Druids in Dragonlance

After the  After the Monk, the Minstrel, and the Ranger, time  has come to discuss the Druid class.

Druids in D&D 

D&D's druids are like wizards, using prepared-spellcasting mechanics.

Druids in Dragonlance

Druids are mentioned multiple times in the novel, but the rules are not clear, depending on the edition your sourcebooks are.

In my campaign, the gods of nature, Chislev, Habbakuk and Zeboim do not have clerics. They have druids, instead, with the following changes:

• Druids need to follow a god's teaching to get access to spells.
• Druids have a Medallion of Faith
• Druids have access to the normal D&D's druid spell list, plus the spell of their god's domains/vocations

So, the following gods have druids:

Chislev

Of course.

Morgion

This one can come as a surprise, but Morgion having corrupted/corrupting druids makes sense. Nature under their care twists, and becomes corrupt, harboring mutated creatures and wasting diseases threatening both wilderness and civivilized grounds.

Any other druid would see a druid following Morgion's teachings as an enemy.

Habbakuk

Of course.

Zeboim

Of course.

Is there more, to druids?

The main difference between druids and clerics is that clerics have divine channeling, while druids are more servants of a more natural force. Expanding from that, you might make the association cleric/wizard and druid/sorcerer.

This mixes nicely with Sylvyana, the Ghoul Queen, being a druid. Unlike a normal cleric of Chemosh, who is a devoted, willing servant of Chemosh, Sylvyana would be more like a natural ally of undeath (and, by extension, death), her power coming not from faith, but from a deep connection with undeath.

So, maybe other kind of druids might be possible.

Conclusion

Next post: The Paladin...

Rangers in Dragonlance

 After the Monk, and the Minstrel, time  has come to discuss the Ranger class.

Rangers in D&D

IIRC, the D&D ranger was inspired by Tolkien's ranger, in particular Aragorn.

The Ranger shares similar spellcasting mechanics with the Sorcerer, but with a limited spell list similar in philosophy with the druid, which makes it awkward in the Age of Despair.

Rangers in Dragonlance

There's no much to add: If Bards were easily customized for Fourth Age Dragonlance, then the ranger will be much more easier to change.

Actually, it is limited to the following changes:

• Rangers need to follow a god's teaching to get access to spells.
• Rangers have a Medallion of Faith
• Rangers  has access to the normal D&D's ranger spell list, plus the spell of their god's domains/vocations

Then, only the following gods have rangers as priests:

Chislev

Of course.

Habbakuk

Of course.

Zeboim

Of course.

Conclusion

That was one fast. I expect the next on druids to be as easy...

😁

Minstrels: Bards in Dragonlance

Leliana, bard of Dragon Age

As I explained in the previous, Monks in Dragonlance post, I have a need to differentiate the "priests" from different gods. I guess it comes from AD&D 2nd Edition, where priests had access to only a relevant subset of the whole cleric spell list, instead of everything.

In this post, I'll talk about the bard.

Bards in D&D

As described in the official description, Bards are masters of word-based and music-based magic. They have access to their own spell list, mixing a bit of arcane spells list (e.g. charm person) and divine magic (e.g. healing word). Their spellcasting mechanics are the same as the sorcerers.

Bards in Dragonlance

As sorcerers, vanilla D&D5 bards use ambient magic, which is a big no-no in Age of Despair's era of Dragonlance, so they can't be used as such. And yet, we have at least one god, Branchala, also called the Bard King, who is clearly all about bards of the fifth edition, so I guess we have something to work with.

Let's call the following bard variant Minstrel, to avoid confusion with the D&D5 vanilla bard. The Minstrel has the following modifications, overthe vanilla bard class:

• The Minstrel spells are divine in nature, given by their god
• The Minstrel has a medaillion of faith 
• The Minstrel has, in addition to their known spells, has access to the spells given in the domains/vocations of their god.

From there, one can specialize their Minstrel using one of the many bard archetypes described in the various D&D5e sourcebooks.

A little digression: What about Leliana?

I've always liked the Dragon Age's Bard. Masters and mistresses of intrigue, assassination, sabotage, and espionage, like the hardened Leliana, of the Dragon Age universe, the bard who became spy for the Divine, and later, the Inquisitor's spymaster (and possibly, the next Divine).

So, yeah...

While they are quite different from the vanilla bard, they are still bards, in a way (if only for the song-based powers).

So, yeah, as far as I am concerned, Dragon Age Bards are viable D&D5e bards.

Branchala

All priests of Branchala should be Minstrels, unless exception. They should also have access to any bard archetype, unlike the other god's Minstrels.

'nuf said.

Sirrion

In the Holy Order of the Stars sourcebook, there's a prestige class called the Firebrand of Sirrion. And to be fair, I believe bards are very good priests for Sirrion. Actually, priests of Sirrion should all be Minstrels.

Hiddukel

As for Takhisis (see below), and for the same reasons, the Minstrel is well adapted to follow Hiddukel's teachings, using their talent for manipulation and intrigue to subjugate and corrupt.

Takhisis

What happens if you mix:

• the Dragon Age Bard above, and
  
• the Dark Pilgrim prestige class from D&D3.5's Holy Order of the Stars, and
  
• the College of Whispers from Xanathar's Guide to Everything?
  

The perfect Minstrel character for Takhisis (who already has the clerics, and monks, so yeah, she's everywhere) to infiltrate places of power, and soft-control over them.

Zeboim

There is a prestige class called the Seawolf of Zeboim, in the D&D3.5 edition Holy Order of the Stars sourcebook. While it seems more like a barbarian, it does give off a Viking's vibe... and among the norse culture, the Skald was never far.

As one of the three gods of nature (with Chislev and Habbakuk), I give Zeboim's priesthood access to the druid and ranger class. But the Skald cannot be overlooked, so a  priest of Zeboim can be based on the Minstrel class, too.

Conclusion

Here are the Minstrels, the bards of Krynn, in my campaign.

Like the monk, they greatly enhance the variety of priests in my campaign, provided you select the right archetypes.

Next post will be about the rangers of Dragonlance...

Monks in Dragonlance

I have a need to differentiate the "priests" from the different gods more than just the outfit, and a few domains.

One of the way to do this is the recycle the new classes (or class archetypes) provided by D&D5 rules, and that are not normally available in a War of the Lance era campaign.

For example, we could have: "priests of Branchala are always bards."

Today, I want to focus on monks

Monks in D&D

I don't expect this to still be a problem in the 21th century, but D&D monks are, and always have been inspired by pop culture Shaolin-style monks. Not the European Name of the Rose-style monks.

So, yeah: D&D monks are spiritual, and also physically fit, unarmed (or exotically armed), warriors, able to harness something called ki to power supernatural effects.

Monks in Dragonlance

Not this kind of monk, though...

 Monks somehow violates the  "ambient magic" rule of Dragonlance: They are able to yield supernatural powers, and yet, neither use arcane nor divine magic, even if they might follow some god's teachings.

Were it not for Majere being a god of monks (and one of my players loving them), I would have dumped that class from a War of the Lance era campaign, but one can't ignore Majere's followers, which lead me to two choices:

• Monk's powers are divine, and given by their gods: For me, this is as problematic as mages receiving their spells from their gods. This isn't what this class is about, so no.
• Monk's powers are "innate": This adds an exception for supernatural effects to be generated outside of the divine and arcane domains. It's not ideal, but I can live with that.
  

So, yeah, I chose the second solution: Monks are somehow able to tap into some kind of supernatural inner power, similar to the later eras' mystic class, and this is ok with everyone involved.

Majere

The god of discipline, meditation, thought (and, for some reason, industry... I'll ignore than from now on) has always been a natural fit for the monk. But Majere is a good-aligned god, which somehow implies that most (if not all) monks might be followers of Majere.

This is contradicted by D&D3.5 Dragonlance sourcebooks, though, but the "stigma" remains.

The order of monks of Majere is called Claren Elian, which seems to have been once tied to the Elian Isles and the Claren Elian ruins in these isles, east of Ansalon (The monks of these isles seem to have been "corrupted" into a sect of assassins by Takhisis at some point - see below).

In my campaign, all (class) monks revere Majere as the divine power of Discipline. But that doesn't make them priests or servants of Majere. Indeed, monks orders are simply that, orders. Some will follow a variant of some god's teachings, and others won't. But all of them will recognize Majere's Discipline as perfection of mind and body. Majere itself doesn't grant divine spells (and thus doesn't have priesthood in the cleric class sense of term).

Most monk orders teach the Way of the Open Hand, but some orders have experimented in alternative uses of the ki. In rule terms, most monks archetypes are suitable for monks, as long as there is a reason for that archetype to exist (most probably belonging to a specific order). These alternative orders of monks might or might not revere another god, in addition to following Majere's example.

The Emmide

The emmide, a staff-like weapon of monks of Majere, was described in the Holy Order of the Stars sourcebook, but was not updated since. Here is my D&D5 version, deriving from the D&D5 quarterstaff:

Emmide:

• Price: 2 sp
• Damage: 1d6 bludgeoning
• Weight: 2 kg (4 lbs)
• Special: Each attack can be either Reach (3 meters / 10 feet) or Versatile (1d8)

Other Ways, other Orders...

While most monk orders follow the teachings of Majere, and the Way of the Open Hand, each order has its own specificity, from the color and style of clothing, to even their approach to interaction with the outside world.

In addition to the default orders, you'll find below some known orders of Ansalon.

The Aesthetic Monks of Gilean

While the "aesthetic monks", based out of the Great Library of Palanthas, are monks in the denominative sense, I believe they are more similar to the western concept of monk, than the shaolin one.

Yet, the Great Library seems (conveniently) to be one of the two building having survived the destruction of Palanthas during the Blue Lady's war, thanks to the aesthetic's zeal:

The fact that it stood at all was due, in large part, to the heroics of the Aesthetics. Led by the rotund Bertrem, whose courage was kindled, so it was said, by the sight of a draconian daring to lay a clawed hand upon one of the sacred books, the Aesthetics attacked the enemy with such zeal and such a wild, reckless disregard for their own lives that few of the reptilian creatures escaped.

But, like the rest of Palanthas, the Aesthetics paid a grievous price for victory. Many of their order perished in the battle. These were mourned by their brethren, their ashes given honored rest among the books that they had sacrificed their lives to protect. 

- Test of the Twins, Book 3, Chapter 12

So, I guess I might make an exception, should I find a suitable archetype, and how can monks train in unarmed combat in a library...

These monks revere Gilean, and follow the Way of the Cobalt Soul (from the Critical Role campaign).

The Claren Elian of Takhisis

This order of monks seems to have emerged from humans enslaved to dwarves.

Since then, they have built their own power, and became spies, saboteurs and assassins for hire. Where other orders are more Shaolin-like, they are more ninja-like monks, proficient in infiltration, espionage, and assassinations, and bearing ninja-tos and shurikens as monk weapons.

In addition to the Way of the Open Hand (for those deemed unfit), the best monks of this order follow the Way of Shadows (Player Handbook). In addition to Majere as the divine power of Discipline, the Claren Elian have a reverence to Takhisis, for they see in her divine power of Control a mirror of their own efforts, and of course, because of her own mastery over darkness, mirroring their own.

Radiant Souls

In my campaign, an order apparently lost to time, the order of Radiant Souls went beyond the Way of the Open Hand, in a more militant way, able to harness their inner power into external, radiant energy.

Legends associated this order with Paladine (There is a slight mention in the Holy Orders of the Stars sourcebook, related to the prestige class Bright Warden of Paladine) or, more frequently, with Kiri-Jolith. In rule terms, these monks followed the Way of the Sun Soul (Xanathar's Guide to Everything), and a legendary monk from the Age of Dreams is rumored to be a Gold Dragon who, through spiritual discipline, ascended beyond fire, having a radiant breath weapon.

Ascendant Dragon

These monks learn to harness the power of dragons. While they might be tied to either Paladine or Takhisis, the truth is dragons are primordial creatures of Krynn, and harnessing their power is as natural as harnessing the power of the mountains, or of the water, for a monk martial artist.

In rule terms, they follow the Way of the Dragon Ascendant from the Fizban's Treasury of Dragons.

Orders associated with gods...

Below are seeds of ideas for monk orders, including official background information.

Sargonnas

Even if Sargonnas is Lawful Evil, and even if the D&D3.5 Dragonlance Campaign Setting explicitly mentions monks of Sargonnas, and if the Holy Orders of the Stars mention that Sargonnas is "lord of evil monks", I find it quite strange to have monks following the teaching of a god of anger, vengeance and rage.

In my campaign, despite how cool a minotaur monk might be, no monks of Sargonnas, unless I find a suitable archetype (some kind or raging monk?).

Sirrion

In the Holy Orders of the Stars sourcebook, it is mentioned that the Phaeton race has an order of monks, The Order of Sirithos, dedicated to Sirrion. While I'm not keen in non-meditative monks (see Sargonnas), Avatar: The Last Airbender has a pretty cool example of firebending monks, that somehow clicks it for me.

I've yet to find a Firebender-style monk archetype to dedicate it to these monks (the four elements archetype in the Player Handbook is not suitable), but in the meantime, using the Way of the Sun Soul archetype (Xanathar's Guide to Everything),but changing the element damage from Radiant to Fire does the trick.

Zivilyn

Probably the most "mystical" (as in "strange and mysterious") of all the gods, it is mentioned in the Holy Orders of the Stars sourcebook that some monks follow Zivilyn. They usually follow the Way of the Cobalt Soul (from the Critical Role campaign).

Conclusion

Here are the monks of Krynn, in my campaign.

They offer a great deal of variety, hopefully backed by suitable archetypes.

Next time, I'll delve into the Bard class...

Priest Vocations for the Holy Orders of the Stars

Chris Dien, Holy Orders of the Stars rulebook

In previous posts (here, and here, and here), I shared an alternative mechanics for the D&D5 Cleric: Priest as a Cleric archetype, and Vocations as better designed Domains.

Here, I will share my own variation on the Holy Orders of the Stars, using this custom Priest and Vocations variants, basing the choices of Spheres on what is available in the Holy Orders of the Star sourcebook, as well as other D&D books.

Vocations

It is important to keep in mind that these vocations are offered as alternative to D&D3.5's and D&D5's domains in a D&D5 ruleset.

Also, in my campaign, some gods do not have Clerics, but alternative classes. For example, Chislev only has druids (or rangers), Majere only has monks, and Branchala only has bards, and Kiri-Jolith's name has changed (the original name sounds dumb in French...). But this is campaign specific, so feel free to ignore.

Pantheon of Good

• Branchala: Arts, Charm/Love
  
• Habbakuk: Nature, Water
  
• Kiri-Jolith: Strength/Feats/Courage, War
  
• Majere: Meditation
  
• Mishakal: Life/Healing, Cure
  
• Paladine: Justice/Nobility, Light, Protection
  
• Solinari: -
  

Pantheon of Balance

• Chislev: Earth, Nature
  
• Gilean: Knowledge
  
• Lunitari: -
• Reorx: Earth, Forge
  
• Shinare: Commerce, Travels
  
• Sirrion: Charm/Love, Fire
  
• Zivilyn: Knowledge, Time
  

Pantheon of Evil

• Chemosh: Death, Undeath
• Hiddukel: Charm/Love, Deception/Illusion
• Morgion: Illness/Weakness
• Nuitari: -
• Sargonnas: Strength/Feats/Courage, War
• Takhisis: Deception/Illusion, Night/Darkness, Tyranny
• Zeboim: Thunder/Storms, Water
  

Conclusion

With the above information, I hope you have now an alternative to D&D5's rather coarse domains, making your Cleric much more specific to their deity than normally possible.

What's the problem with renegade mages?

One of the questions asked by one player was why the Orders of High Sorcery were so Inquisition-like when interacting with other wizards.

You can then tell them the stories: Before high sorcery, magic was wild/chaotic, and wizards casting spells did sometimes critical mistakes, resulting into tremendous damage.

But if the player then replies: "I want to make a vanilla-wizard. No High Sorcery moon shenanigans."

To be fair, in the rules, there's nothing to justify the background/historical explanation, and the wizards of High Sorcery then appear like overzealous, intolerant morons.

Here, I propose a modification in the D&D5 rules to explain why mages of High Sorcery are not that crazed.

Non-High Sorcery Mages in Krynn

Important: My campaign happens just after the Chronicles/Legends novels, so the only arcane spellcaster class is the PHB wizard. This might change later, of course. But this is the state, and has been the state since the foundation of High Sorcery.

Wild Mage in Krynn

So, any wizard who was not trained by a suitable tutor (i.e. someone with sufficient High Sorcery education) is considered, in rule terms, as a Wild Mage.

They are PHB vanilla wizards, in everything (rules, etc.), but unlike mages of High Sorcery, they are plagued with an effect called Wild Surge.

In rule terms, these Wild Mages can be converted to High Sorcery wizards of the same level, if given the right education/instruction.

Wild Surge

The rule is simple: Every time a Wild Mage cast a spell (or a cantrip), they must cast a d100. If the roll is equal or higher to 100 minus the (slot) level of the spell, then the casting is considered a critical failure, and a wild surge happens.

A wild surge is a chaotic, unexpected effect, replacing the expected spell effect. To determine which wild effect happens, use the AD&D 2nd Edition Wild Surge Results table, which can be found here: https://adnd2e.fandom.com/wiki/TOM_Wild_Magic_Tables

Keep in mind this is treated like a critical failure: In other words, it is expected the effect will be altered in such way by the game master as to maximize unexpected damage. For example, one effect might enhance the power of your magic missile spell, like launching 50 magic missiles instead of a mere 5. But these magic missiles would fire at random targets, including other party members, friends, or even simple passerby civilians.

Also, I would even go further, and replace the entry for result 96 with: Spell effectiveness (range, duration, area of effect, damage, etc.) is multiplied by 100. This makes very clear un rule term how a Wild Mage is a danger to everyone anywhere near them, no matter how well-intentioned they are.

Innate Mage in Krynn

Some mortals have a natural, innate talent for magic.

For example, the mother of Raistlin and Caramon Majere was prone to some kind of fugue ("she let the magic control her").

In rule-terms, they might be handled as D&D5 sorcerers, but with the same Wild Surge rule above applied to them, no matter their sorcerous origin, possibly with a variant table focusing on their background (for example, the mother of Raistlin might have had a table focused on different kind of psychosis-style effects.

As above, these Wild Mages can be converted to High Sorcery wizards of the same level, if given the right education/instruction.

What about other spell casters?

This is handled in the same spirit as above. Anyone practicing arcane magic without a formal High Sorcery training will be subject to wild surges.

Divine Spellcasters

Their magic coming from gods and goddesses, they are not subject to Wild Surges, of course.

In my campaign, rangers, druids, and even bards are considered divine spell casters.

Former High Sorcery mages

Mages who left the orders can (and will usually be) considered renegades.

Those who continue to study magic while dodging the Test are always considered renegades.

Those who passed the Test successfully, but for some reason have diverged too much from the guiding principles of High Sorcery are also considered renegades.

But as they have the training of a High Sorcery mage, they are not subject to Wild Surges.

Conclusion

Now, you have a tangible reason to justify the existence of the Orders of High Sorcery.

You might find the rule impractical, or unbalanced against players who would be attracted by the idea of playing a Wild Mage, but this is the point: You don't want to use the rule in gameplay.

This rule is there just to explain in objective terms why mages of High Sorcery are wary of any non-High Sorcery wizard.