D&D 5E Chronicles of Eberron Is Keith Baker's New D&D Book, out now!

After a few days of teasing, Eberron creator Keith Baker has announced his new book -- Chronicles of Eberron! By Keith and Imogen Gingell, the 200-page book will be available on DMs Guild in December.

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Hektula is the Scribe of Sul Khatesh, the Keeper of the Library of Ashtakala, and the Chronicler of the Lords of Dust. Her treasured tomes hold arcane secrets still hidden from human and dragon alike. What lies beneath the Barren Sea? What powers does Mordain the Fleshweaver wield within Blackroot? Who are the Grim Lords of the Bloodsail Principality? All these secrets and many more can be found in the Chronicles of Eberron…

• Chronicles of Eberron is a new 5E sourcebook from Eberron creator Keith Baker and designer Imogen Gingell.
• This book explores a diverse range of topics, including lore and advice for both players and DMs, along with new monsters, treasures, spells and character options.
• Chronicles of Eberron will be available on the DMs Guild as a PDF and print-on-demand.

But that's not all! There is a collaboration with Hero Forge and new T-Shirts!

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[doctorbadwolf]

That was exactly my thought as well.

My other main edit would be to find a better race to take Vadalis. Always seemed weird to me that the Humans got perhaps the most nature-based mark. Granted, I'm sure Keith et. al. wanted to play against type and not give Elves the "animal handling" mark that everyone probably thought they would get... but I do think if we want to cut down on the Human marks... Vadalis makes the most sense to transfer somewhere.

To me... Cannith is the most obvious one to me to stay with Humanity as it is the "Industrial" mark, which speaks of human ingenuity... and also especially with the House being divided currently into thirds because none of the human relatives can stand working with each other and they all want to be in charge, LOL. Some might think that the "tinker gnomes" would make sense for the Mark of Making, but I think just like Vadalis, pigeonholding gnomes in that way does them no favors. Orien? Can stay with Humans, I'm fine with that... but all told I would make Tharashk just orc, Deneith for goblinoids, Vadalis I'd give to Elves because I personally really like the idea of the urban dragonmarked elves in competition with their Tairendal sibilings over who makes the best horses. And as I personally am not a huge fan of "half-races" myself... I would probably move Lyrandar to the gnomes (as that way of getting the "tinker" bit of gnome lore into the game as they built the airships) and Medani to the dwarves to go hand-in-hand with their banking bretheren. One House makes the Banks, the other secures them.

I have no idea if/when I'll run another Eberron game, but if I do... something like this will be a change I might aim for.

Man I love the idea of shuffling around the marks.

I think I’d do something like:

Detection: Khoravar (half-elfs) maybe, House Lyrander is pretty important, and I’d go 1 mark per species. I like the image in my head of Hobgoblin inquisitives, so maybe them, but it’s hard to place goblinoids outside the mainstream society of the 5 Nations while also having 1-2 marks/houses.

Finding: Orcs and Half-Orcs

Handling: Shifters

Healing: I hate this mark lol maybe Firbolgs idk

Hospitality: Halflings

Making: Humans

Passage: maybe Goblins, see above re: detection. If not, perhaps Tabaxi.

Scribing: Gnomes

Sentinel: Goliaths

Shadow: Elves

Storm: Khoravar

Warding: Dwarves

Death: Elves, and Shadow didn’t show up until after the line of Vol were destroyed. Later Shadar-Kai if the mark comes back. They’re a separate species in my games.


I’d also consider giving Hobs or Dwarves Hospitality, Halflings either Passage or Handling, in which case Shifters could have Passage.

If I wanted to make goblinoids more central, I’d give Hobgoblins Hospitality, Bugbears Sentinel, and Goblins Passage.

I don’t love Dwarves being Warding, tbh. It just doesn’t fit the subversive nature of Eberron’s takes on the peoples of D&D. Why not give them Hospitality, and give Warding to a surprise candidate?

 

[doctorbadwolf]

What is inherently appealing about playing someone from a culture whose ancestors are a mixture of human and elf/orc/whatever, when you can equally just be an elf, an orc, or a whatever?

Being able to play someone who is mixed race/biracial. It’s an experience that a lot of people identify with, and reducing it to “you’re actually just one or the other, not both” is…bad.

That’s about as far as I can go without getting too political.

 

[Thommy H-H]

Being able to play someone who is mixed race/biracial. It’s an experience that a lot of people identify with, and reducing it to “you’re actually just one or the other, not both” is…bad.

That’s about as far as I can go without getting too political.

My post literally says this in the next paragraph. The statement you quoted is in the context of game mechanics, as the prior section you omitted makes clear. Please don't use an isolated quote to make it look like I don't understand the narrative appeal of playing a character with a mixed heritage!

 

[doctorbadwolf]

My post literally says this in the next paragraph. The statement you quoted is in the context of game mechanics, as the prior section you omitted makes clear. Please don't use an isolated quote to make it look like I don't understand the narrative appeal of playing a character with a mixed heritage!

I answered the question, rhetorical or not.

The appeal is just that. Playing a biracial hero. For a ton of people, that’s it. The dynamic of the race socio-politically is the point. Any equation of mechanical appeal is irrelevant.

Half-elves were absolutely terrible in 3.5. You may as well not have had a race, IME. But people still played them enough to have tropes about them pop up various places.

 

[Thommy H-H]

I answered the question, rhetorical or not.

The appeal is just that. Playing a biracial hero. For a ton of people, that’s it. The dynamic of the race socio-politically is the point. Any equation of mechanical appeal is irrelevant.

Half-elves were absolutely terrible in 3.5. You may as well not have had a race, IME. But people still played them enough to have tropes about them pop up various places.

Yes. I know. That's why I said that in my post? You cherry-picked a single sentence and made it sound like I had no idea about the above. I'm not making any comparison about mechanics, it's just that the paragraph in which the sentence you quoted appeared was talking about that aspect.

I'm starting to remember why I stopped posting on forums a long time ago.

 

[ChaosOS]

So, do people have favorite chapters? My personal favorites are 2 and 3, the crossbows article was an all time favorite from the blog and I've always felt the nobility got too little attention in canon compared to the houses. From the back half of the book my favorite is Ghost Stories, undead are such a core creature type for D&D.

 

[Veltharis ap Rylix]

So, do people have favorite chapters? My personal favorites are 2 and 3, the crossbows article was an all time favorite from the blog and I've always felt the nobility got too little attention in canon compared to the houses. From the back half of the book my favorite is Ghost Stories, undead are such a core creature type for D&D.

Hard to pick, to be honest. It's a grab bag of topics - even more so than Exploring Eberron - but it's a grab bag that, even beyond just being great to read for inspiration and fun, has a LOT of disparate stuff that's specifically useful to me.

I've been working on a Stupidly Massive Savage Tide AP Mash-Up(TM) for some time, so:

• Galifar Nobility (the Vanderborens, in my version, are an offshoot of a Cyran noble family wiped out in the Mourning, and also have ties to nobility in New Galifar)
• The Tairnadal (and the Aereni from Exploring Eberron, as the elves of Aerenal have become a pretty major plot element in my version, albeit not in a way easily explained in brief)
• More in depth views on the faiths of the Dark Six (The Devourer, in particular)
• The Barren Sea (and the Thunder Sea from Exploring Eberron, since sailing around, within, and between the Lhazaar Principalities, Q'barra, north/eastern Xen'drik, and Aerenal are the main areas expected to be in play, but could also easily spread elsewhere amongst the seas)
• General information on the Overlords (to help develop my version of Demogorgon, plus flesh out other fiendish forces in play)
• Karrnathi Undead and the Grim Lords (have ideas for incorporating the Emerald Claw, the Bloodsails, and/or Lady Illmarrow)

...are all explicitly things I've either already been toying with or topics that slot themselves into the framework I'm putting together quite nicely. And that's not even remotely to suggest that the stuff on the Astral Plane, Riedra, Avassh, Mordain, etc. aren't equally compelling - just stuff that may not tie into this specific project of mine as cleanly.

 

[ChaosOS]

Hard to pick, to be honest. It's a grab bag of topics - even more so than Exploring Eberron - but it's a grab bag that, even beyond just being great to read for inspiration and fun, has a LOT of disparate stuff that's specifically useful to me.

I've been working on a Stupidly Massive Savage Tide AP Mash-Up(TM) for some time, so:

• Galifar Nobility (the Vanderborens, in my version, are an offshoot of a Cyran noble family wiped out in the Mourning, and also have ties to nobility in New Galifar)
• The Tairnadal (and the Aereni from Exploring Eberron, as the elves of Aerenal have become a pretty major plot element in my version, albeit not in a way easily explained in brief)
• More in depth views on the faiths of the Dark Six (The Devourer, in particular)
• The Barren Sea (and the Thunder Sea from Exploring Eberron, since sailing around, within, and between the Lhazaar Principalities, Q'barra, north/eastern Xen'drik, and Aerenal are the main areas expected to be in play, but could also easily spread elsewhere amongst the seas)
• General information on the Overlords (to help develop my version of Demogorgon, plus flesh out other fiendish forces in play)
• Karrnathi Undead and the Grim Lords (have ideas for incorporating the Emerald Claw, the Bloodsails, and/or Lady Illmarrow)

...are all explicitly things I've either already been toying with or topics that slot themselves into the framework I'm putting together quite nicely. And that's not even remotely to suggest that the stuff on the Astral Plane, Riedra, Avassh, Mordain, etc. aren't equally compelling - just stuff that may not tie into this specific project of mine as cleanly.

btw have you seen this article? Lightning Round: Obyriths, Dhakaani Cruelty, and the Chamber

 

[Veltharis ap Rylix]

btw have you seen this article? Lightning Round: Obyriths, Dhakaani Cruelty, and the Chamber

Been a while since I've looked it over, but yes.

 

[Aldarc]

At the end of the day... there is nothing intrinsically wrong with keeping the Marks and their Houses as-is, like Keith originally created. But as the idea of Races has moved on... being more inclusive as to what races are "worthy" of Marks, or indeed the idea that the same Mark can manifest on multiple different races and there doesn't need to be this "Racial purity" angle anymore would not be a bad thing either. However you choose to run it would be fine.

I 100% agree with everything here. Moving Deneith/Mark of the Sentinel to one of the Goblinoids (probably Hobgoblins) is a great idea and works very well with the backstory of Darguun (a group of Goblinoid mercenaries that were hired to protect Cyre declared independence and formed their own nation. If a Dragonmark were involved, it could help explain why Cyre hired them and also how the Goblinoids were able to keep sovereignty).

I agree with these changes. One issue, however, is that fans and players don't necessarily like change to their setting when it comes to lore like this. I like the idea of goblinoids getting House Deneith, but there is probably some PC human heir to house Deneith character out there who becomes invalidated by the retcons. So it's always a delicate balancing act. It may add something to goblinoids but it potentially takes something away from a pre-existing campaign or player character, which is never fun if you are on the side that loses something or a fan of that House as is.

I like goblinoids having House Deneith and orcs having House Tharashk. I would potentially consider Shifters, Changelings, Kalashtar, Tieflings, and Goliaths when it comes to House Vadalis or House Medani depending on how subversive one wanted to be or whether one wanted to embrace the possible direction of One D&D or the Eberron original ancestries. Or if one really wanted elves to have a proper second house, then giving them Medani would also potentially work, with a rivalry between the Elvish Assassins of a house with a Mark of Shadows against the Elvish Detectives of a house with the Mark of Detection.

I think the only way to handle it, ultimately, is the way that Eberron does it (albeit not in so many words): by making those half-races into distinct populations and societies, and giving them names that don't sound so...uncomfortably essentialist. But if you have "Khoravar" or something similar in place of "half-elf", it does rather beg the question of what mechanical purpose having that as a separate category serves. What is inherently appealing about playing someone from a culture whose ancestors are a mixture of human and elf/orc/whatever, when you can equally just be an elf, an orc, or a whatever?

Half-Elf is probably closest in Tolkien to the Dunedain, where you are elf-blooded or mortals blessed with longer life.