Dragonlance Building a Dragonlance character, according to DDB.

[James Gasik]

I checked the book in question, and those limitations seem to only exist for druids planar travelling from other settings. I don't see anything mentioned as there being "no druids, period." The text is confusedly worded, as it is only talking about the process for clerics and doesn't explain how a heathen druid would un-heathenize themselves.

I took that section to mean that the Druid converts to one of the Holy Orders of Stars and ceases to be a Druid, myself.

 

[cbwjm]

That inconsistency with Waylorn likely came about before the dragonlance adventures came out, right? It did stick around in 2e, and I wonder if he should have been converted to a member of the holy orders but stuck around as a forgotten artefact of the original pre-DLA 1e rules.

 

[James Gasik]

That inconsistency with Waylorn likely came about before the dragonlance adventures came out, right? It did stick around in 2e, and I wonder if he should have been converted to a member of the holy orders but stuck around as a forgotten artefact of the original pre-DLA 1e rules.

That could be, though I'm not really sure what about Druids is such a square peg that you have to force them into a round hole by saying "oh no, you just play a Cleric of Chislev".

 

[pemerton]

I'm not really sure what about Druids is such a square peg that you have to force them into a round hole by saying "oh no, you just play a Cleric of Chislev".

To the best of my knowledge, DLA was the first AD&D book to do the subsequent 2nd ed thing of merging all the Cleric and Druid spells into a single set of spheres from which all divine casting characters select their memorised spells.

 

[Libertad]

I took that section to mean that the Druid converts to one of the Holy Orders of Stars and ceases to be a Druid, myself.

That's an understandable reading of things. The text could definitely use an editing pass in several ways. For instance, the paragraph talking about thieves on Krynn suddenly discusses gnomish devices failing in other realms which doesn't flow at all with the previous information.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Ah, yes, I didn't look at any of the 2e products, I just flipped open my copy of DLA and noticed nary a word was said about Bard (or Monks or Psionics, but those are very different kettles of fish). No Cavaliers either (we have the Knights of Solamnia for that!). But Thief-Acrobats are ok!

I do like how DLA says all Druids are heathens, but in the adventures, you encounter a Druid, Waylorn Wyvernsbane.

The thing was, the Dragonlance Adventures setting book was published after the original adventures and novels. And it made much bolder changes to the AD&D core rules. It basically replaced magic users, illusionists, clerics and paladins with new core classes, wrote out druids, and introduced minotaurs as a replacement for half orcs.

So, from the start of Dragonlance in 1984 to the publication of Dragonlance Adventures in 1987 druids were part of the setting, appearing as NPCs, and potentially as player characters*.


*Because druids and paladins required high stat rolls in 1st edition, they were expected to be rare.

 

[Demetrios1453]

The thing was, the Dragonlance Adventures setting book was published after the original adventures and novels. And it made much bolder changes to the D&D core rules. It basically replaced magic users, illusionists, clerics and paladins with new core classes, wrote out druids, and introduced minotaurs as a replacement for half orcs.

So, from the start of Dragonlance in 1984 to the publication of Dragonlance Adventures in 1987 druids were part of the setting, appearing as NPCs, and potentially as player characters*.


*Because druids and paladins required high stat rolls in 1st edition, they were expected to be rare.

And it had much higher level limits for non-human characters in many classes, in some cases even unlimited like humans. In base 1e rules, non-humans only had unlimited advancement as rogues (and usually laughably low level limits in other classes), but, for example, DL elves had unlimited advancement as magic-users, and dwarves as fighters. Granted, once a character hit 18th level, they were basically given strong hints by the gods to start adventuring somewhere outside of Krynn...

 

[James Gasik]

And it had much higher level limits for non-human characters in many classes, in some cases even unlimited like humans. In base 1e rules, non-humans only had unlimited advancement as rogues (and usually laughably low level limits in other classes), but, for example, DL elves had unlimited advancement as magic-users, and dwarves as fighters. Granted, once a character hit 18th level, they were basically given strong hints by the gods to start adventuring somewhere outside of Krynn...

Oof, yeah, poor Dalamar. He hit 18th level, took a trip to the Forgotten Realms, and discovered he was a very small fish in a very large pond.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Oof, yeah, poor Dalamar. He hit 18th level, took a trip to the Forgotten Realms, and discovered he was a very small fish in a very large pond.

man I WOULD HATE to play a character 1st-18th in a world like krynn where you basicly just became a god, just to go to a place like FR where 30th level archmages meet in kabals and back talk over deities...