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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[This Effin’ GM]

What does surprise me it the squire feat grants proficiency with medium armor but not shields, and martial weapons (all or them) but not simple weapons. Which will be awesome for Wizards, and Sorcerers wanting to do a gish build

Cough kingfishers cough

 

[Parmandur]

Anyone else hoping that Dragonlance 5e gets released and then GoodmanGames kicks open the door and screams “WAR OF THE LANCE NEXT OAR”

I wonder if Goodman will ever be able to do another OAR. I believe Mike Mearls was the connective tissue between Goodman and WotC... and well, I don't want to say anything more about Mearls.

The Dark Tower isn’t an OAR product. From all I know another OAR product is imminent.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if they are working on a big DL project to take advantage of q WotC product, actually. Unless WotC is doing something themselves.

 

[Nikosandros]

I wouldn't be at all surprised if they are working on a big DL project to take advantage of q WotC product, actually. Unless WotC is doing something themselves.

My impression has been that Joseph Goodman is keen on early D&D and thus would not be too interested in a Dragonlance remake, but I could be wrong about that.

 

[Faolyn]

Maybe I've just seen too many bad-faith arguments online, and it's making me cynical...

I was being serious here. What should actually be in a Dragonlance campaign setting? It can't just be nostalgia.

Gullys shoud be allowed to return to add comedic elements, although this time with a different sense of humor. They aren't stupid by fault of some biological reason, but because they didn't want to study, their cultural level is too low and they suffered for a long time mind-affecting powers by the feys who live in the Nature. How could they survive? Being the incouscious slaves of dryads and other creatures.

I think that's too far from their normal origins. Personally, I'd make them into a clan of dwarfs that, for whatever reason, is looked down upon by other dwarfs. I posted to a different forum that I thought it would be cool if they worked with clay, not stone. That would be a good reason for other dwarfs to find them "lesser" and even "dirty," since clay isn't as strong as stone, is definitely messy, and I can see mountain dwarfs seeing it as "easy" because it's a somewhat more forgiving substance than stone is to work with. So clearly (in their minds) the gully dwarfs are lazy and too stupid to work with stone. In other words, their problems would be because of other dwarfs being bigots rather than they "not wanting to study" or having been repressed, culturally.

The problem with having them (or any other race) as a comedic race is that inevitably they're written so that the reader is laughing at them, not with them. And what you're supposed to be laughing at isn't usually funny.

Tinker gnomes aren't only in Krynn but they are in Spelljammer.

Tinker gnomes have been generalized into rock gnomes, but without the bizarre factor where they think that if you make something that actually works, you're insane.

Rock gnomes, as they are now, would certainly work in Spelljammer. And they could work in Dragonlance, unless the idea that they literally can't make anything that works is actually important for the setting.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Right but evolution isn't like a discrete cosmic rule - it springs naturally from a few simple facts about the way life operates. If all kender were just flattly immortal, I could buy that. But I don't think, at least for me, this is something that can be hand waived any more than you could hand waive a square circle.

It's just, for me, this huge gaping plot hole. Kender are fearless!... So they're going to die a lot. Maybe they reproduce at an incredibly early age so that temporally they can bare children before anything happens to them, (assuming that, as time goes on, their chance of survival gets lower and lower as they have more and more opportunity to be curious and fearless in situations that would get them killed).

Since being literally completely fearless is incomprehensible to the human mind and experience maybe I don't understand how this wouldn't be a maladaptive trait.

I don’t think you have to be afraid of fire to not stick your hand in a fire. Like, not all aversion is fear, nor is wisdom from experience necessarily fear.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I was being serious here. What should actually be in a Dragonlance campaign setting? It can't just be nostalgia.


I think that's too far from their normal origins. Personally, I'd make them into a clan of dwarfs that, for whatever reason, is looked down upon by other dwarfs. I posted to a different forum that I thought it would be cool if they worked with clay, not stone. That would be a good reason for other dwarfs to find them "lesser" and even "dirty," since clay isn't as strong as stone, is definitely messy, and I can see mountain dwarfs seeing it as "easy" because it's a somewhat more forgiving substance than stone is to work with. So clearly (in their minds) the gully dwarfs are lazy and too stupid to work with stone. In other words, their problems would be because of other dwarfs being bigots rather than they "not wanting to study" or having been repressed, culturally.

The problem with having them (or any other race) as a comedic race is that inevitably they're written so that the reader is laughing at them, not with them. And what you're supposed to be laughing at isn't usually funny.


Tinker gnomes have been generalized into rock gnomes, but without the bizarre factor where they think that if you make something that actually works, you're insane.

Rock gnomes, as they are now, would certainly work in Spelljammer. And they could work in Dragonlance, unless the idea that they literally can't make anything that works is actually important for the setting.

I think just giving all the races just a little bit of ability to introspect at all wolves a lot of problems. [im leaving in the very weird autocorrect]

Gnomes can joke that making reliable inventions is insane, because it’s considered less fun or whatever, without being essentially incapable of doing it.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

He is still alive and well and working for WotC. He even does public appearances again and does not get heckled.

I believe Mearls is not technically fired, but he's been off the TTRPG team since 2019. Haven't heard a peep since one video with Larian Studios.

Last time I checked, there's no issue with OAR stopping? I mean, the last one they did was the massive Temple of Elemental Evil slipcase set. And the next one they are doing is Dark Tower.

Since Temple of Elemental Evil, there hasn't been any OAR announcements. Dark Tower is a great module, but it's not by WotC. Goodman got permissions from it's original writer, Jennell Jaquays.

Oooooh the free rpg. Day item tied IN to the dark tower, it wasn’t the dark tower

I actually have this. It's I believe a prelude, short adventure, not the full Dark Tower, which is to be released.

Anyway, I just find it odd there hasn't been any OAR announcement at all (apart from Dark Tower, which isn't actually OAR) since Temple of Elemental Evil. Goodman has been building a bigger 5E team too, there are openings they just put on their site.

 

[Parmandur]

I believe Mearls is not technically fired, but he's been off the TTRPG team since 2019. Haven't heard a peep since one video with Larian Studios.



Since Temple of Elemental Evil, there hasn't been any OAR announcements. Dark Tower is a great module, but it's not by WotC. Goodman got permissions from it's original writer, Jennell Jaquays.



I actually have this. It's I believe a prelude, short adventure, not the full Dark Tower, which is to be released.

Anyway, I just find it odd there hasn't been any OAR announcement at all (apart from Dark Tower, which isn't actually OAR) since Temple of Elemental Evil. Goodman has been building a bigger 5E team too, there are openings they just put on their site.

Well, I don't really necessarily think they are doing DL, but if they were...maybe they had to hold announcement till closer to WOtC unveiling their project? While we haven't gotten word about another one, they have a pretty long gestation, so maybe they got a bit more conservative about announcement dates.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

I was being serious here. What should actually be in a Dragonlance campaign setting? It can't just be nostalgia.


I think that's too far from their normal origins. Personally, I'd make them into a clan of dwarfs that, for whatever reason, is looked down upon by other dwarfs. I posted to a different forum that I thought it would be cool if they worked with clay, not stone. That would be a good reason for other dwarfs to find them "lesser" and even "dirty," since clay isn't as strong as stone, is definitely messy, and I can see mountain dwarfs seeing it as "easy" because it's a somewhat more forgiving substance than stone is to work with. So clearly (in their minds) the gully dwarfs are lazy and too stupid to work with stone. In other words, their problems would be because of other dwarfs being bigots rather than they "not wanting to study" or having been repressed, culturally.

The problem with having them (or any other race) as a comedic race is that inevitably they're written so that the reader is laughing at them, not with them. And what you're supposed to be laughing at isn't usually funny.


Tinker gnomes have been generalized into rock gnomes, but without the bizarre factor where they think that if you make something that actually works, you're insane.

Rock gnomes, as they are now, would certainly work in Spelljammer. And they could work in Dragonlance, unless the idea that they literally can't make anything that works is actually important for the setting.

I see Gully dwarves as similar to the caste-less dwarves of Dragon Age. The caste system of D.A is quite similar to the social hierarchy of DL. Gully Dwarves are just the ones to poor or too unlucky to be born into a good Clan and kept in abject poverty far from any power in their society. They are considered as less than human, not even good at being canon-fodder or servants, but to any exterior onlooker...there's no real difference between an Hylar and Aghar outside their clothes.

No need to be magically inferior....societies have many efficient ways of creating poverty, both in knowledge and political/financial power, for those they consider less than.

 

[cbwjm]

What does surprise me it the squire feat grants proficiency with medium armor but not shields, and martial weapons (all or them) but not simple weapons. Which will be awesome for Wizards, and Sorcerers wanting to do a gish build

I saw that and though it was a little weird that it didn't also grant light armour proficiency. I guess they want people to look more like knights in shining armour instead of knights in shifty looking leather armour.