D&D 5E New Eberron Book Details From WotC

WotC’s Jeremy Crawford appeared on Twitch last night with Bart Carroll, discussing the upcoming D&D setting book Eberron: Rising from the Last War. Lots of details within!

- Overview of Eberron, emphasized potentials for adventure and post-WWI pulp style of setting.

- Dragonmarked Houses as fantasy Corporations, playable Dragonmarked characters as race rules in the book

- Rules and stories for playing, Warforged, Changlings, Kalsthar, Shifters, Goblins, Hobgoblins, Bugbears, Orcs. Playable Orc is different fro mthe Volo's Guide rules to reflect the different story (no intelligence malus, few other tweaks, still usable for other worlds, these are PC Orcs as opposed to Monster Manual Orcs like Volo's).

- Full rules for the Artificer, including a new feature in this book for making Common and Uncommon magic items

- Aberrant Dragonmark Feats are in the book

- Group patron rules for organizations the late 19th-early 20th century style: newspapers, criminal syndicates, universities, spy rings: fourth choice after Race-Class-Background that the party makes together, has new fluff background features to give characters and adventure hooks

- Possibility of the party becoming their own patron, example being creating your own Crime Syndicate

- All of the above is Chapter 1 material

- Chapter 2 is a Gazeeter of Korvaire and the world: delves into great nations, the religions, touches on otehr continents

- Chapter 3 is a zoom in on Sharn, a microcosm of the setting, great place for Noir intrigue

- Chapter 4 is a 100 page adventure creation toolkit comparable to Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica: wealth of adventure building tables, maps, organization information, first level adventure set in Sharn. Reveals brand new information about the Mournland, for instance, during the war they created not just regular Warforged and Warforged Titans but also Warforged Colossi the size of skyscrapers: one of the maps is of a fallen Warfored Colossi as a dungeon @doctorbadwolf

- Section in "massive" chapter for creating adventures about Eberron's cosmology, and how it relates to Great Wheel multiverse, left to DM to decide how sealed off Eberron is by the Progenitor Dragons

- There are extended magical item economy rules in chapter 5, Common magical items are plentiful: buying, selling, crafting rules and price lists.

- Eberron specific monsters and NPCs in the sixth and final chapter, covering things like Daelkyr, Living Spells (3 different Living Spells in the book including Living Cloud Kill, and a template for making more) and various specific NPCs

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[Bolares]

What does the Wayfinders Guide say, or the new book?

From WGtE:
"Elven culture began on the distant continent of Xen’drik. Tens of thousands of years ago, the elves rose up against the giants who ruled that land. Ultimately, the elves fled from Xen’drik and settled the island nation of Aerenal. There they split into two distinct cultures: the introspective Aereni and the warlike Tairnadal. While neither of these cultures have much interest in human activities, a small number of elves have immigrated to Khorvaire over the years and have integrated with the cultures of the Five Nations."

The book does not go in to when the race was created, just when their culture rose.

I have no idea what the new book will say, and as it was not published yet I don't believe it should be part of this partivular discussion.

Edit: a more carefull reading of WGtE brought me this:

"CORELLON AND LOLTH
The elves of Eberron weren’t created by the gods you may know from other settings. In Eberron, the Sulat Giants created the drow as a weapon to fight the rebellious elves: there is a lingering enmity between drow and elf, but it’s not driven by the influence of Lolth. Meanwhile, the elves revere their ancestors — many of whom still linger and guide them — as opposed to distant gods.
This is an opportunity to explore these traditional races in a new light. However, if you want to incorporate Corellon and Lolth, there’s a few ways to do it. One possibility is that Eberron was created as a copy of the distant realms of the multiverse, hidden away to prevent the gods from influencing it. As such, while the drow of Eberron have no knowledge of Lolth, if she found her way through the Ring of Siberys and into Eberron, she might be able to poison their hearts and turn them to her service.
Alternately, you could present both Corellon and Lolth as legendary champions from the past. Corellon could be one of the great heroes and patron ancestors of the Valenar, or one of the leaders of the Undying Court; while Lolth could be the legendary first commander of the drow, whose spirit lingers and hungers for revenge.
Ultimately, it’s a question of the story you want to tell. Do you want to preserve the unique cultures of Eberron? Incorporate Corellon and Lolth into those cultures organically? Or explore the idea of these powers just discovering Eberron and awakening hidden memories in the blood of elf and drow?"

So no, Eberron's elves are not made by Corellon.

 

[Bolares]

What did they create the Planes from?

Magic? Nothing? 42? IIRC there was nothing where they created their universe.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Magic? Nothing? 42? IIRC there was nothing where they created their universe.

Yeah progenitor gods in dnd rarely have a material from which they created to universe. It’s a silly question to use rhetorically. It has no answer because it doesn’t need one. They created the planes. That’s it.

 

[Bolares]

The text I posted in my edit of the WGtE reply makes it clear to me that the quote from MToF was not reffering to Eberron, and even if it was, I believe that in a case of contradiction, the book about the setting takes precedence over the generic book.

 

[Bolares]

Also, this discussion showed me the power of having DnD Beyond and the DM Guild's pdf of older books. Researching and quoting from physical copies would be a pain hahahah

 

[R_J_K75]

I've never seen a setting lore be inplicitly retconned...

If there is no good reason to do it or its contradictory to other source material than leave well enough alone. If Eberron was always meant to be a closed setting, then leave it as such. I dont see any good reason to try and connect it to the rest of the material plane. Thats as bad as saying that anyone could now all of a sudden access Ravenloft or Athas.

 

[Bolares]

If there is no good reason to do it or its contradictory to other source material than leave well enough alone. If Eberron was always meant to be a closed setting, then leave it as such. I dont see any good reason to try and connect it to the rest of the material plane. Thats as bad as saying that anyone could now all of a sudden access Ravenloft or Athas.

I like the idea of connecting it, when the access is optional. What I don't like is broad assumptions that make every setting feel like they are the same. Interplanar interaction is fun. Homogeny is not.

 

[R_J_K75]

I like the idea of connecting it, when the access is optional. What I don't like is broad assumptions that make every setting feel like they are the same. Interplanar interaction is fun. Homogeny is not.

With all the varied campaign settings to me there was always a fine line from making them unique from the rest while keeping the setting specific mechanics manageable. As a new setting Eberron did that pretty well, I dont remember a ton of new mechanics like there was with Planescape or Darksun.

 

[Bolares]

With all the varied campaign settings to me there was always a fine line from making them unique from the rest while keeping the setting specific mechanics manageable. As a new setting Eberron did that pretty well, I dont remember a ton of new mechanics like there was with Planescape or Darksun.

Well, there are the dragonmarks, action points, the artificer... I don't know if that is a ton XD

To me every creative way of bringing new ideas to the game is great, as long as it is an option, as long as it does not make my games feel obsolete, stuff like that.

 

[R_J_K75]

Well, there are the dragonmarks, action points, the artificer... I don't know if that is a ton XD

To me every creative way of bringing new ideas to the game is great, as long as it is an option, as long as it does not make my games feel obsolete, stuff like that.

The Dragon Marks were the only thing that I had trouble with because I could never remember the differences between them. I just introduced things slowly and just disregarded what I wanted. I liked the whole story line of the Last War and the cold war feeling after. To me that was what Eberron was about. I wish theyd have left it at Khorvaire and left out the other continents.

I never consider any of my books obsolete, I still use alot of 1E-3E books to supplement my 5E game. Even though I dont use my 4E books Ive still kept them because some of it might come in handy one day.