Until Daggerheart I could count the number of times I was a player in a TTRPG on both hands. Over the last ten years I had been the "forever GM", which I love! I love learning games, teaching games, and running games.

I had GMed a little bit of DH during the open beta, but after PAXU 2024 I got an itch to be a player. With the game being new, and everyone getting into it for the first time, I saw this as an opportunity. I joined a Christmas themed one shot with Daniel over at Bladebound Saga in December 2024 and then joined his Beast Feast campaign in January 2025. The rest is history!

As I got more opportunities to play one shots I figured why not try something new each time? Thus started my quest to play at least a one shot in every class in the Daggerheart core rulebook. Since then I have played/GMed 50+ sessions of Daggerheart across many tables and have loved every second of it!

This will be my experience playing these classes, and also what I observed from other players at these tables. Getting a chance to play with so many different groups gave me insights not only into how the PCs run, but also lots of GM insights that I could bring back to my own tables.

Note: You will notice that I have not had an opportunity to play in tier 4 of Daggerheart. I have GMed a level 10 one shot, but I am looking forward to participating in more high level play in the future.

So what did I play?

All the PCs I played on my quest to play all the DH core classes are listed here in in chronological order from when I first created the character. Otherwise, the order was mostly dependent on the theme of whatever adventure I was sitting down to play and what I still had left to check off my list.

Marko - Level 5 Orderborne Orc Warrior (Call of the Brave)

• This was for a Christmas one shot so I used the default orc character art from the book to get the red and green color palette.
• I also made my Orderborne Dedications about the Christmas Spirit: Protect the villagers of Evervale, Embody the holiday spirit, Be a light in the dark.
• Right at the beginning of the session the group was surrounded by a ton of giant wooden toy soldiers. I used Boost to leap right into a big cluster of them used Whirlwind. I rolled a crit AND max damage on the attack, taking out the entire group in one blow! I have never felt more badass as a player than in that moment.

Milo Kosmer - Levels 1-5 Loreborne Infernis Wizard (School of Knowledge)

• My sweet boy, waiter turned wizard, who became my first every campaign character as a player. This Beast Feast campaign lasted for a little over a year starting in the open beta for a few months using the materials released at PAXU 2024, and then transitioning over to the final rules.
• Wizard is the class of my heart, so I came to this just with the concept of "I'm going to play a wizard, but his spell book is a historical cookbook" and he grew so much over the sessions, which as a forever GM was magical to finally get to experience.
• The party also included a divine wielder seraph, a call of the brave warrior, a wayfinder ranger, a troubadour bard, and a winged sentinel seraph, which allowed me to learn a lot about the game and the other classes by observing my GM and fellow players.

Art commission of Milo by lobattery

Ambrose Novak - Level 7 Orderborne Simiah Seraph (Divine Wielder)

• This was for a Colossus of the Drylands one shot and boy howdy are PCs beefy by that level.
• Simiah allowed me to have advantage on climbing, which is good for fighting a colossus. Then, I made a build focused on doing as much damage as I could and it delivered! The Warrior and I went back to back on a tag team and did some massive damage.
• This is also where it first became apparent to me that PCs at the top of their tier range swing above their weight class. I ended the session at full HP and Stress.

Thea Eldris - Level 3 Slyborne Elf Rogue (Nightwalker)

• This was for a Motherboard one shot so tested out reflavoring all of the abilities as tech. I definitely take a softer edge to this, but its a fun creative challenge
• My favorite instance of this was describing how when I used Invisibility, hexagonal cloaking tiles unfolded over me and I was able to creep up and put an adversary in a Chokehold. I really felt like a rogue using tech to their advantage.
• I am very interested in trying the Syndicate Rogue subclass, but their Well-Connected core ability seems better suited for a game longer than a one shot

Flynn - Level 2 Hearthborne Fungril Druid (Warden of the Elements)

• This was for a one shot where the GM wanted to try running a session of DH without any prep at all, just using the tools for one shots from the book.
• I typically like to theme my characters to whatever we are playing, so this one was definitely a little more thin on detail.
• I also noticed that, based on the situation at hand, I had to go out of my way to make sure I used my Beastform at least once during the session. I was worried that the Druid class would hinge strongly on the Beastforms but I did not feel that to be the case.

Jobratin "Joey" Booker - Level 1 Wildborne Clank Ranger (Wayfinder)

• This one shot was to test Patchwork Paladin's hexcrawling rules for DH
• Obviously the Wayfinder Ranger especially is built for something like this, so I definitely had my moments to shine during this one shot.
• We had a Wayfinder Ranger in my Beast Feast campaign and this one shot let me experience first hand how cool the Ranger's Focus and Ruthless Predator combination is for doling out Stress to adversaries.

Cassandra - Level 2 Ridgeborne Faerie Sorcerer (Primal Origin)

• This one was for StartPlaying's charity event to support the Immigrant Rapid Response Fund via the Women's Foundation of Minnesota GMed by the lovely Kai Solace (who was a fellow player in my Beast Feast campaign)
• We had a great time beating a hag, who had brought about eternal winter, through the power of friendship!
• Unleash Chaos does feel like a iconic ability for Sorcerers and it's a lot of fun to use.

Hideo Seaflame - Level 4 Ridgeborne Katari Bard (Wordsmith)

• This was also a Motherboard one shot in preparation for an upcoming Motherboard campaign
• My bard focused all his abilities through an electric violin that was mostly just a metal outline. He would tune the violin to frequencies that would harm or heal
• I made my bard very combat focused assuming that we'd have a big boss fight at the end of the one shot, but we ended up resolving it non violently. This took me a bit by surprise, but ultimately I was able to use the answers I gave for my Background and Connection questions as creative solutions in the final encounter!

"Lucky" Fray - Level 1 Wildborne Giant/Halfling Guardian (Stalwart)

• Last, but certainly not least, Fray is my new Motherboard campaign character after our Beast Feast campaign concluded! His entire character concept is around the idea of being lucky and having near death experiences, so I made my first mixed ancestry character to bring in the halfling Luckbringer ability
• In our first session I crit and was able to body slam a remnant through a barn roof and land on top of it unscathed! This is definitely a big change up from playing a wizard, but I am excited.
• I Am Your Shield was the first domain card I picked for Fray because I believe I Am Your Shield is iconic to Guardian style characters, but more on that in a bit

TLDR:

• Marko - Level 5 Orderborne Orc Warrior (Call of the Brave) : 1 session
• Milo Kosmer - Levels 1-5 Loreborne Infernis Wizard (School of Knowledge) : 26 sessions
• Ambrose Novak - Level 7 Orderborne Simiah Seraph (Divine Wielder) : 1 session
• Thea Eldris - Level 3 Slyborne Elf Rogue (Nightwalker) : 1 session
• Flynn - Level 2 Hearthborne Fungril Druid (Warden of the Elements) : 1 session
• Jobratin "Joey" Booker - Level 1 Wildborne Clank Ranger (Wayfinder) : 1 session
• Cassandra - Level 2 Ridgeborne Faerie Sorcerer (Primal Origin) : 1 session
• Hideo Seaflame - Level 4 Ridgeborne Katari Bard (Wordsmith) : 1 session
• "Lucky" Fray - Level 1 Wildborne Giant/Halfling Guardian (Stalwart) : 1+ sessions

Note: At the time of writing this I have also played 8+ sessions as Simon, a Warborne Human Blood Hunter (Order of the Ghostslayer), in an Age of Umbra campaign. I am enjoying it immensely, but for today's purposes we're only talking about core book classes.

Now that I've shared what I played, let's talk about I learned from playing them!

Were there any domain cards that you felt you had to pick for a particular class?

While listening to the devs talk about the development of the game, one comment they made that came up a few times was making sure that domain cards and character abilities were designed in such a way that no single card felt like you had to pick it for that character to be successful.

As I was working through my quest to play all of these classes I kept that idea in mind. Were there any cards/abilities that I felt like I had to pick?

To me, the only two cards that I felt that way about were less about the cards being mechanically way better than another, but more about a card feeling like an iconic ability for a class despite sharing that card with another class.

The first card that falls into this category is I Am Your Shield. In my Beast Feast campaign our Divine Wielder Seraph used this card as one of their iconic abilities, acting as a protector to our party. That protector vibe of that domain card immediately read as Guardian (and the aforementioned Seraph actually eventually multiclassed into Guardian). Also, in several one shots I participated in, anyone with I Am Your Shield instantly got pegged as a Guardian by other players at the table, even if they were a Seraph. Using I Am Your Shield at the table feels like a must have for that protector style of play.

The other card that I feel falls into this category is Unleash Chaos for Sorcerers. When I went to play my Sorcerer I had to look up what other class shared the Arcana domain (it's Druid) because I couldn't recall seeing anyone other than Sorcerers using Unleash Chaos in play. I don't know if it was just a combination of the art and the ability itself, alongside the other Sorcerer abilities and background, but this card felt like a must have for a Sorcerer.

Other than those two cards I did not feel particularly compelled to choose anything specific outside of my own personal preference or character concept. Honestly, the harder choices came from being so many cool options! The narrative also drove a lot of my choices. For example, I was surprised with myself when it was easy to set aside Teleport at level 5 for a more narratively appropriate card at the conclusion of my Beast Feast campaign.

Key Takeaways from Playing Every Core Class

Lean Into Character Theming

Daggerheart presents so many cool opportunities for reflavoring abilities and cultivating a vibe for your character that is tied to the setting/situation you are playing in. Lean into it! If you're playing a Christmas themed one shot, create Christmas themed answers to your background questions. If you're playing in the Motherboard campaign frame think about how you can reflavor your character abilities to match the tone of the setting. If you're playing a session about traversing the wilderness, make a character who's built for that. Leaning into theming also creates fun creative restraints when building out your character

Classes Have a Strong Archetypal Base with Room for the Vibe to Shine

Each Daggerheart class brings a strong archetypal base to the table, but having each class made up of two Domains allows for a lot of flexibility within each class to cultivate the vibe of character you are going for. This flexibility allows for the preferences and playstyle of the player to shine through while still giving a strong foundation to work from.

Combining this with the first point about leaning into theming allows characters to feel very different even if under the hood they are mostly the same. For example, the kobold bard with a giant cauldron strapped on his back from my Beast Feast campaign played very differently than my Motherboard katari bard with his electric violin, despite many of the cards in their loadout being the same. Background and connection questions do a lot for this in quickly building out a unique character.

Domain Cards Can Be Selected for Narrative Reasons

As I discussed earlier, through my experience playing I did not feel that there were any cards you had to pick for mechanical reasons. This meant that I could choose domain cards and abilities that made sense solely for narrative reasons, and to cultivate the vibe I wanted for my character.

For example, in my Beast Feast campaign I realized that after the first two levels that I had only selected Codex cards for my wizard. Since we had two seraphs in the party who could cover the Splendor domain if needed, I decided that I would commit to the bit and try to collect as many Codex cards as possible throughout the campaign. When we reached level 5, however, knowing that this would be the final level of the campaign, I surprised myself by setting aside Teleport and selecting the Splendor card Smite for my final domain card choice. Narratively this made sense because, for my character specifically, the golden magic of the Splendor domain had become representative of the magic of Hyaleus. I only used Smite once in a critical narrative moment, but did not feel any lack by making a narrative based choice.

You're Sleeping On Stress Dealing Builds

Stress dealing builds are amazing, especially against single target boss type monsters. In Daggerheart maxing out an adversary's Stress means:

• They are now Vulnerable (meaning all rolls against them have advantage)
• Any further instances that would cause them to mark a Stress, they have to mark an HP instead
• And the adversary cannot use any abilities that cost them a Stress
  This typically creates a death spiral allowing the combat to be wrapped up quickly and dramatically.

Any PC who can deal Stress can contribute to this, but the Wayfinder Ranger is excellent at it. Combining their Ranger's Focus and Ruthless Predator abilities can allow them to consistently dole out Stress to an adversary. A bard or rogue in the party, who uses the level 2 Grace card Troublemaker, can also make a great dent in an adversary's Stress.

PCs at the Top of Their Tier Can Swing Above Their Weight Class

I have noticed this both in play and GMing at my own tables, and have heard this consistently from other DH GMs. PCs at the top of their tier (levels 1, 4, 7, and 10) can swing above their weight class and can typically begin to face adversaries from the tier above.

This is obviously something the GM needs to keep their hands on the dials for depending on their specific party composition, but Daggerheart PCs are very powerful and can handle a lot more than you think they can.

In Conclusion!

I have really enjoyed my quest to play all of the Daggerheart core classes! I am eternally grateful to all the GMs who let me sit at their table and play in their games. This adventure has allowed me to challenge myself creatively in new ways, and get an even better understanding of the game that I can bring to the Daggerheart tables I GM. Breaking the "forever GM" seal has also given me more opportunities to sit down and be a player at games other than Daggerheart as well and I couldn't be happier!

This is also just in time to try out the next set of classes (Witch, Warlock, Brawler, and Assassin) coming out in the Hope and Fear Daggerheart expansion this summer. Since I have been on my quest with the core classes I haven't had a chance to play any of the Hope and Fear classes in their playtest form so I am excited to finally get to try them out officially!

What is your favorite Daggerheart class you've played so far?
Tell me all about it!