Summary
When you make a character inDaggerheart, you’ll be asked to select both an ancestry and a class. These two elements of character creation, just like most tabletop roleplaying games, will define your abilities, some of your stats (or traits), and so much more. But if you’re brand new to Daggerheart or tabletop games in general, you might be wondering which combinations work best.
That’s why we’ve created this list. For this list, we’re looking at ancestries and subclasses from the core Daggerheart sourcebook, not homebrew content. Here are some of the best ancestry and class combos you can play in Daggerheart.
Key Feature
Bonuses to Stress
When you select a human at character creation, you gain two key features. First, you gain an additional Stress slot right out of the gate. Second, you can mark Stress to reroll a failed roll that utilizes one of your Experiences. The Vengeance subclass for guardians also grants you access to an additional Stress slot and has abilities like Revenge that allow you to mark Stress to force HP slots on adversaries in combat.
So, because of these abilities, when you select this ancestry and class combination, not only do you gain two extra Stress slots at level one, but you also gain a handful of different abilities that allow you to make excellent use of those extra Stress slots. If you can find ways to add your Experiences to given attack rolls, you’ll find yourself incredibly optimized in combat.
Call of the Brave
Bonuses to Gaining Hope
Katari are cat-like humanoids that are highly agile and nimble, making them great martial combatants. For this combination, select the Call of the Brave subclass for warriors. There are a handful of reasons why this synergizes well with katari.
First, the Call of the Brave subclass allows you to gain Hope more easily thanks to features like Courage, Battle Ritual, and Rise to the Challenge, which will all grant specific improvements to earning Hope. Gaining more Hope is great for any character, and greatfor the warrior classin general, but it’s also helpful for katari, who can spend two Hope to reroll their Hope die on a failed Agility Roll. This is great as they can attack with their claws using Agility, making enemies vulnerable.
Buffs to Experience Usage
Experiences are one of the most unique ways you may optimize your character in Daggerheart. Clanks have a unique ancestry feature that allows them to improve their modifier to one Experience of their choice by a +1. Of course, as you level up, you can add more Experiences and increase their modifiers, meaning this ability can only get more powerful.
Additionally, the School of Knowledge wizard subclass has abilities that allow you to mark Stress instead of Hope to use these Experiences, and at the Mastery level, potentially not spend any Hope or Stress. Plus, if you mark a Stress instead of Hope, you may double your Experience modifier.
Reduce Incoming Damage
Similar to legacy Dungeons & Dragons rules, drakona and sorcerers also make an excellent ancestry and class combination. First off, they both share a primary trait in Instinct, which is the Spellcast trait for all sorcerers and the trait drakona will use for their breath weapon ability. The other reason drakona and sorcerers make for a great combination has to do with damage reduction.
This specifically works best with the Elemental Origin subclass (which also makes for nice roleplay flavor given a drakona’s elemental nature). With this subclass’s specialization feature, you can mark a Stress to add a d6 to your Evasion, which is great given a sorcerer’s low HP. Similarly, drakona can use their scales to mark a Stress to mark one fewer HP on an attack. This means you’re more likely to avoid incoming damage or reduce it if you do, allowing you to stay up for longer.
Reduce Your Incoming Damage
Seraphs, which function much like clerics do in Dungeons & Dragons, have tons of different abilities to aid their allies. Their main Hope Feature allows them to clear HP on an ally by spending three Hope. However, with rare exceptions, they can’t always help themselves, particularly when it comes to clearing their own HP.
That’s why having a tougher ancestry pick like dwarvescan help tremendously with seraphs. Dwarves can mark Stress instead of HP when taking Minor Damage, and can spend three Hope to halve incoming physical damage. Between this and the Divine Wielder’s specialization feature that allows them extra prayer dice rolls, you can potentially reduce your damage significantly, thus keeping yourself up in battle more thoroughly.
Call of the Slayer
Improvements to Attack of Opportunity
Elves have a very powerful ancestry feature known as Quick Reactions. When you mark a Stress, you can gain advantage on a reaction roll. This is extremely powerful when synergized with the warrior’s Attack of Opportunity class feature, which allows you to use a reaction roll using a trait of your choice against a creature’s Difficulty. Overall, this means you’re far more likely to hit these attacks.
Additionally, the Call of the Slayer subclass has a mastery feature known as Marital Preparation, which allows you to take a special move during downtime. This move helps embolden you and your party for their next combat encounter. And, elves can enter a trance during a rest to select an additional downtime move, meaning you can take this move without having to sacrifice something else.
Improvements to Evasion and Close Range
The rogue class has bonuses to their Evasion built-in, as well as attacks when an ally of theirs is within melee range of a targeted adversary. The Nightwalker rogue, at the Mastery level, gains a +1 bonus to their Evasion, making them incredibly hard to hit already.
However, faeries can also mark a Stress to gain an additional +2 to their Evasion while flying, making them even trickier to pin down. Plus, they can spend three Hope to rerollan ally’s dice rollwithin Close range, which synergizes well with the bonuses they get when an ally is within melee range of an adversary and them.
Synergized Agility
At character creation, when you select a simiah, you immediately gain advantage on Agility Rolls that involve balancing and climbing, and a +1 bonus to your Evasion. This makes you highly dexterous, able to get into high-up places at a range.
Rangers, of course, make for great long-ranged combatants. Their Spellcast Trait is Agility, meaning picking a long-range Agility weapon like a longbow can synergize well with your climbing features. Plus, at the Specialization level, Wayfinder rangers gain a +2 bonus to Evasion against attacks from their Focus, which synergizes well with your early-on +1 bonus to Evasion.
Bonuses to Hope and Stress
Mixed ancestry is totally viable in Daggerheart. For this build, select human and infernis, and select the Fearless feature from infernis and the High Stamina feature for humans. This will give you extra Stress and the ability to mark Stress to change Fear rolls into Hope ones.
The Warden of Renewal subclass relies on spending both Hope and Stress to buff yourself and allies. These two ancestry features give you bonuses to both of those resources, meaning you’ll be able to heal your party and yourself much more frequently.
Ignore Potential Movement Penalties
One of the key features of a Troubadour bard in Daggerheart is their Gifted Performer songs, which all require you to be within Close Range. In Daggerheart, when you need to move closer to an ally or enemy that’s beyond Close Range, you’ll need to make an Agility Roll, which can prove difficult or even impose disadvantage if the circumstances are right.
However, goblins can ignore disadvantage on Agility Rolls, meaning it’s much easier for you to potentially move into Close Range. Plus, if you’re within Very Close Range, as you’re likely to be as a bard to help your party, you may mark Stress to force rerolls on adversaries.
