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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dnd.wizards.com

 

[Micah Sweet]

A very valid opinion if:

1. You are not a member of a discriminated-against group;
2. You don't care about people who are members of discriminated-against groups;
3. You don't care that people think you want to propagate negative stereotype

If we do live in a world where the weight of proof lies on the defense's side, that is essentially "guilty until proven innocent". Is that what you're saying?

 

[Marandahir]

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?)

I don’t think it would be so much replacing Kender with Halflings as replacing Lightfoots with Kender (the new, less Klepto and more lucky and taunty and magical ones), plus fleshing out the Stout traits further as well.

 

[Fifth Element]

Logic have rules. Sorry.

Formal logic has rules, but again we're not dealing in formal logic here. You're doing absolutely nothing to rebut those who have explained the problem to you, you keep saying "logic" as if that has any bearing on the discussion.

Jump to Romani from Kender is wrong. It is not an opinion, is a fact. I'm not interested in arguing with you about this point as I'm not interested in demonstrate that the Earth is a sphere. Really sorry but I have better things to do.

No one's making your discuss this, chum. You can bow out anytime. But you're not addressing what's actually being said. Romani = thieves, and kender = thieves is the point, not Romani = kender. This has already been explained to you. And no, the transitive property would not necessarily apply here, since we're not discussing math or logic. We're discussing the fact that there is a real-world ethnic group who have been smeared as thieves, so having a race in your game with the same inherent trait is icky.

And the Earth, by the way, is not a sphere. It's an oblate spheroid.

 

[Fifth Element]

If you do identify kender with romani you are assuming bad faith of the writer and your claim is an accusation that deserve more evidence before can be considered true.

That's not what's being done here, and that has been explained to you already. Identifying kender with Romani directly is irrelevant. Identifying kender with an inherent negative trait that Romani people are also associated with is the point.

 

[Fifth Element]

Harry Potter Goblins, to be fair, are far worse on this score than Kender, and not quite as excuseable.

Absolutely agree. The "long nose" comment just brought them to mind.

 

[Parmandur]

I don’t think it would be so much replacing Kender with Halflings as replacing Lightfoots with Kender (the new, less Klepto and more lucky and taunty and magical ones), plus fleshing out the Stout traits further as well.

I doubt thst the Lightfoot/Stout distinction survives the transition at all.

 

[Stefano Rinaldelli]

With opinions all over the board, I'll just lay my own 2cp.

I don't think a race having a negative trait is bad. Dwarves are stubborn, elves are aloof, halflings are non-threatening, orcs are aggressive, and kender are curious. This is a part of their culture, not their biology. As such, it should be a guideline rather than a rule. Ergo, you can find easy going dwarves, empathetic elves, intimidating halflings, peaceable orcs and disinterested kender as options too, though the majority you meet would be closer to the former than the latter.

Looping this around: if the kender are to be defined by their pockets and taunt ability, it either needs to be a cultural trait (and some kender don't handle and understand property rights) or magical (kenders have just enough residual chaos magic that sometimes weird things materialize in their pockets uncontrollably). Because kender being nonmagically good at taunts and stealing unattended objects is on par with all elves having proficiency with swords and bows or all dwarves in smithing or brewing. Its a cultural trait masquerading as a biological one.

I'm not against biological negative traits by principle. For instance human race has a very big biological problem to cope with long term problems. Everybody recognize it and it does not offend anybody. I can build a fantasy race with a lot of biological problem without reasonably offend anyone.

 

[Fifth Element]

There is a convergence of two common stereotypes of a rw group toward one fictional race. Your accusation is a little bit more strong than in Kender issue,

So you admit that common stereotypes can, in fact, create a connection with a fictional race. Interesting.

But this is not binary. It's not a "yes or no" question. Clearly HP goblins have more connections to Jewish stereotypes than kender do to Romani stereotypes. There are degrees or connection. HP goblins have a stronger connection. Kender have a weaker one. But they still have one.

Let me see: China is not capitalist and is ideologically against western concept of bank. More: chinese people call long nose the western people. It can be that HP goblin are bad representation of western people by a chinese friendly author?

JK Rowling is not Chinese, so you're really going off the rails here.

This way of thinking leads to McCarty like paranoia, my friend. With basic similarities is very easy to associate planets and apples. Be careful.

And further off the rails here. Again, the fact that both kender and Romani are considered thieves does not mean they are the same, and I've never said they're the same.

 

[Fifth Element]

Since one is offended you have to remove. Nor there is a unlogic reason.

This is a blatant misrepresentation. Even those explaining to you, over and over again, what the issue is have not said you "have to remove." I have said, for example, that it would better if WotC removed it. You're strawmanning those who disagree with you, which is a bad thing to do.

The fact that one feels offended is sufficient reason to remove or avoid. Frankly speaking I can find this barely reasonable if it were a mere marketing choice, but when it comes to be a philosophical position I find it disquieting.

You use the term "disquieting" instead of "offended", but in this context it's the same thing. You find the idea that these things should be removed offensive, so you argue that they should not be removed, as if you taking offence at it is sufficient reason.

 

[Fifth Element]

3- It's called coherence: I don't care about people unable or unwilling to be able to understand what I'm saying, jumping to conclusion driven only by malice.

You have no basis to say why someone would jump to a conclusion, even if they are doing so. Claiming that you know their motivation for doing so is invalid.

From my end, I understand exactly what you're saying, I simply believe you're wrong. Which is why I have explained why and how I think you're wrong. Claiming that those who disagree with you are merely doing so due to malice is terrible form in a discussion, and you shouldn't do it.