D&D General Take A Look At The Class Boards From The New D&D Starter Set

Check out the cleric's 'dashboard'.
Heroes of the Borderlands, which is Dungeons & Dragons' upcoming new starter set, is one of the largest starter sets the game has ever produced--not least in part to the card-based character creation pops. One essential part of that card-based process is the class board--as D&D Beyond puts it, "a dashboard that clearly lays out everything you need to play, from your Armor Class to your spells and features, with card slots and token trackers that keep the game moving fast".

class-board.jpg

There's a board for each class in the boxed set (the example above is the cleric). In the bottom left you can see a 'What You Need To Play' section which lists the additional cards you need to play a cleric--in this case, two equipment cards, 7 spell cards, and a bunch of gold pieces.

The card itself includes your basic stats--ability scores, saving throws, skills, hit points, speed, and so on. There are also clearly marked spots where you can place cards for your armor, your spells, and other things. There's also a space over on the far right for species and origin cards.

Once you reach level 2, you flip the card cover. That automatically increases your hit points and other features.

cleric-level-2.jpg

Finally, at level 3, you choose your subclass and you swap your class board for a more specialised one. The included cleric includes boards for the Life and Light domains. The new board not only updates your stats (like when you leveleled up to level 2) it also adds in the subclass features.

cleric-board-3.jpg

Heroes of the Borderlands comes out September 16th for $49.99.
 

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It's a neat concept, and one I see becoming deluxe neoprene mats down the line. I've always been curious if experienced players and GMs would use something like this? Is there a market for RPG mats for games in general? Take something like Daggerheart for example. You'd think that Darrington Press would have created a slew of player mats for each class, especially with the card mechanic. But what about games like 2d20, GURPS, or PtA? For that matter, would cards be helpful in those other games as well? I could see a DrivethruGameMats becoming a thing for POD mats.
 



I like the concept for new players and it looks like the ability score is out and just the +/- is on it. That takes some getting used to for me and it ties back to being a kid when I started and saying I had a 15 instead of a 14 “seeemed” like a big deal to brag about even if the bonus was the same :)

Edit as it came to me after the fact….the roll under the ability score in earlier editions was also a factor in having it listed back then.
 
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I like it a lot and hope they expand the line. Or create a printer friendly version so I can make a cleric who has a better dex score.....

My big complaint is it should have a place to put your name. Make it your own.

Now I get back in the day we played 1e with charachters like Fighter 1 and Fighter 2. I also get that this is Keep on the Boarderland so it is a tradition of this region not to have names just job titles, but have a name on your sheet helps make the character your own and not just a pawn.
 


While this looks great, I gotta imagine the disappointment a new player would go through going from this to paper sheets.

Modular, component-heavy, and intuitive character boards to clunky, boring, and number-dense character sheets. Plus, after level 1 tons of character stuff that won't even fit on that sheet!
 

It's a neat concept, and one I see becoming deluxe neoprene mats down the line. I've always been curious if experienced players and GMs would use something like this? Is there a market for RPG mats for games in general? Take something like Daggerheart for example. You'd think that Darrington Press would have created a slew of player mats for each class, especially with the card mechanic. But what about games like 2d20, GURPS, or PtA? For that matter, would cards be helpful in those other games as well? I could see a DrivethruGameMats becoming a thing for POD mats.
Im a sucker for neoprene mats. I have over 20 for Battletech alone. Id be in on those in a heartbeat.
 


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