D&D’s new Dragonlance could see incredibly powerful character builds

Wizards of the Coast has taken another look at the Dragonlance reboot, which was officially announced April 21. These new playtest materials clearly state that they’ll be included in Dragonlance – Shadow of the Dragon QueenA brand new book is expected to come out in 2012. They also suggest what could be the strongest set of character creation possibilities yet.

Jeremy Crawford was the game architect on this project and he explains in the YouTube video embedded below. Following a discussion on what? isn’t Moving on from March’s original playtest materials, he finally gets to the point: Characters will be able to perform bonus feats during play. That’s because everyone at the table — even first-level adventurers — have already survived an apocalypse and emerged from it much stronger.

“In the context of The War of the Lance,” Crawfor said, “if you are playing a group of characters who are participating in this global, fantasy war you have some extra capabilities because of how not only this war has shaped your characters, but also this is a world that has survived an apocalyptic event in the form of The Cataclysm. And so characters here have gone through a crucible that is unusual in comparison to many other D&D worlds.”

In-fiction, the Cataclysm in Dragonlance is an event that removes some healing magic from Krynn’s world for a while. Krynn is a place where the gods have abandoned its citizens and many dragons disappear. And well, there’s this whole bit about a meteorite striking the planet. It’s a lot.

Naturally, dragons and healing magic have returned when Shadow of the Dragon Queen takes place, but there’s also an invasion by draconic forces to contend with. Wizards has decided to enhance the abilities of player characters for this reason and many other reasons. The two backgrounds are available to players who select one. Undiscovered Arcana: Heroes of Krynn Revisited At first level you will be awarded a bonus feat and at fourth level another.

“If you pick one of the two backgrounds [included in these new playtest materials] you get a free feat as a part of that background,” Crawford said. “Now we’re revealing more of the picture, and that is if you are playing a War of the Lance campaign you either pick one of those two backgrounds, or if you pick a background from any other source, if that background does not give you a free feat, you get to choose one from the list of feats that is in this new Unearthed Arcana.”

For those who enjoy power-leveling, custom lineages — an alternate rule first published in 2020’s Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything —For a total bonus of three feats, the fourth-level would allow for another feat at character creation. You can download the playtest materials as a free PDF, and all the information is included.

The kender race has also been tweaked. The response on the original playtest materials was “mixed” Crawford says — which is why Wizards publishes playtest materials in the first place. This version goes “back to basics” he said and, designers hope, more accurately captures the first edition version of that race.

“When you go back to first edition products like Dragons of Mystery, […] it came down to again that mix of fearlessness, unstoppable curiosity, and this taunt that discombobulates people on the battlefield.”

Dragonlance – Shadow of the Dragon QueenAccording to Wizards, it will arrive in the latter half of 2022. It will launch alongside a compatible tabletop game, described as a novel “battle game” Designed by Rob Daviau (Pandemic LegacyStephen Baker (Battle Masters() can directly influence the events in the role-playing game.