WotC Dragonlance: Everything You Need For Shadow of the Dragon Queen

WotC has shared a video explaining the Dragonlance setting, and what to expect when it is released in December.

World at War: Introduces war as a genre of play to fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons.

Dragonlance: Introduces the Dragonlance setting with a focus on the War of the Lance and an overview of what players and DMs need to run adventures during this world spanning conflict.

Heroes of War: Provides character creation rules highlighting core elements of the Dragonlance setting, including the kender race and new backgrounds for the Knight of Solamnia and Mage of High Sorcery magic-users. Also introduces the Lunar Sorcery sorcerer subclass with new spells that bind your character to Krynn's three mystical moons and imbues you with lunar magic.

Villains: Pits heroes against the infamous death knight Lord Soth and his army of draconians.

Notes --

• 224 page hardcover adventure
• D&D's setting for war
• Set in eastern Solamnia
• War is represented by context -- it's not goblins attacking the village, but evil forces; refugees, rumours
• You can play anything from D&D - clerics included, although many classic D&D elements have been forgotten
• Introductory scenarios bring you up to speed on the world so no prior research needed

 

[Maxperson]

You are also comparing a book to a game and trying to derive stats so as to compare them. As anyone who has ever tried to stat up a preexisting character using D&D knows, that's a fools errand. Conan might have been the inspiration for the barbarian class, but using the class to build Conan will never work because Conan has the abilities of a literary protagonist like "plot armor". Yet when people use Conan as the archetypical barbarian, only the most NdGT pedants would stand up and say "well actually..."

If we are comparing Middle Earth elves to D&D elves, then this is how you do it. You can't change Middle Earth elves into D&D elves and then say, "Tada! Look, they're the same!" Either you put in the Middle Earth elves in all their glory and power, or you have failed to put in Middle Earth elves. That's fine. Games need balance that books don't, so you just won't see Middle Earth elves in anything but a homebrew environment. Oh, and none of the abilities I mention are plot armor. They're racial abilities.

 

[Maxperson]

I think they're laughing for the same reason I am: you seem to think that Tolkien elves pop out of their moms with all those abilities.

They literally do. Those are all innate gifts from Eru to the first born. The knowledge and levels come later.

 

[Remathilis]

If we are comparing Middle Earth elves to D&D elves, then this is how you do it. You can't change Middle Earth elves into D&D elves and then say, "Tada! Look, they're the same!" Either you put in the Middle Earth elves in all their glory and power, or you have failed to put in Middle Earth elves. That's fine. Games need balance that books don't, so you just won't see Middle Earth elves in anything but a homebrew environment. Oh, and none of the abilities I mention are plot armor. They're racial abilities.

I guess you have a low opinion on The One Ring RPG then?

 

[Jaeger]

Thats crazy. IIRC the MM came out before either, wasnt it the 1st 1EAD&D book released?

You're totally correct! It was my memory that was faulty:

Monster Manual (1977)
Player's Handbook (1978)
Dungeon Master's Guide (1979)

Even so you get the idea. He drops one paragraph in the PHB almost as an aside reference. And expects you to remember what he is talking about when he includes the siege rules in the DMG one year later... He just assumes the reader has the background to recognize when to adjust the scale of the game to 'wargaming/mass combat mode'.

But as you can see it is easy to make things like 1:10 scaling for mass combat fully integrated into the game rules from the start. Unfortunately when the designers started giving different types of HD to monsters in later editions, that throws off the abstraction. Also missile weapons need to be integrated with how siege engines would work if you go to 1:10 scale for mass combat. It's a shame that basically no one picked up on what Gygax did. As once you know what to look for, it is obvious that at least in this area subsequent editions have been a regression in their ability to scale for mass combat.

 

[Faolyn]

They literally do. Those are all innate gifts from Eru to the first born. The knowledge and levels come later.

So, he outright gave them all those abilities, with no need to learn them or improve and hone their skills? So they're just a bunch of perfect Mary Sues, which makes them automatically less interesting than D&D elves.

 

[Remathilis]

 

[darjr]

D&D 5E - Dragonlance, who are the Knights of Solamnia, video from WotC.

Starts out about feats at first level with backgrounds with both the Knights of Solamnia and the Mages of High Sorcery. Plus another free feat just for Dragonlance because your in a war. Encounters are made harder too. It then covers the knights about how they are blamed

www.enworld.org

 

[darjr]

D&D 5E - Dragonlance, Mages of High Sorcery, WotC video

There is a test that might kill your character to join the mages. If I heard right. In order to fully join there is a moment to take the test in the adventure.

www.enworld.org

 

[GMforPowergamers]

@GMforPowergamers I don't know why you are laughing.

becuse I think it's funny, Tolken elves are the base of D&D elves.

If you gave a 3e elf the following traits, the ECL would skyrocket

+2 strength, minimum of 12, +8 Dex, minimum of 22, +5 Con, Int, Wis and Cha with minimums of 15

none of that is needed for a tolken elf unless you are giving every race those types.

all of this can be the named elves we know are high level cause they are immortal

 

[GMforPowergamers]

If we are comparing Middle Earth elves to D&D elves, then this is how you do it. You can't change Middle Earth elves into D&D elves and then say, "Tada! Look, they're the same!" Either you put in the Middle Earth elves in all their glory and power, or you have failed to put in Middle Earth elves. That's fine. Games need balance that books don't, so you just won't see Middle Earth elves in anything but a homebrew environment. Oh, and none of the abilities I mention are plot armor. They're racial abilities.

I will turn to my copy of the middle earth 5e book and see very similar to 5e elves