They left out a bunch of the humanoid species in the new sourcebook. In all its a very vanilla offering of the lore and options on Krynn. They've got humans, elves, dwarves, gnomes and kender (halflings). In the world of Dragonlance though centaur, minotaur, irda (intelligent ogres and one of the original races along with elves and humans), have a role.
I can understand not including gully dwarves or the kender's loose definition of personal property in today's culture, but why none of those other 3? Centaur and minotaur stat blocks are available from other sources so maybe they didn't need to be in the book, but they aren't even mentioned among Krynn's notable inhabitants. Irda are one of the original races, but in the lore of Dragonlance they are favored by the evil gods, so maybe they weren't included because, evil? They could have gotten the free will treatment so many other monstrous player races have gotten over the years. Draconians are another sapient species but in the timeline of the adventure probably wouldn't be free enough to be a playable race.
Anyway, what's up with that? I might be playing this campaign soon, so I'll have to make an argument to my DM to include these 3 and see if there is a good homebrew Irda out there.
Irda are extremely rare, most of them having become Ogres eons ago. Considering they were only first mentioned in 5e in the monster expansion just over a week ago, I suspect that Wizards hadn’t given them much thought. Centaurs, Minotaurs, and Goblinoids are all present in Monsters of the Multiverse; considering the Dragonlance book directs you there if you want to play a Sea Elf, I suspect they weren’t reprinted for similar reasons.
I also suspect that, sidebars notwithstanding, Wizards of the Coast was going for a more traditional fantasy feel for Dragonlance, rather than the common “kitchen sink” approach that has dominated most of the more recent books. Frankly, I appreciate that and find it refreshing to have the prospect of a PC party being closer to the Fellowship of the Ring than to a menagerie. There’s a time and place for that style of play, but the War of the Lance isn’t it.
(Somewhat hypocritically given what I just said, I’m actually working on some Dragonlance homebrew races/species, including an Irda.)
Irda are extremely rare, most of them having become Ogres eons ago. Considering they were only first mentioned in 5e in the monster expansion just over a week ago, I suspect that Wizards hadn’t given them much thought. Centaurs, Minotaurs, and Goblinoids are all present in Monsters of the Multiverse; considering the Dragonlance book directs you there if you want to play a Sea Elf, I suspect they weren’t reprinted for similar reasons.
I also suspect that, sidebars notwithstanding, Wizards of the Coast was going for a more traditional fantasy feel for Dragonlance, rather than the common “kitchen sink” approach that has dominated most of the more recent books. Frankly, I appreciate that and find it refreshing to have the prospect of a PC party being closer to the Fellowship of the Ring than to a menagerie. There’s a time and place for that style of play, but the War of the Lance isn’t it.
(Somewhat hypocritically given what I just said, I’m actually working on some Dragonlance homebrew races/species, including an Irda.)
There's a bit in the new sourcebook about including species from outside of Krynn. Even if they didn't include others in the character creation it would make a lot of sense to include centaurs, minotaurs, and (thanks for reminding me) goblinoids as a mention of relatively common Krynn races. Fair point about the rarity of the irda, still would have liked them included though.
By the time of the War of the Lance, the only Irda left are hiding on some small islands (possibly just one) that are far, far away from the continent and shun all contact with outsiders. Centaurs are less isolationist than Irda, but only because they're found on the continent. They're still not friendly toward humanoids.
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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.
By the time of the War of the Lance, the only Irda left are hiding on some small islands (possibly just one) that are far, far away from the continent and shun all contact with outsiders. Centaurs are less isolationist than Irda, but only because they're found on the continent. They're still not friendly toward humanoids.
That's never stopped anyone from playing rare species before, sea elves are just as rare and reclusive but get a paragraph including them.
And the sourcebook does have a passage on how to include species not native to Krynn. Dragonborn, halflings, and tieflings all would be more rare but get an explicit inclusion.
As a tip you don't need WotC's permission to bring other races into a game. Mostly it is up to the table what they will tolerate, but ultimately it comes down to what will work for the DM's story. Realize a lot of races are left out due to balancing problems. But also they have been repeated in so many books, sometimes it encourages groups to buy more books. I can't imagine them coming up with a tactic to sell more content... lol.
Just realize that The Irda is more than a pretty interesting novel by Linda Baker published in 1995. It also references a home brew race from 3.5E. I also found a decent homebrew conversion to 5e called "Races of Ansalon".
The big take away is the Irda are a homebrew player race that have no monster manual references, so there isn't anything canon that has been released by WotC for playable races. That doesn't mean you can't use them, but refer back to your DM for what your table can add to the game/story.
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I am not sure what my Spirit Animal is. But whatever that thing is, I am pretty sure it has rabies!
By the time of the War of the Lance, the only Irda left are hiding on some small islands (possibly just one) that are far, far away from the continent and shun all contact with outsiders. Centaurs are less isolationist than Irda, but only because they're found on the continent. They're still not friendly toward humanoids.
That's never stopped anyone from playing rare species before, sea elves are just as rare and reclusive but get a paragraph including them.
And the sourcebook does have a passage on how to include species not native to Krynn. Dragonborn, halflings, and tieflings all would be more rare but get an explicit inclusion.
Sea elves at least were shown to be around, if not exactly involved in most stuff.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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.
I think now Irda may be an understandable exclusion. My memory of them is from playing Dragonlance campaign books from 2nd edition days and I had a player play as one of them, so it seems my memory doesn't really reflect the lore very well.
Centaur, Minotaur and Goblinoids are pretty well represented though, at least as much as Sea Elves in the Chronicles series.
They actually did just introduce two Irda stat blocks in the free Monstrous Compendium Vol 2: Dragonlance Creatures. Irda Seeker and Irda Veil Keeper
Thank you. Somehow I completely missed that update, and just accepted the free offer from DNDB today. Normally I would complain about an offering with so little, but at the price of free that would be pointless. lol
Thank you DND Beyond for the free Monster Compendium!!
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I am not sure what my Spirit Animal is. But whatever that thing is, I am pretty sure it has rabies!
Ultimately, the answer is “Ask your DM” but I suspect since the MMotM Changeling lore is so new, and before that changelings were an Eberron race, it’ll be a hard sell with many DMs, especially Dragonlance traditionalists.
The Feywild hadn't even been invented the last time Dragonlance saw a sourcebook in print. At that point, the fae lived either in hidden enclaves in the Prime Material Plane or in the Outer Planes.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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.
Can I be a MMotM Changeling? Does Krynn have a Feywild?
It is by no means a 1:1 match, but changelings have commonality with huldrefolk (not to be confused with hulderfolk, which are a different race), and they have been in Dragonlance (rules and novels) since at least AD&D2. It's close enough that I'd allow it, personally, but I'd have a long talk with the player first. It would be a potentially challenging choice.
Another perspective on the "allowable races" in the recent campaign is that this campaign is focused on the war surrounding a relatively small part of the continent. This campaign introduces players to the world and fleshes it out before them. That gets complicated when you have a "menagerie" of races in your group for which you have to explain their individual contexts from the get-go.
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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."
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They left out a bunch of the humanoid species in the new sourcebook. In all its a very vanilla offering of the lore and options on Krynn. They've got humans, elves, dwarves, gnomes and kender (halflings). In the world of Dragonlance though centaur, minotaur, irda (intelligent ogres and one of the original races along with elves and humans), have a role.
I can understand not including gully dwarves or the kender's loose definition of personal property in today's culture, but why none of those other 3? Centaur and minotaur stat blocks are available from other sources so maybe they didn't need to be in the book, but they aren't even mentioned among Krynn's notable inhabitants. Irda are one of the original races, but in the lore of Dragonlance they are favored by the evil gods, so maybe they weren't included because, evil? They could have gotten the free will treatment so many other monstrous player races have gotten over the years. Draconians are another sapient species but in the timeline of the adventure probably wouldn't be free enough to be a playable race.
Anyway, what's up with that? I might be playing this campaign soon, so I'll have to make an argument to my DM to include these 3 and see if there is a good homebrew Irda out there.
Irda are extremely rare, most of them having become Ogres eons ago. Considering they were only first mentioned in 5e in the monster expansion just over a week ago, I suspect that Wizards hadn’t given them much thought. Centaurs, Minotaurs, and Goblinoids are all present in Monsters of the Multiverse; considering the Dragonlance book directs you there if you want to play a Sea Elf, I suspect they weren’t reprinted for similar reasons.
I also suspect that, sidebars notwithstanding, Wizards of the Coast was going for a more traditional fantasy feel for Dragonlance, rather than the common “kitchen sink” approach that has dominated most of the more recent books. Frankly, I appreciate that and find it refreshing to have the prospect of a PC party being closer to the Fellowship of the Ring than to a menagerie. There’s a time and place for that style of play, but the War of the Lance isn’t it.
(Somewhat hypocritically given what I just said, I’m actually working on some Dragonlance homebrew races/species, including an Irda.)
There's a bit in the new sourcebook about including species from outside of Krynn. Even if they didn't include others in the character creation it would make a lot of sense to include centaurs, minotaurs, and (thanks for reminding me) goblinoids as a mention of relatively common Krynn races. Fair point about the rarity of the irda, still would have liked them included though.
By the time of the War of the Lance, the only Irda left are hiding on some small islands (possibly just one) that are far, far away from the continent and shun all contact with outsiders. Centaurs are less isolationist than Irda, but only because they're found on the continent. They're still not friendly toward humanoids.
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 never stopped anyone from playing rare species before, sea elves are just as rare and reclusive but get a paragraph including them.
And the sourcebook does have a passage on how to include species not native to Krynn. Dragonborn, halflings, and tieflings all would be more rare but get an explicit inclusion.
As a tip you don't need WotC's permission to bring other races into a game. Mostly it is up to the table what they will tolerate, but ultimately it comes down to what will work for the DM's story. Realize a lot of races are left out due to balancing problems. But also they have been repeated in so many books, sometimes it encourages groups to buy more books. I can't imagine them coming up with a tactic to sell more content... lol.
Just realize that The Irda is more than a pretty interesting novel by Linda Baker published in 1995. It also references a home brew race from 3.5E. I also found a decent homebrew conversion to 5e called "Races of Ansalon".
The big take away is the Irda are a homebrew player race that have no monster manual references, so there isn't anything canon that has been released by WotC for playable races. That doesn't mean you can't use them, but refer back to your DM for what your table can add to the game/story.
I am not sure what my Spirit Animal is. But whatever that thing is, I am pretty sure it has rabies!
They actually did just introduce two Irda stat blocks in the free Monstrous Compendium Vol 2: Dragonlance Creatures. Irda Seeker and Irda Veil Keeper
Sea elves at least were shown to be around, if not exactly involved in most stuff.
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.
I think now Irda may be an understandable exclusion. My memory of them is from playing Dragonlance campaign books from 2nd edition days and I had a player play as one of them, so it seems my memory doesn't really reflect the lore very well.
Centaur, Minotaur and Goblinoids are pretty well represented though, at least as much as Sea Elves in the Chronicles series.
Thank you. Somehow I completely missed that update, and just accepted the free offer from DNDB today. Normally I would complain about an offering with so little, but at the price of free that would be pointless. lol
Thank you DND Beyond for the free Monster Compendium!!
I am not sure what my Spirit Animal is. But whatever that thing is, I am pretty sure it has rabies!
Can I be a MMotM Changeling? Does Krynn have a Feywild?
Ultimately, the answer is “Ask your DM” but I suspect since the MMotM Changeling lore is so new, and before that changelings were an Eberron race, it’ll be a hard sell with many DMs, especially Dragonlance traditionalists.
The Feywild hadn't even been invented the last time Dragonlance saw a sourcebook in print. At that point, the fae lived either in hidden enclaves in the Prime Material Plane or in the Outer Planes.
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.
It is by no means a 1:1 match, but changelings have commonality with huldrefolk (not to be confused with hulderfolk, which are a different race), and they have been in Dragonlance (rules and novels) since at least AD&D2. It's close enough that I'd allow it, personally, but I'd have a long talk with the player first. It would be a potentially challenging choice.
Finding details about the huldrefolk is kind of challenging in 2023, as they were always thin on the ground. This is a decent option:
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/16964/PG1-Players-Guide-to-the-Dragonlance-Campaign-2e
Of course, you can always play a changeling from another world, with the permission of your dungeon master.
J
Great Wyrm Moonstone Dungeon Master
The time of the ORC has come. No OGL without irrevocability; no OGL with 'authorized version' language. #openDND
Practice, practice, practice • Respect the rules; don't memorize them • Be merciless, not cruel • Don't let the dice run the game for you
Another perspective on the "allowable races" in the recent campaign is that this campaign is focused on the war surrounding a relatively small part of the continent. This campaign introduces players to the world and fleshes it out before them. That gets complicated when you have a "menagerie" of races in your group for which you have to explain their individual contexts from the get-go.
C. Foster Payne
"If you get to thinkin' you're a person of some influence, try orderin' somebody else's dog around."