Arcane Runes Press
First Post
Well, I picked up the Eberron Campaign book, and I like a lot of what I see, with some minor, and not so minor reservations.
Things I like:
The idea that PCs are very much peers of the major powers of the land. It's an empowering thing, that players can, at mid levels, stand as equals to the majority of the power players of the setting.
The fact that the setting "cataclysmic war" just happened, rather than being a time lost legend suitable only for churning up artefacts.
The kingdom of Droam - a monster fest land with an interesting government dynamic. I especially like the fact that the rulers of the land aren't just nameless darklords. Hags have personality, and they're woefully underused monsters. Overall, I think this area has the best potential for interesting gaming, with lots of hook filled NPCs.
The idea of dragonmarks, and dragonmark houses.
The new races are uniformly interesting, and different, without being too bizarre for normal player use.
The Exorcist of the Silver Flame - powerful, but setting appropriate, and most importantly interesting.
Some of the feats, particularly the new bardic music related feats. I'm also fond of the shifter feats, which have several layers of mechanical benefits - I enjoy feats which interact with other feats in ways beyond just forming a "chain of power".
The Dusk Hag, and the Horrid Animal template.
The fact that psionics, while not perhaps sufficiently played up, have more of a place in Ebberon - they don't feel tacked on, or handwaved in.
Action points - while not perfectly implemented (see below), I like the idea of players being able to spend action points to increase their oomph. It's a mechanic which adds more than mechanical benefits, it also invests the players in the situation. It's a metamechanic for increasing player excitement.
Things I have small reservations about:
While large swaths of the setting are interesting and flavourable, there are sections which scream generic. Rifts in the earth with bandit haunted cities around them? Seen that too many times. In essence, my problem is that some of the fantasy generic locations seem EXTRA generic when set in the same place as the more imaginative areas.
Some of the names. Extra vowels, lots of apostrophes, weird spellings, all sitting side by side with ultra-generic names like Whisper Rock, or the Dragon's Crown. The names just don't grab me, and some of them, like Sharn, hit me over the head with that feeling of "I KNOW I've heard this one before".
A slight disconnect between the generic fantasy feel of some parts of the world, and the two stated modes of play, swashbuckling adventure and dark intrigue. Whisper Rock, for example, doesn't seem particularly supporting of swashbuckling adventure or dark intrigue - it seem ripped straight out of the Forgotten Realms, which is fine in and of itself, but not quite what Eberron advertises.
Major Reservations:
The prestige classes - I like the Exorcist. I actively dislike most of the rest. The Warforged Juggernaut isn't bad, but I think it should be a 10 level class, to better reflect the transformative nature of the flavour text. The Dragonmark Heir is a nice idea, but strikes me as being an excuse to let people feat chain dragonmarks without actually having to spend their character's feats. The Eldeen Ranger I find a bit boring. The Heir of Siberys is bland as white bread in milk. I'll talk about the rest seperately.
The Extreme Explorer is Bland with a capital B, which strikes me as a wasted opportunity, because it should be one of the showpiece PrCs which really sets the flavour for the Eberron setting.
The Weretouched Master is... bad. I like the idea, I like some of the implementation, but the power disparity between certain choices is so enormous as to boggle the mind. There's exactly one reason to be a wererat weretouched master - flavour - and given the HUGE difference in power between the weretouched wererat, and weretouched werebear, that flavour's going to taste like ash.
The Master Inquisitive is as bland as the Explorer, with even worse abilities. The skill list is not bad, but the class abilities stink. 3 spell like abilities, once per day each. Yawn. The contact ability is okay, in and of itself, but is really just a glorified way of buying a hireling, which is not exactly going to make most players giddy. And a couple bonus feats. This PrC is tied for the biggest wasted opportunity in the book - the Master Inquisitive should have really unique abilities, it should be a showpiece for breaking the mold, it should play right into the Pulp "The Mithral Falcon" feel which partly inspires Eberron. But it doesn't.
Action Point Implementation - While I like the idea of action points, I very much dislike how they were tied to certain feats, and abilities. Action Surge is the prime offender here, and representative of the problem. Spend 2 action points for an extra move action, or standard action. So, to gain access to an ability which eats up your action points VERY rapidly, you have to spend a feat. The cost is too high. Lower the cost to 1 action point and it's better, but still not brilliant. Overall, I think the problem for me is that action points are too limited - there should be a big list of things you can do with action points, besides just adding some dice to a roll. Pursue, for example - that's not feat worthy, that should be something you just do with an action point. Feats and class abilities should modify the effectiveness of action points, not just give you access to expensive things action points should already be doing.
Dragonmarks - with the Master Inquisitive, the biggest wasted opportunity in the book. The idea of dragonmarks is great, the idea of houses formed around them a solid one (though not unique). The implementation? Not so much. Buy a dragonmark, get access to a spell 1/day - BORING. The Marks of Healing aren't fascinating abilities, they're glorified potions. I wanted unique abilities, not one shot spells. A character with a dragonmark should do something mechanically other characters can't do - that's interesting. An ability which lets you do once a day what the average 1st level cleric can do twice a day... isn't. For abilities which are so played up in the setting, for me it's inexcusable.
Just my thoughts. Overall, the good far outweighs the bad, though, and I'm very happy to have picked up the book.
Patrick Younts
EDIT: Forgot my name.
Things I like:
The idea that PCs are very much peers of the major powers of the land. It's an empowering thing, that players can, at mid levels, stand as equals to the majority of the power players of the setting.
The fact that the setting "cataclysmic war" just happened, rather than being a time lost legend suitable only for churning up artefacts.
The kingdom of Droam - a monster fest land with an interesting government dynamic. I especially like the fact that the rulers of the land aren't just nameless darklords. Hags have personality, and they're woefully underused monsters. Overall, I think this area has the best potential for interesting gaming, with lots of hook filled NPCs.
The idea of dragonmarks, and dragonmark houses.
The new races are uniformly interesting, and different, without being too bizarre for normal player use.
The Exorcist of the Silver Flame - powerful, but setting appropriate, and most importantly interesting.
Some of the feats, particularly the new bardic music related feats. I'm also fond of the shifter feats, which have several layers of mechanical benefits - I enjoy feats which interact with other feats in ways beyond just forming a "chain of power".
The Dusk Hag, and the Horrid Animal template.
The fact that psionics, while not perhaps sufficiently played up, have more of a place in Ebberon - they don't feel tacked on, or handwaved in.
Action points - while not perfectly implemented (see below), I like the idea of players being able to spend action points to increase their oomph. It's a mechanic which adds more than mechanical benefits, it also invests the players in the situation. It's a metamechanic for increasing player excitement.
Things I have small reservations about:
While large swaths of the setting are interesting and flavourable, there are sections which scream generic. Rifts in the earth with bandit haunted cities around them? Seen that too many times. In essence, my problem is that some of the fantasy generic locations seem EXTRA generic when set in the same place as the more imaginative areas.
Some of the names. Extra vowels, lots of apostrophes, weird spellings, all sitting side by side with ultra-generic names like Whisper Rock, or the Dragon's Crown. The names just don't grab me, and some of them, like Sharn, hit me over the head with that feeling of "I KNOW I've heard this one before".
A slight disconnect between the generic fantasy feel of some parts of the world, and the two stated modes of play, swashbuckling adventure and dark intrigue. Whisper Rock, for example, doesn't seem particularly supporting of swashbuckling adventure or dark intrigue - it seem ripped straight out of the Forgotten Realms, which is fine in and of itself, but not quite what Eberron advertises.
Major Reservations:
The prestige classes - I like the Exorcist. I actively dislike most of the rest. The Warforged Juggernaut isn't bad, but I think it should be a 10 level class, to better reflect the transformative nature of the flavour text. The Dragonmark Heir is a nice idea, but strikes me as being an excuse to let people feat chain dragonmarks without actually having to spend their character's feats. The Eldeen Ranger I find a bit boring. The Heir of Siberys is bland as white bread in milk. I'll talk about the rest seperately.
The Extreme Explorer is Bland with a capital B, which strikes me as a wasted opportunity, because it should be one of the showpiece PrCs which really sets the flavour for the Eberron setting.
The Weretouched Master is... bad. I like the idea, I like some of the implementation, but the power disparity between certain choices is so enormous as to boggle the mind. There's exactly one reason to be a wererat weretouched master - flavour - and given the HUGE difference in power between the weretouched wererat, and weretouched werebear, that flavour's going to taste like ash.
The Master Inquisitive is as bland as the Explorer, with even worse abilities. The skill list is not bad, but the class abilities stink. 3 spell like abilities, once per day each. Yawn. The contact ability is okay, in and of itself, but is really just a glorified way of buying a hireling, which is not exactly going to make most players giddy. And a couple bonus feats. This PrC is tied for the biggest wasted opportunity in the book - the Master Inquisitive should have really unique abilities, it should be a showpiece for breaking the mold, it should play right into the Pulp "The Mithral Falcon" feel which partly inspires Eberron. But it doesn't.
Action Point Implementation - While I like the idea of action points, I very much dislike how they were tied to certain feats, and abilities. Action Surge is the prime offender here, and representative of the problem. Spend 2 action points for an extra move action, or standard action. So, to gain access to an ability which eats up your action points VERY rapidly, you have to spend a feat. The cost is too high. Lower the cost to 1 action point and it's better, but still not brilliant. Overall, I think the problem for me is that action points are too limited - there should be a big list of things you can do with action points, besides just adding some dice to a roll. Pursue, for example - that's not feat worthy, that should be something you just do with an action point. Feats and class abilities should modify the effectiveness of action points, not just give you access to expensive things action points should already be doing.
Dragonmarks - with the Master Inquisitive, the biggest wasted opportunity in the book. The idea of dragonmarks is great, the idea of houses formed around them a solid one (though not unique). The implementation? Not so much. Buy a dragonmark, get access to a spell 1/day - BORING. The Marks of Healing aren't fascinating abilities, they're glorified potions. I wanted unique abilities, not one shot spells. A character with a dragonmark should do something mechanically other characters can't do - that's interesting. An ability which lets you do once a day what the average 1st level cleric can do twice a day... isn't. For abilities which are so played up in the setting, for me it's inexcusable.
Just my thoughts. Overall, the good far outweighs the bad, though, and I'm very happy to have picked up the book.
Patrick Younts
EDIT: Forgot my name.
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