Dragonlance DRAGONLANCE LIVES! Unearthed Arcana Explores Heroes of Krynn!

The latest Unearthed Arcana has arrived and the 6-page document contains rules for kender, lunar magic, Knights of Solamnia, and Mages of High Sorcery.

In today’s Unearthed Arcana, we explore character options from the Dragonlance setting. This playtest document presents the kender race, the Lunar Magic sorcerer subclass, the Knight of Solamnia and Mage of High Sorcery backgrounds, and a collection of new feats, all for use in Dungeons & Dragons.

Kender have a (surprisingly magical) ability to pull things out of a bag, and a supernatural taunt feature. This magical ability appears to replace the older 'kleptomania' description -- "Unknown to most mortals, a magical phenomenon surrounds a kender. Spurred by their curiosity and love for trinkets, curios, and keepsakes, a kender’s pouches or pockets will be magically filled with these objects. No one knows where these objects come from, not even the kender. This has led many kender to be mislabeled as thieves when they fish these items out of their pockets."

Lunar Magic is a sorcerer subclass which draws power from the moon(s); there are notes for using it in Eberron.

Also included are feats such as Adepts of the Black, White, and Red Robes, and Knights of the Sword, Rose, and Crown.

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[James Gasik]

Especially when that child learns magic of their own. Suggestion: "Maybe it's time you move into the 'Home for Retired Wizards', Dad."

 

[James Gasik]

I won't argue that enchantment magic certainly is very dubious in terms of morality, but in at least a few instances mentioned it certainly seems to be more moral than actually physically harming/killing the person in question.

Using Command to stop a fleeing criminal suspect seems more moral than trying to shoot an arrow into their leg for example. Geas does actually cause potential physical harm, so it's a bit harder to justify it. Although the alternative is probably locking them in a dungeon somewhere, so it's not like they are keeping their autonomy in any case.

The dominate person to learn the truth is problematic because the spell would force them to say whatever you want, so it could easily be abused. Zone of Truth is a far better example of an enchantment spell that could be used for that purpose. The suggestion spell for making a child eat their vegetables seems like extreme overkill, and a bad idea in the long run for reasons Scribe already mentioned.

In another thread we were arguing about Animate Dead and Necromancy, which some people feel the entire school is "evil". My point there was magic is a tool, it can't be inherently good or evil, it all depends on how you (ab)use it. But somehow, to a lot of people Necromancy is "worse" than the power to strip free will and agency from others, despite the fact that all the game designers have to say about it is that "spells such as Animate Dead are not used often by non-Evil characters" (paraphrased from the PHB).

One could say that Fireball is problematic because it isn't a tool of any kind, it was specifically designed to roast people alive. You -could- use it to start a fire, but that's obviously not it's intended function (I guess it could be useful in a forest fire to create a breakfire quickly? I'm not a firefighter, so you'd have to ask an expert).

At which point the only "good" use of the spell is to kill evil people, right? But some people in our world think that using napalm is a particularly cruel and horrible way to kill people. You can go around and round on this, but it just comes down to D&D morality =/= real world morality.

 

[LongTimeLurker]

Today even Friends, one of the first sitcom that showed a wedding of a same-gender couple, it is not enough "politically correct" now.

To be fair, people have been complaining about Friends and the almost utter lack of PoC for years; since before the show actually ended. I think Chris Rock makes a few jokes about it.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

As this is the most gentle of your examples, I'll call it out.

Its still forcing someone to do something against their will. Its still removing choice from a person. If they remember this after the spell has worn off, they will still live with the fact they have been forced (in this case by their Parent no less) into performing an action they would not have done otherwise.

As I'm currently going through 'that teenage phase' with my son, let me tell you, this would not go well.

Yeah that one is especially horrific IMO. Using that level of force over so small a thing, with your child, is…inescapably a horrific form of abuse.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

All of those examples strip a person of their free will and personal autonomy. That you think they're examples of moral/good uses of enchantment magic is quite telling.

I never said that they were good things to do with magic, I just said that they were better/more mundane usages of Enchantment magic than Love potions.

 

[Parmandur]

Some of the original Dragonlance modules made heavy use of Battlesystem. Any chance that we'll see a mass combat UA next?

Very plausible.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

All of those examples strip a person of their free will and personal autonomy. That you think they're examples of moral/good uses of enchantment magic is quite telling.

Mod Note:

The closing sentence there is a tad provocative. It makes a personal attack out of a debate response that didn’t need to be one, Disagreement is fine. Debate is fine. Let’s not become disagreeable in the process, though.

 

[Shadowedeyes]

In another thread we were arguing about Animate Dead and Necromancy, which some people feel the entire school is "evil". My point there was magic is a tool, it can't be inherently good or evil, it all depends on how you (ab)use it. But somehow, to a lot of people Necromancy is "worse" than the power to strip free will and agency from others, despite the fact that all the game designers have to say about it is that "spells such as Animate Dead are not used often by non-Evil characters" (paraphrased from the PHB).

One could say that Fireball is problematic because it isn't a tool of any kind, it was specifically designed to roast people alive. You -could- use it to start a fire, but that's obviously not it's intended function (I guess it could be useful in a forest fire to create a breakfire quickly? I'm not a firefighter, so you'd have to ask an expert).

At which point the only "good" use of the spell is to kill evil people, right? But some people in our world think that using napalm is a particularly cruel and horrible way to kill people. You can go around and round on this, but it just comes down to D&D morality =/= real world morality.

For the standard D&D game violence is a go to solution that wouldn't be acceptable in real life, and it's probably best to look as spells in that context, as you say. Enchantment spells are a weird case because of what you can compare them to in the real world I think. However, I agree that D&D does not equal real life, and so I think groups should come to their own consensus of things like Necromancy and Enchantment spells.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

The Survey's Up.

 

[Parmandur]

The Survey's Up.

Feedback submitted.