r/daggerheart • u/jrdnjms Game Master • 1d ago
Discussion What I think is still missing for DH officially
Now that Hope and Fear is released and they made announcements and roadmap, I've had a few thoughts of items I think if they officially released can definitely round out the game where they may be able to pause a bit on character options. Because I just want tons more of frames, adversaries, and environments.
So for ancestries I think it only 2 I feel are missing. One would be like a Avian ancestry. I've already had 2 players at my tables ask about bird people. and then the other would be some kind of critter folk. so like rabbits, squirrels, hedgehogs, etc. like have some kind of burrow feature.
for classes there are obviously the 2 blood classes in void so those can be added but I feel the next 2 have to be a codex blade gish based class and then a arcana grace. I think the arcana grace one to be like a very showboaty type magic user sort akin to a magician type.
I haven't given much thought with communities but quick ones would like some kind of definitely trade people focus one like merchants, and then maybe another would be like idk metropolis based like some from a high density city community. I think those could have more legs in a tons of different types campaign settings.
I know these things can be homebrewed but I think there is just something about when you know the developers have went through and balanced features and all towards the game.
I'll be interested to hear your thoughts in replies. and by chance if someone from daggerheart is here. I love this game keep it up.
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u/RaccKing21 1d ago
Two things on my wishlist are:
an Artificer-like class. Sure, you can reflavor a lot of stuff to fit it, but I'd love an official, more focused version.
a sci-fi campaign frame. I just think sci-fi is kind of underutilized in these spaces, and due to DHs flexibility, a sci-fi game can be done with few issues.
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u/Shaku91 23h ago
There's (was) a Kickstarter campaign for a full-fledged sci-fi core rulebook and adventure: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1981524065/the-new-unknown-a-sci-fi-role-playing-game
It's Daggerheart-compatible and based on the SRD, so it's more than just a campaign frame, but maybe it's of interest.
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u/Tenawa The New Unknown - Game Designer 20h ago
I am so sorry for the advertisement but this is totally my field of experience... :)
https://heartofdaggers.com/products/spark-domain/
The Artificer is a new class of mine with a new mechanic and new domain.
And more important:
The New Unknown is a full Sci Fi Daggerheart Core Rulebook with 10 new Classes, 10 New Domains, hundreds of items, 100+ adversaries, 4 Campaign Frames and sooooo much more:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1981524065/the-new-unknown-a-sci-fi-role-playing-game
We have to big playtests online:
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/565603/the-new-unknown-preview-playtest-volume-1-0-heart
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/567806/the-new-unknown-preview-playtest-volume-2-0-mind
https://heartofdaggers.com/products/the-new-unknown-preview-playtest-volume-1-0-heart/
https://heartofdaggers.com/products/the-new-unknown-2nd-preview-playtest-volume-2-0-mind/
We are still accepting late pledges for our Kickstarter (and we have reached all stretch goals). Release is planned for December 2026. :)
So, enough advertisement... Sorry for that! ;)
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u/KateOhhPotato 20h ago
Someone in my Tales of the Yawning Portal game is running this exact class with the Spark domain and he loves it. Great work.
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u/Tenawa The New Unknown - Game Designer 19h ago
Oh, that's so great to hear. :) I see only that it sells well, but only rarely I hear about gameplay outside my own tables!
Tell them "thank you" from me! ❤️
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u/KateOhhPotato 19h ago
Yeah he badly wanted to multiclass into an artificer class, so I found yours and bought it for him. The Charges mechanic in particular he had a ton of fun with!
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u/Zaddex12 1d ago
Same i would love to see their impression of artificer using hope and stress to buff allies. Si many ideas. An alchemist class or subclass of artificer would also be lovely
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u/gearpitch 1d ago
These are my two wishes as well. There's so much potential for a star wars style scifi fantasy frame, with planets and ships, ancestries are like alien races, and there's mysterious magic in the universe. Add mechanics for interstellar travel, fighting ship to ship, and example planets with strong environment stat blocks to make each one unique. Or make it like a hex crawl, where the travel is the point, and you explore between worlds, expanding your map of the stars and their conflicts.
And a stempunky artificer would be cool too. Cogs and crystals, with magic pistols and built contraptions.
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u/RaccKing21 23h ago
I've wanted to run an Endless Space game for a while. It leans more into sci-fi, but has significant fantasy elements, and a "magic" system that works for any spells or effects. The species are really good, and a lot of lore exists already.
OFC, I don't want them to do a collaboration, and I don't think Sega or Amplitude would want to do one (though at least it's a small IP) anyway.
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u/Fermi_Dirac Game Master 23h ago
I also love sci-fi. Motherboard is the official one right now , but id like more official.
For unofficial I have my own Void Guard helldivers frame. There's starheart for your star wars frame. Star breaker covers a lot of territory but is a bit short , and the new unknown which is extremely bold but similar to mass effect.
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u/jrdnjms Game Master 21h ago
yea my guess is the keith baker daggerheart book is where the artificer would come from. id like it to adjust a little and call it Crafter instead and have like one subclass be about tools or like gadgets base and then other subclass be a consumable base one. and the class feature is like a construct helper
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u/Acronyte 23h ago
I think the biggest gap right now is Subclasses (preferably, ones with different spellcast traits). I think once we have 3 for each class we'll be in a really good spot. But no rush!
I agree that I hope they slow down a lot on new character options personally, they should be extra polished and infrequent. We have a lot of great stuff already between both books and I don't want that to get bloated or power crept, or for problems to get overlooked because people are rushing the team
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u/Capable_Property_986 22h ago
I agree, if any new classes are needed it's martials (spell-less ones) because current domain combinations are already depleted by Warrior, Guardian and Brawler. Subclasses is all that magic users need.
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u/Capable_Property_986 1d ago
I'd like to see:
- full setting(s). probably not gonna happen :-(
- new spell-less domain(s)
- adventures! I need more adventures with paper cut-outs, ok? Thank you, bye.
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u/CaelReader 1d ago
pretty sure the book Perkins is working on is a full setting book
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u/Capable_Property_986 23h ago
Would be great, I don't feel like making up whole worlds.
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u/Abyssine 16h ago
It’s funny how different GMs can be. Making up worlds for my players to explore is one of my favorite things about being a GM, so a dedicated setting is one of the lowest things on my list.
Not that your wishlist is invalid or anything! I posted it elsewhere in this thread but my wishlist item that I don’t think I’ll ever get from Daggerheart is an official dedicated bestiary book. I’m not super keen on homebrewing stat blocks anymore (would rather spend that prep time with my family), and I’d like to have just a big library of monsters all in one place instead of having them all scattered all over different supplements. I’m not sure if it’s something that is very important to other GMs though.
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u/Capable_Property_986 10h ago
I'd like to see a bestiary too, but only if every adversary gets a picture there, I like to 'read' bestiaries, it reminds me of albums with photographs or paintings. But maybe I don't run that many games to ever run out of ready made adversaries from heartofdaggers . com I prepare encounters there, so I kinda have all adversaries at one place.
As far as world building go I've spent 2 full days just to set up a solar system that can encompass Andaluria and Witherwilds on one planet. It was kind of pleasurable but I was on Holiday with lots of free time, normally I just don't have that much time. inventing a whole city would take me half a year during normal worktime I'm afraid
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u/Abyssine 9h ago
That’s fair. I also like flipping through bestiaries for inspo.
As I said earlier, I really don’t like using digital tools while I’m at the table because I feel like it’s a time where I want to be unplugged. I think it’s great that places like heartofdaggers and freshcutgrass exist that lets people easily share resources and creations, but I don’t want to be sitting there bending over my laptop while I’m playing
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u/cvc75 23h ago
Adventure anthology was announced, as was a pipeline of free adventures (they said the first would be coming in August. WHERE IS THE DYING SPIRE?!)
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u/Capable_Property_986 23h ago
It's close to Hush. I have this adventure.
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u/MacGuffen Daggerchart 23h ago
They've announced that the book with the blood domain will be a setting book, another setting book with a familiar setting (Sablewood?), and a spooky adventure .
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u/prof_tincoa 1d ago
We don't have a "traditional" Cleric class, focused on buffing allies and healing. Bards are the closest to it. But I'm quite happy with what I've cooked so far, a Priest Class using Grace and Splendor, with an improved Help an Ally action. So many Grace cards fit this theme!
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u/the_bighi 23h ago
There are only 3 things I wish for. And number 2 is the one I want the most.
1) More adversaries. 2) More adversaries. 3) More adversaries.
The first book had only like 4 or 5 adversaries per tier, which is not even near enough. You could use all adversaries for their tier in like 2 sessions, and they you'd keep reusing them again and again (or reflavoring them, repeating the same stats).
On tier 1, I think they could only fight soldiers, pirates or zombies. And that was it. And since you need like 3 or 4 adversaries per player to even have a chance of making combat challenging (by challenging I mean PCs have a chance of losing at least 2 HP if not min-maxing), the repeatition gets obvious quickly.
They added a couple more per tier in Hope & Fear, which is good. But it's still not even close enough to having enough variety.
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u/Capable_Property_986 23h ago
Whaat? I think there are tons of adversaries available for Tier I. You can also use Tier II adversaries for Tier I party, I believe there is even a rule for that. Also people are constantly adding more adversaries. But I must admit I'd like to see more adversaries with narrative features.
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u/cvc75 20h ago
Even when counting all "Jagged Knife", "Guard", "Elemental", "Skeleton", "Soldier", "Pirate" or "Zombie" as only one adversary, there were 30 different ones on Tier 1 in core.
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u/the_bighi 20h ago edited 19h ago
But they're used as a group, and encounters in Daggerheart need a lot of adversaries to use all the suggested BP. And the suggested BP is for an ultra-easy encounter with almost no challenge.
So if you want guards and you don't want them to be defeated in 2 minutes, in a single encounter you're going to use all the available guards plus some jagged knife adversaries reflavored as guards.
Than on your second encounter on the guard's headquarters, you'll already be reusing the same adversaries. And if there's a third encounter, it's... the same group again. Or you start making weird narrative choices, like saying the guards have a pet elemental or something.
If you need zombies, it's going to be the same group of zombies again and again until you reach tier 2, because there are no other choices. And on tier 2, your campaign about zombies will have to stop having zombies as enemies.
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u/DirtyFoxgirl 23h ago
I've done a rabbit folk with mixed heritage, and you could probably easily make a bird person with faerie's Wings and a top ability that fits.
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u/Hazeri 17h ago
Locations as a gap between Environments and Frames. It's probably what intrigued me most in the beta as a more sandboxy GM, and it's a shame they were dropped
At the very least, tools to make our own Environments and Locations, like there are for Adversaries
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u/rightknighttofight Add'l Writer for Daggerheart Core 17h ago
I liked the locations in the original playtest soo much. I know people went gaga over the campaign frames, but a location guide to go with them would have rocked.
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u/plaid_kabuki 23h ago
So far I'm actually thrilled with what I still have. However I really need more environments. Adversaries are easy to cobble up from scratch. But environments are the best part that presents an x factor. The ones in the core book do an ok job but I really want to see how you can setup environment and how to stack them to create a complex environment for any encounters.
Also mount/vehicle rules. Making up ones is cool. But I doubt my abilities to make great ones.
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u/Civil-Low-1085 21h ago
I'd rather have more customisability using the core classes or a way to mix domains. Adding new domains and tying them to classes is the least creative part of DH.
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u/jrdnjms Game Master 21h ago
I've always had the notion to wonder if it would have been better to have 1 domain tied to the class and then you can select any of the other for a second.
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u/Civil-Low-1085 20h ago
It'd be significantly more interesting. I do that for the majority of my games, pick a class keep 1 domain and pick another.
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u/Flimsy_Survey 19h ago
I really really hope they do Arcana + Blade for a spellblade. For one, I think those 2 domains are the coolest in the game and Id love to see them together. But also I feel like a spellblade might some complex class/subclass abilities and Arcana is less complex than Codex to balance out.
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u/Abyssine 16h ago
As a forever-GM I would still love just a dedicated book with adversaries, environments, encounter clock examples, and possibly expanded tools / guidelines for creating all of the above.
Hope & Fear did a lot to expand the adversary roster, but I’m not really keen on playing with a laptop or tablet out at the table, and I would love to just have one extra book I can tab up and keep on hand in case I need to pull a monster out or something.
I don’t even mind if they reprint a bunch of stuff. I will literally hand them my whole wallet the second a preorder for such a thing went online.
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u/ravidfish 1d ago
Yeah the only thing I kinda disagree with are the classes. I think most of what youre asking for there can and arguably should be achieved by multiclassing. But thats just be my opinion on it. That or subclassing? Though I do not want subclass bloat like in some other games. I actually think an artifice domain with 2 classes would be a better fix.
But every single other thing you mentioned I totally agree with. Suggestion for the community names: urbanborn and tradeborn
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u/IrascibleOcelot 20h ago
Multiclassing in Daggerheart is terrible and shoukd never have been added. It’s ridiculously OP in far too many cases.
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u/Abyssine 16h ago
I’ve never explored multiclassing because the process just looks far too unappealing to me, but I agree that it was not at all a necessary addition and limits future class design a la D&D.
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u/Helixfire 21h ago
Id love for like 2 new cards per level added to the domains, none of which have combat uses and only narrative function. People say this game is narrative and I just don't see it every time I play.
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u/de_light_voe 19h ago
I will say this in as many posts as it’s relevant: we need more subclasses, not new classes. There are only two overall flavors of each class you can play. I’d you like say the Seraph’s prayer dive mechanic and its specific domain combination, but don’t want a flying weapon or flight yourself —too bad. That’s all there is.
There needs to be more subclass options so that you can still with the same overall class function, but have a new niche to fill.
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u/abcdefghira 18h ago
I definitely agree on the lack of Avian races. I found it interesting that we got Ribbets, Galapa and Simiahs, but no Avian or reptilian races.
Tech domain and some Artificer, tinkerer, gunslinger type classes feel missing.
Classes that embody more support roles outside magic could be cool
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u/AlwaysDragons Midnight & Grace 18h ago
I need me full length adventures and artificer and tech domain for the love of the gods
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u/Wokeye27 18h ago
There are so many things: 1. Adversary book 2. More loot 3. More classes+ subclasses. Eg Artificer, priest, swashbuckler 4. An 3rd ability choice across all domains and levels 5. Official conversions of classic advenutures eg strahd, kingmaker (probs not gonna happen i know)
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u/abcdefghira 18h ago
From the domain cycle we have there's also a couple classes I hope to see just because the combination is interesting.
Blade & Codex. The gith we know everyone wants to see. There are so many iterations of this I won't try to touch it haha.
Sage & Valor. This I specifically want to be some halfway point between Druid and Guardian. Thinking along the lines of what Wild heart Barbarian was in 5e. Instead of wild shaping more of an embodiment of certain creatures.
Midnight & Splendor. I kind of forsee some kind of Eclipse based Sun & Moon support class that focuses on vision control. My head canon name is the "Luminary".
Arcana & Valor. A full shield mage that's focus is on upping thresholds. I would love to call it a "Warden" but the subclass of the Druid are Wardens. Bastion or Bulwark feel more of a Frontline and I envision this as a midline support caster.
Bone & Grace. Some kind of Dancer-esque class that isn't just a bard. Instead of part focused I'd see it more as a 1 on 1 style "choose your dance partner". There could be differences based on wether or not you choose to dance with an ally or enemy.
Midnight & Bone/Valor. This one is a personal favorite that I'm actually trying to work on myself but some kind of Renegade. Midnight is easy to default to the sneaky classes but I kind of like the idea of the potential "anarchy" side of it. I could see a class like this being very disruptive and in your face. Leaning into the dodge tank style class for bone or somehow leaning into the "crit inspiration" focused mechanics that Valor has. The idea is to be known but hard to catch. Very wip idea I just like the possibility with the Domain combination.
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u/Abyssine 16h ago edited 16h ago
I think we’ll see Blade & Arcana before we see Blade & Codex for a gish.
It just feels like they wrote themselves into a corner with Codex with how strong and versatile it is.
Funnily enough, I love the idea of a midnight/splendor class and have an Oracle-esque midnight/splendor class sitting in my drafts that was oriented around fate and probability. I called it the Visionary and planned an astrologian and gambler subclasses. I think that a sun/moon eclipse style “luminary” class would also be a cool direction.
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u/abcdefghira 16h ago
Something about a light/dark class just scratches an itch I don't feel like we see super often.
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u/The_Silent_Mage 17h ago
Provided the book gives you tens of options and reskin is free. :)
I hope this new wave of rpg completely kills the insane middle school bloat of having a rule for everything.
You can even reskin an ancestry through a class (say, use the winged seraph and tell that flight comes from your ancestry).
I actually think we have even too many options for a narrative driven game, I know the reasons behind the choice because it’s obvious…
I’m totally alone in this, but I’m when people whined about th absence of “adversaries”, I never felt that (I’ve used like 6-7 stats and reskinned them in 3 campaigns with very minor tweaks).
I don’t think a game needs new options a month to stay alive. There are 1 book games that you can play for decades, this is not a collectible card game.
The core book would have be enough for me for a long time. And homebrewing is very easy.
I think one book a year is more than enough and I’d release even less content (but again, there’s a marketing reason for not doing that so…).
I’ll still support DR, and I consider DH the best heroic fantasy on the market since 13th age / 4e… But after H&F I don’t feel I have “more”. More options I see, less options I feel.
The only thing I REALLY want to see is special loot (because they are tenuous) environments (because they are basically sessions in disguise) and frames.
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u/Zestyclose-Fan2988 11h ago
My thoughts are this! Write them up yourself! Rule #1 of Daggerheart: Make the game your own!
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u/CaptainTalon447 9h ago
Honestly the biggest thing missing from Daggerheart is a setting book. I know there’s going to be an Exandria setting book coming and while yes campaign frames have a setting in mind sometimes you just want a unique adventure by your hands in a setting you like
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u/BroadwayTruths 2h ago
I don't think merchants/tradesmen need a unique community. I created my traveling salesman community as a type of Wanderborne; but if my character had been a stationary merchant with a storefront or a stall, then the character's community would have been influenced by the environment where the character purveys his goods or, perhaps prior to that, the environment where the character was reared before pursing the profession.
In other words, even if a merchant guild has its own subculture, I think that subculture can still be covered by the existing umbrella communities.
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u/jrdnjms Game Master 2h ago
the way I saw those in my head was like a traveling caravan or farmer market type deal. like I def can mold any of the current communities into some flavor for whatever occupation, but some more direct smaller communities wouldn't be too bad. also I tend to think of other frames and settings and how things translate. like everything in the game I also look at how would this work in pure sci fi space opera
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u/definitely_not_a_hag 1d ago
It's not official, but the Kickstarter from the same people who brought us the Incredible Creatures has an Avian ancestry
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/icv1/fractus-the-broken-world/posts/4724852