Daggerheart General Thread [+]

[Reynard]

Because there's less overall moving pieces, and those that are have a clearer balance. In 5e, you've got all the complexity of spell slots (these are possibly the most important thing to attrite if you want to avoid nova - your long thread on Save vs Suck was pretty obvious there)/piles of HP/per rest abilities/HD/consumables/more healing in 2024/etc.

My read of DH is it leans into open attrition mechanics far more like 4e did, where you can pretty easily gauge how burned down a party is based on simply Surges/Dailies. Here you've got HP+Armor+Stress as the main ones, and a lot of the Domain Card healing is pretty limited.

I'm not sure I buy that a multidimensional approach is easier for the GM to mentally judge in play, but I haven't run it yet so I don't know.

That said, almost universally, I don't mentally judge how much the PCs have in the tank. In fact, I don't care. That's a player responsibility. I don't adjust fights based on how fresh they are. Let the dice fall where they may.

I haven't read or watched anything that suggests I will have to change to effectively run DH. Play to find out. Sometime you find out that the dice hate you. In fact, since Players have explicit input into when and how they die, I am even less inclined to worry about their PCs' health.

 

[Neonchameleon]

I haven't read or watched anything that suggests I will have to change to effectively run DH. Play to find out. Sometime you find out that the dice hate you. In fact, since Players have explicit input into when and how they die, I am even less inclined to worry about their PCs' health.

The best piece of Daggerheart's design IMO is that you actively don't have to change from 5e to effectively run DH - but there are tools available if you want to.

 

[zakael19]

I'm not sure I buy that a multidimensional approach is easier for the GM to mentally judge in play, but I haven't run it yet so I don't know.

That said, almost universally, I don't mentally judge how much the PCs have in the tank. In fact, I don't care. That's a player responsibility. I don't adjust fights based on how fresh they are. Let the dice fall where they may.

I haven't read or watched anything that suggests I will have to change to effectively run DH. Play to find out. Sometime you find out that the dice hate you. In fact, since Players have explicit input into when and how they die, I am even less inclined to worry about their PCs' health.

Sure; but the players judging their ability to progress often helps dictate the pace of play as well. Having it be less complex (from an overall numbers perspective) currencies I think helps there, plus the wonderful "give the GM fear on a rest" mechanic means balancing your limited downtime recover abilities against handing over more pain for the future.

 

[Reynard]

Sure; but the players judging their ability to progress often helps dictate the pace of play as well. Having it be less complex (from an overall numbers perspective) currencies I think helps there, plus the wonderful "give the GM fear on a rest" mechanic means balancing your limited downtime recover abilities against handing over more pain for the future.

I do like the downtime system. There are real choices there, rather than just "we rest."

 

[SteveC]

Daggerheart uses rest mechanics between encounters to manage the adventuring day. The thing is, the GM gains Fear when you rest, so I asked my players what they wanted to do. They managed the situation quite well.

In the game I played in, I was playing a support character so as long as I felt I could get the group through one more, I just advised that we keep going.

 

[overgeeked]

Sure; but the players judging their ability to progress often helps dictate the pace of play as well. Having it be less complex (from an overall numbers perspective) currencies I think helps there, plus the wonderful "give the GM fear on a rest" mechanic means balancing your limited downtime recover abilities against handing over more pain for the future.

Exactly. It gives the PCs an incentive to push on rather than long rest after every fight. That and very few abilities are tied to long rests. Most are stress or hope.

 

[overgeeked]

It is worth pointing out that rests in Daggerheart are just that, rests. They aren’t sleep. There’s no inherent connection between a long rest and sleep. A LR is described as resting a few hours. The possible activities suggest relaxation rather than sleep. So there’s further no inherent connection to any notion of an “adventuring day” in Daggerheart. The closest you get is being restricted to no more than three short rests per long rest. A few abilities are once per rest and a few are per session. But there's no such thing as an “adventuring day” in Daggerheart.

 

[aramis erak]

Question: How survivable is Daggerheart?

Like on a scale of AD&D (death around every corner) to 5th ed (cakewalk)

Keep in mind the labels go Minor < Major < Severe, and that's 1/2/3 HP.
No PC can be killed in a single shot, as starting HP range from 5 (Bard, Wizard) to 7 (Guardian, Seraph). So, at worst, at level 1, everyone but Guardian and Seraph can be put down by 2 max strength hits. Hit points aren't automatic and can only go up 2 per tier... Two Severes can drop 1st tier except guardian. Maxed out tier 2 can be taken with 3 Severes, again excepting Guardian and Seraph... if they maxed out their HP. A fully maxed out Tier 4 Guardian or Seraph can have 13 HP needing 5 hits (2 major, 3 severe)...

Thresholds DO go up every level, and new armor can be obtained each tier, with significant gains in threshold for the same kind of armor...

I's say on a scale of 1-5 for survivability, A&D 1e is 1, 5E is 5, it's about a 3... but once you're to 3 HP left, the pucker factor is there... because now you can be 1-shot.

But you always have the choice to survive, or to go out in a blaze of glory... unlike D&D.
We had one PC go down and take a scar... but that was from falling from a flying broom. Specifically, failing to grab the broom and/or the rider thereof.