Eberron: My issue with the 4e setting

[Mercule]

They screwed up the Dragonmarks.

I've been reading through all the 4e Eberron stuff (just finished the Dragonmarks chapter of the ECS) and really, really like the 4e books, overall. But... I hate the way Dragonmarks work. In fact, they totally suck.

All 4e Dragonmarks do is augment existing abilities. They make healers better healers, fighters better fighters, etc. 3e Dragonmarks were useful "in role", but they worked as wildcards, too. In fact, I'd go so for as to say 3e Dragonmarks were awesome because they were wildcards.

That aspect of Dragonmarks really made the power of the houses make sense. Any marked member of Jorasco could be a healer, even the schmuck commoner. In 4e, they either need to be a member of some class that already heals or be given some sort of "NPCs are special" crap. That implies that Jorasco's power (just to pick on one house) comes as much from them being exquisite Bards as it does from the Mark of Healing, which totally kills the theme of the Houses.

I'm not sure whether it's better or worse that this was an intentional decision on WotC's part -- one Dragon article actually said they changed the Marks because "the wrong people were taking them". I suppose that depends on your perspective, but I think they're now set up to encourage the wrong people to take them.

Personally, I'd have much, much, much preferred to see the marks turned into some sort of odd multiclass where you could upgrade to greater marks (like in 3e) by swapping out your class powers. My understanding is that FRPG has something like this, which would have been awesome. Heck, leave the baseline multiclass feat as written in EPG, just give us the rest of it. That'd be enough to encourage Jorasco Leaders and Kundarak Defenders without killing some of what made 3e marks cool.

Maybe there'll be a Dragon article that does just that. I can hope. Even discounting the whole wildcard bit, it still seems like the Dragonmarks are pitifully unimportant, mechanically, for the huge importance they have, fluff-wise.

 

[Perram]

Yeah, when Kieth Baker was interviewed on the subject the several times I've heard it, this was intentional. He said that, for example, there was little incentive for a healer to take the Jorasco dragon mark.

That said, you already answered your own problem! The mechanics you are looking for are already built into 4e's multi class system! You just need to come up with a chart of which multi-class corresponds with which dragonmark.

Lets say that my Halfling Wizard (I'm a big fan of halfling wizards.) had the Jorasco dragonmark. Instead of taking the actual dragonmark feat, I would just take the cleric multiclass feat and rule that that was the effect of the dragonmark instead of its real effect.

 

[Mercule]

That said, you already answered your own problem! The mechanics you are looking for are already built into 4e's multi class system! You just need to come up with a chart of which multi-class corresponds with which dragonmark.

Lets say that my Halfling Wizard (I'm a big fan of halfling wizards.) had the Jorasco dragonmark. Instead of taking the actual dragonmark feat, I would just take the cleric multiclass feat and rule that that was the effect of the dragonmark instead of its real effect.

That's not a bad idea. Still, I'd prefer a) to have more flavor in the powers and b) to not have to build it myself. I play D&D over Hero because I'm short on time as it is.

 

[Crothian]

My biggest issue was that any race can have any Dragonmark.

 

[Cadfan]

What they really need are paragon paths for each dragonmark, for the people who want to make them much bigger aspects of their character.

 

[Crothian]

They do have Paragon Paths for each Dragonmark.

 

[Aloïsius]

My biggest issue was that any race can have any Dragonmark.

This is somewhat the same issue as Mercule. Why ? Because it derives of the same rule philosophy : there is no strict restriction based on backgroung, they are instead replaced by heavy restriction based on optimization.
So you may play a dwarf wizard with the mark of healing. He will just suck a lot, being practically unplayable.

 

[Kwalish Kid]

My biggest issue was that any race can have any Dragonmark.

Can they? This is up to the players of the game. The restriction of dragonmarks is a story restriction, not a rule restriction.

I agree with Keith Baker on the need to change the way the dragonmarks work. As they are now, they make more sense in allowing the houses to do what they are supposed to be doing than they did in 3e. The 3E healing mark was not all that fantastic at healing.

 

[Crothian]

This is somewhat the same issue as Mercule. Why ? Because it derives of the same rule philosophy : there is no strict restriction based on backgroung, they are instead replaced by heavy restriction based on optimization.
So you may play a dwarf wizard with the mark of healing. He will just suck a lot, being practically unplayable.

It would be totally playable. Optimization has nothing to do with playability IMO.

 

[DracoSuave]

I think that comes from a misunderstanding the the design philosophy involved here.

If you're of House Jorasco, and you're dragonmarked, changes are you're going to be put to work as a healer. If you're going adventuring, chances are this means that you're going to have healing powers as your focus, or in your repertoire. The dragonmark encourages you to do this, by making them better. The mark feat encourages you to design your character around it, rather than give you an extra ability that you might not even find useful.

As in the above example, look at said wizard.

In 3e, he'd have a dragonmark, and would have some minor healing powers once per day. However, he'd not have the type of skills and repertoire needed by a Jorasco healer.

In 4e, he'd have the dragonmark feat, and probably be multiclassed or hybrid'd into Artificer. His character design would reflect his background, by necessity of the feat.

In my Eberron game, our Artificer is dragonmarked in story, but he doesn't have the feat. (No point for him at level 1) His dragonmark 'powers' are what allow him MacGuyver up his encounter powers.