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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[Paul Farquhar]

Supernatural Gifts in the DMG don't include feats as written; instead, they are typically described as mimicking the properties of magical items. Nothing says you couldn't just make a feat into a Supernatural Gift, of course, but that would be a homebrew choice.

Perhaps you mean Epic Boons, which do explicitly include feats as an alternative to the listed options? But those are only available to PCs over level 20, not at level 1.

Or maybe you're thinking of the Supernatural Gifts from Theros, which do work the way you describe. But (so far) those are only officially available to Theros characters.

There are also draconic gifts from Fizban. Which can explicitly be feats, and have no level requirement.

 

[Hussar]

And, let's be honest here. A Supernatural Gift that mimics a magic item isn't really all that different from a feat. There are more than a few magic items that do, more or less, what a feat does.

How different is a Elven Cloak from the Skulker feat after all? So on and so forth. There are magic items that run the range from weaker than a feat to much, much stronger. So, it's not really much of a stretch for a Supernatural Gift to be a feat (or at least something close enough)

 

[Paul Farquhar]

And, let's be honest here. A Supernatural Gift that mimics a magic item isn't really all that different from a feat. There are more than a few magic items that do, more or less, what a feat does.

How different is a Elven Cloak from the Skulker feat after all? So on and so forth. There are magic items that run the range from weaker than a feat to much, much stronger. So, it's not really much of a stretch for a Supernatural Gift to be a feat (or at least something close enough)

Indeed. A feat is just a magic item that is glued to the character.

I might be tempted to include "heirloom" magic items in some backgrounds, as an alternative to a feat equivalent. "Inheritor" from SCAG almost goes there.

If you are worried about legacy characters falling behind, just give them a feat as a quest reward.

 

[JEB]

Indeed. A feat is just a magic item that is glued to the character.

And a magic item is just one or more standalone class features, in a sense (even the ones that replicate specific spells are arguably fixed spell slots). And an ASI is literally a class feature. Which is in turn equivalent to a feat. Or a boon. Or a Supernatural Gift. Or a background.

Honestly, this being the case, surprised no one's tried publishing a point-buy 5E variant ruleset, after nearly eight years. It only took a few years to get Mutants & Masterminds out of 3E. (I know homebrew efforts exist, of course.)

 

[Paul Farquhar]

And a magic item is just one or more standalone class features, in a sense (even the ones that replicate specifically spells are arguably fixed spell slots). And an ASI is literally a class feature. Which is in turn equivalent to a feat. Or a boon. Or a Supernatural Gift. Or a background.

Honestly, this being the case, surprised no one's tried publishing a point-buy 5E variant after nearly eight years. (I know homebrew efforts exist, of course.)

It runs against the KISS philosophy of 5e.

 

[Micah Sweet]

It runs against the KISS philosophy of 5e.

I hate that philosophy. Level Up got my money solely on the power of rejecting it. Very happy that it's also awesome though.

 

[James Gasik]

I wish that I had an exact quote for when Jeremy Crawford promised a system that was basic at the core, but would have many optional "modules" you could use to add complexity. Maybe I misunderstood him, because there is a handful of such optional rules in the DMG and then...nothing.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I hate that philosophy. Level Up got my money solely on the power of rejecting it. Very happy that it's also awesome though.

If I wanted something absurdly complicated I would still be playing Pathfinder!

I see simplicity as pretty much the whole point of 5e.

 

[Cadence]

If I wanted something absurdly complicated I would still be playing Pathfinder!

I see simplicity as pretty much the whole point of 5e.

It feels like there is a lot of space between 5e and PF 1e to fit things in...

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I wish that I had an exact quote for when Jeremy Crawford promised a system that was basic at the core, but would have many optional "modules" you could use to add complexity. Maybe I misunderstood him, because there is a handful of such optional rules in the DMG and then...nothing.

5e is full of them.