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

 

[Remathilis]

I think one of the major issues is that many people can't see the difference between "no concept of personal property" and "kleptomania." It's a perception problem that's been present since the kender first appeared, both in-world and IRL.

I fail to see a difference if it means a kender PC gets to go shopping off my character sheet whenever the mood hits them and my expected response is laughter and not violence.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Trolling would imply malice.

It’s players that play bad Kender (and DMs that allow it). The race as shown in the novels are fine.

Kender are certainly malicious at times. They wouldn't be as good at taunting people if they didn't have finely-honed bullying/trolling instincts. They're supposed to be like exaggerated wild children, and many children are ruthless beasts when it comes to that stuff.

They're not "fine" in the novels. If they were "fine", they wouldn't attract widespread derision and loathing.

 

[DarkCrisis]

Kender are certainly malicious at times. They wouldn't be as good at taunting people if they didn't have finely-honed bullying/trolling instincts. They're supposed to be like exaggerated wild children, and many children are ruthless beasts when it comes to that stuff.

They're not "fine" in the novels. If they were "fine", they wouldn't attract widespread derision and loathing.

Malice in their stealing.

The taunt is used against enemies generally in a fight. It’s the same as saying they are trolling by slinging a stone at a draconian.

 

[Ath-kethin]

It doesn't help that actual D&D writers have described it as kleptomania. I'd be extremely unsurprised if Hickman/Weis had too. Though obviously it has no real relationship to the real-world mental health issue of kleptomania (which is almost the opposite of "no concept of personal property", but that's a whole other discussion).

It also doesn't help that in the literary depictions of it, it doesn't match up well with either "no concept of personal property" or "kleptomania". "Relentless trolling" seems a better description of a lot of Kender behaviour in the books.

You're not wrong, but I long ago decided that when it comes to Dragonlance, if it wasn't written by Weis & Hickman, it doesn't matter. Gods know their books aren't perfect, but they tend to be far more consistent. So to me kender = Tasslehoff, even though he's explicitly described as being atypical, especially after the first and second trilogies.

 

[Ath-kethin]

I fail to see a difference if it means a kender PC gets to go shopping off my character sheet whenever the mood hits them and my expected response is laughter and not violence.

Well, that's the other problem - more or less by definition a kender needs to be grabbing stuff from other party members, which can be cute in a novel but is a real pain in the butt in a game.

 

[Raunalyn]

Kender were not actually born from gnomes. They were created from a proto-race of Dwarves called the "Smiths." When the Greygem escaped, the Smiths were split into three races; those that coveted the Graygem became Dwarves, those that wanted to study it became Gnomes, and those who were just curious about it became Kender. This is on page 17-18 of the Tales of the Lance.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

That is not what I was asking For example the Squire of Solamnia feat says
"Squire Maneuvers. You learn the Lunging Attack, Precision Attack, or Pushing Attack maneuver from the Battle Master subclass of the fighter in the Player’s Handbook (choose the maneuver when you gain this feat)"

Does that mean that you have only one maneuver: like "Lunging Attack" only. That is the way I read it.

Yes, you only have one manoeuvre, but you can use it twice. If you have a long rest you can swap it for one of the other two. If you take one of the next tier feats you have two manoeuvres known and four dice (which are D8s.)

For that matter how does this interact with Martial Adept, which implies that the superiority dice gained is added to an existing dice poor of superiority dice, if one has such a pool.

These dice do not interact at all with Martial Adept. "These dice are d6s, and you can use them only with the maneuver you gain from this feat and with any maneuvers you gain from feats that have this feat as a prerequisite". You have a separate list of manoeuvres and pool of dice for each.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Malice in their stealing.

The taunt is used against enemies generally in a fight. It’s the same as saying they are trolling by slinging a stone at a draconian.

You don't get that good at taunting without having a pretty huge malicious streak or specialized training (and we know they don't have the latter), sorry, not possible unless the taunt is largely magical in nature. And Tasslehoff certainly didn't reserve taunting for his actual enemies.

Re: stealing, the issue is that the claim that they "have no concept of personal property" just doesn't match up with Kender behaviour as depicted in various sources. Instead it looks more like they have a solid concept of it, but don't care. You can attribute that to bad writing or whatever, but the end result is that they look like they're knowingly trolling. Trying to blame "bad players" for the problem is like trying to say the Paladin problem was all down to "bad players". It wasn't. Good players can be misguided, especially when they're trying to emulate an odd set of behaviours which don't really make sense.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Some tropes can be funny in the beginning, but later they become really annoying. Did you love the sitcom "Family Matters"? If all episodes were only Steve Urkel doing the same actions then it stopped to be funny.

Even a little baby who can't walk or talk can understand the concept of private property when you try to get that delicious coockie she is eating now.

"I killed a cat and now I am nicknamed cat-killer".

* Kenders, even without bards, should earn inspirated status when a jeer is really good.

The good humor shouldn't seem forced, but totally spontaneous and unexpected. Even in the best sitcoms the characters should be serious almost always.

* Could evil spellcasters craft cursed items only to be got by collector kenders as bait for a trap? "Don't enter wolf's mouth".

* I wonder if Hasbro and WotC may have hired some team of psychologists and educators for consultation about new characters, or races.

* Kenders shouldn't be typecasted as Tasslehoff Burrfoot's ripoff.

 

[Remathilis]

Well, that's the other problem - more or less by definition a kender needs to be grabbing stuff from other party members, which can be cute in a novel but is a real pain in the butt in a game.

Then by definition they aren't a viable PC race.

Honestly, I await to see more about them in the book (if there is more) but if the new kender "obsessively curious" doesn't automatically mean "absent-minded kleptomaniacs" I'm fine.

I like the idea that they are curious without needing to be handling. One kender likes to pocket stuff and forget about it. Another likes to talk with everyone and ask semi-invasive questions. Another can't help taking mechanical things apart to see how they work. Another reads everything it can, books, journals, private diaries, menus, forbidden tomes, spell books, etc. Another has a huge collection of pinned insect boards it likes to show everyone. Etc.etc.

You can make a race with childlike wonder and nagging curiosity without making them antisocial thieves.