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.

 

[Nicholas Reed]

I'm happy to see the half-elf make it's triumphant 2024 return. Half-orcs are similar enough to orcs that I'm fine if they don't get a distinct species (see Uruk-hai lol). The difference between an orc hybrid and a true orc can be readily distinguished with just flavor, but half-elves classically have several strong distinctions from their elven ancestors. Very cool!

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

Are you serious right now?

Bro this is maybe the most egregiously pointless “well actually” I’ve ever seen on this website.

I am always serious.

 

[JConstantine]

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.

So, it's not so much that it's a slur, but inaccurate (and potentially inappropriate). In an anthropological context, "Creole" typically refers to ethnic groups which have formed due to one group suffering mass displacement as a result of colonialism, combining with another group and creating a new cultural identity (sometimes because their original was erased).
I'm sure you can see how
a. an individual with mixed heritage as a result of voluntary migration might not identify with that, and
b. it's potentially disrespectful to Creole peoples to co-opt the term in that manner.

And that's before we get to regional understandings of the word. How it's used in West Africa is pretty different to how it's used in southern US states, or the Caribbean.

 

[Voadam]

I think part of the problem is that people see a lot of D&D species as "half-x" where x is another race or monster type. Tieflings are half-fiends. Aasimar are half-angels. Dragonborn are half-dragons. Shifters are half-lycanthropes. Etc. D&D has tried to move away from "humans breed with everything" for about a decade or more. (Certainly since 4e, I think in response to sheer number of "half-x" templates in 3e). Which is why tieflings got the "children of Asmodeus" origin in 4e rather than "my dad was a demon" origin in 3e (and implied in 2e).

To me, this is trying to move half-elf from the implied first gen elf/human hybrid to the "somewhere in my family ancestry is a bit of human and elf blood" like tieflings and aasimar got.

I think this is an area where individual experiences vary. I do not really see people seeing a lot of D&D "touched" races as half-x but as faint bloodline so maybe great grand-dad was an x, more on the level of a different type of sorcerous bloodline.

Lorewise Aasimar and Tieflings have always been people with a little outsider blood as opposed to half outsiders in every edition. Half x's have always been their own distinct thing. 1e and 2e had cambions and alu-demons/alu-fiends contrasting with 2e tieflings, 3e had half-fiends contrasting with the distant ancestor tieflings as explicitly laid out in both the core MM and in setting material like the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting. 4e had a little lore variation with the tieflings being descended from humans altered by devil pacts.

Shifters have been people with some lycanthrope blood and not one parent being a full lycanthrope since they were introduced in 3e Eberron. The first line of their description is that they are sometimes called the weretouched.

Half dragons were a core thing from the beginning of the 3.0 MM and srd so they got used a bunch with a number of half dragon people eventually including PC level adjustment options in the 3.5 MM, then late 3.5 Races of the Dragon had dragonborn as people infused with dragon stuff then 4e reinvented dragonborn as their own original natural race as a core PH1 race option and built up in 4e world lore with the fallen Arkhosian empire. This is the one that I can see more being conflated, as half dragons were the way to do dragon people in D&D for a good while then that role being specifically taken by the core PH dragonborn race.

 

[Staffan]

Shifters have been people with some lycanthrope blood and not one parent being a full lycanthrope since they were introduced in 3e Eberron. The first line of their description is that they are sometimes called the weretouched.

There's definitely some Eberron material out there that implies that lycanthropes are shifters taken to 11 rather than shifters being watered-down lycanthropes. I can't recall if that material is presented as fact or if it's an in-setting theory.

 

[JConstantine]

Shifters have been people with some lycanthrope blood and not one parent being a full lycanthrope since they were introduced in 3e Eberron. The first line of their description is that they are sometimes called the weretouched.

There's definitely some Eberron material out there that implies that lycanthropes are shifters taken to 11 rather than shifters being watered-down lycanthropes. I can't recall if that material is presented as fact or if it's an in-setting theory.

For Eberron, it was an in-universe rumour/hypothesis that shifters were the results of having a lycanthrope in their ancestry, but never explicitly fact. This rumour was made explicitly true for the Forgotten Realms versions of shifters when they were back-ported into that setting. The same was the case for changelings with doppelgangers.

 

[LazarusKane]

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

The mechanics (crunch) are IMHO the priority because it's the only hard fact the authors can control. The flavour (fluff) (description, culture, relations to other species etc.) is something that (sometimes) varies between the settings - so for example the standard Players Handbook halflings aren't like the tribal halflings of Eberron or the cannibalisic halflings of Dark Sun - or maybe the halflings of your own setting. How people interpret something isn't controllable - if they see Half-Elves as positive representation (for someone with mixed parents) or (Half-)Orc and drow as negative representation (of black people - I hope it's ok to give an racist example ) is out of the hands of the authors of the species.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

So, it's not so much that it's a slur, but inaccurate (and potentially inappropriate). In an anthropological context, "Creole" typically refers to ethnic groups which have formed due to one group suffering mass displacement as a result of colonialism, combining with another group and creating a new cultural identity (sometimes because their original was erased).
I'm sure you can see how
a. an individual with mixed heritage as a result of voluntary migration might not identify with that, and
b. it's potentially disrespectful to Creole peoples to co-opt the term in that manner.

And that's before we get to regional understandings of the word. How it's used in West Africa is pretty different to how it's used in southern US states, or the Caribbean.

Also there is typically a linguistic connotation to the term, implying some sort of intermingling of languages that wouldn’t necessarily be present in Khoravar, Mul, or other species of multiple heritages.

 

[Kobold Stew]

A few thoughts on the mechanics:

Changeling:

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

This makes very little sense, unless it also replaces the two skill proficiencies that they get. Changelings are already quite powerful; advantage on every social skill roll through a campaign? Ridiculous.

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.

Not a single character ever will keep the Friends cantrip after a single long rest. You have access to Guidance and every combat 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.

As noted upthread, this is wonky.

• 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.

I'm really sorry to see "or tool" included here -- I know the point becomes moot with the Artificer and the Manifold Tool in any case -- but this removes the major obstacle to the magic item creation rules. Kalashtar only get a skill -- still very powerful. Adding tool here means that Khoravar are the most versatile magic item creators (to the exclusion of anyone else).

It seems like a small point, but I think I would have a houserule excluding proficiency gained from this to count towards magic item creation.

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.

I wonder if the Wildhunt option is being kept as in MotM -- it was so powerful for Barbarians.

 

[Kurotowa]

There's definitely some Eberron material out there that implies that lycanthropes are shifters taken to 11 rather than shifters being watered-down lycanthropes. I can't recall if that material is presented as fact or if it's an in-setting theory.

My recollection is that the original 3e pitch was that shifters were watered down lycanthropes and changelings were watered down doppelgangers, both in mechanics and in lore. The monster was the original and the PC race was the derivation. Rising From the Last War offered an updated take on p284 that the shifters and changelings were the original line, and that the daelkyr had twisted them into monstrous versions the same way they did dolgrims and dolgaunts from goblins and hobgoblins.

This new take is not Word Of God but "shifter druids often assert" level of authority.