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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[James Gasik]

Yes, the setting calls those "Insane" or "Mad" Gnomes. The other Gnomes find them to be particularly disturbing- whoever heard of someone getting an invention right the first time, with no room for improvement!

 

[Guest 7031328]

I think it's worth noting that even though it may be true that it is not an exception for people to have not had issues with Kender at their gaming tables, it is also very much not an exception for gaming tables to have had issues with Kender as they were written at the gaming table, so much so that it is a common house rule to not allow kender PCs in Dragonlance games long before 5e.

There's merit to attempting to find a better way to present the race to hopefully be less disruptive at more tables, though whether this was the right approach or not is up to debate.

 

[James Gasik]

I think the attempt to disassociate potential problematic Kender behavior by ensuring their mechanics did not reflect the troublesome qualities of the race is a fine effort. But it won't actually solve the "Kender problem", which has more to do with players who find fun in ruining other people's fun than anything written on their character sheet.

See also: the Chaotic Neutral problem. The Thief problem. The Assassin problem. The Lawful Stupid Paladin problem. The "bad guy race" problem. Nothing entitles a player to be a jerk, I don't care what the book says. End of story.

The question is, is the UA Kender bad for trying to emulate the racial qualities of the Kender of old, that is to say, their ability to sometimes produce a useful item, or to infuriate enemies?

I don't have a problem with these mechanics per se, but it's obvious that they stand out when compared to most other races. The only parallel to the "deep pockets" ability I can think of is the Gnome's ability to produce clockwork gadgets.

And while I don't mind Kender being good at taunting, why can't anyone else taunt enemies? Seems like a useful ability to have. But hey, Kobolds can't even grovel and beg for their miserable lives anymore, so why should I expect consistency? : )

 

[Micah Sweet]

I think the attempt to disassociate potential problematic Kender behavior by ensuring their mechanics did not reflect the troublesome qualities of the race is a fine effort. But it won't actually solve the "Kender problem", which has more to do with players who find fun in ruining other people's fun than anything written on their character sheet.

See also: the Chaotic Neutral problem. The Thief problem. The Assassin problem. The Lawful Stupid Paladin problem. The "bad guy race" problem. Nothing entitles a player to be a jerk, I don't care what the book says. End of story.

The question is, is the UA Kender bad for trying to emulate the racial qualities of the Kender of old, that is to say, their ability to sometimes produce a useful item, or to infuriate enemies?

I don't have a problem with these mechanics per se, but it's obvious that they stand out when compared to most other races. The only parallel to the "deep pockets" ability I can think of is the Gnome's ability to produce clockwork gadgets.

And while I don't mind Kender being good at taunting, why can't anyone else taunt enemies? Seems like a useful ability to have. But hey, Kobolds can't even grovel and beg for their miserable lives anymore, so why should I expect consistency? : )

Taunt is a cultural ability. None of the kender stuff is mechanically different from how the 5e halfling is represented. They should just say that Krynn halflings are called kender, talk about their setting-specific cultures, throw out a "Taunt" feat, and Bob's your uncle. Would have avoided all this.

Or better yet, use the Level Up halfling. They actually have a real Fearless trait.

 

[Hussar]

Those creatures did turn up but were a natural part of the world not extradimensional interlopers. Also I think saying everything is magical or from the feywild is uncreative if not lazy.

But saying everything is part of the natural world despite no explanation of how they came to be part of the natural world is energetic and creative?

Why is it that it’s only stuff people don’t like that is lazy and uncreative?

 

[Hussar]

In my opinion, that question itself is the problem. I'm of the opinion that worldbuilding hats shouldn't be one size fits all. Dragonlance already has its own cosmology and doesn't need to borrow from other settings or meta-settings. I'm fine with explicit meta-settings like Planescape or Spelljammer referencing specific settings, but that should be a one way street for people who want that interconnectivity, not a hammer used to nail down any detail that dares to differ within the books of the specific settings themselves.

That ship sailed a long time ago. You’re preaching to the converted here but I also know that this hill just isn’t going to be one that is defensible.

 

[Micah Sweet]

But saying everything is part of the natural world despite no explanation of how they came to be part of the natural world is energetic and creative?

Why is it that it’s only stuff people don’t like that is lazy and uncreative?

Excellent question, because it cuts both ways. Why is the old stuff lazy and uncreative, and the new stuff somehow isn't?

 

[Hussar]

SO I wonder... tracking the moon phases is a pretty complex idea, do you think it could survive a public playtest?

Depends.

I run online. Fantasy Grounds automatically tracks moon phases so long as I advance the calendar. So not really a problem for some of us.

 

[Hussar]

Excellent question, because it cuts both ways. Why is the old stuff lazy and uncreative, and the new stuff somehow isn't?

Who says that? Who is saying that kender or dryads being native to the setting is lazy design?

No one.

But apparently any changes are always lazy design. Well so long as the observer doesn’t like the change.

The only time you see charges of lazy or uncreative design is when the observer doesn’t like a change.

So no it really doesn’t cut both ways. No one is saying that the old clkender design was lazy or uncreative. It is being criticized for lots of other reasons but not that.

 

[Hussar]

At the end of the day the point about original DL being fixed on the 1e system is very true. Virtually every aspect of the setting is grounded in 1e assumptions.

If they are going to bring this into 5e, it very much will be in an “inspired by” manner and not a 1:1 conversion. That’s just not going to happen.