D&D 4E 4e Eberron Changes

[delericho]

I recently received one of Gale Force Nine's rather nice Eberron maps. It's very impressive. However, I note a few changes from the 3e map that I am used to. I'm pretty sure there are a good few islands I just haven't seen before.

Any chance someone could give me a quick summary of the changes to Eberron made in 4e? I know the timeline wasn't advanced, but presumably there are a few new things (a homeland for the Dragonborn for one). I was wondering how extensive those are?

Also, if I own all the 3e Eberron books, and have no interest in the 4e mechanics, how much value is there in the two 4e Eberron books? Any interesting new fluff? Secrets revealed? New plot points?

Thanks!

 

[Rune]

If you're not interested in the mechanics, at all, I'd say just get the Campaign book and ignore the Player's book. The Campaign book is mostly (maybe all--I'm away from my books, right now; can't check) fluff. The Player's book is all player options, which means a lot of crunch.

I'm not familiar enough with 3e Ebberon to say what the major non-mechanical changes were, although I do know of a couple of significant mechanical changes.

If I recall correctly, in 3e, warforged could not be healed by normal means and artificers could heal them, but no one else. In 4e, warforged can be healed just like anybody else and artificers can heal anybody else (in 4e, they have the leader role with strong control tendencies).

 

[DEFCON 1]

Actually, dragonborn aren't given a "homeland" per se... although they *are* added to the scaly-monster community of Q'Barra. That's where you'll find most of them on Khorvaire proper. Most of the others are down in Argonnessen.

The biggest 4E additions from the 3E version that I recall are several Eladrin feyspires that are "stuck" on Khorvaire. Can't remember the specifics off-hand... but basically these fey areas normally would phase into Khorvaire when Thelanis (the feywild) was coterminous with the planet... but on the Day of Mourning, whichever feyspires that were phased in got "stuck" (along with all its inhabitants) and did not go back to Thelanis. So there are like a dozen or so of these feyspires across the continent that weren't there in the 3E book.

 

[71gamer]

Not much changed besides some planar fluff, and changes to the lore to align with 4E mechanics. I believe the change was made so anyone could get any dragonmark, I also think they act a little differently, too. 4e also statted up some folks like Lady Vol and Lord of Blades that weren't present in the original books. The 4E eberron books were my only 4E books I didn't sell when Essentials was announced, the information is organized a little better and it seems there's some new art. The Eberron canned adventure is complete BS (has almost nothing to do with Eberron) so avoid it all all costs (80% of it takes place underground in Droaam, argh.)

If you can find the 4E books for cheap (pretty good bet) they are worth it for the art and lore, not much has changed otherwise.

 

[Siberys]

Technically, the only changes are to define the place of Eladrin and Dragonborn in Eberron, and to revise the scale of the map (it used to be WAY too big).

The bit about d'marks... only kinda. The dragonmark feats don't have racial prerequisites, but there's a sidebar and several short sections that mention that while it's mechanically possible to mix and match race and mark, it's extraordinarily rare if it happens at all, and is likely to result in being pursued by a lot of very, very powerful organizations - it's essentially an aberrant mark, and a VERY high-profile one, at that.

EDIT: There's also a few interesting "new things"... There's an inbred cult of the dragon below in the Shadow Marches detailed, and a group of Valenar-bred superhumans living in the ruins of Metrol... I think there's more, but that's just at the top of my head.

 

[bganon]

Comparing my old and new maps, I'm not actually seeing any new islands at all. There have always been lots of relatively small ones scattered around, most unnamed.

There are mechanical changes with minor fluff implications, like the aforementioned warforged healing issue, and the way artificers no longer really cast "infusions" any differently from the way wizards cast spells. Most of the shifter racial variants went away too, or are now represented by feats or a paragon path.

There are also at least two new minor groups of villains (one mentioned above). Vadalis-bred humans in the mournland, and a group of epic-level elemental pirate spirits. Fluff-wise, this is confirmation that Vadalis was mage-breeding humans during the Last War, which I think is technically new information for 4e (even if it doesn't surprise anyone).

Related to that, some of the "wimpier" houses have had more sinister/militant roles fleshed out for them to give PCs more interesting hooks. I'm not sure how much is strictly new, but you have things like Ghallanda sanctuary guardians, a faction within Jorasco that "cures" society by killing things, Sivis truenamers, and the previously mentioned revelation that Vadalis does way more than just animal handling.

 

[delericho]

Thanks all!

Based on that, I think I'll pass on the 4e books, unless my FLGS has another clearance like they did with the 3e stuff!

 

[delericho]

Comparing my old and new maps, I'm not actually seeing any new islands at all. There have always been lots of relatively small ones scattered around, most unnamed.

Huh, you're right. Somehow, my eye just didn't spot those islands until now!