Hello everyone.

A few days ago, the playtest for the new Summoner class was released on The Void. I've already shared my first impressions and a review in another Reddit thread ([https://www.reddit.com/r/daggerheart/comments/1uspcbj/first\_impressions\_and\_review\_of\_summoner\_and/](https://www.reddit.com/r/daggerheart/comments/1uspcbj/first_impressions_and_review_of_summoner_and/)). The short version is this:

From a flavor perspective, the Summoner is a wonderful addition to Daggerheart's existing classes. It introduces several new gameplay mechanics, but unfortunately they are implemented poorly, and in some cases very poorly. The result is a class with unnecessarily complex mechanics that will most likely feel tedious to play at the table, while also being poorly balanced for the most part.

Overall, I consider the Summoner, in its current state, to be one of the weakest classes we've seen from Darrington Press so far. That includes all of the content released on The Void.

Before I continue, **I want to say that even though my criticism may sound harsh, it comes from a place of great respect for the designers at Darrington Press. My intention is not to tear their work down.** I genuinely appreciate that they regularly publish new content on The Void and are open to community feedback.

# That said, it's much easier to criticize something than it is to create it yourself.

And that's exactly why I haven't been able to stop thinking over the past two days about designing my own take on the Summoner. I'd like to share a few of the design principles that guided my approach.

1. I wanted to introduce a new gameplay mechanic that stays true to the spirit of Daggerheart. In other words, it shouldn't be overly complicated, even though my version of the Summoner will probably still end up being one of the more complex classes in Daggerheart simply because of its core concept and fantasy. At the same time, I wanted it to bring something genuinely new to the game while fitting naturally into Daggerheart's existing mechanics. That also meant I deliberately did not want a class that summons multiple tokens onto the battlefield, each with its own statistics, Hit Points, and additional micromanagement. I think that's the wrong direction for Daggerheart, and I don't believe a Summoner should open that door.
2. I intentionally wanted to stay close to the flavor of what we saw in the playtest. That means I also kept the core concepts behind the two subclasses, with only slight changes to their names. I didn't keep their mechanics, but I did preserve the underlying power fantasy and overall flavor.
3. I spent a long time thinking about which domains would fit the Summoner best. There has already been a lot of discussion in the thread I mentioned about whether Splendor and Blood are the right choices. In the end, I decided to stick with those two domains, even though there are strong arguments for alternatives such as Dread or Sage. For this first version, however, I've chosen to stay with Splendor and Blood. One important note regarding that decision: the Blood Domain was also updated in the latest playtest. In its current form, it is one of, if not the weakest domain in the entire game. There are a few solid cards, but most of the domain is high risk with low reward. Because of that, I would recommend that anyone trying either my version of the Summoner or the official one either use the original Blood Domain, which admittedly has its own gameplay issues, or focus primarily on the Splendor Domain.

# Finally, a few words about how this class was designed and playtested.

The class came together very quickly over the course of just two days. So far, I have only playtested it myself, twice, in a white-room combat scenario: once at Tier 2 (level 2) and once at Tier 3 (level 5).

I'm fully aware that this is a very limited amount of playtesting, which is why I'd really appreciate constructive feedback on the class. Based on those sessions, I was very happy with what I saw. However, they represent only a narrow perspective, conducted solely by me, and only over a very limited period of testing.

I'm excited to hear what you all think and look forward to your feedback.

\- Tenawa

  
**Legal Notes:** This product includes materials from the Daggerheart System Reference Document 1.0, © Critical Role, LLC. under the terms of the Darrington Press Community Gaming (DPCGL) License. More information can be found at https://www.daggerheart.com. There are no previous modifications by others. 

**Artwork:** by Dencer Spencer. All necessary rights and permissions have been acquired.

My take on the Summoner v 1.0 [Homebrew content]