D&D 5E (2024) Lorwyn: First Light has been released

[bedir than]

Is it substantial enough to run a campaign in? Like the segments in The new FR book, bigger, smaller?

Is it D&D Beyond only?

It is Beyond only.
Sadly, it lacks a regional map at all.

There's an adventure, plus some instructions on how to create others. One of the things I like about the gazetteer are the inclusion of reasons to visit, what the various sites switch to when they pass between Lorwyn/Shadowmoor and there's a handy community center I'm stealing for my world.

 

[Yaarel]

That's a print book. Printing is more expensive than ever.

Yeah. Digital books should be cheeper. Their prices are harder to gauge because the creators need fair recompense but the production costs are near zero. And the digital content is less permanent.

 

[Elvish Lore]

There sure are a lot of people that get value from a product based on the content rather than simply if it's printed or not.

$15 for a 32 page pdf isn't super cheap but people making it sound like it's highway robbery are highly exaggerating. The price seems fine for a WotC original digital book. This price per page debate feels like a nonsense way to measure the worth of a product.

 

[Reynard]

There sure are a lot of people that get value from a product based on the content rather than simply if it's printed or not.

$15 for a 32 page pdf isn't super cheap but people making it sound like it's highway robbery are highly exaggerating. The price seems fine for a WotC original digital book. This price per page debate feels like a nonsense way to measure the worth of a product.

If only you could get it in PDF.

 

[Parmandur]

No, this shows that their pricing is indefensible. Without printing, costs are linear: fewer words, less art,less time editing, etc. I am a firm believer in RPGs costing what they cost so creators can make decentmoney, but a 12k word book costing half of what a 100k word book does is predatory.

Costs are very ever linear, for anything. $15 is basically half of what TSR charged for 32 page supplements in print, adjusted for inflation (~$28-32), and the ratio of other Beyond products suggest of they did print these the cost would be $25. And remember, the price for Beyond is based on the print price proportionately.

Small books are not cost effective, bit thisnsis till sandwiche-priced.

 

[dave2008]

The feature lets you use the Dash action as a reaction when you roll initiative. The Dash action gives you additional movement on the current turn equal to your speed. This runs into two problems:

1.) You don't have the ability to move when it's not your turn. This is why features that allows movement independent of a creature's normal movement are worded the way they are, to give the ability to move in the circumstance.
2.) Unless a creature joins initiative partway through a fight, there is no "current turn" when everyone is rolling initiative.

Without the precise text in front of me I can't say whether your view is valid or not. But you said the feature allows you to take a Dash action as a reaction with the trigger being the initiative roll. There is no problem I see with that. This specific rule overrules the general, that is how the game works. What is the issue?

 

[Henadic Theologian]

We've got Lorwyn Changeling and Rimekin species, and two new elven lineages: Lorwyn elf and Shadowmoor elf. Pretty cool. Feats are Shadowmoor Hexer and Child of the Sun (tied to Lorwyn Expert and Shadowmoor Expert backgrounds). Nice to have an "ice person" species! And the Lorwyn Changeling differs from Eberron Changeling in interesting ways!

Lorwyn: First Light

Lorwyn: First Light Journey to the beloved plane of Lorwyn-Shadowmoor, where eternal sun shifts into eerie moonlight. View Cover Art ...

www.dndbeyond.com

Yeah its different from D&D Changelings (Changelings are in FR as well, see Orin) by being mechanically terrible.

Am I the only one very unimpressed by most of this DLC?

Okay so I want to be fair so I'll start with the pros.

1. Ice Genasi are well designed mechanically, especially the whole making the flame blade spell cold. Great choice for White/Silver Dragon Sorcerers.

2. I liked both of the Elf lineages, as well that Halflings get Darkvision in Shadowmoore and they buffed Fairies Darkvision to 120 feet.

3. The backgrounds and feats are well designed.

4. In general the player options are the most consistently good of all the Bundles Products

5. There is some really nice art.

Cons-

1. Lorwyn being a Domain of Delight is mentioned no where nor is Fearun, so I feel mislead. This is so disconnected from the rest of the bundle, they should have had a FR themed DLC for the 3rd one, perhaps on exploring a region of Faerun that could have used more love or at least Domain of Delight with a lore connection to FR like Domain of Dreas Hazlan. The disconnect is jarring and it gets worse.

2. I get why they didn't use regular Changelings, but the design of Lorwyn Changelings are terrible.

3. No playable Noogles

4. Phyrexian, seriously Forgotten Realms none MtG fans are going to be like wtf is a Phyrexian. If they felt like they needed to maintain the basic storyline THE RUSTED ARE RIGHT THERE IN FR: AiF!!! Use them. Are Phyrexians Forgotten Realms canon now? Or are Rusted kind of like Temu Phyrexians?

5. Alot of the expectations for this product was based on the marketing including the product description for Lorwyn: First Light being a Domain of Delight, again, its not mentioned anywhere in the product, this was never designed to be a Domain of Delight. The only place the Feywild is mentioned is the monster descriptions for where Noogles and Incarnations are native too.

6. No explanation for what happens to a Noogle if you drag it into Lorwyn or other Shadowmoore natives. Also no mention of Changelings becoming nasty mimics in Shadowmoore which is why they avoid it (honestly Changelings should have been the monster only race and Noogles should have been playable for that reason).

7. No mention of Hags or other Shadowmoore monsters that are right in the card sets. Honestly I'd have used Archhags for the Faerie Queens too mechanically.

8. The two Lorwyn-Shadowmoore Gods are just Ancient Dragons. No talk in either section of say Clerics and other divine casters getting their powers from them or the Demigods of the setting who seemed to have gone AWAL. Also using the Ancient Dragon stat blocks suggest alignments unfitting to these true neutral or even unaligned beings.

7. The Relics should have been +1 holy symbols in addition to their current purpose for their respective Gods at minimiumal.

8. FlameRimerCinder/Etc...kin should have been mechanically unique, not just Genasi.

9. Kithkin should also have been a separate species, instead the Mindweft gets zero mechanical support.

10. Why is this in a Forgotten Realms Bundle, its like they did this thing and couldn't figure out what to do with so they will throw it in with the over priced FR Bundle so people won't be so mad at the price.

11. This is a digital product, they were way too stingy on using Lorwyn-Shadowmoore in it given they don't have to print it.

12. Could have use Shadowmoore & Lorwyn random encounter tables.

13. For $15 digital only product 32 pages is just insulting, this is mot value for money.

14. I like the idea of DLCs, but this is not a good example of that idea.

15. Where are the Demigods

16. The Incarnations should have been designed more like Ravnican Horrors, so they a greater variety of them could get represented.

I think both FR fans and Lorwyn fans will be disappointed by this product.

 

[pukunui]

Without the precise text in front of me I can't say whether your view is valid or not. But you said the feature allows you to take a Dash action as a reaction with the trigger being the initiative roll. There is no problem I see with that. This specific rule overrules the general, that is how the game works. What is the issue?

The issue is that the Dash action doesn't, by itself, let you move. It just gives you "extra movement for the current turn". So the question becomes: is this ability intended to make it so you can move immediately as soon as Initiative is rolled but before your turn comes up in the round (assuming you're not first)? Or is it merely intended to make it so you can preload extra movement onto your first turn during combat?

If the intention is the former, then mechanically speaking the ability does nothing, because taking the Dash action outside of your turn doesn't let you move immediately. Hence why other abilities like Ready specify that you can move up to your speed instead.

If the intention is the latter, then it's fine. You roll Initiative, spend your Reaction to Dash, then when your first turn during the combat comes up, you've got extra movement to spend.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The good news is that, since this is a digital only product, they can clarify this language and make this issue disappear. (Spelljammer slipcased sets quietly weep off in the corner.)

 

[Henadic Theologian]

I'm debating on purchasing this. Would it work for the Feywild/Moonshaes role that WoTC has promoted it as? I want to insert the monsters from this in the Moonshae Isles, possibly as fairy trod guardians.

No, the promised connections are completely absent in the product and there are things mentioned like Phyrexians that make no sense in a D&D context. The Domain of Delight thing is a marketing lie, an after thought when they decided to shove this into an FR product. I don't recommend it even for a Lorwyn fan, you could just use the Planeswalkers Guide and sub in Genasi for Flamekin.

Honestly if this frees up Lorwyn for DMSGUILD you'll certainly end up finding better DMSGUILD Lorwyn products soon enough.