Spelljammer Spelljammer Shows Up In The Wild - Check Out The Tables of Contents

Copies of Spelljammer are starting to show up. Mike Long of Tribality is in receipt of the books and has tweeted some photos!

 

[Remathilis]

Restricting class access is one of the things they suggest to DMs in the DMG. Just because none of the settings to date have had reason for such a restriction, doesn't mean that the company is against it and won't do it in the future. You can ASSUME that they have some sort of phobia of restrictions, but nothing they have done actually says that.

They absolutely had opportunities to impose restrictions and limitations with a great deal of those settings and every time have not. I'm not saying it's impossible, but if they bypassed the option to limit PC options in Ravenloft, Dragonlance and Theros, I highly doubt they will do it for Dark Sun.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

1: Some classes not available.

Which ones weren't available originally? Also, if you know, did 4e Dark Sun restrict any of the classes?

2: Some classes with new specific subclasses only(elemental cleric, warlock templars, etc.)

I don't think that's a huge deal. WotC makes new subclasses for most setting books. Whether or not they choose to restrict the classes to playing one of those options is another question.

3: Some new materials to make weapons and armor out of that can break, like bone, chitin and obsidian.

They already have optional rules for this. Descent into Avernus included an optional rule where if you rolled a Natural 1 for an attack roll with a weapon, that weapon would break. They can just say that's how almost all weapons on Dark Sun work and make up an inverse of that rule for armor (if you suffer a critical hit, your armor breaks, or something like that).

4. Defiling

Probably just upcasting spells at the cost of harming the plant life around you.

5. Psions(and more psionic subclasses)

They could just use the ones in Tasha's. I'm not saying I would prefer that approach, it's probably the most likely one, though.

6. Dragons and avangions

I don't see how that's an issue. They've made homebrew monsters (includin dragons) for other setting books.

There are some rules and subclass additions, but they've done that sort of thing with other settings. I don't see anything that would require rules tinkering, though.

Just a note: I'm agreeing with you here. I'm just listing the possible solutions to these parts of Dark Sun you've listed. I really don't think it would be a huge deal to update Dark Sun to 5e.

 

[Kilimanjaro]

Which ones weren't available originally? Also, if you know, did 4e Dark Sun restrict any of the classes?

In 2e Dark Sun - No Paladins. Elemental Clerics only. No spells for Bards. Add templars, gladiators, defilers
In 4e Dark Sun - No divine power source classes at all (no clerics, paladins, invokers, avengers, rune priests)

 

[pukunui]

They absolutely had opportunities to impose restrictions and limitations with a great deal of those settings and every time have not. I'm not saying it's impossible, but if they bypassed the option to limit PC options in Ravenloft, Dragonlance and Theros, I highly doubt they will do it for Dark Sun.

They absolutely did limit PC options in Theros (and Ravnica).

 

[Maxperson]

They absolutely had opportunities to impose restrictions and limitations with a great deal of those settings and every time have not. I'm not saying it's impossible, but if they bypassed the option to limit PC options in Ravenloft, Dragonlance and Theros, I highly doubt they will do it for Dark Sun.

What classes didn't exist in Ravenloft and the original Dragonlance(other than clerics/paladins that showed back up quickly)? And Theros, for all that inspired it, is not ancient Greece. They had no real cause to limit classes or other options in those settings.

Dark Sun is a very different beast.

 

[overgeeked]

Some of the changes to the Spelljammer races (remember Spelljammer?) are wild.

The Hadozee's glide ability is wild. You drop up to 500ft per round. The Hadozee can glide up to 5ft per 1ft drop...at no movement cost. It makes sense, but that's potentially a lot of free movement.

The Astral Elves get their trance proficiencies in the form of one skill and one tool or weapon.

The Giff have a divine spark that gives them blackpowder prof. I get they're moving away from cultures, but that's kinda silly.

 

[Maxperson]

Which ones weren't available originally? Also, if you know, did 4e Dark Sun restrict any of the classes?

There were no paladins. The warrior classes were ranger, fighter and gladiator(which could be a new subclass). Wizards were there and the sorcerer class doesn't violate the lore at all. They would just be an innate defiler/preserver. There were clerics, templars(which fit warlock pretty well) and druids for the divine classes. Thieves(rogues) and bards existed. Bards were just thieves who used songs and tales as his tools.

Clerics, druids worked different than the default classes. Rangers worked a bit differently, using the elemental cleric for spells when they hit high enough level. But that's not all that big of a deal, since rangers have a personal spell list now, they wouldn't be like clerics anyway, so no need to change them.

I don't think that's a huge deal. WotC makes new subclasses for most setting books. Whether or not they choose to restrict the classes to playing one of those options is another question.

I think for Dark Sun they might, since it really only affects paladin and bard, and they can make bard another kind of defiling wizard if they really want to. As an arcane caster, bards would defile or preserve anyway.

They already have optional rules for this. Descent into Avernus included an optional rule where if you rolled a Natural 1 for an attack roll with a weapon, that weapon would break. They can just say that's how almost all weapons on Dark Sun work and make up an inverse of that rule for armor (if you suffer a critical hit, your armor breaks, or something like that).

Fair enough. So this rule would be in play for the setting.

Probably just upcasting spells at the cost of harming the plant life around you.

I would think it would be a background choice and have preserving feats attached to it. If you don't take it(or if you take a defiler background), plant life is harmed and you get some sort of bonus like upcasting or +1 to save DCs for your spells.

They could just use the ones in Tasha's. I'm not saying I would prefer that approach, it's probably the most likely one, though.

No. Dark Sun must have some sort of Psion or it's not Dark Sun. Psions were waaaaaaaay too large a part of the setting. I expect it was the lack of a psion that initiated the change from Athasspace to Doomspace.

I don't see how that's an issue. They've made homebrew monsters (includin dragons) for other setting books.

Dark Sun dragons are not the dragons from the other setting books, and avangions are even more different.

Just a note: I'm agreeing with you here. I'm just listing the possible solutions to these parts of Dark Sun you've listed. I really don't think it would be a huge deal to update Dark Sun to 5e.

Yeah. The single largest hurdle is the requirement for a psion to exist or cause anger among fans like they just don't want to see. The rest is easy peasy.

 

[Faolyn]

Any word on the plasmoid? I'm going to be playing one and I'm desperate to know if anything has changed from their UA depiction.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

There were no paladins. The warrior classes were ranger, fighter and gladiator(which could be a new subclass). Wizards were there and the sorcerer class doesn't violate the lore at all. They would just be an innate defiler/preserver. There were clerics, templars(which fit warlock pretty well) and druids for the divine classes. Thieves(rogues) and bards existed. Bards were just thieves who used songs and tales as his tools.

Clerics, druids worked different than the default classes. Rangers worked a bit differently, using the elemental cleric for spells when they hit high enough level. But that's not all that big of a deal, since rangers have a personal spell list now, they wouldn't be like clerics anyway, so no need to change them.


I think for Dark Sun they might, since it really only affects paladin and bard, and they can make bard another kind of defiling wizard if they really want to. As an arcane caster, bards would defile or preserve anyway.

Okay. Thanks for the info. Could they use some of the already existing Cleric Domains as the "Elemental Clerics", or were the clerics from Dark Sun too different? Because the Tempest, Nature, and Light Domains have connections to the elements. Gladiator could definitely be a Fighter or maybe Barbarian subclass, Dark Sun "Bards" could just be a subclass of Rogue, and there could just be an elemental Ranger subclass. This doesn't seem like much of an issue.

And haven't paladins changed a bit since 2e? They no longer have to serve a god or be a certain alignment, they just dedicate themselves to an oath. Would they still be out of place in Dark Sun with their current version?

I would think it would be a background choice and have preserving feats attached to it. If you don't take it(or if you take a defiler background), plant life is harmed and you get some sort of bonus like upcasting or +1 to save DCs for your spells.

Yeah, I could see them using the new style of feat chains to have Preserving/Defiling.

No. Dark Sun must have some sort of Psion or it's not Dark Sun. Psions were waaaaaaaay too large a part of the setting. I expect it was the lack of a psion that initiated the change from Athasspace to Doomspace.

I'm not disagreeing with you. I want a Psion class, too. However, I'm just saying from a design standpoint, WotC might decide just to use the TCoE options and call it good.

Dark Sun dragons are not the dragons from the other setting books, and avangions are even more different.

And neither were Strixhaven's dragons. Making new types of dragons or adding a mechanic where a powerful enough defiler becomes a dragon wouldn't be difficult. And what about Avangions would make them difficult to add to 5e? Aren't they just the opposite of Athasian Dragons?

Yeah. The single largest hurdle is the requirement for a psion to exist or cause anger among fans like they just don't want to see. The rest is easy peasy.

Agreed.

 

[MockingBird]

Never been a fan of spelljammer, always looked silly to me, saying that, I'm buying this on day one.