What do you think of the Eberron-specific races?

[Child of Hypnos]

I like all of them, although in all fairness ive yet to experience a Shifter in play, and the warforged seems to have immunity to almost everything. (save us from warforged paladins with heavy fortification )

what do people make of the Daelkyr Halfblood? the one ive got in my game is truly annoying but thats a personality thing rather than a mechanic.

 

[ForceUser]

I like them and use them all in my homebrew, though only the mechanics; I have altered the flavors of the races to suit my world.

Face Dancers (changelings) are hermaphroditic servitors of the noble lycanthrope houses in the far eastern city of Ramapour. They serve primarily as spies, courtesans, and diplomats.

The Kalashtar are the guardians of the Gray Road that connects the mortal world to Dal Quor, the world of dreams.

The Weretouched (shifters) are humans whose lycanthropic descent marks them as blessed by the followers of the druidic Old Faith, and cursed by the followers of the Orthodox Celestine Church. On the other side of the world, in Ramapour, they are recognized as the Scions of the great lycanthropic houses, are generally of the warrior caste, and command great prestige.

The Warforged were created by gnomes to serve as shock troopers in a war between two human nations. On the gnomes' island commune, they are emancipated creatures that are recognized as having free will, but on the continent, the Warforged are considered tools of war with no rights or freedoms.

 

[Torm]

Kalashtar - [singing] I'm smilin' next to you, in Silent Lucidity. [/singing] Easily my favorite of the Eberron races. I played a Kalashtar Cleric up to 10th Level, and really enjoyed the options the power points gave me, and the overall flavor of the race as I perceive it (which has a lot to do with the song, above ).

Warforged - I'm pretty fond of them, too, although they seem a lot more Eberron specific (they feel to me like the hokey war machine robots of early 20th century pulp fiction) than the Kalashtar do (which I would gladly sprinkle into almost any campaign setting.)

Changlings - Eh. I like that some of my friends like them, but really can't see myself either playing one or using them as a player race in one of my all-too-common and never totally fleshed out (except possibly one of them) homegrown campaign worlds.

Shifters - Ick. Just ick. But - I have used some of their features as a baseline for some of my homegrown stuff, to try to assure game balance. So useful, I guess.

 

[Remathilis]

Changling: Love the concept (made something similar in 2e) but I fear they MIGHT be a bit overpowered as LA +0.

Shifter: Neat Concept, but its such a feat-drain (everything good about this race requires feats) that you always suffer at your class element.

Kalashtar: Nice concept, not sure of mechanics. Woulda prefered the Elan (XPH) to it though.

Warforged: God I love these guys. You SO have to think outside the box to play one, like rogue modrons in Planescape.

Daelkyr Half-Breed: Meh. Nice concept, but getting a free symbiot isn't really worth it.

 

[Masquerade]

I use Changelings and Shifters in my campaign. I really like the concept and execution of the Warforged, but I haven't had the opportunity to see them in play. Kalashtar seem interesting, to say the least, but with maenads, elans, and xephs, there's little need for another LA+0 psionic race.

 

[Jackelope King]

I love the flavor of the kalashtar, they fulfill my love of all things psionic, and they've got sound mechanics, but since I don't play in Eberron much, I have trouble utilizing them.

Changelings are great as well. They're probably my favorite of the bunch. I love the mechanical possibilities of the class, and they're a great fit for a setting I'm working on.

Shifters are fairly good. Not great, but I've found a few characters that were well-supported by their racial mechanics. I also love the shifter druid racial substitution levels, and I started out absolutely detesting the whole idea of substitution levels.

The warforged are by far my least favorite of the new Eberron races. The mechanics are good, but the flavor isn't as appealing as the other new races. Still, they fit nicely into a setting I'm working on, so I've gotten some use out of 'em.

 

[demiurge1138]

Kalashtar haven't really struck me, but I love changelings and warforged, and I like shifters (although the feat dependency is a bit annoying). Changelings, especially, have made it into my non-Eberron games. And warforged are good for all sorts of roleplaying things. I sort of like the "fantasy robot" concept.

Demiurge out.

 

[Anti-Sean]

I love them... they complete me. I'm writing what is essentially a love story between a Warforged and a Changeling as a result! All four races immediately appealed to me when information about them was revealed in the run-up to the campaign setting release. The kalashtar left me a bit cold when I first cracked open the ECS, though. It wasn't until I read the kalashtar chapter of Races of Eberron that they really 'clicked' for me. My reactions to the other fluff chapters in that book range from mild indifference/dislike to revulsion, but the kalashtar backstory is really brought to life in that book. (I think the crunch in RoE is great!) Given the amount of arguement that seems to happen over the warforged in particular, I think they're most likely balanced very well. I haven't had a chance to actually play any of them yet, but I'm DMing for the first time this weekend - we'll see if any of the players use the new races!

 

[PK]

Very interesting how almost everyone likes a few of them. They are very different in their styles.

Warforged - love them. If you are a DM who likes to poison/drain your party you will hate them, but I really love the conflict, the backstory, and the philosophical questions.

Changelings - so cool. A changling rogue plays in my game and he always is screwing up my plans by altering his look and persona. He keeps me on my toes.

Shifters - I haven't used them much yet, but they are feat dependent. You probably need to use a class like ranger or fighter where you can excel in the class without too many feats.

Kalashtar - cool, but I haven't really dug too deeply into them. So far I've not dealt with the Dreaming Dark/Inspired/Riedra topic in my game yet. If or when I do, then I'll put time into them.

 

[Pseudonym]

I am currently playing a shifter druid, which I really enjoy. Having Dreamsight as my shifter trait meshes well, but I loose out on the shifter as combat guy mode. Not that I mind all that much. I do agree about the feat dependancy, as all of my feats so far have been racial, and likely will be in the future. That is alos due to the fact that the PrC I want to eventually enter grants most of the feats I would take as bonuses, so I can affort to put them off for now.

I had a changeling rogue/inquisitive in an unfortunatly short-lived campaign, who was enjoyable, but never got a chance to see his full potential.

The other two races seem interesting. We've had two warforged so far, but they haven't been unbalancing. No kalashtar yet, but I think it would be fun to play one. I'd like to try a telepath with the substitution levels, but I don't know how it would fit with my group.

My only experience with the races has bee in Eberron. No idea how well they port into other settings.