TOPIC: New Saga Skills for 2026

Mike Steele wrote: I'll be honest, I'm not even sure how someone gains access to saga skills, we've never used them. Is that something even beginning players can access?

Aren't they just printed on the Class cards and everyone has access?

Just a thought on Paladin. How about +2 AC if no shield is equipped. Alternately, +2 AC for common/uncommon armor.

Hahaha, I guess my group didn't read the character cards very closely last year.

Given that, I'd guess that the Paladin skill would be useful for most beginning players that are only relying on their starting 10 packs. All of the bonuses seemed aimed more at beginning players, which is fine.

I agree 100% with Ian; these are way too mechanical, and create overhead rather than flavor.

The biggest problem IMO is that nearly all of these proposed abilities modify the party card, which means they will specifically create overhead in coaching (where we are already badly pressed for time), and then players will have no reason to think about them during the game (which defeats the purpose of flavor).

IMO the ideal saga skills are things that don't touch the party card, but instead modify a player action in the dungeon -- so it's up to the player to use it if they find it cool/interesting, but if not they can ignore it with zero negative impact to the game.

There were lots of good examples from 2025: new Bard spell, alter a Druid spell to Shock, Paladin RD specifically when redirected via Guard, Rogue 1x SA without delay, Wizard spellcast after death were all fine.

DR is fine too; the proposed Elf Wizard 1 DR vs Ranged is the least bothersome of this group, though Ranged is so generic that it's still less flavorful than last year's 3 DR vs shock. An additional category of good examples might be conditional immunity to <something that's likely to come up in Cravenmoor>. Or maybe some class specifically gets 2 or 3 DR when attacked by a Vampire? Or heal for 1 whenever <something> happens?

Bottom line: saga skills are fun if they are genuinely flavorful and managed by the player, but please don't make them arbitrary stat boosts -- I'd rather not have saga skills at all than that.

David Zych wrote: An additional category of good examples might be conditional immunity to <something that's likely to come up in Cravenmoor>. Or maybe some class specifically gets 2 or 3 DR when attacked by a Vampire?

Yeah I was thinking of something along those lines too. Make each class great at fighting against a specific classic monster type, since that's the year's theme. Maybe you get -10 damage vs Mummies and +10 damage against Mummies. And another class gets the same vs Werewolves. It won't come up very often, but when it does, it'll be exciting.

I know dwarfs are going to be upset they don't get the retribution damage.

David Zych wrote: I agree 100% with Ian; these are way too mechanical, and create overhead rather than flavor.

The biggest problem IMO is that nearly all of these proposed abilities modify the party card, which means they will specifically create overhead in coaching (where we are already badly pressed for time), and then players will have no reason to think about them during the game (which defeats the purpose of flavor).

IMO the ideal saga skills are things that don't touch the party card, but instead modify a player action in the dungeon -- so it's up to the player to use it if they find it cool/interesting, but if not they can ignore it with zero negative impact to the game.

There were lots of good examples from 2025: new Bard spell, alter a Druid spell to Shock, Paladin RD specifically when redirected via Guard, Rogue 1x SA without delay, Wizard spellcast after death were all fine.

DR is fine too; the proposed Elf Wizard 1 DR vs Ranged is the least bothersome of this group, though Ranged is so generic that it's still less flavorful than last year's 3 DR vs shock. An additional category of good examples might be conditional immunity to <something that's likely to come up in Cravenmoor>. Or maybe some class specifically gets 2 or 3 DR when attacked by a Vampire? Or heal for 1 whenever <something> happens?

Bottom line: saga skills are fun if they are genuinely flavorful and managed by the player, but please don't make them arbitrary stat boosts -- I'd rather not have saga skills at all than that.

+1 to all this.

These skills feel uninspired and are just metric bonuses. Perhaps they could grant one/use abilities that have fun uses throughout the season?

Jeff, a couple of suggestions:

For Cleric, maybe change to +1 Damage to Turn Undead Attacks.

For Paladin, maybe change to a straight +1 AC (dropping the "no torso item" restriction)

David Zych wrote: I agree 100% with Ian; these are way too mechanical, and create overhead rather than flavor.

The biggest problem IMO is that nearly all of these proposed abilities modify the party card, which means they will specifically create overhead in coaching (where we are already badly pressed for time), and then players will have no reason to think about them during the game (which defeats the purpose of flavor).

IMO the ideal saga skills are things that don't touch the party card, but instead modify a player action in the dungeon -- so it's up to the player to use it if they find it cool/interesting, but if not they can ignore it with zero negative impact to the game.

There were lots of good examples from 2025: new Bard spell, alter a Druid spell to Shock, Paladin RD specifically when redirected via Guard, Rogue 1x SA without delay, Wizard spellcast after death were all fine.

DR is fine too; the proposed Elf Wizard 1 DR vs Ranged is the least bothersome of this group, though Ranged is so generic that it's still less flavorful than last year's 3 DR vs shock. An additional category of good examples might be conditional immunity to <something that's likely to come up in Cravenmoor>. Or maybe some class specifically gets 2 or 3 DR when attacked by a Vampire? Or heal for 1 whenever <something> happens?

Bottom line: saga skills are fun if they are genuinely flavorful and managed by the player, but please don't make them arbitrary stat boosts -- I'd rather not have saga skills at all than that.

+1

In terms of specific feedback, assuming you’re not going to change directions, I think the Paladin skill should just be an AC bonus.

But I think the set largely needs a rework.

I think the Paladin should just be +1 to AC or +2 to Melee AC, since all the other classes get something they can use no matter what without penalty, if we are going the route of party card enhancements.

Phil

Personally, I liked last (this) year's because they were thematic to the story arc and they gave non-mechanical benefits that helped during the runs. Most of them were kind of story hooks for information, guidance or ways for the DMs to interact with players.

I'd recommend going in that direction. Heck, just pick two - three classes per main adventure that have some kind of interesting effect and do it that way.