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

 

[Faolyn]

But why would you bother? As you say, there are already goblins, hobgoblins, bugbears, and kobolds. Why change the world to add a heritage that brings no value to it?

Because at this point in time, half-orcs are a core race and goblinoids and kobolds aren't. Which means everyone has access to orcs. Not everyone has access to the books or digital content that includes stats for the other races. When I went to D&D Beyond and clicked on "goblin," it told me I'd have to spend $24 to get the stats, currently on sale from $30. I doubt it'll be much cheaper come Cyber Monday or Winter Holiday Of Choice time. Sure, there are ways to get that information for free, but we all know that most of those ways are on the naughty list. You simply can't assume that everyone has access to every race's stats.

Ideally, when Dragonlance comes out, it will include the stats for goblinoids (and/or irda, minotaurs, thanoi, whatever), thus making those races available to people who have the PHB and Dragonlance but who don't have Mordenkainen's. But if the only race they include are the kender (as per the UA), then that will leave a lot of people without an orc equivalent.

 

[mamba]

Because at this point in time, half-orcs are a core race

Half-orcs were a player race in 1e as well

and goblinoids and kobolds aren't. Which means everyone has access to orcs. Not everyone has access to the books or digital content that includes stats for the other races.

Goblins, Hobgoblins and Kobolds are not playable races in DL

You simply can't assume that everyone has access to every race's stats.

I am pretty sure WotC assumes that everyone who wants to play a race buys the book that has its stats, esp. since there is only one book for all the ones that are not in the PHB (or for a specific setting)

Ideally, when Dragonlance comes out, it will include the stats for goblinoids (and/or irda, minotaurs, thanoi, whatever), thus making those races available to people who have the PHB and Dragonlance but who don't have Mordenkainen's. But if the only race they include are the kender (as per the UA), then that will leave a lot of people without an orc equivalent.

I doubt they will include it, I assume they generally do not repeat all the races of a setting when they are already available in a 'core' book and limit it to the setting specific ones instead.
The real test will be the Minotaur

 

[Faolyn]

Half-orcs were a player race in 1e as well

Goblins and Hobgoblins are not playable races in DL

But they do exist in the setting, which means that it makes sense that people could play them, even if they weren't traditionally allowed.

I am pretty sure WotC assumes that everyone who wants to play a race buys the book that has its stats, esp. since there is only one book for all the ones that are not in the PHB (or for a specific setting)

Maybe, maybe not. Back in 3x, I would recall seeing monster and NPC entries have multiple footnotes as to what book a feat or spell was in. It's actually one of the reasons I skipped the bulk of 3x--too many books you "had" to have. But 5e has been pretty good at not doing that, or at least not to that degree, and they haven't had any entries I can recall that depend on material from non-core books. Like, a description for a god may say it grants the Arcana or Grave domain, but it would also have PHB domains so people who don't have those Xannie's or SCAG can still use the god. In 3x, if you didn't have the non-core book that domain or feat was in, you often couldn't use the NPC or monster at all.

 

[Maxperson]

Because at this point in time, half-orcs are a core race and goblinoids and kobolds aren't.

I don't see why that matters in the least. The PHB tells players to find out what house rules are in play before they start making characters, so the game doesn't assume that every race and class will be available. A "core" race just doesn't need to be in every official setting. Nor should any given race be in every setting.

Which means everyone has access to orcs.

No it doesn't. It could very easily means that the half-orc got there from another setting. There's zero need to have orcs in Krynn to allow half-orcs in Krynn.

 

[Maxperson]

Maybe, maybe not. Back in 3x, I would recall seeing monster and NPC entries have multiple footnotes as to what book a feat or spell was in. It's actually one of the reasons I skipped the bulk of 3x--too many books you "had" to have.

You only had to have three, and of those you really didn't NEED the DMG if you were able to wing treasure, XP and such. Not one other book was "had to have." Plenty were very good and a lot of people bought them for that reason, but they were all extras.

 

[Stormonu]

In the War of the Lance I am not sure we had more than a dozen riders, if that. During Huma's time, which was the giant war, the new one pales in comparison, we had maybe 40, maybe 100 after they forged more of them. Certainly not armies of them (and essentially only one side had them)

There are a lot more dragons than that however, they are just riderless (or at least without lances, some had riders)

DL 11 - Dragons of Glory gives numbers for the dragons in the Dragon army, though its a bit questionable how accurate these numbers are (especially the Red Dragon wing, considering Ember and his brood, and Pyro). I don't think it includes individual dragons that weren't ridden either, like Onyx or Cyan.

Red Dragon Wing (2 counters/wings)

• 1 Red Dragon (Ancient/Large) 80 hp
• 2 Red Dragons (Old/Average) 60 hp each

Blue Dragon Wing (2 counters/wings)

• 1 Blue Dragon (Ancient/Huge) 80 hp
• 2 Blue Dragons (Very Old/Average) 63 hp

Green Dragon Wing (2 counters/wings)
- 4 Green Dragons (Very Old/Average) 56 hp

Black Dragon Wing

• 2 Black Dragons (Ancient/Huge) 64 hp
• 2 Black Dragons (Ancient/Average) 56 hp

White Dragon Wing

• 1 White Dragon (Ancient/Huge) 56 hp
• 2 White Dragons (Ancient/Average) 48 hp
• 2 White Dragons (Very Old/Small) 37 hp

DL12 - Dragons of Triumph also has a Battlesystem section that gives the forces of Whitestone and the Dragonarmy for the big, final battle. Using the ratios on the sheet, it seems to indicate 8 Red dragons and 8 Blue dragons; 4 Gold dragons, 10 Bronze dragons, and 15 Brass dragons.

Not a lot of dragons, overall. Comparatively, the same Dragonarmy force (A Red and Blue Wing, BTW) has 50 Sivak Draconians, 190 Baaz Draconians, 210 hobgoblins, 90 ogres, 60 hill giants, 80 horse cavalry and 180 mercenary humans.

What I'd forgotten though is that Solomnia had access to Hippogriff and Pegasus riders - in large numbers (noted in DL 11).

 

[Stormonu]

I don't see why that matters in the least. The PHB tells players to find out what house rules are in play before they start making characters, so the game doesn't assume that every race and class will be available. A "core" race just doesn't need to be in every official setting. Nor should any given race be in every setting.

No it doesn't. It could very easily means that the half-orc got there from another setting. There's zero need to have orcs in Krynn to allow half-orcs in Krynn.

Yep, considering Dragonlance has historically had Spelljamming (The Cloakmaster cycle is all about a Spelljamming ship crashing on Krynn - and there's SJ's tinker gnomes), there could have been Orcs or Scro (Lawful evil Orcs, just "orcs" backwards) brought to Krynn by that method.

 

[mamba]

But they do exist in the setting, which means that it makes sense that people could play them, even if they weren't traditionally allowed.

They were not playable then, they are playable now. Why draw the line at goblin and kobold, why not include most of the races that are in Mordenkainens then ?

I do not see it happening, but we all will know soon

 

[Micah Sweet]

Because at this point in time, half-orcs are a core race and goblinoids and kobolds aren't. Which means everyone has access to orcs. Not everyone has access to the books or digital content that includes stats for the other races. When I went to D&D Beyond and clicked on "goblin," it told me I'd have to spend $24 to get the stats, currently on sale from $30. I doubt it'll be much cheaper come Cyber Monday or Winter Holiday Of Choice time. Sure, there are ways to get that information for free, but we all know that most of those ways are on the naughty list. You simply can't assume that everyone has access to every race's stats.

Ideally, when Dragonlance comes out, it will include the stats for goblinoids (and/or irda, minotaurs, thanoi, whatever), thus making those races available to people who have the PHB and Dragonlance but who don't have Mordenkainen's. But if the only race they include are the kender (as per the UA), then that will leave a lot of people without an orc equivalent.

I see your point, but to be fair, goblin stats for WotC 5e are available from no less than four different sourcebooks, and dozens of 3pp sources. I hope they put them in the new book for new people, but there are a lot of options out there, and in some cases considerably cheaper than $24 for an online piece of a book.

 

[mamba]

DL 11 - Dragons of Glory gives numbers for the dragons in the Dragon army
[...]
DL12 - Dragons of Triumph also has a Battlesystem section that gives the forces of Whitestone and the Dragonarmy for the big, final battle.

Not a lot of dragons, overall.

Ugh, that is a much smaller scale than it reads like in the novels

Probably because otherwise it would be entirely unmanageable

This is generally true however, most of the dragons and armies are the background to the campaign, it is just what is going on around the players and drives their missions / goals. The players are not slaying hundreds of soldiers and dozens of dragons.