Dragonlance DRAGONLANCE LIVES! Unearthed Arcana Explores Heroes of Krynn!

The latest Unearthed Arcana has arrived and the 6-page document contains rules for kender, lunar magic, Knights of Solamnia, and Mages of High Sorcery.

In today’s Unearthed Arcana, we explore character options from the Dragonlance setting. This playtest document presents the kender race, the Lunar Magic sorcerer subclass, the Knight of Solamnia and Mage of High Sorcery backgrounds, and a collection of new feats, all for use in Dungeons & Dragons.

Kender have a (surprisingly magical) ability to pull things out of a bag, and a supernatural taunt feature. This magical ability appears to replace the older 'kleptomania' description -- "Unknown to most mortals, a magical phenomenon surrounds a kender. Spurred by their curiosity and love for trinkets, curios, and keepsakes, a kender’s pouches or pockets will be magically filled with these objects. No one knows where these objects come from, not even the kender. This has led many kender to be mislabeled as thieves when they fish these items out of their pockets."

Lunar Magic is a sorcerer subclass which draws power from the moon(s); there are notes for using it in Eberron.

Also included are feats such as Adepts of the Black, White, and Red Robes, and Knights of the Sword, Rose, and Crown.

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[Mind of tempest]

Gully dwarves and tinker gnomes are the best examples.

did they do the bad guys better at least or are they equally messed up?

 

[Remathilis]

did they do the bad guys better at least or are they equally messed up?

I mean, they don't even HAVE orcs or drow, make of that what you will. As for the primary foes, the draconians, they are in Fizban's right now if you want to see where they are taking that lore.

 

[Mind of tempest]

I mean, they don't even HAVE orcs or drow, make of that what you will. As for the primary foes, the draconians, they are in Fizban's right now if you want to see where they are taking that lore.

I get living weapons of war from those guys, they had an animated film, right?

lack of orc and drow is promising, do they have good (in the sense of well made) minotaurs I have heard good things about them?

 

[Weiley31]

Well, first thing first: WOW a Dragonlance UA? In the same year that we're getting the new Dragonlance novel series? I mean, I figured we were gonna get a 5E Dragonlance book at some point and getting one this year seems like it would coincide/hype up the new novel series.


Anywho: Looks like the Mage of High Sorcery and the Knights of Solamnia are following the same model that the newer Strixhaven backgrounds started in Curriculum of Chaos. Before, everybody seemed to be crying how the Strixhaven backgrounds are the "best/op" background options to take simply for the fact it provides a feat. Depending on how people felt and when the feedback page for this UA comes out, either people denounce it, and they scrap the Strixhaven method, OR this is one way of doing specific Backgrounds from here on out in 5E. Perhaps it could lead to 5E 2024 to doing the same thing with ALL of the backgrounds, putting them more in line with each other with a granting of a feat. And to be quite honest, I really do dig the Strixhaven background concept of a background providing a Feat.

In regard to the other feats presented in this: Well, I'm gonna be honest here and say that the feats should more of a, how do you say, not a feat you sacrifice an ability score increase for and instead a new kind of feat system that works in tandem with the notion of Factions: Basically, a Faction provided feat. Mythic Odysseys of Theroes introduced the Piety subsystem of the gods, where earning a certain amount of Piety provided you with a bonus at certain thresholds. So likewise, earning Renown for being a member of the Knights of Solamnia (Faction) would grant you the Knight of the Crown/Rose/Sword after hitting a certain Renown threshold within the Faction itself. That way you avoid possible enforced Feat Chains, which 5E ditched in the 5E NEXT playtest, and you're not giving up another feat/ability score increase just to get something you may not be interested in or whatever. Same would go for taking the Mage of High Sorcery background and its orders.

Same thing with both of the Divine related feats: Both Divinely Favored/Divine Communications seem like things that would be added/work alongside the post Theros Piety subsystem mechanic. Overall minor quibble in regard to those two feats. Also, since I like to give out racial feats to characters based on their race choice, Divinely Favored seems like the perfect thing to give to an Assimar as a racial feat choice.

Looking at the Kender: The Halfling Brave racial trait got updated ala the Hippo Build(Updated Powerful Build) and the new Fey Ancestry of Post Monsters of the Multiverse. Now Brave allows you to have Advantage on Saving Rolls to avoid or end the Frightened condition. So slowly we are seeing bits and pieces of the eventual changes to races and what not for 2024.

I'm really digging the Lunar Magic. And I also dig/like how it changes a bit how a Cantrip works, in this case Sacred Fire. Yeah the Arcane Trickster does something similar with Mage Hand, but still. Also, like the Ascendant Dragon Monk subclass, the Lunar Magic subclass is using some of its base class's resource management, Sorcery Points, to reuse their subclass ability(Level 18 feature) or even changing an aspect of their subclass feature (Level 6 feature.)


Also: this subclass has flipping multiple categories of extra spells it can gain. That is super awesome and can't wait to see it somehow gets nerfed by WoTC/it receive negative feedback. (Sarcasm: This is an awesome idea, but I'm already hearing people in my mind say that now this, Clockwork Soul, and Aberrant Mind are gonna be the only worthwhile Sorcerer subclasses to take at this rate still. Although, this could be a great prototype model to base off of with retro-upgrading prior Sorcerer Subclasses to getting extra spells. I mean, Dragon Sorcerer could get categories based on all the Dragon Colors using a similar format. Divine Souls could get categories based on Good/Neutral/Evil deities, etc, etc, etc.)


Plus, if you wanted to refluff your Sorcerer as a Witch because you miss the 4E witch that much refluffed name/flavor wise? There ya go.

Overall: Also Knight of The Sword seems like it would work really well with Martials that have low mental scores/high Hit Dice. A Barbarian PC could potentially save itself, and the party, from a Charm Person spell or whatever that could screw everything up. Knight of the Crown is basically another Warlord inspired type deal. Wonder how well it would work for the EN-World class Noble, subclassed as a Brave or Tactician.

 

[This Effin’ GM]

I get living weapons of war from those guys, they had an animated film, right?

lack of orc and drow is promising, do they have good (in the sense of well made) minotaurs I have heard good things about them?

Roman legion on the sea, basically.

 

[el-remmen]

I am just disappointed that rather than create something that works different based on the setting to give it really strong flavor and distinction, it kind of goes with anemic wishy-washy ideas like "any spellcaster can be part of the conclave of high sorcery," rather than go for cultural and legal and mechanical differences that could effect different classes differently and lead to something both distinct from core D&D while also moving away from the problematic issues. For examples, keeping sorcerers distinct as magical exiles or even banning them from the setting completely.

I am actually planning on a 5E DL campaign in the future - but not so sure that this will scratch the itch as is - then again, it is just test material (even though I don't have high hopes for more changes).

 

[Charlaquin]

I'm not sure that the Kender Pockets trait needs to have a baked-in explanation. How different characters wind up with these items could be handled differently. Maybe the Kender in question is really a kleptomaniac. Maybe they are just lucky enough to always have what they need on hand. Or maybe there is a pseudo magical explanation. The key point of contention in past versions was that Kender got these items by "stealing" them from the folks they encountered. I think as long as they remove that problem and associated stigma around it, it should be fine.

In my own current homebrewed version of the Kender I left the provenance of the items open ended.

Kender Pockets
You have a pack full of items that you have acquired in your journeys. As a bonus action, you can produce any non-magical, common piece of equipment from your pack. The value of this item must be equal to 5 gp times your character level, or less. You can use this ability a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus. When you finish a long rest, you regain your expended uses. How you acquired these objects is up to you and the DM.

I would much prefer that.

 

[Weiley31]

Yeah. I see the value I just was hoping we would get more abilities like swapping out subclass features rather than just baking things into feats. Like “you can be a fighter champion, but if you are an Order of the Crown champion fighter swap out the 3rd level crit expansion for THIS rad thing instead”

They tried doing that in the Strixhaven UA. Everybody said it was too scary/confusing/why is WoTC stealing my cat right out from under my door/I'm hungry.

 

[Maxperson]

the kender are going to need an overhaul no matter what as the legends about their player are something else.

you know why I like when a new UA drop the buzz of activity.

A lore change removing their obnoxious behavior patterns would fix that. No need to alter their racial abilities I don't think.

 

[Zaukrie]

I am just disappointed that rather than create something that works different based on the setting to give it really strong flavor and distinction, it kind of goes with anemic wishy-washy ideas like "any spellcaster can be part of the conclave of high sorcery," rather than go for cultural and legal and mechanical differences that could effect different classes differently and lead to something both distinct from core D&D while also moving away from the problematic issues. For examples, keeping sorcerers distinct as magical exiles or even banning them from the setting completely.

I am actually planning on a 5E DL campaign in the future - but not so sure that this will scratch the itch as is - then again, it is just test material (even though I don't have high hopes for more changes).

It is an interesting conundrum....

I'd prefer setting books to step outside the box, like you.

But, that's not how 5e is designed....everything should be playable everywhere, seems to be the goal.