D&D 5E New Unearthed Arcana: Heroes of Krynn Revisited

WotC's Jeremy Crawford has announced a new Unearthed Arcana article today with redesigns from the prior Heroes of Krynn UA based on feedback, and in the following video he discusses that feedback and what's in the article:

• New iteration of Kender based on feedback survey, due to mixed response. This time is a back to basics, aiming to capture 1E AD&D fearlessness, curiosity and taunting skills. Delve into their origins from Gnomes in deep history.
• Kender are no longer fey creatures who grab objects from the Feywild
• Tweaked Feats from prior article
• Tweaked Backgrounds from prior article
• Brand new rule giving a list of free Feats for ANY Background
• Free Feat rule for Level 4 for all characters that doesn't take the ASI away, based on a curated list
• Reveals that in the Adventure, healing magic is already back.

Heroes of Krynn Revisited | Unearthed Arcana | Dungeons & Dragons

Explore updated character options from the Dragonlance setting! This playtest document presents revised races, subclasses, backgrounds, and feats.

dnd.wizards.com

 

[Micah Sweet]

I am fine with each background getting a free feat at 1st and 4th level. It's just that this implementation is kind of bad at modeling membership in an organization like in the KoS and MoHS. It's fine if you start out wanting to be a part of the organization at 1st level, but it's bad if you want to join beyond that.

Sturm Brightblade, the prototypical KoS of the fiction, did not become a Knight until 10th level.

What about renegade mages who join the conclave only after leveling for a while (and possibly being hunted and forced to join)?

These characters don't get any of the mechanical benefits afforded by the feat chains.

No, they instead get whatever mechanical benefits they chose from 1st to 10th level, and now they get a free feat with whatever background they chose, plus another at 4th. It all works out in the end.

 

[Scribe]

now we are back to “you actually have to actively steal things and pretend like you didn’t know” kender

Why, unless I missed it there is no mention of theft at all outside of 'some may' or 'maybe', you know the typical 5e language.

 

[Mistwell]

Give them advantage when using Sleight of Hand to steal something worth less than 1g or maybe weighing less than 1 pound.

I mean, why does it have to be steal? Why can't it just be pick up something?

 

[Neonchameleon]

Man. Ok so while the fey wasn’t popular, now we are back to “you actually have to actively steal things and pretend like you didn’t know” kender which I’m sure everyone at the table that ISNT the Kender is going to love.

But at least they will know you aren’t a fey.

No. There is no mention of stealing in the lore of the Kender presented, let alone lying about it. They're going for curious and fearless and why would you ever think that people played them as inveterate thieves. They're pretending that part of the kender just doesn't exist - or changing the kender race so it doesn't.

 

[Weiley31]

I actually liked the Kender Ace/Magical Pocket/Hammer space deal because the way I flavored it was basically the Kender just checking his/her pockets and suddenly finding the "right tool" or what not. But it wasn't magic, it was pretty much said Kender completely forgetting about it and then just finding it all of a sudden, despite maybe buying a spoon or picking up a penny a week ago.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I actually liked the Kender Ace/Magical Pocket/Hammer space deal because the way I flavored it was basically the Kender just checking his/her pockets and suddenly finding the "right tool" or what not. But it wasn't magic, it was pretty much said Kender completely forgetting about it and then just finding it all of a sudden, despite maybe buying a spoon or picking up a penny a week ago.

Mechanically i thought it was ok. It was the description and the reason behind it that irked me.

 

[Maxperson]

I mean, why does it have to be steal? Why can't it just be pick up something?

You don't normally use Sleight of Hand to just pick up something, but if it's small and/or cheap, why not?

 

[Weiley31]

Actually....

Yeah, but on Krynn a 20th level Battle Master Knight of Solamnia would have six d12 superiority dice, four d8 superiority dice and six d6 superiority dice. I wouldn't think the background dice would improve like the class dice do. Still, 16 superiority dice is pretty awesome.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Boring Kender are inferior to Fey Kender but superior to "Steal whatever I want, because I can't understand the basic concept of personal property" Kender. At least these kender aren't forced to make other people hate them. If this is the compromise needed to get people to stop complaining about how different the kender are or how awful an idea of a character race they are, very well. Good job Wizards, you just turned the most controversial D&D race ever into the blandest one. That's certainly a way to solve this issue.

The Knight feats are good now. I like them. The two free extra feats are good, too. I really hope that 5.5e changes all backgrounds to granting specific feats, like Folk Hero granting Martial Adept, Sailor granting a Sailing feat, and stuff like that, instead of just these boring choices of Skilled, Tough, and Divinely Favored.

 

[Maxperson]

Actually....

Well, then. Sixteen D12's is a bunch better than six!