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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[Remathilis]

They were magical in origin only, other than that they're not really fey and never had a connection to them. They're simply kleptos which explains why they had random items on them. Nothing magical about it. Nothing Fey about it. But now they're literally "pulling rabbits out of hats" is ridiculous and a travesty to the fans of the setting. Even the Taunt is supernatural!? Really? It's not because they've spent centuries perfecting the art instead?

Yup. A race of kleptos that were the root cause of 90% of all issues people have with Dragonlance.

Kender as a race is a concept that a few people love, a slightly larger group tolerate in fiction, and the vast majority hate or outright ban. The old race was a walking disruption. The stealing from your party. The bravery that made them start shiitake with things way beyond the player's capacities. The taunting important NPCs. The "childlike innocence" that means the character is unaware of their actions, but the player is absolutely using it to mess up the game for everyone else. And if You or Someone you know somehow threaded the needle between responsible player and irresponsible PC, most players did NOT. Which is why much of D&D discussion about kender involve creative ways to destroy them and liken them to vermin.

Kender needed a rebranding. Badly.

So you toss in a little "fey" magic to them to play up the playful trickster/childlike element but chuck the tickets to be disruptive. Are kender brave? Yes, but now they have heaping dose of common sense and self-preservation. Are kender infuriating? Yup, but now there is a magical reason (magical influence; see also viscous mockery) why my PC is reacting the way they are. Kenders stealing everything? Well, now it is possible to play a kender who still has pockets full of junk (and occasionally useful things) without forcing the kender to be the cause of nearly all inner-party drama and good chunk of external drama. In short, kender are being treated like a race that could actually function in society rather than an excuse for players to mess with the DM and other Players. Kender are being forced to play nice.

Of course, you can always CHOOSE to play your kender as the thieving, annoying source of drama they were before. However, I like the idea new kender are toned down enough that players won't regard them as kill-on-sight like hold older players did.

 

[AnotherGuy]

I always assumed it was, since it was the only way that I could justify an "innocent, childlike race" being able to say things that the Dragon article All About the Kender describes as "the most stinging insults that can be imagined," and which are so cruel as to cause murderous rage in the target of the abuse.

(Also, both that article, which is for 1e, and the 2e Monstrous Compendium for Dragonlance say that you save vs. spell against a kender's taunt, which implied its magical nature.)

Okay, but if it weren't magical what would the save be in those editions?
Petrification or Polymorph? Paralyzation, Poison or Magic? Rod, Staff or Wand? Breath Weapon?

 

[Hussar]

I'm no Dark Sun fan, but ask a Dark Sun fan how they would feel if their setting got Feywild material suddenly shoved in Athas by WotC if they ever brought it back.

They already did and it was GLORIOUS.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Are you saying I should be glad more races haven't been retconed into the Feywild? I guess I should.

Not exactly, I was more trying to dismiss the hyperbole that keeps getting repeated that WotC has/will "turn every race into Fey" like Oprah gives out cars. However, feel free to take what you will from the fact that WotC could turn more races into Fey due to folklore connections, but haven't.

I will say that the concept of the fey, which exists in some form across many cultures, is the primary source of nearly all fantasy creatures in folklore. Saying something has fey roots doesn't really mean much with that in mind.

Eh, it kind of means a lot. There are fey-like creatures in a lot of folklore, but a lot of them also fit into other more modern classifications. Vampires and Werewolves have been considered Fey at various points in history, but D&D keeps them firmly out of that classification, with Vampires being Undead and having a Werewolves and similar were-creatures being Lycanthropes (when they really should be called "Therianthropes", as "Lycanthropy" specifically applies to werewolves). And D&D has classified Genies and Chwingas, which are fairly similar to Fey, as Elementals, so it's pretty evident that not all "trickster and/or nature spirit"-type creatures from folklore would be Fey in D&D terminology.

 

[Hussar]

Look it boils down to pretty simple math.

1. Kender, as written, were absolutely loathed as a race. Probably the most banned race in the history of the game. Yes, I'm not saying it was universal and obviously some people liked them, but, as written, kender were a huge problem at the table.

2. WotC wants to bring back the race because, unlike at the table, in the fiction kender are very popular and also one of the cornerstones of the setting.

So, they strip out the "must steal and disrupt the game" element out of the race. Now, they could have left it at that, but, at that point, they're just halflings with nicer hair. So, they have to keep someone to make them interesting. Now, the race already was magically generated. So, instead of Greygem of Gargath cursing the lawful races to make kender - a not so nice analogy to Romani - they are now Fey, which makes them unique in the setting, removes all those stigmatized connections and wraps up the whole package in a neat bow.

Plus, it actually adds the Feywild to Dragonlance - not a bad idea in a setting where elves play a HUGE role. It's not like additions to the setting have never happened before. And, as far as reimagining the setting goes, this one works pretty well.

Weiss has said, "Not my Dragonlance". That's fine. I don't want to play a forty year old setting. I want to see a new take on the old. I want a reimagining, not simply a line by line retread of the same stuff. I HAVE the old stuff. Why would I want it again?

Can anyone come up with a reason for not making Kender Fey that isn't based on nostalgia or appeals to lore? How would keeping things the same be better?

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Yeah, re-reading it, I think I may keep to my take on the playtest Kender. I dont really mind the fae-inspired vibe, but having mundane abilities becoming obvious magic is a little too far. Keep it weird and unexplained.

Size: Small
Speed: 25 ft

Kender Pockets: Useful and less-useful items tend to gather in a Kender's haversack and pockets. Nobody knows how they ended up there or who was the legitimate owner (if there ever was). By spending 1 minute foraging the unknown corners of your bags or pockets, you can produce one single non-magical small item weighting 5 lbs or less and worth a maximum of 10 gp. Once you use this feature, you must complete 1d4 long rests before you can use it again.

Provoke and Dash: Being the diminutive creatures that they are, the Kenders have mastered the art of taunting and baiting larger foes to force them to over-extend themselves. As an action, you can make your choice of a Charisma (Persuasion) or Charisma (Deception) check contested by a creature's Wisdom (Insight) check. The creature must be able to hear you, and the two of you must share a language. A creature immune to charm automatically succeed on the check.

If you succeed on the check your speed increases by 10 ft and the creature has disadvantage on attack rolls against targets other than you and can't make opportunity attacks against you. This effect lasts for 1 minute, until one of your companions attacks the target or affects it with a spell, or until you and the target are more than 60 feet apart. If the targets succeed on the check, it is immune to the effect of your barbs for 24 hours.

Fearless. You have advantage on saving throws to resist being frightened. As an action on your turn, you can end the frightened condition on yourself.

Underfoot tactic. Nimbleness. You can enter or move through the space of any creature that is of a size larger than yours. You have advantage on Strength checks to shove or grapple a creature sharing a space with you.

 

[wizard71]

I really like the options. I am very excited to see White Robe, Red Robe & Black Robe spellcasters get good feat choices that can rival martials for once! Its about time casters get some nifty feat choices.

 

[wizard71]

I really like the feat options, especially for casters! The White Robes, Red Robes & Black Robes all have a feat that is flavorful and impactful. Its about time that casters get solid feat choices to rival martials! I also like the Knights of Solamnia feat options though I wish they were subclasses of fighter and paladin respectively. I think the kender needs more work as pouches is a nice concept but will lose a lot of steam around level 5. They should have a pouch chance for a single use magic item like a potion or scroll. I think that would be a good way to replicate the kender spoon of undead turning from the books

 

[Older Beholder]

I like to fantasize that Dragonlance will get so popular again that one day we'll get a Taladas setting book for 5E.

 

[Neonchameleon]

I've three basic opinions on this:

• I like the new sorcerer subclass
• The new Kender are vastly improved. And no longer something that tells players to behave antisocially. Old Kender were some of the few things I outright banned. I'm not sure what to think of the new version - but not sure is a vast improvement on Kill It With Fire.
• Raistlin was always a warlock. He tired out and ran out of spells easily but recovered them by resting - and had an explicit Undead patron. 5e rules allow him to be much closer to the book version than the edition he was designed for did.