Review of Eberron Campaign Setting
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Synopsis
The Eberron campaign setting book introduces the world of Eberron as a magic-rich setting for Dungeons & Dragons 3.5, a fantasy world where magic has developed into a science of sorts. Instead of mechanical inventions to improve life and make a profit, magical forces are harnessed. Inventions such as trains, airships, and artificial people become feasible, but physical, chemical, and mechanical inventions such as steam engines, zeppelins, and firearms do not exist. While arcane magic is relatively common, divine magic is more rare, because Eberron does not have deities in the classic D&D sense - the existence of gods is not proven, and religion is a matter of faith. The world supposedly formed from three dragons which became the underworld (Khyber), the surface world (Eberron), and the ring orbiting the world (Siberys). Organizations called "dragonmarked houses" control the international economy of the world. The book claims that within Eberron, there is a place for everything in the three core D&D books. It also encourages use of the Expanded Psionics Handbook, though it is not necessary for most campaigns. The intended mood is a mix of pulp and noir, the exact ratio dependent on your preferred campaign style.
Style
This is the section where I will express my opinion about how the product strikes me and how eager I am to put it to use.
First Impressions
I have to admit I was immediately impressed with the book. It is hefty (320 pages) without being intimidatingly large, and clearly it was designed with much attention to detail. The title logo is exotic but not specific to any particular cultural or aesthetic style, which is a good start for the book. The title and the central picture of the cover are glossy, which makes it stand out a bit. The design of the rest of the cover resembles patterns and shapes in stone, recovered from a lost civilization. Inside, the same pattern is shows as if it were a rubber stamp applied to the top and bottom of each page. It is subtle, but it keeps the pages from being to dull-looking.
Artwork
(For some examples of Eberron's art, click here to see a gallery on Wizards.com.) Opening the book to random pages, one can get an idea of how the artists and designers envision the setting: rife with violence and danger, home to marvelous vistas and dramatically different locales. One thing I noticed early on was that there were several artists utilizing slightly different artistic styles throughout the book. I will compare this to another design choice: using the work of only one artist (as in the now out-of-print Planescape campaign setting). When introducing a completely new world, if all the art is done in the same style, it gives the reader the impression that the style is how the world really looks. In this case, with so many artists' work included, it gives the impression that these are merely the artists' interpretations of the setting, and none is necessarily accurate to how the world really is. At this point, at the dawn of this new line of books, I see this as a design mistake. The basic campaign setting book is in a unique position to give a first-time reader a distinct impression of the world, and by giving various impressions, it does not immerse the reader as much as a consistent style would. One thing readers will quickly notice is the pulp comic style full-page illustrations that accompany every new chapter. I found them very reminiscent of Mike Mingola's Hellboy comics, combining pulp adventure with fantasy and mythology, and I found the quality of this work to be consistently good. Much of the rest of the art is of the style you expect to see in D&D. One picture that does not impress me at all is the picture of the "extreme explorer" prestige class. It looks as if it were lifted directly out of d20 Modern, and feels vaguely out of place in this book. I must admit that there were a few pictures that did all the selling necessary in my case: the warforged creation forge, the lightning rail, and the airship, to be specific. I found them so vivid and evocative that I simply had to have this book as soon as I could. They seemed as if they might have been inspired by the Final Fantasy games, which have always impressed me with their art and imagery. Overall, I was very impressed with the art in Eberron. It rarely (if ever) clashes with the picture the text paints, and it generally adds to the total reading experience.
Layout and Organization
The quality of the layout is about what you would expect from Wizards' recently published work. The text itself is black on white paper, with none of the black on "yellowed parchment" that drew complaints back when D&D3 was published. The text is arranged in two columns per page, which works nicely. The book is organized intuitively, with the players' rules in utilitarian order: races, then classes, then feats and traits, then magic, then prestige classes. The first six chapters (about a third of the book) focus on the rules, leaving most of the remainder to focus on the setting. Near to the end, however, the book goes back to rules, this time speaking to the DM only, giving new magic items, monsters, and an adventure. At first it seemed odd to drop the huge sections on regions and organizations in between rules chapters, but now I understand the decision better. The book includes a table of contents which splits each chapter into subheadings, as well as a three-page alphabetized index. This may seem standard, but after reading a few RPG supplements with a meager table of contents and no index, I appreciate this much more. In general, the book was very readable.
Writing
The writing is very clear, and very rarely left me confused or wondering what a particular statement meant -- the mysteries I encountered concerned pieces of the setting intentionally left unknown (likely to be covered in future supplements). There are a few typos in this printing, but I found them so rarely that I never questioned the quality of the book in general. Otherwise, there is not much to say about the writing in this book except that it is just as clear as is necessary to explain points without becoming wordy.
Substance
I will now go chapter-by-chapter explaining what is covered in the book, what looks useful, and what can be pulled out for use in other settings.
Introduction
The book begins by explaining that it is the end result of a contest held by Wizards of the Coast to determine its next campaign setting. It also says in the first section of the introduction that the publishers intend for DMs to be able to lift elements of Eberron and place them into their own campaigns, in addition to having the option of running a game in the established Eberron world. It seems obvious that DMs would do this, but it is refreshing to see that the publishers embrace the idea. There is a sidebar in the introduction that shows a brief list of movies that inspired and influenced the creation of Eberron, ranging from Casablanca to Pirates of the Caribbean. Movies are a great way to put you in a certain kind of mood, so I am glad this list is shown, though I wish it were longer and included more diverse media such as books, comics, and video games. The chapter goes on to introduce the setting itself, focusing mostly on the extensive use of magic (allowing for some conveniences unknown in other fantasy settings) and the effects of recent history (the ending of a century-long "Last War" that left entire nations in ruins) on the world. In an effort to better explain the setting, the book lists "ten things you need to know" before jumping into a game. This section is good and deserved to be included, but some of the entries seem superfluous at best, for example: that the continent used to be ruled by the alliance of "the Five Nations" is allegedly something every player and DM needs to know, yet it is just a bit of over-100-year-old history that doesn't seem to have much bearing on the setting as it stands. I cannot help but think the writers liked the number ten and would not settle for eight or nine. The last paragraph of the introduction alerts the reader that the next six paragraphs will be rule intensive, and that if he or she would rather read in depth about the setting itself, he or she should read chapters seven and eight instead. It is a nice warning that would keep a more setting-oriented reader from having to either plow through six rule-heavy chapters or determine some other way where he or she should begin reading.
Character Races
The seven player character races that appear in the Players Handbook are all present in Eberron, as well as four new races. There a few (sometimes striking) aesthetic differences, but the common races function mechanically the same as they do in the PHB. Changelings, one of the new races, are descendents of doppelgangers and humans, who have the ability to change their physical appearance at will, granting them a hefty bonus to Disguise checks. Another new race, the kalashtar, are relatively recent arrivals to the world of Eberron (shown in more detail here). They were originally extraplanar entities (from the plane of dreams) that originally inhabited human bodies to flee persecution, but now are a mortal race in their own right, born into their bodies. They are natural diplomats and telepaths, possessing minor psychic powers. These are explained in the book, in case the reader does not have access to the Expanded Psionics Handbook, though since I don't have that book, I will probably remove them as a PC race. The third new race, the shifters, are descendents of lycanthropes and humans. Each shifter can tap his or her animalistic power for a short amount of time, gaining abilities similar to a barbarian rage, as well as a specific ability chosen during character creation. Shifters also have access to feats to augment their shifting ability, which I will cover later. The last new race, and possibly the most controversial, is the warforged. These are living, free-willed constructs, created in the final decades of the Last War to be elite soldiers, and were recently acknowledged by authorities as free people. They were built with tough plating on their bodies, and thus have a natural armor bonus and deal lethal unarmed damage, but due to this natural bulk, they cannot wear armor or wizard robes. However, there are feats they can take that function very similarly to armor, with armor check penalties and all, except this armor cannot be removed, making it a difficult choice for warforged players. They have some immunities common to constructs for lack of flesh, blood, and nervous systems, but are still vulnerable to critical hits and to any effects that target wood, metal, or constructs. On the negative side, warforged cannot heal naturally, and healing spells only provide half their normal effect. While warforged might seem overpowered to some, their significant disadvantages will keep warforged players down-to-earth. If the warforged still make you nervous, simply do not offer them as a PC race. The end of this chapter gives short descriptions of various regions, because nationality can be as important as race in Eberron.
Character Classes
The eleven classes presented in the PHB are present in Eberron, and mostly function just as you would expect. The class that sees the most change is the cleric. Clerics serve churches, not gods directly. Since gods in Eberron are distant at best (and non-existent at worst), clerics are not required to have any particular alignment, as long as they stay on good terms with their churches. This allows for good clerics in corrupt churches, or corrupt clerics in good churches, adding shades of gray to the noir feel of the setting. The actual source of a cleric's divine magic is debatable, and certainly a touchy subject among the clergy. Eberron adds a new class called the artificer, which is a manipulator of fundamental magical energies. They can use most magic items such as scroll and wands, and are expert crafters (at each level, they have a "craft reserve" that can be spent in place of experience to craft magic items). They also have magical abilities called infusions (which function similarly to spells, but not identically), which must be used on physical objects (including warforged). For example, an artificer using a bull's strength infusion cannot grant the infusion directly to a non-construct ally, but can use the infusion on an item carried by the ally, such as his sword, temporarily making it into a sword of bull's strength. Artificers are also adept at healing warforged and other constructs. Artificers have several abilities common to rogues, so they make a suitable replacement. Every class is given a one to two page description of how members of that class get along in the world, including a profile of one character as an example.
Heroic Characteristics
This chapter begins by introducing action points, which function exactly as they do in Unearthed Arcana. For those not familiar with action points, PCs are granted a small number at each level, and these can be used to enhance d20 rolls by an additional d6 (higher level PCs can roll multiple dice, and use the highest result) or to activate certain abilities. Once spent, they are gone forever. Unspent action points are lost when a PC gains a new level. This encourages players to take riskier actions, enhancing the pulp feel during gameplay. The chapter moves on to show new uses for some skills, and introduces new feats. The vast majority of the feats are for specific classes or nationalities, such as several which represent training by druidic organizations. Dragonmarks are feats that only certain races can take that represent hereditary membership in a dragonmarked house and provide limited spell-like abilities. There are feats specifically for shifters which improve their shifting abilities, and other feats for warforged, representing improvements in their construction. Adamantite Body, which can only be taken at 1st level, provides a strong bonus to armor class and a DR 2/adamantite, with all the negative effects of wearing heavy armor, and this armor cannot be removed. Improved Fortification, which can be taken at any level, grants warforged immunity to sneak attacks and critical hits, but that warforged can no longer be healed by cure spells (since warforged do not heal naturally in the first place, this comes at quite a cost). Other feats relate to action points, such as raising the number of action points gained at each new level, or improving on the bonus granted by action points. After the feat section, the book details the role of religion and the divine in Eberron. There are several churches which worship various entities. The book makes clear that deities are distant, and might very well not exist at all, and atheism and agnosticism are viable options for characters in Eberron.
Prestige Classes
Several of the prestige classes in this book are based directly on organizations and forces at work in the setting, and the rest of them are intriguing and balanced well enough to warrant inserting into other campaign settings (for the most part). The dragonmark heir class applies to those who have power and influence within a dragonmarked house, giving them increasingly powerful dragonmarks and slightly more action points. The Eldeen ranger class applies to rangers who seek out membership in any one of various the druidic organizations of the Eldeen Marches and gain special abilities based on which sect they decide to join. The exorcist of the Silver Flame class is meant for clerics or paladins of the Silver Flame who wish to focus on fighting supernatural evil. The extreme explorer is the unfortunately-named class for bold, risk-taking adventurers who want to make the most out of their action points. The heir of Siberys is a class that represents people who express the rare dragonmark of Siberys. The master inquisitive class is meant for detectives and investigators. The warforged juggernaut is a class only available to warforged which allows them to further embrace their construct nature and become much more powerful as a result. The weretouched master is a class only available to weretouched, which allows them to make better use of their shifting abilities. There seem to be balance issues depending on which animal a weretouched master can become. A bear weretouched master, for example, gets +16 strength while shifting. This is accurately derived from a brown bear's stats in the Monster Manual, but it seems ridiculously overpowered compared to the other animal choices.
Magic
This chapter details the role magic plays in societies in Eberron, which is both extensive and pervasive. There is an socio-economic subclass of professional spellcasters which includes the dragonmarked, adepts, magewrights, and members of the dragonmarked houses. Dragonmarked all possess minor spell-like abilities, and the dragonmarked houses dominate the economies of all nations and facilitate free trade between them. Adepts (as they appear in the Dungeon Masters Guide) are minor divine spellcasters who do day-to-day work for their church. Magewrights are skilled workers who enhance their labor with minor spells to be the best in their particular field. The result of this is that minor magic items can be found everywhere in the world, adding conveniences unknown in most medieval fantasy settings. Magical long-distance communication, secure banking, and easier travel make Eberron different from most other D&D campaigns. The chapter also details the planar cosmology of Eberron, which differs from both the default cosmology found in the DMG and the cosmology written for the Planescape campaign setting. In Eberron, most of the planes move in irregular orbits around the prime material, and planar convergence can strongly affect magic and spellcasting. This gives the DM more tools for coming up with interesting circumstances for adventures. The chapter also explains the roles of outsiders in Eberron, including new rules for fiends possessing victims (or willing participants) and characters channeling celestials. These rules are perfect for use in other campaigns where you might want angels and demons to play a more active but subtle role. The artificer infusion list is found in this chapter, as well as a handful of new spells and cleric domains. Artificers don't have the versatility of magical effects that a wizard or cleric might, and certainly not the same power at higher levels, but they make up for it with versatility of use.
Adventuring Equipment
This chapter includes five new weapons (all exotic) and three new kinds of armor, which are wielded and worn respectively by certain groups in Eberron. There are also new grenade-like weapons, such as a liquid that becomes freezing cold when exposed to the air, dealing cold damage. There is a chart detailing the cost of various goods and services in Eberron, such as a hero's feast for you and ten friends, or a warforged repair kit. One interesting item in this section is a wizard's spellshard, which is a crystal that functions as a spellbook that can hold twenty spells. It isn't made clear that spellshards completely replace spellbooks in Eberron, so I get the impression that spellshards are just an option to add flavor. There are new riding animals, including four varieties of dinosaurs for small characters to ride. There are also nine new special materials used by different groups, such as bronzewood, a very hard wood which can be made into armor that does not affect Hide checks in forests. These new materials are not revolutionary, but do add flavor to particular regional items.
Life In the World
The life section of the book is by far the longest. It begins by explaining Eberron's systems of measuring days, months, and years, then goes into detail about life in general in Khorvaire, the continent that is the focus of the book. Economics, government, education, and travel are covered. It is explained that Khorvaire is the only known place where Eberron dragonshards are found. The bulk of this chapter is a detailed profile of each diverse region in Khorvaire, explaining its history, geography, politics, population and demographics, economics and exports, groups of power, and adventure ideas. That last item is especially useful for the DM, as one would imagine. The more populated and interesting regions receive more coverage (like Breland, a capitalist haven, gets ten pages) while other regions receive less (the Mror Holds, a primarily dwarf-populated mining region, gets only two). One region that caught my attention is called the Mournlands. It used to be a human nation, part of the Five Kingdoms, and the birthplace of the warforged. It was destroyed in some merciless act (called the Day of Mourning) at the end of the Last War, killing all mortals, and hardening the ground in one area into a vast plateau of glass. Any monsters found in the Mournlands are likely to be mutated by unknown energy, and the dead do not decompose, so battlefields remain strewn with corpses several years after the ending of the Last War. Somewhere in the ruins of the once-great nation, a mysterious prophet is building a cult of warforged with dreams of forging a nation of living constructs. Concepts like this set my imagination reeling, and make me eager to develop adventures for this setting. After the section on the regions of Khorvaire, other continents are detailed, such as the subcontinent of Aerenal, home of the elves from before humans arrived in Khorvaire. The Aereni practice ancestor worship and are masters of necromancy, preserving their most honored elders and valiant soldier as undying, creatures kept animated through positive energy. The continent of Argonnessen is the home of the dragons, and the dragons do not welcome mortal visitors - the few who venture to explore the continent never returned. Its shores are guarded by human barbarian tribes. The book says little beyond this, but most campaigns will have very little to do with Argonnessen, so I don't mind. Sarlona is home to Riedra, empire of the quori, the psionic beings who drove the kalashtar from their home plane from Dal Quor. They can only live on Eberron by possessing willing humans. A small haven of kalashtar, called Adar, is kept secret from their oppressors. A brilliant move on the part of the designers of Eberron, nearly all of Eberron's psions are residents of this continent, so if you don't like psionics or don't own the Expanded Psionics Handbook, simply downplay the importance of Sarlona in your campaign and your players should respect your wishes to leave it out. The last continent mentioned is mysterious Xen'drik, is a continent covered by jungle and the ruins of an ancient giant empire. It is home to the drow tribes, and should be the focal point of campaigns featuring exploration. Unfortunately, there is very little about the continent in this book, but it will probably be covered in a supplement.
Organizations
This chapter details fifteen organizations found in Eberron, plus information about all thirteen dragonmarked houses. Most of these were your run-of-the-mill D&D organizations, such as churches, secret societies, etc. One that struck me was the Library of Korranberg, the largest library in Khorvaire, and the centerpiece of gnomish society. It is a university in its own right, with eight colleges striving for knowledge in different fields, always hungry for new discoveries. I can imagine an Indiana Jones-esque (or even a Lovecraftian) campaign making good use of this library as a patron. However, it is not the only university on the continent, and rivalries could fuel great adventures.
An Eberron Campaign
This chapter gives DM advice for running a campaign in Eberron. It has some general advice, but moves on to special advice about how to capture the desired pulp/noir mood. It talks about the use of recurring villains, and gives two examples with complete statistics. The magewright NPC class is given a fully explanation with statistics as well. This class could easily be used in other settings that feature widespread magic use.
Magic Items
This chapter begins by detailing dragonshards, the world's most valuable natural resource, which can be utilized to create powerful magic items. They come in three distinct types: Eberron shards (from the surface world, found only on Khorvaire and Aerenal), Khyber shards (from the underworld, found everywhere, but more commonly where there is volcanic activity), and Siberys shards (from the sky, found only on the continent of Xen'drik and likely on Argonnessen as well), and these three types are used for different purposes. The chapter then briefly discusses magical forms of transportation, including airships and lightning rail coaches. Next, it details special warforged-only magic items, including "docent components" which I would probably describe as an intelligent familiar. These mysterious items can be found only in the ruins of Xen'drik, and no one has been able to successfully create another one. I love this idea, and I'll be sure to use it in my campaign. There is also a page and a half dedicated to "wondrous locations", which are like magical items but cannot be moved, such as a mystical observatory.
Monsters
There are 26 new monsters included, and four new templates. One template, the "living spell", is actually a template that is applied to spells to turn them into monsters. I think this could be used very well to keep players on their toes. Most of these monsters can be ported easily into any other setting.
The Forgotten Forge
There is an adventure for 1st level PCs, but I'm not going to go into detail about it and risk spoiling it for potential players, but I will say that it includes 11 possible encounters (a good number for an adventure) and that it introduces elements unique to Eberron, so it would be useful as a first adventure.
Index
There is a three-page, tightly-spaced index. I found it useful, and it would certainly speed-up play.
Final Impressions
I have a lot of difficulty assigning number values to my opinions, but I'll give it a shot. I give the book a 5 for style because I found it very readable (as well as fun to read), nearly every illustration helped me to better understand the setting, and it is just dripping with cool. Because of the quality of the writing, the options given to characters of every race and class, and the sheer amount of good stuff covered, I give it a 5 for substance as well, and leave it up to you to decide if $39.95 is what you would pay for a 5/5-rated book (I was considering giving it a 4 because of its price, but I can't fault the quality of the book for that.) I had a lot of fun reading through this book, and I think there are a lot of great ideas in it. A great many mysteries are introduced in this book, and I get the impression that DMs are encouraged to come up with their own answers. Partially because this is a new setting uncluttered with years of additional supplements and official fiction (Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance, I'm looking your way), and partially because of the freedom given to DMs, I feel like I could introduce my own sweeping changes to the setting without disrupting something sacred and untouchable. Creative DMs will appreciate this very much, but DMs who rely on published adventures and supplements might be turned off by the lack of answers, though they might get them in future Eberron products. The setting also feels cohesive, which is quite an accomplishment considering the diversity of the world. The book retails for $39.95 which is simply far too much for many people. I bought the book on Amazon.com for $27, which is much more palatable. For that price, I was very satisfied with my purchase.
If you are still undecided about Eberron or have other questions about this book or my review, please email me at jakewaltier@gmail.com.
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