D&D 5E New Unearthed Arcana: Heroes of Krynn Revisited

WotC's Jeremy Crawford has announced a new Unearthed Arcana article today with redesigns from the prior Heroes of Krynn UA based on feedback, and in the following video he discusses that feedback and what's in the article:

• New iteration of Kender based on feedback survey, due to mixed response. This time is a back to basics, aiming to capture 1E AD&D fearlessness, curiosity and taunting skills. Delve into their origins from Gnomes in deep history.
• Kender are no longer fey creatures who grab objects from the Feywild
• Tweaked Feats from prior article
• Tweaked Backgrounds from prior article
• Brand new rule giving a list of free Feats for ANY Background
• Free Feat rule for Level 4 for all characters that doesn't take the ASI away, based on a curated list
• Reveals that in the Adventure, healing magic is already back.

Heroes of Krynn Revisited | Unearthed Arcana | Dungeons & Dragons

Explore updated character options from the Dragonlance setting! This playtest document presents revised races, subclasses, backgrounds, and feats.

dnd.wizards.com

 

[Micah Sweet]

The magic kender were going to be fun. Who cares if the original version wasn't magic? People hated that version, anyways. Giving them magic pockets is way more interesting and fun for a player than . . . whatever this is.

I was geniunely excited to play a Kender Creation Bard that summons random junk from the Feywild and animates them to fight in their battles while yelling insults at enemies. That would have been awesome. Now that cool character option isn't going to be legal. That, to me, is extremely disappointing. I already dislike Halflings, I don't want a boring copy of them that are slightly more annoying and fearless than the average Hobbit.

Do you play a lot of Adventurer's League?

 

[Maxperson]

Huh odd, given that I think the magic he is responsible for does the exact same thing good and neutral magic does. He’s still the god of ambition as well.

Yes, but in context it would be evil ambition. The neutral and good ambitious wizards wouldn't worship and draw power from a god of evil magic, regardless of what else he encourages.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

I missed the "professional thieves" aspect of the description and don't agree with it. For the rest...culture is dead in 5e. Too controversial. We have have to make it up ourselves now anyway.

And I really hated the fey connection.

So you are annoyed by lack of culture, but are against them gaining interesting traits

 

[Micah Sweet]

What balance? If alignment doesnt matter, what balance?

Excellent point. What is Dragonlance even about without alignment? Good, Evil and Neutrality are the core of the setting.

Again, if you can't bring yourselves to publish something pre-existing without massive changes, just leave it alone.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I'm going with the 5e designers.

I don't know if that's better or worse. It's certainly different. Good vs. Evil is a trope that is in virtually every fantasy story, game, book, etc. Representing that with the moons and magic made sense. What made less sense was the black robes mingling just fine with the other two. It would have made more sense if each of the orders was separate, with the black robes being hidden in out of the way places, because eeeeeeeebil.

Yeah. I agree.

They would occasionally work together against threats to magic as a whole, because magic took higher priority than alignment.

 

[Micah Sweet]

So you are annoyed by lack of culture, but are against them gaining interesting traits

I'm against them gaining magic pockets and fey ancestry. I'll use the old culture at my table, thanks.

 

[TwoSix]

Isnt that just a facet of what Evil would be? Selfish ambition to the exclusion of others? It certainly is at my table, same with selfishness.

Or does literally everyone else think that Evil can only be ax-crazy lunatics stabbing people at random?

Which is why using "Ambition" is a slightly more interesting label than "Evil" would be.

"Evil" is a shallow title you affix to codes of morality that oppose your own.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Excellent point. What is Dragonlance even about without alignment? Good, Evil and Neutrality are the core of the setting.

Again, if you can't bring yourselves to publish something pre-existing without massive changes, just leave it alone.

I would not even call it massive changes from what we have seen. But I prefer some changes to just leaving it the exact same. Because if you were not going to do anything new you might as well have just reprinted the old stuff.

 

[DarkCrisis]

I'm going with the 5e designers.

I don't know if that's better or worse. It's certainly different. Good vs. Evil is a trope that is in virtually every fantasy story, game, book, etc. Representing that with the moons and magic made sense. What made less sense was the black robes mingling just fine with the other two. It would have made more sense if each of the orders was separate, with the black robes being hidden in out of the way places, because eeeeeeeebil.

Yeah. I agree.

It made sense because the magic came first despite alignment. In the tower all are comrades. Outside of it is what it is

 

[Remathilis]

The kender vs lightfoot halfling

ASI and languages are not factored.

25 move vs 30 move.
Advantage on saves be fear vs immunity to fear
Reroll natural 1s vs cause a foe disadvantage on all attacks but against you
Free proficiency from a limited list of skills vs stealth when hiding in a medium or larger creatures shadow.

Kender's speed and fearless vs bravery are straight wins. Free proficiency vs situational hiding is arguably better, and taunt pales to lucky. They seem fairly balanced.