Dragonmarks are awesome!

[blargney the second]

In the 4e game that Wik DMs, my minotaur fighter took a Dragonmark of Perception as his 12th level feat. I originally took it for largely flavour reasons, and it has impressed the heck out of me. I routinely get 30+ on Perception rolls, which has the double benefit of making me rarely surprised and helps our party find more clues.

I've also used the detect magic component a couple of times, which is a nice bonus. I haven't used any rituals yet, but I think I'll try some next session.

I haven't seen any other dragonmarks in play yet, are they similarly awesome?
-blarg

 

[Otterscrubber]

Just getting into Eberron now, bought the campaign setting book last week. I have to say, i am exteremely impressed with it so far. I saw the dragonmarks listed in the character builder and ignormed them, as I usually do for feats and powers I consider fluff from campaign settings I dont' use, they do appear to be quite powerful for feats but tie in nicely with the story of Eberron.

 

[firesnakearies]

Yes, the dragonmarks are very good. In an Eberron game, or any campaign that allows them, there's usually little reason not to take one, depending on what kind of character you're playing.

 

[jbear]

I have seen a swordmage with the Dragonmark of Warding. This makes the penalty from marking increase to -3. When combined with White Lotus Riposte it's brutal.

'Here are your options son: you can try and hit my friend, and I mean TRY, but if you do manage to pull it off I'm not going to let you hurt him anyway. Or you can hit me. If you do, well I'm going to hurt you back ...even if you miss me, I'm going to hurt you back just for thinking about! And I don't even want to go into what I'm going to do to you when I get to paragon level and learn White Lotus Master Riposte! So, it's lose lose, sonny, what do you choose? What, you mean you give up...? You're just going to leave? Did I mention that leaving is not a good option... hello Booming Blade!'

Beautiful combination! I'd love to see a Runepriest (which I must say I'm very fond of as they read on paper) combined with Dragonmark of Warding as well. The give out loads of defense bonuses with their powers, with Dragonmark of Warding added onto them as well... sheesh, talk about a monster miss-fest!

 

[Amaroq]

They bug me a bit from a game balance perspective: consider "Mark of Handling" vs the "Mounted Combat" feat. The former gives you everything the latter does, plus a +2 bonus to Speed and a +1 bonus to AC for your mount, plus a +2 bonus to Speed and a +1 bonus to AC for your beast companion, plus access to two rituals as though your had the Ritual Caster feat.

"Cool!"

Yes.

But also "Power Creep".

 

[Mengu]

I think Mark of Healing, Mark of Passage, Mark of Storm, and Mark of Warding are the top contenders for dragon marks. Mark of Detection, Mark of Handling, and Mark of Scribing can also be pretty useful depending on your needs. Depending on the treasure giving habits of a DM, Mark of Making can be a life saver, or quite unnecessary. Mark of Passage is by far my favorite of the lot (but I'm always a fan of extra mobility).

 

[Aulirophile]

Wardens can seriously abuse Mark of Warding. Any temporary defense is increased by 1. If you always take a daily form that increases a defense (Form of Winter's Herald, Form of Mountain's Thunder, etc.,) instead of +1 AC, you get +2, for the whole encounter. And their multi-mark is at -3 instead of -2. Ouch. In addition to which, Wardens actually like to Second Wind every encounter (multiple times per encounter at epic), so the +2 to all defenses becomes +3 on a really regular basis.

 

[Obryn]

"Cool!"

Yes.

But also "Power Creep".

IMO, they should be restricted to Eberron games, where they then become the norm. I would never use them in a non-Eberron game; they're just too attached to the setting.

Heck, I'd also keep the mark/race requirements to curb their impact.

-O

 

[Mengu]

IMO, they should be restricted to Eberron games, where they then become the norm. I would never use them in a non-Eberron game; they're just too attached to the setting.

I don't know about that, I've incorporated some fluff into my home game for dragonmarks, reskinning them for my needs, and have no issue with players picking those feats up if the like (no one has yet). Similar to Eberron they do represent different allegiances (whether it be to a being, a power, a community, or a guild).

 

[blargney the second]

I don't know about that, I've incorporated some fluff into my home game for dragonmarks, reskinning them for my needs, and have no issue with players picking those feats up if the like (no one has yet). Similar to Eberron they do represent different allegiances (whether it be to a being, a power, a community, or a guild).

Yup, Wik did that too. My minotaur's dragonmark represents a stronger tie to his primal ancestor spirits. The first time I had a significant difference between the d20 results on a Perception check, he told me a spirit appeared and pointed out the thing that I had missed.