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

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".

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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.

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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.

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

 

[Parmandur]

Folks should realize these are a class board per level, per subclass. That’s why they have 3 per class, level 1 &2 on one, lvl3 light or life (in case of the cleric) on the other. I’d totally be up for another 16 boards, to get 1-3 for all classes. Just for teaching beginners or for one shots. This is likely gonna go into the afterschool program pack they ship out to schools and libraries.

This is also the format the stranger things set is being released in, i think. Which makes sense because they see the show as something to onboard new players into the hobby, so combining this format with outside properties is great. And if you’re experienced, nothing is stopping you from using everything except the class boards from the set (maps, adventure booklet, character cards, hand outs). Maybe the boards also cover different classes, builds, so could be useful if you like using them.

I think the Stranger Thinfs set has 80s retro style character sheets with oregens on them.

 

[kapars]

I got my starter set in the mail and I’m impressed by the quality and amount of content. The box is stuffed!

 

[John Lloyd1]

I like this play mat and cards approach because of this scenario:

A completely new player sits down to play a spellcaster and the DM suggests they could cast a spell in this circumstance.

Most pregen character sheets don't have the spell descriptions and the player will need to find the 4 or so different spell options in the rule book and on different pages. With this solution, the player flips the cards over and can easily compare the spells. They can see at a glance the differences between them.

 

[pawsplay]

I know it is a starter set. However, it is a different approach to how players play the game. I am wondering if this might cause WotC to adapt D&D to a different version such as crossing the game with cooperative board games like Gloomhaven and Frosthaven.

This is 2025. We've been over the hills and back multiple times.

 

[ECMO3]

There seems to be a misunderstanding with some folks . . .

This new starter set is just that, a starter set. Not a new edition of the game, not D&D translated into a card game, not D&D trying to integrate Magic the Gathering style of mechanics or collectible cards like the "Fortune Cards" in 4E D&D.

This is not a card game, it is D&D using cards as references in place of looking things up in the PHB. That's it.

I get that. The first time I played 5E it was using the Phandelver starter set with the pregens.

But in terms of functionality, I think those sheets were as useful as these will be. It had the equipment, the spells, the abilities, all there written on the pregen character sheet. Also as the party assaulted the Red Brands hideout they were able to write new things they found on to the character sheet ..... like when they grabbed a crossbow off of an enemy. After a couple levels it was too cluttered and they needed a hand drawn one, but I don't see this being as useful as the character sheets in that book were.

 

[John Lloyd1]

I get that. The first time I played 5E it was using the Phandelver starter set with the pregens.

But in terms of functionality, I think those sheets were as useful as these will be. It had the equipment, the spells, the abilities, all there written on the pregen character sheet. Also as the party assaulted the Red Brands hideout they were able to write new things they found on to the character sheet ..... like when they grabbed a crossbow off of an enemy. After a couple levels it was too cluttered and they needed a hand drawn one, but I don't see this being as useful as the character sheets in that book were.

I would point out that the Lost Mines pre-gens didn't have much room to write abilities. Take the dwarven cleric as an example. There is no place to write their prepared spells. The fact they have to choose spells is hidden in the small print. While the play mats should make that a lot easier.

I'm not wedded to play mats and cards being the best solution always. I am sure they could be fiddly and annoying if you didn't have enough table space. I could see a playbook that included the spell description could work well. Sly Flourish has made some nice pre-gens for 2014 which go up to Level 5 and have the spell description, etc.

 

[Sulicius]

Made a mistake, ignore me

 

[John R Davis]

I get what you're saying, but I do have enough experience with my brain to know that, all things being equal, "loads of irregular cards and tokens" is always much worse than "sheet of paper" for me personally, across the board.

I think fully tokenizing DND may get very messy. DH PCs at 4th have about ten cards, and five sets tokens. The space needed is the kicker. It does all look very pretty though!

 

[ECMO3]

I would point out that the Lost Mines pre-gens didn't have much room to write abilities. Take the dwarven cleric as an example. There is no place to write their prepared spells. The fact they have to choose spells is hidden in the small print. While the play mats should make that a lot easier.

I'm not wedded to play mats and cards being the best solution always. I am sure they could be fiddly and annoying if you didn't have enough table space. I could see a playbook that included the spell description could work well. Sly Flourish has made some nice pre-gens for 2014 which go up to Level 5 and have the spell description, etc.

yeah I know, that is why I said eventually we needed to transition to hand written ones. I think though in those LMOP sheets there was more room to write new things than there than there will be on these.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

yeah I know, that is why I said eventually we needed to transition to hand written ones. I think though in those LMOP sheets there was more room to write new things than there than there will be on these.

Either way, you are better off with a notepad for notes. As far as grabbing a crossbow goes, I think you could just take a crossbow card in this set.