Power Builds: The Stressful Druid

A local cult stole his car horse and killed his dog burned down his forest. Now he wants payback, even if it kills him.

Mechanics

Mechanically, we're going to use this build to explore several Stress-empowered abilities that Druids gain access to in the Arcana and Sage domains. At level 10, we will have around 15 Stress to play with, empowering some truly nuts features. And no, this isn't a build that leans into Beastform (although that remains a viable option). We'll be making a Druid that actually casts spells. With the right choices, we'll not only be strong defensively, but we'll also have unmatched sustained and nuclear damage available to us.

Character Creation

For our Ancestry, we'll start with a Human/Clank hybrid. We gain an additional Stress slot as well as the ability to choose a long rest move during short rests. That long rest move will almost exclusively be used to clear all of our marked Stress slots, since that is the engine behind this build.

As for a Community, Orderborne fits the bill. Our only verdict is vengeance, and the boost to an Action Roll is a nice mechanical bonus.

The main class we'll be going with is an Order of Renewal Druid, but we will eventually be multiclassing into Vengeance Guardian. Vengeance Guardian gives us (among other things) an additional Stress slot and access to the Blade domain.

Level Ups

We have 18 level up choices to make. Critical to this build are 2 points to multiclass, 6 points for additional Stress slots, 3 points to max out our primary Trait, and 1 point for a second Domain card at 10th level.

The remaining 6 points are dealer's choice, really. Proficiency may be desirable if you're leveraging weapon attacks or Beastform. We can max it as well if we skip the second 10th level card or skip 1 Stress slot. HP and/or Evasion never hurt either, but they likely won't matter too much for this build in Tier 4. Experiences are underrated and give great boosts to your critical rolls. Specialization cards don't add too much for us, nor does increasing Traits beyond our primary. We’re a Druid; we already have a ton of utility from Beastform alone.

Basic Attacks

If you get access to the Tier 4 Bloodstaff, it’s an incredibly potent option to consider. The Painful feature won’t have a major impact on us thanks to our 15 Stress slots, and that d20 weapon die will absolutely rock adversaries if you up your Proficiency. 6d20+7 will average 70 damage on a hit, which is above the Severe threshold of most adversaries in the book. We also have access to the Blade domain once we multiclass, meaning we could pick up Versatile Fighter and use the Runes of Ruination as a lower Tier alternative. Yes, this is assuming you gain access to these kinds of weapons, but the point is that we can hold our own on the battlefield using even basic attacks.

While not the star of this build, Beastform is still a wonderful resource we have at our disposal and one that's less reliant on GM fiat. There have already been many discussions about how strong Beastform is in general, so I won’t dwell on it too much. But it’s worth calling out that many of the forms can be supercharged through the use of Stress. 5/6 of the Tier 2 forms have Stress-fueled abilities. Suddenly, your Mythic Pouncing Predator is rolling 8d10+15 on damage rolls (after rolling with advantage and a 9 Instinct). That’s 59 average damage per hit, and we can sustain those hits for quite a while thanks to all those Stress slots.

Domain Cards

Now for the real fun. We can pick up 13 total cards, doubling up at level 1 and level 10:

• Gifted Tracker(1) - We're looking for those assholes that burned down our forest, so naturally, we should be able to effectively track them down. Mechanically, this doesn’t do too much for us though, so feel free to swap out with something else.
• Unleash Chaos(1) - A solid ranged attack that is fueled by Stress and relevant at every level. One Stress slot equals 5d10 damage, which is a decent option for the range if we don’t invest in Proficiency. Technically, if we take advantage of our Beastform boosting our Spellcasting Trait, it's possible for us to start a session with 9 tokens for a bit of burst damage to start. If you prefer AoE damage to single-target, you may want to pick up Chain Lightning in Tier 3, which is conveniently also Stress-fueled.
• Soldier's Bond(2) - No, we can't start with this, but once we multiclass, we can start swapping out our low level Sage/Arcana cards for Blade cards. Soldier's Bond gives us a reliable way of generating 3 Hope every long rest, and we're going to need it to truly maximize our impact at higher Tiers of play.
• Corrosive Projectile(3) - With 15 Stress, a successful hit can reduce the Difficulty of one adversary by 7 permanently. Tier 4 adversaries are now as easy to hit as Tier 1s. To put this another way, [2d12+5] hits a Difficulty 20 around 44% of the time. Reducing that Difficulty to 13 means that same roll is hitting 90% of the time. And that affects the entire party.
• Counterspell(4) - Really, it’s dealer’s choice again. Deadly Focus is great if you got that Bloodstaff. Whirlwind is solid if you went with the Runes of Ruination. There’s also a ton of great utility options in Arcana and Sage.
• Vitality(5) - We get one Stress slot, and probably 1 HP slot. As a bonus, it doesn’t take up a place in our loadout.
• Forager(6) - There’s just so much utility here. Every option is useful. Ideally, we won’t be marking much (if any) of our HP or Armor slots, so downtime can be spent clearing Stress and foraging for useful consumables.
• Arcana-Touched(7) - The once per rest ability basically guarantees we generate a Hope. The permanent bonus to Spellcast rolls is equally fantastic. Maintaining 4 Arcana cards may be tough with this build though.
• Confusing Aura(8) - Our next truly nuts Stress-fueled feature. If we spend 14 Stress slots at the start of the day on a 15-layer aura, we’ll be able to tank an unreal number of hits before ever worrying about taking damage. 89% of the time, our aura will still be up after 8 rolls. 66% of the time, it will still be up after 11 rolls. And remember, each successful roll means a failed attack. No marking any HP or Armor slots. What makes this aura even better is that it doesn’t go away at the end of a rest or session. If you have a noncombat day, the aura can carry over to the next day at no additional cost.
• Sage-Touched(9) - I am sure there are better alternatives out there, but doubling your Instinct once per rest just feels like a nice option to have for those higher Difficulty spells. And I am sure some campaigns will take place entirely in “natural environments” making the Spellcast bonus superior to Arcana-Touched. We’ll definitely have problems maintaining 4 Sage cards though. Luckily, we have a lot of Stress slots to burn.
• Falling Sky(10) - The last of our Stress-fueled features, and this one packs a punch. If we put 14 Stress into our arcane rain, we can do 14d20 + 28 damage to adversaries we hit. That’s a sky-shattering 175 average damage. That’s far more than every Tier 4 Massive damage threshold, should you play with them. But what if we could do better?
• Adjust Reality(10) - Yes, we could simply spend 5 Hope and maximize the damage roll to a truly stupid 308 damage.

Conclusion

Is this overpowered? Yes and no. You can hit like an absolute truck, but damage and HP mechanics mean you will never be able to truly 1-hit an adversary with this build. You have a ton of utility, but here are also some notable weaknesses that a GM can exploit (such as direct damage). Still, I find it fascinating how a Stress-focused build can supercharge a handful of abilities to really make them shine on the battlefield.

I'll end with my usual caveats: I know that Daggerheart is not intended to be min maxed like this, but I'm a numbers guy who likes to stress test the balance of things at their extremes. It can make for a more informed player and GM. As a player it's important to keep in mind the style of game you will be playing when building a character. As a GM, it can be equally beneficial to identify the signs of an overtuned character that may impact your groups experience.

Additional Reading

• Min Maxing: Evasion
• Min Maxing: Damage Thresholds
• Min Maxing: HP, Stress, Hope, and Traits
• Min Maxing: Experiences
• Min Maxing: Action Rolls