Experiences with Eberron thus far?

[shilsen]

I just got the Eberron campaign setting book a couple days ago. While reading through it, I was wondering how it - as a whole and in parts - works in play. Since I'm not likely to get a chance to DM it any time soon (my group rotates DMing duties and I'm enjoying being on the other side of the screen right now), I thought I would ask about people's experiences with it. From a mechanical angle, I'm especially interested in the different races (esp. warforged) and the use of action points, but I'd like to know about any and all aspects of your experience with Eberron so far. Care to share?

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

So far:

the urban setting has been pretty interesting

the new druids are nice

the races are good

the investigation feats are pretty sweet

and the deities have worked well.

But, the best thing, has been the multitude of fairly low level factions.

Eberron feels like a very factionalized and poltical world where people are both desperate enough to join factions with odd ideologies and have enough other options that they can go through life ignorant of them even if they can't truly ignore them.

Travel is actually pretty nice, the airships and lightning rails and such make it very easy for me to think that it is feasible for my fourth level character to go to all sorts of places without the normal level of disbelief: ie, if I weren't a PC I wouldn't go on this adventure I need to be home for the harvest so I can have food to survive the winter. But they aren't so convenient that there aren't things to do.

Airships have to land in precarious places for supplies and refit and lightning rails can get robbed.

Been pretty fun so far.

Some of the things, such as psionics, that were touted as being really possible in Eberron don't really appear to be any more possible there than they are anyplace else.

For instance, no psionic treasure options in the adventures.

Which are otherwise pretty dang good.

 

[FireLance]

I've just started an Eberron campaign and the PCs have played through one and a half adventures and gained a level. Here are a couple of observations:

1. The warforged immunities are pretty neat. The warforged PC blundered into a poison dart trap and didn't even have to make a saving throw. The party has been able to handle encounters with paralyzing creatures such as ghouls (at 1st level) and carrion crawlers (at 2nd) quite easily because the warforged went to the front and drew all the attacks.

2. Adamantine Body is very useful at low levels. Most attacks could not hit the warforged, and the effects of those that did were reduced (sometimes to zero) because of his DR 2/adamantium. We will have to see if it continues to be as useful at higher levels.

3. The shifter's ability to shift did not come into play very often, and when it did it was similar to a lesser form of barbarian rage. This may change at higher levels when she can shift more times per day.

4. The artificer has been played pretty much as a support character. He was not as effective as he could have been as he insisted on creating his scrolls upfront instead of waiting to see which spells would be more useful in the course of the adventure. Still, he managed to pull off a few neat tricks, such as a Cure Light Wounds on a party member at negative hit points, an Enlarge Person on the paladin during a cruicial encounter, a Disguise Self to infiltrate a goblinoid rally, and a Magic Missile to down a fleeing bugbear. Some of his other scrolls, such as Grease, Sleep and Charm Person, fizzled because of low save DCs. Those who like magic to be more unpredictable might also find the fact that he has to make Use Magic Device checks to activate his scrolls a feature. All in all, the artificer has proven to be a flexible but more unpredictable spellcaster.

5. Action points were not often used for a variety of reasons, including player hoarding, and a fair number of rolls that were either so high or so low that the players did not think that using an action point was useful. The paladin and bard did spend them to get more daily uses of Smite Evil and Inspire Courage, though. Overall, they are a nice bonus to the PCs.

 

[mearls]

I've run two sessions so far, with a third due for Monday. It's been a blast.

My players really wanted to try out the new races, so I used the rules for flaws from UA to give them access to more warforged and shifter-specific feats. The DR isn't much of an issue - its useful, but it seems balanced against losing out on more active feats such as Power Attack or Weapon Focus.

The setting drips with adventure ideas, and with two modules, an adventure in Dungeon, and the adventure in the back of the book it isn't hard to get things rolling.

Personally, I find that Eberron is very inspiring. It reminds me of Greyhawk in that I have little difficulty in thinking up nifty adventure ideas. Whereas Greyhawk works for me partly because I know it well and partly because its flexible, Eberron's details all work together to suggest lots of different, new experiences.

The next session of my game covers a lightning rail journey. The Order of the Emerald Claw is hunting down the PCs, and they're going to hit the train via gliders. There's also a dinosaur being transported aboard the train. It's sedated, by agents of Antoli Vernescu (a sleazy archaeologist who's trying to steal an object from the PCs) feed it an antidote. I anticipate a high-speed battle on the roof of the train, with Emerald Claw agents swooping down to attack the PCs. The dinosaur will rip through the roof of its car and stomp out to eat everyone at the climax, and the agents of the Lord of Blades may try to hijack the train if things aren't sufficiently insane.

(Yeah, my players have a LOT of people gunning for them.)

I do have to admit that the focus on NPCs as lower level than normal is also a big help. It brings the PCs really into the center of the story and helps explain why 3rd-level adventurers could play such an important role. The game never had that ramping up feel that some campaigns have, as the PCs go from rookies to important movers and shakers.

 

[EricNoah]

I'll be able to tell you after this weekend. Very much looking forward to it, and to seeing WanderingMonster as DM.

 

[Wolfspirit]

I'm still trying to get my group to give it a chance. Too much of the "D&D with dinosaurs and trains" advertising rubbed them the wrong way...

 

[shilsen]

Thanks for the comments, folks. I'm curious about how the new rules work out at the higher levels, but obviously I'll have to wait a few months before people get their Eberron campaigns to those levels.

Anyone else?

 

[Corsair]

I'd love to get in on an Eberron group in metro-west Mass somewhere. I've had the ECS for a month+ now and love it to bits.

 

[Henry]

I have run two Eberron sessions as DM so far. I started the first session at the Last War, with the first level PC's being instrumental in trying to help repel a Karrnathi undead invasion. The second session opens four years later, and the PC's have been thrust into being in charge of a mercenary company that's going broke. A search for an artefact for a client has led them into a much bigger puzzle.

I've been enjoying thrusting them into some different situations atypical of D&D. Whereas our D&D sessions were typified by the PC's being sort of "cogs in the wheel", I'm emphasizing Eberron's flavor of having the PC's be "men and women of extraordinary caliber", and putting them in positions of being in charge. I'm also emphasizing the serialized nature of Eberron's inspirational Pulp genre, and I have a set and tight storyline planned, so that the campaign will end after a set number of sessions (about 10 or 12).

The inclusion of psionics has injected some interesting flavor, something that has been avoided or neglected in our group in the past; one kalashtar cleric is THOROUGHLY enjoying the Psionic Shot feat. And one player has thoroughly embraced the Artificer, though he's been complaining that the Use Magic Device usage of the class is screwy - his claim that he only has a 25% chance (50% to make it, and then 50% to use it) to actually use anything he makes, yet I'm not seen him blow a SINGLE UMD check yet.

The group is slowly getting into use of action points, but it's growing. I find that the wackier and more insanely dangerous situations I drop on them, the more they remember the Action Points. I think that's the point of the points - heck, DON'T balance the encounters to CR levels - have the encounters be a little higher than normal, because they otherwise won't need the points. However, drop the crazy ---- on the PC's, and the Action Points start flowing.

My suggestion is to liberally steal the basic classic plots of 19th century Romantic and Gothic literature, as well as the 1930's and 1940's classic noir and action films, because these classic plots fit on Eberron's landscape like a glove. Break out that Prisoner of Zenda/Moon over Parador, introduce that warforged juggernaut in love with the beautiful villager yet chased by villagers with torches, have that trainfight standing on the cab of the Lightning Rail, and don't forget classic disaster movies of the 50's and 70's!

It's a fascinating world, and we've only scratched the surface.

 

[fanboy2000]

I've loved it.

One word about Psionics in Eberron: Blue

I've ran the Forgotten Forge and I'm about 1/3 of the way through Shadows of the Last War. They're great. Action points havn't helped much in my game. Its even become a joke in the group, "Your spending an action point? So, what? You want to gurantee failure?" there were several times when players spent an action point, and then missed the DC by 1 or 2.

I let the shifter multiclass at first level, using the 3.0 aprentice rules. (I run a 3.5 game, but I'm not abanding aprentice levels.)

The worforged has been fun. When fighting another warforged he said "You are malfuntioning, please stand down."