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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[Helldritch]

1984 to 2022: Everyone hates Kender! Ban them!
2022, UA release: How dare they change the lore of Kender!

Pfffft, never had any problems with Kenders in my games.

And how dare they change the lore of Kenders!

 

[Li Shenron]

I can see how that would be a problem for some, and I sympathize. But I don't play in featless games.

Neither do I. But I also don't play in background-feature-less games, because those are cool too.

 

[Zaukrie]

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.

I don't agree at all. It has nothing to do with creativity, and everything to do with a decision to make things work in any setting. No place does that imply no creativity.

 

[This Effin’ GM]

I don't agree at all. It has nothing to do with creativity, and everything to do with a decision to make things work in any setting. No place does that imply no creativity.

Creating something that can be only used/only makes sense in one place is exclusivity, not creativity. This is PURELY my opinion.

I find race and class options are akin to creating pigments one can use in the rich canvas that is their game. What you do with the pigment in yours is the creative sweet spot.

 

[cbwjm]

Some of this I like, some I don't.

I don't like the kender. If the dragonlance book comes out, I'm just going to use lightfoot halfling, I think it works better than what they have here. I don't like the kender ace ability, and I wasn't ever really a fan of the kender taunt, always felt like that should be a skill rather than a race ability.

Lunar sorcerer is fine as a subclass, but I don't like it for dragonlance. The only ones who should be affected by the moons are the wizards of high sorcery.

I like the feats, I don't think it is much of a feat chain since the majority of players are probably going to take a background and so be able to pick up the subsequent feat at 4th level. The only exception is if you want to simulate the old way of knights moving through the orders, but they ended up doing away with that in 3e.

For the 3 orders, I think if I use this book, I'm going to limit them to wizards and use bards and sorcerers for practitioners of primal sorcery.

 

[darjr]

Wait. Strixhaven had things in it explicitly meant only for Strixhaven.

 

[Stormonu]

Just did a quick read-over, the kender is passable, but the mechanics for the rest are a miss for me. Especially the lunar sorcerer. Not thrilled that the Knights of Solomia and the High Sorcery Mages are backgrounds, would have preferred subclasses. I can see backgrounds granting feat-like abilities, but I‘d rather not have backgrounds actually handing out feats.

 

[Faolyn]

Happy to do so. What do we think about adding a feat to backgrounds? What existing feats would be good choice for the backgrounds we already have?

Maybe use some of those skill-oriented feats from that old UA that never got made official.

 

[Charlaquin]

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.

What’s the deal with Gully Dwarves? They’re, like, really dumb or something, right?

 

[This Effin’ GM]

I wasn't ever really a fan of the kender taunt, always felt like that should be a skill rather than a race ability.

In 3e it was a use of the deception skill that Kender got a significant bonus to. I like it and I’ve kept it in my games as a houserule