D&D 5E First Eberron campaign!

[DEFCON 1]

Oooh, I just had the idea that her character was a gnome but got caught up in the mist on the Day of Mourning and was transformed into a human (or I could just make her a Medium-sized gnome). Her barbarian rage is a side effect of getting caught in the mist. My daughter quite likes that idea.

Oversized gnome (or human transformed gnome) would be very fun.

 

[W'rkncacnter]

With the Hero Points, I’m not sure I like the idea of the default 5 + half level each time a PC levels. By the time you get to 20th level, you’d get 15 Hero Points! That’s a lot!

keep in mind it's not 15 per in-game day, or per session, or even per in-game week, but for that entire level. which means until you level up you don't get any more hero points, and when you DO level up you lose your hero points and then gain the appropriate number for that level.

it also looks like this rule was straight up ripped from 3.5e's action points, so...there's that.

 

[pukunui]

Oversized gnome (or human transformed gnome) would be very fun.

Cool. I might just go with that. I don't think a tall gnome with a base 30-foot speed and no penalty on using heavy weapons will be OP.

keep in mind it's not 15 per in-game day, or per session, or even per in-game week, but for that entire level. which means until you level up you don't get any more hero points, and when you DO level up you lose your hero points and then gain the appropriate number for that level.

Yeah, I get that. I'm just conscious that these players will struggle to remember that they've got a bunch of hero points to use. It's easier just to say "It's a new session. You've got X hero points. Use 'em or lose 'em." That's how I've been doing Inspiration for years now. I'm also going to go with a slower level progression for this campaign, if that matters.

it also looks like this rule was straight up ripped from 3.5e's action points, so...there's that.

Mostly. They didn't include the original rule's "reactivate a spent ability" option.

 

[Gradine]

keep in mind it's not 15 per in-game day, or per session, or even per in-game week, but for that entire level. which means until you level up you don't get any more hero points, and when you DO level up you lose your hero points and then gain the appropriate number for that level.

it also looks like this rule was straight up ripped from 3.5e's action points, so...there's that.

3.5e's action point rule was straight up ripped from original Eberron's hero points

 

[Gradine]

Oooh, I just had the idea that her character was a gnome but got caught up in the mist on the Day of Mourning and was transformed into a human (or I could just make her a Medium-sized gnome). Her barbarian rage is a side effect of getting caught in the mist. My daughter quite likes that idea.

"The Mourning Did It" is basically everyone's built-in excuse for anything weird that they want

 

[W'rkncacnter]

Yeah, I get that. I'm just conscious that these players will struggle to remember that they've got a bunch of hero points to use. It's easier just to say "It's a new session. You've got X hero points. Use 'em or lose 'em." That's how I've been doing Inspiration for years now. I'm also going to go with a slower level progression for this campaign, if that matters.

that's fair. there's also the concern that they might either a. dump all their hero points very early in the level and be screwed later on or b. be incredibly fearful of doing a by accident and intentionally hoarding their hero points, spending maybe less then half their hero points by next level. it just sounded like there may have been confusion as to how they worked.

Mostly. They didn't include the original rule's "reactivate a spent ability" option.

well...yeah.

3.5e's action point rule was straight up ripped from original Eberron's hero points

well...yeah. they're literally the same thing. i'd HOPE they'd be the same.

 

[pukunui]

I've decided I'm going to give my modified Hero Points rule a go. So at the start of every session, the players will each get a number of Hero Points equal to half their proficiency bonus (rounded down). If that proves to be too much, I might modify it so they only ever get one Hero Point per session but instead get to roll a number of d6s equal to half their proficiency bonus and use the best one. That's more in keeping with the original Action Point rule as well.

"The Mourning Did It" is basically everyone's built-in excuse for anything weird that they want

I was rereading Rising from the Last War's section on the Mournland, and being permanently enlarged as if by the enlarge/reduce spell is the first entry on the Monstrous Mutations table, so there we go!

I've managed to create an Enlarged Forest Gnome homebrew race in DDB easily enough, so that's what I'll use for my daughter's PC.

The other PCs are coming together nicely. My other daughter is going to play a swarmkeeper ranger. My wife is going to play a lore bard with the Mark of Scribing. The other two players (a couple who are mutual friends of ours) are playing a paladin and an artificer. (I don't know what subclasses they want yet, but we're starting at 1st level, so it's no biggie.)

I'm thinking I might start them all as survivors of the Day of Mourning / Cyran refugees based on this bit of advice from Keith Baker in the "Starting a Campaign" section of Chronicles of Eberron:

If an entire group of players are new to the setting, I often suggest their character are all survivors of Cyre -- perhaps they served together during the Last War, or they could've been thrown together by the Mourning. This approach not only makes it simple for players to know little about their homeland (after all, they won't be casually strolling its streets or navigating its politics), but being from Cyre gives the party a shared loss and an easy explanation for why they're adventurers. They have no home to return to, and all they have is each other -- now do they want to help other Cyrans, or are they just looking out for themselves?

 

[pukunui]

Try The Convergance Manifesto from the DMs Guild. Some really good stuff across Eberron and throught the Eberron planes of existence. Starts and ends in Sharn though.

We had to postpone our first session from today till next weekend, and I’m actually glad, as it meant I had time to start reading through these adventures. I really like the first one, and I think it would fit in perfectly as I am intending to have the PCs join the Clifftop Adventurers’ Guild. I can also say that the gnome artificer PC already knows the gnome artificer NPC.

I particularly appreciate that the author has made good use of the fail forward approach. There also seems to be good attention to detail and lore.

EDIT: I’m not as impressed with the second one, but I think I can tweak it to my liking. (The main thing I don’t like about it is the idea that the PCs have to trek westward through the mountains for three days till they find a hidden cave, then backtrack eastward through the tunnels for another three days. I might just cut that out and have them be able to find the hidden valley from the surface.)

 

[Plaguescarred]

There could also be the following short adventure

1st level

• The Mark of Prophecy (4e Eberron book)

 

[Bolares]

There could also be the following short adventure

1st level

• The Mark of Prophecy (4e Eberron book)

I really like this adventure. The prelude in the day of mourning, the skill challenge and the fight with the trap stand out to me