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

 

[Parmandur]

I think the golden age of Dragonlance was the War of the Lance and the 30 years after that.

Seems WotC agrees.

 

[Raunalyn]

Now, for all we may disagree, here is something I whole heartedly agree with.

I kinda got out of the novels after the first ten or twenty and that was a long time ago. Did they ever do much with the setting in the, say, 30 years before the War of the Lance?

Not really. I think maybe there were a couple of short stories, but nothing really descriptive other than the Second Generation book.

 

[Raunalyn]

Well, I have to say, that new UA certainly succeeded. No more kender discussions. Success!

All they had to do was turn Kender into straight up halflings and everyone is happy. It works I suppose.

So, like they were in 1st and 2nd edition...no different. Just like Humans, Elves, Dwarves, and Halflings.

 

[Helena Real]

I think the golden age of Dragonlance was the War of the Lance and the 30 years after that

Yeah, I have to agree. Plus, most of the Fifth Age material was not written by Weis & Hickman (right up until the end) and it definitely looks like they'll try to retcon it through their new novel trilogy, starting in August this year.

 

[Raunalyn]

Yeah, I have to agree. Plus, most of the Fifth Age material was not written by Weis & Hickman (right up until the end) and it definitely looks like they'll try to retcon it through their new novel trilogy, starting in August this year.

I hope so. There were a lot of things that I didn't like about post Summer of Chaos, but the War of Souls was the worst.

 

[cbwjm]

Reading through it, it looks like they've returned to the classic schools for the red robed wizards. I'm definitely liking what they've done here, but I'm probably going to restrict the high sorcery feats to wizards. For sorcerers I'd probably create something different to reflect the paths of sorcery from the saga game, and maybe also the mystics who channeled the power of the heart.

I do like the whole bonus feat thing, I've considered bonus feats at 1st level, and with Strixhaven and now Dragonlance granting bonus feats as part of backgrounds, it seems like that is going to be the way things work going forwards. I hadn't considered a bonus feat at 4th level, but maybe they're trying to reduce the feat chain requirements.

Back to reading the thread, only 25 pages until I catch up with everyone.

 

[Remathilis]

I'm all for removing alignment if it stops 2/3rds of all discussion about the latest UA being a rehash of tired alignment arguments.

 

[Parmandur]

I'm all for removing alignment if it stops 2/3rds of all discussion about the latest UA being a rehash of tired alignment arguments.

I mean, it wouldn't. Which is why WotC won't get rid of it, it is part of the discourse.

 

[cbwjm]

Rereading the feats for the different orders of knights and I think rather than letting them swap between the two manoeuvres with a long rest, I'll just let them have both of them since I don't really see the point of switching between the two. I mean, I guess it is kind of like a wizard preparing spells, but I still think that they can just have both.

 

[DarkCrisis]

Yeah, I have to agree. Plus, most of the Fifth Age material was not written by Weis & Hickman (right up until the end) and it definitely looks like they'll try to retcon it through their new novel trilogy, starting in August this year.

Better enjoy them because they are probably the last DL novels by Weis and Hickman if not just the last DL novels period.