D&D 5E Eberron 5e - What do we want?

[JonnyP71]

UA article updates, nothing more for me.... I was hoping to see a 'Can we forget Eberron existed' option

In my opinion, Eberron does not represent my 'image' of D&D in any way, shape or form. I dislike high magic settings and can't bear the idea of technology and gadgetry polluting my gaming world.

Each to their own I guess....

 

[hbarsquared]

I was personally disappointed in SCAG. The added mechanics were interesting, but the fluff was very dry and not inspirational, in my opinion.

With the 3E library of Eberron books, posts by Hellcow, and anything that might get added to the DM Guild, I am set for life on all Eberron fluff. I don't need a Setting Book or SCAG-like book to repeat what we already have.

An adventure, on the other hand, would be awesome. Something that exemplifies the setting and also tells a memorable story. And, of course, finalized Eberron-specific mechanics we're starting to get through UA.

 

[bganon]

I'd love an adventure that fleshes out a bit some of the less-detailed parts of Khorvaire. For example, something roaming around in the west would be great (start out in Drooam/the Shadow Marches, explore your way through the deep Eldeen Reaches to a climactic battle in the Demon Wastes!)

The mechanics updates don't need much space, they just need to be done right. IMO the most important things to have good rules for are classes, races, and maybe dragonmarks. Items and monsters are nice but it's much easier there to wing it/adapt/use 3rd party product/etc. Honestly I'd be fine just tweaking the existing UA stuff except for the Artificer, which probably should be a new class with its own mechanic.

 

[5Shilling]

I was personally disappointed in SCAG. The added mechanics were interesting, but the fluff was very dry and not inspirational, in my opinion.

I felt the same way. I could really have done with more insight into prominent and interesting NPCs, especially in the cities, along with buildings, culture... anything to evoke an actual sense of place. As it was most of the book was taken up with the gods (and they talked even more about the gods in races and classes chapter!). Anyone having that as their first contact with Forgotten Realms would think the entire setting was just about the gods and their soap opera with mortal affairs being being just a background. I certainly don't feel much more prepared to run an FR campaign after reading it than I was before.

Contrast Curse of Strahd which, despite not being a gazetteer, functions much better as a setting sourcebook in addition to being a sizeable campaign of adventures.

I think most official adventure and source book writers really underestimate the value of well described NPCs and street-level sense of place.

 

[Gradine]

As much as I'd personally like a new Campaign Setting book, something SCAG-like would be fine. The UA Eberron material was underwhelming for me, particularly their presentation of races (though I was impressed with the range of Shifter subtypes they offered, I would have preferred a little more meat on those bones). Bringing in some better-balanced and well playtested versions of all four new races (and would some playable goblinoid races be too much to ask for?). A better version of Artificer and maybe a full Mystic class, with a few other fun archetypes (Inquisitive from UA, f'rex). Dragonmarks (I know better than to ask for them to be finally divorced from Feat mechanics, but if it won't happen in 5e it's never going to happen). New and updated magic items (must have proper dragonmark to attune to certain items, like sending stones, etc.) There wouldn't need to be a ton of setting details, but at the very least there should be some strong, interesting fluff on organizations and factions PCs might be interested in joining.

UA or a mega-adventure supplement could provide some of the setting-specific monsters (dolgrims, daelkyr, living spells, etc.)

 

[DEFCON 1]

I would like to see an Eberron mega-adventure but with no player mechanics included.

I also do not want to see a SCAG for Eberron, because all the story necessary can be found in the 3E and 4E books.

For player mechanics, I also don't want a UA or PDF. Instead... I want to see the new WotC "Big Book Of Mechanics" or "Player's Handbook II" or whatever you want to call it that they apparently are working on or thinking of working on... to include the required mechanics (races, classes, subclasses, backgrounds etc.) for ALL of their primary campaign settings.

That means psionics, that means the four Eberron races and the Artificer, that means Dark Sun's races plus defiling and preserving, that means Dragonlance's three wizard schools, that means Greyhawk's backgrounds, that means Planescape's factions, that means stuff for Mystara and Birthright... etc. etc. etc.

If WotC is going to produce a book of player game mechanics, there is absolutely no reason NOT to include all these setting required stuff in one single book (on top of a lot of universal or generic player stuff too of course) that they can release for every fan at one moment in time... rather than spreading it out over the next two to six years, pissing off fans of certain settings who have to wait for year four or five, while other fans get their setting material done right off the bat.

We saw with the Purple Dragon Knight / Banneret that you can take a setting specific thing and make a generic name for it too. So let's see them just give us all the setting mechanics we need at once, and give us generic names on top so that we can treat all these setting specific mechanics (like Dragonmarks) as generic ideas too for our own campaigns.

 

[hbarsquared]

For player mechanics, I also don't want a UA or PDF. Instead... I want to see the new WotC "Big Book Of Mechanics" or "Player's Handbook II" or whatever you want to call it that they apparently are working on or thinking of working on... to include the required mechanics (races, classes, subclasses, backgrounds etc.) for ALL of their primary campaign settings.

That means psionics, that means the four Eberron races and the Artificer, that means Dark Sun's races plus defiling and preserving, that means Dragonlance's three wizard schools, that means Greyhawk's backgrounds, that means Planescape's factions, that means stuff for Mystara and Birthright... etc. etc. etc.

Although Iove this idea, and would absolutely buy it myself, I'm not sure everuone else has the same mindset/desires.

I guess bit would depend on the marketing/"genericness" of a so-called PHBII. Of course, the genericness woild also anger fans of individual settings anyway...

I'm just not sure how marketable a book of Setting-Specific alternate mechanics would be

 

[delericho]

What do we want for Eberron out of the new 5e ruleset?

Fluff-wise, I'd basically like them to redo the 4e DM's book. It's pretty much ideal as a one-book summary of the setting.

Rules-wise, I mostly just want updates on the mechanics from the 3e campaign setting book - the four new races, an Artificer class (not subclass), the spells and magic items, Dragonmarked feats, and so on. (Obviously, some of this already exists.)

But there are two other fairly significant things that 5e doesn't currently support that Eberron really feels the lack of. The lesser of these is psionics (which probably needs a book to itself), while the more important is a magic item economy. The absence of that from 5e is probably good for the game, but it's bad for this setting.

 

[delericho]

Oh, one other thing: assuming they're only ever going to do one or two books in the setting then the absolutely should not advance the timeline. That way, all the existing supplements remain 100% compatible. Advancing the timeline is okay, I suppose, if they're going to do a full line of supplements and update the whole thing... but since it's pretty obvious they won't be doing that, they should leave the timeline alone.

 

[delericho]

For player mechanics, I also don't want a UA or PDF. Instead... I want to see the new WotC "Big Book Of Mechanics" or "Player's Handbook II" or whatever you want to call it that they apparently are working on or thinking of working on... to include the required mechanics (races, classes, subclasses, backgrounds etc.) for ALL of their primary campaign settings.

Ooh, good idea.