Darrington Press has dropped new Daggerheart playtest material into The Void. The new playtest drop is for the Daggerheart Summoner, a new spellcasting class all about conjuring otherworldly beings with occult rituals to do their bidding.
The Daggerheart Summoner Playtest Release
The Daggerheart Summoner playtest became available yesterday on the Daggerheart website at no cost. Much like Dungeons & Dragons’ Unearthed Arcana playtest material, these playtest drops may hint at future material for Darrington Press’ fantasy TTRPG. There is even precedent with the upcoming Hope & Fear expansion containing transformation rules which originally showed up as playtest material.
As the name implies, the unique selling point of the Summoner is to conjure Fate Spirits. These spirits can aid allies, debuff enemies, or perform small harmless tasks to lighten the load for the rest of the party. The Summoner can call upon more powerful Fate Spirits as they level up, with each spirit placed into four Circles.
As for what kind of spirits you summon, that is determined by one of two subclasses. The Necromancer lets you call upon the power of the undead. You start with shambling corpses and terrifying ghosts, and by the end, you can enlist the command of Death Knights to lay your enemies low. The Theurgist lets you call upon celestial aid like protective angels and stalwart archangels, and can eventually invoke divine intervention by a god.
The key factors balancing the Daggerheart Summoner are small but meaningful. Conjuring a spirit costs you one Stress each time you do so, a vital resource in Daggerheart. These summons cannot be targeted, and they disappear whenever certain conditions are met. Lastly, there is a ceiling to how many spirits you can have summoned at a time. Given how summoning classes in TTRPGs can be exercises in tedious bookkeeping, these controls are sensible.
As for how well this class captures the fantasy of commanding your own menagerie of monsters in a game, that is something you will have to see by trying out the Summoner for yourself. The player feedback survey for the Summoner class will open July 23rd.
