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

 

[MonsterEnvy]

And even more wasn't in 1e Dragonlance because the creators removed the vast majority of monsters.

They did not seem to be removed as not used, which is a big difference. Do cats not exist because cats are not mentioned in the first few modules?

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Clerics and magical healing are 70% of the game? I'm sorry, but that's just ridiculous.

Indeed. Clerics are quite rare in our 5e games. There are so many other classes that can provide more than enough healing in 5e - bards, druids, artificers, paladins - that removing cleric spells simply doesn't have the impact it did in 1e. "Clerics can't heal? Okay, I play a bard." Back in 1st edition, if you didn't have a healer cleric in the party you wouldn't survive the second fight.

Now it looks like the new adventure will address the issue narratively. Clerics will have a personal quest to reconnect with their god. This would be a slight change to the lore - instead of one Goldmoon, there are a couple of Goldmoons across Krynn*. But it's one that tries to keep as much as possible of the existing lore intact whilst acknowledging changes to game mechanics make the original version unworkable.



*Logically, there ought to be 14, it's only fair that each of the non-evil gods gets to pick their own Chosen One.

 

[Maxperson]

They did not seem to be removed as not used, which is a big difference. Do cats not exist because cats are not mentioned in the first few modules?

The Unified Ansalon Monster Chart shows which monsters are in the setting.

 

[Pentallion]

Indeed. Clerics are quite rare in our 5e games. There are so many other classes that can provide more than enough healing in 5e - bards, druids, artificers, paladins - that removing cleric spells simply doesn't have the impact it did in 1e. "Clerics can't heal? Okay, I play a bard." Back in 1st edition, if you didn't have a healer cleric in the party you wouldn't survive the second fight.

Now it looks like the new adventure will address the issue narratively. Clerics will have a personal quest to reconnect with their god. This would be a slight change to the lore - instead of one Goldmoon, there are a couple of Goldmoons across Krynn*. But it's one that tries to keep as much as possible of the existing lore intact whilst acknowledging changes to game mechanics make the original version unworkable.



*Logically, there ought to be 14, it's only fair that each of the non-evil gods gets to pick their own Chosen One.

Actually changes to the game mechanics makes no clerics much easier to pull off. All the short rests were unheard of in the original.

 

[Pentallion]

why are you putting so much work into a game an not talking to your players?

My players aren't (expletive).

 

[Pentallion]

This is the most toxic forum I've ever been to.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Actually changes to the game mechanics makes no clerics much easier to pull off. All the short rests were unheard of in the original.

It makes it pointless. No clerics? No one cares.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

The Unified Ansalon Monster Chart shows which monsters are in the setting.

That seems less a resource on all of the settings monsters and more a quick reference sheet with stats and everything for a bunch of monsters used in the setting.

Cat and Wolves for example are appearntly not a thing in Dragonlance going by that chart.

 

[Pentallion]

It makes it pointless. No clerics? No one cares.

Yeah, well, you're not wrong.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

For a time the heroes of the lance were the most famous D&D group, more even Drizzt D'ourden, Elminster or Strand von Zarovich.

I don't worry about monsters being in Krynn the cruch when this may change the gameplay, for example the classes.

Why do you want to play with an orc instead hobgoblings, burgbears or half-ogres, only to feel your character is different and unique?

* What does oficiall canon tells about alternate timelines or parallel worlds in Dragonlance? Maybe somebody wants to create a story about a "planar invasion" from an alternate timeline where the king-priest of Istar becomes the one deity, or one where Raistlin's half-irda daughter helped to avoid the apocalypse caused when her father tried to become a god, or a "dark sun" version of Krynn ruled by the overlord dragons, or a Krynnspace where the Vodoni empire won the "sphere war".

* What if a DM uses a "transgenic" version of yaggols to create stories with a Lovecraftian touch about "monsters infiltrated among us"?

Yaggol

The Yaggol are a race of degenerate, squid-like creatures from the wilds of Neron, a dark, steamy jungle in southern Taladas. The history of their civilization stretches back to the end of the first age of Krynn. Their empire thrived at the same time as the High Ogres of Ansalon founded their...

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