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!

 

[Demetrios1453]

The rules in the box don’t match the fiction in the novels. You’re either, or according to the rules. But in the fiction you have to choose with every spell cast whether you defile or preserve.

So, how about Spelljammer? I hear that’s coming out soon.

I can't wait until the Dark Sun pre-release thread is filled with unending Birthright complaints and speculation.

 

[overgeeked]

I can't wait until the Dark Sun pre-release thread is filled with unending Birthright complaints and speculation.

Maybe by then it will be 6E or Mystara speculation.

 

[Parmandur]

I don't agree with that. Dark Sun could have a rule that all arcane casters must pick either the Defiler or Preserve background. Backgrounds as we know from the UA are going to be coming with free feats attached at 1st and perhaps 4th level. Those feats could provide those who pick the Defiler background an ever present temptation to take the easy way at the cost of destroying the world.

I mean, we have very recent precedent for this: Strixhaven has all characters, period, choose one of the Coolege Backgrounds with the attendant Feat.

 

[vecna00]

So, how about Spelljammer? I hear that’s coming out soon.

In like 5-ish days!

 

[vecna00]

I can't wait until the Dark Sun pre-release thread is filled with unending Birthright complaints and speculation.

Birthright Confirmed?

 

[Remathilis]

So, how about Spelljammer? I hear that’s coming out soon.

Is that confirmed?

 

[Havrik Stoneskimmer]

And another. Here is a still if the inside of the DM screen.

View attachment 257204

It's a bit lackluster IMO. The fourth panel is the only new content. The random encounter charts are nice but they are duplicated from the Boo's Astral Menagerie book and not particularly worth taking up two panels with. The first panel wastes half its space on two diagrams that are pointless during play. The suffocation and weightlessness rules are useful to have at hand, and so are the ship distance and crashing rules I suppose. I would have liked the table of object hit points (like when smashing down a door) because that's something I never have committed to memory, nor do I know exactly where to find it in the DMG.

 

[Yaarel]

But preserving and defiling aren’t mutually exclusive. You can alternate between them. Isn’t that what Sadira does in the Prism Pentad?

A came across the passage you might be thinking of. Its from 1995 2e Revised Dark Sun Campaign Guide.

Sadira is unique.

"
The last type of wizard is represented by a single individual, but it deserves mention. Sadira of Tyr has become a sun wizard through a process that likely can’t be repeated. During the day, Sadira draws the energy to power her spells from the ultimate source of all life on Athas, the crimson sun. While imbued with the sun’s energy, she doesn’t have to take life force from any living thing. At night, however, she reverts to a normal [defiler] wizard and must use the life force of plants to power her spells.

"


The situation appears to be something like this:

During character creation, her being the Wizard class forced a decision point: choose either a Preserver Wizard or a Defiler Wizard. In 2e the two are quasi subclasses. ("Quasi" because the Illusionist is a Wizard subclass that must also choose between the two.) In 5e, these could be two background feats that are required for any arcane caster to choose between. She chose the easy option, and became a Defiler.

Later, at higher levels, she gained a different way to cast spells without using her Defiler spell slots. Something like: she converts solar energy into extra spell slots, and uses these to cast her spells. But she seems only able to do it while in direct sunlight. She cant store this energy. The "process" that allows her to cast this way "likely can’t be repeated". In 5e mechanics, this might a feat with a high level prereq, a boon, or magical item that transformed her, maybe an artifact. Despite this benefit, remains a Defiler stuck with the original choice.

 

[pukunui]

@Yaarel: Thanks. It's been a while, so I'd forgotten about the preserver / defiler "subclasses" and didn't realize that Sadira was unique. I just remember her being able to do both.

Personally I rather like the idea that a preserver, in a moment of weakness, could turn to defiling ... kind of like how a Jedi can, perhaps inadvertently, call on the dark side of the Force when overcome by powerful emotions. (That is to say, I like the idea of defiling being an ever-present temptation one must struggle to resist, rather than a deliberate - and seemingly irreversible - choice one makes early in their adventuring career.)

 

[TwoSix]

Personally I rather like the idea that a preserver, in a moment of weakness, could turn to defiling ... kind of like how a Jedi can, perhaps inadvertently, call on the dark side of the Force when overcome by powerful emotions. (That is to say, I like the idea of defiling being an ever-present temptation one must struggle to resist, rather than a deliberate - and seemingly irreversible - choice one makes early in their adventuring career.)

In most of the 5e threads about Dark Sun we've had the past few years, defiling as a constant choice to do or avoid (rather than a single irrevocable one) seems to be the most popular option.