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Races of Eberron is not technically an Eberron support product. If you run Eberron, it has all kinds of value, but Wizards deliberately made Races of Eberron non-setting specific, so that those mix-and-match gamers who like warforged or shifters can plug them into their own, unique campaigns. And let's face it, warforged are cool enough that they ought to be in every high-fantasy D&D game.
Chapter One: Warforged
The metal constructs called warforged are a very cool player option. The ability to play a creature just learning how to emote, with a body made of steel and a primal training to fight, is just plain fun. Now anyone can play one of these hardened warriors (pun intended), using the depth of information provided here.
After a basic description of the warforged 'race,' this chapter launches into a short treatise on a day in the life of an average warforged just trying to make ends meet. He is a warehouse guard and stevedore, and spends his nights guarding and whittling toys. This short story allows readers to better understand these not-so-gentle giants.
The chapter discusses several topics, including warforged psychology and life, society and culture, and relations to other races. A few pages describe how warforged could adopt different classes, such as bard or paladin. The options actually make some sense when described here, and would be fun to play.
This first chapter also begins to hint at the biggest drawback of Races of Eberron. There are several feats that could seriously benefit a warforged, but these are not in the book. These are in the Eberron core book. If a book is supposed to allow non-Eberron fans to use these races, it seems unfair to keep the best parts in a book that non-fans don't want to buy.
Chapter Two: Shifters
Descended from lycanthropes, the animalistic shifters are capable of subtle transformations that can lend considerable aid in difficult situations. Shifters can grow claws, fangs, or even batwings, though not all shifters share the same benefits. They are wild and primal creatures at constant war with the beast within.
The Day in the Life story presents a hunter in the wild, who uses her ability to grow more powerful legs in a lopsided fight against goblins. The story is very short, but still somewhat effective at giving an impression of life for a shifter.
As with the warforged, this chapter examines psychology, society and history in considerable depth. Shifters are an interesting player option, and could fit a variety of settings other than Eberron. Unfortunately, the flaw that began in the first chapter continues here, as many shifter-only feats can only be found in the Eberron core book, meaning that it would be difficult to translate them without another expensive book.
Chapter Three: Changelings
A racial mixture of humans and doppelgangers, changelings have the ability to alter their appearance and look like anything from a dumpy human bookkeeper to a gorgeous elven queen. They suffer from considerable identity issues, as would anyone who has neither a true homeland or even a true face.
The story in this chapter is funny and interesting. In it, a changeling wanders around the city, appearing as different people, from fat merchants with ugly nose hair to curvy female elves and finally into a half-elf private inquisitive who has used his abilities to solve a difficult smuggling case.
Psychology is as important for changelings as it is for every other race in this book. There are three basic types of changeling. The first is the passer, who attempts to lead a life as a normal citizen. The becomer embraces his abilities and takes full advantage, changing his face on a regular basis. The reality seeker, on the other hand, is trying to become comfortable with his nature, and is most often smooth-faced and white-skinned - his true form.
This chapter spares us from the worst of the cross-referencing, but there are still notes that suggest you will enjoy this book a lot more if you buy a couple more.
Chapter Four: Kalashtar
A fascinating race, kalashtar are a hybrid of humans and quori. Quori are creatures from the land of dreams, and a rebellion long ago caused many of them to flee and bind their souls to a few select humans. The bloodlines continue to create new kalashtar, but after hundreds of years, the connection between the quori and the kalashter can only be truly sensed while the kalashtar sleeps.
The quori spirit bonded to the human grants the kalashter formidable psionic powers. Sadly for those reading the book who are not lucky enough to own both the Psionics Handbook and the Eberron core book, most of this powerful ability must be inferred, since the chapter continually refers us back to those other books.
Kalashtar live constant battle against the Dreaming Dark, evil creatures of dreams who want to exterminate the kalashtar entirely. These villains turn other sentient creatures to their doom, using them as pawns in their continuing war.
The kalashtar could be a very cool race, but only if you get some other books. This chapter was the most disappointing in terms of sending me elsewhere for the information I needed. If this is the only one of these books you buy, the chapter on kalashtar is little more than interesting but useless reading.
Chapter Five: Other Races
Previous books in the 'Races of' line have discussed the standard races in depth. This chapter presents core races only in terms of Eberron. Dwarves, Aerenal elves, drow elves, Khorvaire elves, Valenar elves, gnomes and goblinoids all have their own sections. Orcs, half-elves, half-orcs, humans and halflings are also discussed. These discussions are fairly short, as they are not intended to be expansive descriptions, but rather a few extra guidelines for putting standard races in the Eberron setting.
A couple cool additions, however, do give this chapter some value. My favorite is the halfling dinosaur rider, and an entire section on the Inspired - the mortal shells of the Dreaming Dark - allows a DM to take this diabolical race and use it against his players.
Chapter Six: Character Options
There are several pages of race-specific feats to enjoy in this chapter, as well as many general feats that make sense in Eberron. Warforged feats like mithral body and silver tracery are nothing but cool. The shifter feats are mostly improvements on base abilities, and the kalashtar psionic feats are useful. The changeling feats are cool, too, but there are only three, all having to do with disguises.
Unfortunately, every race also gets ripped off if you only have Races of Eberron. There are great feats for warforged - but they're only in the Eberron core book. There are some awesome feats for shifters - but they, too, only appear in the Eberron book. Excellent feats are available to kalashtar - but this time you need both the Eberron book and the Psionics Handbook. In other words, this chapter is a good, but ultimately it is a teaser.
Racial substitution levels are very cool, in my opinion, and there are good substitution levels for all four of the new races. In case you're not familiar with this concept, racial substitution levels provide options for advancement tailored specifically to your race, so that an elven paladin may have slightly different abilities from a warforged paladin of the same level. These are a great way to have more options for your characters and provide excellent customization at any level.
Chapter Seven: Prestige Classes
Eight prestige classes are presented in this chapter, because every fan knows a new D&D book has to have prestige classes. In all fairness, these make lots of sense. The atavist is a kalashtar who has learned to better tap the power of his quori ancestor, and takes the fight to the Dreaming Dark. The moonspeaker is a shifter druid who represents his people as a diplomat and powerful spellcaster. Quori Nightmares use the power of nightmares in battle. Reachrunners are the greatest of the shifter hunters and trackers. Spellcarved soldiers are warforged who have augmented their body with powerful runes.
All of these prestige classes are excellent choices for the races in this book, and except for the fact that there are even more references to books you may not own, they are very good.
Chapter Eight: Equipment
Another staple aside from prestige classes in any D&D book is the equipment section. This one tends to be better than most, since it contains warforged components on top of the other magic stuff you take for granted.
Warforged components are magical items that can be designed specifically to be permanently mounted on warforged characters. The ideas here are great, but they feel a little short. This could have been a much cooler chapter, but too much was devoted to things like shifter braids and drow armor.
Chapter Nine: Magic and Psionics
If you own Eberron, you are probably familiar with the artificer class. These magic-users specialize in crafting magic items, and are a great class for a warforged. Of course, you can't employ the artificer class without the Eberron core book, but rest assured, they're pretty cool. If you don't have the Eberron book, you'll have to take my word for it.
This chapter presents several spells and psionics, spread too thin. This chapter would have benefited more from focusing primarily on artificer infusions and psionic powers. Instead there are new druid spells, cleric spells, and wizard spells, which are largely out of place in this book and dilute the focus that should be placed on the race-specific magic.
Presentation
Not much needs to be said about the visuals in a D&D book. Wizards of the Coast makes the most attractive books on the market, and that tradition continues with Races of Eberron.
A Little Extra
Lately, Wizards has started a trend I really like - adding stuff at the back of the book. Races of Eberron has a little pullout preview of an upcoming novel. It's largely superfluous, and probably less useful than most of the other inserts I have seen, but still, it's cool that it's there.
Observations and Summary
My least favorite thing about roleplaying in general is what I like to call book churn. This is where companies know they have to support their games, but run out of things to write about, so they end up writing cheesy splatbooks and unnecessary supplements. It's even worse when one nearly-useless book has just enough information in it to be indispensable - you have to get book X even if you don't want it, because that's the only place to get optional rule Y.
Races of Eberron is a victim of book churn. If it had been truly an opportunity for non-Eberron fans to get access to the new races, it would have been excellent. Instead, it seems to have become a great big marketing tool that will make buyers feel unequipped without the entire collection of related materials.
Style: 5 - As usual, this is the best visual appeal you'll find in the industry.
Substance: 3 - What starts out as an excellent way to adapt the Eberron races to other campaigns ends up being a mediocre and frustrating exercise in futile cross-referencing. If you own both the Psionics Handbook and the Eberron core book, you can make this a 4.
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