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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[Enevhar Aldarion]

...making kender digestible...

Sorry, but even dragons get heartburn when trying to digest a kender.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

I like feat chains as well. It gives players who want to invest that way a bonus.

Right. Feat chains are fine, as long as they are not too long. Feat Taxes are bad. Having to take a poor feat to get to the good feat/s is bad design.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Strixhaven's model is something I think could really work for Dragonlance, blending setting and adventure into one. Strixhaven's NPC system would be a great fit, what with the importance of interpersonal relationships to Dragonlance.

Yeah, this stuff is exactly like the Strixhaven material. I think they are hiding a few more Background options.

I suspect that tying a Level 1 Feat to a Background is what they are planning for the new Core.

I think I'm most curious what they're going to do with Gully Dwarves. Because they are going to require a lot of work, debatably more than any other Dragonlance race.

Gully dwarves and tinker gnomes are the best examples.

 

[Remathilis]

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).

I've been telling people since practically the beginning that WotC views settings as D&D flavoring, not unique mini RPGs unto themselves. They are going to always err on the side of including as much as possible rather than excluding content, especially PHB content. The only exception seems to be races.

Dragonlance finding homes for all the PHB classes shouldn't be a surprise, between the changes they made in the 3e book and how they handled 5e Ravenloft, this was all but certain. I'm going to warn the Dark Sun fans; be ready.

 

[Helldritch]

That kender ability to have something in their pouch looks a lot like what I had done 35 years ago. It does not need to be magical at all.

Feat chains are meh... I had hope we would never see them again and that Strix was a fluke. I guess my hopes have been crushed again.

But I do like what I see so far. Maybe make the knight of Solamnia a subclass and entrance into the sword and rose order a feat?

 

[Mind of tempest]

Roman legion on the sea, basically.

I have seen worse ideas for them.

I've been telling people since practically the beginning that WotC views settings as D&D flavoring, not unique mini RPGs unto themselves. They are going to always err on the side of including as much as possible rather than excluding content, especially PHB content. The only exception seems to be races.

Dragonlance finding homes for all the PHB classes shouldn't be a surprise, between the changes they made in the 3e book and how they handled 5e Ravenloft, this was all but certain. I'm going to warn the Dark Sun fans; be ready.

but do we get proper psionics?

 

[Li Shenron]

Uhm... where is "Apprentice of High Sorcery"?

 

[Weiley31]

My only complaint is that for the Knight of Solamnia Feats there's not an additional requirement: for Solamnic men: a luxurious mustache.

Thank goodness the Dwarven Women are covered with that requirement though!

 

[Mind of tempest]

Uhm... where is "Apprentice of High Sorcery"?

logically in next month's one.

 

[Li Shenron]

logically in next month's one.

I think there are editing errors and they meant the background Mage of High Sorcery

Same with Squire / Knight of Solamnia.

I generally like the idea of feat chains but I definitely don't like Backgrounds being prerequisites of anything, because your background is set at level 1. I don't want having to change my background later or worse being told there's no way to qualify anymore.

In addition it would have been much better to build these feats on top of the already existing Magic Initiate PHB feat.

Also, I largely prefer these kenders over traditional cleptomaniacs, but the FIRST UA kender was better because it wasn't magical.