Starting Daggerheart campaign. Any pitfalls?

[Vael]

Coming back to this. What about the druid is said to be overpowered (regardless of whether you agree)? Just being able to turn into animals (with a host of abilities), class abilities, or the specific Domain pairing?

As for too-broad experiences, what did you think might have been pushing it. I'm looking at some of the book suggestions (like 'survivor') and wondering if they might cover a whole lot more ground than some rather specialized ones (like 'sniper'). Likewise, I'm thinking of a rogue who does the whole "D&D 'thief'" role and trying to find an experience that covers the bases there without being too 'I want a bonus for everything I do'-ish.

Derrick from Knights of the Last Call has been banging this particular drum and it's been a common enough discussion on the Daggerheart subreddit. The general rationale is that Druid's Beastforms can get higher stats than other PCs that focused on those stats, several Beastforms give permanent advantage on all attacks, making them very accurate. The Evasion bonus is also solid, I know there are Evasion builds that multi-class. As I said though ... Druids are strong, but I wouldn't call them overpowered.

The Wizard has the experience "Trained at the Citadel", and it's my own fault, suggested it because I thought it sounded cool. We haven't really identified "the Citadel" and such. To be honest, it's more that the Wizard and Seraph are the ones that really use their experiences (The Seraph has "This is no place for a Lady"), because the Druid PC banks their Hope for the Warden of Renewal ability and the 3 Hope to Beastform ability, the Ranger also tends to bank Hope and Warrior just keeps rolling with Fear, lol.

 

[Willie the Duck]

Derrick from Knights of the Last Call has been banging this particular drum and it's been a common enough discussion on the Daggerheart subreddit. The general rationale is that Druid's Beastforms can get higher stats than other PCs that focused on those stats, several Beastforms give permanent advantage on all attacks, making them very accurate. The Evasion bonus is also solid, I know there are Evasion builds that multi-class. As I said though ... Druids are strong, but I wouldn't call them overpowered.

Interesting. Kinda the whole 3e 'your class feature is my entire character' complaint. I don't think we'll have a particularly min-maxed combat scenario, and the person most likely to play a druid is one who probably won't enter combat unless prompted, so I don't think we'll be able to offer strong evidence either way.

The Wizard has the experience "Trained at the Citadel", and it's my own fault, suggested it because I thought it sounded cool. We haven't really identified "the Citadel" and such. To be honest, it's more that the Wizard and Seraph are the ones that really use their experiences (The Seraph has "This is no place for a Lady"), because the Druid PC banks their Hope for the Warden of Renewal ability and the 3 Hope to Beastform ability, the Ranger also tends to bank Hope and Warrior just keeps rolling with Fear, lol.

Ah, I see how that could be trouble. Anything the GM can't decide when it doesn't apply. I was thinking "I prefer the term 'dungeon adventurer'" for the thief, and that is equally likely to be either overpowered or completely useless, depending on GM. Perhaps something more solid like 'raised in trap-filled environment' would be better.

 

[Vael]

Ah, I see how that could be trouble. Anything the GM can't decide when it doesn't apply. I was thinking "I prefer the term 'dungeon adventurer'" for the thief, and that is equally likely to be either overpowered or completely useless, depending on GM. Perhaps something more solid like 'raised in trap-filled environment' would be better.

Now, to be clear, I err on the side of allowing an experience to be used because the player has to spend the Hope (or Stress in the case of the Knowledge Wizard, which is why it's such a potent ability), so a "too broad" experience still has to be paid for. So I'm not sure if it's an actual problem or not.

PS ... "Thief? I prefer Dungeon Adventurer" is a cool Experience I'd allow or consider for a player.

 

[aramis erak]

One thing one of my players complained about: There are 2.5 tiers of difficulty:
Tier 2: Druid
Tier 1.5: every class with a spendable feature. (Rogues, Seraphs)
Tier 1: everything else in core.

And 1.5 is a very minor difference in complexity form tier 1.

Be very interesting to see the first in-house splatbook.

 

[overgeeked]

Now, to be clear, I err on the side of allowing an experience to be used because the player has to spend the Hope (or Stress in the case of the Knowledge Wizard, which is why it's such a potent ability), so a "too broad" experience still has to be paid for. So I'm not sure if it's an actual problem or not.

PS ... "Thief? I prefer Dungeon Adventurer" is a cool Experience I'd allow or consider for a player.

Exactly. It's like Fate aspects, there might be a better and worse way to phrase them, but they still have to apply and the player still has to spend hope to use it. I can see how it might be a problem for some, but I think it's essentially self-correcting.

 

[Neonchameleon]

I've seen arguments that the Druid is overpowered, but no complaints about other Core classes being weak. All my players followed the class guidelines for stats and it's been fine. The School of Knowledge Wizard has really impressed me. Spending Stress to activate Experiences has proven to be very potent. I might have allowed the player a too broad an Experience, but that's fine.

School of Knowledge feels like it comes out of the starting blocks fast but is at best mid by level 4:

• At Level 1 an extra domain card is amazing; you only have 2
• At level 4+ you have at least five domain cards; an extra level 1one in your Vault is nice but not amazing
• At level 1 you have few ways to spend stress; a useful one is an entire extra resource you can tap
• At level 4+ there should be other abilities competing for your stress (including fishing domain cards out of your vault). It's not such an untapped resource.

 

[Neonchameleon]

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.

The current incarnation of the Juggernaut Brawler in The Void comes as close as I've seen to one to the point that the warrior massively outshines it unless you're at T4 with max proficiency

 

[Seramus]

The Wizard has the experience "Trained at the Citadel", and it's my own fault, suggested it because I thought it sounded cool. We haven't really identified "the Citadel" and such.

I had a Wizard player pick something similar. We talked about it, and ended up with "This can apply whenever you are not in a rush and have time to set your spells up, make ritual circles, etc." So it was applicable most of the time, but not in combat or when they were otherwise in a hurry. Basically they had years of experience doing it the "Academy Approved Way."

 

[aramis erak]

Beast Feast: multiple issues in S0 for this one.

there are implications of sapient eating, and grotesque foods.
This turned to being an Ick factor - so we're dropping the feast mechanic, and instead using a food countdown.

The names in Beast Feast are just too damned weird; they're as out there as Wendy's Feast of Legends has.

 

[John R Davis]

The druid in our party turns into a spider a lot. It seems pretty powerful this far ( we are now level 3)