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Unearthed Arcana — Eberron for 5E D&D

How to DM -- Cheat With The Lazy Dungeon Master
5E D&D Feats -- Aberrant Dragonmarks from Unearthed Arcana: Eberron

Unearthed Arcana — Eberron is out and it’s time for Nerdarchy to weigh in. If you haven’t downloaded the free PDF from Wizards of the Coast grab it here.

Races of Eberron

Eberron introduced a handful of new races to the game. With fifth edition Dungeons & Dreagons coming out we no longer have access to those setting specific races until now. The exception being the Kalashtar we still don’t have them for 5E D&D. With Kalashtar being a psionic race I understand why they excluded them. The thing that irks me is the stat conventions. All of the Unearthed Arcana — Eberron races deviate from what is in the 5E D&D Player’s Handbook for stat bonuses where all of the races get a net bonus of +3 or greater. In the free PDF all of the races get a net bonus of +2.

Changeling. I’m pretty happy with what was done with these guys. I still find the +1/+1 a bit annoying. Would it break the game if they had a +2 to Charisma instead of +1? The Duplicity trait gives them proficiency in the Deception skill and makes perfect sense for changelings. Their Shapechanger trait is pretty awesome and what makes changelings really shine.

Shifter. I am the least happy with this race from Unearthed Arcana — Eberron. Shifters make the least sense to change the stat bonuses on. Their main racial trait is Shifting, which isn’t any better or worse than most of the other racial abilities. I actually did a mockup a shifter for my daughter. She wanted a character that was like Claudine Wolf from Monster High. So I did a +1 to Wisdom for all breeds of shifters and +2 depending on your subrace. I feel like the animalistic nature of shifters is going to make them more aware of their surroundings. I didn’t do temporary hit points for shifting and instead I did traits. In this case I went with a d4 Bite and a 10 ft. speed increase.

Warforged. The warforged are tricky. Their abilities are harder to define mechanically as to how beneficial they’ll be in actual game play. Their bonuses to Strength and Constitution completely make sense. They don’t need to breath, eat or drink. I’m not sure how useful these will actually be. It also depends on how the Dungeon Master interprets the not needing to breathe as well. Does this make the warforged immune to inhaled poisons? They don’t have resistance or immunity to any damage types. Others may have counted these as huge perks but I just haven’t seen them come up that often. The biggest benefit will be in avoiding drowning hazards. They need to be inactive for four hours. Warforged get a +1 to AC that stacks with everything. Lastly they are immune to disease. Of their abilities I find there are two that matter the most during actual game play and will come up all the time.

  • First that bonus to AC is huge most starting warforged characters will have an armor class ranging from 15-20.
  • Second the ability to be aware during their rest. That means they can stand watch all night long. This will come up often and is very useful in my opinion. An extra set of eyes and another character ready for action if danger arises.

Arcane Tradition — Artificer

Here is an area where a lot of people are going to be unhappy. I’m not sure how I feel yet. I will say the one thing definitely missing is crafting and thieves’ tool proficiencies. Artificers are good at making stuff but they’re also good at figuring things out like traps. The other problem is an artificer should get more weapon and armor proficiencies than a typical wizard. This Arcane Tradition allows a wizard more versatility with using their spell slot resources. It also gives the wizard a lot more spells prepared and access to healing magic. It’s a really solid Arcane Tradition. The real question is, “Does this Arcane Tradition make a wizard feel like an Artificer?”

3 reasons Artificer wizard feels un-artificer like

  • Crafting and thieves’ tools proficiencies
  • Armor and weapon proficiencies
  • Spellcasting versatility (mix of divine/arcane Spells)

One of the things about artificer in previous editions of D&D was it allowed you to pass yourself off as other classes with a little prep and forethought, which is very fitting in a campaign setting like Eberron where intrigue lurked just around the next corner at all times.

Dragon Marks as 5E D&D feats

After reading through my thoughts we get to places where I feel Wizards of the Coast hit it out of the park. I don’t think these will change when we get a finalized rule set for Eberron. The only thing not there is Aberrant Dragon Marks but that is okay because we have a blueprint for making them. Not only this but aberrant marks don’t follow a specific rule set. I’d create themes them based around things like pain, suffering, plague and other darker aspects of life and death.

There you have it — my 2 gp on the new Unearthed Arcana — Eberron for 5E D&D. Feel free to weigh in with your thoughts in the comments below. Until next time, stay nerdy.

*Featured image — The investigations of a warforged wizard, Talenta halfling, and their dinosaur companion lead from the ruins of the Last War into the depths of the Demon Wastes. [Art by Wesley Burt]

New videos every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel here

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david friant

My name is Dave Friant I've been gaming off and on for over 27 years. But here is the thing it's always been a part of my life I've kept secret and hidden away. I've always been ashamed of the stigma that gaming and my other nerdy and geeky pursuits summon forth. Recently I decided screw it! This is who I am the world be damned. From now on I'm gonna be a geek, nerd, or however folks want to judge me and just enjoy life. Currently one of my greatest joys is introducing my 13 yr old son to table top RPG's.

6 Comments

  • Tony Cervo
    February 10, 2015 at 5:48 pm

    Important to remember (from the Eberron article page):

    "You can think of the material presented in this series as similar to the first wave of the fifth edition playtest. These game mechanics are in draft form, usable in your campaign but not fully tempered by playtests and design iterations. They are highly volatile and might be unstable; if you use them, be ready to rule on any issues that come up. They’re written in pencil, not ink.

    The material presented in Unearthed Arcana will range from mechanics that we expect one day to publish in a supplement to house rules from our home campaigns that we want to share, from core system options such as mass combat to setting-specific material such as the Eberron update included in this article. Once it’s out there, you can expect us to check in with you to see how it’s working out and what we can do to improve it."

    (That was meant for readers who haven't visited the UA page…not for the post author.)

  • David Friant
    February 11, 2015 at 6:47 pm

    Good points Tony. I meant to throw that disclaimer into the article, but dropped the ball. One of the hopes of the article is some the ideas would trickle back to the designers so they'd get more feedback. I feel like Unearthed Arcana Eberron was released to the public just for that reason.

    We do cover those thoughts and opinions more in the video.
    Thanks

  • Natalya Kellie
    November 30, 2015 at 5:48 pm

    I ran across this looking for 5th ed Eberron info to steal for my own world. The big comment i have is about Artificer.
    I discovered Artificer in 4th and really loved the class. In my first 5th ed game a few months back we needed a healer. Cleric and Bard didn't appeal to me so i asked my gm if i could improvise.. so i made my own artificer

    Taking Bard. Everything that said "Chr" I made into "Int".
    Changed the second save to Con from Dex.
    Replaced the Instrument Profiencies with Tool Proficiencies.
    Changed the spell casting focus from "Instruments" to "Tomes, Rods, Tools" this was a shrug by my GM.
    Built a new spell list focused on: Transmutation, Abjuration, Spells with an Attack Roll, Healing Spells.
    Changed the casting type to Spell Book/Prepared from Known Spells/Spontaneous (Unlike Wizard/Soceror, Bard gets no spell refresh ablity and i kept that weakness to keep my powerlevel down).
    Rewrote the flavor to suggest Runes/Magical effects rather than Inspiring words and music. I made my party hand over their equipment for me to "Rune Up" when we were in town, then in the field i'd "activate the runes".. .whcih was mechanically identical to everything bard did. Counter Charm was a rune. Distraction was runic resistance. Inspiration was Runic Buffs.

    I ended up with a party buffer/healer that had an artificery feel. I was neutred a little in the session our equipment was stolen, but it was organic (in the same way silencing a bard is organic neutering).

    The two paths available to bard, Battle and Knowlege, to me played will with artificer's focus on Combat Artifice or Maker Artifice. I was a Maker.

    Just leaving this hear for anyone that might want it.

    • Nathan Riggins
      December 4, 2015 at 2:31 am

      Those are simple, yet powerful, alterations in that they give the feel of an artificer without inventing an entire class from the bottom up.

      The big advantage that I see in what you have done is that there isn’t a worry about balance since the bard has already been accepted as a viable class option.

      Thanks for posting this- Would you mind posting this in the forum? Or is it alright if I post this to our forums as a class build?

      Nate the Nerdarch

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