D&D Launches New Eberron-Themed Playtest With Dragonmarked Feats

The D&D design team has launched a new Unearthed Arcana playtest focused on the upcoming Eberron: Forge of the Artificer book, featuring Dragonmarked feats and a new Artificer subclass. The new packet contains rules for a Cartographer subclass for the Artificer, along with a handful of new magic item options and over 25 Dragonmarked feats. The Artificer base class rules also received a few tweaks to some of its features, with an eye towards more general versatility.

The other big feature is the new Dragonmarked feats, most of which are considered either Dragonmarked Feats or General Feats. The Dragonmarked Feats are specifically limited to Eberron campaigns and allow only one Dragonmark per character (thus preventing Warlocks from accumulating Dragonmarks). The General Feats are Greater Marks and specifically upgrade existing Dragonmarks as a requirement. It's interesting that D&D is keeping with campaign setting specific feats and feat trees, as both of these design traits were found in the Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen book.

You can check out the full playtest on D&D Beyond.

 

[mellored]

It requires attunement, and how many PCs have enough Artisan Tool proficiencies that they need multiple available?

It gives you all Artisan’s Tool proficiencies.

One at a time, but I'm having trouble imagining a scenario where you need cobblers tool and carpenters tools in the same round. But then I guess you give it to the fighter who has action surge.

It appears to be written as a magic item that can be created like any other

That was in the last UA, and yes. It's supposed to be a magic item available to all classes, at the DMs discretion.

And yes, it's a good one. But still requires attunement.

It's also worth noting that Artificers can remake it at the start of a day for 4 charges instead of 1d4. So it's still better in their hands.

 

[Kobold Stew]

It requires attunement, and how many PCs have enough Artisan Tool proficiencies that they need multiple available? If all you have is the one from your Background, spending an attunement slot on an item that doesn't even provide a bonus is pointless.

As you note below, the description says it gives proficiency, whatever for the tool takes. You have proficiency with literally every artisan tool. as a common magical item, the size of a screwdriver.

This is a minor novelty that provides a modest quality of life benefit for Artificers and anyone with the Artisan background, saving a little bit of encumbrance, which gets replaced as soon as they get a Bag of Holding and want to free up that attunement slot.

You make your choices. I disagree with you, but that's not the point. As a common magical item, all tool proficiencies, and all need for mundane tools disappears.

Edit: On a re-read, there's a case that it gives you effective proficiency in every Artisan's Tool for free. Which I agree, by that reading it's a bit nuts. Maybe rule it as not applying to things like magic item crafting?

Yes. If it were a class-only feature, it would be very powerful, but not world-breaking.

 

[ChaosOS]

This makes me think we'll get UA for the new species options in a month. Construct Warforged seem like a gimme, but will the Khoravar be different from the 2014 Half Elves?

 

[Henadic Theologian]

This makes me think we'll get UA for the new species options in a month. Construct Warforged seem like a gimme, but will the Khoravar be different from the 2014 Half Elves?

Will Changelings still be FEY like MotM or will they be Monstrosities like Doppelgangers in the MM?

And will Kalastar be Aberrations, Shifters Monstrosities?

And how will they make the species different enough from E: RftLW beyond creature types? More lineages for Shifters and maybe Warforged? Outside chance of lineages for Kalastar?

 

[WanderingMystic]

Will Changelings still be FEY like MotM or will they be Monstrosities like Doppelgangers in the MM?

And will Kalastar be Aberrations, Shifters Monstrosities?

And how will they make the species different enough from E: RftLW beyond creature types? More lineages for Shifters and maybe Warforged? Outside chance of lineages for Kalastar?

I am guessing changeling will possibly be fey and warforged maybe constructs. The Kalastar, shifter and warforged will be slightly tweaked just like the core races were. It would be nice to see updated goblinoid pc in the book but i think we will have to wait.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Will Changelings still be FEY like MotM or will they be Monstrosities like Doppelgangers in the MM?

And will Kalastar be Aberrations, Shifters Monstrosities?

And how will they make the species different enough from E: RftLW beyond creature types? More lineages for Shifters and maybe Warforged? Outside chance of lineages for Kalastar?

I would prefer if Changelings weren’t fey, but if they are, they need some feature that prevents others from detecting their creature type with spells and other magical effects.

I’d be surprised if Kalashtar became aberrations.

I also mostly like Warforged being Humanoids, as unlike other constructs they do have living components in their bodies, but I do think Construct overall makes more sense. And I love making undead Warforged, which wouldn’t work as well if they were constructs.

 

[Kurotowa]

I have to wonder if we're going to get yet another iteration on the goblinoid trio of PC species stats, or if they'll just reprint the MotM versions as "good enough". Certainly they were already on the fey path at that point with some of the traits. But the Revised MM takes it further, and I'm curious to know if they'll want to update them a little more.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Artificer Review​

It's pretty similar to the previous version, so I'm not going to review every features. Just the ones that have changed.
Tinker's Magic - All artificers get mending for free now. Good. They always should have had this, as it is the most "artificery" of all the cantrips.

Also, the objects created by this feature last until you finish a long rest, meaning bedrolls actually function now. You still need to make sure that you don't leave anything in containers created with this feature before you long rest, this mostly fixes the mechanical issues I had with the original UA version.

Replicate Magic Item: Spellcasting Focus - I'm glad that they fixed the issue that Battle Smiths had in the previous UA of not being able to use their infused weapons/shields as spellcasting foci. However, I don't understand why WotC is so restrictive with what Artificers use as their foci. What was OP about an Artificer being able to use any infused item as a spellcasting focus. Hell, if a Battle Smith finds Blackrazor or an artillerist finds the Wand of Orcus and wants to use it, why shouldn't they be able to use it as their spellcasting focus?

Magic Item Tinker - This is great. No notes.

Spell Storing Item - This didn't change since the last UA, but I just want to say I'm glad they're still allowing 3rd level spells to be stored. Hopefully that survives playtest, Artificers need a boost, especially at higher levels.

Soul of Artifice - WotC, what are you doing? The original, official version of Soul of Artifice from Rising/Tasha's was practically perfect. Why are they changing it? The extra HP on a revive is nice, but definitely not worth trading for the saving throw buff they got rid of.

---

Overall, this is definitely better than the previous version. I'll have to playtest this to see how it plays, but my gut tells me this just isn't enough. The main problem with the artificer is that they're a half-caster. At higher levels they just can't keep up in spellcasting with other casters or in combat with martials. At high levels, Fighters are masters of the battlefield, paladins are nigh-angelic divine paragons, and Wizards have access to a ton of gamebreakingly powerful spells. Artificers are just inventors with a bag of interesting tools that only get access to 5th level spells at level 17.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

This makes me think we'll get UA for the new species options in a month. Construct Warforged seem like a gimme, but will the Khoravar be different from the 2014 Half Elves?

More like 2 months, the next UA will likely be another run at the FR subclasses that need tweaking, and maybe the FR feats and Circle Casting.

 

[Selas]

As you note below, the description says it gives proficiency, whatever for the tool takes. You have proficiency with literally every artisan tool. as a common magical item, the size of a screwdriver.


You make your choices. I disagree with you, but that's not the point. As a common magical item, all tool proficiencies, and all need for mundane tools disappears.

You realize this is a common version of the All-Purpose Tool, right? The Manifold doesn't provide an exchangeable cantrip on LR, cannot be used as a spellcasting focus, and doesn't provide +1 to the spell attack and DC of Artificer spells. So no, it doesn't fit the criteria of an Uncommon item

Yes. If it were a class-only feature, it would be very powerful, but not world-breaking.

It WAS a class feature...they took the feature "The Right Tool for the Job" and replaced it with this. Sure, it costs attunement, but that was gonna be filled by the APT, which is Uncommon and does more than just Artisan tool proficiency