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

 

[Velderan]

I do not expect them to sneak in a band of orcs someplace. If they add orcs it is so half-orc players are a thing.

Having the graygem also create orcs is probably the best spot for this, but then they are not a tiny local faction like you seem to envision.

In a 224 page adventure book, I don't expect them to say anything at all about player character race selection beyond "here's how to make a Kender".

 

[Velderan]

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.

Apparently a few people in this thread never bothered to read that part.

Your DM might set the campaign on one of these worlds or on one that he or she created. Because there is so much diversity among the worlds of D&D, you should check with your DM about any house rules that will affect your play of the game. Ultimately, the Dungeon Master is the authority on the campaign and its setting, even if the setting is a published world.

 

[mamba]

In a 224 page adventure book, I don't expect them to say anything at all about player character race selection beyond "here's how to make a Kender".

I hope the section on the history of Krynn and races, classes etc. is no more than maybe 32 pages. Kender is certainly the only race I wish to see for that reason.

And if the intro adventures were made available online like the SJ Academy, so they do not count towards the pagecount, that would be even better.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

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?

Bugbears and Kobolds apparently don’t exist going by the list Max told me about, only those 50 or so creatures exist on Krynn apparently. Absolutely nothing else.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Yep these are the only monsters that exist in Dragonlance no matter what other novels and books say.

 

[Faolyn]

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

Well, why not?

But for those people who are Dragonlance purists and don't want orcs, goblins and kobolds do in fact exist in-setting and so have precedent.

Although it's also a world with walrus-people, so I hardly see how having other anthro races like tabaxi would be a deal-breaker.

 

[Faolyn]

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.

Not really. I mean, sure, you didn't need all those other books--but if you got Book A that had monsters or NPCs that referenced feats or spells from Book B, and you didn't have Book B, then you were missing out on often very important information.

Whereas in 5e, its incredibly rare for Book A to reference anything other than the core books and Book A.

 

[mamba]

Well, why not?

Because WotC generally does not include a lot of shared races in their adventures / settings when they already exist elsewhere from my understanding. I see no reason why the DL book would be any different.

But for those people who are Dragonlance purists and don't want orcs, goblins and kobolds do in fact exist in-setting and so have precedent.

Although it's also a world with walrus-people, so I hardly see how having other anthro races like tabaxi would be a deal-breaker.

I was not referring to whether goblins etc. become playable races, only to whether their stats would be included in SotDQ.

 

[Faolyn]

Yep these are the only monsters that exist in Dragonlance no matter what other novels and books say.
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The 2e Dragonlance MC added a bunch more monsters: griffons, sylphs, gnolls, hydrae, ettins, naga, gargoyles, harpies, dryads, satyrs, swanmays, pixies, sprites, aboleths, xorn, ropers, umber hulks, random giant animals, all the typical oozes, slimes, and jellies... seems like they actually had most of the standard D&D monsters in there.

 

[mamba]

The 2e Dragonlance MC added a bunch more monsters: griffons, sylphs, gnolls, hydrae, ettins, naga, gargoyles, harpies, dryads, satyrs, swanmays, pixies, sprites, aboleths, xorn, ropers, umber hulks, random giant animals, all the typical oozes, slimes, and jellies... seems like they actually had most of the standard D&D monsters in there.

and the 3e campaign setting says

"Almost all the creatures in the DUNGEONS & DRAGONS Monster Manual are appropriate for a DRAGONLANCE campaign, with a few notable exceptions (primarily driders, drow elves, halflings, lycanthropes, mind flayers, orcs and half-orcs, and titans)."