Essentially Eberron

[unnatural 20]

Greetings,

I've just returned from a rather long hiatus from gaming (about 10 years). On a whim I jumped back in by purchasing the Eberron campaign guide for 4e and the Essentials rules compendium.

It looks like that I will actually need to either purchase the unholy trinity (the PHB, DMG and MM) or wait for a "patch" to appear in a future Dragon/WoTC article (since it looks like future Essential products cover only core D&D races/classes at least for now).

It is a lot of information to absorb at once and I'm just looking for the right track to get started on. Am I correct in my assumptions?

 

[ArcaneSpringboard]

If I were starting out completely new, I wouldn't buy any of the PHB1, DMG1 or MM1. I would definitely go with the rest of the Essentials line. The 'Heroes' books, the DM Kit and the Monster Vault. Then to get the 'rest' of the Player material, I'd get a DDI subscription.

For Eberron, definitely get the 4e Eberron Campaign Guide...it's one of the best 4e books out there. I'm not sure that the Eberron Player's Guide is all that worth it if you get the DDI subscription.

 

[Spatula]

It looks like that I will actually need to either purchase the unholy trinity (the PHB, DMG and MM) or wait for a "patch" to appear in a future Dragon/WoTC article (since it looks like future Essential products cover only core D&D races/classes at least for now).

That depends on what you're looking for. You could run a fine Eberron game with just the 4e Eberron books (campaign guide & player guide) & the Essentials books. You wouldn't have access to all the common Eberron elements from 3e, but if you're coming back from a 10 year hiatus, you're probably not too familiar with those anyway.

3e Eberron options that are not in the Essentials products, by book:

PHB1 - rituals
PHB2 - gnomes, shifters, half-orcs; barbarians, bards, druids, sorcerers
PHB3 - monks, psions

There's other classes & races in the above books as well, but they weren't "core" 3e elements.

Now with that said, all of the above (and far more) can be gotten far more cheaply, in electronic form anyway, through a DDI subscription at wizards.com.

As far as DM stuff goes, I would go for the Essentials DM's Kit.

 

[unnatural 20]

Thanks for the advice. I had no idea the missing info would be in a ddi sub. That is still a new concept for me. I will definately look into it.

 

[tentfox]

Druid and Half-Orc are in Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdom I believe. I would not consider psion, monk, sorcerer, bard or barbarian to be a strong part of Eberron either. Rituals are fairly important with the dragonmark feats, and druids, gnomes, shifters and half-orcs all have a strong place within the settings.

 

[I'm A Banana]

You could probably play with just the books you have + DDI.

Grab the DDI (which includes monster stats and additional races and classes and a handy-dandy glossary), and go wild.

 

[bert1000]

Another vote for DDI. If you are coming back into things after 10 years, the tools available for 4e will blow you away.

DDI gets you:

Character builder -- a really well built character generator that includes EVERY race, class, power, feat, magic item, etc. published by WOTC and updated for the latest errata.

Monster builder (in adventure tools)-- a compendium of ALL monsters published by WOTC, including those that appear in living forgotten realms modules, etc. The tool allows you to easily tweak the monsters as you see fit, print out, etc.

Compendium -- basically a searchable database of all races, classes, powers, monsters, items, rituals, etc. Somewhat less amazing since the character and monster builder are there, but still useful sometimes.

Access to all back issue 4e Dragon and Dungeon articles.


The only things you are really missing with DDI is the DM advice in the DMG1 and 2 and DM kit, which is actually pretty good. Also I find DDI is not all that casual reading friendly, so if you like to read the books as entertainment (as opposed to just wanting the information to build a character or play) than you might miss that.

So my vote would be get DDI and the DM's kit. Some of the location books for 4e are also pretty good (e.g., underdark).

NOTE: somewhat big caveat if you are keen on essentials. The essentials material isn't in DDI yet but hopeful it will be soon...

 

[Klaus]

Essentials is already in the D&D Compendium (at least RC and HotFallen Lands).

 

[unnatural 20]

I haven't had much time to get to DDI this weekend, I am looking forward to it hen I get the chance. If it's in the compendium, does that mean Essentials would be in the character builder.?

 

[The Little Raven]

I'm not sure that the Eberron Player's Guide is all that worth it if you get the DDI subscription.

There's a whole lot of player-oriented fluff in the PG that is pretty key to helping a player understand their place in Eberron.