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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[Zubatcarteira]

Zone of Truth is particularly awful, since by not forcing them to speak, the next logical step is just starting the waterboarding since they can't lie to you anyway, that's usually the practical problem with torture.

 

[Faolyn]

Took the survey. Honestly, the biggest problem I had was making the Knights and Wizards as feats rather than archetypes. As I mentioned, WoHS were literally like the first archetype ever made for D&D...why switch from what would mesh so well now...

Probably because that would force players to play one specific class/archetype combo, which I doubt would be very popular. Especially when you treat classes and archetypes as bundles of abilities rather than strict societal roles. It would also make parties slightly boring if there were two Knights of the Whatever or two Whatever-Robed Wizards in it, because they'd have nearly-identical abilities. It was one thing back in 1e/2e when there were only a handful of classes and doubling-up was expected, but that's less acceptable in 5e when there are many ways to customize your character.

I'm not saying feats are the best way to do the Knights and Wizards, but it might be the best way that 5e currently has.

 

[Alzrius]

I wonder how much zone of truth would be an issue if the spell didn't explicitly say that the caster knows whether everyone affected by it made their save or not. That wasn't the case in 3.5, though that went in the opposite direction; if you didn't know whether or not someone had shrugged off the spell, then it made the whole thing kind of pointless.

 

[Weiley31]

Guess we gotta cancel Xavier and Reed Richards for their use of Enchantment.

 

[Demetrios1453]

Guess we gotta cancel Xavier and Reed Richards for their use of Enchantment.

As many, many others have commented before, it's hilarious how Reed so breaks Magneto that the latter just doesn't even attempt to use his power at all, even after being told he was tricked...

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Let's not forget Revan: Straight up gets his mind reprogrammed in an unconscious state to become a soldier of the Republic. Or the Clones Troopers, who pretty much get reprogrammed/mind controlled via artificial means

Both of which are treated as bad, traumatizing, things.

 

[Remathilis]

Zone of Truth is particularly awful, since by not forcing them to speak, the next logical step is just starting the waterboarding since they can't lie to you anyway, that's usually the practical problem with torture.

Why bother? Detect Thoughts just rips the info straight from their heads, along with who their crush is, their nickname they gave the bartender, and the memory of the time they farted in front of their boss.

Divination: the truly invasive school.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Guess we gotta cancel Xavier and Reed Richards for their use of Enchantment.

I mean, both of them have been challenged in the comics for their actions, but it’s a world where Magneto himself gets to become a hero just because he…wants to?

Im not gonna take marvel comics seriously on any remotely complex issue of morality.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Took the survey. Honestly, the biggest problem I had was making the Knights and Wizards as feats rather than archetypes. As I mentioned, WoHS were literally like the first archetype ever made for D&D...why switch from what would mesh so well now...

Idk, barring floating subclasses, it’d be kinda odd to have to MC Fighter and take 3 levels to become a Knight as a Paladin.

 

[JEB]

I really like the idea of floating subclasses, but I really don't think it would work in this edition. In 6em they could make it so that all classes gain archetype abilities at the same time, or at least within a level or two of each other, and that you pick your archetype at the same level (assuming they continue with archetypes in 6e). At that point, floating subclasses would work. But it's too uneven right now.

I agree that floating subclasses are an odd fit with the current 5E subclass setup, and that it would be better to have archetype abilities at all the same class levels. But I don't see them reworking classes that extensively anytime soon (not even in 2024). So I'd much rather they find a way to make floating subclasses work under the current setup, instead of changing the way backgrounds and feats currently work.

I suppose another option could be the restoration of something like the character themes from 4E or the Next playtest? Another optional layer on top of the existing choices?