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

 

[Weiley31]

If you are against change, well yes, you open yourself up for all kinds of judgment against your character.

Particularly true. To say anything more would probably get me banned on this website.

 

[This Effin’ GM]

Yeah. I'm not saying that we're neglected. I just get the feeling from posts here that a lot of people feel like we should get less attention due to our lower percentage, so I'm pointing out why the attention we get is appropriate and we should not be ignored.

I’ve made a couple of comments about WotC focus and I want it made clear that my official stance is that I (1) don’t think wotc is neglecting anyone, just not giving 100% to anyone group and (2) I believe the ignoring issue is a two way street.

I can’t say I have purchased 100% of WotC products despite my disposable income, nor have I stopped giving money to their competitors. By not purchasing their products and by supporting other companies I am telling them “not everything I do in ttrpg space is to support you, wotc” and they have that same right to indicate the same to me.

but I really don’t think they are trying to specifically alienate any demographic.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

The grey gem origin is unique. Just another fey creature is not.

That’s the difference

This I'm afraid is a logic fallacy, implying that uniqueness = quality.

The Star Wars prequels are unique stories, at least compared to the original trilogy. Are they better? NOPE.

I mean, film has copied A New Hope's story structure endlessly... and not all of those imitations are bad. Hell, A New Hope is itself copying the story structure of older stories (I mean, it's not exactly complex).

Anyway, off-topic nitpick.

 

[AnotherGuy]

That's no excuse. Gully Dwarves are extremely ableist. I honestly cannot fathom anyone not being able to see that. This whole "but they were cursed/BS magic nonsense" stuff is just a Thermian Argument. It doesn't matter. The fact that they exist at all in their original state is the objectionable content, not whatever in-world excuse the designers choose to attach to them to preemptively dismiss any criticism of the races.

Also, the "Humans in Silly Hats" trope can be easily subverted without making all of them bigoted caricatures of real world people or encouraging/mandating problematic behavior when roleplaying those races. This topic was discussed extensively in this thread of mine.

Gully Dwarves are a problem. Tinker Gnomes and Kender less so, but they still are.

That's cool, you're welcome to your opinion.

 

[Minigiant]

but I really don’t think they are trying to specifically alienate any demographic.

I don't think it's purposeful. However hitting every demographic requires one noticing you are reaching some groups and expending resources to do so afterwards.

Old School Dragonlance and New School Dragonlance doesn't tickle my brain nor hook me into purchasing the possible books.

 

[DarkCrisis]

This I'm afraid is a logic fallacy, implying that uniqueness = quality.

The Star Wars prequels are unique stories, at least compared to the original trilogy. Are they better? NOPE.

I mean, film has copied A New Hope's story structure endlessly... and not all of those imitations are bad. Hell, A New Hope is itself copying the story structure of older stories (I mean, it's not exactly complex).

Anyway, off-topic nitpick.

Did you mean the sequels? Which ep 7 and 9 are super bastardizations of the ep 4 and 6

 

[Dire Bare]

Wait, kender are a romani stereotype?

Yes.

It's not a 100% correlation, but yes. Kender are portrayed as wanderers and thieves who have no respect for the property of civilized folks. That's the Romani stereotype in a nutshell right there.

An entire race of thieving kleptos? Kender have long been problematic, this isn't some new revelation.

I always thought they were just a stereotype of children. You know, constantly taking things that don't belong to them, small, inexplicably likeable and tolerated by the people who know them... they're called kender, which is only one letter off from kinder (german for children).

Kender are ALSO designed to embody child-like innocence. Which, IMO, is just adding more problem-sauce on top of the Romani stereotype.

How did people make the jump to romani instead of children?

Maybe you should . . . read the thread. Listen to other voices. Open your mind.

 

[This Effin’ GM]

An entire race of thieving kleptos? Kender have long been problematic, this isn't some new revelation

I completely forgot about the Kender focus on Kender extended families, another trait often associated with Romani but not with children specifically.

 

[Scribe]

You know it, deep in your heart, this will probably be the first thing to go after the feedback and it gets published in a book.

Seriously though, yeah that shocked me a lot. But I'm happy for it.

Oh totally. I can hear the weeping already.

"I'm just a misunderstoooooooooooood Black Robe!!"

 

[Umbran]

Yeah. I'm not saying that we're neglected. I just get the feeling from posts here that a lot of people feel like we should get less attention due to our lower percentage, so I'm pointing out why the attention we get is appropriate and we should not be ignored.

In the long term, I don't think it makes a lot of sense for the older gamers to be the central focus for plans. There's a whole lot of space between "the central focus" and "completely ignored", however. So how about we not drive the points to extremes?