D&D (2024) Frontiers of Eberron: Quickstone

[Twiggly the Gnome]

OK, follow-up question: how is the POD quality in Exploring Wberron and Chronicles of Eberron? Nice and sturdy, decent paper..?

Yeah, the bindings seem good. The paper is good, comparable to the thickness of WotC books, The colors are a little flatter than say Rising from the Last war, because there's less gloss on the paper.

 

[Weiley31]

OK, follow-up question: how is the POD quality in Exploring Wberron and Chronicles of Eberron? Nice and sturdy, decent paper..?

Yeah, the bindings seem good. The paper is good, comparable to the thickness of WotC books, The colors are a little flatter than say Rising from the Last war, because there's less gloss on the paper.

As someone who owns a POD copy of Exploring Eberron as well, I concur.

 

[Libertad]

Chapter 4, Frontier Characters focuses on new options for players: subclasses, backgrounds, species, feats, and spells. I should note that this book uses 2024 5e as the baseline, and I don’t own the Player’s Handbook for that, so I can only make judgments and inferences based on classic 5e. Let’s start out with the six subclasses.

Path of the Demonshard represents a barbarian embedded with a demonshard, a fraction of the prisons binding the fiendish Overlords in Khyber, and the Barbarian learned to draw power from it. Its major class feature is Fiendish Punishment, where while raging they can deal fire or necrotic damage to foes that harm them or a nearby allied creature within 10 feet. However, its 10th level feature makes being nearby a risk for allies, as all other creatures within 10 feet of the Barbarian take the damage as well as the triggering foe, and since this cannot be “turned off” it brushes against the former ability that rewards allies for being nearby.

The College of Wands Bard represents a magical “gunslinger” who relies on blasty cantrips. They get a bonus sorcerer cantrip, can use non-instrument casting focuses, deal bonus damage with cantrips by expending Bardic Inspiration, and are able to reduce a foe’s initiative when that’s rolled if the bard speaks to a creature for at least 1 minute first. It’s a rather cool idea, but the base Warlock is still a better cantrip user on account of Eldritch Blast and invocations that improve its use.

The Commerce Cleric uses conjured magical coins as its major class feature, which can be “spent” to gain bonuses to rolls and debuff enemies, and the coins can be “gained” whenever the Cleric voluntarily accepts some kind of debuff. A cool idea, and its low level feature is pretty useful and nifty.

The Bloodhound Ranger makes use of ley lines (did such a concept exist in Eberron lore before?) to track down creatures. They can mark creatures as their bounty, which lets them use divination spells on them regardless of distance and deal extra damage with the Hunter’ Mark, and they have related abilities like using their reaction to move their speed towards a distant marked target, or adding the grappled or prone condition as part of an additional attack when attacking only one creature with the Attack action. I should note that the subclass specifies that only Ranger divination spells work with its features, so you can’t dip into it as a full caster and apply your more powerful magic this way.

Nemesis Sorcery represents sorcerers who specialize in one on one duels. Their bonus spells are offensive/combat inclined, get advantage on saves and ability checks when readying an action to cast a spell, can spend their reaction to halve the damage from a spell or other magical effect, and so on. Their 18th level capstone lets them enter a super-focused mindset that grants them very powerful features like concentrating on multiple spells. Looks to be a very strong subclass from my initial reading.

Stone Sovereign Warlock Patron can represent the daelkyr Orlassk, King Grayfinger of Thelanis, or other earth-related entities of great power. Your expanded spells center around earth and stone stuff, and you get features like once per rest being able to Petrify instead of kill a creature, imbue limited stones with sentience to learn about the terrain, and transforming into a stone statue as a reaction against an offensive attack to reduce or eliminate that damage and then reemerging out of a nearby stone surface as your decoy statue crumbles. Pretty cool subclass.

The five new backgrounds are specific to Eberron’s magitech industry. I don’t know if it’s a new standard for 2024 D&D or not, but each of them grants a bonus feat. While this may sound more powerful than standard 5e backgrounds, they are restricted in what said bonus feat is. Three of them involve being a Dragonmarked and grant the Lesser Dragonmark feat: Bravo means you’re of a more martial and adventurous inclination, Foundling is someone who isn’t born into a House but still has the mark, and Scion is someone born into a House. Magewright represents someone who learned some minor spells via the Magic Initiate (Wizard) feat and a tool proficiency, while Wandslinger is much like Magewright but of a more martial inclination.

Species is the part that got the most attention when Frontiers initially released, and for good reason. Not only do they provide new tiefling subraces and give us the warforged for 2024 5e, we also get 5 explicitly monstrous races representing common peoples of Droaam. Several feats in this chapter correspond to unlocking more powerful features of the following races. For instance, the Gargoyle race doesn’t begin play with a fly speed, but they can gain it as a feat if they’re 4th level or higher.

Gargoyles are our first species: they’re elementals instead of humanoid, which grant them a lot of defensive benefits, they can look perfectly like a statue when motionless, have natural armor base rating of 13 when not wearing armor, and can remain aware while long resting instead of sleeping like a warforged. They don’t excite me as much as other races, in that most of their stuff are features other races already have, with only the Elemental type really standing out. Also their lack of a fly speed at the start of play, which Harpies have, also makes them feel less appealing.

Gnolls actually reprint mechanics from Exploring Eberron, but change some things around for 2024 5e. In short, they are quite solidly martial, with a bite attack, can gain a bonus action attack whenever they bite or reduce a creature to 0 hit points, and gain Perception/Stealth/Survival as a bonus skill representing their tradition of hunting.

Harpy is a humanoid and not monstrosity, for those who might be wondering how close they hew to the Monster Manual. They have a fly speed that can’t be used with medium or heavy armor, and their mesmerizing song is represented in the rest of the features: proficiency in Perform and can cast the Friends cantrip right off the bat that only needs verbal components. If they have Spellcasting or Pact Magic, they add a variety of enchantment spells to their spell list that can be cast with only verbal components in place of their usual components. Overall this race is really pigeonholed in being some kind of non-armored (or lightly armored) caster. A harpy paladin better be planning on using a finesse weapon and studded leather if they want to take advantage of flight, while a Rogue won’t really have a mesmerizing song beyond what a rather unpopular cantrip can’t already do.

Medusa is a Monstrosity, which makes me wonder why Harpies are Humanoid. Their gaze attack is represented as knowing the Gray Gaze cantrip, which deals necrotic damage and disadvantage on Dexterity saves as a bonus action, but the Medusa can augment it a limited number of times per long rest to Restrain foes. Like the Harpy, if they are a spellcaster, they get additional unlockable spells that revolve around movement restriction such as Ensnaring Strike and Hold Person. Their non-gaze features include knowing a sign language they can communicate using their snake hair, proficiency in Intimidation, and darkvision. They strike me as a pretty strong race, in that a bonus action cantrip, even if it doesn’t do much, can be a nice option to add on top of an existing Attack or damaging spell.

Tiefling isn’t so much a new race as a bunch of new subraces. In Eberron, tieflings aren’t necessarily fiendish-blooded by default, and can represent all manner of people bearing evidence of planar interference, such as mortals born in potent manifest zones. The default tiefling subraces still exist, but we get 7 more subraces drawing inspiration from different planes of existence, which determines their damage resistance and bonus spells and cantrips. Two subraces bear special note: Sakah (rakshasa-descended) tieflings don’t have a damage type resistance but instead advantage on all Wisdom saves vs magic, which is pretty decent in making them mentally resilient, while Shavaran tieflings don’t have resistance either but are proficient in light and medium armor and shields. Shavaran tieflings are going to be a popular option for spellcasters who’d like to rely on something better than Mage Armor.

Regarding the Warforged, they are more or less identical to the Warforged from Rising from the Last War, but with one particularly big change: their creature type is Construct, not Humanoid. This means that they have immunity to various spells and effects that target humanoids, such as Charm/Dominate Person or being turned into certain kinds of undead like wights and shadows.

The Worg is our final species and certainly stands out, one because the prior races were already noted as being quite iconic in the Eberron setting before Frontier’s publication, and two because they’re the only race here without any opposable thumbs. They’re a Monstrosity with darkvision, Keen Senses, and a very powerful bite natural weapon that deals 1d8 damage. They can use a new martial weapon known as Steel Jaws that deal 2d6 damage and has the Finesse property. They can Help as a bonus action, have natural armor that applies when unarmored but isn’t very good at 12 default, and can carry a medium size or smaller rider and count as one size larger for carrying capacity. Their quadrupel nature and lack of hands imposes a variety of penalties, such as slower movement when climbing, armor specially designed for them costs four times as much, and they have disadvantage on ability checks that require fine manipulation.

First off, I like that in realizing that worgs can’t really use most manufactured weapons, they give them a really good one and a means of DEX-based worgs to still do good damage. However, I feel that their limitations may prevent a lot of players from picking them. Worg rogues, unfortunately, won’t be proficient with Steel Jaws by default, and their natural weapon isn’t finessable by default, which makes them a suboptimal choice for this class.

Feats is our final section. First off, Frontiers revamps Dragonmarks. In Rising From the Last War they were treated as a subrace, but here they are represented as an Origin Feat known as Lesser Dragonmark,. Said feat is more or less identical to the subrace boons from Rising From the Last War, but their bonus spells only go up to 2nd level rather than 5th level as per Rising. Sadly, we don’t get any more feats to represent Greater and Siberys Dragonmarks for these levels of power. I figured it could be saved for a future supplement, but as this is the last book Keith Baker’s going to work on for the setting for the foreseeable future, it feels like a downgrade overall.

The remaining feats number 15. 5 represent being an Initiate in one of the five Druidic orders that grant you additional themed spells and abilities, like being able to conjure undead creatures as Winter or Greensinger being able to gain bonus movement via dancing whenever they Charm a creature. 5 are restricted to the new races and involve improving some iconic monstrous feature, like Hewn For Battle which increases a gargoyle’s natural armor and can have their skin enchanted and improved upon as if it were nonmagical armor, or Stone Eyes letting a medusa turn a target to stone if they fail a save by 5 or more from a medusa trait or spell that would paralyze or restrain them. 4 represent expertise in a particular arcane focus and new ways to enhance your spells with them, such as Rod Expert ignoring disadvantage on ranged attacks vs adjacent targets, rods can be treated as club weapons, and can reroll the damage dice results of 1 or 2 for a cantrip. The last feat is a Fighting Style feat, Wandslinger, which grants +1 to attack rolls made with spells and +1 to the save DC of cantrips.

This chapter ends with New and Reprinted Spells, with three of the reprinted ones being earth-themed spells, one being Enemies Abound, and one being Magecraft from Exploring Eberron (cantrip that lets you gain advantage on ability check with tools you’re proficient with). The two new spells are cantrips: Gray Gaze, that aforementioned spell, and Orien Step which lets you teleport into an adjacent square you can see as a bonus action. Orient Step cannot be learned normally, as it’s only available to those bearing the Mark of Passage. I really don’t have much strong opinions on the new spells one way or the other, although I do like the idea that some magic is exclusive to the Dragonmarked Houses as opposed to something virtually anyone can possibly learn.

In short, I think this chapter has a fair amount of options. When it comes to the more potentially unbalancing abilities of monster traits, the idea of having existing spells replicate their use (plus some extra features from the species, like a Harpy only needing verbal components) is a nice compromise. I feel that the backgrounds are thematically appropriate, and think that Magic Initiate for Magewright/Wandslinger is a clever means of making it so that PCs can still be a Barbarian/Fighter/Rogue/Monk that had a trade in doing some minor cantrips without having to spend a precious feat slot or multiclass. That being said, I do have my criticisms: I wouldn’t use the new Dragonmark system given that it’s incomplete, and I feel that some of the races are a little pigeonholed.

 

[DEFCON 1]

...and Orien Step which lets you teleport into an adjacent square you can see as a bonus action. Orien Step cannot be learned normally, as it’s only available to those bearing the Mark of Passage.​

Wonderful write-up! You really caught the essence of all the great stuff in the book. Awesome work!

The cantrip you mentioned above, Orien Step, is the one new mechanic that I've had a hard time wondering what its best use is (and maybe you have some ideas?) It seems its main purpose is either to add 5' to your speed using a Bonus action (for those classes that can't Dash as a BA like Rogues and Monks)... or a way to "disengage" from an enemy with a 5' reach without using your Action (so you port backwards 5' with a BA, thus allowing you to move without triggering an opportunity attack from the enemy... leaving you your Action to do something else.)

Anything else you can think of that would make use of this cantrip? With it only being a 5' jump its not really needed for reaching higher ledges or crossing gaps as almost all characters would be able to get over 5' barriers regardless either automatically or with the easiest of Athletics checks. So it seems really only useful for an extra square of movement or getting out of reach before retreating? As a cantrip that seems... fine... but I don't know how useful its really going to be?

 

[Libertad]

Chapter 5, Treasures Beyond is a rather short chapter focusing on new items both mundane and magical. We first start out with explanations of common aesthetic designs that can be found in the Western Frontier, such as the brutalist yet durable Dhakaani architecture and armaments, military surplus from the Last War that filters down into the local economy, and druidic woodwork and goodberry wine common up in the Eldeen border. None of this has any explicit game rules, instead being more flavor text and suggestions for how certain iconic items and equipment may appear or be fashioned by various cultures.

For magic items, we have 16 new general ones, 4 kinds of fiendish items fashioned from demonglass, 4 new daelkyr symbionts, and 13 items produced in Droaam designed by and for monsters. The book notes that while still using magic item rarity as an indicator of power, there are some “common” and “uncommon” treasures that aren’t very powerful yet still unique in being made by a certain person in the Frontier. Some of the more interesting items include Daff’s Wonderful Draught (experimental potion that has a d6 random effect, from restoring hit points to granting a buff to suffering Tasha’s Hideous Laughter), Flashdraw Wand (cannot be surprised while attuned, can draw the wand immediately during initiative with no action required, grants bonus to initiative and adjacent targets take lightning damage), Lightning Runner (think of a handcar, but for lightning rails whose pump can be powered by spell slots or the Mark of Passage), Shock and Ore (pair of +1 war picks with the light property that can spend charges to do bonus lighting damage or cast Earth Tremor as part of a melee attack), and Thunder Coach (vehicle that only Mark of Passage bearers can attune, is an animal-drawn stagecoach that can hasten movement of animals, has an extradimensional cargo chamber and arcane lock).

For more monstrous items, we have such choices as Demonglass Weapons (+1 enhancement, target is frightened when you crit them and you have advantage on saves for 1 turn), Demonglass Orb (wielder can take necrotic damage in exchange for imposing penalty on a target’s saving throw when targeted by wielder’s divination spell), Orlassk’s Reach (artifact symbiont that was a limb of Orlassk, grants a petrifying touch, ability to speak with stones, speak with any Aberration and cast Dominate Monster on them), Barghest Collar (lets an attuned worg transform into a Small goblin), Grist Cakes (consumable food that is akin to goodberry and pack of cakes regenerates each day as long as at least 1 cake is left), Lharvion Lens (command word lets you see ghostly images of other shapes a creature took within the last 24 hours as well as ongoing magical disguises and polymorph effects), Ogre Tines (designed for Large and bigger creatures, nails can bend and twist like the fingers of a Tiny size creature), and Oni Braid (worn like a belt, command word changes wearer’s size to Medium).

Overall, I like this chapter and have few complaints. I am particularly fond of how we have quite a bit of items that aren’t immediately useful in adventuring but reflect Eberron’s wide magic. The Lightning Runner for transportation is a good example, or the various Droaam items designed for quality of life conveniences for oddly-sized and less humanoid creatures.

 

[Weiley31]

Rod Expert ignoring disadvantage on ranged attacks vs adjacent targets, rods can be treated as club weapons, and can reroll the damage dice results of 1 or 2 for a cantrip. The last feat is a Fighting Style feat, Wandslinger, which grants +1 to attack rolls made with spells and +1 to the save DC of cantrips

I like these a lot. And ABOUT TIME we got an Spellcaster Fighting Style in some, shape/way/form.

 

[Libertad]

Chapter 6, Fearsome Foes is Frontiers’ bestiary, providing us with 23 stat blocks for various monsters, NPCs, and famous folks. It leans heavily on the Humanoid side of things, with 8 being of that type. The next-most common type are Beasts at 3, with the rest just 1 or 2. In regards to Challenge Rating, about half of them (13) fit within the boundaries of the first tier of play at 4 or lower, and the four entries that are CR 20 or higher represent unique named beings. The remaining 6 are mostly Tier 2, with 1 (Rhesh Turakbar) being CR 12 for Tier 3. In addition to stat blocks, specific NPCs and monsters have advice for how to use them in campaigns, along with motivations and common minion types.

We start things out with Breggan Blackcrown, who is a CR 8 warlock who specializes in offensive magic and debuffs. She has a saber as a pact weapon in addition to force blasts, letting her do well in both melee and ranged combat. She is not proficient in Perception and has an 11 Wisdom, so she’s actually pretty easy to sneak up on. Blackcrown Spellswords are CR ½ minions who are akin to bandits with cantrips, and have mistyped Wisdom and Charisma scores of 6 and 3 but with +0 modifiers and saving throws.

Orlassk is a CR 23 daelkyr, a high-AC bruiser type who can “summon” new minions by reshaping petrified creatures to fight for him, has a curse that restrains and then petrifies targets, and legendary actions such as a far-reaching punch and maddening assaults that deal psychic damage and debuffs.

Demonglass Warrior is not a specific creature, but a template that makes the implanted person more frightening in battle, such as proficiency in Intimidation and gains temporary hit points whenever they knock out or kill a target, but disadvantage on mental saves vs the effects of fiends reflecting the fiendish overlord’s mental influence.

Dolguul is a new daelkyr-created aberration, formed from bugbears merged with quadrupedal beasts. They basically look like stony centaurs, but with a bony cleaver for an arm and a toothy maw emerging from their torsos. As you can imagine, a dolguul is primarily a melee fighter, and its other arm is a reach weapon hook that can pull targets closer to it.

Gantii’kaas are fairies that live in mountain ranges and underground, and miners who grant them gifts may be blessed with rich veins. But if they feel disrespected, they are known to cause cave-ins and worse, perfect for their role as servants of the greedy archfey King Grayfinger. Statwise they are CR 5 fey with a blinding claw attack, can throw rocks, and can cause an eruption of damaging stone as an AoE.

We have two new types of Gargoyles. The first is a Demonglass Gargoyle, which has a frightful presence like that of a dragon and can see in magical darkness. Quickstone Gargoyles, on the other hand, are formed from quickstone by Orlassk, the daelkyr still has more influence over them in being closer to his lairs. They are shapechangers who can make themselves look like humanoids and can adapt either a Softened Form that lets them Dodge as a bonus action or a Hardened Form that makes their claw attacks deal more damage.

King Grayfinger is an archfey who embodies the storybook archetype of greedy kings of the underground, holding treasure troves of gems, crystals, and all kinds of treasure taken from around the world. In spite of being evil, the daelkyr’s influence in Khyber are encroaching on territory he views as rightfully his, making him an “enemy of my enemy” for those fighting Xoriat’s forces. Grayfinger is a CR 23 boss monster who can merge with stalagmites like a dryad does with trees, can summon a variety of unique magic weapons to fight with in combat, can steal weapons from the hands of attackers as a reaction, and summon emanations of stone and cast earth-related magic for battlefield control. Pretty cool tactics for an end-game foe.

The Merchant of Misthaven is a fey who represents a “deal with the devil” archetype, a mysterious figure who shows up to give someone a precious item or opportunity to set some major event in motion. The Merchant’s deal often has some kind of limit and price, playing upon the person’s greed and short-sightedness. She is a CR 20 creature who specializes in illusory spells, can summon a variety of trinkets that do random effects, and can succeed on a failed saving throw but also choose a new target to take its consequences instead.

Tol Kharash, the Horned King, is a fiendish overlord. At CR 28, he is the most powerful being in this book. Given his appearance as a giant demonic minotaur and representative of tyranny, his stats and tactics revolve around being a big melee bruiser whose overbearing presence can frighten and deal psychic damage. He has a cool thematic trait called “None Above Me” that causes creatures above his eye level to spend their movement to go beneath it on a failed Charisma save.

Rhesh Turakbar is the other “BBEG Raider” NPC in the Western Frontier. He’s tougher than Breggan Blackcrown at CR 12, and unlike her is more solidly a melee fighter, although he has a ranged attack that can deal damage, frighten, and curse enemies within 40 feet on a failed Constitution save.

Steel Horse is basically a construct horse designed by Brelish engineers to make tireless steeds for cavalry, but their expense made them too prohibitive to replace their living counterparts. There’s not much to say about them besides the fact they restore 1 hit point when Mending’s cast on them.

Stoneborn is a template representing creatures warped and manipulated by Orlassk, gaining natural armor, resistance to non-magical non-adamantine weapons, darkvision, and can look like a statue when motionless like a gargoyle can.

Stone Cultists, by contrast, are Humanoid NPCs who serve Orlassk and have unique stone-themed supernatural abilities, like gaining temporary hit points whenever they see a creature suffer the Petrified or Restrained Conditions.

Tribex have existed in Eberron lore as quadrupedal cattle, but haven’t had stat blocks until now. They are Beasts that come in three varieties: Plains Tribex are primarily beasts of burden or cattle with increased carrying capacity; Riding Tribex have the highest movement speed at 50 feet, can ignore difficult terrain when Dashing, and advantage on Constitution saves for forced marches; War Tribex have the most damaging attacks of the lot, plus a trample ability that can damage and knock a target prone.

Nonplayer Characters ends our chapter with four generic archetypes that are common on the Western Frontier. Without exception, they all fit within the first Tier of play. Sentinel Marshals are elite warriors of House Deneith, heavily armed and armored, have some Dragonmarked spells, can trade places with an adjacent target to take their attack, and advantage on saves vs various conditions that impose some kind of reduced movement or inaction such as Stunned or Prone. Tharashk Hunters specialize in tracking targets, and their main offensive ability involves setting up traps in squares that can impose damage and the Restrained condition. Wandslingers are basically martial wizards who have rapier and arcane blast as their primary attacks, and their spells focus on defense or utility. Westwind Riders are elite soldiers serving the Brelish government as border patrol on the Western Frontier. They are primarily cavalry, moderately armed and armored, and are good team players by having a reaction that adds +2 AC to allies and a constant trait granting nearby allies advantage on Wisdom and Charisma saves.

All in all, a good assortment of interesting characters and creators. There is a dearth of high-level threats, but that’s nothing new to 5e and isn’t particularly problematic in Eberron’s case.

The last chapter of this book focuses on Heart of Stone, a level 1 to 5 adventure. I don’t know whether or not I’ll cover it, as when reviewing adventures I prefer being more in-depth vs skimming over it. To say nothing about spoilers of people who may end up as players in it!