D&D 5E Rising from the Last War preview featuring Keith Baker

[doctorbadwolf]

Dragonmarks are subraces. There are lots of racial features that may be useless to some classes - dwarven armour and weapon proficiencies to any fighter type for a start.

As it is, you get a whole raft of things with a dragonmark - skill/tool bonuses, spells per long rest, unique special abilities, in addition to the more spells on your spell list feature - most characters aren't going to be able to use everything the dragonmark offers.

And from a role playing perspective - you discover you have been fortunate enough to be born with a dragonmark - it's up to you to decide if you want to pursue a career that maximises the potential of that mark, or reject it and carve your own path.

That isn’t how marks have ever worked. The idea that every powerful Jarasco Healer who can raise the dead has trained in Spellcasting in general is an absurd change to how the actual world works.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

That isn’t how marks have ever worked. The idea that every powerful Jarasco Healer who can raise the dead has trained in Spellcasting in general is an absurd change to how the actual world works.

What are they trained in then? Do they clearly belong to some other class?

One might envision that an NPC specialist Jarasco Healer is a Sidekick Spellcaster who only has the spells they get from their mark.

5e is asymmetric - NPCs do not have to belong to a class to gain features (like Spellcasting) that PCs gain through their class.

 

[TwoSix]

What are they trained in then? Do they clearly belong to some other class?

One might envision that an NPC specialist Jarasco Healer is a Sidekick Spellcaster who only has the spells they get from their mark.

5e is asymmetric - NPCs do not have to belong to a class to gain features (like Spellcasting) that PCs gain through their class.

The difference is that in 3.5 and 4e the dragonmark progression was largely orthogonal to your class progression; you strengthened your dragonmark by taking feats that you got based purely on level, not on class selection. Granted, some classes got a few extra feats based on their class progression in 3.5, and PrCs like Dragonmark Heir and Heir of Syberis let you turn class levels into further dragonmark progression, so it wasn't a completely separate progression, even then. But I can see where it could cause people some dissonance, especially if they play with class being a strong presence in the game fiction.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

What are they trained in then? Do they clearly belong to some other class?

One might envision that an NPC specialist Jarasco Healer is a Sidekick Spellcaster who only has the spells they get from their mark.

5e is asymmetric - NPCs do not have to belong to a class to gain features (like Spellcasting) that PCs gain through their class.

NPC vs PC building rules is an irrelevant tangent.

Dragonmarks do not require training in Spellcasting. A Marked Heir does not have to otherwise be capable of casting spells. This is true for all Dragonmarks, from the Least Dragonmarks to the Syberys Dragonmarks.

Dragonmarks should have nothing to do with the class system.

The difference is that in 3.5 and 4e the dragonmark progression was largely orthogonal to your class progression; you strengthened your dragonmark by taking feats that you got based purely on level, not on class selection. Granted, some classes got a few extra feats based on their class progression in 3.5, and PrCs like Dragonmark Heir and Heir of Syberis let you turn class levels into further dragonmark progression, so it wasn't a completely separate progression, even then. But I can see where it could cause people some dissonance, especially if they play with class being a strong presence in the game fiction.

Even with PrCs and Paragon Paths, they didn’t require taking an actual class. They didn’t require learning Spellcasting in order to use the abilities of the mark.

 

[Vael]

Also, in world, the strength of a house is primarily drawn from the fact that only they can use Dragonshard items with their Dragonmarks.

So, imagine a Star Trek medbay, but in order to use the biobed or medical tricorder or even simple hyposprays, you needed the Mark of Healing.

 

[Parmandur]

What are they trained in then? Do they clearly belong to some other class?

One might envision that an NPC specialist Jarasco Healer is a Sidekick Spellcaster who only has the spells they get from their mark.

5e is asymmetric - NPCs do not have to belong to a class to gain features (like Spellcasting) that PCs gain through their class.

Interesting point: will want to see what NOC stats they have in the book.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Dragonmarks should have nothing to do with the class system.

They don't appear to.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

They don't appear to.

They do, according to previews.

A Dragonmarked character has spells that are added to their spell list if they have a spell list.

This means that you have to acquire a class spell list in order to gain a mechanical model for having a Greater Dragonmark.

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

They do, according to previews.

A Dragonmarked character has spells that are added to their spell list if they have a spell list.

This means that you have to acquire a class spell list in order to gain a mechanical model for having a Greater Dragonmark.

I can see that fitting into the concept that a spellcaster can use their Dragonmark as the source of their class' power. - For example the Jorasco cleric or the Lyrandar Storm Sorceror who flavour their class as simply being tapping into the power of their Dragonmark.

However I do not think that this should be necessary in order to have a Greater Dragonmark in the first place.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I can see that fitting into the concept that a spellcaster can use their Dragonmark as the source of their class' power. - For example the Jorasco cleric or the Lyrandar Storm Sorceror who flavour their class as simply being tapping into the power of their Dragonmark.

However I do not think that this should be necessary in order to have a Greater Dragonmark in the first place.

Exactly. I’m fine with a Jorasco Wizard having the ability to learn their healing spells as wizard spells, even.

But a Jorasco Thief or Monk should also be able to have those spells.