Magic of Eberron - any good?

[Nightfall]

Olgar,

I think a lot of us were spoiled by Shackled City.

But I agree with Olgar, compared to a similiar themed book *coughMagicofFaeruncough*, I felt Eberron lacked some ooumph. It wasn't bad but honestly I was hoping for more details, like how various churches deal with divine magic, histories of various magical ideals, etc. Overall you'll see a lot of use if you're an arcane spell user, but divine spellcasters got a serious shafting. Psionics, arcane magic and dragon stuff prevail but I still felt there should have been more.

 

[MrFilthyIke]

I like it, I like fluff, and it's the first crunch heavy Eberron book to date.

 

[MadMaxim]

I think it's a great book, but then again I'm completely hooked on Eberron, so my opinion is probably biased. It has about equal amounts of crunch and fluff, perhaps it has a little more of the former. I don't know how easily the different magic items will be to convert to GURPS, but it certainly has its fair share. Different kinds of grafts are also represented (deathless and elemental grafts). I think there's something in it for everyone.

Oh, and green slime, they don't tell you how you SHOULD play a character with the prestige class how you COULD play one. Everything is optional, after all... Otherwise you should perhaps start buying some more appropriate "inspirational" material for your campaign if you feel you're paying for something you don't want. You don't HAVE to buy books from Wizards of the Coast...

 

[Nightfall]

Ya! You could always say buy Scarred Lands instead!

 

[Dark Psion]

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).

I like the idea of sample characters, but they waste too much space by repeating the class abilities of the prestige class (it's only been 1 or 3 pages since I read them) or as in the Races of books, repeating the same racial abilities over and over but then don't bother to tell me "who" this NPC is.

Sometimes I look at the picture of the NPC and I want to know who is this person, maybe this is a NPC I want to use, but if I have to fill in all the blanks, I might as well just create from scratch.

 

[Volaran]

I enjoyed the fluff in Magic of Eberron as much or more than the crunch. There are a fe inconsistencies. For instance, I believe Keith Baker's information on Aeren makes more sense given the history from the campaign setting, but for the most part, it is a really great book.

As an example, almost all the information in elemental binding is backround, flavour, ect. without changing the base mechanic, so you need not worry about it for a different system.

Even the prestige class info contains a fair bit on who they are, organizations they belong to, ect. Even if you don't use the prestige class mechanic, there is a lot to base similar character paths on.

If you enjoyed Explorer's Handbook, I would recommend Magic of Eberron.


...now I crave waffles for some reason.

 

[MavrickWeirdo]

To me it seemed like a "Magic Item's" book

New homunculli; and ways of improving your "old" ones.

New Symbiots; Which tend to work like cursed/sentient magic items.

Grafts; Which are not sentient, but it is like having a magic item permantly attached. There are 3 types, Animal, Plant, and Elemental.

Plus I'm sure there are some traditional non-living wonderous items.

I didn't notice any "Legacy Weapons", but so far I have only browsed it in the store

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

Ya! You could always say buy Scarred Lands instead!

I already have a giant stack of Scarred Lands books I haven't read yet - I went on a binge when the books became cheap. But since I am not running a Scarred Lands campaign - nor am I likely to do so in the foreseeable future - reading them will be a low priority.

 

[green slime]

Oh, and green slime, they don't tell you how you SHOULD play a character with the prestige class how you COULD play one. Everything is optional, after all... Otherwise you should perhaps start buying some more appropriate "inspirational" material for your campaign if you feel you're paying for something you don't want. You don't HAVE to buy books from Wizards of the Coast...

Here we go, stating the obvious again. Obviously everything is optional. Are you seriously telling me that the paragraph I quoted above, from another WotC book, actually provides you with information you feel you need or want?

Why bother telling people how they could be played? I thought RPG-ing was for creating individual characters, with their own personalities.

The sections "Playing PrC X", "PrC X in the World", or "PrC X in the Game", do not offer any insights, that couldn't be gained by reading the basic description of the granted abilities, the requirements, and adding 2 and 2.

Entry Requirements[/]
Alignment: Any chaotic

........

Playing PrC X
...
Some PrC X, if not exactly good, are not deliberately evil.

Which tells me exactly diddly squat, and is, of course, completely optional. Great.

I have nothing against much types of fluff, but filler fluff of the type I have described, really, really irritates me. But then again, I dislike how many Hollywood movies must restate the obvious as well.

 

[Nightfall]

Jurgen,

Hey man you could always let me do the errata for ya.