Wizards of the Coast Reveals Revised Eberron Species Details

Wizards of the Coast has revealed some new details about Eberron: Forge of the Artificer, specifically detailing some of the changes players can expect to see from the species rules in the book. The upcoming Eberron splatbook will feature five species. Four of the species appeared in Eberron: Rising From the Last War, while the Khoravar (which have mixed human and elvish ancestries) are presented as a unique species in the book.

Today on D&D Beyond, Wizards listed some of the changes that will appear in each ruleset. Most notably, the Warforged is now presented as a Construct, while the Kalashtar are presented as aberrations. This makes these species immune to various spells that only impact humanoids. Additionally, the Khoravar has a new Lethargy Resilience feature that turns a failed saving throw to end or prevent the Unconscious condition into a success. This feature recharges after 1d4 Long Rests, which is a new design element to D&D.

According to D&D Beyond, the following changes are being made:

Changeling:

• Based on the Changeling from Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse.
• Shape-Shifter: You have Advantage on Charisma checks while shape-shifted.

Kalashtar:

• Creature Type: Kalashtar now have the Aberration creature type.
• Mind Link: You can now allow multiple creatures to communicate with you telepathically, and they no longer must be able to see you.
• Severed From Dreams: You gain proficiency in one skill of your choice after a Long Rest. This proficiency lasts until you finish another Long Rest.

Khoravar:

• Now included as a unique playable species in the world of Eberron
• Darkvision: Gain Darkvision with a range of 60 feet.
• Fey Ancestry: You have Advantage on saving throws to avoid or end the Charmed condition.
• Fey Gift: You know the Friends cantrip. When you finish a Long Rest, you can swap it for any Cleric, Druid, or Wizard cantrip.
• Lethargy Resilience: You can turn a failed save to avoid or end the Unconscious condition into a success. You can use this trait again after you finish 1d4 Long Rests.
• Skill Versatility: Gain proficiency in one skill or tool of your choice. After you finish a Long Rest, you may swap that proficiency for a different skill or tool.

Shifter:

• Based on the Shifter from Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse.
• Size: You can choose to be Medium or Small when you select this species.

Warforged:

• Creature Type: Warforged now have the Construct creature type.
• Constructed Resilience: Now have Advantage on saving throws to end the Poisoned condition and some aspects of this trait have been moved to Sentry's Rest and the new Tireless trait.
• Integrated Protection: Donning armor no longer takes an hour.
• Sentry's Rest: Now specifies Warforged don't need to sleep, and magic can't put them to sleep.
• Tireless: You don't gain Exhaustion levels from dehydration, malnutrition, or suffocation.

 

[Dire Bare]

It also doesn't help that both WotC and all these 5E third-party designers are trying to map out an entire species of people with four or five rather pathetic game mechanic traits.

I've said it before and I'll say it again... when the game gives us 20 levels worth of features and abilities to distinguish our jobs... and only five traits to distinguish an entire taxonomy of being-- regardless of whether they are biological or learned-- it should tell us all without a shadow of a doubt that none of us should take the mechanics of species in D&D seriously. They are meaningless. Just do (general) yourselves a favor and add those five traits to the giant morass that are our class features and stop worrying about whether they have an effect on what the game's species are. Because they don't.

When we can look at the entirety of the Halfling species and suggest with the attempts of a straight face that one of its most important features as an race of people... that of ALL the things we could say about their biology and psychology and culture that makes them unique and special compared to all the other species across these fantasy game worlds... is that they 'get to reroll 1s'... that should be all the evidence we need about how meaningless it all is.

Disagree.

The mechanical impact of species at 1st level only versus the 20 level spread of class . . . that means your heritage is your background, it's where you begin, but your class defines who you are. It prioritizes your actions over your parentage, which I prefer.

Over the years various designers, both within official D&D products and in third-party products, have tried to expand the impact of species/race on characters . . . it's never worked for me.

 

[Staffan]

Over the years various designers, both within official D&D products and in third-party products, have tried to expand the impact of species/race on characters . . . it's never worked for me.

With the larger customizability in 3e (total of 7 feats that don't compete with stat boosts; or 11 in Pathfinder 1e), there were several attempts at providing feats for those who wanted to build on or explore more racial traits. I thought these worked pretty well in general, and Eberron in particular did a lot of neat stuff with them (especially for warforged, shifters, and changelings). The attempt in Arcana Unearthed/Evolved to provide a mini-class that explored racial stuff did not work as well IMO, because it competed with class stuff instead of with the stuff you layer on top of the class stuff.