Everything You Need to Play
Daggerheart runs on a simple loop: your character tries something uncertain, you roll to find out what happens. The twist is that every roll produces two things at once — an outcome for you, and an outcome for the world.
Every action roll uses one of your six traits. Your GM will tell you which one, or it'll be obvious from what you're doing. Your trait score is a modifier you add to your roll.
Speed, reflexes, and movement. Rolling to sprint, dodge, leap, or sneak.
Raw physical force. Rolling to lift, grapple, break, or overpower something.
Precision and dexterity. Rolling for ranged attacks, lockpicking, sleight of hand.
Awareness and intuition. Rolling to perceive danger, track, or read a situation.
Charisma and force of will. Rolling to persuade, intimidate, deceive, or perform.
Learning and recall. Rolling to identify magic, remember lore, or apply expertise.
When you attempt something with an uncertain outcome, roll two twelve-sided dice — a Hope Die and a Fear Die — and add a modifier from one of your six traits.
Add both dice and your modifier together. Compare that total to the Difficulty set by your GM. Succeed or fail, the comparison between the two dice determines whether you or the GM gains something.
Hope is your resource — earned when your Hope Die rolls higher than your Fear Die. You can hold up to 6 Hope at a time, and it carries between sessions.
Spend Hope to:
When your Fear Die rolls higher than your Hope Die, the GM gains a Fear token — even if you succeeded. Fear isn't failure; it's the world pushing back.
The GM spends Fear to spotlight adversaries, trigger complications, introduce new threats, or activate danger moves. A session with a lot of Fear is a tense one.
Stress is mental and physical strain. You have up to 5 Stress slots. Each marked Stress reduces your maximum Hope by 1 — so a stressed-out character can't hold as much good fortune.
Mark a Stress to: add a d6 advantage die to any action roll, or activate certain features. Stress clears on a critical success or during downtime.
Domain cards are your abilities — spells, techniques, and powers drawn from your class's two domains. Unless a card states otherwise, you can use it as many times as you wish for as long as it remains in your loadout. Your subclass, ancestry, and community cards are always active and don't count toward your loadout limit.
You can have up to 5 domain cards active in your loadout at one time. Any card in your loadout is available to use — keep them in hand, on the table, or however is easiest.
Your vault holds cards you own but haven't equipped. Some features permanently place a card in your vault, removing it from play entirely.
At the start of a rest, you can freely swap cards between your loadout and vault before using any downtime moves.
Mid-session swaps are stressful: mark Stress equal to the card's Recall Cost (the number next to the lightning bolt ⚡ on the card). Swap it in for a card already in your loadout. If you have fewer than 5 active cards, you can add a vaulted card without trading one out.
Some cards have an exhaustion limit — once per long rest, once per session, etc. After using such a card, mark it somehow (flip it face-down, turn it sideways) so you remember it's temporarily unavailable.
Cards can also accumulate tokens to track ongoing effects. If you still have tokens at end of session, record the count to restore them next session.
Spells are direct magical effects — attacks, buffs, area control. They typically require a Spellcast Roll using your class's Spellcast Trait.
Abilities are techniques and passive powers. Some trigger automatically; others require an action, or spending Hope or Stress.
Grimoires each contain multiple named powers — you can use any of them while the grimoire is in your loadout.
Your class defines what you're built for. Each class has two subclasses — you choose one at character creation. Click any class to see full details including subclass features.
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Your ancestry is where you come from — the body you inhabit, the instincts that are simply part of who you are. Each ancestry comes with two features that reflect what makes your people distinct. Click any ancestry to see the full description and mechanical features.
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Domains are where your abilities come from. Each class has access to two domains, and as you level up you choose domain cards from those pools — giving you new powers, spells, and techniques. You can have up to 5 domain cards active at a time. Click any domain to read more.
Select a domain to see all its cards organized by level. ■ = Spell ■ = Grimoire ■ = Ability R = Recall cost
The whole party levels up together when your GM calls a milestone. Most groups play at least three sessions between levels. Characters go from level 1 to 10 across four tiers of play.
Starting characters. Establishing your identity, early abilities, and how you fit into the world.
Early growth. Proficiency increases, new domain cards, building toward your subclass specialization.
Mid-tier power. Subclass upgrades, increased Proficiency, and the option to multiclass.
High-tier play. Mastery features, unrestricted domain access, peak character potential.
At levels 2, 5, and 8, you automatically receive:
Pick two from the list below (Tier 3+ adds more options). Each option can be chosen up to 3 times across a tier unless noted:
After choosing advancements, your damage thresholds go up by +1 (your thresholds always equal your base + current level). Update your Major and Severe threshold values.
Take one new domain card at your level or lower from a domain your class has access to. If you're over 5 cards total, decide what goes in your vault. You may also trade one current card for a different one of equal or lower level.
Experiences represent things your character knows from their past — skills, knowledge, or expertise that don't fit neatly into the six traits. You start with two, gain one at each level achievement, and can increase their modifier over time.