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.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

One thing I'm sure we won't see in the future is "Mul" for Athasian Dwarf and Human mixtures, especially if Dark Sun does eventually comes back as a campaign setting.

And they quietly dropped Tallfellow (Elf-Halflings) and Stout Halflings (Dwarf-Halflings) already, they were always presented as subraces of Halflings and never Elves or Dwarves anyways.

 

[Remathilis]

One thing I'm sure we won't see in the future is "Mul" for Athasian Dwarf and Human mixtures, especially if Dark Sun does eventually comes back as a campaign setting.

And they quietly dropped Tallfellow (Elf-Halflings) and Stout Halflings (Dwarf-Halflings) already, they were always presented as subraces of Halflings and never Elves or Dwarves anyways.

Tallfellow and stout was always a thin reference to Tolkien's Hobbits having "a bit of fey" and similar.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

Man, that Lethargy Resilience has to be THE most unnecessarily fiddly niche ribbon ability in all of 5E. It reads like a PF2E skill feat lol. Hopefully the 1-2 times sleep comes up per campaign don't occur within d4 days of each other!

Khoravar:

• 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.

 

[bedir than]

Man, that Lethargy Resilience has to be THE most unnecessarily fiddly niche ribbon ability in all of 5E. It reads like a PF2E skill feat lol. Hopefully the 1-2 times sleep comes up per campaign don't occur within d4 days of each other!

Khoravar:

• 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.

It's also not a powerful enough ability to gate that way.

 

[doctorhook]

"Metis" has a very specific meaning in Canadian English about which ethnic groups are in the mix, like exclusively of European and Indigenous background. I found it unusual in Lupin (the Netflix series) when Assane and Claire referred to their son Raoul as "Metis" in French, even though "Metis" might be more generic in France it's quite specific in Anglophone Canada.

I was thinking of Métis too! Obviously it can be problematic to compare a real-world culture to a fictional one, but there’s at least a structural basis of comparison between Métis and Khoravar.

For those who don’t know this term, in Canada “Métis” is a recognized ethno-cultural group whose identity is based on mixture: they’re descendants of French colonists (usually the man) who married First Nations/Indigenous people (usually the woman). This was super common during colonial times, when there were a lot of European men but very few European women for them to marry, so in aggregate these folks (their children) were common enough to form their own significant cultural group.

Nowadays if someone in Canada has mixed white + FN parenthood, they aren’t automatically considered Métis because that’s a specific historical culture in Canada; most Métis probably have Métis parent(s). The parallel to Khoravar is that Métis is a stand-alone group that defines itself at least partially based on its history as a mixture.

In the context of D&D, one other factor to consider is the extent to which, in practice, people don’t really treat elves or dwarves as separate species, just separate cultures anyway (regardless of how the rules frame them).

 

[Remathilis]

It could be that I come from a culture with a lot more positive associations with the term, but I am unaware of any situations where it's inappropriate or a slur, and I am having a hard time thinking about other words that could be applied as broadly.

We can't use "mixed race" or "multiracial" because, well, WotC is retiring the word "race." "Hybrid" has too many connotations of animals and no one would want to apply those to people. "Mixed" just feels too unspecified, but also too close to "metis."


Am I missing another broadly applicable but neutral term we could use for an ethnic group whose distinct physiological characteristics are the result of two separate cultures intermarrying?

Unfortunately, almost any term is poisoned due to long systemic issues with intermarriage. Humans don't have breeds. There is no other sentient creature left we can interbreed with. All human differences are within 1% distance genetically. The only language we have to even express the difference in two separate unique species of sentient creature interbreeding can only come from animal husbandry or debunked eugenic language. Which is why terms like hybrid feel so uncomfortable (it's a term used for animals) and half-breed so racist (because it is). There is no neutral term to describe the sentient humanlike equivalent of a liger. We don't need one until aliens show up and start breeding with us and their children don't know what to put down on the census form.

Which is why a term for the D&D concept of race and half-race is so hard to replace. We don't have a word that works. Race didn't even work, its only correct to our ears from years of use. And so we keep trying to find something that doesn't exist yet. A word for other sentient beings and intermixed offspring of said beings.

 

[Charlaquin]

Man, that Lethargy Resilience has to be THE most unnecessarily fiddly niche ribbon ability in all of 5E. It reads like a PF2E skill feat lol. Hopefully the 1-2 times sleep comes up per campaign don't occur within d4 days of each other!

Khoravar:

• 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.

1d4 long rests is a little weird, I probably would have just gone with one long rest.

 

[Charlaquin]

Unfortunately, almost any term is poisoned due to long systemic issues with intermarriage. Humans don't have breeds. There is no other sentient creature left we can interbreed with. All human differences are within 1% distance genetically. The only language we have to even express the difference in two separate unique species of sentient creature interbreeding can only come from animal husbandry or debunked eugenic language. Which is why terms like hybrid feel so uncomfortable (it's a term used for animals) and half-breed so racist (because it is). There is no neutral term to describe the sentient humanlike equivalent of a liger. We don't need one until aliens show up and start breeding with us and their children don't know what to put down on the census form.

Which is why no term for the D&D concept of race and half-race is so hard to replace. We don't have a word that works. Race didn't even work, its only correct to our ears from years of use. And so we keep trying to find something that doesn't exist yet. A word for other sentient beings and intermixed offspring of said beings.

Do we really need an umbrella term for mixed-heritage species? Can’t such species just have their own unique names, like Khoravar and Jhor'guntaal?

 

[Remathilis]

Do we really need an umbrella term for mixed-heritage species? Can’t such species just have their own unique names, like Khoravar and Jhor'guntaal?

I'd like to think we don't, but people always try to put things in boxes and label them (for example, planetouched to refer to anyone who has ancestry from another plane. A tiefling who comes from a long line of tieflings is planetouched, a Khorvar who has elf parents who are eladrin or astral elves are not). And D&D players of a certain age have a nasty habit of calling anything part monster a "half-x" even when the origins have nothing to do with interbreeding (cf people who refer to dragonborn as half-dragons).

So yes, I would like to remove the notion that a blanket term is needed. But I don't suspect the community is going to be quick to dump the idea of boxing them up under one label. Hell, some people still call elves and dwarves "demi humans" to distinguish them from orcs and goblins...

 

[Micah Sweet]

From a game mechanics side: the Khorvar work fine for classic half-elf and the orc mechanics are superior to half-orc. You can use them both to mechanically represent the 2014 races in 2024. Just like how a wizard can be redefined as a witch (c.f. Tasha), the mechs are similar enough to be used to represent the idea of a mixed species without using the half-human terminology.

I'm not sure game mechanics are exactly the priority in this situation.