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

 

[Weiley31]

I just looked up the 5th Age Dragonlance (Saga) and holy crap, it does sound a bit crazy.

 

[TheWriterFantastic™]

The million dollar question. The SAGA system as a whole was misguided at best.

A lot of SAGA system fans would disagree. It's an innovative, flexible narrative RPG system that could have used more playtesting, but overall it's a real shame that it didn't last longer - it was great for both fantasy roleplaying and for the Marvel Superhero game - the biggest issue was it was too much of a change for a lot of the 1E/2E Dragonlance fans - one of my friends at the time complained that he'd spent so much money on dice, he didn't want to switch to a system with cards. Had it just been offered with a brand new fantasy setting, not a new system for Dragonlance, it would have likely done very well.

 

[Jiggawatts]

I was told at the end of the last week this is wrong, not only did rastlin take the test before then but was a traveling 3rd level wizard after this... he said (although I don't remember it) something a kin to he couldn't cast fireball he wasn't that powerful yet.

Allow me to clarify, anyone can take the Test of High Sorcery as a 3rd or 4th level wizard, in fact that is the ideal time to take it and when most wizards do so. They can also decline to take it if they are content to only practice magic of 1st and 2nd level, the Conclave will leave them alone. However if a wizard continues their studies, hitting 5th level and gaining access to 3rd level spells, they are now required to take it or they will be branded a renegade.

 

[jolt]

Originally, Dragonlance didn't have any special rules at all; it was just bog-standard 1st edition. That's why in the original modules the Laurana and Flint pregens never advanced past 5th and 6th level respectively. I don't see that what did or did not exist in 1st edition (or any other edition) should have any bearing on how it's presented in 5th edition. The only thing that should be considered is what combination of Dragonlance and 5th edition makes for the best game. I fail to see how removing sorcerers (or anything else that wasn't present in 1st edition) makes either the setting or mechanics better. I'm going to take a wild stab that most modern gamers couldn't possibly care less about how the setting was used or portrayed back in the 80's.

 

[Remathilis]

Originally, Dragonlance didn't have any special rules at all; it was just bog-standard 1st edition. That's why in the original modules the Laurana and Flint pregens never advanced past 5th and 6th level respectively. I don't see that what did or did not exist in 1st edition (or any other edition) should have any bearing on how it's presented in 5th edition. The only thing that should be considered is what combination of Dragonlance and 5th edition makes for the best game. I fail to see how removing sorcerers (or anything else that wasn't present in 1st edition) makes either the setting or mechanics better. I'm going to take a wild stab that most modern gamers couldn't possibly care less about how the setting was used or portrayed back in the 80's.

Careful, you'll summon the purists with talk like that.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Originally, Dragonlance didn't have any special rules at all; it was just bog-standard 1st edition. That's why in the original modules the Laurana and Flint pregens never advanced past 5th and 6th level respectively. I don't see that what did or did not exist in 1st edition (or any other edition) should have any bearing on how it's presented in 5th edition. The only thing that should be considered is what combination of Dragonlance and 5th edition makes for the best game. I fail to see how removing sorcerers (or anything else that wasn't present in 1st edition) makes either the setting or mechanics better. I'm going to take a wild stab that most modern gamers couldn't possibly care less about how the setting was used or portrayed back in the 80's.

Whereas I believe that, where established settings are concerned, mechanics and fidelity to the current design philosophy shouldn't be the top priority.

 

[MostlyHarmless42]

intresting... is this a quick thought or have you given any consideration to it? I can see plenty of reason to test sorcerers and warlocks

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. Sorcerers and warlocks the classes, regardless of what they call themselves in the fiction, would probably be considered heathen wizards by the wizards of high sorcery and hunted down.

According to the actual cannon lore (which will likely just get retconned because WoTC likely won't want to go this route), yes. Sorcerers and warlocks would basically be considered renegades. There is literally an entire book about this call The Wizards' Conclave set during the age of mortals and the main character of the book named Coryn starts out as a sorcerer before being turned down an eventual position of leadership for having practiced it first before becoming a wizard. Additionally the villains of the book are two sorcerers using primal magic to try and destroy one of the Towers with a magical artefact. The moon gods are explicitly clear in this book that they consider primal sorcery blasphemy and dangerous and it comes directly from their mouths.

What I've chosen to do in my games is this: I basically had Palin Majere decide to rebuild the Academy of Sovery in an effort to sort of help wayward and confused sorcerers (ala X-men) and play up sort of a rivalry/uneasy truse that could easily turn into a magical war between them and the wizards. Basically the only reason they don't outright declare every sorcerer a renegade if they refuse to learn magic the "proper" way is due to respect for Palin, whom used to head the white order for a time.

Frankly I think it's a far more interesting faction dynamic that i recommend people look into and consider instead of what is likely to happen: wotc just saying "yup, just pretend sorcerers have been here the whole time guy and they are part of the religious extremist Order that tries to keep a monopoly on magic. Wait, disregard that last part, the Mages of High Sorcery are fun! jangle keys 'member Raistlin?"

 

[Dragonhelm]

The upcoming book is set before that.

Right, but sorcerers in-world date back to the Age of Dreams. At least in the prior continuity.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Right, but sorcerers in-world date back to the Age of Dreams. At least in the prior continuity.

True, but there's a HUGE block of time in Krynn's history (including most of the actual depictions) in which sorcery was unknown. I suppose a group of sorcerers could have been in hiding for centuries, but they would need to stay in hiding to avoid persecution as long as the Wizards of High Sorcery were active.

 

[TheWriterFantastic™]

According to the actual cannon lore (which will likely just get retconned because WoTC likely won't want to go this route), yes. Sorcerers and warlocks would basically be considered renegades. There is literally an entire book about this call The Wizards' Conclave set during the age of mortals and the main character of the book named Coryn starts out as a sorcerer before being turned down an eventual position of leadership for having practiced it first before becoming a wizard. Additionally the villains of the book are two sorcerers using primal magic to try and destroy one of the Towers with a magical artefact. The moon gods are explicitly clear in this book that they consider primal sorcery blasphemy and dangerous and it comes directly from their mouths.

What I've chosen to do in my games is this: I basically had Palin Majere decide to rebuild the Academy of Sovery in an effort to sort of help wayward and confused sorcerers (ala X-men) and play up sort of a rivalry/uneasy truse that could easily turn into a magical war between them and the wizards. Basically the only reason they don't outright declare every sorcerer a renegade if they refuse to learn magic the "proper" way is due to respect for Palin, whom used to head the white order for a time.

Frankly I think it's a far more interesting faction dynamic that i recommend people look into and consider instead of what is likely to happen: wotc just saying "yup, just pretend sorcerers have been here the whole time guy and they are part of the religious extremist Order that tries to keep a monopoly on magic. Wait, disregard that last part, the Mages of High Sorcery are fun! jangle keys 'member Raistlin?"

My guess is that "Mages of High Sorcery" is WotC's attempt at a solve for the ongoing conundrum of "How do we fit sorcerers (and by extension, warlocks) into the 'canon' of Dragonlance?" question that's been haunting the game since 3E - in 3E, the designers tried to shoehorn wildly different (pun intended) primal sorcery into the sorcerer class, when it's always been so much more than that, instead of how sorcerers and warlocks had always been intended in 3E to just be different ways to access/cast the same exact magic as wizards; in the novels, Raistlin was entirely unable to touch the magic until he literally pacted with the moon gods in Soulforge, to write "I, Magus" with magical flare, then again with Fistandantilus during his test - he would likely be a tome warlock by 5E standards, not a traditional wizard. Primal sorcery was able to sort of replicate some of the spell effects from traditional arcane spell list, but was poorly replicated with the sorcerer class - the flexibility inherent in Sorcery (and Mysticism) from DL 5th Age didn't translate properly - it probably would have better been replicated with the 3.5 Psionics system, not the Sorcerer class from 3.0/3.5, ironically (since the view on psionics, at least at the time, was that it "wasn't magic").