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Daggerheartis a tabletop roleplaying game that comes from the creatives at Critical Role, featuring all-new roleplay and dice mechanics, playable classes, and much more. One of the other unique elements of design that can be found in Daggerheart is ancestry, which functions like species do in Dungeons & Dragons.
Even ancestries that make appearances in other tabletop roleplaying games like Dungeons & Dragons take on new and surprising twists in Daggerheart, and the goblin and giant ancestries found in the core rulebook are no exception. Here’s everything you need to know about playing either a giant or a goblin in Daggerheart.
Daggerheart releases on May 20th, 2025.
How Giants Work In Daggerheart
In Daggerheart,giants are incredibly large humanoid creaturesthat have extremely broad frames and anywhere from one to three eyes. In this way, giants in Daggerheart can look like very large humans, or they can more closely resemble a cyclops.
Giants' eyes also develop differentlyfrom other ancestries in Daggerheart.
In the first year of life, giants actually have no eyesin the world of Daggerheart. Plus, until a giant turns ten years old,their eye formations may fluctuate, meaning they can grow additional eyes for several years.
In addition to these visual features,giants have the following Ancestry Features:
Details
Endurance
When you create a giant during character creation, you can gain an additional Hit Point slot.
Reach
Any weapon, ability, spell, or feature that is listed with melee range, giants can treat as though it has very close range instead.
As you can see above,giants are incredibly hearty creaturesand don’t necessarily have to be in melee range to attack opponents.
Thanks to their two ancestry features,giants make for excellent melee combatants, so consider selecting this ancestry if you play an up-close-and-personal.
How Goblins Work In Daggerheart
In contrast to giants,goblins are incredibly small humanoid creatures. They are most recognizable thanks to theirlarge eyes and ears.
Because of their big eyes and ears,they have very sharp sensesand can perceive things at distances and levels of detail that other ancestries can only dream of.
Goblins also have varied skin tones and eye colors, and can even use their ears to communicate nonverbally with other goblins.
In addition to these visual features,goblins have the following Ancestry Features:
You ignore disadvantage on Agility Rolls.
Danger Sense
Once per rest, mark a Stress to force an adversary to reroll an attack against you or an ally within very close range.
As you’re able to see,goblins are incredibly wily and nimble, thanks to their ignored disadvantage on Agility Rolls.
Plus, while you’ll want to be careful marking too much Stress,goblins can force opponents to reroll attacks, potentially saving themselves or allies from damage.
If you mark too much Stress, your character can become vulnerablein a number of different ways, so use this ability sparingly.
