D&D (2024) You Can Now Pre-order Eberron: Forge of the Artificer

Pre-orders for the upcoming setting book have gone live. Eberron: Forge of the Artificer comes out on August 19th. The book contains the new 2024/5 edition Artificer class with 5 subclasses, the Warforged species, a ton of backgrounds and feats, and 20 new monsters.

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Forge wonders in the world of Eberron, where magic meets marvelous inventions.

Play as the Artificer: the ultimate creative class. You’re not just an inventor or spellcaster. You're an innovator, a bold-hearted visionary, fusing together magic and technology to craft extraordinary creations.

Fuel your adventures with this rules expansion for Dungeons & Dragons:

• 4 revised Artificer subclasses and 1 new subclass: the Cartographer
• 5 revised species, 17 backgrounds, and 28 feats
• New spells, bastions, and magic items
• 3 distinct, genre-based campaign templates for building fantasy noir, political thriller, and pulp adventure campaigns in the world of Eberron
• Over 20 new monsters, each inspired by a campaign model

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[TwoSix]

Eberron as a Magic the Gathering Srt would be perfect: the major nations in the Last War and various factions soap interestingly to the 5 Color.

Challenging. Maybe as 2-color pairs or 3-colors to capture some of the complexity. It's an interesting exercise.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Agreed. We don't. But we have things called artistic movements, like the bauhaus school, post impressionism, etc. They were interesting because they had a point of view and that's what's missing from the core books. It's generic to a fault.

Which of the two covers do you like for the core books, the standard or special editions?

I’m not convinced artistic movements actually add anything - artists copying other artists!? A computer can do that!

However, if you like movements, the Eberron art is spot on retrofuturist.

 

[pmerryweather]

Has anyone tried to pre-order the digital version on D&D beyond?
I'm in the UK and this is the first time they want to charge a 20% Sales Tax on top of the $19.99 cost

 

[Remathilis]

Eberron as a Magic the Gathering Srt would be perfect: the major nations in the Last War and various factions soap interestingly to the 5 Color.

While I get the desire for MTG to use Forgotten Realms as a baseline due to brand synergy and lots of well known characters, an Eberron set would be legend. Warforged as artifact creatures, airships as vehicles, new changeling cards, etc. The only issue I could see is that i could see a lot of thematic overlap with New Capenna, Aetherdrift, and Brother's War.

 

[pukunui]

Which of the two covers do you like for the core books, the standard or special editions?

The alt covers are gorgeous.

 

[Parmandur]

It's always about taste in the end. He is still contemporary and unlike what I am seeing in the 2024 books, his work has style.

He's a working artist today, and whether you love or hate PF2e he is their current cover artist. So obviously, plenty of people love his work and feel he is relevant. I like that there is a cohesive look, even if I don't really play that game.

Technically contemporary, but I found his work already dated 20+ years ago when I was a teenager getting into 3E. Time has not been kind to it, unlike say the 2014 core books. But again, the new books are a new high watermark for D&D art.

 

[Von Ether]

My problem with older Eberron art is that it looks like Pathfinder art. That's mostly because custody of Wayne Reynolds was gained by Paizo in the divorce from WotC. After a decade and more of him doing the covers and iconics for Paizo, I equate WARs art with PF at this point, so I'm perfectly happy with letting Eberron's art evolve past his style.

I never got that involved in PF* and a being a big Eberron fan during it's 3e era, I have the opposite reaction. Proof that art is subjective.

But I welcome any new fans the new art brings in.

*For me personally, the best part of PF was it gave players who wanted "optimization" (or other euphuisms for min-maxing/System Mastery) a D&D game to play instead of complaining 5e didn't provide them something the game was actively avoiding at that time.

 

[Parmandur]

I never got that involved in PF* and a being a big Eberron fan during it's 3e era, I have the opposite reaction. Proof that art is subjective.

But I welcome any new fans the new art brings in.

*For me personally, the best part of PF was it gave players who wanted "optimization" (or other euphuisms for min-maxing/System Mastery) a D&D game to play instead of complaining 5e didn't provide them something the game was actively avoiding at that time.

How dare you take a reasonable and balanced position, in clear violation of the sacred traditions of the fandom.

 

[Von Ether]

I’m not convinced artistic movements actually add anything - artists copying other artists!? A computer can do that!

That's oversimplifying what an artistic movement is.

 

[Gradine]

I can understand not liking the art style being shown here, taste is subjective, yadda yadda. But calling it "generic"? Without a point of view? That's just straight up not true. There is a definitive sense of style and direction here. You may not like it, but it's far from generic.

Furthermore... how can anyone call any art "generic", truly? The first thing that pops into my head when I think of "generic fantasy art" is classic Dragonlance art. Or like... maybe the original Wheel of Time book covers. Which was also had a style and point of view of its own. That's kind of what "art" is, fundamentally. At least... art made by actual humans. But I repeat myself.

The point is that I know intellectually, that all of that art is not at all generic, which tells me that we primarily use the term "generic art" as shorthand for "art I personally find uninteresting". Which is more words, sure, but at least it's more accurate and honest.