Unearthed Arcana Unearthed Arcana is Here - and it's all about EBERRON!

Pretty awesome that this series has started

http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/unearthed-arcana-eberron

Will Greyhawk or Dragonlance be next??

Probably Dragonlance. Does Greyhawk have any particular crunchy player bits that aren't covered by the PHB already?

 

[Parmandur]

On reflection, the Shifters in particular seem a bit weak; it looks like they erred too much towards fear of making them overpowered, but these do not like they would stand up to the PHB races.



I would change all of the subraces bonuses to +2 (maybe two +1 for the Dex ones) and throw in Survival skill Prof. Shifters are more in tune with their natural environment, even if they are city slicker Shifter Wizards playing against type.

 

[Patrick McGill]

The problem is that there are elements of the artificer class that don't appear in this subclass. Among them.

* Artificers could fight decently. Simple weapons, d8 HD, medium armor + shields. The wizard lacks all this as he's supposed to be a support PC.
* Artificers were trapfinders (Search, Disable Device) as good as a rogue. The wizard lacks the proficiencies (perception, thieves tools) to do this. (Although, I guess an appropriate background could fix that).
* Artificers were great at dealing with constructs (healing, building, and destroying them). The wizard doesn't get any special abilities to do any of that, beyond the traditional spells any wizard can cast.
* Artificer spells were mostly buffing, building, and a touch of healing (in 4e). Wizard spells summon monsters, throw fireballs, animate skeletons, and a bunch of other un-flavorful stuff.

Those things alone are major strikes, and really make former methods of playing the artificer (both 3e's generalist and 4e's leader/healer) both invalid.

I'm not even sure how to fix these things, but it gives me a point of reference to start.

I would be worried about how to balance all of that against 5th's other classes. Cleric HD and weapon/armor proficiencies, with Rogue's trap finding abilities, with all of their other cool abilities they've received in past editions. I'm sure there's a way to do it, but I wouldn't know where to start.

 

[Parmandur]

Here's an idea that seems to fit the setting:

Artificer subclasses for Wizard, Cleric and Bard, each being different variations on the them rather than one single Artificer type under one class. A Dwarven Cleric of Moradin having a Maker Domain, a Half-Elf Bard of the College of Manufacture, and a Gnome Wizard of the Artificer Tradition.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

It's worth noting that a warforged armor bonus is a straight, stacking bonus. You can use it along with armor. I don't see any reason (and I'm sure the designers feel the same way) to go into excruciating detail and include feats and such just to essentially duplicate buying a set of armor and bolting it on. If you want a warforged in plate armor, you buy plate armor and have it permanently attached to you. Or you have it custom built and integrated into your frame. The stats are the same, unless the DM wants to charge a different price or set other role-playing requirements. If you want mithril or adamantine, well assuming you can get a suit of it, you do the same thing. I'd much rather keep the rules on these things light than bloated.

I've never played an artificer, but had one as a fellow PC in a game. Seems to me that with the combat and trap-finding aspects, a new Bard college for them might have made a better option.

Statistically, you're probably right. But the bard is defined as an entertainer, and they aren't going to jettison that aspect of the bard for a new subclass. Wizard is the best fit as far as thematic identity--a character who learns how to manipulate magic by study. I seriously doubt they will make it a subclass of any other existing class. That said, I'm sure they will take into account feedback when they put out the survey. They may just make an entirely new class if there is too much objection to the wizard subclass.

I'm confused where the general rules for polymorphing are found. If it's the spell polymorph, does the changeling get a bank of extra hitpoints whenever he shifts? I assume not, since this is probably too good, and there's that "if you die" entry. Does he get new physical characteristics? Again... probably too good?

Polymorph was a poor choice of language. When I first saw it I thought about it for a bit and decided they really just meant it's a physical alteration with no statistical significance. Way too many problems if they are allowing them to gain the sorts of features they would get from a polymorph type spell. Given that, I'd allow them to make custom forms in any race that they've seen, since the feature is otherwise underpowered. The race seems a bit underpowered even with that--but allowing actual polymorphing would make it overpowered, so it's doubtful that is the intent.

 

[Chocolategravy]

None of those rules will play anything like 3E Eberron and only some bear a passing resemblance to 4E's watered down version. The artificer just makes me sad.

 

[Psikerlord#]

I hope they release a book every year of this stuff formatter nicely with art. I would love it.

yeah me too

 

[trentonjoe]

I love the shifters. I will be using them ASAP.

I like the Dragon Mark Feat as well. I am a little worried that it is so much better than the Magic Initiate Feat but I don't think that was good enough anyway.

 

[Mistwell]

Did longtooth shifter just become the best grappling race in the game?

 

[BrockBallingdark]

I love Eberron, my fav setting of all of them. I'm happy with this, I will make a manual adjustment using the +2, +1 ability format that the other 5E races use. They gave us something to work with, now we can play with it a little to fit our own game/world.

There is no way you can make 5E Eberron stuff play like 3E (I didn't play 4E long to comment), its not suppose to, its to bring the flavor over. In my opinion it has, for my liking. My own personal creations of the 5E Eberron classes were close to these Mearl versions, minus the Dragonmark feats and Artificer (I had not worked on those yet). I'm happy, now to get back to creating.

 

[Minigiant]

1) Does the longtooth shifter's bite attack count as a weapon for the purpose of being enhanced by the magic weapon spell?

2) Is the only way a razorclaw shifter getting his or her claws to overcome resistance or immunity to nonmagical weapons is to become a monk since it is an unarmed strike?

I'd rule yes to both. Either way, high level's gone suck due to redundancies. Pray for nice DMs with lots of normo enemies, shifters.

Cool UA though. Can't wait for more. I have Warforged and artificers for my non-Eberron campaign now.