Daggerheart’s Races/Ancestries, Explained

Critical Role’s new fantasy TTRPG system, Daggerheart, offers a slew of enticing fantasy races – retooled as ancestries – to prospective playtesters. Here’s a breakdown of all the ancestry options currently available in Daggerheart’s open beta.

All Current Ancestries Available in Daggerheart

As is the case with Daggerheart’s classes, many of the game’s ancestries have a direct or indirect counterpart from Dungeons & Dragons. As an alternate option to Dungeons & Dragons, it behooves Daggerheart to incorporate many of the races players have come to expect from its predecessor, but Critical Role‘s new system presents a wide range of influences outside of just Dungeons & Dragons. Alongside the more commonplace fantasy fodder, anthropomorphized plant/animal ancestries play a particularly strong role in Daggerheart‘s world.

Here’s a snapshot of all the ancestries available to Daggerheart players and their associated ancestral features:

Clank

Much like Critical Role’s Fresh Cut Grass, Clanks are marvels of mechanical engineering. There’s a lot of room for creativity within the Clank ancestry, for example, Clanks can be made of materials other than metal and don’t necessarily have to appear as humanoid. Purposeful Design allows Clanks to add +1 to an Experience that reflects their creator’s intent when designing them.

Daemon

From Critical Role‘s Mollymauk Tealeaf and Jester Lavorre to Baldur’s Gate 3‘s Karlach, Tieflings have often been an alluring and beloved race among Dungeons & Dragons players. Descendants of Fallen Gods, Daggerheart‘s Daemon ancestry borrows the tails, horns, and sharp teeth of its Dungeons & Dragons counterpart while encouraging creative variations in the manifestation of these traits. Fearless allows Daemons to mark a stress instead of giving the GM Fear, and Dread Visage gives them a leg up on intimidation.

Drakona

Similar to Dungeons & Dragons‘ Dragonborn, Drakona are thickly scaled and wingless humanoid Dragons with the ability to emit an Elemental Breath attack. Fire, ice, lightning, poison, and acid are the options available to Drakona’s deploying this ancestral advantage.

Dwarf

Squat and sturdy humanoids, Dwarves have a vast presence in fantasy storytelling from Lord of the Rings to Dragon Age. Daggerheart denotes Dwarf’s propensity for adornments such as piercings, tattoos, and Lil Uzi Vert-style embedded gemstones, as well as the commonality of facial hair across all genders. Additionally, Increased Fortitude allows those of Dwarven ancestry to expend three Hope to half incoming physical damage.

Elf

Like Dwarves, Elves are a staple fantasy archetype. Daggerheart introduces an optional “Mystic Form” build, which allows for further customization of the Elven aesthetic for those who wish to incorporate a physical manifestation of their character’s specialized connection with the natural world, such as celestial freckles. The ancestral feature of Celestial Trance presents an opportunity to clear both stress and damage during a long rest.

Faerie

Wings and otherwise insectoid features are among the distinguishing characteristics of Daggerheart’s Faerie ancestry, one that undergoes metamorphosis within its relatively short lifespan. Faeries can mark a stress to fly using their Wings feature and can likewise help an ally reroll their Duality Dice once per session with Luckbender.

Faun

As animal-human hybrids, Faun can choose to give their Daggerheart GM a Fear to attack an enemy with Headbutt, a feature that doles out a d8 of damage. Though Daggerheart notes that Faun often possess horns and goat-like features, Marisha Ray already offered a Jessica Rabbit-esque variation on the ancestry in Critical Role‘s Daggerheart One-Shot.

Firbolg

Much like the Mighty Nein’s resident Firbolg, Caduceus Clay, Daggerheart’s variation on the Dungeons & Dragons race boasts a Natural Calm. This ancestral ability allows Firbolgs to roll a d6 anytime they would take stress, marking no stress on a six. In terms of appearance, Firbolgs present as humanoid bovines, with those sporting more cattle-like heads often dubbed Minotaurs.

Fungril

The humanoid mushroom species known as Fungril can roll Instinct, using Always Connected, to tap into their ancestry’s shared hivemind across vast distances. The fungal form of this Daggerheart ancestry can come in all shapes and sizes, from the hulking visage presented on the ancestry’s card to Laura Bailey’s pocket-size Rogue, Sweetpea Betabean.

Galapa

Shells provide more than just an aesthetic appeal in Deaggerheart‘s Galapa ancestry, as players can add proficiency to their armor score thanks to Shell of Protection. Reminiscent of Dungeons & Dragons‘ Tortles, Daggerheart specifically notes that those of the often slow moving humanoid turtle ancestry can retract their head and limbs into their shell when combat gets hairy.

Giant

Giant’s size commonly ranges from 6 1/2 to 8 1/2 ft and bolsters their ability to take a punch, gaining one additional health point during character creation thanks to Endurance. In a similar vein, Giant’s long arms allow for a more expanse range with melee weapons through the Reach ability. While Giants commonly have two eyes, they can have more, and single-eyed Giants are referred to as Cyclopes.

Goblin

Despite a prevailing trope that casts them as low level TTRPG ax fodder, Goblins can be the heroes of adventuring stories, too. Daggerheart‘s Goblins have heightened perception, expressive ears, and the feature Danger Sense, which grants them the opportunity to circumvent or reduce attack damage once per short rest.

Halfling

Daggerheart combines the community-oriented nature of Lord of the Rings‘ Hobbits with the re-rolling nature of Dungeons & Dragons‘ version of Halflings with Little Lucky. The ancestral feature allows Daggerheart‘s Halflings to distribute one Hope to each member of their party at the beginning of a session and re-roll Hope for themselves anytime they roll a one. Halflings are another highly perceptive ancestry within Daggerheart, as they’re particularly attuned to sound and smell and come with a strong internal compass.

Human

Though some players find Humans a rather ordinary option within a fantasy setting, they have often proven anything but in Critical Role, with characters such as Percival De Rolo, Caleb Widogast, and Imogen Temult. In fact, Bells Hells Human namesake, Bertrand Bell, was utilized during the channel’s slate of Daggerheart programming to showcase the game’s character creation process. In Daggerheart, Humans can utilize Perseverance to reroll a failed roll related to one of their Experiences.

Katari

It’s said that cats always land on their feet, and while that might not always be true for Daggerheart’s Katari, the ancestry certainly has a Jellicle advantage on agility thanks to Feline Instincts. This trait allows for those of the furry ancestry – that can range from more humanoid to more cat-like in appearance – to mark a stress and reroll their Hope die on any Agility roll.

Orc

Like Bells Hells Orcish patron Lord Ariks Eshteross, Daggerheart‘s Orc’s inherent toughness means that they refuse to go down without a fight. The Sturdy ability grants those of the tusked humanoid ancestry the chance not to mark an armor slot on the condition they roll a 5+ on their d6.

Ribbet

The onomatopoeia of Daggerheart‘s ancestries, Ribbets are the game’s anthropomorphic frogs. Amphibious and Long Tongue allow Ribbets to breathe underwater and reach nearby objects, respectively. And, in a mechanic that would turn Fresh Cut Grass fittingly green with envy, Ribbets can likewise mark a stress to deploy their tongue as a Finesse Close weapon.

Simiah

The final entry in Daggerheart‘s current menagerie is the Simiah, an ancestry of anthropomorphic monkeys and apes. The ideal ancestry for players hoping to build a high fantasy version of Zoboomafoo, Simiah’s Nimble quality grants them advantage on Agility rolls related to balancing and climbing and boosts their Evasion.

Mixed Ancestries and Homebrewing in Daggerheart

Those who frequently gravitate toward Dungeons & Dragons races like Half-Elf and Half-Orc likely noticed the distinct lack of mixed backgrounds in the above list of ancestries. But fear not – Daggeheart‘s open beta provides guidelines to create characters from mixed ancestral backgrounds. Those looking to build a character of mixed ancestry can choose any ancestral feature within their lineage to be the one utilized in their character loadout.

Though the base and mixed ancestries currently available welcome customizability, some may still be attracted to the idea of homebrewing after getting a grasp on Daggerheart‘s system. Open beta provides an opportunity for fantasy TTRPG fans to play in Daggerheart‘s sandbox, a realm where they can certainly use the tools provided to build something uniquely suited to their needs. Whether it’s tweaking an ancestral feat for better balance at the table, stretching an existing ancestry to its limits, or building an ancestry of their own, Critical Role has encouraged playtesters to “break the game” and provide feedback on their experiences with the system. Because of this process, the ancestries listed above might look very different by the time Daggerheart‘s reaches its final form in 2025.

And those are all of Daggerheart’s races/ancestries, explained.