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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dnd.wizards.com

 

[Amrûnril]

Very surprised to see feats with alignment prerequisites. This seems like a pretty dramatic departure from 5E's general treatment of alignment (and I'd much prefer to keep alignment in its current role as a descriptive tool).

As for the Kender, I don't know much of the history, but if the goal is to avoid portraying them as thieves, giving them the ability to magically produce vanishing coins seems like a very odd way of doing that.

 

[dave2008]

Because I'm tired of the Feywild being shoehorned into everything and consuming lore just because the designers like the fey?

Also, maybe it is because the consumers like Fey. I know I do and I like the idea of Kender being fey-touched. In fact, I would love if elves, gnomes, and goblins had little fey racial traits like this.

 

[Maxperson]

They did change the lore. They put the setting a bit in the future and created a reason as to why there are now two types of kender available.

This UA did not change the lore regarding Kender and fear or explain two types of Kender. It just made the singular type of Kender a part of the Feywild and not Krynn.

If we are discussing how to not have problematic kender, I am saying they have already attempted to do so in one way and it was through the lore. Which influenced the game.

The novels are not an attempt to change game lore. I don't care if it's canon or not, huge numbers of people don't read the novels and/or don't port that stuff into the game. If the new stuff from the novels is not printed in GAME materials, it doesn't really count.

 

[This Effin’ GM]

Believe what you like. I obviously have a pretty low opinion of WotC and its recent design choices.

Yeah that’s clear.

Seriously, though, in terms of how WotC is approaching canon, you might want to read the following if you haven't already:

D&D Canon | D&D Studio Blog | Dungeons & Dragons

In this D&D Studio Blog, Chris Perkins describes the D&D Studio's position on canonicity.

dnd.wizards.com

Yeah I read this. Cannon means nothing to WotC and they can and will change whatever they want to or need to to achieve their goals, which is absolutely their right once they bought the properties

 

[dave2008]

As for the Kender, I don't know much of the history, but if the goal is to avoid portraying them as thieves, giving them the ability to magically produce vanishing coins seems like a very odd way of doing that.

It is to avoid the odd situation where you have an intelligent race of thieves that doesn't understand they are thieves, while still keeping the idea that they pick-up mostly useless junk.

 

[Maxperson]

Not necessarily, but the way I read it was kender are less “immune to fear” and more “super good at playing it cool”.

But mainly I see it that way because I find an immunity to fear an extremely limiting trait. Like on paper it sounds good. On the other hand it really restricts a range of emotions and motivations to tap into.

It restricts a range of emotions and motivations to tap into, and adds a large dimension to tap into in its place. The immunity to fear and curiosity are at least as big as the loss of fear as a motivation.

I make a joke about alert feat takers losing the ability to be surprised a lot. Their birthdays must be super lame.

Surprise =/= fear. You can be surprised, but not afraid of what surprised you. Unexpected is still unexpected.

 

[Parmandur]

Yeah that’s clear.

Yeah I read this. Cannon means nothing to WotC and they can and will change whatever they want to or need to to achieve their goals, which is absolutely their right once they bought the properties

Well, it means something: canon is Lego bricks, to be rearranged as desired by DMs or the company.

 

[This Effin’ GM]

This UA did not change the lore regarding Kender and fear or explain two types of Kender. It just made the singular type of Kender a part of the Feywild and not Krynn.

The novels are not an attempt to change game lore. I don't care if it's canon or not, huge numbers of people don't read the novels and/or don't port that stuff into the game. If the new stuff from the novels is not printed in GAME materials, it doesn't really count.

I’m saying they were printed in game books. They also novelized those changes because back at that time period, cross promotion was a big thing. Most novelists for d&d specifically wrote to highlight new game mechanics.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Ok, so it is not functionally different. Just your preference. Luckily, it can always be your preference in your Krynn.

I don't like it being magical at all actually, but I especially dislike it being yet another thing connected to the Feywild.

 

[Maxperson]

I’m saying they were printed in game books.

Okay. I misunderstood. 4e? I don't recall any 3e changes like that.