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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Now that I see this I'm surprised it hasn't happened before -- particularly with modern board game and miniatures games using character "dashboards" fairly regularly. Add ability, spell, and item cards and you have a more tactile and easy to organize game.
 

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Now that I see this I'm surprised it hasn't happened before -- particularly with modern board game and miniatures games using character "dashboards" fairly regularly. Add ability, spell, and item cards and you have a more tactile and easy to organize game.
Fantasy Flight Games did it with their version of WFRP. And Daggerheart (I hear) is quite card-based.
 

It looks neat. I wonder if they will release like blank versions of these so you could buy em and use em for whatever outside this starter set.

These and the various nice looking looking wood class/subclass boards on Etsy would probably work well together
 

Hot take: this format is in no way easier for my brain to process than a character sheet.

That said, I 100% applaud the elimination of the 1-18 ability score numbering, which is a vestigial artifact of earlier editions and no longer needed in the current game.

Next re-do spells so spell levels match class levels.
 



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.
Wonder how they calculate jump distance?...feet equal to STR "score".

Edit: and I still use roll under for a few things.
 


Hot take: this format is in no way easier for my brain to process than a character sheet.
Hotter take, if your an experienced dnd player, you simply cannot answer that question.

I'm in the middle of playtesting a boardgame for example, and when it comes to some of the new player UI....you simply cannot replicate it with people that have any experience with your game. They can try all they want to put themselves in a "new player I have never seen this game mindset"....but it doesn't work.

Only by watching new players interact with your system can you actually confirm the features are working and an improvement over existing models.
 

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