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

 

[Maxperson]

Nah she would still be evil. But the Black Robes were never her servants to start with, beyond any that decided to align with her.

Yep. They are aligned with...

Nuitari, god of evil magic

 

[Parmandur]

Yep. They are aligned with...

Nuitari, god of evil magic

Super duper subtle, love it.

 

[Erdric Dragin]

Finally. No weird crap. WotC needs to learn not to fix what was never broken. Don't ruin my Kenders. Thanks.

 

[Parmandur]

Of course, that description is nothing other than White Robe propaganda, being spread by superstitious yokes with an axe to grind against the true bearers of Arcane wisdom.

 

[Erdric Dragin]

Gone! They're just like everyone else, now. As an exercise, replace the word "kender" with "humans": "Kender sometimes amass impressive collections of curiosities. Some might collect mundane knickknacks or relics from magical sites, while others might become professional thieves."

As a legacy D&D player and longtime true fan of Kenders, I'm glad they took the Looney Toon elements out of this race. Don't "fix" what ain't broke.

 

[Maxperson]

Super duper subtle, love it.

No matter how much WotC wants to jigsaw around black robes being evil in this recent UA, the black robes choose Nuitari, the god of evil magic to draw their power from and be loyal to. He/she(can't remember the gender) isn't the god of ambition.

 

[Parmandur]

No matter how much WotC wants to jigsaw around black robes being evil in this recent UA, the black robes choose Nuitari, the god of evil magic to draw their power from and be loyal to. He/she(can't remember the gender) isn't the god of ambition.

But who wrote the description? Biased narrators, doncha know. Maybe the Black Robes would describe themselves and Nuitsri differently.

The whole thing would have worked much better if they were Lawful/Neutral/Chaotic aligned, but I guess that ship sailed nearly 40 years ago.

I'll also note how much better the Colleges of Strixhaven capture orders of Wizards in cooperative tension within a larger institution...

 

[Erdric Dragin]

What the heck?! They took away the Mage Order alignment requirements!?

Alignment is a legacy of D&D that never should be messed with. EVER! Ugh. Hate this so much. So now you can have a Lawful Evil White Robe?! Actually, it's just more proof they're phasing Alignment out the game entirely, we won't have it in 6e for sure.

The heck is wrong with this world? If I had a wish, it'd definitely be me owning this company and fixing everything back to pre-4E.

 

[Scribe]

Yep. They are aligned with...

Nuitari, god of evil magic

Not for long.

 

[Veltharis ap Rylix]

Sure, but if they aren't actually making it a better place, then they are violating their oath and would probably lose their spot in the white tower. They'd end up wearing the black robes of "ambition," trying and failing to make the world a better place through evil acts.

What if their evil acts really are making the world a better place? Or they can at the very least make a really convincing argument to that effect? Who makes the determination to kick them out? What if they have numbers on their side? What if most of the White Tower is behind them and condones their actions?

People are capable of doing incredibly evil things when they earnestly believe it's for the greater good, and some of the most dangerous, most committed villains I can think of are people who honestly believed they were doing the right thing. How many innocent people did the Spanish Inquisition murder, fully believing they were doing the work of God?

Obviously this doesn't mesh up with the way the Towers of High Sorcery were portrayed in the past (or so I assume, given the discussion - I'm very much not a Dragonlance expert, myself), but under a new paradigm where the White/Red/Black Robes dynamic is built upon something other than Good/Neutral/Evil alignment, I could absolutely see it working.