MAGIC OF EBERRON
By Bruce R. Cordell, Stephen Schubert, and Chris Thomasson
Wizards of the Coast product number 882917200
160 pages, $29.95
Magic of Eberron is definitely a toolbox-approach book, detailing all kinds of little nifty things of a magical nature that you can drop into your Eberron campaign (or just about any fantasy campaign, should you so desire). It's more heavily focused towards arcane magic, with a little bit of artificer stuff and some psionics, but not a whole lot of divine magic. The book weighs in at 160 pages, but the last two pages are ads. There is no index, but the Table of Contents is pretty thorough, even to the point of listing the page numbers where you'll find individual spells.
The cover art, as is the Eberron norm, is little bits and pieces of a larger work broken up and rearranged in a circle and a strip that wraps around to the back cover. Again, the complete work is reproduced on pages 2-3. This one is another Wayne Reynolds piece, featuring a band of four adventurers fighting off illithids and their daelkyr masters. We have a male human warrior of some flavor, wearing heavy armor and dual-wielding a pair of swords whose glowing lavender hue suggests they're
galvanic crysteel blades, a psionic weapon described on page 125. There's a warforged with a crystal staff who's either a psiforged (a new race described on page 39) or at least probably a psionic character. The white-haired guy (human? dwarf? gnome?) in the front wields a
blasting chime, a sonic magic weapon found on page 112. Wayne does a great job in showing off some of the "goodies" found within
Magic of Eberron; it's easy to see that this painting was specifically commissioned for this book. The only character not showing off some feature of the book is the female human rogue in the back, who isn't contributing a whole lot to the fight either, as she just seems to be standing there in a heroic pose. The enemies are suitably alien and grotesque, and Wayne has some really nice cave paintings and glyphs in the background to make it a bit more interesting than "generic underground cavern section #42." All in all, a nice job.
The interior artwork consists of 58 full-color illustrations and 11 full-color maps by 9 different artists and cartographer Lee Moyer. As always, there's a bit of a spread along the quality spectrum, as there are some really nice illustrations (like Anne Stokes' very well detailed Eberron dragonshard geodes on page 15; Francis Tsai's female Xen'drik giant sacrificing an elf on page 29; the tabletop of artificer items on page 110, artist unattributed; the life-sized face with perception seed graft on page 136, artist also unattributed; and the seven different symbionts on page 155 by "FS," whose initials unfortunately don't match up with any artist listed on the credits page, although I'll bet it's supposed to be "FT" and thus Francis Tsai), and some not-so-great ones (the fighter on page 99 - I can't make out the scribbled signature of the artist - has legs and feet completely out of proportion with the rest of the fighter's body, and with each other, for that matter; the quori mindhunter on page 79 - by an artist who signs his/her work with a glyph I can't decipher - not only has a pretty ugly red/green/tan color scheme going with his clothes, but also wears a pair of the silliest-looking boots I've ever seen). Then there are the just plain odd ones, like Tomas Giorello's female alchemist savant on page 54, whose attire seems predominantly designed to allow others easy access to her breasts. All in all, the artwork as a whole is pretty good, but once again my least favorite pieces are the full-page comic-book-styled pieces at the start of each chapter; I really think those need some work, as the concept is kind of cool but I've yet to see a really strong entry. The maps, however, are all top-notch: easy to read, and the full color is a nice bonus.
Magic of Eberron is broken down into the following chapters:
- Introduction: A page describing what is meant by the phrase "magic in Eberron," and the other books you'll need to make use of this one
- Chapter 1 - Magic in Eberron: Sections on Artifice, Elemental Binding, Dragonshards, The Draconic Prophecy, Daelkyr Magic, Dragon Totem Rituals, Psionics, Magic of Aerenal, Magic of Karrnath, and Eberron Organizations
- Chapter 2 - Character Options: 2 new character races (the Daelkyr Half-Blood and the Psiforged), a new character class (The Psionic Artificer), 8 Dragon Totem Rituals, and 30 new feats
- Chapter 3 - Prestige Classes: The Alchemist Savant, Deadgrim, Dragon Prophet, Elemental Scion of Zilargo, Impure Prince, Quori Mindhunter, Renegade Mastermaker, and Vigilant Sentinel of Aerenal
- Chapter 4 - Spells and Powers: 45 new spells and infusions and 10 new psionic powers
- Chapter 5 - Magic Items and Equipment: 7 new artificer items, 34 dragonshard items, 6 minor schemas, 4 daelkyr items, 5 psionic items, 25 grafts (5 deathless, 13 elemental, and 7 plant grafts), 3 new weapons, 3 new types of armor, 2 new types of fabric for clothing, 5 bloodspikes (injectable potions), 2 documents, and 2 new special materials
- Chapter 6 - Creatures: 17 new monsters
Since magic plays a much bigger part, in the day-to-day world, in Eberron than it does in many other campaigns,
Magic of Eberron was a natural. I was a bit surprised to see that divine magic got the short straw in this book, but since there's no doubt going to be a
Faith and Pantheons-type book in the future, I can see why Wizards of the Coast might have wanted to steer the divine stuff into that later book. In the meantime, even though there's a largely arcane focus to
Magic of Eberron, there's quite a wide variety of things thrown into the toolbox.
Chapter 1 is very "toolboxy" (if I can coin the word), perhaps the most so in the whole book, with little bits and pieces about the various subjects at hand. There are a lot of different types of magic in Eberron, and here we get a bunch of little tidbits on many of the different types. Then, much of this "teaser" information is expanded upon in later chapters. I have to say at first I was a bit surprised that the new psiforged race was just a regular warforged with a Psiforged Body feat that he took at 1st level, but on further reflection that's a pretty good way to go about it; in my mind, it's little different than a warforged taking the Adamantine Body or Mithral Body feats (from the
Eberron Campaign Setting) to differentiate himself from the norm. I particularly liked the elemental binding stuff, but then the concept of bound elementals powering magic items is one of my favorite aspects of Eberron.
The prestige classes all pretty much make some kind of sense, but I really feel that too many of them are just variants on the same concept. The deadgrim uses the powers of the undead to fight undead, becoming more like an undead in the process. The Impure Prince (and I'm surprised the company that decided all monsters that ended in "-man" in earlier editions of the game had to now end in "-folk" was non-PC enough to use a "sexist" term like "prince") uses the powers of aberrations to fight aberrations, becoming more like an aberration in the process. The Quori Mindhunter uses powers of the quori to fight quori, becoming more like a quori in the process. See what I mean? Then there's the Dragon Prophet, who reveres dragons and becomes more dragonlike; the Elemental Scion of Zilargo, who reveres elementals and becomes more elemental-like; and the Renegade Mastermaker, who reveres constructs and becomes more constructlike. I was kind of surprised that there wasn't a prestige class making you more like a fey (either because you revere fey or want to kill them all) or a giant (either because you revere giants or want to kill them all), since all of the other creature types pretty much seem covered. (And there's already the good old Oozemaster from several years back to cover the ooze niche.) Don't get me wrong, though; some of the prestige classes are pretty cool. I particularly like the Elemental Scion of Zilargo (again, no doubt due to my love of the concept of elemental binding, and because the elemental grafts that go along with this prestige class seem to me to be so much cooler than the seemingly "random" grafts and symbionts from
Fiend Folio; there seems to be much more of an in-game reason for these grafts to exist), and the Renegade Mastermaker is pretty nice, too, just the thing if you want to play a D&D cyborg. Still, it would have been nicer to see a bit of a broader range in the concepts behind the prestige classes.
The new spells and magic items add a lot of new toys to the game. I especially like the two elemental vehicles (there I go again with the bound elemental love!), the earth sled (a sort of aboveground barge) and the tumbler (an 8-passenger geode that travels
through the ground!). I also absolutely
love the
shirt of the leech, a worn magic item that allows you to divert magical healing spells cast in the vicinity over to you. What a great concept! (The fact that the shirt is skin-tight also makes me somewhat surprised that one of the artists didn't opt to depict a female PC wearing one....) Some of the spells seem a bit off, though.
Leech undeath seems particularly troubling, since it allows you to siphon off some of the negative energy powering an undead creature and transform it into healing energy for yourself. Since healing energy = positive energy, I'm not quite sure just how this is supposed to be accomplished; it seems somewhat like smearing mud on your shirt to get it cleaner.
Watchful ancestors is a cool little spell, providing you benefits in battle as you're surrounded by "manifestations of the spirits of your long-dead ancestors," but it beggars the question: could a warforged spellcaster even cast it? (It's my understanding that warforged
have no ancestors.) For the most part, though, I liked the new spells;
shared healing (allowing the targeted creature to heal his own damage up to 1 minute/level later, like a paladin using
lay on hands),
clothier's closet (conjure a variety of permanent outfits whose total price does not exceed 100 gp, very useful when you suddenly have to infiltrate a costume party or go through a portal to the arctic) , and
leap into animal (you enter a willing animal's body and can control it as your own, very useful as an escape route if you're running out of hit points and have a familiar with flight capability) are some of my favorites.
The new monsters are okay. Surprisingly, I enjoyed the symbionts the most, although the quori have a suitably otherworldly look to them. The urdark and vour just struck me as rather silly, though, and while the concepts of the three new homunculi were pretty sound, they were hampered by some pretty poor artwork. (The arbalester in particular looks nothing like its description.) And then, of course, there are the stat blocks themselves;
Magic of Eberron did little to reverse the trend of poor quality stats that Wizards of the Coast has experienced lately (and by "lately," I pretty much mean the last couple of years). Here's my "unofficial errata" section, based on my one-time read through the book and my own abilities as a stat block checker; I hope that if I've made any mistakes of my own that someone will point them out to me. (Likewise, if I've missed any errors, please feel free to point them out as well. I will confess that I didn't break down all of the skill points this time around.) In any case, I recommend making the following changes:
- p. 35, Roywin Garrick, female gnome wizard 5/elemental savant (cold) 3: AC should be 19, not 18 (+1 size, +2 Dex, +2 +1 mithral buckler, +4 mage armor). Touch AC should be 13, not 16. Flat-footed AC should be 17, not 16. I'm not sure why she's immune to sleep; she's a gnome, not an elf. Grapple attacks should be at -2, not +2 (+3 BAB, -4 size, -1 Str). She should only have four 0-level spells, not 5.
- p. 39, Daelkyr half-blood wizard 3: AC should be 20, not 22 (+2 Dex, +4 mage armor, +4 shield). Flat-footed AC should be 18, not 20. HD should be 3, not 5. Should have Scribe Scroll as a bonus feat (which he would have picked up as a 1st-level wizard). Skills and feats should be alphabetized. And while 22 hp is possible, it's the creature's absolute maximum; I suspect this was copied and pasted from the Psiforged psion (telepath) 5 stats on page 41, who legitimately has 5 HD and 22 hp.
- p. 63, Akaana Lightwind, female halfling rogue 2/paladin 4/deadgrim 3: "Aura" entry should include "good" as well as "courage." Fort should be +14, not +13 (+0 as a Rog2, +4 as a Pla4, +1 as a Ddg3, +2 Con, +4 Cha, +1 halfling bonus, +2 Great Fortitude). Ref should be +11, not +10 (+3 as a Rog2, +1 as a Pal4, +1 as a Ddg3, +1 Dex, +4 Cha, +1 halfling). Will should be +10, not +9 (+0 as a Rog2, +1 as a Pal4, +3 as a Ddg3, +1 Wis, +4 Cha, +1 halfling).
- p. 68, Yesrin Liang, male human sorcerer 6/dragon prophet 3: Fort should be +7, not +5 (+2 as a Sor6, +1 as a DPr3, +2 Con, +2 Great Fortitude). Dagger attacks should be at +3 melee, not +4 (+4 melee, -1 Str).
- p. 73, Shae-ahm Rhen Shyshadow, female gnome rogue 7/elemental scion 3: Base Attack Bonus should be +7, not +8 (+5 as a Rog7, +2 as an ESc3). Grapple attacks should be at +5, not +6 (+7 BAB, -4 size, +2 Str). Will should be +6, not +4 (+2 as a Rog7, +1 as an ESc3, +1 Wis, +2 Iron Will).
- pp. 76-77, Aldred Enduru, male halfling ranger 4/rogue 1/impure prince 3: He has 7 feats (3 of them bonus feats from his ranger levels), but at 8 HD he should only have 3 feats and the 3 bonus ranger feats, for a total of 6.
- p. 89, Jabreki Osluuhn, male elf rogue 5/vigilant sentinel of Aerenal 2: Flat-footed AC should be 20, not 16 (due to uncanny dodge).
- p. 146, Inspired Inquisitor, dream master quori spirit/10th-level Inspired psion (telepath) vessel: Masterwork Riedran crysteel dagger damage should be 1d4/19-20, not 1d4-1/19-20 (-1 Str, +1 Riedran crysteel bonus).
- p. 147, Tsoreva Quori: Since the description states that a tsoreva quori has 7 ranks in each of the 10 skills listed, Listen should be +10, not +9 (7 ranks, +3 Wis). Also, Intimidate should be +12, not +10 (7 ranks, +3 Cha, +2 synergy bonus from Bluff), and you should add "Diplomacy +5" to the skill list (0 ranks, +3 Cha, +2 synergy from Bluff).
- p. 148, Dream Master Quori: HD should be 12d8+60, not 12d8+58 (+4 Con bonus means +48 hp, Psionic Body feat and 6 psionic feats means +12 hp; 48 + 12 = 60). Average hit points should be 114, not 112. With 12 HD, should have 5 feats, not 6; one should be annotated as a bonus feat. Will save DC for daze effect from claws (if Charisma-based as stated) should be DC 20, not DC 22 (10 + 1/2 HD + Cha bonus = 10 + 6 + 4). (Incidentally, DC 22 would be correct if the save were Intelligence-based, but that doesn't follow the normal pattern.)
- p. 150, Vour: With 10 HD, it should have 4 feats (plus the 2 bonus feats), not 5 feats (plus one bonus feat). Yeah, I know, I'm dinging them for not annotating one of the feats as a bonus feat, but still....
- p. 152, Packmate: Slam damage should be 1d3+4, not 1d3+3 (1.5 times the +3 Str bonus for being the creature's sole attack). The illustration on page 153 should have pincerlike claws, not fingers and a thumb. It has 2 HD, yet Advancement is 4-6 HD; should be 3-6 HD.
- p. 156, Shadow Sibling: Will should be +3, not +2 (+2 as a 1-HD aberration, +1 Wis). Spent 13 of 4 skill points (or possibly 9 of 4, depending on if the +4 to Hide checks it provides its host also applies to itself). The description says it can be birthed with a daelkyr half-blood, but the daelkyr half-blood info on page 37 doesn't list a shadow sibling as an option.
- pp. 155-156, Crawling Gauntlet: How exactly can a Tiny creature affix itself over the hand of a Colossal creature, as listed on the chart on page 156, when the crawling gauntlet has no size advancement? It seems like there should be a size advancement in the stat block, or some sort of "expandable" special quality at play.
- p. 156, Spellwurm: Touch AC should be 14, not 16 (+2 size, +2 Dex). Flat-footed AC should be 17, not 13 (+2 size, +4 mage armor, +1 natural).
- p. 157, Stormstalk: Grapple attacks should be at -10, not -4 (+0 BAB, -8 size, -2 Str). Will should be +1, not +0 (+2 as a 1-HD aberration, -1 Wis). Stat block says eye ray damage is 3d6 electricity, but Eye Ray write-up says it's 2d6 electricity. (I'm inclined to believe it's the latter, since the winter cyst is basically a "cold" version of the electrical stormstalk, and it does 2d6 points of cold damage with its eye ray.)
- pp. 157-158, Throwing Scarab: Will should be +3, not +2 (+2 as a 1-HD aberration, +1 Wis).
For those interested in the error-rate percentage, I count 33 separate stat blocks in
Magic of Eberron, of which I found errors in 16, for an overall error rate of 48% (or 45% if you drop the Vour error, which after all is just a missing superscript "B" after one of the feats). In any case, not too good. It looks like developers Andy Collins, Michael Donais, and Jesse Decker still have some room for improvement.
The overall proofreading and editing jobs were pretty good, though. Not perfect, however: I found several errors along the line of missing letters ("amage" instead of "damage"), improper punctuation ("class's" should be "class'"), wrong word usage ("studded armor" should be "impact armor"), a couple instances of magic weapon names not being italicized, and weirdest of all (if only because I haven't encountered this particular one before in a Wizards of the Coast book), "[ts]" used in place of a multiplication sign ("times sign," I presume), not once but twice. There's also this interesting phrase: "...with a caster level equal to your character level, whichever is higher." Sounds like there are some missing words in that sentence. No proofreader is listed, so I guess I'll have to lay these at the feet of editing manager Kim Mohan and editors Scott Fitzgerald Gray and Chris Thomasson (odd that Chris is also one of the authors; I hope he didn't edit his own material, as that's seldom a good idea). I also caught a couple of formatting problems, like a tabbing error on the chart on page 137 that resulted in headers of "Increment" and "Range Weight" instead of "Range Increment" and "Weight." Pages 89 and 107, each the last page of a chapter, have significant white space for a Wizards of the Coast book, which is something I've started noticing in recent books. In the past, they've done a better job of filling the pages with artwork or sidebars to minimize white space.
Magic of Eberron does a pretty good job of coming up with interesting bits and pieces of various types of magic suitable for an Eberron campaign, and some of the material in here could easily be dropped into a non-Eberron campaign. (Of course, some of the material will be a bit harder to incorporate, if your campaign world doesn't already contain warforged or bound-elemental-powered vehicles.) The poor job on the stat blocks and the "cookie cutter" feeling of many of the prestige classes were particularly annoying, however; enough that I'd put
Magic of Eberron somewhere in the range of a high 3 or low 4. While I'm tempted to go with the 3 because almost
half of the stats are messed up, overall the book doesn't have that many stats for a 160-page book, so I'll have to weight the stat block errors a bit less heavy and go with the low "4 (Good)."
