Keith Baker on Eberron's Theme

[Drowbane]

Mr Baker, what is your take on Warlocks and other oddball magic users (such as Incarnum, and Binders) in Eberron?

I've pretty much decided that warlocks are as much born as trained (kinda like Sorcs) and that Totemists work best among the Talenta Halflings... but I'm not sure what to do with Incarnates (if anything).

 

[D.Shaffer]

I've pretty much decided that warlocks are as much born as trained (kinda like Sorcs) and that Totemists work best among the Talenta Halflings... but I'm not sure what to do with Incarnates (if anything).

Considering there's a chain of feats dealing with totems (The non Incarnum type) that a certain group of people use, they seem like a good source for Totemists too. I dont have the book with me though, so I dont remember who they were.

 

[Hellcow]

Mr Baker, what is your take on Warlocks and other oddball magic users (such as Incarnum, and Binders) in Eberron?

Personally, I've never used Incarnum, so I'm not in a position to make any suggestions there.

I use warlocks in many different ways. Contrary to PGtE, I don't feel that there's a single path to it - though I think it makes sense to base your invocations on the explanation of your powers. An umbragen drow drawing on powers of shadow should manifest different abilities than a Greensinger touched by Thelanis.

To mention a few ways I've used warlocks:

• Characters who survived the Mourning, but came out... different. Are they drawing on the raw destructive power of the Mourning itself, or do they have a connection to the power behind it?
• I often use warlocks with the Cults of the Dragon Below, drawing on either the corrupting energies of Khyber or the horrific forces of Xoriat. In either case I do see this as more instinctive than trained.
• Likewise, warlocks can easily be tied to the Demon Wastes, which is what the PGtE suggests.
• Other places warlocks have been mentioned include the Children of Winter in the Eldeen Reaches and the Umbragen drow of Xen'drik.

As I said, I can see lots of other explanations for warlocks; the Thelanis-bound Greensinger is perfectly acceptable to me.

As for pact magic, I've primarily used it as one of the giant traditions of Xen'drik. Vestiges are beings who have found a way to step beyond life and death, without actually being gods. I've actually played with the titans of Xen'drik filling this role - the first and greatest of the giants, long gone but still lingering.

 

[WayneLigon]

However, without going into details (given that WotC does own the original proposal, I think my NDA still applies), there's no way that the cultures I originally described could fit in canon Eberron today.

I wish you could find out. I'd be fascinated in seeing how things changed from your original proposal to finished product. Even more fascinating would be a couple articles on the design process itself: how WOTC took your original work, developed it, what your input was, and all that.

 

[Vocenoctum]

Personally, I've never used Incarnum, so I'm not in a position to make any suggestions there.

How about Book of Nine Swords?
The hobgoblin/ Dhaakani stuff merges in perfectly, but not as sure of the Githyanki. It seems like it could sync well with Eberron.

 

[Hellcow]

how WOTC took your original work, developed it, what your input was, and all that.

It was a fairly close process. Between the 10-page and 100 page stages, they flew all the finalists out and told us (individually) "Here's things we like about your setting, here's things we don't like so much." Once they made the final choice, they flew me back out for a week of intense discussions with the R&D folks and people from other departments. During these conversations, we went through everything: the races, the cultures, religions, history, major NPCs (like the Lord of Blades), etc. We discussed what they liked and didn't like, and where there were things they didn't like, we tried to find middle ground. Bear in mind that THEY weren't of one mind; this wasn't "Me vs WotC", it was "Bill, James, Keith, Chris, and others all brainstorming and trying to settle on ideas we all love." At the end of the day Bill - as head of R&D - had the final say on things. But it was a very open and enjoyable creative process.

By the end of the week, I had a set of things to work on and revise, and we remained in constant email and phone contact. This then evolved into dividing up the ECS and working on the pieces that came my way. We certainly stayed in contact throughout the process, but I wasn't telling James "You MUST change the Ecclesiarch feat to work like this".

Anyhow, I found it to be a good experience. Sure, if I was doing it all by myself, some things might have been different. But it wasn't like I was cut out of the discussion at any point. It's not like I picked up the ECS and said "Hey! What happened to the underwater nations?" The decision to set those aside was a long term thing that evolved naturally in those first few months of development. I like them, but I see the reasons for the change.

 

[Hellcow]

How about Book of Nine Swords?
The hobgoblin/ Dhaakani stuff merges in perfectly, but not as sure of the Githyanki. It seems like it could sync well with Eberron.

I've actually written an Eberron Expanded article on Book of Nine Swords that will appear at some point. I presented a number of options based on the degree to which you want to integrate it into the world - extraordinarily rare? Commonplace? - with different connections to history and culture as a result. So I think it does work well in Eberron, and hopefully you'll see my more detailed thoughts in the near future.

 

[WayneLigon]

We discussed what they liked and didn't like, and where there were things they didn't like, we tried to find middle ground. Bear in mind that THEY weren't of one mind; this wasn't "Me vs WotC", it was "Bill, James, Keith, Chris, and others all brainstorming and trying to settle on ideas we all love." At the end of the day Bill - as head of R&D - had the final say on things. But it was a very open and enjoyable creative process.

That's very interesting; thank you That's pretty much how I pictured things going.

 

[IanB]

Since this seems to be turning into "let's bug Keith with our pet questions about Eberron!" I've got one myself.

Concerning the Mourning: I'm not going to ask you 'what caused it' because I think it is probably better for the setting that it remain ambiguous, allowing DMs to do whatever they want with it. What I'm actually curious about is, is there a canon 'cause' of the Mourning that exists in design documents, or was it deliberately designed to be ambiguous and even you/WotC don't have a specific cause in mind?

 

[Hellcow]

What I'm actually curious about is, is there a canon 'cause' of the Mourning that exists in design documents, or was it deliberately designed to be ambiguous and even you/WotC don't have a specific cause in mind?

I actually just answered this question in some detail for an interview (I'm not at liberty to say what for just yet), so I'm going to leave it for that. Of course, I'm fairly certain I've answered this question before, so someone else may know my answer.