Fantasy Fridays: Daggerheart, Part 1

 I had a plan for today, but I want to put that off till later. Mostly because I was not ready since I was too busy with today's new topic. The new game from Critical Role, Daggerheart, was released just a couple of days ago and I have been doing a deep dive into that.

I picked it up from DriveThruRPG a couple of days ago (Wednesday night) and wanted to run out and get the physical copy from my FLGS, but I was informed that, since it's close to my birthday, I am not allowed to. Fine with me, I also picked up the Demiplane Nexus Corebook so I can use the character builder. 

The core book is gorgeous. I like the art more than the art in the new D&D 5.5 core book. This book/game is certainly going after the New Schoolers who love D&D 5, but wish it had more options. 

In many ways Daggerheart takes the best ideas from a lot of games, including D&D 5.x and even D&D 4 (I'll get into that later) and combines it into a very effective whole. I have not read enough of it to notice differences from the playtest, except for some presentation differences, which I think are an improvement. Oh, and how HP are used. 

The game has shot to Gold status in a matter of 28+ hours, and that is taking into consideration that it is effectively divided between two different versions: PDF only and PDF with Demiplane Nexus access, which has gone to Silver. Not too bad really. 

The PDF comes with the Core book and the cards you use with your character. The cards are a nice gimmick, but to have the PDF is great if your group ends up with say, multiple sorcerers. I can print as many as I need and just slot them into one of my kids' old Pokémon folders. It feels like the old cards we had with D&D 4, but more useful.

The core book is huge, but complete at 415 pages. I already see lots of options for expansions for characters, so that is nice. 

It also features six "Campaign Frames" which are like mini-campaigns, or campaign set-ups to play in. All of them sound fun. Each one has a "pitch," a complexity rating, and some keywords to help describe it. 

• The Witherwild. A nature deity is attacked and then attacks back with all the power of nature.
• Five Banners Burning. Rival kingdoms on the brink of all out war.
• Beast Feast. The Monster Defense System is down and now the characters need to go in and fix it.
• Age of Umbra. A dying world in shadows. 
• Motherboard. High tech as magic in a post-apocalyptic world. 
• Colossus of the Drylands. Giant creatures versus gunslingers in the deserts. (think Attack on Titan or Godzilla meets Boot Hill).

Not all of these are for everyone, but they do all look pretty cool. Of course you can play in a D&D-like world. It does lean more toward High Fantasy and High Magic.

For amusement's sake I converted, or more aptly, translated some characters from various games that are D&D or D&D adjacent to Daggerheart to see how they might work.

Not everything had a great translation, but honestly, that could also be due more to my inexperience with the system as much as anything.  So let's see some translations.

Larina Nix. My human witch in Basic-era D&D becomes a Loreborne (culture) Human who is a Sorcerer (Primal Origin) with Wizard (School of Knowledge) multiclass. In D&D 3, multiclassing Wizard and Sorcerer doesn't get you much, but here it is a fun approach. I rather like this version, but I would have to play her more.

Johan. My human paladin, all editions, becomes Highborne Human Seraph (Divine Wielder). I actually like this one a lot and if I get a chance to play Daggerheart this might be the character I choose. There is a lot of potential here for play. 

Amaranth. A newer character, she is a Tiefling Warlock. Here is she is Wanderborne Infernis Wizard (School of War). Now it is possible that Sorcerer is a better choice for her, but I had not done a wizard full class yet. 

Roan. This guy is new, he was an NPC satyr bard (who plays the bag-pipes) from the feywild. Here he takes on his "true form" I think and Wildborne Faun Bard (Wordsmith). The wordsmith is more like an occult poet (from Ghosts of Albion) so I really excited to try this guy out as a PC.

Sinéad. My Forgotten Realms half-elf Sorcerer/Bard doesn't drift too far from her origins. In Daggerheart, she is a Seaborne Elf (to reflect her growing up in the Moonshae Isles). She is a Sorcerer (Elemental) with a Bard (Troubadour) multiclass. She feels the same to be honest.

Nik Nak. My goblin warlock (who talks in rhyme) for Pathfinder 2nd edition has the most changes. Here he is still a goblin (wildborne) but now he is a druid (Warden of Renewal). I like the Daggerheart goblin species, but I am not really happy with this class choice. Though I am happy with the druid. 

These are all just based on my readings of the open Beta and just a little over two days of the final rules. I am sure I'll make some tweaks to all these characters. Well, maybe not Johan and Sinéad. I am pretty happy with how they turned out. 

With Critical Role Campaign 3 now over I am pretty certain that Campaign 4, when it kicks off, will be using these rules. I can't imagine they would want to miss the chance to sell the house system. 

I'll continue to read the PDF and play around on Demiplane Nexus. When I get the physical game (it's the only thing I asked for, I don't really need much), I'll revisit this for Part 2.