D&D 5E New Eberron Book Details From WotC

WotC’s Jeremy Crawford appeared on Twitch last night with Bart Carroll, discussing the upcoming D&D setting book Eberron: Rising from the Last War. Lots of details within!

- Overview of Eberron, emphasized potentials for adventure and post-WWI pulp style of setting.

- Dragonmarked Houses as fantasy Corporations, playable Dragonmarked characters as race rules in the book

- Rules and stories for playing, Warforged, Changlings, Kalsthar, Shifters, Goblins, Hobgoblins, Bugbears, Orcs. Playable Orc is different fro mthe Volo's Guide rules to reflect the different story (no intelligence malus, few other tweaks, still usable for other worlds, these are PC Orcs as opposed to Monster Manual Orcs like Volo's).

- Full rules for the Artificer, including a new feature in this book for making Common and Uncommon magic items

- Aberrant Dragonmark Feats are in the book

- Group patron rules for organizations the late 19th-early 20th century style: newspapers, criminal syndicates, universities, spy rings: fourth choice after Race-Class-Background that the party makes together, has new fluff background features to give characters and adventure hooks

- Possibility of the party becoming their own patron, example being creating your own Crime Syndicate

- All of the above is Chapter 1 material

- Chapter 2 is a Gazeeter of Korvaire and the world: delves into great nations, the religions, touches on otehr continents

- Chapter 3 is a zoom in on Sharn, a microcosm of the setting, great place for Noir intrigue

- Chapter 4 is a 100 page adventure creation toolkit comparable to Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica: wealth of adventure building tables, maps, organization information, first level adventure set in Sharn. Reveals brand new information about the Mournland, for instance, during the war they created not just regular Warforged and Warforged Titans but also Warforged Colossi the size of skyscrapers: one of the maps is of a fallen Warfored Colossi as a dungeon @doctorbadwolf

- Section in "massive" chapter for creating adventures about Eberron's cosmology, and how it relates to Great Wheel multiverse, left to DM to decide how sealed off Eberron is by the Progenitor Dragons

- There are extended magical item economy rules in chapter 5, Common magical items are plentiful: buying, selling, crafting rules and price lists.

- Eberron specific monsters and NPCs in the sixth and final chapter, covering things like Daelkyr, Living Spells (3 different Living Spells in the book including Living Cloud Kill, and a template for making more) and various specific NPCs

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[Parmandur]

The 3e cosmology stuff did assume that the Shadow Plane could link Material Worlds. Pretty sure it was talked about in Manual of the Planes.

That was put out there as one option, but WotC never really pursued any connection, as Crawford narrates in the above video.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Hey, good for you, pal. Just putting out there what's in the book being discussed.

Okay, but it wasn’t actually relevant to what you were replying to.
It didn’t address my point that you’re extrapolating when what he actually said can just as easily mean that the ring serves the same purpose and the magic that keeps outside influence out has weakened very recently (either he or Keith said within the last few years), then acting like he explicitly said that the crystal sphere broke and it’s shards make up the ring (a thing he didn’t say).

It also had nothing to do with my more general point, that either way it’s better to just ignore the design teams desire to unify the settings even when it means retconing cosmologies, and just play the settings as they were designed, unless you plan on using Eberron in a specifically spelljammer campaign.

So, kinda pointless and annoying to repeat yourself in saying, “whelp, this is what their background fluff is, soo...”

 

[Bolares]

One major thing that has to be mentioned is that the progenitor dragons never were and still are not being considered undisputable truth... they're a possibility. The ring of syberis is real, but three great dragons creating the world is not supossed to be the only truth. people in the world believe that, but the books shoud never say thats what actuakky happened

 

[Parmandur]

Okay, but it wasn’t actually relevant to what you were replying to.
It didn’t address my point that you’re extrapolating when what he actually said can just as easily mean that the ring serves the same purpose and the magic that keeps outside influence out has weakened very recently (either he or Keith said within the last few years), then acting like he explicitly said that the crystal sphere broke and it’s shards make up the ring (a thing he didn’t say).

It also had nothing to do with my more general point, that either way it’s better to just ignore the design teams desire to unify the settings even when it means retconing cosmologies, and just play the settings as they were designed, unless you plan on using Eberron in a specifically spelljammer campaign.

So, kinda pointless and annoying to repeat yourself in saying, “whelp, this is what their background fluff is, soo...”

I like the Multiverse: it's my jam. It is the canonical version of the setting. I think they are wise to make it easy for people to homebrew away the Multiverse without a big headache, but it is great that they are not repeating the mistake of 3.x/4E.

I quoted Crawford saying the Ring of Syberis, for canonical purposes, is the Crystal Sphere in the context of how Eberron relates to the Spelljammer based broader material plane. It is not really an extrapolation, but exact identity, given that Crawford laid out how the material plane works (Spelljammer, Crystal Spheres), said that Eberron is on the Material Plane along with Greyhawk etc. (for canonical purposes), and then stated that the Ring of Syberis is the Crystal Sphere for Eberron. The "what we might call the Crystal Sphere" is calling back to the term "Crystal Sphere" being described as a misnomer earlier in the interview.

Feel free to ignore all of this in your own game: I like it.

 

[Bolares]

I like the Multiverse: it's my jam. It is the canonical version of the setting. I think they are wise to make it easy for people to homebrew away the Multiverse without a big headache, but it is great that they are not repeating the mistake of 3.x/4E.

I quoted Crawford saying the Ring of Syberis, for canonical purposes, is the Crystal Sphere in the context of how Eberron relates to the Spelljammer based broader material plane.

Canonical is a heavy word... listening to him it sounded more like one of at least two possibilities of how to run cosmology in the setting. The one prefered by them? yes, but still just a possibility.

 

[Parmandur]

Canonical is a heavy word... listening to him it sounded more like one of at least to possibilities of how to run cosmology in the setting. The one prefered by them? yes, but still just a possibility.

Well, it is not Holy Writ, no. But it is part of the core assumptions in the books, and how products set in the setting will work. 5E Canon has a light touch, but is solid enough to use well. Golden mean, right there.

 

[Bolares]

Reading again how Wayfinder's handled it, the ring of Syberis being a shield is Canon, but the state of it is where the DM's choice comes in to play... If you want Eberron as an active part of the multiverse the ring is weakenned, if not its intact.

So Eberron is canonically a part of the multiverse, but the access to the setting is up to the DM. In the end everyone herewas a little bit right XD I like this solution,as @Parmandur said its a light but solid enough touch.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Reading again how Wayfinder's handled it, the ring of Syberis being a shield is Canon, but the state of it is where the DM's choice comes in to play... If you want Eberron as an active part of the multiverse the ring is weakenned, if not its intact.

So Eberron is canonically a part of the multiverse, but the access to the setting is up to the DM.

Like I said.

My challenge was specifically to the idea that Eberron’s crystal sphere broke, and it’s shards made the Ring of Syberis. That isn’t the case. What is the case, in 5e, is simply that the Ring of Syberis shields Eberron from the rest of the multiverse, and that it can be treated as weakening quite recently.

What I’ll be doing, because I don’t like the change to the nature of the progenitor dragons implied by this lore change, is ignoring all of that. Eberron exists as a separate universe, not a separate crystal sphere. Corellon didn’t create elves in Eberron. Full stop.

And when I run nentir vale, Nerule is dead and the Raven Queen took his place.

Some worlds benefit from being part of the same universe, separated only by crystal spheres and space. Others don’t.

Changing the nature of the world to fit a cinematic universe is something that should only be done if it makes the specific setting better.

Also, it’s still a single multiverse if Eberron and Ravnica are separate universes. It fits the term better, in fact. Multiple parallel universes is the normal usage of “multiverse”. What Mearls and Crawford describe is just...a universe.

 

[Parmandur]

Like I said.

My challenge was specifically to the idea that Eberron’s crystal sphere broke, and it’s shards made the Ring of Syberis. That isn’t the case. What is the case, in 5e, is simply that the Ring of Syberis shields Eberron from the rest of the multiverse, and that it can be treated as weakening quite recently.

What I’ll be doing, because I don’t like the change to the nature of the progenitor dragons implied by this lore change, is ignoring all of that. Eberron exists as a separate universe, not a separate crystal sphere. Corellon didn’t create elves in Eberron. Full stop.

And when I run nentir vale, Nerule is dead and the Raven Queen took his place.

Some worlds benefit from being part of the same universe, separated only by crystal spheres and space. Others don’t.

Changing the nature of the world to fit a cinematic universe is something that should only be done if it makes the specific setting better.

Also, it’s still a single multiverse if Eberron and Ravnica are separate universes. It fits the term better, in fact. Multiple parallel universes is the normal usage of “multiverse”. What Mearls and Crawford describe is just...a universe.

Cool. I love the Mordenkainen's lore, personally, and have gotten good use from it. They have mixed the concept of the Spelljammer joined universe, with the more standard parallel universe concept (I love the write up for "Parallel Oerths" in the 1E MotP, incidentally). The canonical cosmos is one possible parallel, or set of parallels, and each DM has their own version.

 

[Bolares]

Like I said.

My challenge was specifically to the idea that Eberron’s crystal sphere broke, and it’s shards made the Ring of Syberis. That isn’t the case. What is the case, in 5e, is simply that the Ring of Syberis shields Eberron from the rest of the multiverse, and that it can be treated as weakening quite recently.

What I’ll be doing, because I don’t like the change to the nature of the progenitor dragons implied by this lore change, is ignoring all of that. Eberron exists as a separate universe, not a separate crystal sphere. Corellon didn’t create elves in Eberron. Full stop.

And when I run nentir vale, Nerule is dead and the Raven Queen took his place.

Some worlds benefit from being part of the same universe, separated only by crystal spheres and space. Others don’t.

Changing the nature of the world to fit a cinematic universe is something that should only be done if it makes the specific setting better.

Also, it’s still a single multiverse if Eberron and Ravnica are separate universes. It fits the term better, in fact. Multiple parallel universes is the normal usage of “multiverse”. What Mearls and Crawford describe is just...a universe.

I don't see Eberron being in the same multiverse as the rest of the DnD worlds as changing the Progenitor Dragons mithology. To me they created (in the mithos at least) a universe and then the ring enclosed it. Being or not connected to the rest of the worlds does not change that. that's the beuty of a magic multiverse, things can be connected but unreacheable, elfs can come from completely different origins but be exactly the same... I don't see how being part of the multiverse (as the new canon affirms) makes the elfs of Eberron a creation of Corellon.