RPG: Getting Started With ‘Daggerheart’ – How To Play A Bard
Everyone is getting into Daggerheart these days—and if you’re new to the system, we’re here to help, starting with how to play a Bard.
Daggerheart is Critical Role‘s new RPG of high fantasy adventure set in a variety of worlds. While it’s a different beast altogether if all you’re used to is d20-based fantasy, it’s not too hard to test the waters of this other system. Especially since it wears its influences pretty handily. That said, there are a few things you need to know when playing. So we’re taking a look at what makes each of the classes tick. Starting with how to play a Bard in Daggerheart.
How To Play a Bard in Daggerheart: It’s More Than A Feeling
In Daggerheart, Bards are very much the same as they are in basically every other game that has them. They are charismatic performers, mystical muses, and in general they’re good at a lot of different things. Variety is the spice of life for a Bard and that’s true in Daggerheart. Though you should know, you will be much more inherently a support based class here.
Bards have potent abilities to aid the party, starting with their many-splendored hope feature: Make a Scene. This ability lets you spend 3 hope (the player-facing meta currency) to distract an enemy, making them easier to affect with abilities and spells. This one is underrated, because it will lower the difficulty to affect an enemy for basically the whole party temporarily.
Their class feature: Rally is similar to Bardic Inspiration in other systems. Only it hits the whole party at once instead of a little at a time. Once per session you can use Rally to inspire your comrades, giving you and each of your allies a single d6 that they can spend on a variety of effects, from clearing Stress to doing damage. Versatile.
“Bards are the most charismatic people in all the realms. Members of this class are masters of captivation and specialize in a variety of performance types, including singing, playing musical instruments, weaving tales, or telling jokes. Whether performing for an audience or speaking to an individual, bards thrive in social situations. Members of this profession bond and train at schools or guilds, but a current of egotism runs through those of the bardic persuasion. While they may be the most likely class to bring people together, a bard of ill temper can just as easily tear a party apart.”
Okay, But How Do You Actually Build a Bard?
There are a few important things to keep in mind when making a Bard in Daggerheart. First is that Bards are naturally pretty fragile. They only have 5 starting hit points (tied for lowest with Wizard) and only a 10 Evasion, meaning that when you get hit, it’s going to count. So you’ll want to be careful with how much incoming fire you take. You can balance this out with some armor—but it only does so much.
As a Bard you’ll be much more reliant on your allies and abilities to keep you from getting hit. So maybe make sure you pick up a defensive power like the Book of Ava to help shore up your meager defenses. And stick close to your party’s Guardian.
You’ll also want to know where to put your stats. As you might expect, Bards get a lot of mileage out of Charisma—or as they call it in Daggerheart, Presence—so you’ll probably want to make sure it’s one of your high stats. The other stats are all pretty important. It kind of depends on what weapon you want to use, in Daggerheart. I’d recommend looking through the Equipment Guide and deciding whether you want to wield the Presence Weapons and be single-stat focused, or whather you want to use something like Presence and Finesse (for more of a ranged guy) or Presence and Agility (for bigger weapon damage).
How to Play a Bard in Daggerheart With Grace (and Codex)
As a Bard, the other thing you really need to know how to do is use your Domain Powers. These are the cards that come with every Daggerheart set—you get to pick from the Grace and Codex Domains. And it’s an interesting combo. Codex is very much for Wizard type stuff. If you want to focus on doing damage or other combat things with magic, Codex is what you want.
It has two types of powers: Grimoires, which are a collection of three magical effects that you can pick from. These are the “Book of ___” powers. They let you customize your character with unique abilities a little bit more than most. And then there are spells, which are singular, typically more powerful effects. The biggest thing you’ll want to pay attention to here is how your Codex stuff adds on to your innate support abilities. Picking damage or debuffs can be a great way to really round out your Bard.
Meanwhile Grace is the Charisma power tree. You start with abilities like Enthrall, which lets you captivate someone’s attention, and end up being able to get food and drinks for free everywhere you go. It’s an awesome collection of powers that feel useful for both combat and roleplay purposes.
This is where you’ll find more Occult powers. Like being able to see through someone else’s eyes. As well as more party-focused powers, like Encore, which lets you make a Spellcast roll (adding Presence) to see if you can deal the same damage to a target that your ally just did. Potent stuff.
And Don’t Forget Your Subclass
Every Daggerheart class has two distinct subclasses. And if you want to know how to play a Bard in Daggerheart, you’ll want to know what they each can do. Each subclass is made up of a collection of Foundation Features that level up as you grow in power (and pick the advancements that let you level up).
For Bard, there are two options, starting with Troubador. This is the classic Bard that plays music to bolster allies. Your Foundation Feature, Gifted Performer lets you perform three different magical songs (once per day, each), and they have different effects. You can heal everyone for a single hit point (which sounds meager, but is actually real good), make an enemy Vulnerable to your party, or give everyone a Hope. Each of these will come up every session.
Or you can play a Wordsmith, to be slightly more about the Bardic Inspiration side of a Bard. Your Foundation Features, Rousing Speech and Heart of a Poet let you help allies clear stress and add a d4 whenever you’re Charisma-ing at people.
All in all, playing a Bard in Daggerheart is mostly about juggling your powers and abilities, and finding the right balance between party support/healer + spellcaster capable of locking down the battlefield.
Check out Daggerheart on DriveThruRPG (because physical copies are sold out, still)!
