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

 

[Hussar]

So, like they were in 1st and 2nd edition...no different. Just like Humans, Elves, Dwarves, and Halflings.

Well, except that they no longer have no understanding of personal property, no more "borrowing" and actively pursue being professional thieves.

But, sure, no different I guess?

If your idea of a kender is just a halfling with taunt, then, yup, these fit the bill perfectly. And, frankly, since this removes the problematic elements of the race - which were never mechanical in nature anyway- it's a win all the way around.

 

[Parmandur]

Well, except that they no longer have no understanding of personal property, no more "borrowing" and actively pursue being professional thieves.

But, sure, no different I guess?

If your idea of a kender is just a halfling with taunt, then, yup, these fit the bill perfectly. And, frankly, since this removes the problematic elements of the race - which were never mechanical in nature anyway- it's a win all the way around.

I mean, it's not clear to me why they aren't just Halflings, based in the books. Shoes?

 

[Helena Real]

Better enjoy them because they are probably the last DL novels by Weis and Hickman if not just the last DL novels period.

Yeah, I'll definitely do. I'm rereading now the original Dragonlance Chronicles and enjoying them immensely.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

Yeah, I have to agree. Plus, most of the Fifth Age material was not written by Weis & Hickman (right up until the end) and it definitely looks like they'll try to retcon it through their new novel trilogy, starting in August this year.

Hickman was the one who conceived the War of Souks plot line, Weis and Hickman wrote the novels and Weis was pretty much in charge of the setting going forward. The post War of Souls was very much under their supervision.

And here we have the old “other authors blew up the setting”. No, Weis and Hickman blew up the setting. The Fifth Age team did their best to salvage an interesting and playable setting from the ruins of Summer Flame. In my opinion they succeeded for the most part. The big problem was continuing with the “parallel novel/rpg module” model. It’s what ultimately killed Dragonlance in the first place and, surprise surprise, did again.

 

[Hussar]

I mean, it's not clear to me why they aren't just Halflings, based in the books. Shoes?

Well, yes, at the time, when DL came out, Kender were actually pretty different from halflings. Remember, this is early 80's, so, halflings were basically hobbits - short, fat, hairy feet, stayed at home. Kender were essentially the "anti-hobbit". Still short, true, but slim, athletic, adventurous, interested in exploring, wearing shoes and looking more like children.

Now, I think that the kender image has largely replaced, in many ways, the hobbit halfling in a lot of D&D since.

But, at the time, kender were a pretty large departure from how halflings were portrayed in the game.

 

[Scribe]

Still short, true, but slim, athletic, adventurous, interested in exploring, wearing shoes and looking more like children.

Now, I think that the kender image has largely replaced, in many ways, the hobbit halfling in a lot of D&D since.

Put this way, I'd 100% play a Kender over a Halfling or Hobbit.

 

[Hussar]

Put this way, I'd 100% play a Kender over a Halfling or Hobbit.

Honestly, I think most people agree with you. The whole "hobbit" thing has largely died. Look at the halfling art in 3e and then 4e. Those were very much not hobbits. The 5e halfling is... errr... ummmm.... well, it's certainly a thing.

But, yeah, the idea of D&D halflings at least physically looking like Kender has been pretty long established. Heck, I remember the Jeff Dee picture in the old Basic book of a human and two halflings, and, other than hairy feet, they certainly looked nothing like hobbits.

 

[Helena Real]

Hickman was the one who conceived the War of Souks plot line, Weis and Hickman wrote the novels and Weis was pretty much in charge of the setting going forward. The post War of Souls was very much under their supervision.

And here we have the old “other authors blew up the setting”. No, Weis and Hickman blew up the setting. The Fifth Age team did their best to salvage an interesting and playable setting from the ruins of Summer Flame. In my opinion they succeeded for the most part. The big problem was continuing with the “parallel novel/rpg module” model. It’s what ultimately killed Dragonlance in the first place and, surprise surprise, did again.

We have to disagree then. Summer Flame was a fitting end to the setting and storyline, and then Rabe wrote not one but two awful trilogies set in that unrecognizable Krynn TSR concocted with Dragon Overlords, one moon, and no gods—alongside other very boring inversions of the original.

The War of Souls is a last hurrah. If you read it, you can see how it avoids most of the Fifth Age material so far, trying to get rid quickly of that which they cannot ignore in the narrative. So, yeah, WoS isn't good, but it's what the authors could do to try to make Krynn recognizable once again, I think. It may have not been completely successful, but I'd much rather set adventures after WoS than during the rest of the Fifth Age.

 

[Faolyn]

I mean, it's not clear to me why they aren't just Halflings, based in the books. Shoes?

According to wikipedia, their home game originally had a halfling who found a ring of invisibility, and they didn't want to turn the game into a LOTR knock-off so they changed the halflings into something else.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Well, yes, at the time, when DL came out, Kender were actually pretty different from halflings. Remember, this is early 80's, so, halflings were basically hobbits - short, fat, hairy feet, stayed at home. Kender were essentially the "anti-hobbit". Still short, true, but slim, athletic, adventurous, interested in exploring, wearing shoes and looking more like children.

Now, I think that the kender image has largely replaced, in many ways, the hobbit halfling in a lot of D&D since.

But, at the time, kender were a pretty large departure from how halflings were portrayed in the game.

But the modern D&D is halfling is in effect a kender, so having a separate kender lineage in 5e is pointless. I guess making them different from current halflings was the reason for making them fey. I think my feedback will be: this is a waste of space, just say mechanically kender are halflings.