He stood in the doorway, leaning on a worn oak staff and peered around the Inn. The tattered hood of his plain, gray robe was drawn over his head, its shadows obscuring the features of his face except for his hawkish, shining eyes.
Dragons of Autumn Twilight
And with that, we had our first introduction into one of the most beloved characters in the Dragonlance Chronicles… Fizban the Fabulous! Easily understood to be a Gandalf-type character – an :inciting incident” in human form – Fizban arrives at the Inn of the Last Home, rearranges the furniture (to Tika’s dismay), tells some stories to the assembled children and, through some interesting choices, put the Companions onto the road that led to the eventual defeat of the Dragon Army.
He later shows up to travel with the Companions at different times, always in a way that helps move the story along while deepening the lore. We won’t spoil any of the twists and turns to who Fizban is, just in case anyone hasn’t read the books!
Similarly to the changes we made to the Cleric class, I wanted some aspects that made the world of Krynn significantly different from other campaign settings. One of the easiest ways to do this is adding in the character of Fizban… even easier when that works with one of the characters backstories.
The Wand of Wonder as a Person
While Fizban looks like a traditional Gandalf-type wizard, he is anything but. A confused, doddering and incredibly powerful Wizard, he seems to forget what he’s doing, who he’s talking to, and most of his incantations in every scene – casting Fireball at the most opportune, or inopportune times, depending on where you’re standing.
In this way, borrowing from the fun we had in our Curse of Strahd campaign with our personified Agent of Chaos in Little One, the gnome artificer, and her Wand of Wonder, I crafted Fizban’s “spell list” on one page of my notes – the Wand of Wonder effects.
Each time Fizban casts a spell, whether it be Light, Prestidigitation, or even Fireball, roll on the Wand of Wonder table and see what spell he actually remembers! And if the idea of friendly fire is a little too dicey for you and your table (as it was for DM Tony), you can always use his modified Wand of Wonder stats.
In this way, Fizban can easily become an NPC that shows up to move the plot along, drop some needed lore, or just alert the guards to everyone’s presence!
Final Thoughts
When playing in established worlds like Krynn, its important to add certain embellishes and flairs that speak to the source material – even if your players aren’t familiar with the world. Remember, they’re characters are often meeting these people and going to these places for the first time. You might know who Darth Vader is, but your characters in your Star Wars campaign still haven’t met the guy!
There are certain things that speak to these specific campaign worlds, things that immediately place you in the story. Fizban and his doddering ineptitude being one of the preeminent ones in Dragonlance… that’s why he shows up before the first chapter even begins!
And, hopefully, this will let you place the lovable, legendary, and fabulous Fizban into your Dragonlance campaign.
Until next time, Heroes… LIVE THE ADVENTURE!
Got a Question?
3 Wise DMs mission is to help DMs with problems that you can’t find answers to in the rulebooks. If you’ve got a question or a problem, visit the website and enter it in the “What’s Your Problem” field. Or reach out to us at 3wisedms@gmail.com.
YouTube!
3 Wise DMs is scaling up into the 21st Century! We’ve begun loading our new episodes, starting with our “Back in Black” return episode onto our shiny, brand-new YouTube channel. We’d love if you’d all head over and Subscribe and “Hit the Bell Icon” to get all the latest from 3WD as we venture into new multimedia territory.
Be sure to LIKE and FOLLOW us on Facebook and Instagram as well and please, feel free to share with your friends or anyone else who rolls funny looking dice!
Need Dice?
If you’re in the market for dice (and who isn’t?) visit our affiliate link at FanRoll Dice and enter code 3WISEDMS10 to get 10% off your entire order!
Interesting! Without realizing it I tried to make my Hazbin character in the Woodstock Campaign an almost duplicate of Fizban–even though I’d never heard of him at the time! 🙂