Raistlin's twin brother and self-appointed protector. Caramon is strong yet a little slow (but not stupid) in contrast to his brilliant but frail twin. Caramon is loyal to a fault to his brother and frequently puts himself in harm's way to protect Raistlin despite the knowledge that Raistlin is willing to kill him to achieve his ends; his main story arc throughout the series is learning to step out from Raistlin's shadow and see his twin as he really is. Caramon is in love with Tika Waylan, whom he marries; Palin Majere (see below) is their son.
Big Eater: Caramon eats a lot in the "Chronicles" series, and is miserable if he's deprived of regular (and very large) meals. Despite this, he never gets fat, presumably due to his active lifestyle. In the "Legends" series after Raistlin abandons him, he becomes so depressed that he ceases to be active and takes up drinking heavily. That, combined with his big eating, soon turns him into a tub of lard.
The Caretaker: It's repeatedly shown that he needs Raistlin more than Raistlin needs him, and that his whole identity is wrapped up in being his brother's protector. In Legends, his Character Development revolves around finding his own worth as an individual, and letting go of his twin.
A scatter-brained old wizard who repeatedly runs into the Companions and frequently gets them into trouble, only to get them out of it again seemingly by accident. His meddling often leads them down just the right path they needed to take, but whether it's intentional or not is unclear. He and Tasslehoff become good friends. He is actually the great god Paladine in disguise, and his eccentric facade masks careful planning.
Brainless Beauty: Subverted. When she first appears Laurana comes across as simply an airhead princess Tanis has outgrown; but she proves that she is a lot braver, smarter, and tougher than everyone thinks (and this is even before she Took a Level in Badass).
Apocalypse How: He causes a Class 6 one in the alternate timeline where he killed all of the deities.
The Archmage: The most powerful Wizard to ever walk upon Krynn.
Blessed with Suck: His eyes not only look freaky, they cause everything he sees to wither and decay, which is strongly implied caused his eventual changes. They do give him an advantage in seeing through magical illusions, though this is hardly a common enough occurance to warrant their sanity-crushing default effects.
Brought Down to Normal: The gods take away his magic for a while after he is rescued by Paladine from Takhisis. They let him have it back so he can help them find Krynn in the Fifth Age.
Genre Savvy: Especially clear earlier in the Chronicles books, where all the other heroes tend to dismiss Raistlin's warnings as "Children's Stories" only for him to swiftly be proved right and save all their asses. Becomes Dangerously Genre Savvy after his Face Heel Turn.
Heel Face Turn: After he dies he later manages to come back to the world of the living during the Chaos War for a short while and he admits he was being a fool when he was trying to kill all of the gods. He also helps the gods find the world that was stolen by Takhisis in the War of Souls trilogy.
Incurable Cough of Death: A side-effect of his perpetual weakness, caused by the shattering of his health in the Tower.
Ill Guy: He suffers from something that is similar to Tuberculosis, but it is not contagious. It is eventually revealed that Fistandantilus leeching his lifeforce is what is causing him to be sick.
Rule Of Cool: This is the main reason behind his hourglass eyes. The first artist who painted him gave him hourglass eyes just because they looked cool. It was up to Margaret Weis to come up with a reason for them. This led to the creation of the Test of High Sorcery as an explanation for how Raistlin got his eyes, and for the idea of Wizards needing to take a test.
Virgin Power: In the Annotated Legends it is said that Raistlin must resist sleeping with Crysania to "preserve his power". given the way magic works in the setting, it is unlikely that Raistlin would have actually lost his powers if he had slept with Crysania. So the meaning of that statement is a little ambiguous.
White-Haired Pretty Boy: Got the white long hair, but the pretty boy part is highly debatable.
Who's Laughing Now?: A lot of his behavior can be traced back to how he was bullied as a kid.
Early in Dragons of Autumn Twilight he rants to Tanis that one day the world will be his and he will show them all etc. etc. Tanis notes that he's used to it, apparently Raistlin does this alot.
Not So Stoic: A few times, but most notably after Goldmoon's supposed death when the heroes are trying to escape, he goes completely berserk and tears the draconians apart with his bare hands.
Unstoppable Rage: Mostly when Goldmoon is in danger. He is a barbarian, after all.
A half-elf warrior and the de facto leader of the Companions. Son of an elven noblewoman who was raped by a human warrior, Tanis is torn between his two heritages, as well as between the human woman Kitiara and the elf princess Laurana. Flint acts as a surrogate father to him.
Spanner in the Works: Kender in general tend to have this effect, but Tas is an especially notable example.
Time Travel Escape: The entire reason for the Mina storyline. He skipped out of time before getting crushed by Chaos's foot, which created a reality paradox where Mina got tricked into being a priestess of Takhisis, who was able to block out all the other gods in the War of Souls. He of course caused everything to be screwed up in the first place, but the fact that he knew how reality was supposed to be meant he could change things.
Big Breasts, Big Deal: Usually Type III, though when she first encounters the impossibly elegant, and more modestly endowed, Laurana, she feels a bit self-conscious about how much cleavage she's showing.
The Chessmaster: She's quite intelligent, though she's not as good at it as her little brother (which ends up biting her hard after she underestimates him)
Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Possibly due the combination of her ambition and her not being very wise, as noted below, she continually forms alliances and then betrays her allies.
Ditzy Genius: In game terms she has a canon Intelligence score of 13 and Wisdom score of 7 (the human average for both is 10). In other words she's very cunning but not very wise and prone to impulsive decisions. This ultimately leads to her downfall.
Hot Mom: It's eventually revealed that, when Kitiara slept with Sturm towards the end of the "Darkness and Light" prelude novel, she became pregnant with his bastard son. For reasons of her own, she gave birth to him and then abandoned him with an adopted mother, giving him the name "Steel Brightblade".
Psycho Ex-Girlfriend: To Tanis, though she's less psycho than "Power-hungry Ex Girlfriend".
The Strategist: As he emphasizes in his introduction, it was his strategy that allowed the Dragon Highlords to conquer as much land as they did, before the Dragonlance was remade.
You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: As he is dying he calls on Takhisis to save him - but she refuses because she's decided on Kitiara as her new favorite in the mortal world.
Small Name, Big Ego: He commissioned a thirty-seven-volume biography of his life in which he claimed to be "the love child of Queen Takhisis, after Her Dark Majesty fell head over heels in love with Toede's father, a hobgoblin of enormous good looks and manly prowess, traits that he would pass on to his son," and that he was named after Takhisis's "uncle", "Toede Highgod".
Back from the Dead: Possibly. Zeboim recovers his trapped soul in Amber and Iron so it seems unlikely he'll be staying dead.
Half-Human Hybrid: He's the son of human warlord Ariakas and the goddess Zeboim.
Noble Demon: In complete contrast to his father Ariakan is presented as a much more sympathetic and, yes noble figure. He's still fully dedicated to conquering the world on behalf of an evil goddess mind you.
Sleep Mode Size - In the third book of the Dark Disciple Trilogy, Amber & Blood, she turns into a child with no memories of what happened to her before, save that Goldmoon was her "mother".
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Though as the other tropes listed for him indicate, he's only a hero in the most arguable sense.
Unwitting Pawn: Turns out that everything he did was puppetmastered by Fistandantilus
Well-Intentioned Extremist: He only wanted to eliminate evil from the world. In the course of doing that, however, he basically became more evil than anyone ever had.
Small Name, Big Ego: Kind of; she believes herself to be a very powerful magic-user, but it's quite obvious that her "talismans" and the like are useless and she's got as much talent for magic as the old dead lizard she likes to stick in people's ears.
You No Take Candle: Like most gully dwarves, she doesn't speak very well.
Crossover: According to the "Wizards Three" articles that used to run in Dragon magazine, he's acquainted with Elminster of the Forgotten Realms and Mordenkainen of Greyhawk and used to meet them for dinner parties in the home of Ed Greenwood. This is apparently canon, at least in Forgotten Realms.
Villain Protagonist: He's a self-proclaimed Evil Sorcerer, but generally winds up one of the "good guys" in any novel where he's a major character - which accounts for a lot of the Betrayal Tropes listed above.
Defector from Decadence: Started out as a member of the Seeker cult, but with good intentions.
Easy Evangelism: Goldmoon converted him to the worship of Paladine with one simple parable. He had been searching desperately for something to believe in up to that point, though.
Informed Ability: We're told he's a great speaker who was able to move a skeptical Crysania to tears and an eager conversion by the end of their first meeting. We're never actually shown any of this rhetorical skill.
Non-Action Guy: Tanis' and Laurana's son has no shortage of courage but a sword wielder he isn't.
Obfuscating Stupidity: Not so much stupidity as such but he maintained an image of being indolent, sickly and weak-willed to (successfully) fool his enemies.
The Rival: While primarily Sturm's rival, he is also Gunthar's rival for the position of Grand Master.
Sanity Slippage: He gets gradually more and more insane, culminating in him vastly underestimating the draconians and riding into battle with his forces. The entire army is killed, and Derek survives until he is brought back to the other knights, where his mind has finally snapped and he dies.
invokedLawful Good: Unlike most of the Knights of Solamnia, and like Sturm, he manages to mostly avoid being Lawful Stupid, though he has many more boundaries as acting Grand Master than Sturm has.
Only Sane Man: Amongst the leadership of the Knights of Solamnia. Once he becomes Grand Master, he begins to try and rework the Measure.
The most legendary of all the Death Knights on Krynn, if not the very first. A former Solamnic Knight of the Rose who murdered his first wife so that he could marry an elven priestess he had fallen madly in love with. Was captured after she fell pregnant and sentenced to be executed, but escaped with the aid of herself and his men. Besieged in Dargaard Castle, he became drunken and abusive, but realised what a monster he was becoming. Praying for forgiveness, he was offered it at the price of riding to stop the impending Cataclysm; falling for the lies of his wife's former fellow priestesses, he instead turned his back on his mission to angrily confront her, believing she had been unfaithful and the child she carried was someone else's. He then watched her burn to death, for which she cursed him and his men to undeath.
Classic Villain: In the final issue of Dragon (the official D & D magazine), he was named as one of the greatest villains of all time, and he is widely considered by fans to be the archetypal Death Knight.
Continuity Snarl: Over whether or not he actually was trapped in Ravenloft. Also due to the Retcon about the nature of his relationship with his first wife.
Nay Theist: He seems to respect the gods, but chooses not to worship any.
Nightmare Fetishist: He is a Kender Nightstalker (A variant Mystic class that deals with undead), so he is always curious about different sorts of undead and spirits.
Pity the Kidnapper: After his death, Chemosh, the god of Death and Undead (Who likes to trap souls in the Abyss) has no interest in keeping him around and tells him to leave to continue his Soul's Journey once he arrives at Chemosh's domain. Zeboim even shows up to make sure he is dead and that he is leaving Krynn.
Ancestral Weapon: The Staff of Magius, inherited from his uncle Raistlin.
The Archmage: He is not as powerful as his uncle, but he was the most powerful Primal Sorcerer during the early Fifth Age, and he was one of three who helped to rediscover Primal Sorcery in the Fifth Age with very little to work from.
Brought Down to Normal: After the War of Souls, he is given the choice to have his High Sorcery restored to him (He had been practicing Primal Sorcery during the early Fifth Age), but he refuses to use any sort of magic ever again after he realizes that it is not making him happy. He decides to focus on his family instead, and so now he has no magical ability at all.
Finger Snap Lighter: One of his spells he developed as a Sorcerer has him snap his fingers to cast it.
In the Blood: While he is Raistlin's nephew, not his son, he shows an interest in magic and a somewhat similar personality to Raistlin when he is young. Initially his father Caramon feared that he would end up like Raistlin and tries to discourage him studying magic, but he eventually let him after Dalamar has a talk with him (Caramon).
Playing with Fire: During his time as a Sorcerer, he knew the school of Pyromancy.
Everybody's Dead, Dave: This happens to his entire Monastic Order of Majere, except for him of course. It is the reason why he gets involved in the events of the Dark Disciple Trilogy.
Anti-Hero / Anti-Villain / Villain Protagonist: He's a Knight of Takhisis, but one of the main protagonists of Dragons of Summer Flame and ultimately a heroic character.
Authority Equals Asskicking: According to The Legend of Huma, he took a physical body and did battle with Wyrmfather, the first evil dragon and imprisoned him for more than 7000 years. This battle lasted for a year.
True Companions: In a way, he can be considered the god of True Companions given that he is considered the god of Solidarity and of uniting together to overcome life's problems.
Old Master: While not a martial deity, he favors appearing as an old man. His Clerics are also ranked by age, with the oldest ones being the highest ranking.
Big Boo's Haunt: His domain in the Abyss is called "Death's Manse" and is filled with all sorts of undead creatures.
Deal with the Devil: He tries to lure souls that are passing on through the Gate of Souls to him by promising them that he will give them the power to take care of any unfinished business they had on Krynn. Any soul who accepts usually finds themselves turned into an undead creature in his service, or trapped in his domain in the Abyss.
Evil Counterpart: To Majere, who preaches faith in High God's plans for cosmic order. In contrast, Chemosh preaches that existence is chaotic and meaningless.
Expy: He is similar to Orcus, the Demon Prince of the Undead in other Dungeons & Dragons settings.
Flat Earth Atheist: He encourages his followers to preach that there is no afterlife, and that the only way to survive death is to become an undead creature.
Idiot Ball: He was holding it for a while during the Dark Disciple Trilogy when he was grieving over the "death" of Mina when he sees her "spirit", but he does not even bother to check and see if the "spirit" is real or not. It takes his brute Death Knight subordinate to point out to him that since he is the God of Death, he should be able to tell if Mina's spirit is real or not, once he realizes that Mina's spirit is just an illusion made by two Wizards, he is not amused. Even so in the end he ends up becoming stubborn and pushing her away. Nuitari even lampshades this.
Necromancer: Pretty much the default set of powers for his Clerical followers.
Satan: He is not the head evil deity, but his motif of corrupting mortals through Faustian Pacts and he can manifest as the stereotypical appearance of Satan (red guy with horns and a tail) as one of his Aspects.
Morgion, the Black Wind
God of disease, famine, poison, vermin, suffering, and madness
Deal with the Devil: He will often come to someone who is dying of an illness and offer to "cure" them. His "cure" allows the person with the illness to continue living, but they can still spread their disease, and they must serve Morgion by spreading as much disease as possible. If they cease to serve Morgion's interests the disease will resume its course and eventually kill the person.
Token Evil Teammate: Not part of a Five-Man Band, but he is close to Solinari and Lunitari, the god and goddess of Good and Neutral magic respectively.
Unwitting Pawn: To Takhisis in Dragons of the Hourglass Mage.
Bad Boss: her tendency to habitually screw over her own followers as part of some larger plan has left many chromatic dragons actively LOATHING her, and has caused one of her long-term plans to be derailed on at least ONE occasion when a unusually sympathetic young Black Dragon finally SNAPS under the strain of being partnered with a Knight of Takhisis she KNOWS would murder her in a heartbeat if he found a stronger partner ( he did it to her predecessor), and literally tears his face off.
Gender Bender: Her Dark Warrior form is sometimes described as male, but is female in Dragons of Summer Flame. Of course, since she's a deity she probably doesn't really have a gender as mortals understand it and just looks like whatever she wants.
Order Versus Chaos: Three guesses what side he's on, the first two don't count.
Retcon: He was initially supposed to be the original creator god, then he became a Satan-analogue, and finally became the embodiment of entropy and destruction.
God: He is the highest authority in the setting, and he has only ever spoken on page once in all of the novels. All of the deities are terrified of him.
Mysticism is often called the "Power of the Heart", but it can really be called the ambient energy of all life. Mysticism was discovered after the Chaos War by Goldmoon. Mysticism, unlike Primal Sorcery, was nearly unheard of, as it had possibly never been used before the Fifth Age. Mysticism draws upon the energy in all living things. The discovery of Mysticism was a great boon, as Mystical magic could heal and cure disease, something that had been lost after the gods left at the end of the Chaos War. Mysticism was introduced in the Dragonlance SAGA game system, and could only affect living or once-living matter. So, there could be Mystics who could, heal, manipulate plants and animals, or create undead creatures, but they could not create a fireball.
Background Magic Field: Mystics draw their magic from the power of all life(and can even use it to make unlife in the form of undead if they are trained in Necromancy).
Bad Powers, Bad People: The Citadel of Light refuses to teach the sphere of Necromancy, which deals with corporeal undead. They do teach the sphere of Spiritualism, which deals with incorporeal undead, and even that is considered a little borderline.
Functional Magic: Of the Force Magic variety(It is drawn from all living things and their own soul).
Green Lantern Ring: Mystics in the SAGA system made up spells on the fly. So, like Sorcerers, they could be very creative with what spheres of Mysticism they knew.
The magic called Primal Sorcery is actually one of the oldest forms of magic that as always been around on Krynn. Primal Sorcery was the magic that was used before the Three Moon Gods took their places in the sky. The practice of Primal Sorcery fell out of use because the Moon Gods believed it to be dangerous after three sorcerers accidentally caused magical storms that devastated Ansalon when they defeated an army of Dragons during the Second Dragonwar. The moon gods taught the three sorcerers High Sorcery. Primal Sorcery was re-discovered after the Chaos War when all of the gods left. Primal Sorcery was introduced in the Dragonlance SAGA Fifth Age game system. Primal Sorcerers in the SAGA system could only manipulate non-living matter, so they could create fireballs, tidal waves, or tornadoes, but they could not heal anyone or create undead creatures.
Full-Contact Magic: In the SAGA system RPG anyone could learn Primal Sorcery as long as they had a high enough reason score. So, a character who is not a Squishy Wizard could learn a School of Sorcery.
Green Lantern Ring: Primal Sorcery in the SAGA system was a system that had Sorcerers make up spells on the fly. This could result in the player finding all sorts of ways to do something with what schools of Sorcery they had.
Sorcery School: There was the Academy Of Sorcery, but it was destroyed shortly before the War of Souls, but there are likely still minor Sorcery schools scattered across Ansalon.
Whatevermancy: Aeromancy, Cryomancy, Electromancy, Geomancy, Pyromancy, Hydromancy, Spectramancy are all Schools of Primal Sorcery.
Wizards
Ass Kicking Equals Authority: The most powerful Wizard of his or her respective order is the one who is almost always the leader of their order. Dalamar is the most powerful Black Robe currently, so he gets to lead the Black Robes.
Bad Powers, Bad People: The Black Robes like to specialize in the schools of Necromancy and Enchantment, which deal with The Undead and mind-control respectively.
Blessed with Suck: The Test of High Sorcery often makes the Wizard pay a steep price.
Card-Carrying Villain: The Black Robes, though many of them are at least Affably Evil. They just know that they're getting their power from the dark moon, and are completely cool with that.
Color-Coded Wizardry: There are White, Red, and Black Robes. White represents Good, Red represents Neutral, and Black represents Evil.
Fictionary: The language of magic is based off of Indonesian's grammatical structure. However, most of the actual words are just gibberish.
Functional Magic: Of the Rule Magic variety (to be even more specific, Vancian Magic). There is also a hint of Theurgy as they draw their magic from the three moons in the sky, which are physical manifestations of the three gods of magic.
Lunacy: Wizards draw their power from the three moons, and their magic can be affected depending on where in the sky the moon they draw power from is in the sky.
Not That Kind of Mage: A Wizard might be annoyed at being mistaken for a Primal Sorcerer.
Pragmatic Villainy: the black robes' role in the order is making sure this rule is observed, keeping the magic away from the hands of dangerous fools that could endanger everyone.
An Ice Person: Frost Draconians (noble draconians spawned from white dragon eggs) freeze solid and then explode in a shower of razor-sharp icicles when slain.
Bizarre Sexual Dimorphism: Invoked; female draconians don't look that different, but their abilities are different to the males of their strain.
Evil Counterpart: Inverted; while ordinary draconians are created from metallic dragon eggs and are usually evil, the same ritual can be use to create "noble draconians" from chromatic dragon eggs, which are usually good.
Shock and Awe: Lightning draconians, being created from blue dragons, can not only electrocute anyone they attack, they explode in a blast of electrical energy that arcs from victim to victim as per a chain lightning spell.
Taken for Granite: Baaz turn to stone when they are killed. This has a nasty habit of entrapping their enemies' weapons.
Elves Versus Dwarves: Though elves and dwarves don't like each other very much, dwarves actually are more prone to fighting each other instead — the Mountain and Hill Dwarves hate each other over the events of the Cataclysm, while the dark dwarves bring an element of internal strife to the mountain dwarf races.
Our Dwarves Are All the Same: Hill and mountain dwarves play this trope straight. Dark dwarves, on the other hand, take the dwarven stereotypes and twist them to evil or even break away (Theiwar dwarves, for example, are renowned as master sorcerers). Averted with the Gully Dwarves, which are regarded with disgust by all races as dirty, slovenly, ignorant, cowardly and stupid creatures that are barely smarter than animals.
Enslaved Elves: The green dragon Cyan Bloodbane tries to enslave the Silvanesti, but the Companions drive him off. But then the Silvanesti and Qualinesti basically enslave their own kin, the Kagonesti.
Evil Counterpart Race: The Mahkwahb are the evil counterparts to the Dargonesti sea elves.
Expy: Most of the elf cultures are based on one of the common Dungeons & Dragons subraces: Qualinesti are based on high elves, Silvanesti on gray elves, Kagonesti on wood elves, and Dargonesti and Dimernesti on aquatic elves.
Hidden Elf Village: All of the elf races are reclusive to some degree, but the Silvanesti are the worst.
The "Sea Elves", Dragonesti and Dimernesti, may challenge that; people had almost forgotten they even exist, and they remain far more reclusive than the Silvanesti, without any of the quasi-karmic fate that befalls them.
Our Elves Are Better: Though good-aligned on paper, most elves act more neutral due to their snobbish outlook toward other races. Qualinesti and Silvanesti share the "high elf" archetype (exaggerated with the Silvanesti) while Kagonesti are "wood elves"; "dark elves" do not exist as a race (no drow on Krynn), but instead as a social status (evil outcasts).
Perma Shave: Out of all elves, only the oldest Silvanesti are known to grow wispy facial hair.
Our Goblins Are Different: As the D&D norm, they are split between goblins (small sneaks), hobgoblins (medium-sized troopers), and bugbears (large brutes), though both hobgoblins and bugbears are adequate at stealth.
Mad Scientist: If a tinker gnome isn't a mad engineer, s/he's probably this.
Only Sane Man: "Mad gnomes" are sane gnomes born to normal gnomish parents. Their inventions actually work, which makes them objects of scorn and pity.
Our Gnomes Are Weirder: The tinker gnomes practically define the "weird gnome" trait in modern fantasy.
Transplant: Tinker gnomes are a major race in Spelljammer, as a result of a large number of them finding their way into space and failing to find a way back down.
Hobbits: They were designed to fill the same niche as D&D's halflings, but bear little resemblance to Tolkien's hobbits apart from size. Incidentally, halflings in D&D were later redesigned to be more like kender.
Proud Warrior Race Guy: Most of them, especially the Plainsmen of Abanasinia, the nomads of Khur, and the Nordmaarian Horselords.
Ogres
And Man Grew Proud: They used to have a vast empire that conquered most of Ansalon. It fell apart when their human slaves revolted and Paladine cursed them so that their physical forms would reflect the wickedness in their souls.
Noble Demon: While the other evil dragons have some (less) evil individuals only the Blues as a species display widespread admirable traits like loyalty, love or grief over fallen comrades.
Shock and Awe: Their breath ability is lightning. It's shown in Emperor of Ansalon that this ability can melt steel, something which not even the mightiest red dragons' breath can accomplish.
