Dragon Talk: Eberron and Ravnica (and a bit about Waterdeep Dragon Heist)

[gyor]

It appears to be the year of the Urbanite in D&D, Sharn in Eberron, Waterdeep in FR, and Ravnica.


https://youtu.be/_95EaQMvPmA

[video=youtube_share;_95EaQMvPmA]https://youtu.be/_95EaQMvPmA[/video]

It sounds like between these books (and even MTOF explored the Githyanki Capital City), there will be not only setting details, but tools for City adventures that can be used in any city/urban environment.

Also for those that worried that the MtG elements would be forced into a D&D Ravnica is a D&D setting first and fore. Most targeted to D&D fans, they'd love it if it attracted MtG fans to D&D, but the priority appears to be that it fit easily into D&D while retaining story and thematic elements. What this means in practice is their is no references to colours or make in the book, Jeremy had Wyatt remove all those references from the book because he felt it was a confusing, not useful metalense/metastructure that wasn't really useful at the level of PCs.

So this book is more Ravnica crystal sphere in the D&D multiverse, then a complete fusion of the MtG Multiverse and the D&D multiverse. So again this is a D&D book first. Pure speculation on my part now, but I guess that means they made space for D&D classes and races in the books, so PHB, MTOFs, VGTM, XGTE, SCAG will all be usable with the book.

Also one of the big reasons they picked Ravnica was simply because it's next up on the MtG (card game) schedule.

It sounded like the classes the book refers to are subclasses, not full classes, which makes sense. Also we have been getting UA articles for Ravnica for awhile now, Domain of Order for the Cleric, Spore Druid as some speculated here, maybe some others, Minataurs and Centaurs for races obviously. Not everything in the book has been UA tested yet.

Guilds have allies, suggested classes and races, and so on.

Eberron Dragon Marks being subraces with a supporting feats and background is something I'm not sure what to do with yet, are these subraces race restricted, because that combines weirdly with anything that has subraces already, like Tieflings, Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes, Gith, Half Elves, Changelings, Genasi, Aasimar, and Warforged. Fluff wise how does that even work, like are you really a High/Dark/Wild/Shadar Kai/Eladarin/Sea Elf in appearance, but you use a Dragonmark subrace mechanics instead of your usual subrace? Because that could mean Sea Elf and Water Genasi that drown instead of breathing water for example.

I think from the way Keith talked about the Envoy Warforged, it's new to 5e. I like it.

Wayfarer's guide simply isn't just a retread of previous Eberron Books from other editions, it focuses more on the personal IC stuff then history and geography.

 

[Gradine]

Eberron Dragon Marks being subraces with a supporting feats and background is something I'm not sure what to do with yet, are these subraces race restricted, because that combines weirdly with anything that has subraces already, like Tieflings, Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes, Gith, Half Elves, Changelings, Genasi, Aasimar, and Warforged. Fluff wise how does that even work, like are you really a High/Dark/Wild/Shadar Kai/Eladarin/Sea Elf in appearance, but you use a Dragonmark subrace mechanics instead of your usual subrace? Because that could mean Sea Elf and Water Genasi that drown instead of breathing water for example.

In Eberron True Dragonmarks are restricted to specific races. So, only an Elf will manifest the Mark of Shadow, so it makes sense to have that Mark be a separate Elven subrace (I would argue, lore-wise, that the bloodlines of many elven sub-races, like Shadar Kai/Eladrin/Sea Elves/Avariel/Drow/etc. are too far removed from those Elves which manifested the Mark to manifest one themselves), and the difference between High Elves and Wood Elves are largely cultural (but let's not dive headfirst down that particular rabbit hole). In addition, Marked Elves are typically continental elves, which tend to much more integrated, culturally, than their more traditional cousins (who are better represented by the Wild/High Elf subraces anyway). This tends to be true for most marked races.

The only races that can manifest true dragonmarks are: Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes, Halflings, Half-Elves, and Half-Orcs. Any race can manifest an Aberrant Dragonmark, but the Wayfarer's Guide makes those a feat.

I think from the way Keith talked about the Envoy Warforged, it's new to 5e. I like it.

It is new, and I quite like it myself.

 

[Mouseferatu]

Also for those that worried that the MtG elements would be forced into a D&D Ravnica is a D&D setting first and fore. Most targeted to D&D fans, they'd love it if it attracted MtG fans to D&D, but the priority appears to be that it fit easily into D&D while retaining story and thematic elements. What this means in practice is their is no references to colours or make in the book, Jeremy had Wyatt remove all those references from the book because he felt it was a confusing, not useful metalense/metastructure that wasn't really useful at the level of PCs.

So this book is more Ravnica crystal sphere in the D&D multiverse, then a complete fusion of the MtG Multiverse and the D&D multiverse. So again this is a D&D book first.

Excellent! I know it will disappoint some people, but this is exactly what I wanted out of a Ravnica D&D setting.

I mean, if they later want to put out a product adding color magic or Planeswalkers to D&D, that'd be fine. But I'd want it to be its own, optional thing, not a fundamental part of any setting put forth for D&D.

 

[Kite474]

I am not looking forward to how they shove Dragonborn and Tiefling into Ravnica.

AS for lacking the colors I really do hope they still have it in the form of an alternate alignment system. Because the color pie works waaaaaaaaay better at displaying values than alignment.

Besides that this seems like things will be going smoothly.

 

[Parmandur]

I am not looking forward to how they shove Dragonborn and Tiefling into Ravnica.

AS for lacking the colors I really do hope they still have it in the form of an alternate alignment system. Because the color pie works waaaaaaaaay better at displaying values than alignment.

Besides that this seems like things will be going smoothly.

Don't really need to "force" any race into the setting, since it is already a cosmic kitchen sink. Nor are those races assumed to exist in a given setting, per the PHB.

 

[DEFCON 1]

If anyone knows Ravnica and loves Ravnica to the point where they'd actually get pissed if dragonborn and tieflings were in it... those DMs can probably do their own campaign prep and rules to make sure Ravnica is what they feel it needs to be. They don't need to wait with baited breath for WotC to do it for them.

 

[gyor]

Don't really need to "force" any race into the setting, since it is already a cosmic kitchen sink. Nor are those races assumed to exist in a given setting, per the PHB.

They really emphasized the diversity in species angle, so I think they will include the PHB species, Tieflings and Dragonborn wouldn't be out of place given what else is in the setting.