I guess that's fair, but still, bummer.
D&D (2024) Frontiers of Eberron: Quickstone
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Kurotowa
Legend
It is, but it makes sense. Eberron is 20 years old and well past the peak of its popularity. It's a setting he doesn't own, which means he doesn't get the final word on the lore and has to play by WotC's rules to put out supplements (to say nothing of sacrificing a share of the profits). So it makes a lot of sense that he'd want to do something new that's more up to date and entirely in his own hands.
Whatever that new thing is, I'll definitely give it a fair look when it comes out.
LuisCarlos17f
Legend
Thanks. If my memory doesn't fail some time in the past myself suggest a nerferd version of petrifying gaze for PC medusas, althought I suggested poison+cold damage.
In addition to the Gray Gaze cantrip the Medusa has (plus an additional ability called Medusa's Gift that augments the Gray Gaze cantrip)... there are also feats at Level 4+ and 8+ the Medusa can take to further enhance their petrification abilities.
I bought the book this morning and am really enjoying what I'm reading. After running an Eberron Sharn campaign several years ago, it's really cool to now read up on what's going on on the other side of the Greywall Mountains.
I bought the book this morning and am really enjoying what I'm reading. After running an Eberron Sharn campaign several years ago, it's really cool to now read up on what's going on on the other side of the Greywall Mountains.
Kurotowa
Legend
I'm just starting on the setting material, but I had a glance through the player options on offer. There's a brave attempt to make playable versions of Gargoyles, Harpies, Medusa, and Worgs. I'm not sure how well they land, but for players who are determined to play the more unusual native of Droaam the options are presented.
One bit I do love on first glance is a frankly brilliant rework of dragonmarks. Instead of the clumsy sub-races that Rising from the Last War had to use, they use the Revised 5e tech to present a trio of Dragonmarked backgrounds that all give the Lesser Dragonmark starting feat. It still references half-elves and half-orcs, because those legacy mechanics continue to be a problem, but overall it's a far better mechanic for the feature.
One bit I do love on first glance is a frankly brilliant rework of dragonmarks. Instead of the clumsy sub-races that Rising from the Last War had to use, they use the Revised 5e tech to present a trio of Dragonmarked backgrounds that all give the Lesser Dragonmark starting feat. It still references half-elves and half-orcs, because those legacy mechanics continue to be a problem, but overall it's a far better mechanic for the feature.
Libertad
Hero
So I recently completed reading Frontiers of Eberron, and wanted to share my thoughts. This won’t be in-depth like a proper review, but instead a general collection of thoughts and initial impressions.
Chapter 1, Life on the Edge does a good job of outlining the general vibe of the campaign region known as the Western Frontier. A “fantasy Western” with wandslinging duelists in a barren region filled with marauding bandits (of both humanoid and monstrous variety), fallen ruined of prior ages, byeshk and dragonshard deposits serving as a “gold rush” drawing in prosperity and greedy opportunists, and fugitives from justice taking advantage of the murky political borders. It goes over common campaign themes, with a focus on more “small town” vibes than bustling metropoli like Sharn. In regards to this latter element, the book suggests a number of Character Roles for PCs tied to a local community, like being the town Sheriff wearing a tin star holy symbol of Dol Arrah, a Mysterious Stranger from parts unknown who is waiting for someone or something, or the town Preacher providing spiritual guidance to the faithful. The later chapter detailing the town of Quickstone was made with this in mind, where if not a home base, a recurring hub where they have more personal and explicit connections to the community where the town shopkeep and House Sivis sending stone operator has a name and face.
As usual, Keith Baker (and Imogen Gingell, the other author) does a great job of world-building, with ways to make the Western Frontier feel unique from other locations in Eberron. Immediately I get a vibe that sets it apart from the jungles of Q’barra or the wilds of Xen’drik, other frontier regions with themes of being on the edge of civilization.
This chapter has rules for the Arcane Duel, based off of the iconic Western trope but using magic instead of pistols at high noon. In lieu of a typical rolling for initiative, it is a contested series of rolls where the stakes are for pride, first blood, or death as the ultimate result. During a duel, a character can choose from one of five Dueling Styles with a unique benefit which can alter how many Trick or Fault Dice are gained by one or the other side, and each style is effective against two others. The same thing is done during the Stare, which are mostly social roles to gain an edge on the opponent, such as The Look that uses Intimidation to falter one’s resolve, or Tactical Analysis in trying to read your opponent. The Shot is the final result, where opposed ranged spell attacks are rolled and Trick/Fault Dice respectively add or subtract 1d6 from the result, and certain Styles have the opportunity to reroll them. The highest roll wins the duel, but a tie causes them both to suffer the effects of the Stakes.
If a duel was done for Pride, the loser loses one Hit Die and is affected by a short-term magical debuff effect dependent on spell school, First Blood makes the loser take damage equal to half their maximum hit points (or 1 hit point if less than 50% currently), and to the Death reduces them to 0 hit points.
While there’s more to it than that, I’m summarizing the broad strokes. I think it’s a pretty neat sub-system that obviously merits inclusion in a Fantasy Western and gets around the default initiative/hit points of traditional combat that can’t be so easily done in 5e.
The book also goes into more detail on Droaam, specifically the more populous and iconic monsters from that nation: gargoyles, gnolls, harpies, medusae, tieflings, and worgs. The Tiefling and Worgs are newer entries in terms of publication, with 4th Edition granting the tieflings a once-hidden city known as the Venomous Demesne, and the Worgs primarily live in the Watching Wood. Some of the information is from earlier publications, such as the Gnolls of the Znir Pact including history touched upon in Exploring Eberron, but there is enough new material here to make it a worthy read for even Eberron veterans. There’s also roleplay info for PCs of the aforementioned races, with discussions on popular outlooks, motives for adventuring, and common cultural behaviors and traditions. There’s also brief writeups on other monstrous PC races and their place in the Western Frontier, such as centaurs, goblins and kobolds, and minotaurs. Even ogres get a shoutout despite not being a playable race, with the book suggesting that they’re a reflavored Goliath who is small for an ogre and the Large Form trait reflecting them stretching out and standing up for a limited time, being ordinarily hunched over. A similar line is suggested for oni, who are goliath with spellcasting features.
The mechanics for the new races are further back in the book, and given that many other people covered them first thing I’ll save them for later. But I really liked the expansion material given for them from role-playing perspectives, as monstrous races tend to have a stigma of being picked first and foremost for mechanical benefits and not necessarily for their place in the world.
There is one bit of persistent criticism I have for Frontiers of Eberron, and that’s the fact that it can use a second editing pass. Throughout the book I noticed various errors and inconsistencies, like the words Advantage and Disadvantage being randomly capitalized. These weren’t just referring to the game mechanics, but more general common speech.
Another example is when talking about the Khaar’paal kobolds of Quickstone, the book gives contradictory information on them being nomadic.
First result on page 114:
Look at the later entry in this book, on page 124-125
While it’s been a while since I read Exploring Eberron, I don’t recall as many mistakes being made in that book or Chronicles of Eberron, which I read more recently. While I still overall like Frontiers, the above does bring it down quite a bit.
The next chapter is the Western Frontier, a very meaty chapter covering towns, landmarks, and notable NPCs in the region from a big-picture view. As it’s also the longest chapter in the book, I’ll cover it for the next post.
Chapter 1, Life on the Edge does a good job of outlining the general vibe of the campaign region known as the Western Frontier. A “fantasy Western” with wandslinging duelists in a barren region filled with marauding bandits (of both humanoid and monstrous variety), fallen ruined of prior ages, byeshk and dragonshard deposits serving as a “gold rush” drawing in prosperity and greedy opportunists, and fugitives from justice taking advantage of the murky political borders. It goes over common campaign themes, with a focus on more “small town” vibes than bustling metropoli like Sharn. In regards to this latter element, the book suggests a number of Character Roles for PCs tied to a local community, like being the town Sheriff wearing a tin star holy symbol of Dol Arrah, a Mysterious Stranger from parts unknown who is waiting for someone or something, or the town Preacher providing spiritual guidance to the faithful. The later chapter detailing the town of Quickstone was made with this in mind, where if not a home base, a recurring hub where they have more personal and explicit connections to the community where the town shopkeep and House Sivis sending stone operator has a name and face.
As usual, Keith Baker (and Imogen Gingell, the other author) does a great job of world-building, with ways to make the Western Frontier feel unique from other locations in Eberron. Immediately I get a vibe that sets it apart from the jungles of Q’barra or the wilds of Xen’drik, other frontier regions with themes of being on the edge of civilization.
This chapter has rules for the Arcane Duel, based off of the iconic Western trope but using magic instead of pistols at high noon. In lieu of a typical rolling for initiative, it is a contested series of rolls where the stakes are for pride, first blood, or death as the ultimate result. During a duel, a character can choose from one of five Dueling Styles with a unique benefit which can alter how many Trick or Fault Dice are gained by one or the other side, and each style is effective against two others. The same thing is done during the Stare, which are mostly social roles to gain an edge on the opponent, such as The Look that uses Intimidation to falter one’s resolve, or Tactical Analysis in trying to read your opponent. The Shot is the final result, where opposed ranged spell attacks are rolled and Trick/Fault Dice respectively add or subtract 1d6 from the result, and certain Styles have the opportunity to reroll them. The highest roll wins the duel, but a tie causes them both to suffer the effects of the Stakes.
If a duel was done for Pride, the loser loses one Hit Die and is affected by a short-term magical debuff effect dependent on spell school, First Blood makes the loser take damage equal to half their maximum hit points (or 1 hit point if less than 50% currently), and to the Death reduces them to 0 hit points.
While there’s more to it than that, I’m summarizing the broad strokes. I think it’s a pretty neat sub-system that obviously merits inclusion in a Fantasy Western and gets around the default initiative/hit points of traditional combat that can’t be so easily done in 5e.
The book also goes into more detail on Droaam, specifically the more populous and iconic monsters from that nation: gargoyles, gnolls, harpies, medusae, tieflings, and worgs. The Tiefling and Worgs are newer entries in terms of publication, with 4th Edition granting the tieflings a once-hidden city known as the Venomous Demesne, and the Worgs primarily live in the Watching Wood. Some of the information is from earlier publications, such as the Gnolls of the Znir Pact including history touched upon in Exploring Eberron, but there is enough new material here to make it a worthy read for even Eberron veterans. There’s also roleplay info for PCs of the aforementioned races, with discussions on popular outlooks, motives for adventuring, and common cultural behaviors and traditions. There’s also brief writeups on other monstrous PC races and their place in the Western Frontier, such as centaurs, goblins and kobolds, and minotaurs. Even ogres get a shoutout despite not being a playable race, with the book suggesting that they’re a reflavored Goliath who is small for an ogre and the Large Form trait reflecting them stretching out and standing up for a limited time, being ordinarily hunched over. A similar line is suggested for oni, who are goliath with spellcasting features.
The mechanics for the new races are further back in the book, and given that many other people covered them first thing I’ll save them for later. But I really liked the expansion material given for them from role-playing perspectives, as monstrous races tend to have a stigma of being picked first and foremost for mechanical benefits and not necessarily for their place in the world.
There is one bit of persistent criticism I have for Frontiers of Eberron, and that’s the fact that it can use a second editing pass. Throughout the book I noticed various errors and inconsistencies, like the words Advantage and Disadvantage being randomly capitalized. These weren’t just referring to the game mechanics, but more general common speech.
Another example is when talking about the Khaar’paal kobolds of Quickstone, the book gives contradictory information on them being nomadic.
First result on page 114:
Look at the later entry in this book, on page 124-125
While it’s been a while since I read Exploring Eberron, I don’t recall as many mistakes being made in that book or Chronicles of Eberron, which I read more recently. While I still overall like Frontiers, the above does bring it down quite a bit.
The next chapter is the Western Frontier, a very meaty chapter covering towns, landmarks, and notable NPCs in the region from a big-picture view. As it’s also the longest chapter in the book, I’ll cover it for the next post.
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I don't own Exploring Eberron yet so I don't know if the Khaar'paal are talked about in that book... but when I read the bits you are talking about in Frontiers, my impression I got from the bits was that the subjective view of people in the land of northern Droaam and Breland only thought that the Khaar'paal kobolds were a nomadic tribe to the south on the westernside of the Graywall Mountains... but that the truth was that they actually had a hidden town within the Graywall. And that the Khaar'paal kobolds in the southern part of the Tents were only assumed to be part of that nomadic tribe (which is why their tent construction and organization was so efficient) because that's what they thought the Khaar'paal were.
So for me personally it didn't seem quite so contradictory... but only that the different parts seemed to switch from the perspective of the people in the area of Quickstone and what they though was true, and the top-down omniscient perspective of the actual truth. But since I don't own that other book that might go into more detail about the kobolds, these contradictions showing up in Frontiers might be more pronounced and messed up and what you picked up on? I really can't say.
I do agree though that the switch from thoughts of the people at ground-level and the godlike perspective from above in the detailing does get a bit confusing at times and having to untangle rumor from truth wasn't often clear.
Libertad
Hero
Chapter 2, The Western Frontier is also the longest one in the book. It comes with a gorgeous full-page map, some sample random encounters, and is broken up into several sections: Towns, Distant Cities, Landmarks, Famous and Infamous People, and Faiths of the Western Frontier.
Towns cover the major population centers, 11 to be exact, and we have quite the assortment of neat places along with notable figures and adventuring opportunities as well as connections for how a PC’s backstory may involve that place. Some of the more interesting entries include Argonth, a Brelish mobile battle fortress designed as a counterbalance against Droaam’s aggression, the monstrous hub of Graywall and Droaam’s primary economic center, the Eldeen border town Sylbaran whose druidic sects allow Dragonmarked outposts to operate albeit under intense restrictions, and the citadel of Turakbar’s Fists whose minotaur warlord is but the latest in a long line of local rulers afflicted by the tyrannical influence of the fiendish Overlord known as the Horned King.
Distant Cities covers population centers that aren’t in the Western Frontier, being further inland in Droaam. But they are major centers for various races that have a presence in the frontier as immigrants, so the entries merit talking about where certain characters come from, such as the medusa city of Cazhaak Draal or the mobile hidden changeling village of Lost.
Needless to say, all of these places have hooks and problems to serve as springboards for adventures. For example, the town of Shavalant relies heavily on Vadalis-backed ranching, and Asbhound druids recently carried out a violent assault on them and may be hiding out in the nearby forest, or that Vadalis has a secret farm breeding poisonous animals to serve as assassins. The lack of a central authority, the vague geopolitical delineations preventing either Droaam or Breland’s forces from committing to widespread “taming” of the region, and that the more fortified military outposts can’t cover and protect everyone from raiders and other dangers creates an environment where PCs are needed more than ever to make a difference in meting out justice.
Landmarks focus on geographic terrain prominent in the Frontier. There’s less and shorter entries than the towns and cities, and are more big-picture than local. Their entries generally talk about the lay of the land, things of historical and economic significance, and interesting things about them for adventure ideas. The Graywall Mountains’ many tunnels is a boon for smugglers and hidden places far from the reaches of the surface, be they rumored tombs of Dhakaani kings who test intruders the right to wield their weapons. Or a supposed portal to Irian, which dissident harpy flights retreated to after losing battles against the Daughters of Sora Kell. And we even have some more supernaturally-touched regions, such as Nasaar Kol that lies within an extensive Mabar manifest zone that makes it a dark, spooky place that necromancers, restless spirits, and others consumed by death venture to.
Famous and Infamous People covers the big names in the Western Frontier, household names of heroes, villains, and those of more undecided allegiance in the public eye. We have 12 figures constituting 10 entries (the Daughters of Sora Kell are grouped as one), and run the gamut. For example, Beggar Dane isn’t a real person but a folkloric hero of Brelish legend, and a high-ranking member of the Swords of Liberty has taken the title for propaganda purposes against that country’s monarchy. Breggan Blackcrown is your stereotypical ruthless outlaw leader, whose Company of the Blackcrown is equipped with wands and military-grade magic weapons meaning that most law enforcement doesn’t start trouble with them when they pass into town nonviolently. There are two blatantly heroic characters, although they aren’t omnipotent to the point that they present the Elminster problem, and have flaws of their own that hold them back from changing things on a large-scale. Epitaph is one of them, a tiefling priestess of the Silver Flame who seeks to guard the good folk of the frontier against evil forces, and is trying to make goodwill gestures to Droaamish citizenry due to the tragedies of past crusades. Even on the Brelish side there aren’t many Flamers, so Epitaph usually has nobody to rely on but herself a lot of the time.
Faiths of the Western Frontier rounds out the chapter, covering common religious beliefs. The Sovereign Host is the most popular among Brelish citizens, while the Cazhaak Creed interpretation of the Dark Six is the most popular among Droaamites. There is a peculiar secret society known as the Three Faces of Coin that helped found the town of Quickstone. They, along with other tripartite cults, view the Sovereign and Six as being supplementary aspects, often holding three deities from both pantheons as part of a related whole. For the Three Faces of Coin, they honor Onatar (for creating goods people desire), Kol Korran (inspires honorable deals and trade), and Kol Turrant/the Keeper (who represents ambition to get what you want). While the Three Faces tend to be secretive, their membership is high enough in Quickstone that their presence in town is more of an open secret than a deeply-held one. The Cults of the Dragon Below are another active group, and much like elsewhere in Eberron they’re a bonafide villainous group often in thrall to some daelkyr or fiend lord. The Horned King is the most significant Overlord worshiped in the region, while various daelkyr such as Orlasssk and Dyrrn are rumored to have historical ties to the area.
Further regarding the Cults of the Dragon Below, daelkyr worshipers are much more disliked than fiend worshipers among Droaamites. As to why, the Cazhaak Creed of the Dark Six views celestial/fiend distinctions as more arbitrary, and combined with taking a more positive view of the Six in general and how many warlocks can draw from fiends yet be non-evil, some of these cults can operate with more acceptance, particularly the Horned King. That being said, that overlord’s followers still have a reputation for malevolence. Turakbar’s Fist is their biggest center of worship, and often raid Brelish settlements. The daelkyr are treated as just as much a threat by the Daughters of Sora Kell as they are anywhere else.
Overall, this is a really strong chapter, and I have few if any complaints about it. It does a great job of painting the Western Frontier as an interesting place to set a campaign, and you can pick just about any area and come up with multiple adventure ideas.
We’ll cover Quickstone in the next chapter, the major hub settlement of Frontiers.
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Libertad
Hero
Frontiers of Eberron uses an onmniscient narrator vs a more subjective one, and the second quote I made appears to push hard against the idea that the Khaar'paal live a nomadic lifestyle by asserting that they're workers who came in to help with a job as opposed to living that way as a persistent lifestyle. The first quote referring to them as "nomads, and have a well-established, efficient camp" is the first mention in the book of how they live, and thus contradictory in relation to the later one going "actually, calling them nomads is a mistake." If one were to make it an in-universe mistaken assumption, it would be better to lead off with the bottom quote first.
But that's just my take on it.
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