think stamina potions are actually more important than healing potions. Oh, and be sure to use consumables proactively, this isn't 5e where it's often valid to wait until a PC falls before using a potion.

Agree on both points. It's important to explain Death moves trigger when you fill all the HP boxes, there's no delay or anything like with D&D.

Stress is valuable, don't burn it all at once. Or do! I'm not your mother!

100% yup.

 

[Agamon]

No, I'm not among the people I'm worried might lose interest if their first experience with the game is extra frustrating. However, yes, I certainly would rather have an enjoyable experience than a non-enjoyable one. I will be sharing advice from this thread with the rest of my group.

My point was simply that I am not in charge, so that advice about allowing re-specs isn't especially pertinent. I of course can advocate for this option, and I think the GM (a longtime co-GM whom I've gamed with for decades) would be amenable to it. However, even there, some momentum could be lost if the initial character idea was a bust.

I'm not seeing anything that looks obvious from reading the rules, either, but as you say sometimes it needs play before they really stand out.

It might be worth talking about this in the session zero, or perhaps even before that. Just bring up your concerns and how the GM intends to potentially deal with these problems.

 

[overgeeked]

The druid does look to be overpowered but not dramatically so. The codex domain is a bit out there, too, as you get three powers per card instead of one, but the classes that get it have less starting HP. I haven't seen any trap choices yet, but I'm the referee not a player.

From what I've seen at the table you don't want to focus on only spending hope or stress. You'll want powers that do both so you don't run out. Stress is more valuable than hope. Stress is generally fixed and you mostly get it back through rests, which also give the referee fear. But you get hope from something like 54% of your rolls. So if you're going to be unbalanced on resource needs, lean more on hope than stress. But hope is dice dependent, so...shrug.

As a referee to a player, please don't convince yourself to not roll the dice. I've already seen way too much of that. Yes, if you fail or roll with fear the referee gets to move and/or gains a resource. It's not the end of the world, it's all part of the game. Don't optimize yourself out of playing the game.

Also, please make an adventurer, not a coward. I've already seen way too much of that, too. The player principles are great. The first one is "embrace danger." It's first for a reason. PCs in Daggerheart are quite robust. They're tougher than equivalent 5E PCs and there's also the fact that your PC cannot die unless you decide they do. The game's default genre is superhero fantasy. Embrace danger. Your PC will be fine.

 

[FrozenNorth]

From the DM side, it’s really important to learn to pace your Fear usage.Don’t think that just because you are using enemies that generate Fear that you need to use all the Fear this fight.

 

[SteveC]

As a player, just make sure to keep everyone included in the game. In combat, vocal and dramatic players can seize more control than in traditional games because of Initiative, so watch for that and say "hey, <quiet player> what are you doing?" if the GM or other players don't.