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

 

[FallenAkriel]

Yup, and I suspect that this is a test for how the core game may work from 2024 on. If they tie it heavily to Background, I may actually not mind it.

I was thinking of an expansion of the Telepathic and Telekinetic feats for Dark Sun (the 6 "disciplines", Free at lvl 1 and then a larger list at lvl 4.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I would not even call it massive changes from what we have seen. But I prefer some changes to just leaving it the exact same. Because if you were not going to do anything new you might as well have just reprinted the old stuff.

Which would also be good. The Dragonlance Nexus published a document that provided 5e rules for a bunch of Dragonlance stuff without changing anything else, and that suited me fine.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Which would also be good. The Dragonlance Nexus published a document that provided 5e rules for a bunch of Dragonlance stuff without changing anything else, and that suited me fine.

Well I like to get new stuff instead of just conversions. So that’s how it goes. Looking forward to the adventure and battle game hoping they are good.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Well I like to get new stuff instead of just conversions. So that’s how it goes. Looking forward to the adventure and battle game hoping they are good.

Me too. Battle game sounds cool. The adventure is supposed to be set in an area with little development, which sounds like a good thing. Hard to screw up the rest of the world that way.

 

[FallenAkriel]

For Martials, and Backgrounds, has got to be some of the most cherry-pickable/portable/swappable UA they have released thus far. Seriously, if you don't want to do Dragonlance, you can totally use the Squire of Solamnia/Knightly Orders as anything you want to reskin wise. And since most of the Combat Maneuvers allow you to add the Superiority Die rolls to add to damage, Martials, of any sort, have gotten a nice/slight/generous(?) boost. Is it as great as what Spellcasters can do? I have no idea.

Athasian Gladiator!

 

[Parmandur]

I was thinking of an expansion of the Telepathic and Telekinetic feats for Dark Sun (the 6 "disciplines", Free at lvl 1 and then a larger list at lvl 4.

For sure, obe if the big advantages of such a system is opening up Setting specific design space, which is where they are starting

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Do you play a lot of Adventurer's League?

No. Never played it. But the DMs that I would probably end up playing that character with would probably not allow the UA version of a race that was replaced with a different version.

 

[Vaalingrade]

It would be hard for white robes to be evil.

"You chose the moon Solinari to influence your magic, and your oath to use magic to make the world a better place..."

This is 1 Billon percent a reason they would be evil.

"I and I alone know how to make the world a better place and these fools are blind to the Truth! And I will do ANYTHING to make my vision come true!"

Pretty much anyone who would consistently capitalize the G when they say they're a good person.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

If you randomly pick stuff up in a store and put it in your pocket and walk out, what are you going to be called?

A shoplifter.

Why do you need to make this difficult?

I'm making it difficult? I'm not the one labelling literally every change to the hobby "sanitization"? If everything from goofy art, to getting rid of nudity in D&D art, to giving a race magic counts as "sanitization" the term has literally no useful meaning. That's the thing making discussions difficult. Brushstrokes labelling everything that you don't agree with as a "sanitization" or "Disneyfication" of the game.

Its ok for them to clean up what their current demographic finds problematic. I dont have to like it, even if you do.

"Controversial" is not the same thing as "problematic". Gully Dwarves are problematic. Vistani are/were problematic. The fact that most dark skinned races in the hobby were evil is problematic. Sexualizing women in D&D art is problematic.

Kender being a nigh-universally hated race? Not problematic. Not in the same sense of the other content, at least. Most people don't object to the kender's presentation in the books. They object to how people are recommended to play them and the problematic behavior that it encourages. Not truly "problematic" in the sense that there are bad connotations from the race, but "controversial" in how they're played at the table.

And not every attempt to make something in the hobby less controversial or problematic is a "sanitization". Some of it is just fixing mistakes that previous editions made.

 

[Maxperson]

This is 1 Billon percent a reason they would be evil.

"I and I alone know how to make the world a better place and these fools are blind to the Truth! And I will do ANYTHING to make my vision come true!"

Or else they work with others to make things better.