Warriors offer a great frontline fighter, but there is more to them than meets the eye
The Warrior is the most direct class in Daggerheart. You run into battle, hit hard, and you don’t apologise for it. If you want a class that rewards clever resource management, battlefield positioning, and a playstyle that scales well from level one to the end of a campaign, the Warrior deserves a look.
The Warrior is a class that looks simple on the surface and reveals surprising depth once you actually sit down with it. This guide will walk you through everything you need to know to get the most out of it.
At a glance
Choose a warrior if you want to
- Wade into the thick of combat and stay there
- Be the most consistent damage dealer at the table
- Wield the heaviest weapons in the game without any penalty
- Have a clear gameplan
The Warrior might not be for you if you want to:
- Have a deep toolkit of utility options outside of combat
- Play something that feels unique
- Avoid being the designated tank
- Lean heavily into social or exploration pillars of play
4/5 – The Warrior does a lot of what you expect from the archetype, but Daggerheart also offers more bells and whistles to the class in mangaging Hope and leverageing it for additional benefits.
What is the Warrior?
Tactics
Get in and stay in. The Warrior’s specialism is built around melee range. Your best features only activate when you are right next to enemies, and your Attack of Opportunity feature punishes any enemy that tries to create distance. If you play a Warrior from the back line, you will waste everything that makes the class work.
Manage your Hope carefully. No Mercy wants you to spend three Hope for a persistent attack bonus. Call of the Slayer wants you to convert Hope rolls into Slayer Dice instead of taking Hope. Call of the Brave gives you Hope when things go badly. Think about your subclass before you commit to how aggressively you spend Hope, because the two subclasses have different relationships with it.
Pick your reaction carefully. Attack of Opportunity is a reaction, which means you only get it when a specific trigger happens. You will not always get to use it, but when you do, the three options on offer are all useful in different situations. Think about which outcome serves the fight best rather than defaulting to damage every time. Sometimes moving with a fleeing enemy is better than a single strike for a bit of damage.
Pair your Warrior with support. The Warrior deals damage, but it does not have much healing or crowd control. A Bard or Druid alongside you means your frontline presence is sustainable for longer. Particularly with Call of the Brave at higher levels, the Tag Team mechanics reward you for being grouped with allies who want to actively collaborate.
Do not sleep on domain cards. Blade and Bone give you access to cards that directly boost your core gameplan. Prioritise cards that add extra damage on hits, improve your survivability, or give you additional reactions. The Warrior’s base kit is strong, but your domain card selections are where your character comes into its own.
Class features
Combat Training – 4/5
You ignore burden when equipping weapons. When you deal physical damage, you gain a bonus to your damage roll equal to your level.
Burden is a little ill defined, it feels like the ability wants to give you the ability to use two handed weapons in one hand, but that’s not very clear. All weapons have a burden of 1 or 2, and two appendages with which to hold a weapon, but it’s not made clear how the burden score affects this. It’s worth working with a GM on this to further refine.
Damage scaling is what makes this feature truly shine over a full campaign. At level one, adding your level to damage is a modest but welcome bonus. By level five or six, you are consistently adding five or six to every physical damage roll, on top of whatever your dice show. That compounds fast, particularly once you factor in the Slayer subclass and its dice pool.
Attack of Opportunity – 3/5
When an adversary within Melee range attempts to leave that range, you make a reaction roll using a trait of your choice against their Difficulty. On a success you choose one effect, and on a critical success you choose two from: stop their movement, deal primary weapon damage to them, or move with them.
The flexibility here is what makes this feature quite strong. While D&D gives you an attack when someone moves away. Daggerheart gives you a choice, and the right choice changes based on the situation.
Stopping movement is fairly underrated. It pins a high-value target next to you so they cannot reach your squishier allies, and it prevents them from reaching the position they were trying to get to. Dealing damage is the obvious pick most of the time, but do not overlook moving with the enemy. Staying in melee range of a target who is trying to create distance lets you keep applying pressure on your next turn without burning your action to close the gap.
The choice of trait for the roll is also worth thinking about. Most Warriors will default to Strength, but Agility, Finesse, or even Instinct can be appropriate depending on how you have built your character. Make sure your highest traits are ones that can justify this roll if needed and map to the right weapon.
For example, if a wounded mage tries to back away from you to cast a spell safely. You trigger Attack of Opportunity and roll Strength against their Difficulty. You succeed. You choose to stop their movement entirely. They are stuck next to you, cannot cast their big area spell from safety, and your party breathes a sigh of relief. If you had critically succeeded, you could also deal your primary weapon damage on top of stopping them.
No Mercy (Hope Feature) – 4/5
Spend 3 Hope to gain a +1 bonus to your attack rolls until your next rest.
Three Hope is a big investment. This is not a feature you use every fight. You would be better off saving this for fights that matter.
The ‘until your next rest; duration is the key phrase here. Once active, No Mercy pays off across an entire encounter or even multiple encounters if you avoid resting. The longer you can keep it running, the better the value across the Hope spent.
For example, a tag team attack costs 3 Hope, uses both players’ action and only offers advantage on one attack – by comparison, the +1 attack across a series of attacks offers much more value, especially across a long period between rests.
How to optimise a warrior
Traits
Agility is your most important trait and should probably be your highest value. Quite a few of the Warrior domain cards are built around Agility, so you can make the best of these with a high stat in this area.
Strength is the right second choice, unless you want to build a slower, heavier Warrior that leans on armour rather than Evasion. Big weapons like greatswords often call for Strength, and it is another good foundation for the class. Just be wary that a lot of the domain cards do not specifically reward Strength, as they do Agility, so it’s not the most optimal choice.
Finesse has some weapon options, but those weapons are generally outclassed by what you can do with Agility or Strength builds. Not an ideal choice mechanically.
Instinct doesn’t have many weapons or domain cards tied to it, is genuinely hard to build around and I would not recommend trying unless you have a very specific reason.
Presence is a natural dump stat for the Warrior in combat. There are a handful of physical weapons that use Presence, there is not enough there to justify building around it. That said, if your campaign has a heavy social component, keeping Presence from being a complete zero is worth thinking about.
Knowledge should be treated the same way you treat Presence: not worth investing in for combat purposes, but consider your table’s needs outside of fights.
Domain Cards
Your two domains are Blade and Bone. When choosing domain cards, think about what your subclass is already giving you and fill the gaps.
In the Blade domain, Whirlwind is a standout pick: it hits multiple targets at half damage for a single Hope, has a Recall Cost of 0 so you can rotate it in when enemies are in a group. A Soldier’s Bond gives three Hope to you and an ally in one shot, which is a notable boost. Vitality is a reliable pick because it sits in your Vault and never competes for loadout space. Battle Cry should open every important fight once you have access to it.
The Bone domain is where your Agility investment pays off. Untouchable scales directly with your Agility modifier, so take it early and let the boost grow as your trait improves. Boost removes the risk of closing into melee range and adds a damage bonus on top. Rapid Riposte turns enemy misses into free damage, which rewards Warriors who have built their Evasion up.
Subclasses
Call of the Brave
Play this if you want a Warrior who grits their teeth and keeps going no matter how badly a situation develops. This is not a tank subclass in the traditional sense, though you can build it that way. It is more about perseverance and a Warrior who refuses to be stopped and becomes more dangerous the harder they are pushed.
Foundation: Courage – 5/5
When you fail a roll with Fear, you gain a Hope. This is a reliable trickle of resources that is most valuable early in your career when you fail more often, and it makes attempting rolls you are not good at feel significantly less punishing.
Its worth noting that the GM still gains Fear when you roll with Fear, including when you fail and trigger Courage. This is not a way to prevent the GM from building a Fear pool, just a way to soften the blow of a bad roll.
Foundation: Battle Ritual – 4/5
Once per long rest, before you attempt something incredibly dangerous or face off against a foe who clearly outmatches you, describe the ritual or preparations you make. When you do, clear 2 Stress and gain 2 Hope.
Simple, reliable, and effective. The 2 Stress cleared matters a lot because Stress accumulates quickly and has grave consequences if left unchecked. Save this for the fight that actually deserves it rather than burning it on the first encounter of the day.
Specialisation: Rise to the Challenge – 3/5
While you have 2 or fewer Hit Points unmarked, you can roll a d20 as your Hope Die.
Two unmarked Hit Points is a single hit away from making Death Moves, which is a dangerous situation. What this feature does is make that tough position one of your strongest places to be. If you can stay at low HP intentionally and mitigate the risk of going down, this is one of the most powerful features for the subclass. This is tricky to accomplish, swapping to ranged attacks might keep you out of harm’s way against a melee based enemy, or you can team with the party healer to ensure that while you are in this risky position, you can be revived quickly should you be KO’d.
Mastery: Camaraderie – 2/5
You can initiate a Tag Team Roll one additional time per session. When an ally initiates a Tag Team Roll with you, they only spend 2 Hope to do so instead of the standard amount.
Tag Team Rolls are fun, but they can be an expensive way to deal a small amount of additional damage, even with this feature reducing the cost. Don’t feel pressure to use this every session. The value here is having an additional initiation available when a moment actually calls for it, not just spending Hope on collaborative rolls for marginal gains.
Call of the Slayer
Play this if you want to maximise damage output and enjoy the rhythm of building toward a big hit. Be aware that because you are converting Hope rolls into Slayer Dice rather than taking the Hope, you will run lower on Hope than most characters. Managing that is part of what makes this subclass interesting to play.
Foundation: Slayer Dice – 4/5
You gain a pool of dice called Slayer Dice. On a roll with Hope, you can place a d6 on this card instead of gaining a Hope, adding the die to the pool. You can store a number of Slayer Dice equal to your Proficiency. When you make an attack roll or damage roll, you can spend any number of these Slayer Dice, rolling them and adding their result to the roll. At the end of each session, clear any unspent Slayer Dice and gain a Hope per die cleared.
A single d6 Slayer Die averages 3.5, nearly double that, and you can stack multiple dice on a single roll, so there is a lot of potential herel. The key rule to keep in mind is that you must declare you are spending Slayer Dice before you roll, not after seeing the result.
For example if you have stored two Slayer Dice across a couple of rolls earlier in the fight. Before making your next attack you declare you are spending both. You roll the attack, then roll your two d6s and get a 5 and a 3. Those 8 points add directly to your damage on top of your weapon dice and Combat Training bonus. That is damage you would not have approached by spending those same rolls on Hope.
Specialisation: Weapon Specialist – 2/5
You can wield multiple weapons with ease. When you succeed on an attack, you can spend a Hope to add one of the damage dice from your secondary weapon to the damage roll. Additionally, once per long rest when you roll your Slayer Dice, you can reroll any 1s.
This is best used when the additional damage will matter the most, as this is not sustainable to use all the time or you will quickly run out of Hope. When an enemy is on the edge of taking more severe damage and a few extra points could push you there, or when hitting multiple targets through something like Whirlwind where the bonus applies to each one.
The Slayer Dice reroll part of the benefit is once per long rest and is best saved for when you are rolling several dice at once. Rolling three or four dice on an important hit and rerolling the 1s is where this earns its value.
Mastery: Martial Preparation – 3/5
Your party gains access to the Martial Preparation downtime move. You and each ally who chooses this downtime move gain a d6 Slayer Die. A player character with a Slayer Die can spend it to roll the die and add the result to an attack or damage roll of their choice.
This is roughly equivalent to a Hope in terms of combat value, which means many of your allies may prefer to take a downtime move that generates Hope directly. The argument for Martial Preparation is that a Slayer Die and Hope are not mutually exclusive: you can use both on the same attack. If the party already has Hope to spend, stacking a Slayer Die on top of it for a big moment is genuinely appealing.
One rules question worth raising with your GM: it is not entirely clear how Martial Preparation interacts with the usual cap on how many Slayer Dice you can store. Have that conversation before the feature comes into play so there is no ambiguity mid-session.
Quick builds
Call of the Brave
The goal in this build is to be hard to kill, collect HP and armour as you level, and then become the most dangerous as the fight goes on.
- Traits: Agility as your primary trait to support Domain Cards and Evasion. Strength as your secondary to keep your weapon options open, particularly for high-damage two-handed weapons
- Ancestry: Orc is the standout pick because Sturdy adds an extra layer of protection around your last unmarked Hit Point, which is exactly where this build wants to operate. Giant is a strong alternative if you want the extra Hit Point and melee reach instead
- Community: Seaborne is the reliable default. Orderborne is worth considering because its once-per-rest d20 Hope Die gives a taste of what Rise to the Challenge offers, and the two combine well on a turn that matters
- Domain cards to prioritise: Untouchable and Boost early for Evasion and melee mobility. Scramble for Severe Damage mitigation. On the Brink to make fighting at low HP sustainable. Battle Cry to open important fights. Battle Monster belongs in your Vault from the moment you can take it. It has a Recall Cost of 0, so pull it out once you have taken enough hits to drop below 2 unmarked HP, then use it for a damage total that ignores damage thresholds entirely
- Playstyle: Use armour to absorb hits and stay in the Rise to the Challenge window as long as possible. This feature is fantastic when low on health. Use Battle Ritual before every boss fight. Let Courage generate a steady stream of Hope across the session rather than chasing it aggressively, and save your big spend for the turn you activate Battle Monster with a d20 Hope Die
- Hope management: Hope flows in naturally through Courage on failed Fear rolls. Spend it on No Mercy or Tag Team Rolls when you have a surplus. Keep enough in reserve for a Battle Monster activation when the moment is right
Call of the Brave Domain Cards
- Untouchable and Boost early for Evasion and melee mobility.
- Scramble for Severe Damage mitigation.
- On the Brink to make fighting at low HP sustainable.
- Battle Cry to open important fights.
- Battle Monster belongs in your Vault from the moment you can take it. It has a Recall Cost of 0, so pull it out once you have taken enough hits to drop below 2 unmarked HP, then use it for a damage total that ignores damage thresholds entirely
Call of the Slayer
This build is focused on maximising the value of Slayer Dice, using Whirlwind and Weapon Specialist together for the most damaging AoE turns available to the Warrior. It plays lean on Hope by design, so every resource decision matters.
- Traits: Agility as your primary trait. It directly feeds your attack accuracy and a significant number of Domain Cards in both Blade and Bone. Secondary trait investment can go into Strength for weapon flexibility or into a social trait depending on your table’s needs
- Ancestry: Goblin is excellent for Agility builds because it lets you ignore Disadvantage on Agility rolls and gives you a once-per-rest reroll for damage mitigation. Giant is also strong if you want reach on your primary weapon, which extends the range of both your attacks and Attack of Opportunity
- Community: Seaborne is the default recommendation. It is simple, reliable, and works well with any build. If your GM gives meaningful Wanderborne results, that is also a fun choice, but Seaborne wins on consistency
- Playstyle: Bank some Slayer Dice on Hope rolls during the early rounds of a significant fight, then spend them on the attacks that matter the most. Use Weapon Specialist as a tool: spend the Hope when crossing a damage threshold, or when Whirlwind lets you apply the bonus to multiple targets at once. Save the Slayer Dice reroll from Weapon Specialist for a turn where you are spending three or more dice
- Hope management: You will run lower on Hope than almost any other build in the game. Prioritise spending on Whirlwind when enemies cluster together. Keep one Hope in reserve for using No Mercy at the start of a difficult fight, and do not spend freely on small situational bonuses
Call of the Slayer Domain Cards
- Whirlwind as early as you can take it. It costs a single Hope, has a Recall Cost of 0, and when combined with Weapon Specialist hits every target in range for the secondary weapon bonus.
- A Soldier’s Bond for a burst of Hope and remember that as a Slayer you can convert those Hope gains into Slayer Dice instead.
- Untouchable and Boost from Bone to shore up your Evasion and melee mobility.
- Vitality when available because it goes straight into your Vault and never takes up loadout space.
- Swift Step at higher levels turns enemy attacks into free Stress recovery and Hope, and a Warrior who has invested in Agility and Evasion will trigger it often
Summary
The Warrior is Daggerheart’s most straightforward class. Get into melee and hit things very hard. Combat Training adds your level as a free bonus to every physical damage roll, Attack of Opportunity punishes anything that tries to leave your range, and No Mercy gives you a long lasting attack bonus for 3 Hope. Agility is your primary trait because it corresponds to the majority of your Domain Cards, particularly in the Bone domain.
However, the two subclasses do pull into opposite directions. Call of the Brave is about lasting longer: it generates Hope even when rolls go badly, and Rise to the Challenge turns nearly dying into a big offensive boost by upgrading your Hope Die to a d20, which at high levels combines with Battle Monster for a very high damage ceiling. Call of the Slayer trades Hope for Slayer Dice that average nearly double the value of a standard Hope in some cases, rewarding good resource management and explosive turns. Whirlwind and Weapon Specialist together make for a potent combination here too.
