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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[Li Shenron]

I like the idea of a background giving a feat.

I hate it. Because the PHB says you can build your own background but granting a feat is obviously much better than a regular background feature. So then every sane player should build a background that grants a feat. In addition, what happens to feat-granting backgrounds in a game where the DM doesn't allow feats but otherwise thinks this background is interesting?

And I am even a huge fan of feats, and think there's always room for more.

 

[This Effin’ GM]

I knew it.

WOTC couldn't help themselves and made a feat that lets your wizard snag 2nd levelspells from other classes.

I like it, sets them a part from other wizards in the setting. Also helps reinforce the setting idea that wizards of high sorcery ARE clerics of the moons

 

[DarkCrisis]

not a good reason at all... and 1 of the reasons I HATED kenders in games (but love them in stories)

Didn't ask for a reason, just saying it wasn't because they simply didn't want to learn to not "borrow" they via the lore simply couldn't learn it.

That kender ability to have something in theory 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?

Then having by a random pouch of stuff had always been a thing. Stuff they found that didn’t effect the party members personal items at all. So why make it magical?

of course so they aren’t “finding things”. And if it’s going to be magical then they need to be faetouched creatures instead of just flavored Halflings.

 

[Parmandur]

Hot take: The '24 revision will have all background provide a feat as standard, but still allow backgrounds to be customized as before (modifying your background choices is RAW), which de facto makes a 1st level feat standard. VHumans will go away and different racial abilities will be given to humans.

Yeah, while also helping make "what is a good Feat for my character?" more apparent than in 3E.

 

[overgeeked]

I hate it. Because the PHB says you can build your own background but granting a feat is obviously much better than a regular background feature. So then every sane player should build a background that grants a feat. In addition, what happens to feat-granting backgrounds in a game where the DM doesn't allow feats but otherwise thinks this background is interesting?

And I am even a huge fan of feats, and think there's always room for more.

It explicitly makes feats no longer an optional rule. Unless backgrounds become optional as well.

 

[Parmandur]

I hate it. Because the PHB says you can build your own background but granting a feat is obviously much better than a regular background feature. So then every sane player should build a background that grants a feat. In addition, what happens to feat-granting backgrounds in a game where the DM doesn't allow feats but otherwise thinks this background is interesting?

And I am even a huge fan of feats, and think there's always room for more.

The point in Strixhaven is that only College Backgrounds are allowed, so they are fully balanced in play with each other.

I wager thst we will see the same situation with Dragonlance, based on this UA: only Dragonlance Backgrounds available at PC generation.

And then for the 2024 refresh...well, if all Backgrounds offer a Feat, and the Feats are balanced, then no biggie.

 

[Weiley31]

Yeah, I still believe that "Feat Chains" for 5E should just be Faction Rank rewards. It's simple and less headaches.

And for anybody saying "man, the lore is light in 5E,' we're in the Multiverse Arc of Dungeons and Dragons: The Tabletop Roleplaying Game Saga so that is gonna be the issue there. But we still have older books/wikis/1d4 Chan at least for older stuff and what not.

And if you want your Kenders to be the same as before, nobody is stopping you.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

I am not totally surprised with the UA, but I din't guess it would be now.

The cavalier/knight class would perfect in Dragonlance. I imagine something like the class from Pathfinder, but with some little touch of the 3.5 crusader, the martial adept from "Tome of Battle: Book of the nine Swords".

Here the retcon about the mages of the high sorcery was justified.

How should be the lore about the gullys?

* About the kender ace trait. If a character use the gold coins to buy something, and later these coins disappear, then it would be practically scam. Other point is if this gift could be used for smuggling, or to hide the picklock you would need to escape from the cage.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Literally changes their very identity. Why even make it connected to the Feywild instead of a mild god curse like in the old lore?

So it's appliable to other settings.

 

[DarkCrisis]

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.

And that’s just really sad. Everything has to be generic so it all fits in the same box.

That’s the exact opposite of creativity. 5E where it all fits in a nice little grey box.