TOPIC: 2026 Class Cards

Hi, everyone! Yesterday I finished getting all the Saga Skills for 2026 into our new Class Card designs for next year. The images are massive, so I converted them into two PDFs to help save everybody's loading times. I would really appreciate some feedback on how the cards look and if there are any mistakes I need to correct before we send them off to the printer. Check out the PDF links below and let me know what you think!

2026 4th Level Class Cards First Draft PDF
2026 5th Level Class Cards First Draft PDF

Some particular concerns I have:

• Some of the Saga Skills wound up with longer words split across two lines with a - to indicate that the word continues on the next line. Will that be easily readable in dungeon lighting or should I go in and manually edit so the words just start on the next line instead?
• On the Save bonuses at the bottom of the card there is currently a space between the : and the Save bonus number. Is the space too large? Does it separate the numbers from which Save they apply to so much that it will cause confusion? Some folks at HQ don't like the space between them, but I'm afraid that will affect readability in dungeon darkness. Would love community thoughts on the matter before we go to print.
• General readability. The class cards have to convey a lot of information in a relatively small space. Are there places where the language needs to be truncated? How's the font size? Spacing? Do any colors need to be adjusted to make it easier to see?

I'm going to let feedback collect for the rest of the week and make my first round of changes on Monday, December 22nd. I'll post updated drafts then and leave them up for feedback until we return from the holiday break before I get the final drafts hammered out.

I appreciate each and every one of you!

CPN wrote: Hi, everyone! Yesterday I finished getting all the Saga Skills for 2026 into our new Class Card designs for next year. The images are massive, so I converted them into two PDFs to help save everybody's loading times. I would really appreciate some feedback on how the cards look and if there are any mistakes I need to correct before we send them off to the printer. Check out the PDF links below and let me know what you think!

2026 4th Level Class Cards First Draft PDF
2026 5th Level Class Cards First Draft PDF

Some particular concerns I have:

• Some of the Saga Skills wound up with longer words split across two lines with a - to indicate that the word continues on the next line. Will that be easily readable in dungeon lighting or should I go in and manually edit so the words just start on the next line instead?
• On the Save bonuses at the bottom of the card there is currently a space between the : and the Save bonus number. Is the space too large? Does it separate the numbers from which Save they apply to so much that it will cause confusion? Some folks at HQ don't like the space between them, but I'm afraid that will affect readability in dungeon darkness. Would love community thoughts on the matter before we go to print.
• General readability. The class cards have to convey a lot of information in a relatively small space. Are there places where the language needs to be truncated? How's the font size? Spacing? Do any colors need to be adjusted to make it easier to see?

I'm going to let feedback collect for the rest of the week and make my first round of changes on Monday, December 22nd. I'll post updated drafts then and leave them up for feedback until we return from the holiday break before I get the final drafts hammered out.

I appreciate each and every one of you!

For the word wrap -: I'd avoid hyphens if possible, but the thing that was harder for me to read was the +1 in red on the Barb lvl 4 Card due to the darker brown design it rests on. I'd suggest removing the darker brown design within the text box to keep text "cleaner" to read

Save Bonuses: Space at first seemed large, but you could always add a vertical spacer between each save type to show which number applies to what?

General Readability:
Examples of brevity: Elf Wizard: "While you are polymorphed, your Melee attack slides gain +3 to hit" --> "While polymorphed, melee attacks slides gain +3 hit"

Fighter Level 5: "Once per combat, a fighter may immediately re-slide a Melee attack, but they must take the second result - even if the first slide would have been a better result" --> "Once per combat, immediately re-slide a melee attack - must take second result even if worse"

Fighter card is so empty at level 4, lots of space that might make people feel like this class isn't as "useful/fun/engaging/etc."

I'm not a worder, but I think there would be some opportunities for conciseness (remove class names from special powers unless necessary, Paladin Guard description, etc.)

Absolutely love the artwork/theme for the cards! Thanks for sharing them!

On the Save bonuses at the bottom of the card there is currently a space between the : and the Save bonus number. Is the space too large? Does it separate the numbers from which Save they apply to so much that it will cause confusion? Some folks at HQ don't like the space between them, but I'm afraid that will affect readability in dungeon darkness. Would love community thoughts on the matter before we go to print.

It doesn't look terrible, but the DM should be looking at the party card for saves anyway. I think they should be updated to reflect the Saint powers when applicable, though. For example, the Barbarian would show 8 Fort on both cards.

Barbarian: Still shows last years saga powers on Rage on both cards. It should go back to 4/6 damage.
Cleric: Still shows last years bonus damage to Spiritual hammer on both cards. It should go back to 8 damage. Turn Undead should say (1/combat) instead of once per combat, just for consistency.
Druid: Would be nice if Spell Surge specified base damage. I'd say "Doubles base damage or healing of one spell you cast. (1/game)"
Wizard: Would be nice to add reminder text for Focus (bonus to healing spells, damage spells & polymorph damage) on the 4th level card

The template looks great!

Reposting from last year:
A little bird recently told me that Bard's base Will save is actually supposed to be 3 (not 5) and the existing player cards are misprinted.

If 3 is correct, this is a great time to fix it on the player cards. Alternatively, if 5 is correct, then please do your in-person coaches a solid and fix the default value printed in truedungeon.com/newsletter/party_card.pdf (which currently says 3).

Other feedback:
- yay, pretty!!!
- I really like that the 5th level cards are now visually distinguished by using some purple text rather than putting everything on a purple background; purple+black on a light background will be much easier to read in dim light
- I like the space in Save: #

I haven't had the time to do a full read through, but they look super cool this year!!!

My big feedback is the 4th Level Player Card's Red Text needs to be darkened slightly. Its likely to get a bit more washed out when printed and harder to read. It could be my color-blindless but it currently feels not quite right to read on my monitor.

alesiev - Alex wrote: For the word wrap -: I'd avoid hyphens if possible, but the thing that was harder for me to read was the +1 in red on the Barb lvl 4 Card due to the darker brown design it rests on. I'd suggest removing the darker brown design within the text box to keep text "cleaner" to read

To Alex's point on the difficulty reading the red test in the Saga skill, that card actually shows a +2, not a +1. Agreed that the dark brown glyph is unfortunately placed in this specific case.

I'm not sure if balance discussions are on the table, but if so, I'll just point out that +1 Ranged Damage Resistance (which happens about once an adventure, if that) for Elf Wizard really pales in comparison to +1 Focus (which happens pretty much every combat round, maybe multiple times).

Not something I'm worried about at a high level of play, but I could understand newer players being taken aback a bit at it.

Agreed with liking the brown vs purple background for the level 5 cards. I had to make a lot of use of my light in-dungeon to read the darker ones, this is a big improvement.

I like the extra spacing on the saves. The glow around them effectively connects all the characters of each save together and the space opens up the text in a good way.

General comments:

• I like the use of the colons instead of dashes. They show up better.
• The color scheme is much better than the standard cards. I agree you should check to make sure that the red is accessible. I know that one is always tricky in the accessibility tracker I use at work.
• The Bard, Cleric and Druid cards card don't describe what the skill check is. The Wizards still have the description of the plane check. I recognize this may not be possible with the space shown, but new players should be especially told about this when they're in coaching.
• I don't play Cleric, so I don't know the answer to this question. Is Divine damage the same as Sacred damage? It's not listed in the PHB under Damage Modifier on page 37 or as a type of damage on page 45.
• Not sure of the style guide here, but on the 4th-level Ranger card, the words ranger and rogue are not capitalized. The 2020 class card has these words capitalized, but not this year's Saga Skill card. Same comment on 5th-level Dwarf Fighter.
• I'm also seeing inconsistency on capitalization of words like Ranged, Melee and Special Power across character cards.

Specific character cards:

• Bard still has the 2025 Saga Skill spell on both cards.
• I like that the Druid specifies natural animals now, since that's a question I've seen come up multiple times in game.
• Also for the Ranger, why does the dual wielding fighting style need to be described twice? You can probably remove it from the Skill Test area, since all the details are down in Special Powers.
• I prefer the more compact wording of the Monk's AC from the 2020 cards, vs. this year's longer wording. This is true on both 4th- and 5th-level.
• Do the * need to be on the Monk's cards to describe Dazed and Stunned conditions? (Serious question because I haven't played Monk and don't know how often that comes up. Is it super niche or very common?)
• The Ranger's Saint Blessing is +1 on the 4th-level card and +2 on the 5th-level card. I haven't seen a difference between levels for any other Saint blessing for far. Was this intended?
• I hadn't seen that the 5th-level Wizard's Wand Mastery changed to Mage Mastery and now includes Mystic Staves too. Neat!

So much great feedback! Thank you all so much for your comments. I'll be working on incorporating this feedback into the cards today and will post the changes for another round of feedback this afternoon/early evening.

A couple of things I want to clarify:

• I take no credit for the beautiful design of the 2026 cards. That's all Jeff the Boss-man. I'm just the busy work monkey that's adding all the information into his carefully crafted template.
• When I'm concerned about readability on the cards, I'm concerned for PLAYERS, not our volunteer DMs. The comment that DMs should be looking at the party card is 100% correct, but we still want players to be able to read their cards so they know what's going on, too.
• Egg on my face for the glyphs in the text boxes. Jeff actually suggested we take that out when he was showing me the template and I told him to leave it. Shows what I know! LOL.
• If you have feedback regarding specific Saga Skills, I'm afraid the time for changes has passed. Jeff had those up for review in a separate thread and they are finalized at this point.

Thank you all again for so much great feedback! This is going to keep me nice and busy today.

To clarify does the Elf Wizard resistance ability also cover spells (I think this is the case as it doesn't say resistance to missiles or something else that would be limiting)? If so I would recommend changing to +1 resistance to spells and other ranged attacks. I think this would be easier for new players who end up using the level 4 card to understand and as resistance is tracked by the player this should be as intuitive as possible.

CPN wrote: So much great feedback! Thank you all so much for your comments. I'll be working on incorporating this feedback into the cards today and will post the changes for another round of feedback this afternoon/early evening.

A couple of things I want to clarify:

• I take no credit for the beautiful design of the 2026 cards. That's all Jeff the Boss-man. I'm just the busy work monkey that's adding all the information into his carefully crafted template.
• When I'm concerned about readability on the cards, I'm concerned for PLAYERS, not our volunteer DMs. The comment that DMs should be looking at the party card is 100% correct, but we still want players to be able to read their cards so they know what's going on, too.
• Egg on my face for the glyphs in the text boxes. Jeff actually suggested we take that out when he was showing me the template and I told him to leave it. Shows what I know! LOL.
• If you have feedback regarding specific Saga Skills, I'm afraid the time for changes has passed. Jeff had those up for review in a separate thread and they are finalized at this point.

Thank you all again for so much great feedback! This is going to keep me nice and busy today.

It's tough to find that balance between new/veteran players opinions, but I think focusing on new players (like you're doing) is a good thing to do. It's always easier to provide feedback once the work is done versus creating something new, so I appreciate you working on this for the TD Community as a whole and soliciting feedback!

Edits are taking longer than I anticipated. Look for them to be posted up tomorrow before lunchtime.

Okay! Edits are complete. You can find the updated PDFs at the links below.

2026 4th Level Class Cards Second Draft
2026 5th Level Class Cards Second Draft

Change Log

• Darkened all red body text to Hex Code #B10000, which the Almighty Google tells me is one of the most accessible dark red colors.
• Added additional red text to highlight important information.
• Removed dark haze and glyphs from text boxes.
• All Class Cards now show base save bonuses instead of those enhanced by Saga Skills.
• Added “Skill Check” section to all 4th Level spellcaster cards. Most 5th Level cards don't have the space, and I figure newbies won't be using those anyway.
• Added “Skill Check” section to Fighter card and increased text size in an effort to fill some blank space.
• Adjusted capitalization of certain words (class names, Melee, Ranged, etc.) for consistency.
• Bard Will save remains at 5. After reviewing old Class Cards, I found that the Bard Will save being 5 goes all the way back to at least 2016, possibly earlier. No changes will be made to that at this time.
• Corrected 5th Level Ranger Saga Skill.
• Rewrote Rogue Skill Test section.

I would like to specifically call attention to the Bard cards in these drafts. The 4th Level Bard card has the Skill Test at the bottom of the spells section. The 5th Level Bard card has it in the top section under Special Powers. Please let me know which version is the most readable and I will adjust the other to match.

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday!