Crothian
First Post
Eberron Player’s Guide
Eberron has a lot of history for being only a few years old. It was the winner of the huge setting search Wizards of the Coast did. It came out in the era of third edition and many high quality books were produced for it. It is a setting full of adventure possibilities and exciting adventures. I have ran and played in four of the five modules that were published for Eberron then and I was very excited and eager to see what fourth edition Dungeons and dragons had to hold this settings many fans.
The book is designed to allow players to create characters in Eberron. It focuses a lot on information about the setting players need to know and then moves into new races and how other player races released in other books fit into the world of Eberron. From there is has a new class and then many paragon paths that fit Eberron as well as a few Epic Destinies. There are plenty of feats, equipment and magical items and rituals as well for the setting. And then the book ends with a better guide to the world then just the beginning over view.
The first chapter is a nice overview of the setting and life in Eberron. In it onme will get some good information on the many different gods and Eberron has its own deities and does not use the ones from the core books. It does describe how everyday life is though it is rather general and the number and varieties of places even just on the main continent differ so much that each could really use its own version and the beginning of the book I think could have made that clearer. The brief history of the setting is nice and thoroughly and short. It hits on the important pieces without the need to bore the players who only need to understand the bits and not read the nuances.
The best chapter I think is the one on races. It introduces new races to 4e that are staples from the older Eberron setting: Changeling, Kalashtar, and Warforged. One change that I know will bother some fans is the lack of psionics especially for the Kalashtar. Psionic rules are not out yet so it is no surprise to not see them here but it was a big part of that race’s being and fir very strongly into the setting. The reason I like this chapter so much is that it goes through all the other player races and tells how they fit into the world. This is done very well and fit’s the setting and the race. Many of the races were not in Eberron during the previous edition and the book does not make them feel like an after thought or something that does not fit. It is also easy to ignore some of these races if the DM does not want to use them in his game though some will be easier tto get rid of then others.
The new class is an Artificer and it is an arcane leader. It has many abilities that deal with artifacts and items. It has a good variety of abilities and semms well done. The Paragon Paths are many things that really fit well in the setting. They have some for the different groups in the setting but it would have been nice to see more. For instance there is only one of the druid orders that gets a paragon class where I think it would have been better for all of them to have one. Of course the other orders seem to get feats instead and that seems like an odd design choice. Each of the Dragonmarked Houses gets a paragon path. The epic destinies are neat and it has my new favorite one of those the Mourning Savior. This is a character destined to cleanse the Mourning lands and possible allow Cyre to rebuild. The final thing the character will do is vanish into the mists and then sometime there after things will get better. I felt it was a great way to show the potential power and lasting effects of an Epic Destiny. Nothing really stands out in the character options chapter on feats and stuff. It has a lot of things brought over from the previous rule set that needed to be here.
Lastly is the World. It has a good description of all the different places and background mechanics for it all and the dragon marked houses and other miscellaneous backgrounds that can work in the setting. The section really hits on the high points and gives a good amount of common knowledge for every place. It is a bit of a quick fire section as nothing is talked about in any great length.
Eberron Players Guide a is a good and solid book for players that are going to be in an Eberron game. It has everything one needs to really understand the setting. The only thing I would have liked to see in here but did not was a the many different classes getting the same paragraph work up that the races got. Different classes might be seen in a different way here and that could be important. Eberron is a solid setting that holds many different ways to adventure and have campaigns. This book does a very good job of making that abundantly clear for players.
Eberron has a lot of history for being only a few years old. It was the winner of the huge setting search Wizards of the Coast did. It came out in the era of third edition and many high quality books were produced for it. It is a setting full of adventure possibilities and exciting adventures. I have ran and played in four of the five modules that were published for Eberron then and I was very excited and eager to see what fourth edition Dungeons and dragons had to hold this settings many fans.
The book is designed to allow players to create characters in Eberron. It focuses a lot on information about the setting players need to know and then moves into new races and how other player races released in other books fit into the world of Eberron. From there is has a new class and then many paragon paths that fit Eberron as well as a few Epic Destinies. There are plenty of feats, equipment and magical items and rituals as well for the setting. And then the book ends with a better guide to the world then just the beginning over view.
The first chapter is a nice overview of the setting and life in Eberron. In it onme will get some good information on the many different gods and Eberron has its own deities and does not use the ones from the core books. It does describe how everyday life is though it is rather general and the number and varieties of places even just on the main continent differ so much that each could really use its own version and the beginning of the book I think could have made that clearer. The brief history of the setting is nice and thoroughly and short. It hits on the important pieces without the need to bore the players who only need to understand the bits and not read the nuances.
The best chapter I think is the one on races. It introduces new races to 4e that are staples from the older Eberron setting: Changeling, Kalashtar, and Warforged. One change that I know will bother some fans is the lack of psionics especially for the Kalashtar. Psionic rules are not out yet so it is no surprise to not see them here but it was a big part of that race’s being and fir very strongly into the setting. The reason I like this chapter so much is that it goes through all the other player races and tells how they fit into the world. This is done very well and fit’s the setting and the race. Many of the races were not in Eberron during the previous edition and the book does not make them feel like an after thought or something that does not fit. It is also easy to ignore some of these races if the DM does not want to use them in his game though some will be easier tto get rid of then others.
The new class is an Artificer and it is an arcane leader. It has many abilities that deal with artifacts and items. It has a good variety of abilities and semms well done. The Paragon Paths are many things that really fit well in the setting. They have some for the different groups in the setting but it would have been nice to see more. For instance there is only one of the druid orders that gets a paragon class where I think it would have been better for all of them to have one. Of course the other orders seem to get feats instead and that seems like an odd design choice. Each of the Dragonmarked Houses gets a paragon path. The epic destinies are neat and it has my new favorite one of those the Mourning Savior. This is a character destined to cleanse the Mourning lands and possible allow Cyre to rebuild. The final thing the character will do is vanish into the mists and then sometime there after things will get better. I felt it was a great way to show the potential power and lasting effects of an Epic Destiny. Nothing really stands out in the character options chapter on feats and stuff. It has a lot of things brought over from the previous rule set that needed to be here.
Lastly is the World. It has a good description of all the different places and background mechanics for it all and the dragon marked houses and other miscellaneous backgrounds that can work in the setting. The section really hits on the high points and gives a good amount of common knowledge for every place. It is a bit of a quick fire section as nothing is talked about in any great length.
Eberron Players Guide a is a good and solid book for players that are going to be in an Eberron game. It has everything one needs to really understand the setting. The only thing I would have liked to see in here but did not was a the many different classes getting the same paragraph work up that the races got. Different classes might be seen in a different way here and that could be important. Eberron is a solid setting that holds many different ways to adventure and have campaigns. This book does a very good job of making that abundantly clear for players.
