Daggerheart System Reference Document v1.0
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The Daggerheart System Reference Document is a comprehensive guide outlining the rules, mechanics, lore, and content for use under the Darrington Press Community Gaming License (DPCGL). This license allows creators, publishers, and fans to develop and share their own Daggerheart Compatible content and provides the foundational rules permitted for third-party use.
The below document includes core mechanics, character creation, die systems, and other essential gameplay elements for use under the Community Gaming License, ensuring compatibility with the official Daggerheart experience while empowering the community to expand upon the game and truly make it their own!
Changelog for Daggerheart SRD September-9
Page 2: Fixed hyperlinks in TOC and navigational bookmarks.
Page 2: Removed “Starting a Campaign,” “Session Zero,” and “Setting Creation” from Table of Contents.
Corrected page numbers of Table of Contents
Page 4: Replaced the fi rst sentence with “A character’s ancestry refl ects their lineage, impacting their physicality and granting them two unique ancestry features.”
Page 5: Under “Create Your Experiences,” we have added clarifi cation: “When your PC makes a move, they can spend a Hope to add a relevant Experience’s modifi er to an action or reaction roll”
NEW Page 7: Spelling/Grammar – “accessed” is now spelled correctly under the Midnight domain.
Page 9: Bolded “Spend 3 Hope,” “d6,” and “d8.”
NEW Page 9: Typo – Italicized the condition Distract
NEW Page 10: Typo – Bold italics applied to Wildtouch feature
Page 10: Domain icons moved to proper place on page 7. Bolded “Spend 3 Hope” under Druid’s Hope Feature.
Page 11: Bolded “1d10,” “mark a Stress,” “1d8,” “d6,” and “mark a Stress.”
NEW Page 11: Typo – Very fi rst “Mark a Stress” under the Elemental Incarnation feature has been bolded.
Page 12: Fixed formatting of Pack Predator header
NEW Page 12: Typo – Italics applied to Vulnerable under Pack Predator’s Hobbling Strike
Page 13: Fixed formatting of Powerful Beast header
NEW Page 13 and Beastform Sheet: Mechanics – Powerful Beast stats swapped to “Strength +3, Evasion +1”
Page 13: Typo – Striking Serpent does “direct physical damage.”
NEW Page 13: Typo – Italics applied to Poisoned and bold applied to 1d10 under Striking Serpent’s Venomous Strike
NEW Page 13: Typo – Italics applied to Vulnerable under Mighty Strider’s Trample
Page 14: Fixed formatting for Aquatic Predator header
Page 14: Typo – added the “phy” damage type to Legendary Hybrid.
Page 15: Fixed formatting for Mythic Beast header
NEW Page 15: Typo – Italics applied to Restrained under Epic Aquatic Beast’s Ocean Master
NEW Page 15: Typo – Italics applied to Unstoppable, Restrained, and Vulnerable
NEW Page 17: Typo – Bold and italics applied to Ranger’s Focus Feature and italics applied to Focus.
NEW Page 18: Mechanics – Added a sentence at the end of Step 4. “Choose whether they deal physical or magic damage.”
NEW Page 19: Typo – Italics applied to Restrained and Cloaked
Page 20: Syndicate Rogue Background question, typo correction. “Who from your past is still chasing you?”
NEW Page 20: Typo – Bold applied to 2d8 under the Syndicate Rogue’s Specialization feature Contacts Everywhere
NEW Page 20: Typo – Bold applied to d20 under the Syndicate Rogue’s Mastery feature Reliable Backup
NEW Page 23: Typo – Italics applied to Charge and bold applied to “spend 2 Hope” under Primal Origin Sorcerer’s Mastery feature Arcane Charge.
NEW Page 25: Typo – Bold applied to 2d10 under the School of War Wizard Specialization feature Fueled by Fear
Page 27: Removed bolding from “humanoid.”
NEW Page 30: Typo – Bold applied to “Mark a Stress” under the Human feature Adaptability
NEW Page 34: Typo – Bold applied to “spend a Hope” under the Wanderborne feature
NEW Page 39: Clarity – Added the sentence under Hit Points: “You’ll be able to increase the number of Hit Point slots you have available as you level up, to a maximum of 12.”
NEW Page 39: Clarity – Added the sentence under Stress: “All classes start with 6 Stress slots. You’ll be able to increase the number of Stress slots you have available as you level up, to a maximum of 12.”
Page 43: Under “When you choose to increase your Experiences” we have added the clarifi cation: “Choose two Experiences on your character sheet and gain a permanent +1 bonus to both.”
Page 44: Removed “of the same burden” from “You can swap an Inventory Weapon with an Active Weapon at no cost during a rest or moment of calm; otherwise, you must mark a Stress to do so.”
Page 45: Correction – Glowing Rings have been adjusted. The damage has been changed to: Tier 1 – d10+2.
Page 45, 46, 48, 50: Correction – The Spear has been adjusted. It does not have “Cumbersome” as a feature and the damage has been changed to: Tier 1 – d8+3, Tier 2 – d8+6, Tier 3 – d8+9, Tier 4 – d8+12.
Page 45, 46, 48, 50: Correction – The Longsword has been adjusted. The damage has been changed to: Tier 1 – d10+3, Tier 2 – d10+6, Tier 3 – d10+9, Tier 4 – d10+12.
Page 49: Tier 3 Magic Weapons table added.
Page 53: Mechanical – Buckler feature “Defl ecting: When you are attacked, you can mark an Armor Slot to gain a bonus to your Evasion equal to your available Armor Slots against the attack.”
NEW Page 56: Clarity – Under bullet point about base thresholds, added the sentence: “When recording your character’s damage thresholds in the “Damage & Health” section of your character sheet, you always add your character’s level to those values.”
NEW Page 56: Clarity – Under “Reducing Incoming Damage,” added the sentence: “When you take damage, you can mark one Armor Slot to reduce the severity of the damage by one threshold (Severe to Major, Major to Minor, Minor to Nothing).”
Page 62: Mechanical – Sweet Moss: “You can consume this moss during a rest to clear 1d10 HP or 1d10 Stress.”
Page 71: Descriptive text added under “Description” and “Motives & Tactics.”
Page 72: Spelling/Grammar – “When another adversary within Very Close range of this adversary”
Page 74: Stages of Fallen Warlord now in their proper bullets. Stages of Volcanic Dragon are now in their proper bullets.
NEW Page 77: Mechanics – The Glass Snake’s “Armor-Shredding Shards” passive feature now says “After a successful attack against the Snake within Melee range, the attacker must mark an Armor Slot. If they can’t mark an Armor Slot, they must mark an HP.”
Page 80: Spelling/Grammar – full stop has been added at the end of the Burning feature for Tiny Red Ooze.
Page 83: Added missing Weaponmaster (Tier 1) stat block
NEW Page 85: Typo – “Relentless (2) – Passive: The Box can be spotlighted up to two times per GM turn. Spend Fear as usual to spotlight them.”
Page 89: Typo – In the Secret-Keeper, the Summoning Ritual text now says “tick down.”
NEW Page 91: Mechanics – Adult Flickerfl y’s “Hallucinatory Breath – Action” has been corrected to a “Reaction.”
Page 94: Added missing Stag Knight (Tier 3) stat block
Page 98: Typo – “Relentless (3) – Passive: The Seraph can be spotlighted up to three times per GM turn.”
Page 100: Added description under “Name.”
NEW Page 101: Typo – The Zombie Legion’s “Tentacles” is now “Undead Hands.”
Page 103: Spelling/Grammar – “Restrained lasts until they’re freed…”
Page 108: Spelling/Grammar – fi xed spelling of “Targets” under Choking Ash reaction.
Page 110: Spelling/Grammar – “What does it feel like to have this power taken from you?”
Page 123: Splintering Strike (Bone Level 9): Clarity – Ability text now reads: “Spend a Hope and make an attack against all adversaries within your weapon’s range. Once per long rest, on a success against any targets, roll your weapon’s damage and distribute that damage however you wish between the targets you succeeded against. Before you deal damage to each target, roll an additional damage die and add its result to the damage you deal to them.”
Page 125 & Book of Grynn (Codex Level 4): Typo – “Arcane Defl ection: Once per long rest, spend a Hope to negate the damage of an attack targeting you or an ally within Very Close range.”
Page 125 & Book of Grynn (Codex Level 4): Clarity – “Wall of Flame: Make a Spellcast Roll (15). On a success, create a temporary wall of magical fl ame between two points within Far range. All creatures in its path must choose a side to be on, and anything that subsequently passes through the wall takes 4d10+3 magic damage.”
Changelog for Daggerheart SRD July-27
Updates from June 27th, 2025:
Page 2: Fixed hyperlinks in TOC and navigational bookmarks.
Page 2: Removed “Starting a Campaign,” “Session Zero,” and “Setting Creation” from Table of Contents.
Corrected page numbers of Table of Contents
Page 4: Replaced the first sentence with “A character’s ancestry reflects their lineage, impacting their physicality and granting them two unique ancestry features.”
Page 5: Under “Create Your Experiences,” we have added clarification: “When your PC makes a move, they can spend a Hope to add a relevant Experience’s modifier to an action or reaction roll”
Page 9: Bolded “Spend 3 Hope,” “d6,” and “d8.”
Page 10: Domain icons moved to proper place on page 7.
Bolded “Spend 3 Hope.”
Page 11: Bolded “1d10,” “mark a Stress,” “1d8,” “d6,” and “mark a Stress.”
Page 12: Fixed formatting of Pack Predator header
Page 13: Fixed formatting of Powerful Beast header
Page 13: Typo – Striking Serpent does “direct physical damage.”
Page 14: Fixed formatting for Aquatic Predator header
Page 14: Typo – added the “phy” damage type to Legendary Hybrid.
Page 15: Fixed formatting for Mythic Beast header
Page 20: Syndicate Rogue Background question, typo correction. “Who from your past is still chasing you?”
Page 27: Removed bolding from “humanoid.”
Page 43: Under “When you choose to increase your Experiences” we have added the clarification: “Choose two Experiences on your character sheet and gain a permanent +1 bonus to both.”
Page 44: Removed “of the same burden” from “You can swap an Inventory Weapon with an Active Weapon at no cost during a rest or moment of calm; otherwise, you must mark a Stress to do so.”
Page 45: Correction – Glowing Rings have been adjusted. The damage has been changed to: Tier 1 – d10+2.
Page 45, 46, 48, 50: Correction – The Spear has been adjusted. It does not have “Cumbersome” as a feature and the damage has been changed to: Tier 1 – d8+3, Tier 2 – d8+6, Tier 3 – d8+9, Tier 4 – d8+12.
Page 45, 46, 48, 50: Correction – The Longsword has been adjusted. The damage has been changed to: Tier 1 – d10+3, Tier 2 – d10+6, Tier 3 – d10+9, Tier 4 – d10+12.
Page 49: Tier 3 Magic Weapons table added.
Page 53: Mechanical – Buckler feature “Deflecting: When you are attacked, you can mark an Armor Slot to gain a bonus to your Evasion equal to your available Armor Slots against the attack.”
Page 62: Mechanical – Sweet Moss: “You can consume this moss during a rest to clear 1d10 HP or 1d10 Stress.”
Page 71: Descriptive text added under “Description” and “Motives & Tactics.”
Page 72: Spelling/Grammar – “When another adversary within Very Close range of this adversary”
Page 74: Stages of Fallen Warlord now in their proper bullets. Stages of Volcanic Dragon are now in their proper bullets.
Page 83: Added missing Weaponmaster (Tier 1) stat block
Page 89: Typo – In the Secret-Keeper, the Summoning Ritual text now says “tick down.”
Page 94: Added missing Stag Knight (Tier 3) stat block
Page 100: Added description under “Name.”
Page 103: Spelling/Grammar – “Restrained lasts until they’re freed…”
Page 108: Spelling/Grammar – fixed spelling of “Targets” under Choking Ash reaction.
Page 110: Spelling/Grammar – “What does it feel like to have this power taken from you?”
Page 123 Splintering Strike (Bone Level 9): Clarity – Ability text now reads: “Spend a Hope and make an attack against all adversaries within your weapon’s range. Once per long rest, on a success against any targets, roll your weapon’s damage and distribute that damage however you wish between the targets you succeeded against. Before you deal damage to each target, roll an additional damage die and add its result to the damage you deal to them.”
Page 125 & Book of Grynn (Codex Level 4): Typo – “Arcane Deflection: Once per long rest, spend a Hope to negate the damage of an attack targeting you or an ally within Very Close range.”
Page 125 & Book of Grynn (Codex Level 4): Clarity – “Wall of Flame: Make a Spellcast Roll (15). On a success, create a temporary wall of magical flame between two points within Far range. All creatures in its path must choose a side to be on, and anything that subsequently passes through the wall takes 4d10+3 magic damage.”