Magic of Eberron - any good?

[Jürgen Hubert]

I am considering whether or not to buy Magic of Eberron.

My problem is that I don't actually use D&D for my Eberron campaign, but GURPS. So if the book is almost entirely full of "crunchy bits" - rules, prestige classes, and so on - then I am not going to get much use from it. On the other hands, if it has lots of "flabor bits" - magical organizations, magical theory, and unique and colorful artifacts that could be converted to another system with little effort - then the book would be interesting to me.

So, what's your take on this book, and might I find it useful?

 

[diaglo]

haven't even read it yet and it separated from the binding.

not a good start.

 

[UltimaGabe]

Personally, I think it's an amazing book. It's got a ton of flavor bits- if I remember correctly, around 2/3 of it is pure flavor, and even all of the crunchy bits are still loaded with flavor. (They introduce several new prestige classes, for example, but each prestige class has two or three pages of how to use it in your campaign, how to play such a character, what characters might know about them, and so on.) There's several magic items in it as well, but again, even those have all sorts of descriptions about them. Unless you aren't able to, I'd suggest at least glancing through it once or twice before buying it, but all in all I say it's a great book.

 

[green slime]

Personally, I think it's an amazing book. It's got a ton of flavor bits- if I remember correctly, around 2/3 of it is pure flavor, and even all of the crunchy bits are still loaded with flavor. (They introduce several new prestige classes, for example, but each prestige class has two or three pages of how to use it in your campaign, how to play such a character, what characters might know about them, and so on.) There's several magic items in it as well, but again, even those have all sorts of descriptions about them. Unless you aren't able to, I'd suggest at least glancing through it once or twice before buying it, but all in all I say it's a great book.

What??

I don't want a book that waffles on about how to play a character with PrC X. I want bare bones info on the PrC, thats it. Waffle is the stuff I'm supposed to provide. 2-3 pages per PrC is far, far too much, IMO.

On the other hand, more info about organisations, is hardly waffle. It is only waffle when it states the blatantly obvious, which they all too often do.

 

[Sammael]

2-3 pages for PrCs, including lots of fluff, is the new standard. Just about all books published in 2005 use that format.

I believe it is probably a response to the common complaint about "crunch bloat" that was previously common in WotC books. Perhaps they've gone too far, but I nevertheless prefer 4-5 PrCs per book instead of 15-20.

 

[Kesh]

What??

I don't want a book that waffles on about how to play a character with PrC X. I want bare bones info on the PrC, thats it. Waffle is the stuff I'm supposed to provide. 2-3 pages per PrC is far, far too much, IMO.

On the other hand, more info about organisations, is hardly waffle. It is only waffle when it states the blatantly obvious, which they all too often do.

What you consider "waffle," others consider "setting." If this were a generic D&D book, I might agree with you that less is more. However, this is an Eberron book. PrCs for a specific setting should have a history, philosophy and purpose that suits the setting.

 

[johnnype]

What you consider "waffle," others consider "setting." If this were a generic D&D book, I might agree with you that less is more. However, this is an Eberron book. PrCs for a specific setting should have a history, philosophy and purpose that suits the setting.

I must agree with Kesh on this. Not everyone cares only for crunch. It's the fluff that makes Eberron what it is, not an endless list of feats and PrC's.

 

[green slime]

I must agree with Kesh on this. Not everyone cares only for crunch. It's the fluff that makes Eberron what it is, not an endless list of feats and PrC's.

Fantastic. So its an either/or relationship, is it?

And here was me thinking that it was possible to maintain some form of reasonable balance.

Paragraphs like this, from other works by WotC:

"Fighters and barbarians sometimes gain a few levels of bard in qualifying for this prestige class. Paladins and monks cannot join because of the alignment requirement, but members of both classes respect the leadership and military qualities of the X class."

Are, IMO, a complete waste of space. What are they trying to tell me? That my Paladin has to show respect a member of the class? Doesn't the writer think I am capable of reading the "Requirements" section, and making my own analysis? Apparently I should be hand-held.

This is fluff, and has nothing whatsoever to do with any form of flavour, nor crunch. It is merely space filler, and extremely annoying, when such filler-fluff appears again and again, considering the fact, I pay to find Inspirational material for my game, not garbage anyone with two braincells and the ability to read English could work out forthemselves.

I also dislike the fact that they now present a "Sample character" with each and every PrC, wasting more space, introducing the possibility of more errors (with characters that couldn't meet the prerequisites, with abilities not as they are listed in the PrC, and other stupid madness).

Describing a society or organisation, individuals therein, their histories, may not be crunch, but at least it could be useful or inspirational.

 

[Castigator]

What??

I don't want a book that waffles on about how to play a character with PrC X. I want bare bones info on the PrC, thats it. Waffle is the stuff I'm supposed to provide. 2-3 pages per PrC is far, far too much, IMO.

On the other hand, more info about organisations, is hardly waffle. It is only waffle when it states the blatantly obvious, which they all too often do.

hmm, funny.

I've always thought that drawing 10 lines and filling it with numbers and some "entry requirements" is by far the fastest and easiest part of a PrC, that I'd gladly leave to individual DMs or evenplayers.

All the "how to integrate", "how to play" and "how to use in your campaign" has been the time-consuming part when I made upa PrC of my own.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

'S OK. It has a reasonable balance of fluff & crunch, and seems very appropriate overall to the setting -- but I have to admit that overall, of the Wizards releases recently, I found Heroes of Horror much more rewarding than Magic of Eberron.

'Tis a bit thin for the price, though, as most WOTC releases seem to have been lately, though I think I was spoiled by Shackled City.