Exploring Eberron, the new book by Keith Baker (and others) is now out. I am looking at a review copy of the book and writing a not-a-review of the book. Why not a review? Well, because I have not had a chance to use it in play. I might feel sort-of-confident to assess adventures before I run them, but I am a little more cautious with other material.
So, this is a first look at the product, with my initial impressions. They may change when I get to see the book in play.
I covered the first chapter of the book, “Discovering Eberron”, in my last article. In this article, I will wander through the second chapter, “Races of Eberron”.
We are looking at roughly 16 pages of a 248-page book. (It is late as I write this, and I will continue onto the third chapter in the morning).
A reminder of the list of chapters:
- Discovering Eberron
- Races of Eberron
- Faiths of Eberron
- Uncharted Domains
- Planes of Existence
- Character Options
- Treasures
- Friends and Foes
Changelings
The subtitle to this section is “Embracing Change”, which is either a perfect subtitle or a terrible one.
However, the book immediately points out something interesting about changelings: Not all changelings belong to the changeling culture. Changelings can have children with any other humanoid race, but the children are never half-changeling. They are either of the father’s or mother’s race. And so, you could be a changeling raised in elf culture or a changeling raised in changeling culture.
This section is most interested in the changelings of changeling culture, for obvious reasons. There are different branches of it: the changelings who maintain a nomadic lifestyle and keep their true natures hidden, and those who live in the option and are found in most of the major cities of the Five Nations and may live together in changeling neighbourhoods. And there are also two distinct changeling cultures out there as well.
The discussion is not interested in rules material, but instead in providing background for changeling characters. It is mostly player-facing and offers things that players can consider as they create the history of their culture. The section ends with a few character concepts players might find useful. I find this material a little unfocused, but that is not surprising.
Elves of Aerenal
In contrast, Exploring Eberron goes into greater detail about both the Aereni elves and their kingdom. After a description of the core personality traits of Aereni elves, the book presents details on the noble houses of Aerenal and a selection of possible mentors.
I very much like the handling of this. (You may be discovering the sort of content I like). It is material that is immediately useful. Further sections discuss quirks you might give your character and a list of backgrounds with modifications for Aereni characters.
Some of the modifications provoke a lot of thought. “Being considered a folk hero in Aerenal won’t do you much good if you’re adventuring in Khorvaire. The question is what you’ve done since arriving in Khorvaire to earn this reputation… and just as important, why?”
Plus, I have to love any material that manages to use the heading “Vampires Suck”. And it follows it up with some good character-building content.
Elves of Aerenal? Yes, I am a fan. I just wish there were more material here!
Kalashtar
The Kalashtar of fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons have an underlying problem: they were designed as an explicitly psionic race, and at this point, six years after the release of the current edition, we still do not have an official set of psionic rules. So, while their lore is compelling, their mechanics still feel somewhat adrift.
This book offers a few substitutes or suggestions. In particular, there is a new Mind Domain for kalashtar clerics (covered in chapter 6). This part of the book also suggests retheming bard, cleric, paladin, or warlock powers as psionic powers. It is notable how some of these modifications rely on the DM’s approval: things such as changing the warlock’s eldritch blast to psionic damage or combining Mind Link and Awakened Mind to increase their range by 30 feet.
This section also describes the motivations of the kalashtar, the various quori lineages, and how the kalashtar live in Khorvaire.
It is useful material, but a little less concrete than that on the Aereni.
Shifters
The next section looks at the shifter race. It feels quite bare and only takes up two pages. (In contrast, the Aereni took closer to three-and-a-half pages to describe).
I love the description of the origins of the Silver Crusade against lycanthropes, which is hugely significant to the treatment of shifters by other races. It is easy for a DM to take inspiration from this material for future games. The descriptions of shifter personalities and their homelands are fine but is quite short.
Warforged
The final section looks at what I consider the most popular new race in Eberron: the Warforged. However, like the material on shifters, it is short: just a little more than two pages.
That said, it provides some excellent insights into warforged. In particular, it explicitly says that some warforged were created to help civilian organisations rather than as warriors. This was not common, but it significantly expands the potential backgrounds of warforged and how they relate to the world.
The material on how how no-one knows how warforged gained sentience does not land that well for me. However, I spent a fair amount of time with Eberron during D&D 3.5E, so I was already familiar with it. I did not initially realised it was hardly discussed in Eberron: Rising from the Last War. So, if you are new to Eberron, this should enlighten you, as well as giving you some fascinating matters to consider.
A few concepts for warforged characters end this section, providing guidelines for PCs you might want to create.
No Rules Included
This section is entirely discussions about the new races, mainly focusing on creating new characters and giving them interesting personalities and backgrounds. It is not about new game mechanics and rules: those come later in the book.
I feel the material is a bit more mixed in value, although my previous knowledge of Eberron may colour those impressions. The section on the Elves of Aerenal is an exception, however.
The next chapter looks at the Faiths of Eberron!