D&D 5E Exploring Eberron: Now Available!

Eberron creator Keith Baker’s Exploring Eberron, with new races, subclasses, monsters, and tons of setting information is now available in PDF format!

Also, Keith will be on the Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk podcast in a couple of weeks with a great competition to give away three hardcovers! Be sure to brush up on your Eberron lore!

Discover Uncharted Depths

Join Eberron setting creator Keith Baker in this tour through the lands, oceans, and planes of Eberron. Exploring Eberron presents Keith's vision of Eberron like never before, with fresh lore and rich illustrations to bring the setting to life.

In this book, Keith takes players and Dungeon masters on a thrilling dive into Eberron and its thirteen planes. Encounter the monstrous folk of Droaam, the goblinoid Heirs of Dhakaan, the Mror dwarves and their Realm Below, and the sahuagin and merfolk dwelling beneath the waves. Embrace faiths of altruism, pragmatism, and darkness. Browse Dolurrh's Vault of Memories, seek the Amaranthine Cities of Irian and Mabar, meditate with the Gith monks of Kythri, and much more.

The adventure won't be easy! Mighty friends and foes await - from legendary archfey and proud sahuagin to nightmarish quori and alien daelkyr. Eberron is a world in need of heroes, but take heart: between these pages lie a host of player options for would-be heroes to enjoy. You'll discover new archetypes for the artificer, cleric, druid, monk, and bard. Play unique Eberron races and subraces including gnolls, Dhakaani goblinoids, aasimar of diverse faiths, and ruinbound dwarves. Uncover a wealth of magic items from around the world, bear symbionts that bond with your very flesh, wield dragonmark focus items - perhaps even manifest a Siberys dragonmark of immense power.

FAQ
New FAQ by Keith on his blog

Q: What is Exploring Eberron?

A: Exploring Eberron (ExE) is a 248 page book written by Keith Baker stuffed with new lore, giving depth to topics such as the dwarves of the Mror Holds and the 13 planes.

Production
Q: Where will ExE be sold? What formats? When will it be available?

A: ExE is available exclusively on the dmsguild in hardcover and pdf

Q: Will ExE be available on DnDBeyond?

A: Without the intervention of Wizards of the Coast, the dmsguild has the sole licensing rights to third party Eberron content. If you're upset about this, tweet at them

Q: Did I miss out on a kickstarter or something? Are there preorders?

A: The dmsguild does not allow kickstarted products nor does it have the infrastructure for preorders.

Q: Didn't I hear about this book months ago? What happened?

A: Uh, life happened. Exploring Eberron ran into a variety of production issues, as detailed here and here. A combination of personal issues in Keith's life, prioritizing more urgent projects like the Adventure Zone card game, and COVID have delayed the book significantly.

Content
Q: What's in the book?

A: You can check out the table of contents, a scroll-through preview by Sly Flourish, and a variety of previews from the book's production. The first 200 pages are dedicated almost exclusively to new lore, then chapters 6, 7, and 8 provide new mechanical content for both players and DMs.

Q: There's mechanical content? Is it balanced?

A: The production team has had an extensive team of playtesters review the material on a variety of metrics, including balance.

If you want to know more about Eberron, please check out /r/Eberron, the discord, Keith's blog, and the Manifest Zone podcast. There's even a brand new episode dedicated to the book!

Reviews

Sly Flourish
Todd Talks
Merric's Musings: Part 1
All Things Lich
Dungeon Mapster of None
The Mania
411 Mania
The Tome Show
Total Party Thrill

 

[Marandahir]

The lore should contradict should it? I mean it is always the same year in Eberron (lore wise) isn't it?

There's contradictory lore in Eberron, though. Mostly from edition to edition (such as the addition of the Feyspires in 4e onward, to make room for Eladrin in the 4e core rules as present in Khorvaire), but sometimes within various 3.5e splatbooks, too.

Keith's spoken to this - he's very clear that Exploring Eberron is HIS take on Eberron, not the official one, and that YOUR Eberron may be different, and that different writers have done different things with it. For example, there's new artwork of a particular Daelkyr in this book that is radically different from previous editions' versions, because Keith has NEVER been satisfied with their depictions.

Rising from the Last War has PC stats for Aereni Elves. Exploring Eberron has alternate stats for Aereni Elves. These are different ways of approaching the same concept, but by different writers.

That's okay.

 

[Weiley31]

There's contradictory lore in Eberron, though. Mostly from edition to edition (such as the addition of the Feyspires in 4e onward, to make room for Eladrin in the 4e core rules as present in Khorvaire), but sometimes within various 3.5e splatbooks, too.

Keith's spoken to this - he's very clear that Exploring Eberron is HIS take on Eberron, not the official one, and that YOUR Eberron may be different, and that different writers have done different things with it. For example, there's new artwork of a particular Daelkyr in this book that is radically different from previous editions' versions, because Keith has NEVER been satisfied with their depictions.

Rising from the Last War has PC stats for Aereni Elves. Exploring Eberron has alternate stats for Aereni Elves. These are different ways of approaching the same concept, but by different writers.

That's okay.

Use whichever one ya prefer I always say.

 

[Morrus]

Keith's spoken to this - he's very clear that Exploring Eberron is HIS take on Eberron, not the official one

Does not compute. Keith's take on Eberron is the official one, inasmuch as 'official' means anything.

 

[Marandahir]

Does not compute. Keith's take on Eberron is the official one, inasmuch as 'official' means anything.

WotC owns the property, and while Keith is the creator, he forged it with the support and feedback and head-butting efforts of WotC team designers. He's been very clear that their products are the legally official ones, but that this is HIS Eberron, and the game you play in doesn't have to be either to his vision or WotC's (or Ruty's; see discussions re: Morgrave Miscellany; or anyone else's), but YOUR Eberron.

That said, we all know that Keith's take is the most authoritative one when it comes to creative impulses on the world.

 

[Weiley31]

When it comes to WoTC's Eberron and Keith's Eberron: I combine BOTH together.

 

[Morrus]

WotC owns the property

Nevertheless, my statement stands.

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

I get it, and I do think that it makes sense that Mabar itself kills living creatures. The only problem is the speed of it. Since it’s so quick, it creates the binary situation where the core of Mabar is completely inaccessible unless you have specific magic items. It doesn’t allow for interesting scenarios where you could risk losing the protection, because if you do lose it, you’re going to die before you can come up with something protective (unless you of course have the right spells—non-casters need not apply!).

You're right that a having a single spellcaster being able to cast death ward on every PC is taking a huge chance, especially since death ward can be dispelled by being activated (ie, preventing HP to dropping to 0 but to 1 instead, only to have the Hunger of Mabar killing you and turning you to dust on the next round...). And you're also right that equipping everyone with rings of necrotic protection because we're all going to Mabar takes the fun out of it. Careful adventurers would do that and plan for every encounter or climate type, after all, but it's not really... "fun". Ring of resistance are rare items, so they could be within monetary reach of high level heroes... but if, as you mention rightly, it's negating most of the danger of visiting Mabar, why have them available?

I'd very much prefer have the PCs realize that Mabar will kill them quickly, commission a Beacon of Irian that protects from the Hunger of Mabar within a small radius (and have them quest for exotic material component to allow house Cannith to build the prototype... problem, it's effectively a cart-sized item and the range could fluctuate as it takes damage. Having the PCs worry about their mules or horse getting killed because they are tracting the only item that protect them from the hostile environment is more challenging. Or having them jury-rig their beacon back into working after it flickered before the sixty seconds are up and they start being turned to dust... I can see an "horror vibes" coming from that.

On the contrary, Irian is milder... I was half expecting the boon of life to have deleterious effect as well... "you're sick, you're cured. you're injured, you're healed, you're fine? All this creative energy in your body will complete you... you're human? Time to say hello to your vestigial wisdom teeth, tail and nictating membrane that are starting to be "cured" as well... but maybe it's too "Xoriat-like".

 

[Weiley31]

You're right that a having a single spellcaster being able to cast death ward on every PC is taking a huge chance, especially since death ward can be dispelled by being activated (ie, preventing HP to dropping to 0 but to 1 instead, only to have the Hunger of Mabar killing you and turning you to dust on the next round...). And you're also right that equipping everyone with rings of necrotic protection because we're all going to Mabar takes the fun out of it. Careful adventurers would do that and plan for every encounter or climate type, after all, but it's not really... "fun". Ring of resistance are rare items, so they could be within monetary reach of high level heroes... but if, as you mention rightly, it's negating most of the danger of visiting Mabar, why have them available?

I'd very much prefer have the PCs realize that Mabar will kill them quickly, commission a Beacon of Irian that protects from the Hunger of Mabar within a small radius (and have them quest for exotic material component to allow house Cannith to build the prototype... problem, it's effectively a cart-sized item and the range could fluctuate as it takes damage. Having the PCs worry about their mules or horse getting killed because they are tracting the only item that protect them from the hostile environment is more challenging. Or having them jury-rig their beacon back into working after it flickered before the sixty seconds are up and they start being turned to dust... I can see an "horror vibes" coming from that.

On the contrary, Irian is milder... I was half expecting the boon of life to have deleterious effect as well... "you're sick, you're cured. you're injured, you're healed, you're fine? All this creative energy in your body will complete you... you're human? Time to say hello to your vestigial wisdom teeth, tail and nictating membrane that are starting to be "cured" as well... but maybe it's too "Xoriat-like".

So you just use the same rules for the Hunger of Mabar, except just make where your overflowing with so much positive energy, like being on the Positive Energy Plane, that you go BOOM without the proper protection.

 

[Reynard]

One thought: Why are you going to Mabar? Just exploring? If you are doing it at the behest of some powerful entity or force, perhaps they arrange for your safety. Even better, maybe the PCs have to make a deal with something native to the plane and honor their agreement in order to survive there. I try never to consider restrictions or difficulties as story-stoppers. They fuel the interesting bits of play in an adventure that might otherwise be a simple Fetch Quest.

 

[ChaosOS]

RAW Irian was always only minorly positive in 3.5 - it never had the "pop". I'd also direct people to the end of the section, the "Irian Stories" subheading. I'd provide a quote but I'm on mobile