Keith Baker (creator of Eberron) Q & A thread

[Hellcow]

What other PrC from other sources would you say best fit the concept and world of Eberron? Let's start with official WotC splatbooks for now, then branch off into other companies books.

In all honesty, I couldn't tell you. I've got a wide variety of books sitting on my shelf waiting to be read (Unearthed Arcana, Complete Warrior, etc, etc) and I just haven't had time to get to them. Originally I was too busy with work; now I'm too busy with work and answering questions. I'd open this up to general discussion as a separate thread, if I were you.

I know you guys didn't really plan on putting any of the races in the XPH into Eberron (since you didn't know what the races were going to actually be while you were writing Eberron), but if you had your way, how would you put the Elan, Xeph, Dromites, Maenads, and Half-Giants into the world?

There's been a lot of threads discussing this on the WotC boards; I've contributed some thoughts, and other people have thrown in their ideas. Because of my limited time, I have to say "check it out there." In general I think the Elan are the easiest ot add, whether as an experiement of the Quori or an attempt by humans to emulate the kalashtar/Inspired with unforeseen results. Half-Giants work well in Xen'drik, especially given the climactic war between the giants and the Quori; the psionic gifts of the half-giant may indicate a tie to Dal Quor. For the other three, I don't have strong opinions.

 

[beta-ray]

Oh, I just thought of an answer. Just like Babbage, yes that Babbage, designed the cow catcher on the front of the 19th century locomotive, their could be a "rod catcher" on the front of the lightning trainy things.

Would it work on Hellcows?

 

[Hellcow]

At the beginning of the races section there are examples of humans and their regional dress. Can you please identify country of origin for those drawings?

Well, I don't know the artist, and I didn't comissission the picture, so I can't say with 100% certainty. But my guess would be, left to right, Aundair, Thrane, Cyre, Karrnath, Breland. The cultures of the five nations will be explored in more detail in the future.

 

[BrooklynKnight]

Keith, quick question.

In the timeline in the book it mentions the creation of 2 (or is it 3) new dragonmarks after the war of the mark and the establishment of "the twelve". The war of the mark also happens after the 13th mark was "thought" to be destroyed.

Wouldnt it have been "the ten" of marks appeared after the establishment?

I'm a tad confused, maybe you can clear it up.

 

[BrooklynKnight]

0o0o my previous question was answered. Nice.

 

[Macbeth]

The simple answer really is that the train builders would have thought of that and had an answer to it. Perhaps an antimagic field up front, perhaps a Rod Repulsing effect from the stones.

I'm sure the rods would have been used already if they could be used. The designers (of the settings) can't think of everything, but the godlike intelligence of your average high level wizard surely would have. If not, the first time it happened they'd have prepared for the future use.

They did just have a major war after all.

I'm not trying to throw doubt on the whole thing, I'm trying to suggest a plot. Maybe the PCs are ona train that gets derailed by a rod, maybe the PCs are bandits who use a rod to rob tarins. I didn't mean to suggest this was a logic hole, I'm sure somebody would think of a way around it, but the first time it happe3ns, it could make a good adventure.

 

[Vocenoctum]

I'm not trying to throw doubt on the whole thing, I'm trying to suggest a plot. Maybe the PCs are ona train that gets derailed by a rod, maybe the PCs are bandits who use a rod to rob tarins. I didn't mean to suggest this was a logic hole, I'm sure somebody would think of a way around it, but the first time it happe3ns, it could make a good adventure.

Yeah, I'm just saying it seems unlikely that the trains wouldn't have been disrupted already if it was possible to disrupt them in a simple manner. I would think if someone could destroy the whole train by letting it fly into a Sphere of Annihilation, it'd have happened during the war, for instance.

The plotline can work, but IMO it should be something abnormal, not something as simple as a minor item from the DMG

 

[Macbeth]

Yeah, I'm just saying it seems unlikely that the trains wouldn't have been disrupted already if it was possible to disrupt them in a simple manner. I would think if someone could destroy the whole train by letting it fly into a Sphere of Annihilation, it'd have happened during the war, for instance.

The plotline can work, but IMO it should be something abnormal, not something as simple as a minor item from the DMG

Good point. I just wanted it to be fairly common so that it wasn't nessecarily a single threat. Maybe a good way to not make it too common, but to make it still easily possible would be to have serious political/legal repercussions for disrailing a train. That way it could still be a reasonably possible occurance, anybody with a rod could do it, but not many would want to, since they would have the authorities down on them like a ton of bricks.

 

[Hellcow]

Looking to the lightning rail, you might have a magewright "riding dispel" on the forward coach, ready to use dispel magic to counter some of the magical threats.

Though with that said, many of the rails were disrupted at various points during the war. The system used to be more extensive than it is today, and House Orien is certainly working to rebuild it.

 

[Shadowdancer]

Keith, what level point buy do you recommend for Eberron characters?