Dragonlance Lunar Sorcery: A Preview from Shadow of the Dragon Queen

WotC has posted a preview from the upcoming Shadow of the Dragon Queen on D&D Beyond, diving into the Lunary Sorcery subclass.

Traditionally magic in Krynn has been represented by the Wizards of High Sorcery, who owe their allegiance to one of the black, red, or white moons (and gods) of magic. Sorcerers weren't around in D&D when Dragonlance was created.

Lunar Sorcerers also draw power from the moons, based on the moon's phase (Full, New, Crescent). You choose the phase each day (though at later levels you can do so more often). The subclass gets a lot of spells (15 additional spells!)

Lunar Sorcery Sorcerer Preview From Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen

Harness the power of the moon with the Lunar Sorcery sorcerer! Here's a look at the versatile features granted by this celestial subclass.

www.dndbeyond.com

 

[Faolyn]

Gnomes in dragonlance were tinkers, not artificers. They made items based on technology rather than magic.

Technically, you're supposed to reskin all of your spells as being technological, not magical. So it might still work.

 

[cbwjm]

Technically, you're supposed to reskin all of your spells as being technological, not magical. So it might still work.

I suppose you could, but the artificer seems like a very magical class to me rather than a tinker/engineer. I'd be more inclined to convert the tinker class from the WoW RPG than use artificer. Depends how much work you'd want to do though since reskinning is easy, converting a class and associated subsystems from an earlier edition is a bit more difficult.

 

[Nathaniel Lee]

I wish WotC had the guts to just say hey Dragonlance doesn't have Sorcerers. Not try to force every option into every world.

I don't see why they would ever do that, given how much they officially lean into the notion of "make D&D your own". And really, when it boils down to it, what would be the actual benefit for them to be officially exclusionary in any campaign setting? Why would they aim to shrink the modern game to fit into a setting rather than adapting the setting to the modern game?

 

[Nathaniel Lee]

Yup. Right here.

[LINK=youtube.com/dQw4w9WgXcQ[/LINK]

Not the right link.

 

[Maxperson]

"Dragonlance was originally released in 1984 by Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman. If you wish to play the setting as originally envisioned, please consider the following optional rules:

• The following races aren't known on Krynn naturally: halflings, drow, orcs, half-orcs, dragonborn, tieflings, and all optional races from Monsters of the Multiverse unless the DM allows it.
• The following classes are not considered native to Krynn: artificer, bard, druid, monk, sorcerer and warlock.
• Humans should have a racial traits removed. All other races are limited to only 10th level maximum. Humans can go to 20th level.
• Humans can be any class. Elves and half-elves cannot be paladins or barbarians. Dwarves cannot be wizards, rangers or paladins, kender cannot be wizards, rangers, paladins, or barbarians. Any race can be a fighter, rogue or cleric.

These rules will allow you to experience Krynn as it was 38 years ago.

- WotC staff"

I would argue that Artificers are in the original Krynn, but not as a formal class. The gnomes fit that bill quite nicely, so in 5e I would insert the class into the game as a gnome only class(barring a good written background explaining why some other race is one).

Monks are both in and not in 1e Dragonlance. There are gods with the monk class and one god is literally the god of monks. At the same time it says that monks that come into Krynn become heathen clerics. This is an obvious contradiction. You can't have both no monks and a god of monks. This requires a DM ruling and so I'd rule in favor of monks being present and having a god to follow.

Level limits were ignored by most tables anyway, so no need to put those back in. Same with racial limits. Those were often ignored, though less so than level limits.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Technically, you're supposed to reskin all of your spells as being technological, not magical. So it might still work.

Except artificers definitely use magic, even if narratively they're not casting spells.

 

[Older Beholder]

The entry for Artificers in Tasha's specifically mentioned Tinker gnomes from DragonLance as an example of artificers.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

The entry for Artificers in Tasha's specifically mentioned Tinker gnomes from DragonLance as an example of artificers.

And they definitely have some kind of magic. How else would they get up into Spelljammer and create Autognomes?

 

[ECMO3]

This. The wizard class might refer to himself as a sorcerer or warlock in the fiction, but he's a guy who learns magic from a book.

I agree!
I am playing a Shadar-Kai Bladesinger-Cavalier right now. She is a servant of the Raven Queen, was in the Raven Queens cavalry in the Shadowfell before coming to the campaign. She has a lot of Warlock like thematics. She is very dark and creepy. Her "mistress" communes with her, sent her on a mission etc and she talks about this and is extremely loyal.

She joined a group at 8th level, literally coming to the prime from the Shadowfell through a portal. When I joined the group initially others players thought I was a Hexblade or other melee bladelock for quite a while, but she is not, she learns her spells from a book and is all wizard.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

Gnomes in dragonlance were tinkers, not artificers. They made items based on technology rather than magic.

And the whole thing was they were bad at it! They built giant contraptions that were needlessly complicated but somehow worked unintentionally.

Thinker gnomes on the other hand…

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Thinker gnomes on the other hand…

Are idiots that don't know what stairs are but can build catapults.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Are idiots that don't know what stairs are but can build catapults.

They knew what Stairs were, but Tinker Gnomes always go for complex over practical. One of their go to sayings for dismissing something was that “it’s too simple to work”

 

[cbwjm]

And the whole thing was they were bad at it! They built giant contraptions that were needlessly complicated but somehow worked unintentionally.

Thinker gnomes on the other hand…

I can't remember if it was game mechanics or if it was one of the various short stories, but I remember reading something about mad gnomes. Their contraptions actually worked and at 1/3 the size.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Someone did a review of Dragonlance Adventures and when they got to the Tinker Gnome basically said if you were useful you where a cheater

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Here the relevant part

But wait, you say, some of this stuff could be useful! From what I can glean from the tinkering rules, if you have a useful item, you have cheated or done something wrong. Let's look at the Netflinger, That price of 312 stl, that would get you 15 heavy crossbows, or cover more than 3/4 the cost of a suit of plate armor. But it hits automatically and will entangle any creature with 8 or fewer Hit Dice for 3 rounds, with a range of 32 feet. I found a red dragon in AD&D ranged from 9-11 HD, so it stands to reason this could work on other dragons, at least on the lower HD side (you'd think a hatchling would be different sized than a full grown adult, but dragons worked a little differently, they kept the same number of HD, and had 1 HP per die per age category, ranging 1-8).

Hits automatically, if it works correctly. The netflinger is a complexity 8 item (ranging 1-18). According to the character, it works successfully on a d20 roll of 18+ (even at complexity 1 success is only on a 16+)(success does give a +1 on next roll, so luck might be with you). It has an unpredictable result on a 10-17, which sends you to the Gnome Mishap table, a d20 roll which is also used when building a new item, so some of the results (needs another part) make less sense here. Other effects might be an unexpected glow (blinding the operator and anyone nearby), unbearable temperature change, or even an explosion. "interpret the results as humorously as the situation allows." 9 or less it fails, which means it breaks. A gnome whose level is at least the complexity level of the device can repair it after two hours times the complexity level (so 16 hours for the netflinger). You'll also be -1 on future rolls.

How bad is this chart? As I said, a complexity 1, up to complexity 3, needs only a 16 or above to succeed. 25% chance of success, awesome. But as you go up in complexity, the range of unpredictable goes up. Complexity 1 is unpredictable on a 15, and fails on a 14 or less. Complexity 2, it's unpredictable on a 14-15, fails on a 13 or less. With the random results from unpredictable, maybe it's preferable to have it break. On the other extreme, complexity 18 will only work on a 20+, fails on a 2 or less, and is unpredictable the rest of the time.

I'm sure the gnomes got some laughs at the table of the original Dragonlance game, but they should never have gone beyond that.

 

[vecna00]

now I am pictureing the lazy HS student who never studies and does 0 homework and the hard working HS student that takes every book home to study every night and does checks and rechecks there home work that flips "How did you get a 100 on the test when I got a 97!?!?!"

Wait, did you know me in high school!?

 

[sevenbastard]

Why would they aim to shrink the modern game to fit into a setting rather than adapting the setting to the modern game?

You say "shrink" I say "tailor"

Bespoke rules for settings make settings unique and the experience of playing in them special.

The Forgotten Realms is the Cheese Cake Factory of settings. That's great for it. But Krynn can be that local mom and pop Italian spot that focuses on its own things and doesn't need a burger, a burrito, and Kung Pow chicken on the menu.

 

[Faolyn]

And they definitely have some kind of magic. How else would they get up into Spelljammer and create Autognomes?

Perhaps even more importantly: how could they get everything to fail so spectacularly but without killing them all off en masse without it being at least a bit magical. If it were purely scientific tinkering, they'd probably have all died from boilers exploding or roofs collapsing or noxious gases.

 

[vecna00]

You say "shrink" I say "tailor"

Bespoke rules for settings make settings unique and the experience of playing in them special.

The Forgotten Realms is the Cheese Cake Factory of settings. That's great for it. But Krynn can be that local mom and pop Italian spot that focuses on its own things and doesn't need a burger, a burrito, and Kung Pow chicken on the menu.

Then make your game that way.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

I can't remember if it was game mechanics or if it was one of the various short stories, but I remember reading something about mad gnomes. Their contraptions actually worked and at 1/3 the size.

Mad gnomes = thinker gnomes, who can actually build things that work as intended. Introduced in Taladas and reappearing in 5th age material