Dragonlance Dragonlance: Solamnic Knights & Mages of High Sorcery Preview

WotC has shared another preview of the upcoming Dragonlance setting/adventure with a look at backgrounds and feats for Solamnic Knights and Mages of High Sorcery.

Feats include Squire of Solamnia and Initiate of High Sorcery. Interestingly, one prerequisite is "Dragonlance Campaign", which implies that the feats can't be used outside that setting.

Dragonlance Backgrounds and Feats: Answer the Call as Knights and Mages

Will you join the Knights of Solamnia or the Mages of High Sorcery? Each offers a unique background and feats for Dragonlance characters. Get a sneak pe...

www.dndbeyond.com

 

[QuentinGeorge]

I guess that was a case of the game not necessarily mimicking the novels. That or someone just wasn't paying attention when putting together the art for the tales of the lance book.

Actually I forgot Riva Silverblade, from the comics, who was a knight in the post War of the Lance era, so well before Linsha. Linsha was 5th age, along with Odila Windlass and most of the other female knights. IIRC there weren’t female knights until the Solamnics revised their code but I could be confusing it with something else.

 

[WarDriveWorley]

The gods forbid anything be setting specific.

the ability for individual DMS to alter content doesn't mean things can't be setting specific nor does it mean every DM will allow it.

 

[dave2008]

But it's not weaker?

I was original respond to a poster (@Micah Sweet IIRC) that said the feat was weaker than Magic Initiate. It wasn't my claim as I haven't compared them.

 

[Helena Real]

Actually I forgot Riva Silverblade, from the comics, who was a knight in the post War of the Lance era, so well before Linsha. Linsha was 5th age, along with Odila Windlass and most of the other female knights. IIRC there weren’t female knights until the Solamnics revised their code but I could be confusing it with something else.

I love those comics to death, and Riva was a HUGE inspiration. Her looks, attitude, and overall personality just screamed "Epic Fantasy Heroine" to me

 

[Stormonu]

Didn't WotC do a survey where they found the majority run homebrew campaigns rather than published campaigns? I could see that being why the campaign information is so "shallow", so it can be absorbed easily into a homebrew campaign.

 

[delericho]

The complete lack of mustache on those Knights is killing me.

Like, why even change that? Why was that needed to change?

It's been a very long time, but I was under the impression that in-universe the mustache thing had largely fallen out of favour anyway? Sturm was big on his mustache, but he was very much a throwback even within (or actually, mostly outside of) the order.

 

[whimsychris123]

That's a weird set of things to choose. My point was that Wotc in this edition (as opposed to during the 3.x era) has eschewed following up their settings with more deeply detailed supplements -- a thing common through the first 30 years D&D, including in the WotC era.

I would disagree with this. It was a thing common in the '80s and '90s. Some of us like the original Greyhawk and FR box sets precisely because they are not overwrought settings requiring Ph.D.s to understand every nuance. Some people like having flexibility and room to breathe with their settings, which is what I believe is the main philosophy behind 5e settings. What you call shallow worldbuilding, I call a practical DM's toolkit.

You assume the people working at WotC don't care about the setting. I disagree. I believe they go over everything in the older settings and decide what to keep and what to toss. What do they keep? The essential things that make Dragonlance what it is. What do they get rid of? Outmoded ideas.

If a major identity of the Knights is the mustaches, it does exclude female knights from that identity. Sure, you could just say women don't have that requirement, but then they are not able to participate in that aspect of knighthood. WotC has to appeal to a wide variety of individuals, including various identities of gender. Better to just avoid any symbols that designate male or female. That's not shallow thinking. It requires thinking deeply about their audience and presenting their product so that everyone can make Dragonlance their own.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

That the art doesn't depict knights with mustaches, really, I can't say I'm terribly bothered by. Facial hair goes in and out of style fast, and mustaches were popular again for a hot minute a few years back, but it seems like that trend is fading away again. We're whole generations away from the days of Magnum P.I.

Will male-presenting NPC Knights of Solamnia have luxuriant mustaches when I run Shadow of the Dragon Queen? Heck yeah. Will it be a requirement of the order? Heck no!

 

[Jimmy Dick]

It would be cool to use the setting with PF2e rules. The orders could be archetypes. Several feats could be reflavored or new ones added.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

If there was only some alternative way for the DM to handle that....

In tabletop-only games yeah that's a non-issue.

However, if they decide to enforce it in D&D Beyond it could be. It might be that the DM has to check some box somewhere that says "Dragonlance Campaign" for a PC to be created with those Feats.

I admit that's unlikely for now, but it could be an issue in future.