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Exploring Eberron through the Mind Domain Cleric for 5E D&D

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Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted look through their third eye and continue Exploring Eberron through the character options included in the Dungeon Master’s Guild book produced by Keith Baker, the megapopular Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting’s original creator. Eberron is an extremely rich and detailed setting beloved by D&D players from its very beginning. Exploring Eberron illustrates wonderfully how curating character options creates a tremendous opportunity to show, rather than tell, what is special about your world. Exploring Eberron includes several subclasses for 5E D&D characters to choose from specially tailored to the setting, and Nerdarchy plans to explore them all like we do. In the case of the Mind Domain cleric I’m going through the book to find the connection points between the Divine Domain and the larger world it comes from. So let’s get into it.

Mind Domain in Exploring Eberron

Deviating yet again from what we covered before, Mind Domain touches on a whole bunch of themes and concepts throughout Exploring Eberron. Psionics and similarly cerebral minded topics lie all throughout the book. Psychics and mind powers permeate Eberron whether it’s kalashtar, followers of the Path of Light or psychoactive explosives this campaign setting includes lots of touchstones for those who explore the mysteries of the mind.

“This path blends divine devotion and psychic power. The forces tied to the Mind domain teach followers that the mind is the greatest tool and the mightiest weapon in creation. A cleric of the Mind domain learns to harness their own mental power, then uses this gift to protect the faithful and smite enemies.” — Exploring Eberron

  • Kalashtar are known for their psychic gifts, which can manifest lots of ways. Bardic Inspiration and spells might originate through psychic phenomena and warlocks can receive power from quori spirits, for just a few ideas.
  • Those who know of the Dreaming Dark threat looming in the shadows of the mind follow the Path of Light in opposition to this lurking enemy. The great light il-Yannah inspires followers, whose power comes from within.
  • The fortress of Taer Lian Doresh stands on the edge of Dal Quor and mortals meet quori face to face there.
  • An intriguing sidebar Quori: Fiends or Aberrations? brings light game design elements, engagement with the Dungeon Master and player agency together through some terrific ideas. There’s bits like this found throughout the book, which adds to the word count but shares useful material.
  • Spellcasting takes place in the mind — the components are tools to harness the caster’s supreme focus.
  • Cults of the Dragon Below may receive mental transformations as payment to their otherworldly masters. Side note: Cults of the Dragon Below are one of my absolute favorite generic adventure hooks. They’re insidious and wonderfully irredeemable.
  • Dyrrn the Corrupter is a dalekyr closely associated with psionic powers and evolving the mind.
  • Way of the Living Weapon monks can follow a tradition of the Nightmare Shroud and their martial arts techniques draw on psionic power to manifest ectoplasmic projections.
5E D&D Exploring Eberron Mind Domain

A kalashtar man with horned headdress casting a spell as seen in the fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons Exploring Eberron. Clerics of the Mind Domain believe in themselves!

Your Exploring Eberron stories

And that’s three out of five from Exploring Eberron with Forge Adept, Maverick and Infusions artificers and College of the Dirge Singer bards left to go. The subclasses in the book clearly tailor themselves to specific races prominent in the campaign setting, which of course makes great sense. The way race and class intermingle makes the flavor of the setting come alive and I can imagine playing characters who in some ways transcend their class altogether. A kalashtar Mind Domain cleric is really just a kalashtar, full stop.

At any rate discovering ways to immerse your character into the campaign setting you’re playing in adds new dimensions to how they view the world and how the world views them. Exploring Eberron contains tons of interesting information and tidbits about the world enough for any player to find cool and interesting ways to help bring characters to vibrant life. If you’re interested in finding out more about this campaign setting Exploring Eberron is a big 250 page book available at Dungeon Masters Guild in both PDF and hardcover options here.

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Doug Vehovec

Nerditor-in-Chief Doug Vehovec is a proud native of Cleveland, Ohio, with D&D in his blood since the early 80s. Fast forward to today and he’s still rolling those polyhedral dice. When he’s not DMing, worldbuilding or working on endeavors for Nerdarchy he enjoys cryptozoology trips and eating awesome food.

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