The test of High Magic has never been about the robes you get - they will hand you any color; the test is about the reasons and the desires of the PC. It is one of the earliest cannon expressions of Role play over Roll play in D&D. “Any young ones, you should know this - the test never is over. On your path you may find yourself slide from Red to Black robes as the most powerful among us have done- Raistlin Majere. You can only know by walking the paths in Kyrnn ( Dragonlance). The robes don’t determine your actions - your actions call for the robe’s color”
The Test is potentially lethal, potentially life-altering, and could even leave you maimed or killed. I definitely don't plan on omitting this aspect of Dragonlance.
I ran a CoS game and two of the players were Krynn mages. I ran the test for one and discussed it with the other. I made a custom scenario based on the Raistlin book Soulforged. It came out quite good. The player really loved it.
I really love the loyalty to the setting here. This Dragonlance game isn’t just interchangeable with your homebrew setting and that’s so, so valuable, especially with how setting-agnostic D&D content is made now. You have to understand the world of Krynn on a base level to properly play in it, which is something I’m endlessly glad that they’re not afraid to ask of the players.
Making them the "Mages" of High Sorcery kinda defeats the whole purpose of the order in the original lore. I understand what they are trying to do...but I don't think I'm a fan of that change. The Orders were created, and wizardly magic itself created, because the Gods of Magic needed mortals to use a more structured kind of magic, and Sorcery and the like was too unpredictable and dangerous in it's unstructured form. This is kind of why I wish they had set this new setting in the "modern" era of Dragonlance so they could have more appropriately worked these newer classes into their own groups and orders instead of re-writing the original lore. But hey, it's new Dragonlance, I'll take it! :-)
I think to an extent it still works, but only in specific senses. Keep in mind that there's different types of sorcery, not just wild magic. And in Krynn specifically being a magic user, you were kind of a wizard, a sorcerer and a warlock at the same time. You needed to spend time studying your spells like a wizard, but you also needed to have sorcerous blood from my understanding, and you also depended on the gods of magic, similarly to a warlock's patron. From my understanding at least, it was always kind of all three. Being a sorcerer using Wild Magic specifically would definitely get you in trouble with the conclave and mark you as a renegade. But I think so long as you weren't using the wild magic, and were say, the new "lunar sorcerer" for instance, it'd be perfectly valid for you to be a member of the wizards conclave, and still considered a "Wizard of High Sorcery," as a sorcerer, or a Warlock if your patron was Solinari, Lunatari, or Nuitari. After all, the terms wizard and sorcerer were actually used interchangeably in the novels at some points. Edit. I'm more concerned about the fact they've said clerics are playable, and whether or not healing magic is usable in the adventure, since it's supposed to be the early war, than the "Mages of High Sorcerery." Lord Soth being present at all, already breaks continuity.
I guess it will all depend if this is set before Elistan has headed north and started spreading the good news yet or not. It is not clear to me exactly HOW early this is supposed to be set. I was kind of under the impression that this is maybe set just prior to the Siege of Kalaman. So...maybe the timing will work out?
@@tobinmelroy2065 From what they've said, it seems like it's meant to be pre autumn twilight. And Soth wasn't involved until Highlord Skies/mid Winter Night. So unless it reaches that far over time, it's breaking continuity.
@@orangexlightning They've always been a little weird, what with Sturm and Kitiara's trip to Lunitari explicitly called out as nonsense. These are stories being retold both contemporaneously and later. As I recall the twins age was always poorly tracked by the authors for example in terms of canon rippling even in the main canon sources. Just place Kitiara's trip to Dargaard as somehow inspired by her adventures with Sturm in the 5 year gap and she does it early or even prior to her joining the Dragonarmies. Clerics is a bit more problematic given the essential trinity of Riverwind, Goldmoon, Elistan that would be cheapened by random true believer clerics. Obviously actual true believers (the ones that don't need miracles to believe) existed like Riverwind's grandfather, but unless it's some kinda very minor cleric subclass limited to a few levels I agree with you.
Now this is a great way of handling these kind of plot and world related feats that can give your character a serious power up. Gotta make them earn it
In older editions if you were a sorcerer which in Krynn used wild magic you couldn't become a Mage of High Sorcery. I guess this doesn't matter anymore?
I'm not in love with the direction they're going with some of this, but this video was worth it for, "it's like mixing the Gom Jabar from Dune with the Sorting Hat."
The test for mage of high sorcery seems interesting, but probably should really not be a mandatory element for campaigns in this setting (which it sounds to be).
In the old rules you could avoid the Test, but then were stuck at 3rd level. The gods of magic (all three) would not allow you any further until you proved responsible enough to be given more power. And even if you could somehow finagle past that restriction every High Sorcery mage you met would hunt you down as a renegade even the good ones. The later 5th Age setting book brought in non High Sorcery mages to the world.
@@rubaiyat300 There are probably ways to work around it, but it seems like quite a distraction to spend that kind of time and focus on just one character of the party when the rest don't seem to have similar elements to incorporate. That said, I'm probably jumping to conclusions based on not having all the information yet.
@@JTCollier Oh, it was possible for extra nonmagical characters to be brought in. Even 1st edition wouldn't expect the DM to devote all this time to possibly only one character. It's basically your friends and family helping you in the most important formative moment you will have as a wizard on Krynn. But of course THEY can expect to be tested too during this, and see hard truths they would rather have not.
I like the idea that there are institutions to learn magic, either you are delving down the path to become a Wizard/Bard or are a Sorcerer/Warlock who wants to learn how to control their magic. Strixhaven and the Towers of High Sorcery are good ideas to add to a game, or they play as good examples of the institutions Mages learned and honed their craft.
Kinda odd that Dragonlance gets a board game but not Spelljammer. I mean I don't expect big, but Spelljammer is like something that could be need a boardgame ala Battlefleet Gothic (plus the type of genre to make better Navy Sim).
I mean Raistlin was basically a wizard-warlock multiclass in 5E terms: his patron was the disembodied Fistandantilus. And when Raist finally manages to end Fistandantilus and replace him, he sorta becomes his own patron across time. So yeah. Sorcerers and warlocks fit fine.
You can’t do the test ‘in the field.’ You’d have to be teleported to a place blessed by all three Gods of magic. Please have someone at Wizards read the books.
Sure - but why”C”? Because you don’t want to blow the curve for other mages? Is it because you can see that is the best logical choice ? Or did you do it because the smart mages that you are spying on with your shiv chose it? No matter the reason, we have a robe for that!
I know historically when mages take the test even if there's a group of them taking it at the same time, they experience it individually so they each get their own tailored experience.
@@patmichael5514 this is exactly true. Cameron went with Rastlin during his test and he watched Rastlin even kill a copy of Cameron. Rastlin was just THAT determined to get power
@@Deathven1482 As he told his nephew much later and somewhat wiser, he gave everything for the magic. Health, happiness, love. Love of his friends, his own brother, and the one woman who might have loved him in return. He gave it all for the magic.
Will players who went through the test in their background before the campaign begins be able to participate in the special test that will happen with that special mage? It seems like it would be a big missed opportunity to have such an important test only for players who want to multi-class later on
The test of High Magic has never been about the robes you get - they will hand you any color; the test is about the reasons and the desires of the PC. It is one of the earliest cannon expressions of Role play over Roll play in D&D.
“Any young ones, you should know this - the test never is over. On your path you may find yourself slide from Red to Black robes as the most powerful among us have done- Raistlin Majere. You can only know by walking the paths in Kyrnn ( Dragonlance). The robes don’t determine your actions - your actions call for the robe’s color”
Q: "The true tests never end."
The Test is potentially lethal, potentially life-altering, and could even leave you maimed or killed. I definitely don't plan on omitting this aspect of Dragonlance.
I still have the Towers of High Sorcery supplement from the 3.5 run. I definitely plan to use it to make a Test that’s truly appropriate
I ran a CoS game and two of the players were Krynn mages. I ran the test for one and discussed it with the other. I made a custom scenario based on the Raistlin book Soulforged. It came out quite good. The player really loved it.
I really love the loyalty to the setting here. This Dragonlance game isn’t just interchangeable with your homebrew setting and that’s so, so valuable, especially with how setting-agnostic D&D content is made now.
You have to understand the world of Krynn on a base level to properly play in it, which is something I’m endlessly glad that they’re not afraid to ask of the players.
I make it my goal to force all things into my homebrew setting so they make sense and remain mostly faithful to the original flavor.
Making them the "Mages" of High Sorcery kinda defeats the whole purpose of the order in the original lore. I understand what they are trying to do...but I don't think I'm a fan of that change. The Orders were created, and wizardly magic itself created, because the Gods of Magic needed mortals to use a more structured kind of magic, and Sorcery and the like was too unpredictable and dangerous in it's unstructured form.
This is kind of why I wish they had set this new setting in the "modern" era of Dragonlance so they could have more appropriately worked these newer classes into their own groups and orders instead of re-writing the original lore. But hey, it's new Dragonlance, I'll take it! :-)
I think to an extent it still works, but only in specific senses. Keep in mind that there's different types of sorcery, not just wild magic. And in Krynn specifically being a magic user, you were kind of a wizard, a sorcerer and a warlock at the same time. You needed to spend time studying your spells like a wizard, but you also needed to have sorcerous blood from my understanding, and you also depended on the gods of magic, similarly to a warlock's patron.
From my understanding at least, it was always kind of all three. Being a sorcerer using Wild Magic specifically would definitely get you in trouble with the conclave and mark you as a renegade. But I think so long as you weren't using the wild magic, and were say, the new "lunar sorcerer" for instance, it'd be perfectly valid for you to be a member of the wizards conclave, and still considered a "Wizard of High Sorcery," as a sorcerer, or a Warlock if your patron was Solinari, Lunatari, or Nuitari.
After all, the terms wizard and sorcerer were actually used interchangeably in the novels at some points.
Edit. I'm more concerned about the fact they've said clerics are playable, and whether or not healing magic is usable in the adventure, since it's supposed to be the early war, than the "Mages of High Sorcerery." Lord Soth being present at all, already breaks continuity.
I guess it will all depend if this is set before Elistan has headed north and started spreading the good news yet or not. It is not clear to me exactly HOW early this is supposed to be set. I was kind of under the impression that this is maybe set just prior to the Siege of Kalaman. So...maybe the timing will work out?
@@tobinmelroy2065 From what they've said, it seems like it's meant to be pre autumn twilight. And Soth wasn't involved until Highlord Skies/mid Winter Night. So unless it reaches that far over time, it's breaking continuity.
@@orangexlightning that is unfortunate. :-(
@@orangexlightning They've always been a little weird, what with Sturm and Kitiara's trip to Lunitari explicitly called out as nonsense. These are stories being retold both contemporaneously and later. As I recall the twins age was always poorly tracked by the authors for example in terms of canon rippling even in the main canon sources. Just place Kitiara's trip to Dargaard as somehow inspired by her adventures with Sturm in the 5 year gap and she does it early or even prior to her joining the Dragonarmies. Clerics is a bit more problematic given the essential trinity of Riverwind, Goldmoon, Elistan that would be cheapened by random true believer clerics. Obviously actual true believers (the ones that don't need miracles to believe) existed like Riverwind's grandfather, but unless it's some kinda very minor cleric subclass limited to a few levels I agree with you.
I really like the Adept of The White Robes feat with the paired down version of the Abjurer's ability to shield others
Now this is a great way of handling these kind of plot and world related feats that can give your character a serious power up. Gotta make them earn it
When are we getting a adventures that go to 20th level ?
Whenever they figure out how to balance encounters in which they come into conflict with mortal gods. Otherwise known as bumbling PCs
you didnt need a video, all you had to say was RAISTLIN MAJERE!
Wizards only for me :-)
This test is unbelieveble the magic users of toril and other D&D worlds have it easy. Dragon Lance magic users can even die from the test.
In older editions if you were a sorcerer which in Krynn used wild magic you couldn't become a Mage of High Sorcery. I guess this doesn't matter anymore?
Mages: Now color-coded for your convenience.
good = white neutral = red and evil = black have always been a thing in dragonlance lore.
I'm not in love with the direction they're going with some of this, but this video was worth it for, "it's like mixing the Gom Jabar from Dune with the Sorting Hat."
The test for mage of high sorcery seems interesting, but probably should really not be a mandatory element for campaigns in this setting (which it sounds to be).
In the old rules you could avoid the Test, but then were stuck at 3rd level. The gods of magic (all three) would not allow you any further until you proved responsible enough to be given more power. And even if you could somehow finagle past that restriction every High Sorcery mage you met would hunt you down as a renegade even the good ones. The later 5th Age setting book brought in non High Sorcery mages to the world.
@@rubaiyat300 There are probably ways to work around it, but it seems like quite a distraction to spend that kind of time and focus on just one character of the party when the rest don't seem to have similar elements to incorporate. That said, I'm probably jumping to conclusions based on not having all the information yet.
@@JTCollier Oh, it was possible for extra nonmagical characters to be brought in. Even 1st edition wouldn't expect the DM to devote all this time to possibly only one character. It's basically your friends and family helping you in the most important formative moment you will have as a wizard on Krynn. But of course THEY can expect to be tested too during this, and see hard truths they would rather have not.
@@JTCollier actually the knights of solomnia and even later the nights of nerakis had their own trials to go thru just like the mages of high sorcery.
I like the idea that there are institutions to learn magic, either you are delving down the path to become a Wizard/Bard or are a Sorcerer/Warlock who wants to learn how to control their magic. Strixhaven and the Towers of High Sorcery are good ideas to add to a game, or they play as good examples of the institutions Mages learned and honed their craft.
Kinda odd that Dragonlance gets a board game but not Spelljammer.
I mean I don't expect big, but Spelljammer is like something that could be need a boardgame ala Battlefleet Gothic (plus the type of genre to make better Navy Sim).
Why not make your own?
The answer is to make a smiley face on the scantron
yeah id just make everyone who is not a wizard play a wizard or hunt down the non wizards because that's how it would happen in the setting
Did he hint that Fistandantilus administers the test?!
Seems so. Aside from Raistlin change, the only “Change” is from Fistandantilus.
no fistandantilus doesnt administer the test in raists case that was just an old lich trying to get a new body.
But will it by ol' Fisty or will it be Raistlin, since he traveled back in time and replaced Fistandantilus?
So um... where are the new feats that the title spoke of?
Very glad to hear that the Test will be in some way featured in the book
Yeah... Raistlin Majere
I mean Raistlin was basically a wizard-warlock multiclass in 5E terms: his patron was the disembodied Fistandantilus. And when Raist finally manages to end Fistandantilus and replace him, he sorta becomes his own patron across time. So yeah. Sorcerers and warlocks fit fine.
Can I eventually challenge Raistlin Majere to a duel?
WIZARDS of High Sorcery
Anyone that did not take the test but continued to learn magic would be deemed a renegade, they would be forced to take the test or die.
I couldnt find the test in the adventure... I found where i think its supposed to be but they... dont really do the test.
Reasons to buy this book:
1- You have been a fan of Dragonlance since the last millennium
2- You can take a test (that might kill you)!
You can’t do the test ‘in the field.’ You’d have to be teleported to a place blessed by all three Gods of magic. Please have someone at Wizards read the books.
That's the problem. They are using Sensitivity Readers instead of competent readers
Books are for clerks.
I would have not surived this test without a trade with a god. And i later tried to slay a God!
Can I pick “C” for all the answers in this test?
Sure - but why”C”? Because you don’t want to blow the curve for other mages? Is it because you can see that is the best logical choice ? Or did you do it because the smart mages that you are spying on with your shiv chose it? No matter the reason, we have a robe for that!
@@leodouskyron5671 Perhaps I didn't pay attention enough to the director and just winging this test. If I explode well it has been fun. lol
What if the “test” was the orc and the pie?
Anyone else have the experience of loosing a sense of reading a book and just taking the test when reading Soul Forged?
Tales of the Lance Campaign setting gave guidelines for The Test
Mages are naughty.
Wonder what happens when multiple people want to take the test.
Doesnt the test adapt to it for the mage or does it kick people out to make each an individual test? Been a while since I read anything DL
I believe a party can help the wizard if they choose so, but the test is adjusted in difficulty, and they are all susceptible to death.
I know historically when mages take the test even if there's a group of them taking it at the same time, they experience it individually so they each get their own tailored experience.
@@patmichael5514 this is exactly true. Cameron went with Rastlin during his test and he watched Rastlin even kill a copy of Cameron.
Rastlin was just THAT determined to get power
@@Deathven1482 As he told his nephew much later and somewhat wiser, he gave everything for the magic. Health, happiness, love. Love of his friends, his own brother, and the one woman who might have loved him in return. He gave it all for the magic.
hello there
“Can I die during it?!”
I’m sorry, but when have you ever met a D&D player that wanted their character to die
Wanting a character to die is not the same as wanting it to be possible or even likely for a character to die.
Hope is not as poorly made as Spelljammer. Will not preorder d&d books again. It's sad that 3rd party books are better then official books.
Hello
Will players who went through the test in their background before the campaign begins be able to participate in the special test that will happen with that special mage? It seems like it would be a big missed opportunity to have such an important test only for players who want to multi-class later on