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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[Levistus's_Leviathan]

What we know:

- 2 Classic Setting products in 2022 (apparently both with some novelty of formst)

- 1 Classic Setting "cameo" in 2022

- 1 Classic Setting product in 2023

- 2 brand new, originL non-Magic Settings under development

- 1 "revisit" to a Classic Setting already done in 5E for 2024

- the first 2022 Classic Setting is being written by Chris Perkins, who is credited on the Travellers of the Multiverse UA, and who was showing off an alternate cover to an as-of-yet unannounced book with a hamster and a Beholder

- Wes Schneider, who wrote Theros and Van Richten's, is credited on the Dragonlance UA article.

From these facts, I feel confident that we will hear about Chris Perkins Spelljammer project soon, and Wes Schneider's Dragonlance project a bit later this year.

Yeah, that all checks out. And Perkins has acted fondly towards the setting in the past, being the main author in both previous adventures that have had Spelljammer cameos in them (Dungeon of the Mad Mage, and Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden). Additionally, we know for a fact from this video that Perkins was the one that added Gnome Ceremorphs and the crashed Nautiloid spelljamming ship to Rime of the Frostmaiden.

So, yeah, Perkins is almost definitely the one making Spelljammer.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

In another thread I was tempted to opine that one the characteristics of a Mary Sue was that they were universally loved for no obvious reason, so by that criteria are Kender a Mary Sue peoples

my biggest pet peeve is "Here are the reason people should not trust even beloved friends who are kenders... but everyone loves and trust kenders."

it was the WORST flavor text. I remember heroes of the lance making tassolhoff (a hero friend and trusted companion) turn out his pockets before he left... how do you think that goes with a random one???

On Krynn they should not be allowed into markets or stores cause they magically can't understand or be tought the idea of personal property... every kender would need a non kender to do there shopping for them.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

my biggest pet peeve is "Here are the reason people should not trust even beloved friends who are kenders... but everyone loves and trust kenders."

it was the WORST flavor text. I remember heroes of the lance making tassolhoff (a hero friend and trusted companion) turn out his pockets before he left... how do you think that goes with a random one???

On Krynn they should not be allowed into markets or stores cause they magically can't understand or be tought the idea of personal property... every kender would need a non kender to do there shopping for them.

Totally agree, it does not help that it can bring out the worst in players.

 

[Dr. Bull]

This may have been mentioned somewhere in the 53 pages of posts, but...

1. I am very happy for the return of Dragonlance. Back in the 80's, I read all the books and played most of the modules.

2. I think Kender are cool. However, I question the addition of the "bag of many things". In past editions, Kender never had magic abilities. Why change? In my opinion, "ever-full pockets" is a meta-game addition that stretches in-game realism. ALL Kender can summon stuff at any time? If so, why would they do anything or go anywhere? They would just sit at home and pull whatever they want out of their bags. Kender would become shopkeepers who sell equipment (and make huge profits in the process). What's wrong with them being thieves? They aren't malicious, they're just curious about everything around them. They absentmindedly pickpocket all the time. It's actually very endearing and fun, in my opinion. The Kender have a different perspective on personal property and ownership.

If a "race of thieves" is such a terrible ethical issue for WOTC, then what do we do with Murder Hobos for heaven's sake? From an ethical standpoint, murder is a much worse than petty theft! Even worse, Murder Hobos murder THEN they steal. A Kender will just take the trinket you have tucked into your belt...

Other races have stereotyped traits. Generally speaking, Half-Orcs are violent, Dwarves are stubborn, Dragonborn are disciplined, Drow are sadistic, Wood Elves are free spirited, Changelings are deceptive, Aasimars are righteous, Firbolgs are gentle, and Humans are ambitious. Why can't Kender be curious kleptomaniacs?

3. I am REALLY hoping that WOTC includes some good maps of Krynn... Over the past 30 years, I still have not seen a map of Krynn that matches the quality of maps for Forgotten Realms or Eberron. A beautiful continent map designed by Jared Blando or Mike Schley would be amazing!

 

[James Gasik]

Apologies if this was brought up, but the Kender Pockets ability seems to be the update to this ability from Dragonlance Adventures (see attached file).

 

[GMforPowergamers]

2. I think Kender are cool. However, I question the addition of the "bag of many things". In past editions, Kender never had magic abilities. Why change? In my opinion, "ever-full pockets" is a meta-game addition that stretches in-game realism. ALL Kender can summon stuff at any time? If so, why would they do anything or go anywhere? They would just sit at home and pull whatever they want out of their bags. Kender would become shopkeepers who sell equipment (and make huge profits in the process).

I mean any race any class could most likely make an argument for why they would be better safer and make a good living by not adventureing... heck I would argue any sane person that made it to level 5 would retire and live like a king.

What's wrong with them being thieves? They aren't malicious, they're just curious about everything around them. They absentmindedly pickpocket all the time. It's actually very endearing and fun, in my opinion.

and in a portion of the player base finds they do nothing buy egg on bad behavior.

The Kender have a different perspective on personal property and ownership.

that isn't the issue. That is kind of cool, if they could learn that others don't share that, and respect it.

If a "race of thieves" is such a terrible ethical issue for WOTC, then what do we do with Murder Hobos for heaven's sake?

the same thing they did with the race of thieves... abandon support and let you do what you want in hombrew but not have it be in any published works

From an ethical standpoint, murder is a much worse than petty theft! Even worse, Murder Hobos murder THEN they steal. A Kender will just take the trinket you have tucked into your belt...

and the defualt game hasn't been murder hobo in a while (if ever)

Other races have stereotyped traits.

and they are all being reevaluated

Generally speaking, Half-Orcs are violent,

why?

Dwarves are stubborn,

why?

Dragonborn are disciplined,

why?

Drow are sadistic,

why?

Wood Elves are free spirited,

why?

Changelings are deceptive,

this is the closest we have to a racial trait...they get deceptive abilities.

Aasimars are righteous,

why?

Firbolgs are gentle,

wait... really, I didn't even know this one, but why?

and Humans are ambitious.

and this one I can disprove right out the gate... not all humans are ambitious, I'm not even sure that a large number of humans are.

Why can't Kender be curious kleptomaniacs?

notice you can play a non ambitious human, a violant fibolg, a pious aasimar, an honest changling... but kleptomania is built right into the mechanics of old Kenders...

once you seperate culture from inborn mechanics, you can have a kender born and raised with elves that DOES understand and even respect personal property. You can have a good rightus Drow, or any other combo you want.

 

[Fifth Element]

Kender never had magic abilities. Why change?

As mentioned many times earlier in this thread, for many people the only way their taunt ability would make any sense at all is if it's supernatural.

Also, why not change? Why just retread things in exactly the same way they've been done before?

If a "race of thieves" is such a terrible ethical issue for WOTC, then what do we do with Murder Hobos for heaven's sake?

Murder hobos are people choosing to behave in a particular way. That is in no way similar to an entire race of people being thieves.

Plus this is whataboutery. Murder hoboing is indeed an ethical question. But you can address one ethical question at a time. Moreover, murder hoboing can be alleviated by not having whole races of creatures behaving in a particular way. One reason murder hoboing happens is because some races are inherently evil, and therefore you don't need justification to kill them. See orc, kill orc, because orc is necessarily evil.

Other races have stereotyped traits. Generally speaking, Half-Orcs are violent, Dwarves are stubborn, Dragonborn are disciplined, Drow are sadistic, Wood Elves are free spirited, Changelings are deceptive, Aasimars are righteous, Firbolgs are gentle, and Humans are ambitious. Why can't Kender be curious kleptomaniacs?

I think you will find the people who believe that not all kender should be kleptomaniacs also believe that not all half-orcs should be violent, etc. It's a problem to say that an entire race of beings acts in a certain way. It's worse with kender, since being seen as thieves ties them to a particular human ethnic group, but all "Race X acts in this way" is falling out of favour. It's not just kender.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

I think you will find the people who believe that not all kender should be kleptomaniacs also believe that not all half-orcs should be violent, etc. It's a problem to say that an entire race of beings acts in a certain way. It's worse with kender, since being seen as thieves ties them to a particular human ethnic group, but all "Race X acts in this way" is falling out of favour. It's not just kender..

I believe that the same people that see Kenders as Gypsy stand ins will also see Orcs and Drow as Africans. Even if I am not 100% on board with either, I will say the fact that some see it tells me we should at least consider it... the side effects of better races and kender maybe getting to see play at our tables is a happy one.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Controversial to a degree, but doable and possibly adviseable. I have heard thst people used the modules without the Pregens, and I think that is a good direction for a revisit and rewrite.

The original module did mention using characters other than the standard heroes, if my memory isn't playing tricks on me. But Goldmoon is a whacking great plot McGuffin, and the only source of magical healing by design. There was a reason most of the original heroes where fighters. You start messing that and it doesn't just change the story, it changes encounter balance. The if new Heroes of the Lance are an artificer, a druid a 5e paladin, and Notsalin the emo warlock it would go very differently.

 

[darjr]

The original module did mention using characters other than the standard heroes, if my memory isn't playing tricks on me. But Goldmoon is a whacking great plot McGuffin, and the only source of magical healing by design. There was a reason most of the original heroes where fighters. You start messing that and it doesn't just change the story, it changes encounter balance. The if new Heroes of the Lance are an artificer, a druid a 5e paladin, and Notsalin the emo warlock it would go very differently.

This line of discussion is very enlightening. Thanks. I’d love more info along these lines.