Nerdarchy on Heroes of Krynn Unearthed Arcana Reviewed
In this 49-minute video on Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted take a look at the newest Unearthed Arcana: Heroes of Krynn playtest for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons put out by the Wizards of the Coast D&D team.
During the video they give a broad strokes overview for Heroes of Krynn. The six page document includes one new race, one new subclass, two new backgrounds and a whopping ten new feats for 5E D&D inspired by the Dragonlance setting. This discussion includes more general talk about the direction of design taken by the WotC creative team before diving into each component in Heroes of Krynn individually for more analysis.
The conversation covers each component in detail. For starters there’s the kender race, which many old school gamers recall with a mixture of fondness and dismay due to their sticky fingered nature. In Heroes of Krynn this becomes a magical ability to pull from a random list of objects, which all disappear after one hour. As they note in the video this maybe mitigates kender players’ penchant for picking the pockets of their companions but kinda makes them real jerks when you consider they might use the gold to pay a legitimate merchant who then finds themselves bereft of the compensation 60 minutes later.
A lion’s share of the discussion focuses on the much more mechanical robust character options. The first of these is the Lunar Magic Sorcerous Origin, a really powerful and flexible option. As a litmus test for new character options it’s worthwhile to consider when a tremendous number of players get really excited for something new it’s probably a case where toning it down is in order.
Each of the two backgrounds follow a pattern along the lines of what we saw in Strixhaven: Curriculum of Chaos with the inclusion of a feat along with the usual mix of skill and tool proficiencies, languages, special feature and suggested characteristics. We’re working on some content specifically about backgrounds so keep an eye out for that in the near future. We’ll certainly touch on what’s essentially power creep we’re seeing in backgrounds lately but it’s not only about this aspect of design and gameplay. Both the Knight of Solamnia and Mage of High Sorcery backgrounds provide a feat and these introduce the concept of a feat tree to 5E D&D, which is supported by the feats also contained within the Heroes of Krynn Unearthed Arcana.
All but two of the ten feats in the document build upon either the Knight of Solamnia or Mage of High Sorcery archetypes. They include not only feat prerequisites but also level and in some cases alignment. The two different ones both address the Dragonlance setting’s take on the gods, at least as it was presented in the original series of novels and their story of the War of the Lance.
The Beardomancy Bundle collects three of our most popular titles into a single package. Gamers looking for unusual new options for both Game Masters and players alike will find fun, flavorful but most importantly effective character options for every core class. New spells, magic and mundane items and creatures hint at the mysterious Beard Dimension and there’s no telling what strange new powers will arise from the tangled corners of that weird place.
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