Eberron: Forge of the Artificer to Be Priced at $29.99

Dungeons & Dragons is returning to the splatbook era. Today, Wizards of the Coast announced pre-orders for Eberron: Forge of the Artificer, a new "rules expansion" focused on Eberron. Buried in the pre-order announcement is that the physical version of the book will cost just $29.99, suggesting a much thinner page count and the lowest price point for a Fifth Edition book released by Wizards of the Coast.

Wizards previously teased that the new Eberron book would be different from other D&D sourcebooks, but the $29.99 price point is about half of the current $50-$60 price point for current D&D rules manuals. No page count has been confirmed for the new Eberron book, so we'll have to see just how much of a splatbook Eberron: Forge of the Artificer ends up being.

 

[dave2008]

Drooam gnolls have the Znir pact who were able to break control of the fiend that empowers gnolls and are more... Controlled in their savageness. They are basically mercenaries who are ruthlessly efficient. That are basically 3e gnolls.

PC stats for them are in Exploring Eberron and in Quickstone. I suspect these will be NPCs.

Yep, I read about them on KB's blog a few years ago.

 

[Retros_x]

Yes please. Everything regarding Eberron I just absorb. Unfortunately my 5e Eberron campaign broke apart due to players moving away and currently I am sometimes DM in a switching DM game in a homebrew setting and plan a shadowdark sandbox game. But I definitely want to comeback to Eberron, its just a setting that is so well-designed for adventure and has so many unique ideas.

 

[WanderingMystic]

I noticed in the preview pages for the Artillerist they now added "Martial Ranged Weapon" to the things that can become an Arcane Firearm. Finally an Artillerist can use a Firearm (or a Bow or Crossbow) as an Arcane Firearm...

See now they just need an ability at 3rd level that lets them use ranged weapons with the true strike cantrip, that and proficiency in ranged martial weapons which as of the play test they didn't have.

Honestly if I could cast true strike with a crossbow or gun as an artillerist I would be ecstatic.

 

[Hutchimus Prime]

No, my money is on 128.

Also wonder if it’ll be a Trade Paperback style printing?

 

[Remathilis]

Also wonder if it’ll be a Trade Paperback style printing?

I don't think so. Paperbacks were disliked because of how flimsy they are. My guess is that are going to look like one of the books from the Planescape or Spelljammer box sets, minus the slip case.

 

[Bolares]

I don't think the gnolls are representing the Znir pact, they look more like Daask members to me...

 

[Yaarel]

I assume the 'Gnolls' are actually Shifters, were-hyenas.

I would love the Shifter species more, if it can fully become the animal, like the actual wolf or lion or bovine or bear or hyena, that the character derives from. It would be so cool for each Shifter to an Alternate Beast Form. The Alternate Form of each Shifter would a unique, identifiable, individual.

 

[mearls]

I’m not looking to start an Eberron campaign, but I love this product format.

 

[Yaarel]

Wizards previously teased that the new Eberron book would be different from other D&D sourcebooks, but the $29.99 price point is about half of the current $50-$60 price point for current D&D rules manuals. No page count has been confirmed for the new Eberron book, so we'll have to see just how much of a splatbook Eberron: Forge of the Artificer ends up being.

The lower price point might be to encourage the gamer culture to purchase setting books.

All the flavor is in the setting choice. The core rules aim for setting neutral. It might take time for the gaming community to get used to the idea of looking for the flavor in the setting books.

 

[Kurotowa]

See now they just need an ability at 3rd level that lets them use ranged weapons with the true strike cantrip, that and proficiency in ranged martial weapons which as of the play test they didn't have.

Honestly if I could cast true strike with a crossbow or gun as an artillerist I would be ecstatic.

Good news! No special feature is needed, unlike the other weapon cantrips True Strike already works with ranged weapons.

So all that's needed is proficiency, and if Arcane Firearm specifically allows ranged martial weapons it's a safe bet that Artillerists will get some selection of them. My guess would be they white list pistols and muskets for Artificers as a whole, the same as before.