[Eberron] How does [[insert optional campaign element]] fit?

[JPL]

This is spinning out of another thread, where a poster wished the Eberron campaign setting had gotten down to specific details as to how various core and non-core creatures/races/prestige classes/etc fit into the Eberron campaign setting.

So...does anyone have some ideas about integrating different options into the setting?

I've already seen some threads about sliding Ghostwalk or Oriental Adventures into the setting. What about the Book of Vile Darkness? The Draconomicon? The various core and prestige classes from the "Complete" series? Epic and divine rules?

[Personally, I like the idea of a player bringing in something weird --- say, the half-rakshasa from a recent Dragon magazine, or the bladesinger from the FR Player's Guide, or the sha'ir from Arabian Adventures --- and working with the DM to integrate this element into the world in such a way that it makes the character more interesting and unique and generates all kinds of adventure hooks.

The first half-rakshasa would be a very big deal in Eberron for obvious reasons...the PC could be the first bladesinger the world has produced, or the practitioner of a lost art...the sha'ir could be another unique individual, the product of some elemental-binding ritual that went haywire while he was still in his mother's womb.]

 

[~Johnny~]

I think Eberron is very easy to port "weird" stuff into. Doing so in huge, dramatic ways could disrupt the overall balance, but a world that's been through two cataclysmic planar incursions is no stranger to things getting thrown out of whack.

Keith mentioned putting Ghostwalk in the Mournland, which I think is a cool idea.

I don't think Oriental Adventures is a good fit, but that's because there are already some interesting Asian threads woven into the humanoid cultures.

Complete Warrior and Complete Divine are amazingly easy to drop in. I'm currently working on two articles for the Eberron Journal that suggest specific placements for nearly every class and PrC from those books. I'm doing the same for the XPH classes. (When they're up, they'll be here.)

The Draconomicon doesn't even really need tweaking. Dragons are a big part of Eberron, even if there aren't many living in Khorvaire.

The BoED and BoVD are not as easy to drop in, partially because they're so based on traditional D&D cosmology. The BoED, especially, assumes that gods are definitely there to interact with, and that good-aligned outsiders are their messengers. Neither is true in Eberron; the outsiders aren't closely connected to the religions. That doesn't mean you can't have truly good heroes, but you'll have a lot more work to do than in basic D&D.

Epic-level challenges are there, mostly tied to the planar cosmology. Your heroes could face a new incursion by Dal Quor or Xoriat ...or perhaps another of the planes becomes aggressive. It's not quite as made for Epic play as FR, but there are possibilities.

 

[JPL]

I think Eberron is very easy to port "weird" stuff into. Doing so in huge, dramatic ways could disrupt the overall balance, but a world that's been through two cataclysmic planar incursions is no stranger to things getting thrown out of whack.

Agreed. Maybe that's part of my attraction to the idea of letting the PCs be the center of anything "weird" [or non-core]. It makes the PCs more special, and it helps keep the overall feel of the setting the same. I like the idea that a PC might be the only half-crystal dragon in the whole world [or the only dragonslayer worthy of the name].

Oriental Adventures certainly has some prestige classes that could work. And the samurai could actually make for an interesting dwarf class --- give them a different name and play up the idea that the different clans have different fighting styles and certain warriors have the artificer-like ability to imbue their ancestral weapons with a portion of their own spirit.

I look forward to your article.

 

[Remathilis]

My question is how do you think the Incursion would play out on Eberron?

 

[JPL]

My question is how do you think the Incursion would play out on Eberron?

Fantastic idea. Another plane drifts close enough to Eberron that the invaders can sunder the dimensional boundries and launch an invasion.

Are the githyanki alluded to in the Eberron campaign setting book? If not, you could play them as being something new to this world.

This would be great when the PCs got to very high levels --- maybe even epic level. The two previous otherplanar invasions were clearly about as epic as it gets.

I suppose you'd have to rethink the link between the gith and the mind flayers, given the nature of the mind flayers in Eberron. Maybe the gith were created by the same guys who created the mind flayers [the name escapes me] and later rebelled?

 

[Kesh]

Oriental Adventures works just fine, so long as you're not trying to fit the setting into Eberron. Classes, equipment and such would work just fine. I'm very interested in using the Taint rules in Eberron, possibly as an effect of the Mournlands or from interaction with Xoriat.

Book of Vile Darkness seems pretty simple too. Dark Speech and Vile spells are perfect for the Cult of the Dragon Below. About the only thing that would be iffy are the demon lords... they'd need some revision to fit into Eberron's cosmology.

And, of course, there's lots of fun options in Unearthed Arcana that would work.

 

[JPL]

Oriental Adventures works just fine, so long as you're not trying to fit the setting into Eberron.

Yeah...as with my dwarf "samurai" example, there are some parts of OA that work just fine once you rethink the cultural aspects.

UA's bloodlines strike me as another nice way to make some unique heroes --- and they are consistant with the presence of PC races with doppleganger and lycanthrope blood.

 

[Rugger]

My question is how do you think the Incursion would play out on Eberron?

Oooh! This gets my brain all fired up.

Idea: The Gith were a servitor race of the races of Xoriat (thats where the Illithids and Dael'kyr are from right? Could easily do this with the Quori) that eons ago rebelled and were exterminated utterly...or so they thought.

Cosmologists missed a plane.

Their is one more plane that rotates into alignment with Xoriat once every 50,000 years...and then rotates into alignment with Eberron 10,000 years after that...and guess what time it is.

The Lich Queen has been biding her time, waiting and hoping that their new home would rotate back so that they could invade their previous Master's plane...but now she has realized that there is ANOTHER plane that may interact (or be MADE to interact) with Xoriat sooner. Eberron. Que Imperial March.

Perhaps a lone Gith has made it to Eberron in the distant past... buried beneath the ruins of Xen'drik explorers find references to another race at war with the Githyanki...the Githzerai. And your PC's just may have to find out what happened to them...and see if they can educate/help.

Thanks for the braindump...must work on this a bit more. I've really wanted to do the Incursion and Eberron may be my best hope yet to make it happen/work!

-Rugger
"I Gith!"

 

[Stone Dog]

I suppose you'd have to rethink the link between the gith and the mind flayers, given the nature of the mind flayers in Eberron. Maybe the gith were created by the same guys who created the mind flayers [the name escapes me] and later rebelled?

I like Keith's answer to this. That the gith races are the remnants of a prime material plane that was completely destroyed by Xoriat. That could make them allies for the next time the Plane of Madness comes a calling. If they have been an active force in your campaign (and are as evil as they usually are), the 'yanki would be strange bedfellows indeed.

 

[BrooklynKnight]

Oooh! This gets my brain all fired up.

Idea: The Gith were a servitor race of the races of Xoriat (thats where the Illithids and Dael'kyr are from right? Could easily do this with the Quori) that eons ago rebelled and were exterminated utterly...or so they thought.

Cosmologists missed a plane.

Their is one more plane that rotates into alignment with Xoriat once every 50,000 years...and then rotates into alignment with Eberron 10,000 years after that...and guess what time it is.

The Lich Queen has been biding her time, waiting and hoping that their new home would rotate back so that they could invade their previous Master's plane...but now she has realized that there is ANOTHER plane that may interact (or be MADE to interact) with Xoriat sooner. Eberron. Que Imperial March.

Perhaps a lone Gith has made it to Eberron in the distant past... buried beneath the ruins of Xen'drik explorers find references to another race at war with the Githyanki...the Githzerai. And your PC's just may have to find out what happened to them...and see if they can educate/help.

Thanks for the braindump...must work on this a bit more. I've really wanted to do the Incursion and Eberron may be my best hope yet to make it happen/work!

-Rugger
"I Gith!"

This would work but you'd have to lower her level.

Remember there are VERY few high level characters in eberron, and NO epic characters.

I can see Vol kicking her ass for enroaching on her territory.