D&D 5E Running Eberron in 5E

[Pseudopsyche]

If I were starting a 5E Eberron campaign today, I would implement dragonmarks as magic items, a la 4E alternative rewards. A least dragonmark could be comparable to an inherent wand of some cantrip (or boost the efficacy of some cantrip). A greater dragonmark would be something that would fill an attunement slot, more on the level of a rare staff. Obviously, this approach requires greater trust between player and DM, so I'm not sure it would fly for a published campaign setting.

 

[Hellcow]

If I were starting a 5E Eberron campaign today, I would implement dragonmarks as magic items, a la 4E alternative rewards.

It's certainly an approach that I'm considering, Pseudopsyche. It fits with the idea of a mark manifesting late in life due to a challenging situation. If I followed that approach, I'd probably look at a greater spectrum of Prophetic Ties - Dragonmarks are one way to reflect a connection to the Draconic Prophecy, but an unmarked character might develop a different sort of effect that reflects their role in the Prophecy. In which case, there could still be a background for Dragonmark Heir generally, or a unique background for each house... but it wouldn't automatically come with the mark.

But it's still just a possibility; there's a lot of interesting options to explore.

 

[GameDoc]

If we had to stick strictly with the mechanics in th PHB, I'd be inclined make dragonmarks a progressive series of feats (least to lesser to greater) with no race or background prerequisite to account for abberant dragonmarks.

I'd require you to decide at 1st level if you are a house member available to your race. I'd make house scion backgrounds (specific one for each house) with proficiency options and benefit features flavored to each house. You can be a house member without being a scion and take a different background. However, I'd require that anyone whose a house member can only select the dragonmark feats associated with their house. Anyone else who takes a dragonmark is abberant.

I think the suggestions for warforged on this thread are a good start to home-brewing that race. For kalashtar I'd probably use the alternate human and replace the free skill with automatic proficiency with Insight and the feat with the feylock's telepathy.

Not sure how I'd handle shifters or changelings.

 

[GameDoc]

Also, not to go all fanboy, but I can't say how cool it is to have Keith participating in this discussion.

 

[Hellcow]

I'd be inclined make dragonmarks a progressive series of feats (least to lesser to greater) with no race or background prerequisite to account for abberant dragonmarks... I'd require that anyone who takes a house background can only be of the race and select the dragonmark feats associated with their house. Anyone else who takes a dragonmark is abberant.

Just to nitpick (in our currently imaginary conversion)... if you stick with the foundations of the settings, there's more to an aberrant dragonmark than simply being on the wrong race. From one of my Q&As...

The core idea is that true dragonmarks are constructive, while aberrant dragonmarks are destructive. The true dragonmarks deal with healing, communication, creation—and they do so in predictable ways. Aberrant dragonmarks deal with fire, plague, madness and more, and beyond that do so in unpredictable ways. One person’s aberrant fire mark lets them spontaneously generate flame; another burns enemies up from within; a third sets anything the bearer touches on fire. Furthermore, aberrant dragonmarks are often difficult or dangerous to the bearer. The person with the flame mark may suffer painful burns any time they use the mark, or it may activate spontaneously in times of stress.

As such, I'd be more inclined to use Magic Initiate (or some similar feat) to reflect Aberrant Dragonmarks, as opposed to just making them misplaced true marks. Spells like Charm Person, Hideous Laughter, or Burning Hands are all logical aberrant marks... and fit the aberrant mode better than being able to do Mending even though you're an elf instead of a human. Essentially, a misplaced true mark would certainly be BIZARRE and raise serious issues... but there's more to a true aberrant mark, and I'd want to make sure to address it properly in the long term.

 

[Hellcow]

Also, not to go all fanboy, but I can't say how cool it is to have Keith participating in this discussion.

And I hope you won't take it amiss that I quibbled with your interpretation of aberrant dragonmarks! The Oldlock telepathy is a good thing to call out as a model for Kalashtar; until the release of psionics, a reskinned Great Old One warlock with lots of enchantment effects might be the best way to play a kalashtar.

 

[GameDoc]

And I hope you won't take it amiss that I quibbled with your interpretation of aberrant dragonmarks! The Oldlock telepathy is a good thing to call out as a model for Kalashtar; until the release of psionics, a reskinned Great Old One warlock with lots of enchantment effects might be the best way to play a kalashtar.

No offense taken. I was working from rusty memory on the aberrant mark and too lazy to walk across the house and pull my ECS book off the shelf.

 

[I'm A Banana]

The thing I'm most worried about is the unique cosmology. 5e's PHB goes through pains to state that This Is The Multiverse, but Eberron has its own unique and interesting take on the planes, and it would kind of suck for that to be squashed under the idea of One True D&D Cosmology. I bet there's ways to keep it without necessarily negating the multiverse as the PHB presents it, but it'll take a more subtle touch than they showed with 4e's "Feywild for EVERYONE!" approach, forex.

 

[Gradine]

I think that the rules for advantage and disadvantage go really well with the way planes work in Eberron, especially in manifest zones. For instance, in a Fernia manifest zone, fire spells deal their max damage, attack rolls are made with advantage, and saves against are made at disadvantage.

I think the Magic Initiate feat is a great way to represent Aberrant Dragonmarks, and while a feat chain might be a perfectly functional way to handle True Dragonmarks, I'm still toying with the idea of using racial variant traits instead. The main downside to that approach is that it would have to be selected at character creation, which means your Mark had to manifest before your adventuring career. No more characters whose True Mark comes out as a surprise in response to a stressful adventuring career. Of course, using feats has the opposite problem for everyone but humans. Nobody else gets to have a Mask manifest until at least level 4, which could throw out any number of character tropes. I'm not convinced that's a better solution without throwing in a "everyone gets a free feat at first level because Eberron!" rule, which I'm also not sure is ideal.

As for Warforged, their might be other solutions to getting across their toughness and durability without fiddling with AC. Some ideas:
Armor Plating: Bludgeoning, piercing and slashing damage you take from non-magical weapons is reduced by 1.
Inexhaustible: Whenever you would roll a Hit Die to regain hit points during a short rest, you instead regain hit points as if you had rolled the maximum number possible on the Hit Die.
The latter trait would help mitigate the problems Warforged are likely to encounter from magical healing (likely half effectiveness, as per usual).

It'll be interesting to see what form psionics take in 5e, but so far the basic Monk makes a pretty solid Soulknife if you just refluff their unarmed strikes.

 

[Hellcow]

Eberron has its own unique and interesting take on the planes, and it would kind of suck for that to be squashed under the idea of One True D&D Cosmology.

I agree and hope it can be avoided. With that said, frankly I just completely ignored it in 4E and kept playing with it as I always had... though I liked the spin on Baator I presented here, where I was at least able to pull it back from being on par with Eberron's original planes and present it as an artificially constructed prison demiplane.

Nonetheless, I too hope that 5E support will maintain Eberron's unique cosmology.