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

 

[UngainlyTitan]

I will say, if we can't even get a requirement for non good Black Robes, and have issues handling a God of Evil Magic?

Just don't touch Planescape at all, ever. The community can't handle alignment or likely Gods. Entire Planes of Alignment? Debates over LG vs NG vs LN? LOL right...

Not a Planescape fan but since my understanding the whole purpose of the setting was to fight over the meaning of alignment and other abstract concepts. May be D&DBeyond will create a special forum for it. You have to argue your point in character and make it part of AL play. I dunno, XP for likes or something.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I think how the UA is hinting how it will be is better I think. White Robes being those who desire to become protectors of the people, Black Robes being those who desire to gain power for themselves above all else, and Red Robes those who desire to maintain the Balance of the World.

Don't forget they also murder anyone who:

A) Doesn't take the test.

or

B) Uses too many spells from the "wrong Moon".

Except when they don't, because they make exceptions for people they like. So yeah they are definitely small-e evil, and probably capital-E Evil in modern D&D terms.

I suspect all this will be retcon'd out of existence for the DL adventure.

They're just not going to bring it up. Its the only way for them to maintain their modern outlook without changing the setting. I suspect that's the main reason they're only doing an adventure and not a full sourcebook.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Yeah, it's a bit on the nose, isn't it?

Not really. Why does every story have to be nuanced? DL is about Good vs. Evil, as defined in the setting. Changing that renders doing DL at all pointless.

 

[Micah Sweet]

sanitization is good. lets keep the game clean and safe please...

Okay that was mostly a joke, but modern players want modern settings and rules... we can only play to nostolgia so long. (It helps that I hate kenders)

Then let them publish a modern setting, tailor-made for the gamer of today. Leave the past alone, and please stop rewriting it.

 

[darjr]

 

[Micah Sweet]

Simpler, though to be honest I prefer that goblins (Hob, regular and otherwise) are fey, rather than bargain bin orcs. They were fey originally before Tolkien retconned them in Lord of the Rings.

As I've said before, everything that originated out of folklore (which is a ton of stuff) would qualify as fey by those standards. D&D has a lot more places for things to come from.

And changing a creature's origin in no way imaginable makes things simpler. They're doing it because the designers like the Feywild, and many players seem to as well. Branding might also be in there.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Then let them publish a modern setting, tailor-made for the gamer of today. Leave the past alone, and please stop rewriting it.

I have been pushing for a new setting for years. I agree a ground up built in modern standards CS would be better. However first they have to get all of us old timers happy with the relaunches... (I still want a birthright setting redone as modern)

 

[darjr]

I liked the pockets thing and I even liked the feywild connection aspect of it. But I must admit it was incongruous to Dragonlance. Even after discovering a feywild connection in Dragonlance cannon it was almost all but forgot.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

View attachment 156158

as long as there is no hint or advise to actually take items it is fine.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

They're just not going to bring it up. Its the only way for them to maintain their modern outlook without changing the setting. I suspect that's the main reason they're only doing an adventure and not a full sourcebook.

I agree that that's likely the reasoning.

I suspect that on a sober analysis the Wizards of High Sorcery should never have had wizards in it classed as "Good" even under 1E definitions of "Good" in any significant numbers, let alone an entire order of them. Hunting down and killing people for not joining your gang is, by itself, outside the bounds of Good, as is killing people for casting too many of the "wrong" spells (that's without even addressing the "fatal training keeps out the wrong sort of people!" angle). I think the main reason it didn't really get addressed earlier is that Raistlin and Fistandantilus were 95% of our contact with the WoHS, and as both of them were evil or evil-adjacent, it was hardly surprising that the WoHS was doing some pretty evil stuff. Back then people were far more wont to take things at face value, rather than to think about them much - which resulted in a lot of weird scenarios, that didn't stand up someone going "Wait a second...".