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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[Paul Farquhar]

The timing also fits with the realization of how big Ravenloft became or was. I mean we can guess it was in the plans already but I bet the book license wasn’t.

I suspect WotD reached out to H&W a couple of years ago, when they first started work on reviving Dragonlance. Then W&H saw dollar signs and applied for the the book licence.

 

[darjr]

I suspect WotD reached out to H&W a couple of years ago, when they first started work on reviving Dragonlance. Then W&H saw dollar signs and applied for the the book licence.

I can’t comment on the order of things. But they were talking through out the 5e first Ravenloft book. Dragon Talk had an interview about the 5e book (I think it was dragon talk?) and I think he almost spilled the beans on DL.

 

[Parmandur]

No, but we have a disproportionate amount of the disposable income that buys product. Money that also goes to buy product for a lot of those in the younger groups.

I mean, based on the numbers WotC has shown, I'm not sure that is even true. An individual Gen Xer has more money than a given 12 year old, but ten million 12 year Olds may contribute more money to WotC bottom line.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

I think the feat chains will instead be reworked as Heroic Gift (ala Theros/Ravenloft) as another layer to put on a character or as new way of doing Backgrounds closer to the playtest's idea of ''Specialties''.

If not, since my table dont use Feats, I guess it would be possible to rework the chains into subclasses for fighters and wizards, either as 3 different archetypes for the different Orders, or as a ''choose from one'' single archetype ala Totem barbarian or Hunter Ranger.

 

[DarkCrisis]

I mean, based on the numbers WotC has shown, I'm not sure that is even true. An individual Gen Xer has more money than a given 12 year old, but ten million 12 year Olds may contribute more money to WotC bottom line.

As a Gen Xer I can confirm that I have less money than a 12 year old.

Looking forward to my retirement in 25 years to a cardboard box under an overpass, where I can play D&D all day with the other homeless poor people.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I mean, based on the numbers WotC has shown, I'm not sure that is even true. An individual Gen Xer has more money than a given 12 year old, but ten million 12 year Olds may contribute more money to WotC bottom line.

The typical 12 years old is asking a parent to buy them stuff, and parents of 12 years olds (at least the older parents) are probably better off than Gen X.

 

[Shardstone]

Background feats solves pretty much all of my problems with 5E.

The game just needs to give more feats. A feat whenever your Prof bonus increases in size would be stellar. Then create a huge suite of lore-related feats.

 

[FrozenNorth]

WotC does use their old IP, but they make significant changes to it in an attempt to thread the needle and make everyone happy. I think they would be better off just making new settings for the new players that are the overwhelming majority now, and allowing creators on the Guild to make material for their older settings.

“Threading the needle” is practically the motto of 5e. (And I don’t mean that as an insult).

• At its origin, it was an attempt to thread the needle between 2nd ed., 3rd ed and 4th ed fans;
• it continues to attempt to thread the needle between more traditional dungeon crawling fans and more narrative players;
• same with adventures referencing older content but with aesthetics that appeal to newer players;
• or balancing simplicity with complexity.

So far, it seems to be working pretty well for them.

 

[darjr]

Background feats solves pretty much all of my problems with 5E.

The game just needs to give more feats. A feat whenever your Prof bonus increases in size would be stellar. Then create a huge suite of lore-related feats.

Interesting.

Thinking in it, 1st level is so squishy that maybe there is room.

Still want to see a alt human with 1st level feat and one of these backgrounds.

Also want to see non feat chars in the mix and see about any issues.

 

[This Effin’ GM]

That's certainly a... possible way to look at it.

No, but we have a disproportionate amount of the disposable income that buys product. Money that also goes to buy product for a lot of those in the younger groups.

I find it reasonable. Older gamers may have the income to support big expenditures but we also have a ton of products presumably already, dwindling shelf space, kids and grandkids and mortgages and car payments and our friends don’t have as much time to play as they have big responsibilities as well, and we do t always want to learn a whole new system when the system we spent the majority of our time and money on still exists and we have all the books and supplements we need for it.

Having money doesn’t mean we are spending that money on WotC. There are plenty of reasons to explain why the older generation may not be supporting WotC as much as they want WotC to support them. All I’m saying is it’s a possibility.