Shadow of the Dragon Queen - A Dragonlance Fan's First Impressions
Art by Evyn Fong
With the impending release of the first official Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition product set in the Dragonlance campaign setting, many long-term fans are concerned about the direction of Dragonlance. Has this new product changed existing lore? Is Wizards of the Coast ruining our beloved setting? As a fan of this setting from almost the beginning I understand that concern and decided I would write a separate "first impressions" piece to address the handling of a classic setting by modern owners.
I do plan to write a full review of both Shadow of the Dragon Queen and Warriors of Krynn, but this article is specifically aimed at my fellow Dragonlance fans who want to know if their favorite setting has survived. I will not be digging into the adventure too deeply except where it is necessary so this should be light on spoilers.
What is this book?
On Page 4 (the first page) of Shadow of the Dragon Queen, there is a section called "Using This Book". Almost every D&D book has a section like this that promptly gets ignored by a large majority of readers. This particular section is important because the first paragraph of it is very clear about what this book is and what it isn't.
"This book presents a glimpse of the world of Krynn through the lens of a specific conflict. Rather than providing an overview of the entire world, the book focuses on the region surrounding the city of Kalaman in the nation of Solamnia as the War of the Lance first reaches its borders. "
If you were expecting a fully fleshed out campaign setting book, you will be disappointed. That was not the goal and it is not how the D&D Team publishes their products. "Setting books" like Eberron, Spelljammer, and Ravenloft have been mostly adventures with some world-specific material. That is what I expected this would be and was not disappointed when I discovered it to be so. For the record, I fully expect the Planescape product next year will follow the same format.
Because of that, we do not get "everything" about Krynn updated for 5e. There are really only two base character options - a race (Kender) and a subclass (Lunar Sorcery). You also get the Backgrounds and Feats that allow your character to be a Knight of Solamnia and a Mage of High Sorcery. For DMs, there is a nice section about all of the gods of Krynn, a quick timeline of major events so far that lead up to the specific time period of the adventure, details about life on Ansalon (calendars, currency, languages) and a somewhat detailed look at the Kalaman region. There are also some new monsters and NPCs mixed in with some classics and even a deep cut or two.
In my opinion, this is a good thing. It leaves the rest of the world open to DMs, players, and content creators. You have the freedom to add, remove, or keep anything that has come before and that is how it should be. I fully expect to see full conversions pop up for the rest of the setting as well as additional adventure content thanks to the setting being open to DMs Guild creators shortly.
What follows is a breakdown of the inclusions of and additions to existing Dragonlance lore.
Character Options
Kender
If you saw the initial Unearthed Arcana playtest version of kender, there were some changes that were not well-received. Notably, that Kender were fey and used fey magic to make items appear through a mechanic called "Kender Ace" rather than their traditional Kender Handling. Those changes did not make it into the final product thanks to community feedback. Kender are once again humanoids who are Fearless, have certain rogue-like Aptitudes, and have a vicious Taunt.
The Fearless trait grants advantage on saving throws vs fear and the ability to make one such failure a success per long rest. Given that a success usually makes you immune to additional checks, a player will probably not need more than one of these.
The Kender Aptitude trait gives the kender a proficiency in one of several "kender-appropriate" skills thanks to their "mystical origin" (more on that in a second).
Lastly, the Taunt is a bonus action that can cause a failing target to have disadvantage on attack rolls other than the kender for the next turn. This can be done a number of times equal to their proficiency bonus before requiring a long rest to recharge.
All of these traits make sense and are an even-handed way to give appropriate uniqueness to a kender.
As far as changes to kender lore go, there are a couple of minor (in my opinion) changes.
First, the mystical origins of kender recounted in this book are that a group of gnomes altered by unbridled magic became the first kender. There's no mention of the Greygem specifically though it is implied if you know the story.
Second, while Kender curiosity is definitely kept (even going so far as to say their inquisitiveness is the reason why you might see one outside of Krynn), their innate handling is not described as absolute in this description. A line, "Kender sometimes amass impressive collections of curiosities", gives players the freedom to play a kender handler if they want to but it also gives DMs the option to disallow it if it creates a problem. This is a tactful way to avoid the "It's what my character would do" conversations.
Third, kender are not forbidden from any class including spellcasters. This is just not something that happens in any modern RPG and has not existed in D&D since 2nd edition. Racial limitations on class options is antiquated and problematic. Rather, DMs and players should talk about why a kender wizard is a rare thing and why their character might be an exception.
Lunar Sorcery
This sorcerer subclass attempts to recreate the waxing and waning effects of Krynn's moons from previous editions but doesn't do it well. First off, because it is a sorcerer subclass there is now no lunar effect on wizards at all (an important point in some previous Dragonlance fiction). Secondly, the sorcerer decides which phase of the moon they are manifesting so the actual phases don't matter. Thirdly, there's not a downside to a waning or new moon just different bonus spells and abilities. It doesn't capture the ebb and flow. This is the weakest addition I have seen so far. It works as a generic sorcerer subclass but not as a Dragonlance subclass.
Backgrounds and Feats
Before we get into the specifics here, it's important to mention that all characters in a Dragonlance campaign get a free Feat at first level if their background doesn't already provide one (ether Skilled or Tough) and all characters gain a bonus Feat at 4th level. This is explained that all characters involved with the War of the Lance have been changed by the dramatic experiences they face. It actually just ensures that everyone gets feats since they made Knights of Solamnia and Mages of High Sorcery feats.
To become either a Knight of Solamnia or a Mage of High Sorcery requires a background of the same name that gives the character a starting feat (either a squire or an initiate). These provide extra abilities or spells respectively. At 4th level, they get to choose what type of Knight or Mage they are after they are knighted or pass The Test for mages. Each of the different types is a bonus feat that grants additional abilities specific to that type of knight or mage.
I understand what the designers were attempting to do here by changing things up and making "class feats" but I personally would have preferred that they just be subclasses of Fighter and Wizard. It would make them feel complete and less like a tacked-on appendage on top of another subclass. This would have also eliminated the controversy of allowing other classes to be included in these organizations. Ironically, the Feats do have class requirements (Squire of Solamnia requires a Fighter or Paladin and Initiate of High Sorcery requires a Sorcerer or Wizard) but then they tack on the Knight of Solamnia and Mage of High Sorcery backgrounds as a third option which allow anyone and give them those feats. It ends up being circular logic that muddies the waters.
World Lore
Overall, the World Lore is good yet brief. Again, this is not a campaign setting book yet it does talk about the calendar of Solamnia, the currencies including bronze and steel, the regional languages, and even addresses the question of non-native races on Krynn by simply saying that the multiverse exists and it might be possible for dragonborn, halflings, and tieflings to appear on Krynn but it will be extremely rare (i.e. the DM gets to decide what makes sense for their players). The gods of Krynn and timeline of the adventure are the only lore that may cause frustration with devout adherents to established canon.
The D&D Team has solidified the long-disputed debate of whether or not Paladine and Takhisis were alternate versions of Bahamut and Tiamat respectively. This book along with Fizban's Treasury of Dragons states that, at least from the current D&D product line perspective, they are known on other worlds by those names. This has been fiercely debated for a long time and ultimately only matters to your campaign. There are no game mechanics or rules tied to these statements, they are there as context. The other gods are presented in an abbreviated manner but all appear to be accurate to canon. What I found lacking more than the Takhisis/Tiamat debate was the exclusion of domains from any of the gods. The book provides a handy table of all of the Deities of Krynn, along with their Alignments, Provinces, and Common Symbols but it does not include common 5e Domains for each god. That would have been an easy inclusion that would have been very helpful.
The timeline will be both interesting and frustrating for those familiar with the timelines of the two main villains of the Shadow of the Dragon Queen adventure specifically, Lord Soth and High Master Kansaldi Fire-Eyes.
Lord Soth is front and center in all of the marketing material for this product and is very much a looming figure in the adventure. However, the adventure takes place prior to his swearing allegiance to Kitiara and the Blue Dragonarmy. In this adventure, he has been called by Takhisis to aid the Red Dragon Army in taking Kalaman. Should the heroes be successful the adventure concludes with Soth having been outmaneuvered and retreating back to Dargaard Keep refusing to join again until "exceptional coercion" convinces him to join the dragonarmies. Some may balk at the idea that he would involve himself at all until Kitiara arrived on the scene but it doesn't change any existing events in his backstory.
Kansaldi Fire-Eyes is the other main villain of the adventure. She had previously appeared (as Kansaldi Flame-Eyes) in DL15: Mists of Krynn as a minor villain and commander under Dragon Highlord Verminaard. Here, she has been promoted to Highmaster status and is responsible for discovering the secret of Flying Citadels. Some may not like this addition to existing Red Dragonarmy command staff, but again I did not see any actual changes to existing events.
These two examples show how this adventure fits into the existing War of the Lance story without changing anything. It involves a section of the world that we know conflict took place in but for which the details have never been fleshed out. It conveniently sits in a blank spot on the timeline. This, in my opinion, is the best place to put it allowing it to respect what came before. Yes, Lord Soth gets to have a bit more adventure than we previously knew about but it doesn't take away from what came before and gives him a reason to not want to get involved. It even introduces Caradoc, a character from the Knight of the Black Rose alluding to Soth's apocryphal(?) time in Ravenloft. This tells me that the D&D Team looked at the whole body Dragonlance lore and looked for ways to create something new within a well-known timeline.
Summary
Overall, I have found this adventure to be quite respectful of existing lore and provides the tools needed to play a 5e game in Krynn. There are a few things that will cause some debate and there are a few things that definitely could have been stronger. While examining those items I concluded that they were most likely the result of an editorial decision to make a simple, unified product line across all of D&D.
For example, the Takhisis / Tiamat issue is most likely a result of making a call back to previous products where Tiamat figured prominently. She's an established villain, a five-headed dragon, and an icon of D&D. For new readers, it makes sense to say these two very similar deities are the same. Are they the same? That's up to your own version of the story.
This is purely conjecture, but I also do question whether or not some decisions were made to intentionally avoid certain story elements because of their use in current fiction. For example, the exclusion of the Greygem from the kender background could be interpreted as avoiding that topic due to its involvement in Dragons of Deceit. There are no mentions of any of the Heroes of the Lance and even Kitiara is alluded to but never directly mentioned. This could be out of respect for the characters or it might be to avoid any issues with them since they are also featured in Dragons of Deceit.
If you are a die-hard player of a previous edition, this is not the book for you and that is perfectly ok. There's no new lore that you have to know and it's not going to make you change your mind about 5e more than any other book would.
However, as a Dragonlance fan, I like this book and recommend 5e players who are fans pick it up as well. I also recommend that you keep an eye out for any 3rd party Dragonlance content that will be published as a result of this IP now being opened up to content creators. Support our 5e fan community so that it will thrive.
In my opinion, Shadow of the Dragon Queen respects what has come before and only makes changes when it makes sense rather than adding something new for the sake of something new. I am looking forward to a future where new Dragonlance adventures are being played out on tables all around the world.
Thanks to Wizards of the Coast for the advance review copies. More importantly, thanks to Margaret Weis, Tracy Hickman and all of the original Dragonlance team for providing us a world that we continue to want to be part of and debate over even decades later.
