D&D 5E Eberron Is Here Today!

Eberron: Rising from the Last War hits local gamestores today. Eberron creator Keith Baker talks on his blog about what's changed!

So, what's changed? The Mror Dwarves, races, Dragonmarks, the Mournland, Lady Illmarrow, monsters... but not guns!

And what's new? The artificer class, group patrons, warforged colossus, and scary monsters!

---

Explore the lands of Eberron in this campaign sourcebook for the world’s greatest roleplaying game.

This book provides everything players and Dungeon Masters need to play Dungeons & Dragons in Eberron—a war-torn world filled with magic-fueled technology, airships and lightning trains, where noir-inspired mystery meets swashbuckling adventure. Will Eberron enter a prosperous new age, or will the shadow of war descend once again?

• Meld magic and invention to craft objects of wonder as an artificer—the first official class to be released for fifth edition D&D since the Player’s Handbook.
• Enter the world of Eberron in a 1st-level adventure set in Sharn, the City of Towers
• Dive straight into your pulp adventures with easy-to-use locations, complete with maps of train cars, battle-scarred fortresses, and fallen warforged colossi.
• Explore Sharn, a city of skyscrapers, airships, and intrigue and a crossroads for the world’s war-ravaged peoples.
• Flesh out your characters with a new D&D game element called a group patron—a background for your whole party.
• Explore 16 new race/subrace options including dragonmarks, which magically transform certain members of the races in the Player’s Handbook.
• Confront horrific monsters born from the world’s devastating wars.
• Prepare to venture into the Mournland, a mist-cloaked, corpse-littered land twisted by magic.

 

[gyor]

Its pretty cool how the entirety of the gazeteer in Wayfinder's was put word for word into Rising from the Last War, and then a new section (Aftermath of the Last War) added to each one.

Feels dope to pay for the same content + extras.

Woulda' been super dope if they stopped selling Wayfinder's. But it's still up for sale, for $20 no less, despite having all its information repeated in the new book (often word for word) + expounded upon.

Actually no, there IS some stuff in Wayfarer's Guide to Eberron that is not in Rising From the Last War.

For example under Other Races Wayfarer mentions Aasimar, Gith, Taxabi, ect..., Rising From The Last War does not. Also Wayfarer has different maps, ERftLW doesn't have a map of Sarelona, but Wayfarer does.

 

[Onslaught]

Warforged seem to be one of those concepts that really make some DMs nervous and thus the more mechanically weaker the better - they hope. Just last week, I chatted with a fellow who despised 3.5 warforged for deactivating instead of dying.

I would never have thought that... I always liked Warforged for the hole concept of the race, forged for war, born "ready" for battle (hence my disgust with current Integrated Plate).

Not only part of the fun as DM is to know how to overcome that (Heat Metal!), but also coup de grace helps balance these problems your friend. Anyway as a player I always tough dropping is dropping no matter what.

Just a month ago, I bumped into a guy who hated guns in D&D with a fiery passion. Then hearing his tale of woe, his BEG being one-shotted by a gun, I realized he was talking about an AD&D game. Thus all guns, forever, shall never be in his D&D.

Well... I don't like firearms in D&D, mostly for conceptual reasons... it's too idiosyncratic (Wizards, yeah, I know) for my taste.

If it's well woven into the setting, I tend to like them, like in Iron Kingdoms - but in that setting gunpowder changed how fights are done.

To round out the list, I think you could put psionics in there too. (Drow PCs dropped off this list ages ago -- mostly because lots of today's GM used to run Drow PCs.)

Well... at least that I can see where it comes from, since (from what I have heard) Psionics were completely broken in 1st and 2nd Ed, and did some crazy naughty word back in 3rd... so... fair game.

Don't get confused by forum or Reddit chatter: WotC has huge survey data that helps them in their refinement process, in addition to their rigorous number crunching process. I recommend listening to the old Happy Fun Hour with Mearls for more insight into their process.

Well... the change was done mostly because of Surveys, that wanted more Eberron-esque Eberron. I think some of that was left out of this product, cruncy-wise.

But I notice I'm in the minority, even online, so... guess I'll have to just be sad alone and deal with it (and house rule stuff in my table, 'cos reasons).

 

[Kurotowa]

Dont forget you can make one of your turrets into an Eldritch gun/shotgun technically while another turret does it's buisness.

Sure, if you're 15th level or higher. But it's been a long time since I was in a campaign that reached those heights and it wrapped up soon after. So I don't tend to pay more then vaguely theoretical attention to class features that high.

 

[Doc_Klueless]

The Great Wheel thing sounds like something that would only matter to people who already know Eberron.

For example, I know and remember squat all about Eberron. It doesn't bother me. The question for me is: Do the inhabitants of Eberron know that they are part of the Great Wheel? Because it reads to me like the players and dm know it, but the inhabitants don't.

Not trying to start an argument. Honestly asking.

 

[MarkB]

The Great Wheel thing sounds like something that would only matter to people who already know Eberron.

For example, I know and remember squat all about Eberron. It doesn't bother me. The question for me is: Do the inhabitants of Eberron know that they are part of the Great Wheel? Because it reads to me like the players and dm know it, but the inhabitants don't.

Not trying to start an argument. Honestly asking.

That's about right - as far as anyone within Eberron's planar bubble are concerned, its particular set of planes are self-contained and all-encompassing.

 

[Weiley31]

The Great Wheel thing sounds like something that would only matter to people who already know Eberron.

For example, I know and remember squat all about Eberron. It doesn't bother me. The question for me is: Do the inhabitants of Eberron know that they are part of the Great Wheel? Because it reads to me like the players and dm know it, but the inhabitants don't.

Not trying to start an argument. Honestly asking.

Eberron Warlock Patron: Rubber Tire confirmed!

 

[Doc_Klueless]

That's about right - as far as anyone within Eberron's planar bubble are concerned, its particular set of planes are self-contained and all-encompassing.

Ok. So it wouldn't change how the game plays. It just messes with the mystery of "Are there really gods out there... somewhere?"

The gods who are the basis of the religions of Eberron may or may not exist (except for the 3 dragons, apparently).



Ok. This really is a thing that would only bother previous Eberroners... Eberronites?... Eberroneeze? hrmph.

 

[Doc_Klueless]

The thing that irritates me most is that it hasn't appeared in my DNDBeyond app yet so I can't read it on my kindle.

Bleh.

 

[Demetrios1453]

The thing that irritates me most is that it hasn't appeared in my DNDBeyond app yet so I can't read it on my kindle.

Bleh.

Weird, I was reading it on my tablet last night.

 

[tetrasodium]

The Great Wheel thing sounds like something that would only matter to people who already know Eberron.

For example, I know and remember squat all about Eberron. It doesn't bother me. The question for me is: Do the inhabitants of Eberron know that they are part of the Great Wheel? Because it reads to me like the players and dm know it, but the inhabitants don't.

Not trying to start an argument. Honestly asking.

No they do not & it's really not part of it but needs to make it clear how it's blocked off or something because the great wheel ,likes to say tharits gods, & its baseline assumptions apply to all settings. Eberron has it's own wildly different Cosmology (as does darksun with its), The gods do not exist in eberron or are so hands off that they make a coma patient look involved. Demons are often native to eberron, races are very different in many many cases. When you start importing the baselines of settings from great wheel (lets be honest and not pretend that the great wheel is something other than "in the forgotten realms"). does damage to both of those settings & vice versa if you try to import stuff from them.

To give an example of just how incompatible they are, Back in 4e Wotc had this big metaplot with asmodeous, the 9 hells, & tieflings... Asmodious did not exist... The nine hells also did not exist.... Tieflings were pretty new & didn't explicity exist but more on that below...

Eberron's history right from the creation myth all the way up to the present & no doubt beyond has massive influences . Tieflings in the planeswalker handbook where they got introduced where pretty much "some mortal race with a bit of fiend in their blood". That explanation worked fine for eberron given its influences & unique spin on alignment, but not with the metaplot.

In the metaplot Asmodeous did something to birth/claim/whatever the tiefling race & they all became his children while he became lord of the nine hells. Asmodious' lore as an individual was violently in conflict with much of eberron, so the eberron books created a plane that was totally not just the nine hells but was literally rthe nine hells if you instead called it "baator". Unfortunately multiple layers within the nine hells conflict with planes that actually exist within eberron's planar structure.. the metaplot too precedence & eberron sourcebooks became this weird mishmash of duplication.

Now that the nine hells existed, asmodeous could be installed as its ruler... unfortunately eberron's Children of Khyber (this includes both races of demons & devils) don't do the whole bargain for souls thing & have a very different role within the setting... Now they had both & it was a logic conflict.

So on & so forth, I'll stop there rather than continuing. baator is a rather touchy subject. Eberron treats magic as a science, FR treats it pretty much like a cargo cult treats science. You can cargo cult down science into myth/lore/legend/etc, but you can't really do the same in reverse & that makes it so cracks start forming in the tapestry the further you push.