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

 

[AnotherGuy]

And we were all younger and less experienced back then...but somehow we will all play kender exactly like we did in the 80's. Thank heavens for the new edits to save us from ourselves.

 

[Raunalyn]

To be fair, D&D has a fairly large number of "conceptually and functionally redundant" races/subraces from a cross-setting perspective (beaten only I think by RIFTS), so adding another to the pile is probably fine.

Cannibalistic, feral Athasian Halflings, anyone?

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

The kenders from Sithicus weren't very "friendly", were they?. I think kenders are potentially interesting as wannabe survivors in a Ravenloft story, mixing parody, black humor, horror and epic.

Other point is kenders really were humanoids from other lineages, but they could pay enough gold for resurrection, and then reincarnation was enough cheap.

There was other vampire "bloodline", the elf vampires, who drained vegetal life, and their faces were as nofteratu.

Jialthu, Takishis' handmaiden, could be the dark lady of a dark domain, Deathdark, next to Sithicus. And with spider-dragons, with a little touch of xenomorph look.

Could lord Soth to be cursed again because he created the vampire kenders? I doubt his family wanted to receive him in the afterlife with the open arms.

What if the heroes of the lance are rewarded in the afterlife becoming the collective fae lords of a domain of delight imitating Solace and the Inn of the Last Home?

What about Kitiara or Sky in the afterlife? They could become dark lords. Fistandantilus "came back to the city" also could become a dark lord, and his nemesis would be dragonborns linked to infernal dragons (howling, pyroclastic, rust, styx and tarterian). Faerie and mirage dragons could live in the Feywild.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Cannibalistic, feral Athasian Halflings, anyone?

I mean, are you saying we could just replace them with Kender and people would have much the same horrified and terrified reaction?

 

[Ruin Explorer]

What about Kitiara or Sky in the afterlife? They could become dark lords.

GASP!

Why would you say such a mean thing about poor Kitiara! She's a good girl... well... for a certain value of good... and she's definitely not Dark Lord material, you need to do some actual transgressive "OH GOD HE DID WHAT?!" stuff to make that cut.

I still thing the Dog Murderer Guy from the Complete Book of Villains was Dark Lord material though (and not because I like dogs), he just really had that "OH DAMN" vibe to his evil. That's how you know you're in the running for your own Domain in Ravenloft.

 

[Undrave]

So, yeah, I want kender to stand out from halflings. A halfling with taunt. Whoopee. Kender just got relegated to the same dustbin that halflings have inhabited for years. Does anyone think that adding taunt to a halfling is suddenly going to make players want to play one? Halflings are one of the least played races in the PHB. There might be a few others at the bottom of the barrel, but, halflings aren't far off. Tying kender to halflings just means that no one will play kender either.

We played Hafling in 4e because they could say "Nope!" when a critical hit went there way I think Second Chance was way better than Lucky.

I liked the magical pockets and fey origin. I could see them being refluffed as Puck-like fey or leprechauns in non DL settings.

They could have made them fey touched instead of fey origin.

 

[Maxperson]

Oh, Sithicus was worse. They had Vampire Kender. Truly and absolutely terrifying.

Did the taunt ability turn into an anger gaze?

DM: "As you enter the ballroom you spy a diminutive figure across the dance floor. The two of you lock eyes and suddenly you are filled with a rage so profound that only tearing the building down brick by brick will assuage it."

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

GASP!

Why would you say such a mean thing about poor Kitiara! She's a good girl... well... for a certain value of good... and she's definitely not Dark Lord material, you need to do some actual transgressive "OH GOD HE DID WHAT?!" stuff to make that cut.

Lots of Darklords were pretty bog standard members of their species, like Nathan and Alfred Timothy. They were werewolves who... killed people? Why them and not virtually every other werewolf? Or the Hazlik the Red Wizard? Sure, he's evil and obsessive, but so are dozens of other Forgotten Realms villains. (Of course the real answer is those characters are important to the Forgotten Realms IP so stay there, much like Soth was returned to Dragonlance.)

I'd say because she lacks obsession. Kitiara was kind of a punchclock villain IIRC. She betrayed her friends for power/money, nothing personal.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Kitiara was kind of a punchclock villain IIRC.

This is a brutal takedown of Kitiara and I kind of love it.

 

[DarkCrisis]

Lots of Darklords were pretty bog standard members of their species, like Nathan and Alfred Timothy. They were werewolves who... killed people? Why them and not virtually every other werewolf? Or the Hazlik the Red Wizard? Sure, he's evil and obsessive, but so are dozens of other Forgotten Realms villains. (Of course the real answer is those characters are important to the Forgotten Realms IP so stay there, much like Soth was returned to Dragonlance.)

I'd say because she lacks obsession. Kitiara was kind of a punchclock villain IIRC. She betrayed her friends for power/money, nothing personal.

I remember the first time i read Kits fate and felt bad for her. Upon a later re-read and having the whole scope of her, yeah she deserved it.