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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[Hussar]

A

And Gilthanas was essentially what would be in Basic the Elf race-as-class. That's an idea I wish we could bring back.

As far as the modules go, he was a straight up fighter/mu. Nothing too odd there.

 

[Hussar]

Might be that Dungeons & Dragons have so much bigger recognition that it attracts more attention and potential litigation.

Holy crap! That's Maggan! Wow, a face from the past.

 

[Maggan]

Holy crap! That's Maggan! Wow, a face from the past.

I lurk in the waters, waiting to strike ... post ... I meant post.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Pure fighter I think.

Edit: It looks like she dual classed. This is from the 1e modules.

Tika Waylan
(Pan-Wielder). Human; F4
(former T3); AL NG; S14, I9, Wl6, Dl2,
C13, Ch10; MV 12”; hp 22; AC 8

I think that is - not entirely legal, her dexterity is too low, should be at least 15.

 

[Marandahir]

To be perfectly blunt, Dragonlance could easily get away with using lightfoot halflings as kender and rock gnomes as tinker gnomes. Before the death of subraces, I naturally assumed kender would be a halfling subrace. Ever since halflings stopped being hobbits, they were just diet kender anyway. This would be the perfect time to remarry the kender and halfling into one race and treat the "kender" as a distinct culture of halflings unique to Krynn. (Like how the Vulkoor are a distinct culture of drow unique to Eberron).

EXACTLY.

No need for Artificer when Rock Gnome already captures the Tinker Gnome aesthetic. We can avoid the issue of science-based healing magic in a setting where healing is explicitly tied to the Divine.
No need for another thief-oriented lightfooted Halfling lineage when we literally have a Lightfoot Halfling already.

Though that does raise the question - is the Kender UA actually playtesting the 2024 Lightfoot Halfling!?

They'll need to make the Lightfoot and Stout more distinct in the next iteration of the PHB, given the lost of ability score bonuses as the chief feature. They'll need more abilities going for each, but as is, it's a little bit hard to recognise them as different in a lineup. Same issues abound for Hill & Mountain Dwarves; High Elves and Wood Elves have more of a distinguishing fiction to draw on).

 

[James Gasik]

Her Strength would have to be a 17 as well, right? Dual-classing was so obnoxious I only did it once, and wasn't too impressed with the result.

That was one of the things I did like about the Heroes of the Lance, they had more reasonable ability scores. Raistlin Majere, jerkass Wizard extraordinaire, for example, had a 17 Intelligence and couldn't even comprehend the highest tier of magic (and came with a crippling Con score). The one Fighter with exceptional Strength, Caramon, had a fairly low percentage (I think, it's been awhile, and I'm too lazy to look it up).

A lot of featured characters in novels at the time had stupendous stats all around (not all though, the heroes of the Time of Troubles were not fantastic), like Tristan Kendrick (Moonshaes) or Wulfgar (Icewind Dale).

 

[Remathilis]

Though that does raise the question - is the Kender UA actually playtesting the 2024 Lightfoot Halfling!?.

With the caveat of "who knows what WotC is planning", I don't think so. This kender race is trying to emphasize the difference between kender and halfling, but unfortunately the major differences between the two races has usually been culture and appearance, the two areas D&D is abandoning as design space for mechanics. So in order to create design space beyond "halflings with arrested development and ponytails" they are trying to make kender into magical fey halflings.

I just think it's reinventing the wheel for no good reason. (Well, one good reason. Can you imagine the unbridled nerdrage if they replaced kender with halflings?)

 

[James Gasik]

Man, I'd rage too if they turned Kender into 5e Halflings (see attached files)!

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Her Strength would have to be a 17 as well, right? Dual-classing was so obnoxious I only did it once, and wasn't too impressed with the result.

Yeah.

Only humans can be dual-classed characters. To be dual-classed, the character must have scores of 15 or more in the prime requisites of his first class and scores of 17 or more in the prime requisites of any classes he switches to.

 

[Remathilis]

Man, I'd rage too if they turned Kender into 5e Halflings (see attached files)!

3e and 4e halflings were very kenderish, lithe, booted, agile, and some had ponytails or topknots. It's also when halflings gained bravery as a racial trait, and many people in 2000 bemoaned the "kenderfication" of halflings. Would have been ironic if it had gone full circle and halflings absorbed kender.

And this is a sure site better than the melonheads they have in the 5e books.