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

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Well, except that they no longer have no understanding of personal property, no more "borrowing" and actively pursue being professional thieves.

But, sure, no different I guess?

If your idea of a kender is just a halfling with taunt, then, yup, these fit the bill perfectly. And, frankly, since this removes the problematic elements of the race - which were never mechanical in nature anyway- it's a win all the way around.

i said it yesterday, but I think it's a great change for me (who dislikes kenders) I can't imagine it is going to go over well with Kender fans

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Well, yes, at the time, when DL came out, Kender were actually pretty different from halflings. Remember, this is early 80's, so, halflings were basically hobbits - short, fat, hairy feet, stayed at home. Kender were essentially the "anti-hobbit". Still short, true, but slim, athletic, adventurous, interested in exploring, wearing shoes and looking more like children.

Now, I think that the kender image has largely replaced, in many ways, the hobbit halfling in a lot of D&D since.

But, at the time, kender were a pretty large departure from how halflings were portrayed in the game.

irony time...
As much as I dislike many parts of kender, I LOVE hafling becoming more kender like (minus troubling thieving)

 

[GMforPowergamers]

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.

that is 100% the problem.

if player A is a human rogue and takes extra treasure, even if the excuse is oh shinny, or worse takes another characters item MOST worlds would agree with other players being mad and maybe kicking character (worst case even player) out of group.

However switch player A from human to kender and the books say everyone loves and understands them...

 

[GMforPowergamers]

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

and again... love the idea, just not the way TSR did it for years.

 

[Remathilis]

and again... love the idea, just not the way TSR did it for years.

That's fine. The World of D&D is changing. Kender can change too.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

However switch player A from human to kender and the books say everyone loves and understands them...

I swear this all comes back to Kender being based on children raised with the more extreme permissive parenting attitudes of the '60s through '80s, letting kids "run wild" and so on (which in practice wasn't always great for the kids in the longer run, though probably better than the ultra-discipline it tended to be a generational reaction to), but basically it ends up with Kender being a particularly bad version of "The Scrappy" as a whole because people don't automatically love characters just for being childish/childlike.

EDIT: Totally irrelevant but the The Scrappy section on TVTropes is a great illustration of how much TVTropes has vanished up its own bum, because the criteria they list are so narrow they basically disallow Scrappy-Doo himself, and their Indiana Jones section doesn't even mention Short Round, who was incredible Scrappy (to kids, anyway - I know the actor is "beloved" now but jeez at the time...). Not linking because it's mean to send people into TVTropes holes, even though the site is far more boring than it used to be before the ultranerds took over.

EDIT EDIT: LOL I see they do have Kender down as a more extreme form of Scrappy - "The Creator's Pet".

 

[TwoSix]

Well, except that they no longer have no understanding of personal property, no more "borrowing" and actively pursue being professional thieves.

But, sure, no different I guess?

If your idea of a kender is just a halfling with taunt, then, yup, these fit the bill perfectly. And, frankly, since this removes the problematic elements of the race - which were never mechanical in nature anyway- it's a win all the way around.

Yep, that's pretty much my view. Lots of people don't like the "thieving" aspect of kender, and if you do, I don't see the need to embed it in a mechanic when it's simply a roleplaying tic.

 

[Cadence]

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.

Except they've made them gnomes now, right?

But......................but......................tea IS evil.

I'm a Snapple/McDonald's Sweet Tea person myself.

Unsweet black tea (acttually about 90/10 unsweet/sweet would be perfect). I think some of the folks who stock tea at gas stations and convenience stores down here hate unsweet. The single unsweet row in the cooler is always sold out or almost out, and the multiple sweet and extra sweet are almost always completely full...

 

[DarkCrisis]

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.

Yet they don’t. From 1E Kender just have things they find. If you want something off another player you would actively have to choose to take it. At no point is the Kender player supported to take something from another player that would be truly missed.

 

[Yaarel]

Yep, that's pretty much my view. Lots of people don't like the "thieving" aspect of kender, and if you do, I don't see the need to embed it in a mechanic when it's simply a roleplaying tic.

Yeah, the klepto can easily be one of the choices for a Personality Flaw, alongside other Flaw choices relating to curiosity.