I wouldn't have intuited Kender as Halflings myself as they seem to be too on the Tallfellow side of the scale, but I'm also aware that at some point Kender = Krynn halflings was established, dunno if that was since AD&D or 2e.
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
I'm aware of the setting's lore. They were still classified as being a type of halfling: any spell or magic item that only worked for halflings worked equally well on kender (there were a lot back in 1E and 2E). Lore made dwarves in Krynn also descended from Tinker Gnomes that had been mutated by the Graygem, but they were still considered dwarves even though they were totally unrelated to Greyhawk or Forgotten Realms dwarves.
Well there were no halflings in Krynn so yes they filled that niche, but they were specifically not halflings.
There are multiple types of halflings. Just like there are multiple types of elves, dwarves, and gnomes. Krynn's kender specifically were a type of halfling, this was confirmed multiple times in Spelljammer and Planescape.
They were not originally intended to be halflings and this UA seems to go back to that, as they are not mentioned as being a sub species of halflings, but as Kender.
That's because in the last few UAs, WotC has dropped the subrace format and simply posted the entire racial statblock. Or are you going to claim that the Astral Elves from the last UA aren't a type of elf?
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Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
That's because in the last few UAs, WotC has dropped the subrace format and simply posted the entire racial statblock. Or are you going to claim that the Astral Elves from the last UA aren't a type of elf?
No I'm not, but I recently got an official warning that I was too negative and was borderline gatekeeping, so I'm trying to stop arguing with people.
That's because in the last few UAs, WotC has dropped the subrace format and simply posted the entire racial statblock. Or are you going to claim that the Astral Elves from the last UA aren't a type of elf?
No real dog in this fight, but the description of an Astral Elf makes clear it's a type of elf, if you happened to overlook the word "elf" in its name. I'm imagining Eladrin are described as elves too. The Kender description in the UA is coy, perhaps intentionally ... perhaps not. Frankly I could see the case being made that the Kender are a form of Halfling (on the curiosity and luckishness to the Ace). But I could as easily articulate them as written having equal similarities to Gnomes (the Ace being related to the illusionary magical properties of some Gnomes), or neither. I guess we won't really know from this UA, and would have to see if the Kender are eligible for Halfling feats and (if there are any) Halfling specific magic items. But I think there's ambiguity here.
The way it looks to be built i can see a straight fighter taking them, or a variant human even.... But anything else is looking at lvl 16 for the final knight feat. With half ASIs... Very meh in my opinion.
TBH i havent looked at the Adept ones but youd be 8th? For Adept + Robes? Not bad but Im also not too sure what they are giving just yet. Seems like more options vs more optimized.
The way it looks to be built i can see a straight fighter taking them, or a variant human even.... But anything else is looking at lvl 16 for the final knight feat. With half ASIs... Very meh in my opinion.
TBH i havent looked at the Adept ones but youd be 8th? For Adept + Robes? Not bad but Im also not too sure what they are giving just yet. Seems like more options vs more optimized.
If you wanted to be a knight or take the robes feat why wouldn't you take the background that gives you the squire or adept feat in the first place?
But I think of plenty of cases where someone isnt exposed to them until later on their career - Galen Pathwarden was a rogue who became a fighter and knight later.
Magius was a renegade and didnt accept the robes until shortly before his death. Similar for Sturm.
First I don't get the Kender hate. In the books Tas never "sabotaged" anything. So people with stories of people destroying their game have 'friends' who are griefers and used the lore to justify tormenting friends. If you play Kender as childlike and generally guileless as Tas was and the race was often described then its really just a matter of random sleight of hand not for treasure but random curiosities. A player who isn't trying to destroy the game and a GM can handle this easily.
The fact that the made the finding things in their pouches magic instead of a result of random practically unconscious pickpocketing is lame. If you don't want to introduce the ability don't introduce the race that has a clearly established lore and flavor. If they aren't what the novels present them as. They should just make it a random table of things they have pickpocketed from people around them in the last few days. They should also loose things they recently had. If they have only been around the party it might be from the party if not from NPCs but this isn't going to be "I take the wizard's spell book, or the sorcerers focus." Its "hey the feather on this pen tickles." Only to be found later and returned with the "huh you must have dropped this."
I don't really like taunt. Kender weren't intentionally bad or intentionally frustrating others they assumed the best in people and had far few boundaries on property and manners. So they were blunt without understanding protocol. Why wouldn't you talk about how bad that person smells with them standing right there. Weaponizing taunt changes them yet again to something else that they weren't in the book.
Anyway I think they are way off the mark with Kender.
First I don't get the Kender hate. In the books Tas never "sabotaged" anything. So people with stories of people destroying their game have 'friends' who are griefers and used the lore to justify tormenting friends. If you play Kender as childlike and generally guileless as Tas was and the race was often described then its really just a matter of random sleight of hand not for treasure but random curiosities. A player who isn't trying to destroy the game and a GM can handle this easily.
The fact that the made the finding things in their pouches magic instead of a result of random practically unconscious pickpocketing is lame. If you don't want to introduce the ability don't introduce the race that has a clearly established lore and flavor. If they aren't what the novels present them as. They should just make it a random table of things they have pickpocketed from people around them in the last few days. They should also loose things they recently had. If they have only been around the party it might be from the party if not from NPCs but this isn't going to be "I take the wizard's spell book, or the sorcerers focus." Its "hey the feather on this pen tickles." Only to be found later and returned with the "huh you must have dropped this."
I don't really like taunt. Kender weren't intentionally bad or intentionally frustrating others they assumed the best in people and had far few boundaries on property and manners. So they were blunt without understanding protocol. Why wouldn't you talk about how bad that person smells with them standing right there. Weaponizing taunt changes them yet again to something else that they weren't in the book.
Anyway I think they are way off the mark with Kender.
I think the fact that Kender was a griefer magnet and the features of Kender allowed epic levels of "but that's what my character would do, see right there in the race description!" is the source of the Kender-hate, not Tas. I liked how Tas was written in the original trilogy too.
Though taunting, I think you're forgetting Tas caused a riot through taunt in order to free the characters from some local authorities, only to be then taken into the custody of the Knights of Solamnia, if I remember right. What I'm positive on is that taunt was very clearly portrayed in the books in that scene, and the rest of the characters were familiar with it as a useful, albeit volatile, thing Kender can do.
I am wondering if the new novels will retcon the pickpocketing with this semi-conjuration business. I think a middle ground would have been better where a Kender player can never declare a "curious finding" but can consult a (imho should be) much more elaborate table of things they could have pocketed (and knock off the cartoony things like grappling hooks). There will be a very slight chance on said table results that the thing is question has been discovered missing and there's now an active story hook attempting to recover it. But this sort of taking is not the sort of downtime heist stuff you see in Xanathar's done on the quick. It's more "I roll to see if I have something useful in my pockets or up my sleeve" this could be of monetary or broader utilitarian use and heck maybe not even make it a table but have the DM and player improvise what it could be ... that's sounds sort of fun.
I was just looking back at the document and noticed that the the adept feats do not specify a class list for use so any spell of the appropriate school is fair game. For a wizard that could mean black robes can grab spiritual weapon, or red robe heat metal, or summon beast for white robes. For bards that could be part of a magical secret light style of character. :
First I don't get the Kender hate. In the books Tas never "sabotaged" anything. So people with stories of people destroying their game have 'friends' who are griefers and used the lore to justify tormenting friends. If you play Kender as childlike and generally guileless as Tas was and the race was often described then its really just a matter of random sleight of hand not for treasure but random curiosities. A player who isn't trying to destroy the game and a GM can handle this easily.
The fact that the made the finding things in their pouches magic instead of a result of random practically unconscious pickpocketing is lame. If you don't want to introduce the ability don't introduce the race that has a clearly established lore and flavor. If they aren't what the novels present them as. They should just make it a random table of things they have pickpocketed from people around them in the last few days. They should also loose things they recently had. If they have only been around the party it might be from the party if not from NPCs but this isn't going to be "I take the wizard's spell book, or the sorcerers focus." Its "hey the feather on this pen tickles." Only to be found later and returned with the "huh you must have dropped this."
I don't really like taunt. Kender weren't intentionally bad or intentionally frustrating others they assumed the best in people and had far few boundaries on property and manners. So they were blunt without understanding protocol. Why wouldn't you talk about how bad that person smells with them standing right there. Weaponizing taunt changes them yet again to something else that they weren't in the book.
Anyway I think they are way off the mark with Kender.
I think the fact that Kender was a griefer magnet and the features of Kender allowed epic levels of "but that's what my character would do, see right there in the race description!" is the source of the Kender-hate, not Tas. I liked how Tas was written in the original trilogy too.
Though taunting, I think you're forgetting Tas caused a riot through taunt in order to free the characters from some local authorities, only to be then taken into the custody of the Knights of Solamnia, if I remember right. What I'm positive on is that taunt was very clearly portrayed in the books in that scene, and the rest of the characters were familiar with it as a useful, albeit volatile, thing Kender can do.
I am wondering if the new novels will retcon the pickpocketing with this semi-conjuration business. I think a middle ground would have been better where a Kender player can never declare a "curious finding" but can consult a (imho should be) much more elaborate table of things they could have pocketed (and knock off the cartoony things like grappling hooks). There will be a very slight chance on said table results that the thing is question has been discovered missing and there's now an active story hook attempting to recover it. But this sort of taking is not the sort of downtime heist stuff you see in Xanathar's done on the quick. It's more "I roll to see if I have something useful in my pockets or up my sleeve" this could be of monetary or broader utilitarian use and heck maybe not even make it a table but have the DM and player improvise what it could be ... that's sounds sort of fun.
I had forgotten about him using taunt. More often it always felt like kender were innocently frustrating due to their blunt impulsiveness. So taunt might have a place.
I completely agree that Kender attracting griefers and using the lore as their shield happened. There was a lot of grief causing player antics in those days in general. But its out of character for the race as presented and trying to change the lore in some of the most popular books linked to DnD seems a mistake.
I wouldn't have intuited Kender as Halflings myself as they seem to be too on the Tallfellow side of the scale, but I'm also aware that at some point Kender = Krynn halflings was established, dunno if that was since AD&D or 2e.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
They were not originally intended to be halflings and this UA seems to go back to that, as they are not mentioned as being a sub species of halflings, but as Kender.
That's because in the last few UAs, WotC has dropped the subrace format and simply posted the entire racial statblock. Or are you going to claim that the Astral Elves from the last UA aren't a type of elf?
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
No I'm not, but I recently got an official warning that I was too negative and was borderline gatekeeping, so I'm trying to stop arguing with people.
No real dog in this fight, but the description of an Astral Elf makes clear it's a type of elf, if you happened to overlook the word "elf" in its name. I'm imagining Eladrin are described as elves too. The Kender description in the UA is coy, perhaps intentionally ... perhaps not. Frankly I could see the case being made that the Kender are a form of Halfling (on the curiosity and luckishness to the Ace). But I could as easily articulate them as written having equal similarities to Gnomes (the Ace being related to the illusionary magical properties of some Gnomes), or neither. I guess we won't really know from this UA, and would have to see if the Kender are eligible for Halfling feats and (if there are any) Halfling specific magic items. But I think there's ambiguity here.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
The way it looks to be built i can see a straight fighter taking them, or a variant human even.... But anything else is looking at lvl 16 for the final knight feat. With half ASIs... Very meh in my opinion.
TBH i havent looked at the Adept ones but youd be 8th? For Adept + Robes? Not bad but Im also not too sure what they are giving just yet. Seems like more options vs more optimized.
If you wanted to be a knight or take the robes feat why wouldn't you take the background that gives you the squire or adept feat in the first place?
*I* would just take the background.
But I think of plenty of cases where someone isnt exposed to them until later on their career - Galen Pathwarden was a rogue who became a fighter and knight later.
Magius was a renegade and didnt accept the robes until shortly before his death. Similar for Sturm.
First I don't get the Kender hate. In the books Tas never "sabotaged" anything. So people with stories of people destroying their game have 'friends' who are griefers and used the lore to justify tormenting friends. If you play Kender as childlike and generally guileless as Tas was and the race was often described then its really just a matter of random sleight of hand not for treasure but random curiosities. A player who isn't trying to destroy the game and a GM can handle this easily.
The fact that the made the finding things in their pouches magic instead of a result of random practically unconscious pickpocketing is lame. If you don't want to introduce the ability don't introduce the race that has a clearly established lore and flavor. If they aren't what the novels present them as. They should just make it a random table of things they have pickpocketed from people around them in the last few days. They should also loose things they recently had. If they have only been around the party it might be from the party if not from NPCs but this isn't going to be "I take the wizard's spell book, or the sorcerers focus." Its "hey the feather on this pen tickles." Only to be found later and returned with the "huh you must have dropped this."
I don't really like taunt. Kender weren't intentionally bad or intentionally frustrating others they assumed the best in people and had far few boundaries on property and manners. So they were blunt without understanding protocol. Why wouldn't you talk about how bad that person smells with them standing right there. Weaponizing taunt changes them yet again to something else that they weren't in the book.
Anyway I think they are way off the mark with Kender.
I think the fact that Kender was a griefer magnet and the features of Kender allowed epic levels of "but that's what my character would do, see right there in the race description!" is the source of the Kender-hate, not Tas. I liked how Tas was written in the original trilogy too.
Though taunting, I think you're forgetting Tas caused a riot through taunt in order to free the characters from some local authorities, only to be then taken into the custody of the Knights of Solamnia, if I remember right. What I'm positive on is that taunt was very clearly portrayed in the books in that scene, and the rest of the characters were familiar with it as a useful, albeit volatile, thing Kender can do.
I am wondering if the new novels will retcon the pickpocketing with this semi-conjuration business. I think a middle ground would have been better where a Kender player can never declare a "curious finding" but can consult a (imho should be) much more elaborate table of things they could have pocketed (and knock off the cartoony things like grappling hooks). There will be a very slight chance on said table results that the thing is question has been discovered missing and there's now an active story hook attempting to recover it. But this sort of taking is not the sort of downtime heist stuff you see in Xanathar's done on the quick. It's more "I roll to see if I have something useful in my pockets or up my sleeve" this could be of monetary or broader utilitarian use and heck maybe not even make it a table but have the DM and player improvise what it could be ... that's sounds sort of fun.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
I was just looking back at the document and noticed that the the adept feats do not specify a class list for use so any spell of the appropriate school is fair game. For a wizard that could mean black robes can grab spiritual weapon, or red robe heat metal, or summon beast for white robes. For bards that could be part of a magical secret light style of character.
:
I had forgotten about him using taunt. More often it always felt like kender were innocently frustrating due to their blunt impulsiveness. So taunt might have a place.
I completely agree that Kender attracting griefers and using the lore as their shield happened. There was a lot of grief causing player antics in those days in general. But its out of character for the race as presented and trying to change the lore in some of the most popular books linked to DnD seems a mistake.
Survey's up:
https://dnd.wizards.com/articles/unearthed-arcana/survey-heroes-krynn
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
What’s the point in a lender pulling out gold if it glows….no one is going to accept glowing money.
Definitely not as a currency…Conjuration Wizards have a similar problem.
Distraction, perhaps? Flicking a glowing coin down an alley to draw the vision of a guard…etc.
Are we getting this Unearthed Arcana?
Likely it has been revisited.
https://dnd.wizards.com/unearthed-arcana/heroes-krynn-revisited
The Lunar Sorcerer is in as it was well received. The Kender, backgrounds, and feats were revised in the new UA
"Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for thou art crunchy and taste good with ketchup."
Characters for Tenebris Sine Fine
RoughCoronet's Greater Wills
I like the "Knight" feats. Very thematic and really good for any fighter type character.
The "Sorcery" feats are ok. I didn't have much of an issue with the original versions though.
The "Divine" feat isn't bad I guess.
She/Her Player and Dungeon Master
It is a little power creepish, but I like the free 1st/4th level feats
She/Her Player and Dungeon Master