The Critical Role and Darrington Press Daggerheart playtest is now out and available for all to build their first character and gather a group for a game. If you've only played Dungeons & Dragons before there will be a lot of common elements when building a character, but also many that are different.
In this guide we'll walk you through character creation in conjunction with the Daggerheart playtest tools to help highlight those similarities or answer quick questions about how certain mechanics are used.
Daggerheart Digital Tools
Before we get too into the understanding behind selecting your Subclass, Ancestry, starting equipment and more it's also important to note that Demiplane offers digital tools for creating a Daggerheart character.
Daggerheart Classes, Subclasses, and Domain
The first step of character creation will be to select your Class and Subclass, in Daggerheart Subclasses are known as Foundations. Unlike D&D where all classes use the same character sheet Daggerheart has specific character sheets for each different Class.
The Daggerheart classes are:
- Bard
- Druid
- Guardian
- Ranger
- Rogue
- Seraph
- Sorcerer
- Warrior
- Wizard
A lot of the above classes you'll immediately understand what they do if you've come from Dungeons & Dragons, even if what they do in Daggerheart can vary. The two newcomers here are Guardian and Seraph. Guardians have abilities that a Barbarian D&D player might favor, while the Seraph is a little bit like a Cleric in its theme, but also has some abilities that are similar to D&D's Bardic Inspiration.
Most Class character sheets will be two pages but for Classes with abilities that include additional forms or companions additional pages are present. These Classes are the Druid with a page of Beastform transformations and the Ranger with their Companion
Where do I add my Subclass, Community, and Ancestry to the Character Sheet?
Daggerheart uses a card system for additional character features and spells that will have you consulting not only your character sheet but also keeping cards that detail additional abilities you have
Immediately after selecting your Class you'll also be selecting your Daggerheart Subclass. These add additional gameplay or roleplay mechanics to your character.
The Daggerheart Subclasses are:
- Bard
- Troubadour
- Wordsmith
- Druid
- Warden of the Elements
- Warden of Renewal
- Guardian
- Stalwart
- Vengeance
- Ranger
- Wayfinder
- Beastbound
- Rogue
- Syndicate
- Nightwalker
- Seraph
- Winged Sentinel
- Divine Wielder
- Sorcerer
- Primal Origin
- Elemental Origin
- Warrior
- Call of the Slayer
- Call of the Brave
- Wizard
- School of Knowledge
- School of War
Each of these Subclasses will give your character one or many new abilities. These abilities are obtained immediately and from there the subclass provides no further additional abilities as you level up.
Each Class also has two Domains that you will pull additional abilities from. The Domains are listed underneath the Class name on your character sheet and may be shared with another class. The Bard has the Grace and Codex Domains, while the Rogue has Midnight and Grace Domains.
These cards will either add a new Ability to your character, or add a Spell or Grimoire magical power to them.You'll be able to pick two Level 1 Domain Cards from your Class-specific Domains with more access as you level up.
Daggerheart Community and Ancestry
In place of a Background Daggerheart has Community, and in place of Race/Species Daggerheart has Ancestry.
Your Daggerheart Community gives you an idea of what kind of upbringing you had. How affluent was your upbringing, what kind of location did you grow up in, and what kinds of activities would you engage in while growing up.
The Daggerheart Communities are:
- Highborne
- Ridgeborne
- Seaborne
- Underborne
- Wildborne
- Loreborne
- Orderborne
- Wanderborne
- Slyborne
Each Community will also give you an additional gameplay or roleplay ability.
The Daggerheart Ancestry are:
- Clank - The Daggerheart equivalent of a Warforged
- Daemon - The Daggerheart equivalent of a Tiefling
- Drakona - The Daggerheart equivalent of a Dragonborn
- Dwarf
- Elf
- Faerie - An interesting take on Faerie with insect-like features
- Faun
- Firbolg
- Fungril - A humanoid fungus species
- Orc
- Ribbet - A humanoid frog species
- Simiah - The Daggerheart equivalent of a Hadozee
Each of these Ancestry gives a small description of a general look among the Ancestry as well as an ability that they add to your character sheet.
Understanding Daggerheart Stats and Experience
Each character has six stats that they will be rolling with; Agility, Strength, Finesse, Instinct, Presence, and Knowledge. There isn't any rolling for stats but when starting the player will have the following values to allocate {-1, 0, 0, +1, +1, +2}.
For each of the Class sheets in the Playtest there are recommended values for you to use, but you can place them how you want. Much like in D&D for Spellcasting classes it's recommended for the +2 to be in the stat you use to cast spells.
Each character will also get stats unique to them and their story called Experience. A player makes up two experiences on Character Creation that are unique to their character that they could ask to roll with. Some examples given are Bodyguard, Sharpshooter, Tracking, and even phrases like I'll Catch You.
When you're attempting a roll to stand between your party member and a suspicious character the GM may ask you to make a Presence roll as you intimidate, the player can instead offer to roll with their previously selected Bodyguard if it has a higher value.
Experience is a way to give characters a very focused ability that might not be reflected on the rest of their stat spread, but is something they're uniquely good at.
Daggerheart Health and Armor Class
Daggerheart characters don't have health or AC that is altered by any of their stats. Instead, these values are based on their class and are increased as the character levels up.
The equivalent to Dungeons & Dragons Armor Class is Daggerheart's Evasion and Armor. The Evasion is the innate ability for a Class to be able to avoid taking damage, however your equipped Armor will then add to that. Armor can be used to reduce incoming damage at the cost of it's durability, but that durability can then be restored when taking a short or long rest.
Selecting your Weapons, Armor, Starting Inventory, and Connections
This is the most familiar a D&D player will be with creating a Daggerheart character as you'll be picking from a list of beginner Weapons and Armor that your character will wield. This is also when familiar aspects of the game such as making your connections to other party members, or NPC of the world will also come in. Here there have been guiding questions added for each Class to help with the roleplay aspect of your creation.
