u/keikai

Just wanted to share some stats/opinions from our filler DH game that evolved into a full-fledged campaign. Overall, we enjoyed it a lot and will likely return to DH sometime in the future (after our 5e DnD and Shadowdark campaigns finish). Since it wasn't pre-planned, the campaign was basic. The PCs had to collect all the mcguffins (gaining a level for each) to create a BBEG-slaying weapon that they used in the final session.

We used two optional rules: Spotlight Tracking (w/ 1 token essentially) and Defined Ranges (for gridded play).

All rolls were public and there was no fudging of stats/behavior/etc.

When increasing Tiers PCs had at least enough gold to purchase either an armor set or a weapon from the new tier. Usually they chose a new armor but there were exceptions. So they were underpowered at levels 2, 5 and 8. As a result, I used less powerful adversaries (but still Tier appropriate) and spent fewer BP on encounters at those levels.

Almost all of our combat was played on a grid. Adversaries target priority was determined first by the narrative situation, then motives and tactics, then proximity, then random roll. This would sometimes result in one PC getting heavily focused. I also reskinned and/or upscaled adversaries often due to a lack of adversaries in Tier 3-4. I used both https://www.daggerheart.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Daggerheart-Homebrew-Kit-v1.0-July-31-2025.pdf and u/rightknighttofight spreadsheet https://docs.google.com/document/d/12g-obIkdGJ_iLL19bS0oKPDDvPbPI9pWUiFqGw8ED88/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.mdjo15f06zjv. The latter resulted in "deadlier" adversaries.

Most of the 8 or less BP encounters also used an environment to make the encounters more interesting.

31 Sessions @ 2-3 hours each

• 10 adventures
• 1 hour of prep per adventure + 5-15 minutes per session.
• all sessions were online w/ Owlbear VTT (for maps and rolling) + Discord (voice).

61 Combat Encounters (3 PCs = 11 BP for Medium Encounters)

• 33 were less than 8 BP
• 17 were 8-10 BP
• 11 were 11 BP

43 Death Moves

• 4 Deaths (2x Blaze of Glory, 2x Risk it All)
• 3 Retires (1 from Max Scars)
• 1 "TPK"

Quick thoughts on DH in general from the group after the campaign:

Good

• Hope and fear dice resolution mechanic
• Experiences
• Team-ups
• Quick prep
• Art

Bad

• Gold system
• Most loot/magic items felt underwhelming
• Proficiency damage math gets pretty ridiculous in the higher tiers, especially brawler
• Some broken combos/abilities

Requests

• A full level 1-10 official campaign.
• More adversaries for Tier 3 & 4 and environments in general.

Also, here are some adversaries that punched above their weight class in our game:

Tier 1:

• Acid Burrower. Spit Acid + Relentless can get nuts if anybody is stripped of armor.
• Cave Ogre. Direct damage + AoE can be really nasty, esp. in Tier 1. Save up some fear before using them.
• Dire Wolf. Hobbling Strike is the most broken Tier 1 adversary feature.
• Giant Scorpion. Double Strike + Momentum can potentially generate a lot of Fear.
• Jagged Knife Hexxer. Cheap, Curse is a good Fear generator and always hits. Chaotic Flux can be okay if the PCs group up.
• Minor Chaos Elemental. Really good features. Remake Reality for no-roll AoE direct magic damage.

Tier 2:

• Cult Adept. Shadow Shackles could deadlock the PCs. Shroud of the Fallen ain't too bad either.
• Demonic Hound Pack. Drain hope with Dreadhowl. Good setup encounter.
• Failed Experiment. Double attacks till they're out of stress.
• Giant Beastmaster. Summon + Spotlight Dire Wolves? Nice!
• Gorgon. Momentum + Relentless. Potential advantage.
• Knight of the Realm. Cavalry Charge is just nuts (standard attack, also deal 2d8+4 phy and Stress on hit). Wouldn't bother with For the Realm!
• Mortal Hunter. Terrifying (Buffed Momentum) + Low Rampage CDs can generate lots of Fear.
• Siren. Stacking these can potentially totally shut down a party.
• War Wizard. It's kind of boring and costs a lot of Fear, but Arcane Artillery spam is pretty deadly. 5 Wizards + 5 Fear = ~5-10 HP/Armor Slots each PC before they go.

Tier 3:

• Adult Flickerfly. Never Miss and Uncanny Reflexes, damage + decent survivability. Needs a lot of Fear though.
• Demon of Despair with Demon of Wrath. d20 Fear die and d8 Hope die. So much Fear.
• Dire Bat. Fly around and Screech for always hit Stress, very cheesy. Good setup encounter.
• Dryad. Fill the battlefield with Bramble Patches.
• Young Ice Dragon. Momentum + Relentless + Rend and Crush to delete armor.

Tier 4

• Fallen Sorcerer. A lot of these with Shackles of Guilt triggering was way more effective than I expected.
• Fallen Warlord. Multi-Stage, Momentum + Relentless, good base damage.
• Hallowed Archer. Squishy, but really good action economy. Opening combat with multiple Divine Volleys can be scary.
• Outer Realms Abomination. Reality Quake can quickly drain player resources.
• Perfected Zombie. Two of these focused on a single target can be devastating.
• Volcanic Dragon. Multi Stage, good abilities, durable. Almost TPK'd my group.

Anyways, I thought I would share some of our DH experiences with y'all in the hope they can help enrich your games like you kindly folks have helped enriched ours.

TLDR: DH can be plenty deadly if you want.