Things I Like/Dislike About Eberron

[Arcane Runes Press]

That a good reason for a PrC, so long as they surrender other class abilities. After all, that's basically the point of the fighter.

Thanks all you guys, for reminding me where the name Sharn came from. It was driving me nuts.

And I agree, Psion, and it ties in with prestige classes like the Tempest, which exists to ramp up Two Weapon Fighting. My issue with the Dragon Mark Heir is, I think, that it's servicable mechanics for a very cool concept, rather than cool mechanics for a very cool concept. Basically the same objection I have with the mechanics of the Dragon Marks themselves - there's nothing wrong with the mechanics in terms of balance, they just aren't particularly interesting, which I don't think is a good thing for one of the unique features of a new setting to be.

Patrick Y.

 

[megamania]

The one thing I see in this game that bothers me is the game is about style. Style is something the GM sets up. If the GM is excellent at Scared Lands he/she may not be so at Eberron.

More than any other world setting, it is the plot /sub-plot that drives the story. Plot is more important than that the fantasy element.

Still reading the book so I can't say much more than this. I am trying to avoid using warforged in my game just because EVERYONE is. The Shifter grabs my imagination more.

 

[Renshai]

I think some of my biggest problems (which probably don't matter to others) are some of the names. For me, names can evoke alot of feeling in a setting, and in that sense Eberron falls short. There doesn't seem to be any kind of standard feel to Eberron names.

I think the worst fantasy name I've ever seen is "Wroat" , the capital of Breland. That, and places like Cliffscrape, Marketplace and others just really leave a bad taste in my mouth.

Like I said, the problem is probably very minor for others. That said, I think that setting is put together very well and has alot of things going for it.

Ren

 

[Hellcow]

For a setting with "shades of gray" there aren't many neutrals. Everyone seems good or evil, usually in stereotypical ways. (Breland's ruler is good, so any opposition to him must be evil) Detect evil doesn't seem acknowledged, at least the church of the silver flame should have some idea. IMO of course.

I've actually addressed this in great detail in another post, but I can't seem to track it down. For shorter views, you can check out:
http://www.coveworld.net/eberron/rules.html#alignment
and
http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=92370

The quick point, though: Eberron encompasses both pulp and noir themes. In pulp, good and evil usually are black and white: Indiana Jones doesn't have to say "I wonder if theose Nazis are really such bad guys." In Noir, you may know that someone's a bad guy, but what are you going to do about it? In the Maltese Falcon, the best you get away with is neutral; there are no good guys. The point to this is that alignment shouldn't give you an absolute to work with. A "good" person may be inclined to be generous and honest. An "evil" person may be selfish and ruthless. But either one can still perform actions that will help or hurt you personally. Just because King Boranel is good does not mean that his decisions will always help you, or that his opponents are necessarily evil; two good people can still have differing opinions about what the greatest good is. In the case of the Silver Flame, the extermination of the lycanthropes including killing many "good" people -- but lycanthropy itself was deemed to be a greater evil, and the sacrifice was made. Detect evil may tell you if someone is trustworthy. But people do not see the quality detected by detect evil as being some sort of demonizing, inhumanizing stain; it's part of human nature, and there are an awful lot of evil people out there.

Looking to the organizations, they follow the same spectrum. The Order of the Emerald Claw is intentionally designed to fill the role of obvious villain: these are the people the players know they can feel good about fighting. When you want a black and white conflict, these are the go-to bad guys. Then you have the Lord of Blades, who is ruthless and evil but has a righteous cause and is fighting for his people -- who should at least get warforged PCs questioning their own actions. The Lords of Dust and the Dreaming Dark are about as evil as they come. But they are never going to appear to the players and say "Ha ha! We are EVIL!" They will use subtlety and treachery, seek to trick PCs into doing evil when they think they are doing good. The group itself is black and white -- the shades of grey come in the implementation of their plans. Then there are groups like the Chamber and the Aurum, whose goals may change with each adventure. The Chamber is interested in the secrets of the Prophecy. Sometimes this may be a great good, something the players want to help with. But the very next scheme of the Chamber could require hundreds of innocents to die. The Chamber is not concerned with the morality of their actions, and they may oppose the party as often as they work together; they do what they need to do according to the dictates of the Prophecy.

Detect evil is mentioned briefly on page 250 of the book. Alignment in Eberron is what you make of it; the shades of grey element is a matter of you needing to let go of some of the hard-edged ideas about alignment -- judging evil by action as opposed to character alignment. "Good" can do evil and "evil" can do good -- people who rely on detect spells should run into many surprises.

 

[TheFan]

Detect evil is mentioned briefly on page 250 of the book. Alignment in Eberron is what you make of it; the shades of grey element is a matter of you needing to let go of some of the hard-edged ideas about alignment -- judging evil by action as opposed to character alignment. "Good" can do evil and "evil" can do good -- people who rely on detect spells should run into many surprises.

Very true. I'm running an Eberron game and I've given my (2) players an NPC warforged fighter cohort. He believes that Warforged are weapons, no more, and thus they are suited only for destruction and battle. He revels in combat, but doesn't seek it out because a weapon must be wielded to be effective. Still though, he's absolutely merciless and actively enjoys bloodshed and death when he's in the center of it.

In other words, he's Neutral Evil.

PCs are all good. The first time they run a detect evil spell, they'll be a bit surprised.