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

 

[Micah Sweet]

My point was that I take pause when there are feats that seem too good. These feats make it almost imperative to play a KoS if you're a Battlemaster.

They absolutely do not. The background is setting specific unless the DM says otherwise.

 

[Jer]

If this is an Anniversary Edition preview, it sure doesn't seem like they're trying to rebalance the game around fewer encounters per day. Yikes. Maybe I'm misreading the tea leaves.

There are a few different ways to rebalance the game around fewer encounters per day.

One of them is to make the average encounter harder, so that you expect to only do 3-4 of them per day before you rest. If you're doing that, some of the classes wouldn't hurt from getting a boost.

(This is how I run my games BTW - fewer but more difficult encounters on average so there's less difference between short-rest and long-rest classes. And the pacing of it tends to be much more in line with our play style to boot.)

 

[Weiley31]

They absolutely do not. The background is setting specific unless the DM says otherwise.

Yup. As always, the DM has ultimate say.
I may have theorycrafted a whole Battle Master setup where it allows me to get the most on getting the most amount of the subclass' Resources to use for it. But I'd still need the DM to give me the go ahead or what not to not stamp out my fun.
And knowing my luck or what not: I'd be meeting more DMs that would say "Ya that's only if we're playing Dragonlance. This is Eberron bub."

 

[Greg Benage]

There are a few different ways to rebalance the game around fewer encounters per day.

One of them is to make the average encounter harder, so that you expect to only do 3-4 of them per day before you rest. If you're doing that, some of the classes wouldn't hurt from getting a boost.

(This is how I run my games BTW - fewer but more difficult encounters on average so there's less difference between short-rest and long-rest classes. And the pacing of it tends to be much more in line with our play style to boot.)

I can't quite see how giving wizards effectively more spell slots at 1st level as part of their background aligns with any of that.

 

[DarkCrisis]

They fixed Kender! Hahaha yes!

 

[Raunalyn]

They absolutely do not. The background is setting specific unless the DM says otherwise.

If you are playing a Dragonlance campaign and running a Battlemaster, of course. Non KoS battlemasters are losing out on a major benefit.

 

[Micah Sweet]

If you are playing a Dragonlance campaign and running a Battlemaster, of course. Non KoS battlemasters are losing out on a major benefit.

Are Battlemasters in any way weaker than they were before this UA?

 

[Weiley31]

If you are playing a Dragonlance campaign and running a Battlemaster, of course. Non KoS battlemasters are losing out on a major benefit.

Non-Battle Masters are still getting Six superiority Die and some techniques though. And College of Swords Bard could use both their Inspiration Die and Superiority Die and still get some mileage outta it. Barbarians still have Rage and that's more Superiority Die added on top of the Rage Damage while Reckless Attacking. Paladins can probably Smite/Superiority Die as well.

Rangers can add Superiority die onto their Two Weapon Fighting/Ranged attacks.

 

[Parmandur]

A DL Battlemaster who chooses Skilled and Sentinel instead isn't weaker, they just have a different build.

 

[Weiley31]

Basically, if people were complaining about Strixhaven's Background+feats giving Spellcasters too much goodness, then Squire of Solamnia is the Martial's answer/goody this time.