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

 

[AnotherGuy]

Shockingly, it was said... here.

Thanks for the link.
Oh my table is gonna have fun with ridiculousness.

 

[Maxperson]

Yeah, I don't get that. From everything I read, people prayed to the gods, the gods stopped answering prayers, the people continued to pray, the gods ignored them, then the people found other gods. I haven't seen anything that said that people found other gods first, before the Cataclysm--which wouldn't even make sense because the books clearly stated that clerics of fake gods couldn't cast spells, since those gods didn't exist. This only makes sense if there was no way to distinguish a priest of a true god from a priest of a fake god: nobody got spells, or everyone did from faith, no matter who they worship.

Now, in a 5e twist, if those clerics of fake gods were actually warlocks, then having people turn from the true gods might actually make some sense. These new gods actually can help their worshipers, and the worshipers don't need to understand that they're actually getting their powers from fiends or fey or other bizarre entities.

Truthfully, I never bought into that explanation, either. There would have been true believers in other parts of the world. A group that turns away, even a large and powerful group like the Kingpriest and his villainous minions, aren't all of humanity turning away.

 

[FrozenNorth]

Most books describe the Kingpriest and his followers losing spellcasting ability prior. The general population turning their backs is generally described as a reaction to the Cataclysm occurring.

That it consistent with how I remember it. I remember reading a collection of short stories immediately after the Cataclysm and the theme running through several of the stories is that the characters lose faith in the gods because either the gods failed to prevent the Cataclysm, or their silence following it.

There was also a collection set pre-Cataclysm, and, none of the stories concerned people turning away from the gods that I recall.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Sure. I'm just saying there has to be a reason for having three orders, and until a few weeks from now it was alignment. What is it now? Seems like an important question.

it could have to do with subclass... like in 2e different robes had different schools they were good or bad at.
it could be tied to the moon (I mean it always was) and have something to do with lunor magic
it could just be what side you agree with "Black wants to hunt rogue wizards down and kill them, and white wants to leave them be and red want to try to 'shoot or recruit'"

 

[Faolyn]

The game still condones it, because it happens all the time in pretty much every game.

The problem is that theft and murder are legal terms, not moral ones. Not all kinds of killing are morally wrong or evil, and in D&D where morality is objective, killing evil creatures who are going to hurt others in the future and taking what's there can be both moral and good.

Sure, and I agree with that. But D&D doesn't say that going around killing people who aren't actively trying to hurt you or other people is a morally good act.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Yep. Totally did not get that.

If you have no idea, then you aren't at fault for what happens. 1) it's a horrible tragedy, and 2) since you were in town when it exploded violently enough to destroy an entire town, you can apologize to the townsfolk while you are all on the way to your final destinations.

yup and yup...

It sounds like a very cool ore and one that warrants further exploration.

yeah so far the highlight of the 5 sessions we have had

Very small amounts might be able to be used as a component to boost the power of the spells you cast. Test some. Put some in a lead container and see if it still reacts. And so on.

we have all put forth ideas... including since we use guns better gunpowder

Undead are usually obvious, but barring that, there are lore skills that can tell you what something is.

Undead that survive by eating the life energy of living creatures are always a threat to the living. They WILL eventually kill or harm others to feed.

sounds like 'defense of other' if you knew them to be a threat to life

 

[Maxperson]

Except for Dragonlance.

Dragonlance doesn't, either, despite your unsubstantiated claims.

The fact the good gods who participated in it didn't automatically have their alignments changed to evil shows that it was not considered an evil act.

This is wrong. An evil act, even a major one, does not an alignment change make. To change alignment requires a shift in personality not demonstrated by what the gods did.

The fact that people on this thread are saying that it wasn't genocide but divine justice shows that players consider it to not be an evil act, but, in fact, a Good act.

No. Divine justice does not equate to good. Justice is more appropriately equated to lawful. What is just is not inherently good. Justice is putting a thief behind bars. That the thief was stealing to feed his family doesn't play into it. Jailing him would be a just act, but not a good one.

 

[Maxperson]

yup and yup...

yeah so far the highlight of the 5 sessions we have had

we have all put forth ideas... including since we use guns better gunpowder

sounds like 'defense of other' if you knew them to be a threat to life

Defense of another is when the threat is imminent. In real life if someone was running at a little girl with a knife to stab her and you shot him, that would be a justifiable killing in defense of another. If instead you knew(somehow) with absolute certainty that he was going to stab that little girl tomorrow and you shot him, you'd go to jail for murder.

D&D, though, doesn't work on modern morals or laws. You can kill an undead like that without needing the threat to be imminent and nobody is going to say boo, except maybe their ghost friend...........................................and perhaps the necromancer standing behind you tapping his foot, clearly annoyed.

 

[Remathilis]

Exactly even a simple retcon like that would be good.

Can I point out that retcon = good when discussing one of the key events of the setting, but retcon = bad when discussing the player options of said setting?

It's like people are okay with retcons they agree with...

 

[Faolyn]

Fair enough. I can't see Hussar's posts. He's wrong about what he's saying, though. All the people didn't engage in heinous acts for the Kingpriest.

We know "the gods" in general are blamed for the event. But we also know that the good gods(Mishakal) sent Lord Soth to try and stop the Cataclysm, so it stands to reason that they didn't want it to happen and were forced into it if the Kingpriest couldn't be changed.

It was a pretty weaksauce attempt. Let's look at what Wikipedia has to say about Soth (my bolding):

Life as a knight​

Soth was a Knight of the Rose, the most esteemed rank of knight in the Knights of Solamnia, and married. While on a trip he encountered a band of ogres attacking elven priestesses; Soth fell in love with the fairest priestess, the Silvanesti Elf Isolde Denissa, and eventually managed to seduce her, bringing her back to Dargaard Keep as a friend in the eyes of the public and his wife. Soth's wife Korrine and her lady-in-waiting then visited a witch to help her conceive a child; the witch agreed, but warned that the child would be a representation of Soth's soul. Korrine eventually gave birth to an abomination, and Soth, thinking his wife consorted with some kind of demon, killed her and their child. Korrine's lady-in-waiting revealed to Soth's superior that Isolde was pregnant with his bastard child and he was brought before the Court of High Justice at Palanthas. Soth's lie about his wife and child passing in childbirth was corroborated by Istvan the healer, who was later compelled by the court to tell the truth about Soth's crime. Before he could be executed, Soth escaped back to Dargaard Keep.

Undead curse​

Besieged by the other knights, Soth's mood turned black, and he even struck his new wife, Isolde, on one occasion. When he realized what he had become, he prayed to Paladine and his wife prayed to Mishakal. Mishakal showed her the future and the destruction that the arrogant Kingpriest of Istar was about to call upon Krynn. She was told that Soth could stop the Cataclysm, but he would die in the attempt. Isolde told Soth about her vision and he set out to redeem himself. On the way to Istar he encountered a group of three elf-maids. They poisoned Soth's mind with lies about his wife's infidelity. Enraged, Soth turned from his quest and confronted his wife just as the Cataclysm began. A chandelier fell upon his wife and newborn son, setting her aflame. His wife begged for him to save their child, but Soth stopped himself from doing so, to prevent his own son from growing up as he had. As her life ended she cursed him, saying "you shall live the lifetime of every soul that you have caused death today", and upon pronunciation of the curse the fire engulfed the entire keep, seemingly slaying Soth, his retainers, and the rest of the keep's inhabitants. Soth became a death knight and his followers became skeleton warriors. The three elf-maids became banshees, cursed to remind him of his folly every night.

So they sent this one guy who was an adulterer, had already murdered his own wife and child (a child who was "an abomination" simply because it was a mirror of Soth's soul, which was apparently already rotten and evil), and who had escaped the execution he had been lawfully sentenced to for those murders. And he abused his current wife. Note that Soth didn't get this information from Paladine. Paladine apparently didn't want to send anyone to stop the Cataclysm, or didn't care. Instead, Mishakal told someone else, who then told Soth. I have to wonder if his wife bothered to tell Soth that he was destined to die. He sounds like he would have been such a terrible husband that she might have left that part out. And he was so filled with rage and jealousy that he decided to stop his quest to save the world in order to go confront his wife.

Why would Mishakal send someone so ill-suited for the job on such an important quest?

No. This was, at best, an attempt to look good. Mishakal didn't actually try to stop the Cataclysm. She just wanted to be able say "Hey, not my fault that the Cataclysm went on. I sent this one guy and he messed up. That's on him, not me."