Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="JoeGKushner" data-source="post: 2011564" data-attributes="member: 1129">The Eberron Campaign Setting is the newest setting from Wizards of the Coast. It has a long and interesting history before ever becoming a print product, but I’m not getting into that here.For me, the Eberron Campaign Setting can be broken up into two parts. Now I know, it’s really broken up into several chapters and each chapter has it’s own focus, but really, with a new campaign setting, it’s about two things. The first is how interesting and different the world is, and what goodies have the authors brought us to use in our own campaigns. Yes, that’s right, I’m talking about crunch and fluff.In terms of crunch, everything both a player and a GM could need to start an Eberron campaign is here. The standard races, as well as the new races, are detailed here. Much like the new races in Monte’s variant, the races here have background information that ties them to the campaign setting, but in most cases, not tight enough that you couldn’t lift them out. I see that in the Monster Manual III for example, the Warforged are present.Speaking of Warforged, they are one of the new races here. They are living constructs. It’s a neat idea and I find them an interesting take of a human machine. Now it’s not the first time I’ve seen such a creature. Philip Reed has a PDF that allows you to customize a much more powerful character that’s a machine and there was a book, Mythic Races, by Fantasy Flight Games, that has a web enhancement with a similar style race. However, the Warforge are still neat. There are some great illustrations here and the relative newness of the race, not just to the D&D system, but to the setting itself, allows players to help shape what the Warforge can become.Other races include changelings, master spies, kalashtar, beings who originally came from the alien plan of Dal Quor, and shifters, people with also called “the weretouched.” Now once again, I’ve seen some of these ideas before, but they’re nicely done with excellent illustrations for the most part and some game mechanics that’ll take time to test.The mix of crunch and fluff, of racial traits and background, continues in other areas. For example, the section on character classes provides the reader with information on how the standard classes fit into this setting and they provide a new core class, the Artificer, a master crafter who can infusion items with magic energies. I like the example where it details how an Artificer couldn’t cast a bull’s strength on his ally, but could cast it on an item that his ally is wearing.One of the things that comes across in the cleric section is that someone was paying attention when books like Divine and Defeated and Book of the Righteous came out. The gods here don’t sprawl all over the place and cross each other with similar portfolios and some of the gods aren’t gods at all but rather, mystical forces like the Silver Flame.The biggest switch in thinking here has to be that a cleric’s ranking in the church is held up as something to strive for and that the gods really aren’t that close to their followers and that characters can cast spells with any alignment description. This opens up all sorts of ideas that players from other settings have already been enjoying.One thing I like but found strange was Action Points. These aren’t exactly the same as those found in Unearthed Arcana, but are similar in most aspects. These points help a character stay alive and help turn the tide of the tyranny of the dice. I found it strange because it’s another variant so soon after one was introduced in another WoTC book.Player’s have a wide variety of options in this book. There are new options for races, spells, and prestige classes. In terms of feats, instead of regional feats as the new toys, we have Dragonmarks. There are twelve dragonmarks. A long time ago, there were more of them but one has been lost to time. The dragonmarks have different levels of ability ranging from least, lesser, greater to siberys. In some cases, a feat alone isn’t enough to achieve the higher levels of power. These feats generally allow you to use a spell like ability. For example, the Mark of Detection, the least mark, grants you detect magic 2/day or detect poison 2/day in addition to a +2 bonus on Spot checks.Another thing that’s interesting is the use of feats to augment action points. Something not really touched on in Unearthed Arcana. Other options help the new races out. For example, a shifter can take the Beasthide Elite feat and increase his natural armor bonus when shifting while a warforge can select either an adamantine or mithril body at character creation.The prestige classes work off on some of the new concepts introduced. This includes PrCs like the Draognmark Heir and the Heir of Siberys, two PrCs that focus on mastering their dragonmarks, as well as individuals like the Warforged Juggernaut and the Weretouched Master, classes that help some of the new races stand out from other core classes and races. For those who are more interested in fine investigation, the Master Inquisitive is a 5 level PrC that has numerous abilities focused on uncovering the truth. The nice thing about the spells selection is that spells are separated by class and for sorcerer/wizards, by school, then level. New domains are included and a new spell list for the artificer is included. Standard domains have the native Eberron deity listed. For example, under Death, The Keeper and the Blood of Vol are listed. The new domains included deity, granted power, and domain spells from 1st to 9th level. Some of these domains are focused on the new fields introduced in this book like the Deathless domain while others could easily be used in any setting like the Decay domain. Perfect for those attempting to create a domain for Nurgle or another god of disease.While most of the new domains are interesting, the new sorcerer and wizard spells are weak as they focus on curing damage to constructs for the most part. Repair Light, Moderate, Serious, and Critical Damage with only a few that do other things. Outside of the new domains, clerics only get one new spell, Feast of Champions, a 9th level spell that creates food for one creature/level that heals and grants bonuses to those who partake of the feast. Good thing that many of the domains have their own new spells to help showcase the differences in the lists.Players looking to arm themselves with strange and unique weapons won’t find a lot of overpowered material here. Some of the weapons like the Valenar double scimitar and the Xen’drik boomerang look cool, but aren’t overly powerful and are exotic, requiring a feat to use. Of more interest to me are the various special materials like bronzewood and flametouched iron. These new items have different minor abilities like mithril or adamant and make nice touches to the campaign setting.Something that player’s love but rely on GM’s to place, magic items, also include new types of magic items, such as the Dragonshard items, as well as new options for the new races like warforged components. What’s that you ask? Well, the warforged on the cover doesn’t have one hand, in it’s place, he has a massive sword.That would be an armblade.In terms of GM tools, there are those that rely on crunch, like the numerous NPCs scattered throughout the book and the new monsters, as well as advice. There are NPC’s fully detailed in several areas and in some cases, with full statistics. They range from how the classes work in the setting to the organizations. GM’s shouldn’t run out of characters for a little while.A wide range of monsters can be used to insure that no player forgets that he’s in a new setting. These range from the Deathless Type, a creature that has died but returned with traits of both a living and an undead being, to the Warforged Titian, a huge construct that isn’t a warforged, but perhaps is in that family line of constructs. The art in this section is very evocative of the monsters and some, like the Tsucora Quori, showcase their alien nature. My favorite is probably one of the most powerful, the Daelkyr, outsiders who rule over the plane of Xoriat, the realm of Madness.Another nice touch, one I think that Wizard’s noted other publishers doing, is a section on how the standard or Iconic monsters fit into this setting. Since Wizards owns all of the IP in this case, like say Beholders and Mind Flayers, they’re able to touch on areas that some companies haven’t been able to. It’s not a vastly detailed section, but it does have important information as to how the creatures here are different than in a standard campaign. For example the giants actually had a civilization some eighty thousand years ago and the Couatls are a race that fought alongside dragons against the rakshasa in times past.For those GMs that need a little more help, there is a starter adventure, The Forgotten Forge, that uses some of the themes of the book as well as some of the mechanics. For example, how often does a story start with the characters coming across a murder and having to fight against the murderer, who in this case, happens to be a warforged? How about the patron who helps them but is looking for further aid? How about a hunt through a dungeon (well, ruins and a sewer) that pits the characters against another warforged and almost has an ominous “To Be Continued” sign hanging over it? (And it is in Shadows of the Last War, a separate adventure.)The campaign setting itself has its own feel. Due to the Last War being over just recently and the various countries still not trusting one another fully and numerous factions moving to take advantage of this lull, the book has a feeling of being suspended in a very important time. The main thrust of the campaign takes place on the continent of Khorvaire.The book includes all of the details you need to know about the setting. This includes the days of the week, months of the year and Constellations. It includes information about the outer planes and how they work with the setting. It’s interesting that the book doesn’t use all of the default information from Manual of the Planes but rather has some of its own cosmology going on here.This doesn’t mean that every city is mapped and that every character is described more than a whisper. Rather, it means that the various countries have an up close map section, much like they did in say Serpent Kingdoms for the Forgotten Realms, and have information on the capital, population, exports, and language. This is followed up by background information, industriers, life and society, government and politics, power groups, religion, and major settlements. Other useful information includes important sites, adventuring information and adventure ideas.Because of the sheer scope of information, that of a whole continent, the information isn’t very detailed. While several sections have enough to get a feel for the region, don’t expect more than a few paragraphs for each of the numerous power groups or city maps for the capital cities or major settlements. The adventure ideas are basically seeds of a few sentences, enough to get the juices flowing and sometimes obvious hints.One of the nice things is that there are several areas that a character could spend his life in and never fully know. One of my favorites is Darguun simply because it’s a land of goblinoids whose exports are just mercenary services. This ties into the fact that the goblinoids used to control the entire continent but had long ago fallen onto hard times. Now Wizards isn’t the only company to use goblinoids as a military race with their own lands and abilities. Kenzer and it’s Kalamar campaign has long had an ancient Hobgoblin empire that seeks to energize itself and reclaim their former glory.The other place that stands out in my mind is the Mournlands. Surrounded by Dead-Gray Mist and home to a dangerous warforge known as the Lord of Blades, the Mournlands has enough potential adventure to challenge all levels of characters. Heck, Piazo through Dungeon Magazine has already provided the statistics for the Lord of Blades in addition to much of the background found here.One thing I love about the setting that many other settings don’t have going for them, is that the campaign has more than one continent. I love Greyhawk and the Forgotten Realms, but the bulk of their details are on one huge landmass. Here, we have other lands like Aerenal,  home of the Undying Court of elves, Salona, Argonnessen and Xen’Drik. Not a lot of detail on any of those settings but the potential is there. It’d be nice to see a world that didn’t just have one Pangea style land going for it. In terms of utility, a GM has a lot of tools here. The section on organizations for example, provides lots of background details along with typical members. Need a quick write up for The Blood of Vol or the Crunch of the Silver Flame? No problem.  Need to know general information about the various houses and typical individuals of that house? No problem.In terms of psionics, the campaign uses them, but doesn’t force them down your throat. For example, a typical Dream Dark Spy is a seer psion. One of the materials here, Riedran Crysteel, provides a bonus to damage rolls if the user has at least 1 power point.  The Kalashtar have some psionic ability. However, the material does not overwhelm the reader. At no point did I feel I must open my Expanded Psionic’s Handbook to get the most out of this product. It’s kind of a half solution to incorporating psionics but I understand where Wizards is coming with this.In terms of the campaign embracing magic, it does to a point. It does it in the cities where various items of magic are able to be found. It doesn’t follow it completely through to it’s logical conclusion though. After all, in the real world, we don’t have people who are lawful good that would erect various things of magic in the wilderness to help others. In a game setting where paladins are possible, we do. Is it assumed then that when a paladin goes into the wilds and provides a community with various magic items that those items are broken or suffer theft? Don’t misunderstand me. I love the technology that is embraced through magic here. The use of the Magecraft spell to create quality items, the Airships of House Lyrandar, the Lighting Rail of House Orien, and the various elemental powered vehicles like the Galleons that use water elementals or the Adepts of House Jorasco that provide inexpensive healing. There are all good things that help give the campaign more flavor. Is the book perfect? Nope. I think that perhaps too much effort went into giving it an edge. Take the name of the Extreme Explorer. Come on let’s not get silly eh? “Well Bob, it looks like Travis has his powerboard 5000. He should easily make it across that Chasm. Please, fire up the Static-X eh?” Another odd thing was that there were no regional feats. Now these are part of the official standard as Dragon magazine provided several for numerous settings including Greyhawk and the Forgotten Realms Player’s Guide updated the ones that originally appeared in that setting’s campaign book. Why are they missing here. And this is just my opinion, but despite how fantastic this book looks, I still think that the Forgotten Realms books look better.The last thing that really bothers me is the map of the setting. All of the internal maps have the internal details but the large map doesn’t have any. Now don’t get me started on the fact that there is no pull out map. If you were lucky enough to get your pull out map from Dungeon, you’d still notice that there are no locals on that map. Bad Wizards of the Coast, no cookie for you.On an outside angle, another thing that’s going to bother me are the various things that will tie into the setting. I already know we’ve got video games and novels and I’m sure each will have it’s own impact on the setting.Why then does this product get five stars? I like the energy behind the product. I like the comic book style art between chapters. I like the full color art throughout the book. I like the feel of having a book that uses psionics but doesn’t embrace them so much that you need to have the Expanded Psionics Handbook. I like the twelve Marks. I like the fact that while you can’t shove everything into the setting, that there aren’t a horde of characters who make 20th level characters look like sissies. I like the official Action Points. I like a lot of the new races and other mechanics behind the book. In short, I think that it has a lot going for it.Perfect? No.Fun? Yes.</blockquote>

Verification