The latest Unearthed Arcana article for Dungeons & Dragons is called "Heroes of Krynn" and it features playtest rules for races and classes from the world of Krynn, suggesting that the Dragonlance campaign setting is returning to D&D. The article contains stats for the kender race, which is often considered to be Dragonlance's equivalent to the halfling race in most D&D campaign worlds. The truth is a little more complex, as kender might be the race in the D&D multiverse that is most suited for the adventuring lifestyle but is also the one most likely to get the party into trouble.
The main drive of the average kender's personality is curiosity. They want to experience and see everything in the whole wide world. This drive often gets the kender into trouble, as not all of them are wise enough to recognize danger when it rears its ugly head. Kender also experience a phenomenon known as "handling", where they will accidentally take items that interest them and be oblivious to how they got there. This was always an easy recipe for getting a party of adventurers into trouble, which is why some groups don't allow kender characters outside of lighthearted games. By far the most famous kender is Tasslehoff Burrfoot of the Heroes of the Lance, who helped save the world on multiple occasions in the Dragonlance novels.
The new version of the kender in Unearthed Arcana ties the race to the Feywild, which partly explains their curious nature. This has been a recurring theme in modern D&D books, as Monsters of the Multiverse updated the goblinoid races by making them natives of the Feywild. The brief description of the race in the article downplays the handling aspect of kender personality, making it so that their pouches are magically filled with random items, and the kender has no idea how they got there.
Kender Are Incredibly Annoying D&D Halflings
Like all races that have been introduced since D&D race rules changed in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, a kender player puts +2 into one stat and +1 into another. All kender are Small-sized Humanoids with a movement speed of 30ft. The race has three features, though one of them isn't gained until they hit level three. A kender has access to the Brave ability, which gives them advantage on saving throws against the frightened condition. This is a reference to how kender were fearless in the novels, though a few locations could strike something close to fear into their heart, such as the haunted grove around the Tower of High Sorcery in Palanthas. A kender also has the Taunt ability, where the enemy is forced to pass a Wisdom saving throw or have disadvantage on all attacks until the kender's next turn. Taunt takes a bonus action to use, can be used a number of times equal to proficiency bonus, and is refreshed on a long rest. When a Kender hits level three, they gain access to the Kender Ace ability, which lets them magically pull an item out of a container. This takes a bonus action to use and the player rolls 1d6 to determine what item appears. Kender Ace can be used a number of times equal to proficiency bonus and is refreshed on a long rest.
The kender race is one of the weaker options available in D&D, which makes sense, as they've generally been treated as the comic relief characters in the Dragonlance novels. The Kender Ace ability is especially notable as something that players would use for a joke, in the same way that players love wild magic mishaps when playing as a sorcerer. With all of that being said, the kender race in Unearthed Arcana is still considered to be playtest material, which means that it could be improved in the future, assuming that new Dragonlance Dungeons & Dragons book is released in the future.
Source: Unearthed Arcana