Plane Shift: Kaladesh - More MAGIC THE GATHERING For Your D&D Game!

WotC has just posted another "Plane Shift" document, detailing a world from Magic: the Gathering as a D&D setting. The 33-page PDF contains new races, monsters and more. "If the optimism, innovation, and spirit of creativity pervading the world of Kaladesh kindled your drive for adventure, we have what you're looking for. If The Art of Magic: The Gathering—Kaladesh made you long to experience the aether-swept landscapes and brilliant inventions of Magic's latest plane for yourself, these pages have what you need. Like a renegade inventor tinkering in a secluded workshop, author James Wyatt has crafted a set of rules to bring your Dungeons & Dragonsadventures to life on Kaladesh, including new races, new monsters, and a distinctly aether-flavored take on crafting the marvelous and ingenious magic items that define this plane."

SaveSave​

 

[zeldafan42]

I'm going to assume it was an accident that while the fluff remembered to mention that Aetherborn don't eat, drink, breathe or sleep, the actual racial stats don't actually spell it out.

As a DM, I'd just give them an ability similar to what the warforged from the Ebberon UA and the revenants from the Gothic UA have.

Edit:

I can't believe that I missed it on my first read through, but the document completely skips over the fact that Aetherborn are empaths. That's actually a major part of the race. As a DM, I think I'm going to drop the intimidation proficiency and replace it with Insight.

 

[ChapolimX]

I like what they did with the dwarf. It is Basically a revised Hill Dwarf from the Player's Handbook, besides the part they removed Dwarven Weapon Training (perhaps this is a setting thing?).


The point is: they revamped the Stonecunning and Tool Proficiency traits into a single trait called Artisan's Expertise.


Basically you gain 2 artisan's tools proficiencies and add your proficiency bonux X 2, as in the rogue expertise.
In addition, when you make an Intelligence(History) related to architectural construction you are considered proficient and add your proficiency bonus X 2 for that check.


I find this very evocative of the legendary dwarven craft skills and don't think this will gonna break the game. Probably this new trait is going to make into my table.

EDIT: Took a read from the Player's Handbook and realized that stonecunning was not changed.

 

[robus]

Well, this is a supplement to the book they want folks to buy: the plot hooks, maps, etc. would be in there (don't have the book, unsure about the exact details)

Sent from my BLU LIFE XL using EN World mobile app

I have the book. Lots of lovely artwork, but not a lot of mystery or conflict and zero maps

 

[robus]

Zendikar is great because the world is both dynamic and filled layers of history waiting to be explored. Innistrad has lots of thematic good vs evil and humans are holding on against the forces of darkness.

The books are kind of on a downhill trajectory IMHO which is a bit disappointing.

 

[MidwayHaven]

To be fair, Kaladesh is the first plane to have a sort of a "lighter" theme than the ones they've been visiting in the past few years. While other planes were being ruined by aliens (Innistrad, Zendikar, Mirrodin) or being torn from within (Kamigawa, Theros, Ravnica, Tarkir), Kaladesh's main conflict at the moment seems to be a resistance movement against The Man.

 

[Xethreau]

The books are kind of on a downhill trajectory IMHO which is a bit disappointing.

There've been three. :/

 

[robus]

There've been three. :/

More than enough to plot a line then

 

[Xethreau]

More than enough to plot a line then

Exactly enough.

 

[Echohawk]

Exactly enough.

Um, wouldn't two points be exactly enough to plot a line?

 

[Xethreau]

Um, wouldn't two points be exactly enough to plot a line?

Two points is enough to form a line, but a betting man would not use it to make assumptions. Three points is the first possible time one is able to form an averaged inference, but it is still not that great. Since you're good at math, I am sure you can appriciate my point that the series is just starting off, and a dearth of informaiton is not great grounds on which to project quality.

Moreover, if on Monday I spend $10, Tuesday I spend 20$, and on Wednesday I spend 30$, it does not strictly mean I will spend another incrimental step on Thrusday because my finances are multi-dimensional, whereas in these examples we have reduced our data to two variables. In this case, there is no reason to conclude that time is causally linked to quality.

Consider this. They are literally making D&D adaptations based on MtG, which doesn't care about D&D in the first place. Sometimes themes match up well, but sometimes they don't. If, for example they did a Return to Theros or Tarkir bloc (or--gods help us--another Kamigawa bloc), that would match very nicely with D&D themes and we would have a sudden "uptick" in quality. On the other hand, if the Phyrexia storyline continues it would not lend itself well to D&D. It is as though the innate compatibility with MTG blocs and D&D are essentially random, and since that is unrelated to time it is not accurate to call any dip a "downhill trajectory."