In today’s Unearthed Arcana, we explore character options from the Dragonlance setting. This playtest document presents the kender race, the Lunar Magic sorcerer subclass, the Knight of Solamnia and Mage of High Sorcery backgrounds, and a collection of new feats, all for use in Dungeons & Dragons.
Yeah, with the new novel out this fall, and then liking having a new book to release at gen con in August, I’d kind of been expecting dragonlance setting book as one of this year’s. But this seems a little close to the deadline for a printing this fall.
At first I was sad that I would end up awash with lol-random-klepto-kender characters, but it turns out that instead of being thievery focused, WotC pre-loaded kender with a magical loot bag of prizes, which was a very nice surprise. Tolerable even.
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"The mongoose blew out its candle and was asleep in bed before the room went dark." —Llanowar fable
Yeah, with the new novel out this fall, and then liking having a new book to release at gen con in August, I’d kind of been expecting dragonlance setting book as one of this year’s. But this seems a little close to the deadline for a printing this fall.
Wizards have not had a presence of any sort for years at GenCon so it would be nice to finally see them show up.
At first I was sad that I would end up awash with lol-random-klepto-kender characters, but it turns out that instead of being thievery focused, WotC pre-loaded kender with a magical loot bag of prizes, which was a very nice surprise. Tolerable even.
I was thinking the same thing. It lets Kender have their pockets full of random crap, but doesn't force them the be constantly picking pockets of party members and NPCs. It might actually make them serviceable and not just annoying.
Overall, seems like it could actually herald some larger changes.
For example, if I'm reading the sorcerer subclass correctly, it actually gives them the spells to cast, not just adding the spells to the list? Because that would be pretty terrific. Especially if it gets more widely adopted in other subclasses.
And making the knight and wizard backgrounds, instead of making them full subclasses is pretty interesting. I mean, they are pretty core to the setting, so its odd not to give them subclass treatment, but then you want multiple classes to be able to be a knight or high wizard, so making it a background can let that happen. It does seem like maybe taking another pass at the strixhaven UA where they had subclasses you could have across multiple classes, this sort of gets at that same goal or letting characters from different classes have a mechanical way to belong to the same group. And then adding depth with feat trees (short, little trees, like feat bonsai trees) is new, and a good way to help really flesh out that character f someone wants to. I don't recall having seen feat prereqs in this edition before this.
Seems like there could be a few tea leaves to read.
Worth noting: the kender (god...DAMNIT...Wizards) are halfling-y with the Small size and Brave ability, simply with the Kender Kleptomania thing bolted on over Lucky and subspecies traits. Looks like the M3 method of doing away with subspecies and simply printing each species as its own distinctive critter is going to stick. Interesting.
I thought the kender magic trinket thing was clever. I recently re-read the first Dragonlance (which aged poorly, if anyone was wondering) and whenever Tasslehoff is confronted about having taken something he's always so tongue-in-cheek like "what? This? No I found it!" and you're meant to be all 'sure you did now give it back', and the idea that he really did mean stuff like that most of the time is a fairly inobtrusive retcon that does away with the whole "naturally thieving race" bad stuff AND is just kind of hilarious to think of.
Like, the idea of a whole race of party partyhobbits just going around being perceived as thieving while really just being too interested in other things to explain to anyone like "nah it really is just magic".
Worth noting: the kender (god...DAMNIT...Wizards) are halfling-y with the Small size and Brave ability, simply with the Kender Kleptomania thing bolted on over Lucky and subspecies traits. Looks like the M3 method of doing away with subspecies and simply printing each species as its own distinctive critter is going to stick. Interesting.
Curious what you think of WotC sleight of mage handing away the Kleptomania or disregard for property rights for "magical curiosity based temporary conjuration" ... I can see _why_ did it but it smells off and makes for a pretty meh retcon of problematic lore. UA subform's got discussion going.
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
I think the number of comments I've seen both in this thread and many others about Dragonlance 'aging poorly' - and the number of people I've seen who vehemently hate 'old school' kender - made it inevitable. That said? I think this new thing might actually serve what little I know of the kender's species lore better. As I recall they were supposed to be an almost childlike race, innocent and unmarred by the world, whose curiosity and inquisitiveness were to be cherished and encouraged rather than suppressed. They were meant to be morality pets of a sort, kind of a demonstration of what the authors, at least, thought society should be more like. Having them be more mischievous little demi-fey gremlins with the ability to conjure up trinkets randomly kinda reinforces the whole idea - not only do they literally not know what's in their pockets, but they can't really form attachments to any of it either since it disappears after an hour. Whatever they get is a delight in the moment, and then let go back into the aether without worry. The new idea presents them as an actual alternative, rather than parasites on existing civilizations that we're all supposed to love and cherish and hold as an ideal despite the fact that they never bother making any of the things they become infatuated with and need more stable societies to do all the work of Being A Society.
As for the whole lore-retcon aspects? Dunno. I never read Dragonlance, never got into any of that lore, don't know anymuch more than what other forum posters have said. So take all that crap I just wrote with a grain of salt or three, I could be completely off base. I do know that anything which stops people from compulsively robbing their party at every hour of the day is going to be better for table cohesion than a species which explicitly demands the player robs their party as often as humanly possible, sooooooooooo.......yeah. Honestly kinda reminds me of a house rule I heard of someone else implementing with their DM, basically a "here's some quick tables I put together to determine what's in my pockets at any given time" bit rather than stealing from the party. Maybe where Wizards got the idea. Who knows.
I know it's UA but Lunar sorcerer is really.. really nice.. It's adding 15 spells to your list so literally double, gives you a free cast a day of one of those spells, and adds your PB in sorcery points when used on a spell of your phases schools.
I'm not very familiar with Dragonlance myself but I do recall seeing someone say that the author who created the Kender made them instinctive/unconscious/reflexive kleptomaniacs so they could have a heroic "thief" class character who didn't steal out of malice because that would have offended their (the author's) moral sensibilities. Because an entire race of compulsive pickpockets is morally superior to and makes more sense than an actual good aligned person learning those skills for any reason at all. I'm not sure if that's actually true, but I wouldn't be surprised. Regardless, I'm also unsurprised that WotC decided to retcon it even if doing so while keeping the flavor of innocence is achieved in at least equally as absurd fashion.
The Lunar Magic Sorcerer seems interesting. And, at least as I read it, the lunar spellcasting basically grants three sets of domain spells that can be swapped out after any long rest and also with a sorcery point at any other time, and each of those spells (assuming it's from the currently selected one) can be cast once a day without using a spell slot. Also, again as I'm reading it, you could theoretically cast all of your Phase spells once each for free then spend that sorcery point to change Phases and then cast those ones for free, and do it again for the third Phase. That's limited to once each from very specific spells and I don't imagine one would often encounter situations to make gull use of most of them that way, but just swapping around like that once or twice in a day for a single spell each time could get some good "free" spells in the right circumstances. That's especially true when it only costs a single sorcery point for each realignment and you can also be saving sorcery points with the Lunar Boons feature. Also, getting sacred flame for free isn't insignificant either; I think it's generally underrated as a cantrip since it can be more effective than one requiring an attack roll against quite a few heavily armored foes and it being radiant damage is something that not a lot of spells (particularly onesavailable to non-Clerics) do. Being able to hit two targets just makes it even better against any mobs, particularly weaker ones you don't want to burn a spell slot on (and it also makes zombies stay down). At a glance it all seems limited enough in scope that it shouldn't be OP in general, but versatile enough to be at least a little bit useful in many situations. Really the most powerful single feature might be the discount metamagic assuming you select your spells to overlap with the proper schools; with a +4 Charisma mod at level 6 it represents a potential 66% increase in your effective pool of sorcery points.
I'm not very familiar with Dragonlance myself but I do recall seeing someone say that the author who created the Kender made them instinctive/unconscious/reflexive kleptomaniacs so they could have a heroic "thief" class character who didn't steal out of malice because that would have offended their (the author's) moral sensibilities. Because an entire race of compulsive pickpockets is morally superior to and makes more sense than an actual good aligned person learning those skills for any reason at all. I'm not sure if that's actually true, but I wouldn't be surprised. Regardless, I'm also unsurprised that WotC decided to retcon it even if doing so while keeping the flavor of innocence is achieved in at least equally as absurd fashion.
The Lunar Magic Sorcerer seems interesting. And, at least as I read it, the lunar spellcasting basically grants three sets of domain spells that can be swapped out after any long rest and also with a sorcery point at any other time, and each of those spells (assuming it's from the currently selected one) can be cast once a day without using a spell slot. Also, again as I'm reading it, you could theoretically cast all of your Phase spells once each for free then spend that sorcery point to change Phases and then cast those ones for free, and do it again for the third Phase. That's limited to once each from very specific spells and I don't imagine one would often encounter situations to make gull use of most of them that way, but just swapping around like that once or twice in a day for a single spell each time could get some good "free" spells in the right circumstances. That's especially true when it only costs a single sorcery point for each realignment and you can also be saving sorcery points with the Lunar Boons feature. Also, getting sacred flame for free isn't insignificant either; I think it's generally underrated as a cantrip since it can be more effective than one requiring an attack roll against quite a few heavily armored foes and it being radiant damage is something that not a lot of spells (particularly onesavailable to non-Clerics) do. Being able to hit two targets just makes it even better against any mobs, particularly weaker ones you don't want to burn a spell slot on (and it also makes zombies stay down). At a glance it all seems limited enough in scope that it shouldn't be OP in general, but versatile enough to be at least a little bit useful in many situations. Really the most powerful single feature might be the discount metamagic assuming you select your spells to overlap with the proper schools; with a +4 Charisma mod at level 6 it represents a potential 66% increase in your effective pool of sorcery points.
Not quite it says "You learn additional spells when you reach certain levels in this class, as shown on the lunar spells table. EACH of these spells counts as a sorcerer spell for you, but it doesn't count against the number of sorcerer spells you know"
It does not say "pick a phase, those spells count as sorcerer spells for you yadda yadda"
Also the feature for the casting says "while in the chosen phase spells of the associated phase in the lunar spells table can be cast ONCE without spending a spells slot. Once you cast A spell this way you can't do so again until you finish a long rest"
It does not say you may cast EACH spell this way once, but 1 spell from the list, and they wouldn't of added in the double restriction of saying cast once and "once you cast a spell" if it was meant to be for all of them
It is interesting to get 15 spells instead of 10 like clockwork and abberant but you also cannot change those 15 spells so you have more available but much less flexibility in what those granted spells are. And a free cast a day is still a free cast a day
I'm not very familiar with Dragonlance myself but I do recall seeing someone say that the author who created the Kender made them instinctive/unconscious/reflexive kleptomaniacs so they could have a heroic "thief" class character who didn't steal out of malice because that would have offended their (the author's) moral sensibilities. Because an entire race of compulsive pickpockets is morally superior to and makes more sense than an actual good aligned person learning those skills for any reason at all. I'm not sure if that's actually true, but I wouldn't be surprised. Regardless, I'm also unsurprised that WotC decided to retcon it even if doing so while keeping the flavor of innocence is achieved in at least equally as absurd fashion.
The Lunar Magic Sorcerer seems interesting. And, at least as I read it, the lunar spellcasting basically grants three sets of domain spells that can be swapped out after any long rest and also with a sorcery point at any other time, and each of those spells (assuming it's from the currently selected one) can be cast once a day without using a spell slot. Also, again as I'm reading it, you could theoretically cast all of your Phase spells once each for free then spend that sorcery point to change Phases and then cast those ones for free, and do it again for the third Phase. That's limited to once each from very specific spells and I don't imagine one would often encounter situations to make gull use of most of them that way, but just swapping around like that once or twice in a day for a single spell each time could get some good "free" spells in the right circumstances. That's especially true when it only costs a single sorcery point for each realignment and you can also be saving sorcery points with the Lunar Boons feature. Also, getting sacred flame for free isn't insignificant either; I think it's generally underrated as a cantrip since it can be more effective than one requiring an attack roll against quite a few heavily armored foes and it being radiant damage is something that not a lot of spells (particularly onesavailable to non-Clerics) do. Being able to hit two targets just makes it even better against any mobs, particularly weaker ones you don't want to burn a spell slot on (and it also makes zombies stay down). At a glance it all seems limited enough in scope that it shouldn't be OP in general, but versatile enough to be at least a little bit useful in many situations. Really the most powerful single feature might be the discount metamagic assuming you select your spells to overlap with the proper schools; with a +4 Charisma mod at level 6 it represents a potential 66% increase in your effective pool of sorcery points.
Not quite it says "You learn additional spells when you reach certain levels in this class, as shown on the lunar spells table. EACH of these spells counts as a sorcerer spell for you, but it doesn't count against the number of sorcerer spells you know"
It does not say "pick a phase, those spells count as sorcerer spells for you yadda yadda"
Also the feature for the casting says "while in the chosen phase spells of the associated phase in the lunar spells table can be cast ONCE without spending a spells slot. Once you cast A spell this way you can't do so again until you finish a long rest"
It does not say you may cast EACH spell this way once, but 1 spell from the list, and they wouldn't of added in the double restriction of saying cast once and "once you cast a spell" if it was meant to be for all of them
It is interesting to get 15 spells instead of 10 like clockwork and abberant but you also cannot change those 15 spells so you have more available but much less flexibility in what those granted spells are. And a free cast a day is still a free cast a day
The lunar spell might be designed similarly to the tasha's primal awareness that added spells and gave a free casting.
You know what? I have only ever read a few Dragonlance books (the original trilogy as well as a few sequels and prequels), and I've never run or DMed for a table in the Dragonlance setting, so I've never experienced the full extent of the awfulness of this race in play, but from what I've heard and read from the books, it got pretty bad. And I absolutely support this change to the race. Getting rid of their Magical-Curse that mandates their kleptomania and replacing it with a Feywild-Magic that spontaneously generates random objects in their pockets a few times a day is 100% a change that I can get behind. And some of the items could be pretty useful in an adventuring day, and you get multiple uses every day. I really like the image of the party trying to scale a cliff or tie down a prisoner and having the party's Kender rifle through their pockets and pouches to check for a rope, especially having to use multiple uses before finally/possibly getting the right item, and then just standing there with a few extra random items that they just chuck over their shoulders or put back in their pockets.
That would be cool (but also would probably only be funny the first few times they do it, it could definitely get old really quickly). Maybe they should add a "Kender's Luck" racial feat that they can take later on that lets them choose the item that they want to pull out of their pockets once a day or something like that? I could definitely see different Kender characters of multiple different classes being interesting, like a Kender Bard that uses Vicious Mockery and Taunt on the same turn on different enemies in battle, or a Kender Genie Warlock that fills their extradimensional bottle home with random junk that they collect from their travels, or Kender Fey Wanderer Ranger that collects trophies from creatures that they hunt from both the Feywild and Material Plane.
I don't see any mechanical problems with this race and think that most of their thematic issues from previous editions have been basically solved through this UA. There definitely will be some older players that will complain about this change because there are always people that hate change for the sake of hating change (even if the change is objectively good), but I don't think that they will end up being a problem. WotC is well aware of the problems with the Kender in Dragonlance, and seem to be making the steps to fix them.
Lunar Magic Sorcerer
I love this subclass. It's awesome. I would love to play in a campaign with a Stars Druid, Twilight Cleric, Sun Soul Monk, and Lunar Magic Sorcerer all in the same adventuring party. It would be great theming and would work pretty well together mechanically. Now, onto the mechanics.
Moon Fire - This is fine. Most of it is pretty bland, besides the ability to target two creatures that are next to each other with it instead of just the usual one. It's cool, it's useful, and it's pretty balanced. Not much to say.
Lunar Embodiment - A bit different from the other Innate Sorcerer Spell Lists from Tasha's, but cool in its execution and theming. I think all of the spells work well for the different sub-subclasses, love the ability to swap your sub-subclass during a long rest, and the free castings of the spells every day is just the cherry on top of this ability. I really, really like this ability.
This could make for some funny "It's not a Phase, Mom! It's who I am!" moments for characters the New Moon Phase.
(Also, imagine an Eladrin character of this subclass. You get to choose both your Phase and your Season every long rest, allowing you to have 12 different combinations every day that you get to choose from. Winter-New-Moon for the extra-gloomy days, or Sun-Full-Moon for the happiest/angriest ones, for example.)
Lunar Boons - Awesome ability, will probably take up a bit more table-time than usual due to having to check the PHB every turn to see if the spell that you're using is of one of the two schools that you're attuned to at the moment of casting it. Getting free Careful or Transmuted Spell on Evard's Black Tentacles while in your New Moon Phase, or Distant/Extended/Subtle Spell on basically any spell in any Phase is just amazing.
Waxing and Waning - This is just a nice ability. I don't really have much to say about it.
Lunar Empowerment - This is really powerful; the Crescent Moon ability is probably the weakest, with Full Moon probably being the strongest (New Moon is still good, but more situational).
Lunar Phenomenon - Great capstone ability, especially love the synergy with Waxing and Waning (I love that this sort of "use the same bonus action to do two things" ability that started with the College of Creation Bard subclass is being included, I hope more abilities like this continue in future class/subclass features). I think that the New Moon feature is probably the strongest, with the invisibility, necrotic damage, and speed reduction all being combined into one bonus action, but the others are good, too.
Overall, I love this subclass. I want to see more like it in the future, and definitely want to see this one officially published.
Onto the Backgrounds! I'm not going to cover both of them, because they're not that interesting (being backgrounds, after all). However, them granting a free feat at level 1 is really nice, I hope that this continues into the Core Rulebooks that are getting republished in 2024. Also, the "Knight of Solamnia" background that grants proficiency in weapon and armor is definitely something that I want to see more of in future printings of the rules. It would be an easy and effective way of moving the cultural proficiencies from race (Pre-Tasha's) to background.
Finally, the Feats!
Feat trees are back. Yay, I guess. They did kind-of exist in Strixhaven, but this is a bit more in-depth than the Strixhaven feats were, which were just testing the water for this kind of development. I hope to see more of this in the future, I think that this sort of Backgrounds-granting-feats-that-build-into-Feat-Trees could work really well for the Planescape Factions.
It's also interesting to see that these Spellcasting Initiate feats just grant a single cantrip, instead of the usual 2 granted by these types of spellcasting feats. I love seeing more usages for Hit Dice in the game. It's kind of like a mini-Bardic Inspiration that can be used in a Warlord-esque fashion in combat. Oh, and more "don't expend this resource unless is succeeds" mechanics is always appreciated (5e is finally taking more notes from 4e, thankfully). I especially love the Life Channel mechanic from Adept of the Black Robes feat, which is really strong. You could increase the damage of your spells a ton, which, while powerful, is really costly if you need to regain hit points during a short rest.
Overall, I really like this UA. I'm not the biggest fan of the Dragonlance setting or novels, but I can appreciate this translation to 5e's rules and the lore changes made to update towards a more modern viewpoint/culture. If/When this gets officially published, I hope that they get rid of Gully Dwarves. I don't think that they can be salvaged/rescued in any way, they're way too ableist. I can't wait to see what they do with Tinker Gnomes, too.
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I think it's refreshing to see an update to Dragonlance. I was curious to see how Wizards handled the Wizards of High Sorcery, specifically in regards to how it was alignment-based in the old days (i.e., white = good, red = neutral; black = evil). With Wizards leaning much less on alignments (because gray is better? -- that's a whole other topic for a different thread!), I thought the new symbolism of the Mages of High Sorcery worked out pretty well (e.g., white = protection; red = balance; black = ambition).
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C. Foster Payne
"If you get to thinkin' you're a person of some influence, try orderin' somebody else's dog around."
I'm not very familiar with Dragonlance myself but I do recall seeing someone say that the author who created the Kender made them instinctive/unconscious/reflexive kleptomaniacs so they could have a heroic "thief" class character who didn't steal out of malice because that would have offended their (the author's) moral sensibilities. Because an entire race of compulsive pickpockets is morally superior to and makes more sense than an actual good aligned person learning those skills for any reason at all. I'm not sure if that's actually true, but I wouldn't be surprised. Regardless, I'm also unsurprised that WotC decided to retcon it even if doing so while keeping the flavor of innocence is achieved in at least equally as absurd fashion.
The Lunar Magic Sorcerer seems interesting. And, at least as I read it, the lunar spellcasting basically grants three sets of domain spells that can be swapped out after any long rest and also with a sorcery point at any other time, and each of those spells (assuming it's from the currently selected one) can be cast once a day without using a spell slot. Also, again as I'm reading it, you could theoretically cast all of your Phase spells once each for free then spend that sorcery point to change Phases and then cast those ones for free, and do it again for the third Phase. That's limited to once each from very specific spells and I don't imagine one would often encounter situations to make gull use of most of them that way, but just swapping around like that once or twice in a day for a single spell each time could get some good "free" spells in the right circumstances. That's especially true when it only costs a single sorcery point for each realignment and you can also be saving sorcery points with the Lunar Boons feature. Also, getting sacred flame for free isn't insignificant either; I think it's generally underrated as a cantrip since it can be more effective than one requiring an attack roll against quite a few heavily armored foes and it being radiant damage is something that not a lot of spells (particularly onesavailable to non-Clerics) do. Being able to hit two targets just makes it even better against any mobs, particularly weaker ones you don't want to burn a spell slot on (and it also makes zombies stay down). At a glance it all seems limited enough in scope that it shouldn't be OP in general, but versatile enough to be at least a little bit useful in many situations. Really the most powerful single feature might be the discount metamagic assuming you select your spells to overlap with the proper schools; with a +4 Charisma mod at level 6 it represents a potential 66% increase in your effective pool of sorcery points.
Not quite it says "You learn additional spells when you reach certain levels in this class, as shown on the lunar spells table. EACH of these spells counts as a sorcerer spell for you, but it doesn't count against the number of sorcerer spells you know"
It does not say "pick a phase, those spells count as sorcerer spells for you yadda yadda"
Also the feature for the casting says "while in the chosen phase spells of the associated phase in the lunar spells table can be cast ONCE without spending a spells slot. Once you cast A spell this way you can't do so again until you finish a long rest"
It does not say you may cast EACH spell this way once, but 1 spell from the list, and they wouldn't of added in the double restriction of saying cast once and "once you cast a spell" if it was meant to be for all of them
It is interesting to get 15 spells instead of 10 like clockwork and abberant but you also cannot change those 15 spells so you have more available but much less flexibility in what those granted spells are. And a free cast a day is still a free cast a day
The lunar spell might be designed similarly to the tasha's primal awareness that added spells and gave a free casting.
"You can cast each of these spells once without expending a spell slot. Once you cast a spell in this way, you can't do so again until you finish a long rest."
Similar but with the important inclusion of the words "cast each of these spells once"
Also easier to understand as its 5 spells over lvls 3-17 vs 15 spells over lvls 1-9. As much as I love sorcerers there's just no way the intention was to allow 5-15 free spell casts a day. Which is why I read it as it's written, coming in with a dual restriction to 1 spell from the list, and once you do it that's it for the day
I’m mostly interested in those Feat trees they’re planting. Very interested in fact.
I am too, only read the robes ones so far but I have to admit.. I'm underwhelmed in them, Red Robes seems the most useful but i feel like most saves you'd want to use it on are concentration saves, and you probably used shield already.. and warcaster does it better..
I’m mostly interested in those Feat trees they’re planting. Very interested in fact.
I am too, only read the robes ones so far but I have to admit.. I'm underwhelmed in them, Red Robes seems the most useful but i feel like most saves you'd want to use it on are concentration saves, and you probably used shield already.. and warcaster does it better..
Why would you only want to use Magical Balance on Concentration saves? In my experience, there are a ton of saving throws during the average adventuring day that this ability would be useful for. And it not only applies to saving throws, but also attack rolls and ability checks. And this also complements normal bonus to Concentration saves that War Caster grants if you need it and this feature is better than advantage.
I can think of plenty of uses for mage characters. Any that focus on attack rolls (martial clerics and druids, bladesingers, Warlocks, and blasting sorcerers/wizards), or are in melee often so they'd be making more ability checks/saving throws, or any that participate in adventuring days in non-magical means (using skills and tools) are all going to benefit a ton from this feat.
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I’m mostly interested in those Feat trees they’re planting. Very interested in fact.
I am too, only read the robes ones so far but I have to admit.. I'm underwhelmed in them, Red Robes seems the most useful but i feel like most saves you'd want to use it on are concentration saves, and you probably used shield already.. and warcaster does it better..
Why would you only want to use Magical Balance on Concentration saves? In my experience, there are a ton of saving throws during the average adventuring day that this ability would be useful for. And it not only applies to saving throws, but also attack rolls and ability checks. And this also complements normal bonus to Concentration saves that War Caster grants if you need it and this feature is better than advantage.
I can think of plenty of uses for mage characters. Any that focus on attack rolls (martial clerics and druids, bladesingers, Warlocks, and blasting sorcerers/wizards), or are in melee often so they'd be making more ability checks/saving throws, or any that participate in adventuring days in non-magical means (using skills and tools) are all going to benefit a ton from this feat.
Not used to most saving throws passing with a 10+abiltiy on a caster. Dex saves, con saves or will saves. But a concentration check of a say 13-15 has a decent chance of passing. Did skip past attack rolls but yeah. suppose a 14 or 15 might hit somethings
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So this dropped.
Yeah, with the new novel out this fall, and then liking having a new book to release at gen con in August, I’d kind of been expecting dragonlance setting book as one of this year’s. But this seems a little close to the deadline for a printing this fall.
At first I was sad that I would end up awash with lol-random-klepto-kender characters, but it turns out that instead of being thievery focused, WotC pre-loaded kender with a magical loot bag of prizes, which was a very nice surprise. Tolerable even.
Wizards have not had a presence of any sort for years at GenCon so it would be nice to finally see them show up.
I was thinking the same thing. It lets Kender have their pockets full of random crap, but doesn't force them the be constantly picking pockets of party members and NPCs. It might actually make them serviceable and not just annoying.
Overall, seems like it could actually herald some larger changes.
For example, if I'm reading the sorcerer subclass correctly, it actually gives them the spells to cast, not just adding the spells to the list? Because that would be pretty terrific. Especially if it gets more widely adopted in other subclasses.
And making the knight and wizard backgrounds, instead of making them full subclasses is pretty interesting. I mean, they are pretty core to the setting, so its odd not to give them subclass treatment, but then you want multiple classes to be able to be a knight or high wizard, so making it a background can let that happen. It does seem like maybe taking another pass at the strixhaven UA where they had subclasses you could have across multiple classes, this sort of gets at that same goal or letting characters from different classes have a mechanical way to belong to the same group. And then adding depth with feat trees (short, little trees, like feat bonsai trees) is new, and a good way to help really flesh out that character f someone wants to. I don't recall having seen feat prereqs in this edition before this.
Seems like there could be a few tea leaves to read.
Worth noting: the kender (god...DAMNIT...Wizards) are halfling-y with the Small size and Brave ability, simply with the Kender Kleptomania thing bolted on over Lucky and subspecies traits. Looks like the M3 method of doing away with subspecies and simply printing each species as its own distinctive critter is going to stick. Interesting.
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I thought the kender magic trinket thing was clever. I recently re-read the first Dragonlance (which aged poorly, if anyone was wondering) and whenever Tasslehoff is confronted about having taken something he's always so tongue-in-cheek like "what? This? No I found it!" and you're meant to be all 'sure you did now give it back', and the idea that he really did mean stuff like that most of the time is a fairly inobtrusive retcon that does away with the whole "naturally thieving race" bad stuff AND is just kind of hilarious to think of.
Like, the idea of a whole race of party partyhobbits just going around being perceived as thieving while really just being too interested in other things to explain to anyone like "nah it really is just magic".
I dunno, I find that very fun.
ALSO I find Lunar Sorcery very cool.
Curious what you think of WotC sleight of mage handing away the Kleptomania or disregard for property rights for "magical curiosity based temporary conjuration" ... I can see _why_ did it but it smells off and makes for a pretty meh retcon of problematic lore. UA subform's got discussion going.
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I think the number of comments I've seen both in this thread and many others about Dragonlance 'aging poorly' - and the number of people I've seen who vehemently hate 'old school' kender - made it inevitable. That said? I think this new thing might actually serve what little I know of the kender's species lore better. As I recall they were supposed to be an almost childlike race, innocent and unmarred by the world, whose curiosity and inquisitiveness were to be cherished and encouraged rather than suppressed. They were meant to be morality pets of a sort, kind of a demonstration of what the authors, at least, thought society should be more like. Having them be more mischievous little demi-fey gremlins with the ability to conjure up trinkets randomly kinda reinforces the whole idea - not only do they literally not know what's in their pockets, but they can't really form attachments to any of it either since it disappears after an hour. Whatever they get is a delight in the moment, and then let go back into the aether without worry. The new idea presents them as an actual alternative, rather than parasites on existing civilizations that we're all supposed to love and cherish and hold as an ideal despite the fact that they never bother making any of the things they become infatuated with and need more stable societies to do all the work of Being A Society.
As for the whole lore-retcon aspects? Dunno. I never read Dragonlance, never got into any of that lore, don't know anymuch more than what other forum posters have said. So take all that crap I just wrote with a grain of salt or three, I could be completely off base. I do know that anything which stops people from compulsively robbing their party at every hour of the day is going to be better for table cohesion than a species which explicitly demands the player robs their party as often as humanly possible, sooooooooooo.......yeah. Honestly kinda reminds me of a house rule I heard of someone else implementing with their DM, basically a "here's some quick tables I put together to determine what's in my pockets at any given time" bit rather than stealing from the party. Maybe where Wizards got the idea. Who knows.
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I know it's UA but Lunar sorcerer is really.. really nice.. It's adding 15 spells to your list so literally double, gives you a free cast a day of one of those spells, and adds your PB in sorcery points when used on a spell of your phases schools.
That's a really nice package by level 6
I'm not very familiar with Dragonlance myself but I do recall seeing someone say that the author who created the Kender made them instinctive/unconscious/reflexive kleptomaniacs so they could have a heroic "thief" class character who didn't steal out of malice because that would have offended their (the author's) moral sensibilities. Because an entire race of compulsive pickpockets is morally superior to and makes more sense than an actual good aligned person learning those skills for any reason at all. I'm not sure if that's actually true, but I wouldn't be surprised. Regardless, I'm also unsurprised that WotC decided to retcon it even if doing so while keeping the flavor of innocence is achieved in at least equally as absurd fashion.
The Lunar Magic Sorcerer seems interesting. And, at least as I read it, the lunar spellcasting basically grants three sets of domain spells that can be swapped out after any long rest and also with a sorcery point at any other time, and each of those spells (assuming it's from the currently selected one) can be cast once a day without using a spell slot. Also, again as I'm reading it, you could theoretically cast all of your Phase spells once each for free then spend that sorcery point to change Phases and then cast those ones for free, and do it again for the third Phase. That's limited to once each from very specific spells and I don't imagine one would often encounter situations to make gull use of most of them that way, but just swapping around like that once or twice in a day for a single spell each time could get some good "free" spells in the right circumstances. That's especially true when it only costs a single sorcery point for each realignment and you can also be saving sorcery points with the Lunar Boons feature. Also, getting sacred flame for free isn't insignificant either; I think it's generally underrated as a cantrip since it can be more effective than one requiring an attack roll against quite a few heavily armored foes and it being radiant damage is something that not a lot of spells (particularly onesavailable to non-Clerics) do. Being able to hit two targets just makes it even better against any mobs, particularly weaker ones you don't want to burn a spell slot on (and it also makes zombies stay down). At a glance it all seems limited enough in scope that it shouldn't be OP in general, but versatile enough to be at least a little bit useful in many situations. Really the most powerful single feature might be the discount metamagic assuming you select your spells to overlap with the proper schools; with a +4 Charisma mod at level 6 it represents a potential 66% increase in your effective pool of sorcery points.
Not quite it says "You learn additional spells when you reach certain levels in this class, as shown on the lunar spells table. EACH of these spells counts as a sorcerer spell for you, but it doesn't count against the number of sorcerer spells you know"
It does not say "pick a phase, those spells count as sorcerer spells for you yadda yadda"
Also the feature for the casting says "while in the chosen phase spells of the associated phase in the lunar spells table can be cast ONCE without spending a spells slot. Once you cast A spell this way you can't do so again until you finish a long rest"
It does not say you may cast EACH spell this way once, but 1 spell from the list, and they wouldn't of added in the double restriction of saying cast once and "once you cast a spell" if it was meant to be for all of them
It is interesting to get 15 spells instead of 10 like clockwork and abberant but you also cannot change those 15 spells so you have more available but much less flexibility in what those granted spells are. And a free cast a day is still a free cast a day
The lunar spell might be designed similarly to the tasha's primal awareness that added spells and gave a free casting.
Whoo! New UA! Finally!
Now, onto the review.
Kender
You know what? I have only ever read a few Dragonlance books (the original trilogy as well as a few sequels and prequels), and I've never run or DMed for a table in the Dragonlance setting, so I've never experienced the full extent of the awfulness of this race in play, but from what I've heard and read from the books, it got pretty bad. And I absolutely support this change to the race. Getting rid of their Magical-Curse that mandates their kleptomania and replacing it with a Feywild-Magic that spontaneously generates random objects in their pockets a few times a day is 100% a change that I can get behind. And some of the items could be pretty useful in an adventuring day, and you get multiple uses every day. I really like the image of the party trying to scale a cliff or tie down a prisoner and having the party's Kender rifle through their pockets and pouches to check for a rope, especially having to use multiple uses before finally/possibly getting the right item, and then just standing there with a few extra random items that they just chuck over their shoulders or put back in their pockets.
That would be cool (but also would probably only be funny the first few times they do it, it could definitely get old really quickly). Maybe they should add a "Kender's Luck" racial feat that they can take later on that lets them choose the item that they want to pull out of their pockets once a day or something like that? I could definitely see different Kender characters of multiple different classes being interesting, like a Kender Bard that uses Vicious Mockery and Taunt on the same turn on different enemies in battle, or a Kender Genie Warlock that fills their extradimensional bottle home with random junk that they collect from their travels, or Kender Fey Wanderer Ranger that collects trophies from creatures that they hunt from both the Feywild and Material Plane.
I don't see any mechanical problems with this race and think that most of their thematic issues from previous editions have been basically solved through this UA. There definitely will be some older players that will complain about this change because there are always people that hate change for the sake of hating change (even if the change is objectively good), but I don't think that they will end up being a problem. WotC is well aware of the problems with the Kender in Dragonlance, and seem to be making the steps to fix them.
Lunar Magic Sorcerer
I love this subclass. It's awesome. I would love to play in a campaign with a Stars Druid, Twilight Cleric, Sun Soul Monk, and Lunar Magic Sorcerer all in the same adventuring party. It would be great theming and would work pretty well together mechanically. Now, onto the mechanics.
Moon Fire - This is fine. Most of it is pretty bland, besides the ability to target two creatures that are next to each other with it instead of just the usual one. It's cool, it's useful, and it's pretty balanced. Not much to say.
Lunar Embodiment - A bit different from the other Innate Sorcerer Spell Lists from Tasha's, but cool in its execution and theming. I think all of the spells work well for the different sub-subclasses, love the ability to swap your sub-subclass during a long rest, and the free castings of the spells every day is just the cherry on top of this ability. I really, really like this ability.
This could make for some funny "It's not a Phase, Mom! It's who I am!" moments for characters the New Moon Phase.
(Also, imagine an Eladrin character of this subclass. You get to choose both your Phase and your Season every long rest, allowing you to have 12 different combinations every day that you get to choose from. Winter-New-Moon for the extra-gloomy days, or Sun-Full-Moon for the happiest/angriest ones, for example.)
Lunar Boons - Awesome ability, will probably take up a bit more table-time than usual due to having to check the PHB every turn to see if the spell that you're using is of one of the two schools that you're attuned to at the moment of casting it. Getting free Careful or Transmuted Spell on Evard's Black Tentacles while in your New Moon Phase, or Distant/Extended/Subtle Spell on basically any spell in any Phase is just amazing.
Waxing and Waning - This is just a nice ability. I don't really have much to say about it.
Lunar Empowerment - This is really powerful; the Crescent Moon ability is probably the weakest, with Full Moon probably being the strongest (New Moon is still good, but more situational).
Lunar Phenomenon - Great capstone ability, especially love the synergy with Waxing and Waning (I love that this sort of "use the same bonus action to do two things" ability that started with the College of Creation Bard subclass is being included, I hope more abilities like this continue in future class/subclass features). I think that the New Moon feature is probably the strongest, with the invisibility, necrotic damage, and speed reduction all being combined into one bonus action, but the others are good, too.
Overall, I love this subclass. I want to see more like it in the future, and definitely want to see this one officially published.
Onto the Backgrounds! I'm not going to cover both of them, because they're not that interesting (being backgrounds, after all). However, them granting a free feat at level 1 is really nice, I hope that this continues into the Core Rulebooks that are getting republished in 2024. Also, the "Knight of Solamnia" background that grants proficiency in weapon and armor is definitely something that I want to see more of in future printings of the rules. It would be an easy and effective way of moving the cultural proficiencies from race (Pre-Tasha's) to background.
Finally, the Feats!
Feat trees are back. Yay, I guess. They did kind-of exist in Strixhaven, but this is a bit more in-depth than the Strixhaven feats were, which were just testing the water for this kind of development. I hope to see more of this in the future, I think that this sort of Backgrounds-granting-feats-that-build-into-Feat-Trees could work really well for the Planescape Factions.
It's also interesting to see that these Spellcasting Initiate feats just grant a single cantrip, instead of the usual 2 granted by these types of spellcasting feats. I love seeing more usages for Hit Dice in the game. It's kind of like a mini-Bardic Inspiration that can be used in a Warlord-esque fashion in combat. Oh, and more "don't expend this resource unless is succeeds" mechanics is always appreciated (5e is finally taking more notes from 4e, thankfully). I especially love the Life Channel mechanic from Adept of the Black Robes feat, which is really strong. You could increase the damage of your spells a ton, which, while powerful, is really costly if you need to regain hit points during a short rest.
Overall, I really like this UA. I'm not the biggest fan of the Dragonlance setting or novels, but I can appreciate this translation to 5e's rules and the lore changes made to update towards a more modern viewpoint/culture. If/When this gets officially published, I hope that they get rid of Gully Dwarves. I don't think that they can be salvaged/rescued in any way, they're way too ableist. I can't wait to see what they do with Tinker Gnomes, too.
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I think it's refreshing to see an update to Dragonlance. I was curious to see how Wizards handled the Wizards of High Sorcery, specifically in regards to how it was alignment-based in the old days (i.e., white = good, red = neutral; black = evil). With Wizards leaning much less on alignments (because gray is better? -- that's a whole other topic for a different thread!), I thought the new symbolism of the Mages of High Sorcery worked out pretty well (e.g., white = protection; red = balance; black = ambition).
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"You can cast each of these spells once without expending a spell slot. Once you cast a spell in this way, you can't do so again until you finish a long rest."
Similar but with the important inclusion of the words "cast each of these spells once"
Also easier to understand as its 5 spells over lvls 3-17 vs 15 spells over lvls 1-9. As much as I love sorcerers there's just no way the intention was to allow 5-15 free spell casts a day. Which is why I read it as it's written, coming in with a dual restriction to 1 spell from the list, and once you do it that's it for the day
I’m mostly interested in those Feat trees they’re planting. Very interested in fact.
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I am too, only read the robes ones so far but I have to admit.. I'm underwhelmed in them, Red Robes seems the most useful but i feel like most saves you'd want to use it on are concentration saves, and you probably used shield already.. and warcaster does it better..
Why would you only want to use Magical Balance on Concentration saves? In my experience, there are a ton of saving throws during the average adventuring day that this ability would be useful for. And it not only applies to saving throws, but also attack rolls and ability checks. And this also complements normal bonus to Concentration saves that War Caster grants if you need it and this feature is better than advantage.
I can think of plenty of uses for mage characters. Any that focus on attack rolls (martial clerics and druids, bladesingers, Warlocks, and blasting sorcerers/wizards), or are in melee often so they'd be making more ability checks/saving throws, or any that participate in adventuring days in non-magical means (using skills and tools) are all going to benefit a ton from this feat.
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Not used to most saving throws passing with a 10+abiltiy on a caster. Dex saves, con saves or will saves. But a concentration check of a say 13-15 has a decent chance of passing. Did skip past attack rolls but yeah. suppose a 14 or 15 might hit somethings