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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 9187191" data-attributes="member: 6750502"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/ZzeUJMQ.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />Rogues are yet another almost-everywhere class, reflecting a variety of stealthy occupations along with the more hobbyist “handling” of kender. The Nightstalker is our new subclass, having its origin among kender during the 5th Age when Krynn got overwhelmed with spirits unable to move on to the afterlife. Nightstalkers have an ability to speak and interact with such spirits along with other kinds of magical powers. At 3rd level they gain a Spirit Companion who follows the companion creature rules from Tasha’s, with its default abilities being typical undead resistances and immunities, is incorporeal and thus cannot manipulate physical objects, can Hide as a bonus action, but is vulnerable to radiant damage and has disadvantage on attacks, ability checks, and saves while in sunlight. It can also act as a channel for the Nightstalker’s touch spells much like a familiar, and should it be destroyed the Nightstalker can spend one hour to call for another spirit. While the Nighstalker has an undead companion, they can consult each other to detect the presence of undead creatures within 60 feet not behind total cover along with the presence of consecrated and desecrated ground.The Nightstalker also has spell progression akin to that of an Eldritch Knight or Arcane Trickster, and while most of their learned spells are limited to either Divination or Necromancy they aren’t limited to the options of an existing class. Their subclass spell list is quite versatile in drawing from a number of sources, with options such as Hunter’s Mark, Entangle, Branding Smite, Spike Growth, and Polymorph.At 9th level the Nightstalker can a number of times per long rest equal to proficiency bonus use a limited Speak with Dead equivalent. They can target undead creatures of up to Challenge Rating 1 and are limited to 3 questions. Afterwards can force the undead to voluntarily go on to the afterlife if it fails a Charisma save. Should it succeed, it will instead fly into a mindless rage and attack. The Challenge Rating of what undead can be affected has very slow progression, increasing to 2 at 13th level and a maximum of 3 at 17th level.At 13th level the Nightstalker can use their Cunning Action to temporarily make their Spirit Companion corporeal enough to do a limited set of abilities such as using Sleight of Hand or thieves’ tools to disarm a trap or pick a lock. At 17th level the Nightstalker themselves can spend a bonus action to gain a spectral form for 1 minute once per long rest, gaining incorporeal movement and a flying speed.Thoughts: The Nightstalker is a very front-loaded class, gaining a lot of good stuff at its outset. The Spirit Companion makes for an incredibly great scout given its incorporeal nature, but its weakness in sunlight makes it of rather limited aid in aboveground environments during the daytime. The variety of spells the Nightstalker can potentially learn allows it to shore up missing links in the party, even if they likely won’t learn anything more powerful than 2nd level spells in most campaigns. The undead sense and speak with/depart undead are of more limited utility, and their 13th level feature comes in a bit too late. The 17th level feature can still be useful at its level despite its limited use.Given it occupies a similar role, one could compare the Nightstalker to the Echo Knight Fighter. While that subclass’ echo effectively allows teleportation, it is still limited by a maximum range and the long-range scouting of its 7th level feature has the Fighter remain blinded and deafened for its maintenance. Conversely, the Nightstalker’s Spirit Companion has no limited range save for the purposes of delivering touch spells and requires commands to do anything other than the Dodge action. Overall both subclasses occupy different niches and capabilities for their ghostly buddies, but I’d say that the Nightstalker is better overall for scouting in dungeon environments while the Echo Knight is good for when you need to do something akin to “poor man’s scrying.”Sorcerers manipulate a magic known as Primal Sorcery, which is actually ancient in origin but only became common among Krynn’s mortal races after the Chaos War. The Wizards, whose arcane magic is channeled from one of the three moons, view sorcerers as a problem in that they don’t require formal training and exist outside of the hierarchy of the Orders of High Sorcery. The Elemental Blade is our new subclass, representing warriors who suddenly awakened to Primal Sorcery after the fall of Chaos. At 1st level they gain proficiency in Acrobatics, light armor, and one martial melee weapon. They can also spend Sorcery Points to deal additional damage from one of six energy types (acid, cold, fire, lightning, radiant, thunder) whenever they strike with a melee weapon. At 6th level they gain Extra Attack, at 14th level they can spend 5 Sorcery Points to increase their speed by 10 feet, gain advantage on Acrobatics check, and can take Dash or Disengage actions as bonus actions. At 18th level they can spend 5 Sorcery Points when using the attack action to cast a spell of 3rd level or lower that has a casting time of 1 action.Thoughts: The problem with turning d6 Hit Die classes into melee gishes is that they are very fragile. Unlike the hexblade the Elemental Blade only grants proficiency in light armor, and not medium armor and shields. Mage Armor can more or less give the same benefit as light armor. The bonus damage from Sorcery Points doesn’t scale well either, starting out as +1d6 for 2 points and capping at 6 for 4d6. As 5 Sorcery Points can buy a 3rd level spell slot, 6th a 4th, and 7 a 5th, one has to compare it to existing damaging spells. Fireball does a whopping 8d6 and can affect multiple targets, while Cone of Cold does 8d8 and is also multi-target. And this is saying nothing of multi-round spells such as Insect Plague (5th level, 4d10 per round), Wall of Fire (4th level, 5d8), or Cloudkill (5th level, 5d8). The Sorcery Points to become slightly speedier is a poor man’s Haste, lacking that spell’s most useful feature (bonus attack) even if it has no downside once it ends. Overall, this class rates low in not having a means of shoring up the Sorcerer’s squishy nature.Warlocks are those who gain their magic from powerful creatures who aren’t exactly gods, such as Lord Soth or the Dragon Overlords. The book breaks with convention by saying that Raistlin is the most famous example, having gained Fistandantilus as a patron. He’s still referred to as a wizard, so I presume that Raistlin multiclassed. The Fallen Tower is our new subclass, representing someone tuning in to the emotional impressions of loss in the ruins of the destroyed Towers of High Sorcery. Their expanded list of spells are mostly offensive and debuffs, such as Tasha’s Hideous Laughter, Scorching Ray, Confusion, and Geas. At 1st level they can spend an action once per short or long rest to choose a number of targets equal to their Charisma modifier, who if they fail a Wisdom save fall unconscious until the start of the warlock’s next turn. At 6th level they can spend a reaction whenever they’d be hit by a melee or ranged attack, opening up a portal to double the distance between them and the attack which possibly negates or imposes disadvantage on said attack. At 10th level they can cast the Confusion spell once per short or long rest but it is centered on the warlock (the warlock’s unaffected). At 14th level they can choose a number of creatures up to their Charisma modifier within 120 feet per short or long rest, who take force damage, are knocked prone on a failed Dexterity save, and the warlock heals half the total force damage dealt. An action type isn’t given for this capstone feature.Thoughts: The 1st level feature imposes a pretty powerful multi-target debuff, and the 6th level feature is similar to the Archfey or Great Old One’s defensive features save that it can outright negate an attack and is all but guaranteed to auto-fail most melee attacks if the warlock is smart with their tactical positioning. Confusion is a useful debuff, but as it is close-range it’s rather situational for most warlock builds who try to stay far away from the frontlines. The 14th level capstone is a good multi-target damaging effect which can really heal up the warlock, but the lack of an action type (presume it’s a regular action) is quite the oversight.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/ih9do9e.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />Wizards are studious spellcasters who derive their powers from Krynn’s three moons. While any wizard can do this, those who join one of the three Orders of High Sorcery gain even closer ties to a particular moon, effectively having them as their patron deity. We have two new subclasses.The Kingfisher subclass represents White Robe wizards who serve in their own military unit in the Knights of Solamnia, and if using the Faction system must have Renown in both organizations. Their initial features include gaining proficiency in Animal Handling, one martial weapon of their choice, and can use their action to expend a 1st or second level spell slot once per short or long rest. This grants them a bonus on Armor Class and saves vs spells equal to the spell level sacrificed for 1 minute or until their death or incapacitation. At 6th level they gain advantage on saves vs the frightened condition and add half their proficiency bonus (round down) to initiative rolls. At 10th level they can spend an action to mark a creature once per long rest, where they suffer disadvantage on saving throws vs spells cast by the Kingfisher. At 14th level, they can expend spell slots as per their 2nd level feature but can affect multiple nearby allies instead and expend spell slots up to 5th level. The bonuses for allies are halved, rounded up, of the slot level.The Winternorn tradition originated among the Ice Folk of Ansalon’s far south, who in addition to being capable with ice magic can gain glimpses of the future via the River of Time. They initially gain resistance to cold damage, can change the damage type of any spell they cast to cold, at 6th level learn Conjure Animals and cast it with alterations such as being the fey type, HP maximum is increased by wizard level, add proficiency bonus to damage rolls, and their attacks deal cold damage. At 10th level the Winternorn gains advantage on initiative rolls, Intelligence-based skill checks, and Insight rolls. This can be used a number of times per long rest equal to their proficiency bonus, and as it doesn’t list a duration I presume it’s one-use per roll. But the advantage is listed for not just one type of roll, but multiple rolls, so it could also be read to be advantage on all of those for a limited time frame. Perhaps one round? At 14th level they gain immunity to cold damage and experience physical changes that make them look more like Jack Frost, such as getting blue skin and white hair.Thoughts: First, the Kingfisher. The initial bonus proficiencies aren’t anything to get excited about, and spending spell slots to gain resistance against spells is a rather situational feature. Advantage on saves vs the frightened condition are nice, but the bonus to initiative rolls is inferior to that of the Chronurgy or War Magic subclasses, which are instead equal to the Wizard’s Intelligence modifier. The 10th level feature is perhaps the best, but as that kicks in rather late this makes the Kingfisher an overall paltry subclass in comparison to existing ones such as the School of Divination or ironically, War Magic.As for the Winternorn, they’re all around strong. Conjure Animals is a good spell overall, and gaining advantage on initiative checks can trigger often enough to be useful for multiple battles. Being able to change the damage type of any spell to cold can be situationally useful, but it too is a rather commonly-resisted damage type.FactionsThis section makes use of the optional Renown rules from the Dungeon Master’s Guide to be used in accordance with four iconic organizations in the Dragonlance setting.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/l02QZui.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />The Dark Knights, formerly known as the Knights of Takhisis and more properly known as the Knights of Neraka, are the evil-aligned knightly order. Founded by Ariakan, son of Emperor Ariakas of the Dragonarmies, he sought to bring all of Ansalon to heel during the Chaos War and War of Souls. In the current era of the Fifth Age they still have significant holdings in central and eastern Ansalon, being split between those remaining true to Ariakan’s vision or becoming little more than self-centered warlords after the death of Takhisis. Like the Knights of Solamnia they are split into three Orders: Lily covers typical soldiers, Skull clerics and mystics, and Thorns the arcane spellcasters. Also like the Knights of Solamnia, they have two founding moral codes. The Vision used to be a personal communion with the goddess Takhisis, showing their unique place within the Knighthood, but with her death it is now but a memory no longer practiced. The Blood Oath is one where a member is indoctrinated to place all personal goals and concerns before the good of the Vision, or the Knighthood as a whole in modern times. Then there is the Code, a set of laws written by Ariakan governing everyday situations in both civilian and military matters. People typically join the Dark Knights at an early age, around 12-14 years for humans and the equivalent for other races. Much of their lives are dedicated towards harsh training regimens, and those who display talents in particular magical disciplines are given over to either the Skull or the Thorn. In order to graduate from squire to actual Knight, one must pass a test known as the Crucible of Darkness, whose specifics are secret but those who fail are put to death.The requirements for joining the Faction as a PC require one to be appropriately martial in character, such as proficiency in land vehicles, light and medium armor, at least one martial weapon, tend to recruit from humans and the “monstrous” races, and mostly have Lawful Evil or Lawful Evil-adjacent alignments. Renown is gained by distinguishing oneself in battle, acting honorably in a Lawful Evil manner, and helping expand the Knighthood’s holdings and influence. It is lost by disobeying orders, being cowardly, and interestingly inflicting overly harsh or cruel treatment of defeated enemies. The 5 Ranks for Renown range from Knight Guardian to Lord Knight, and more or less boil down to being able to request ever-growing numbers of NPC soldiers who follow your orders, and can requisition magic items of increasing rarity.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/5mZQqrs.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />The Knights of Solamnia are one of the two biggest iconic organizations of the setting, and are basically your stereotypical Lawful Good knights in shining armor. They are split into three Orders of ascending hierarchy in order who each have their own patron deity: Crown, who represent the virtues of loyalty and obedience as taught by Habbakuk, Sword who exemplify courage and heroism as taught by Kiri-Jolith, and Rose who exemplify justice and wisdom as taught by Paladine. The Rose still honors that god’s memory even after his death. The Knights of the Sword are the most likely to sport divine casters, with clerics and paladins being part of their own sub-group known as the Clerists. The Knights of the Rose more or less act as the general leadership body of the Knights as a whole.Those seeking to join the Knights of Solamnia (or ascend to a higher Order) require a good word from an existing Knight and are subject to lengthy interview processes. Additionally, those seeking to join the Knights of the Sword must undertake a Quest of Virtue, which is open-ended but typically involves a journey involving putting oneself at risk to save others in danger from a powerful threat. Before the War of the Lance, the Order of the Rose’s ranks came exclusively from the nobility, and while that Order is still disproportionately represented by the highborn this is no longer a requirement.PCs who wish to join face similar requirements as the Dark Knights, but are closer to Lawful Good instead of Lawful Evil and the races tend to be overall humanocentric or half-human races. Renown is gained by acting like a stereotypical good-aligned honorable Knight, and is lost by engaging in unheroic behavior such as refusing to aid the innocent, prioritizing personal pursuit of fame and wealth, and showing cowardice. The five Ranks are similar to the Dark Knights in putting the PC in charge of larger numbers of warrior-type NPCs and the ability to requisition magic items. The Clerist and Kingfishers are special ranks available only to those subclasses, which are more or less functionally the same as similar ranks save that Kingfishers are technically outranked by all other knights of at least Rank 1. This is because their patron organization is the Order of White Robes rather than the Knighthood itself.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/8rtigiy.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />The Legion of Steel is the newest knightly order, founded sometime after the Chaos War. They are devoted to typical good-aligned values such as ensuring fair and equal justice and aiding the meek, although unlike the Knights of Solamnia are more forward-thinking in adopting new magical specializations and aren’t above relying on underworld-style professions and allies. They also are organized into autonomous cells rather than a centralized hierarchy, which helps them operate in enemy territory. Due to these reasons, their prerequisites for joining are looser than the other knightly orders, requiring being apprenticed to an existing Legionnaire of the same class.Sadly we don’t have a sample list of ways of gaining or listing Renown besides the latter being vague stuff that jeopardizes the Legion’s operations and puts its members at risk. The Ranks are a bit more detailed than the other knightly orders. For example, Rank 1 applies the PC’s proficiency bonus to any Intelligence-based ability or skill pertaining to their Assigned Region, Rank 2 grants them a non-magical starjewel (culturally appropriated from the Silvanesti elves) as a symbol of rank along with a Sidekick as per Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, Ranks 3 and 4 grant them authority over a cell or cells along with being able to requisition magic items.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/5nlz4zU.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />The Wizards of High Sorcery are Ansalon’s oldest and most powerful organization of arcane spellcasters. Unlike the knightly orders they aren’t affiliated with geopolitical nations or regions, instead being a continental network of mages divided into three Orders with headquarters in the Tower of Wayreth in southwestern Ansalon. The Conclave is the Wizard’s governing body, a gathering of the most powerful wizards who vote on important matters. Each of the robed Orders are more or less simplistic in morality: White Robes are all about uplifting and helping others, the Black Robes encourage personal accumulation of power, and the Red Robes seek to “maintain the Balance” between Good and Evil. In order to join, a character must display capability of casting arcane spells, and usually undergo an apprenticeship with a more established mage. Once they display talent in 2nd-level spells, they are expected to journey to the Tower of Wayreth to take the Test of High Sorcery. Prospects can opt to decline, but must not develop their powers further (3rd level and higher spells) at risk of being declared a renegade and hunted down. Existing members can become renegades by engaging in banned activity, such as meddling with the River of Time or hedging on the dominion of the gods.The majority of Order members are wizards, but there is debate as to what to do about those trained in Primal Sorcery. Lunitari and the Red Robes are most eager to have them join, viewing them as a threat the least and instead as a curious new magical innovation in the world. Solinari and the White Robes view the sorcerers’ natural talent as being in need of guidance and discipline to ensure that they stay on the right path. Nuitari and the Black Robes are the most hostile and adopt a “kill at the earliest possible convenience” policy towards them.Wizards of High Sorcery that are aligned with a particular Order have their magical power change with the phases of their patron moon deity. Basically, the “fuller” the moon is in the sky the better, and if two Moons are aligned in the same phase this counts as a good thing even if they’re mostly dark. This represents alterations to their spell save DCs, ranging from -1 (Low Sanction, or new/mostly dark moon) all the way up to +3 at the Night of the Eye (all three moons are full and aligned to look like a giant eye with a red iris in the sky). We even get a full-page moon tracking chart for this purpose, with Solinari’s phases the slowest and Nuitari’s phases the fastest.Renown is specific to particular Orders, and are gained by aiding their objectives in the world such as defeating and identifying renegade magic-users, turning over dangerous and powerful artifacts to the Conclave, or training apprentices with the intention of having them join the Orders of High Sorcery. Renown is lost via aiding renegades, keeping dangerous artifacts for yourself, and pursuing magic beyond your ability to control. The 5 ranks are very brief, where you are taught one order-specific Secret per rank. You don’t get tangential benefits like NPC followers or item requisitions. Each Order has 5 Secrets, which are similar to a Sorcerer’s metamagic in that they alter an existing spell in some way but typically apply to magic favored by that particular Order. For example, Secret of Pain of the Black Robes is applied as a bonus action when casting a spell dealing necrotic damage, where if the target fails a Constitution save they suffer disadvantage on attacks and saving throws until the start of the wizard’s next turn. Or Secret of Deception of the Red Robes, which doubles the duration of an illusion spell and the wizard can choose a number of creatures equal to their Intelligence bonus to automatically succeed on a saving throw if the spell calls for it. Almost all Secrets are rest-based, with only a few being technically infinite use…as long as you have spell slots.If I had to pick any Secrets I’d call overpowered, universally useful, or otherwise too good to pass up, I’d pick Red Robes’ Secret of Purity (change the damage type of a cast spell to force damage as a bonus action, can be used proficiency bonus times per long rest), White Robe’s Secret of Sustenance (gain advantage on Constitution save to maintain concentration on a spell, can be used proficiency bonus times per long rest), and Black Robe’s Secret of Betrayal (spend a bonus action to regain a 3rd level or lower slot by choosing an adjacent creature to take 1d6 necrotic damage per slot level, can be used once per long rest). Secret of Purity is a great way to get around enemy resistances and immunities, Secret of Sustenance is a godsend at all levels, and while single-use Secret of Betrayal’s regaining spent spell slots is a nice ability to have.Thoughts: I do like how the book makes use of Renown to simulate advancing through the ranks in a fashion that encourages PCs to act within the tenets of their order and also gives them rewards for exemplary service. Gaining control over large numbers of NPCs is the kind of thing that can be potentially abusable, but as many Dragonlance adventures focus on war and big battles this is only something of concern in more typical campaigns where the PCs are wandering adventurers with no settled ties. I do wish that the Wizards of High Sorcery had more benefits beyond their Secrets. But given that those alter spells directly and they already have a bunch of powerful spells as per their class, it’s a fair trade-off to give the knights some more grounded political benefits and magic items.Thoughts So Far: When it comes to new subclasses, the Freedom Domain Cleric, Way of the Mantis Monk, Rogue Nightstalker, and Wizard Winternorn are my favorites and look to be the overall best at reinforcing their base class’ strengths. The Psalmist Bard looks alright but is open to some strong DPS builds, and the Knight of Solamnia Fighter has a variety of nice features (particularly Rose) even if I’m not too fond of the idea of tying an iconic organization to a specific subclass. My least favorites are the ones that I feel have poor synergy or with underpowered and unexciting features in comparison to existing subclasses, which include the Dragon Totem Barbarian, Adjudication Domain Cleric, Legion Scout Ranger, and Elemental Blade Sorcerer.I think the use of Renown rules for the organizations is a good idea, although they do encourage more bean-counting on both sides of the DM screen, so they may not be suitable for all campaigns.Join us next time as we cover a variety of short chapters, from new equipment and magic items to Krynn’s pantheon!</blockquote>

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