D&D 5E Exploring Eberron: Now Available!

Eberron creator Keith Baker’s Exploring Eberron, with new races, subclasses, monsters, and tons of setting information is now available in PDF format!

Also, Keith will be on the Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk podcast in a couple of weeks with a great competition to give away three hardcovers! Be sure to brush up on your Eberron lore!

Discover Uncharted Depths

Join Eberron setting creator Keith Baker in this tour through the lands, oceans, and planes of Eberron. Exploring Eberron presents Keith's vision of Eberron like never before, with fresh lore and rich illustrations to bring the setting to life.

In this book, Keith takes players and Dungeon masters on a thrilling dive into Eberron and its thirteen planes. Encounter the monstrous folk of Droaam, the goblinoid Heirs of Dhakaan, the Mror dwarves and their Realm Below, and the sahuagin and merfolk dwelling beneath the waves. Embrace faiths of altruism, pragmatism, and darkness. Browse Dolurrh's Vault of Memories, seek the Amaranthine Cities of Irian and Mabar, meditate with the Gith monks of Kythri, and much more.

The adventure won't be easy! Mighty friends and foes await - from legendary archfey and proud sahuagin to nightmarish quori and alien daelkyr. Eberron is a world in need of heroes, but take heart: between these pages lie a host of player options for would-be heroes to enjoy. You'll discover new archetypes for the artificer, cleric, druid, monk, and bard. Play unique Eberron races and subraces including gnolls, Dhakaani goblinoids, aasimar of diverse faiths, and ruinbound dwarves. Uncover a wealth of magic items from around the world, bear symbionts that bond with your very flesh, wield dragonmark focus items - perhaps even manifest a Siberys dragonmark of immense power.

FAQ
New FAQ by Keith on his blog

Q: What is Exploring Eberron?

A: Exploring Eberron (ExE) is a 248 page book written by Keith Baker stuffed with new lore, giving depth to topics such as the dwarves of the Mror Holds and the 13 planes.

Production
Q: Where will ExE be sold? What formats? When will it be available?

A: ExE is available exclusively on the dmsguild in hardcover and pdf

Q: Will ExE be available on DnDBeyond?

A: Without the intervention of Wizards of the Coast, the dmsguild has the sole licensing rights to third party Eberron content. If you're upset about this, tweet at them

Q: Did I miss out on a kickstarter or something? Are there preorders?

A: The dmsguild does not allow kickstarted products nor does it have the infrastructure for preorders.

Q: Didn't I hear about this book months ago? What happened?

A: Uh, life happened. Exploring Eberron ran into a variety of production issues, as detailed here and here. A combination of personal issues in Keith's life, prioritizing more urgent projects like the Adventure Zone card game, and COVID have delayed the book significantly.

Content
Q: What's in the book?

A: You can check out the table of contents, a scroll-through preview by Sly Flourish, and a variety of previews from the book's production. The first 200 pages are dedicated almost exclusively to new lore, then chapters 6, 7, and 8 provide new mechanical content for both players and DMs.

Q: There's mechanical content? Is it balanced?

A: The production team has had an extensive team of playtesters review the material on a variety of metrics, including balance.

If you want to know more about Eberron, please check out /r/Eberron, the discord, Keith's blog, and the Manifest Zone podcast. There's even a brand new episode dedicated to the book!

Reviews

Sly Flourish
Todd Talks
Merric's Musings: Part 1
All Things Lich
Dungeon Mapster of None
The Mania
411 Mania
The Tome Show
Total Party Thrill

 

[darjr]

I now want to run a game pre-mournlands and the players are IN the future mourn lands. There would be nothing they could do to stop it, they need to figure out that it is coming and save as many as possible, with a chance they can figure out how it happens.

 

[Hellcow]

Uhh... 3e ”this plane kills you” design says hi, I guess.

That’s the intent, yes. Mabar is literally the plane of death; it is the reason that specters and wraiths can kill you with their touch. It is SUPPOSED to kill mortals within minutes. But there’s two mitigating factors. The first is the Hinterlands, the outer reaches of Mabar that DON’T have the Hunger of Mabar effect. So you can adventure in the Hinterlands without any protection. On the other hand, if you’re going to visit the Amaranthine City you need to have protection or you will die... just like if you want to go visit one of the cities of the Sahuagin, you need to have a way to breathe water or you will die. Mabar is intentionally the most lethal environment in Eberron... but just like an underwater adventure, this means you need to prepare properly (or stay in the Hinterlands).

 

[dave2008]

Almost tempted to buy this for playable gnolls, but $30 is a lot for one race that I don’t even know if it will be good or not.

That is a big motivator for me too - and I'm the DM. I do love gnolls though. Actually I have been reading the previews and Keith's blogs and I really love is lore. We don't play in Eberron, but I will definitely adapt some of his lore into my own campaign. So the lore is also making me think about purchasing this book too.

 

[dave2008]

I’ve only skimmed through the book, but I was curious to check out some of the mechanics. The rules for the plane of Mabar gave me pause. Ok, undead have 2 extra hp per HD... a little unusual considering the way 5e monsters are built, but fair enough. Make a spellcasting ability check to cast healing and radiant spells—what fun to keep rolling over and over again out of combat... And you take 10d6 necrotic damage for every minute you spend in the plane, prevented by resistance or death ward. Uhh... 3e ”this plane kills you” design says hi, I guess. Not using these rules.

Seems fine to me. Some places are just hostile to living creatures.

 

[Reynard]

I’ve only skimmed through the book, but I was curious to check out some of the mechanics. The rules for the plane of Mabar gave me pause. Ok, undead have 2 extra hp per HD... a little unusual considering the way 5e monsters are built, but fair enough. Make a spellcasting ability check to cast healing and radiant spells—what fun to keep rolling over and over again out of combat... And you take 10d6 necrotic damage for every minute you spend in the plane, prevented by resistance or death ward. Uhh... 3e ”this plane kills you” design says hi, I guess. Not using these rules.

Yeah, I feel the same way about lava. I want to explore active volcanoes and lava tubes but why do I have to get burned when immersed in molten rock?

 

[Weiley31]

I’ve only skimmed through the book, but I was curious to check out some of the mechanics. The rules for the plane of Mabar gave me pause. Ok, undead have 2 extra hp per HD... a little unusual considering the way 5e monsters are built, but fair enough. Make a spellcasting ability check to cast healing and radiant spells—what fun to keep rolling over and over again out of combat... And you take 10d6 necrotic damage for every minute you spend in the plane, prevented by resistance or death ward. Uhh... 3e ”this plane kills you” design says hi, I guess. Not using these rules.

You walked into the wrong Neighborhood of the planes. What did you expect?

 

[Teemu]

That’s the intent, yes. Mabar is literally the plane of death; it is the reason that specters and wraiths can kill you with their touch. It is SUPPOSED to kill mortals within minutes. But there’s two mitigating factors. The first is the Hinterlands, the outer reaches of Mabar that DON’T have the Hunger of Mabar effect. So you can adventure in the Hinterlands without any protection. On the other hand, if you’re going to visit the Amaranthine City you need to have protection or you will die... just like if you want to go visit one of the cities of the Sahuagin, you need to have a way to breathe water or you will die. Mabar is intentionally the most lethal environment in Eberron... but just like an underwater adventure, this means you need to prepare properly (or stay in the Hinterlands).

The Hinterlands sound good, I didn’t get the chance to read that section.

The issue I find with the continuous necrotic damage is that it makes much of the plane ridiculously hostile. It’s hard to use in a game with such rules. What if your protection is dispelled, and no one can cast the spell again? And the inhibited spells create a lot of extra rolling because you don’t lose the slot—there’s no reason not to keep trying out of combat, again and again. It’s clumsy design.

The undead extra hp also work wonkily. A CR 13 vampire has more HD than some undead creatures with a higher CR. 5e monsters aren’t built with the assumption that more HD automatically means a higher CR. Plus, 5e monsters are already bags of hp, it feels off to make that worse in a specific plane.

The notion that (almost) an entire plane kills you without specific protections is something that reads well but plays poorly, in my experience. I just don’t think players find it fun to go up against such binary-style challenge (have X or die).

 

[Hellcow]

The issue I find with the continuous necrotic damage is that it makes much of the plane ridiculously hostile. It’s hard to use in a game with such rules. What if your protection is dispelled, and no one can cast the spell again?

What if you're underwater and someone dispels your water breathing spell? And it's MUCH easier to go underwater than it is to go to Mabar! It's not SUPPOSED to be easy or safe; it is the absolute most dangerous place you could possibly go in Eberron, the physical embodiment of the destruction of all things. If the PLANE OF DEATH is actually SAFER than going to chat with some merfolk, that feels off to me.

Regarding the extra undead HP, that was taken from page 231 on Rising From The Last War. I didn't design that section, but it seemed logical to maintain consistency with the current canon source. The Radiant Void effect is likewise based on an effect on page 229 of Rising. It's only a lot of rolling if someone insists on repeatedly casting spells that inflict radiant damage or that heal; you can avoid it entirely if you just cast fire bolt instead of sacred flame and accept the fact that cure wounds will be unreliable. But you could choose to simplify it and just say you CAN'T cast spells that inflict radiant damage or heal; I just followed the precedent of Rising and made it unreliable.

 

[Teemu]

What if you're underwater and someone dispels your water breathing spell? And it's MUCH easier to go underwater than it is to go to Mabar! It's not SUPPOSED to be easy or safe; it is the absolute most dangerous place you could possibly go in Eberron, the physical embodiment of the destruction of all things. If the PLANE OF DEATH is actually SAFER than going to chat with some merfolk, that feels off to me.

Regarding the extra undead HP, that was taken from page 231 on Rising From The Last War. I didn't design that section, but it seemed logical to maintain consistency with the current canon source. The Radiant Void effect is likewise based on an effect on page 229 of Rising. It's only a lot of rolling if someone insists on repeatedly casting spells that inflict radiant damage or that heal; you can avoid it entirely if you just cast fire bolt instead of sacred flame and accept the fact that cure wounds will be unreliable. But you could choose to simplify it and just say you CAN'T cast spells that inflict radiant damage or heal; I just followed the precedent of Rising and made it unreliable.

If you can get permanent protection against Mabar, it creates a situation where it’s not even a choice. If you have it, you adventure normally. If you don’t, you die. There’s no interesting consequences, no true risk since you wouldn’t go there without guaranteed protection. The traits for Fernia and Risia are more interesting, for example—they’re not a binary ”have X or die”.

You could say that Fernia should be more dangerous than going underwater since it’s the plane of fire. But it’s not.

My players could’ve ventured into Mabar some time ago. I was planning on using something like halved healing and the HD only long rest healing that Risia has. I just don’t think the binary ”protection or die” mechanic works well in play.

 

[ChaosOS]

I'd also point out there's items like the Ring of Resistance that allow you to adventure. It's a hoop you have to jump through - but so is most exploration stuff, like having water in a desert or warmth in a tundra. I actually think ExE provides a much more solid base for interesting exploration than the base 5e rules.