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]

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.

Schools of magic would be the most obvious.

 

[Velderan]

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.

one is more ambitious (I think that was said of black) so I am thinking it will be more personality less ethics.

The black robe example makes sense. Ambition isn't always evil, so that could work but what about the other 2 then?

IIRC in 2E red robe were the only ones who could use illusion past 3rd level so maybe red robe are more mischievous? I could see that being a concept not tied to an alignment.

 

[Micah Sweet]

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.

That would be an awesome way to fit warlocks into Dragonlance. Have the Seekers the Companions deal with in the backstory be essentially a warlock cult controlling several small towns.

 

[mamba]

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.

when did people turn from the gods, right after the Cataclysm or before it with the Kingpriest?

 

[Faolyn]

And there isn't one in D&D that does. That was easy.

Except for Dragonlance.

Show me where anything in Dragonlance claimed that the Cataclysm was a good act.

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.

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.

 

[Umbran]

No, it is more about the fact that you know so little that it is a waste of time engaging you about details you know nothing about.

Call that gatekeeping if it makes you feel better...

Mod Note:
I call it making the discussion about the speaker, rather than what is said. I call it rude. I call it one out of a number of reports we've gotten about you

I call it time for you to exit this thread. Please reconsider your manners in future discussions.

 

[Velderan]

when did people turn from the gods, right after the Cataclysm or before it with the Kingpriest?

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.

 

[Faolyn]

when did people turn from the gods, right after the Cataclysm or before it with the Kingpriest?

It's my understanding that it was afterwards. I found this amusing post on reddit that describes it thusly:

Post title: When/Why did the Silvanesti Clerics lose true magic?

Frankly, its a plot-hole.

It isn't completely though. The lore is that just prior to the Cataclysm, all "True" clerics were taken out of the world. In Time of the Twins, we see a lot of examples of elven clerics serving in the temple of the King Priest and lacking clerical powers. The great elven cleric Loralon was even the one tasked by the Gods with collecting the last of the faithful just before the big rock fell. He appears and takes Denubis, and also makes the offer to Crysania.

The sticky point here is how the Divine work on Krynn vs how Weis and Hickman seem to want us to think they work on Krynn. Because if it really was a case of the people turning away from the Gods, then logically, the Silvanesti, Qualinesti, and especially Dwarven Nations, should not have lost their clerical magic at all. They never turned away, and did not need the Disks of Mishakal to "remind" them of the right way to pray, since many of their people were alive before the Disks were even created.

Nor can the argument be made that the Cataclysm somehow cutoff the Divine from Krynn, since Crysania was running around in the Age of Despair in full possession of her clerical powers. In the original Fistandantilus timeline, Denubis did the same thing.

There are also examples in various novels of Gods contacting mortals on Krynn prior to Goldmoon finding the Disks. The Gods of Magic straight up talk to Raistlin, and directly guided Antimodes to find him. The Gods also spoke directly to Par-Salian and (supposedly) demanded a "sword to save the world", i.e. Raistlin.

The bottom line is... the Gods of Krynn are just massive jerks. They lost control of the King Priest, and instead of taking responsibility for the situation that they themselves created/enabled, decided to blame and gaslight mortals. They pulled their favorites off the planet, and then they nuked it. They could have returned anytime, but decided to let enough time pass for people to forget how things really went down. They wanted a narrative about faithful mortals "rediscovering" them, so that mortals would again know their place when dealing with them. Remember, Crysania failed to convert people during the Age of Despair exactly because people back then knew the score. They rightly blamed the Gods for wrecking the world, and didn't want to worship them. It took a few generations for the truth to be lost.

So the TLR version is, the Gods of Krynn switched off clerical magic to gaslight mortals into blaming themselves and eachother for the Cataclysm. Faith had absolutely nothing to do with it.

 

[Velderan]

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.

Which doesn't conflict with true priests losing their spellcasting because the emphasis was always on "true healing". Arcane casters in general were always a distrusted group, especially with the Kingpriest turning the people against them since he saw them as a threat so a group of warlocks seeing a chance to say "you followed him and look what happened, maybe we're not the bad guys after all" makes sense as a concept.

 

[Maxperson]

you miss understood.,.. I mean at some future point we could run into a wight, not know said ore was there, and by accident cause GRAVE HARM. we already caused MINNOR HARM when we didn't mean to or know.

I agree if we know it is there and that it could do that, it is at BEST reckless.

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.

we didn't keep the ore... it was in a wall when it happened last time and the next time we came across any we told local minors about it (with the warning of what little we knew) but we have been in no way able to research it any since then (although this last game ended with my artificer/wizard and our arcanetrickster/abjuror at a great library so we hope to be able to now)

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

I don't think that fits what happened at all... they didn't surgically target the cancer or even the limb... the killed the patient with a rock

They didn't. The patient is the entire planet. They excised a limb, and given the size of the patient, it was really just a finger or hand amputation.

and if you KNOW what they are, how do you know before they attack? See this is why forum examples fail so much the entire set up is missing.

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

so the undead you were targeting had been a threat or were about to be a threat?

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.