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

 

[Mercule]

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.

I rather like it, so long as there aren't vast swaths of lore that invalidate others. One of the things that attracts me to Eberron is the idea of "in my Eberron" versus the mountain of canon that is the Forgotten Realms.

 

[Henry]

The Xoriat section intro is pretty explicit in contrasting the plane with Lamannia. I think "In Your Eberron" it's totally valid to do different pairs, plus I don't think the pairs mean much, but if we're going on a textual "Keith's interpretation" kind of deal then it's Thelanis-DQ and Lamannia-Xoriat

Now all I can think of are images of Dairy Queens dotting the landscapes of Thelanis, thanks for that imagery!

 

[Marandahir]

I rather like it, so long as there aren't vast swaths of lore that invalidate others. One of the things that attracts me to Eberron is the idea of "in my Eberron" versus the mountain of canon that is the Forgotten Realms.

In my Realms is encouraged too, though I do agree that with the static timeline and lack of interwoven advancing official play storyline, Eberron encourages customization FAR more than the Realms do.

 

[doppelganger]

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.

How did adding the Feyspires create contradictory lore?

 

[Marandahir]

How did adding the Feyspires create contradictory lore?

They don't cross onto Eberron in the original 3.5e book, and the idea of Eladrin and Gnomes popping up around Eberron via the crossover spires isn't present. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think the 3.5e EVER mentioned the Gnomes originating on Thelanis. In fact, the 3.5e campaign setting book specifically mentions 'Eladrins' among the inhabitants of the Fey plane (who are celestial outsiders in 3e remember; this is likely where they began to make their transition to their 4e/5e role as Feywild Court elves rather than Arborea celestial court elves) but NOT Gnomes. Gnomes appeared on Zilargo thousands of years ago, and Elves arose out of Xen'drik. The idea of Elves descending from Eladrin who came on the Feyspires was not present by default of the above. 'Eladrins' are only mentioned in context of the plane (well, Firre 'Eladrins' show up on Fierna for some reason, too), and otherwise reference the 3e Manual of the Planes for any other details (where they were considered the form of elves who had died and become celestials under Corellon's grace on Arborea, so yeah, that lore doesn't line up with Eberron).

This was something 4e added to reflect that 4e PH1 had Eladrin as a core race (and that they killed the High Elves and took their stuff). Forget that 4Essentials added High Elves back in as a variant of Elf; the contradictions were astounding but likely because some people didn't like the wrong idea they got that their FR high elves had solid orb colored eyes all along (despite the sections for Eladrin (Sun Elf) and Eladrin (Moon Elf) saying otherwise…).

If you're playing in 3.5e Eberron, Gnomes aren't Fey. They're crafty people inherent to Eberron. Their Dragonmark is a symbol of this; only Humans, Dwarves, Elves, Halflings, Half-Elves, Half-Orcs, and Gnomes can manifest Dragonmarks, and they're the peoples closely tied to Eberron and not any of the Planes. In 4e lore, Dwarves are descended from Elemental beings like Azers & Galeb Duhr & Eisk Jaat, Elves, Eladrin, and Gnomes are Fey from the Feywild, only Humans, Orcs, and Halflings of the above peoples seem native to the Material Plane (with Half-elves and Half-orcs adjunct) - similar to idea that while akin to Archfey, the Daughters are native to Eberron per Keith's sidebar on Page 92 in ExE. There's a native to Eberron vs native to Thelanis detail that's IMPORTANT when it comes to the lore, and its reverberations on the story Keith has been staging with the setting.

We can quibble on the details. I LOVE the 4e lore, and what it brought with the Feyspires to Eberron. But the idea that Feyspires didn't alter the WOTCanon of Eberron to service the needs of the 4th Edition is something I can't agree with.

Notice on ExE page 196 - Keith specifically discusses Feyspires and what 4e did with them:

Many feyspires serve as planar beachheads; they are tied to specific manifest zones in Eberron, and when the time is right, they can slip into Eberron for a short time. Usually the feyspires are hidden by powerful illusions during these times, but there are stories of people stumbling into magical cities that are gone the next day. In fourth edition, the Eberron Campaign Guide explored the idea that feyspires could be trapped in Eberron following the Mourning; it’s up to a DM to decide if that’s the story they want to tell.

These two sentences give a powerful suggestion to me that the Feyspires stuck on Eberron is not Kanon (Kownon?) despite being 4e WOTCanon (and ambiguous to 5e WOTCanon). Keith all but says that they can be stuck there in YOUR Eberron but in HIS Eberron he's not going to discuss it further. That said, he DOES go on to describe that Pyla Pyrial, the Gate of Joy, which manifests in Zilargo, has a significant Gnomish population - only to specifically JOSS the idea that Gnomes came from Thelanis TO Eberron:

The eladrin are the most common mortals in the layer, but there are also a handful of mortals who have been drawn in from Eberron—the gnomes of Pylas Pyrial

Nope; any Gnomes in 5e on Thelanis came TO the plane from Eberron. Again, because they're a Dragonmarked people, they're native to Eberron. NOT SO IN 4e WOTCanon, so this is a place that ExE departs from previous WotC published content. Not a bad thing, just a thing.

And as for Feyspires, not even mentioned in 3.5e but originating in 4e, they are still described as appearing in Thelanis manifest zones on Eberron at times (which 3.5e used to describe faerie circles, for example). They're just not anchored to them. Eladrin are MORTAL in 5e Thelanis, unlike all the other Fey, and if they spend too much time on Eberron, they'll become Humanoid (Elf) hence the player character Eladrin from Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes. How far we've come from the specifically immortal Eladrin of 3.5e, who among and alongside the Fey of Thelanis would seem the most IMMORTAL of all.

These are just a handful of ways the editions clash with each other over Thelanis, the Feyspires, and their denizens.

 

[Reynard]

One of the nice things about Eberron in particular when it comes to contradictory information between and even within editions, and even in regards to Canon vs Kanon, is that there are in fact competing universities and other interests that have their own takes on the history of the world. Scholarship in Eberron seems based around late 19th and early 20th century Earth scholarship, and that means TONS of political influence on what is "discovered." Some institutions and individuals might be wrong, while others might be actively lying or propagandizing. And the GM doesn't actually need to decide who is right unless the GM is going to use a specific bit of lore -- and in that case, is probably better off putting their own interpretation on it anyway.

 

[Marandahir]

One of the nice things about Eberron in particular when it comes to contradictory information between and even within editions, and even in regards to Canon vs Kanon, is that there are in fact competing universities and other interests that have their own takes on the history of the world. Scholarship in Eberron seems based around late 19th and early 20th century Earth scholarship, and that means TONS of political influence on what is "discovered." Some institutions and individuals might be wrong, while others might be actively lying or propagandizing. And the GM doesn't actually need to decide who is right unless the GM is going to use a specific bit of lore -- and in that case, is probably better off putting their own interpretation on it anyway.

THIS RIGHT HERE is one of the reasons I love Eberron. Totally agree.

I mean, you can (and IMHO, should) do this with Realms games, too. But the fact that Living Forgotten Realms is the standard organized play, and because the timeline marches on, incorporating events from past seasons of LFR, means that that setting leans hard into a singular standard interpretation of the setting, with any discrepencies between published works something to be reconciled by the world's lore (either with timeline changes or by declaring something non-canon).

 

[ChaosOS]

Keith posted a new blog article last night, people in the ExE preview thread seemed to like me using this as an "Updates on Kanon" thread.

IFAQ: Treaties and Laws

My new book Exploring Eberron is available now on the DM’s Guild. You can find a FAQ about it here. I am currently working on a longer article about the Nobility of Khorvaire, but as time per…

keith-baker.com

 

[Bolares]

Keith posted a new blog article last night, people in the ExE preview thread seemed to like me using this as an "Updates on Kanon" thread.

IFAQ: Treaties and Laws

My new book Exploring Eberron is available now on the DM’s Guild. You can find a FAQ about it here. I am currently working on a longer article about the Nobility of Khorvaire, but as time per…

keith-baker.com

Maybe we could try to organize this posts in a thread of it's own, maing a wiki of the blog almost

 

[doppelganger]

... awesome post snipped ...

Thank you for that amazing post Marandahir. I didn’t realize how much things had shifted over time.