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View Full Version : [3.5] Eberron Essentials - What do new players need to know?



Callos_DeTerran
2011-01-23, 08:07 PM
This threat is mostly for my own use, not going to lie, but I'm pretty sure that lots of people could get some help from a thread like this. Eberron's been around for a while now, accrued a whole bunch of books to it's setting...which makes it a bit daunting for new players to jump into. There's a lot of fluff to muscle one's way through. Lots of people don't have the time to read through all the Eberron books and lore so this thread is for them.

What's the essential fluff of the setting? How does it differ from standard D&D settings? What are the most important things to keep in mind when creating a character for Eberron?

Keld Denar
2011-01-23, 08:12 PM
Everything you ever wanted to know about playing in Eberron, but were afraid to ask! (http://www.angelfire.com/dragon3/captainjarlot/)

AslanCross
2011-01-23, 10:14 PM
What's the essential fluff of the setting? How does it differ from standard D&D settings? What are the most important things to keep in mind when creating a character for Eberron?

Essential Fluff:
-Dragonmarked Houses and their monopoly. Unless you're from Communist China Riedra, you will probably deal with the Dragonmarked Houses or at least know of them.
-Magitech: Due to artifice, low-level magic is commonly available: Streets are lit with everbright lanterns, the lightning rail is a relatively inexpensive form of long-distance travel, and small magical items are easily available if you earn your keep in GPs.
-The Last War is still burned into the minds of the people. It went on for over a hundred years and only terminated recently. Diplomatic tensions are still high, and the Five Nations are only barely tolerating each other.
-Webs of intrigue: If you're after a particular artifact, you can bet that at least two other factions want it to. Your boss might even be in on it.

How the setting is different:
-No racial morality: The common humanoid races aren't alignment-locked, and deviations from the norm are far more common. The goblins aren't low-level fodder; you could as easily hire one as a magewright or a guide. Elves are just as likely to be snooty yet urbane as they are likely to want to rip your head off for a trophy. Dragons aren't color-coded, and you'd better not irritate them, as even the metallic dragons can visit some very serious pain on humanoids.

-Every race has its place: Giants once had an empire. Dragons still have theirs. Goblinoids once had a powerful empire as well. The core races are all represented in the Dragonmarked houses. The new, non-dragonmarked races (Shifters, Changelings, Kalashtar, and Warforged) each have an important place in the setting. Heck, even ogres were given a respectable society on Sarlona, albeit as manual labor slaves of the Inspired. Orcs are tribal, but they saved the world once: more than the elves have done.

-Gray and gray morality: The most righteous-looking church is rotten with corruption. The average person still pays some form of homage to the evil gods. The "goodly" nations tend to have their hands tied diplomatically and often spend time bickering over land with other "goodly" nations. The most oppressed people are also among the happiest, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Giver) thanks to the Thought Police.

-High level of urbanization: Granted, this is most true for the Five Nations (the capital cities and Sharn are all highly urbanized centers of civilization), but other continents (especially Xen'Drik) are almost entirely wild.

NPC Level Glut:
-Clerics are actually very rare in churches. Most are experts with ranks in Heal and Knowledge (Religion), as well as any craft or profession skills they need to perform rites, create appropriate items to their faith, etc. Clerics are almost entirely guaranteed to be formerly crusading priests during the Last War, and now have a very high political position. You don't find artificers working in sweatshops; those would be magewrights. Artificers would be the few-and-far -between leaders of magitech industry, university professors, and high-level Dragonmarked guilders.

Creating an Eberron character:
-Characters from the Five Nations will almost surely bear the effects of the Last War. It only ended a few years prior to the campaign start.

-Dragonmarks are always good options for the core races, as they not only provide mechanical benefits but political and social ties as well. (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/campaigns/contacts.htm) Even for non-Dragonmarked characters, social ties and affiliations might prove important. Churches, armies, spy networks, and the CIA (http://eberron.wikia.com/wiki/Dark_Lanterns) could prove invaluable assets to characters.

-If you're higher than Lv 5, it is likely you are a hero of great renown. The monarchs of many nations themselves are only about Lv 10. It's very difficult to be a high-level PC character

Prime32
2011-01-24, 04:52 AM
The Eberron Campaign Setting has a list of movies to watch if you want to get a feel for the setting. Indiana Jones was one of them.


-If you're higher than Lv 5, it is likely you are a hero of great renown. The monarchs of many nations themselves are only about Lv 10. It's very difficult to be a high-level PC characterNote that there are a few high-level characters, they're just rare and usually have their hands tied:
Olean(sp?), the head of the Wardens of the Wood, is an awakened tree with 20 levels of druid.
Jaela "loli-pope" Daran is a 17th-level cleric in her nation's capital, and a 3rd-level cleric outside it. She has an evil counterpart imprisoned in Lhazaar who is higher-level, thus being boosted to epic in the proximity of the Silver Flame.
Then there's (Erandis d')Vol and the Lord of Blades...

Apart from that, there are still high-level monsters, including dragons, the epic-level rakshasa rajahs sealed in various hidden locations, and the inhabitants of The Far Realm Xoriat who are only kept from invading reality by a crumbling sect of orc druids.


EDIT:
There are two "monster" nations in existence which are uneasily accepted by the others, and goblinoids had a grand empire which collapsed before humans arrived. Many yearn for the old days, but this could manifest as diplomatic relations with other nations or trying to kill humans. Did I mention that humans look almost exactly the same as the head Far Realm guys, and that goblins saw those first? They were pretty freaked out when the first humans showed up.

Half-orcs aren't really shunned. Half-elves have a distinctive culture, and contain one of the dragonmarked houses; if you're a half-elf it's more likely than not that both your parents were half-elves.

Elves are divided into four groups:

The elves who have blended into Khorvaire society
The horse-riding warriors who gallop around the plains fighting random people for glory and worshipping ancestors
The "traditional" elves living on an island nation who transform elders into deathless (good-aligned positive energy undead) after they die, and sometimes paint or even modify their bodies to resemble corpses (they have a problem with an undead cult infiltrating them and convincing impatient youths to become vampires and such)
The drow, who are basically savages and wander around on the ancient continent of Xen'drik. They worship scorpions and some have powers over shadow.

AslanCross
2011-01-24, 06:15 AM
Note that there are a few high-level characters, they're just rare and usually have their hands tied:
Olean(sp?), the head of the Wardens of the Wood, is an awakened tree with 20 levels of druid.
Jaela "loli-pope" Daran is a 17th-level cleric in her nation's capital, and a 3rd-level cleric outside it. She has an evil counterpart imprisoned in Lhazaar who is higher-level, thus being boosted to epic in the proximity of the Silver Flame.
Then there's (Erandis d')Vol and the Lord of Blades...


I was about to mention those, which is why my post was kind of truncated. I was just distracted by something and by the time I got back to it I forget what I was going to edit in.

Still, most major cities will not have that many high-level casters. Even spells like Raise Dead are going to be relatively hard to come by without connections.

The-Mage-King
2011-01-24, 08:47 AM
In Korhivaire, you have nightmares...


But in Inspired Reidria, nightmares have YOU!

DeltaEmil
2011-01-24, 08:56 AM
Eberron is more magi-teck (somehow like the Final Fantasy-games) than your typical D&D-wannabe-medieval setting with lowly peasants and stuff.

It also has androids (golem-men and women).

And it was build on the premise that if the D&D-rules were "simulationistic" (as in, the rules do reflect the reality in their strange ways), then that's how a D&D-world would look like.

Of course, super-high-level NPCs were deliberately left out, so that Player Characters can become these super-high-level dudes who shall shape the world of Eberron.

comicshorse
2011-01-24, 09:03 AM
Apart from that, there are still high-level monsters, including dragons, the epic-level rakshasa rajahs sealed in various hidden locations,



So thats what we let free !

Oops

Greenish
2011-01-24, 09:15 AM
-Gray and gray morality: The most righteous-looking church is rotten with corruption. The average person still pays some form of homage to the evil gods. The "goodly" nations tend to have their hands tied diplomatically and often spend time bickering over land with other "goodly" nations. The most oppressed people are also among the happiest, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Giver) thanks to the Thought Police.LE vampire king was one of the central figures in achieving peace and ending the last war, and now spends his efforts to maintain the peace and correct his mistake of allying with a cult led by a half-dragon elf lich.

NG queen wants to restart the war and conquer the world!

NPC Level Glut:
-Clerics are actually very rare in churches. Most are experts with ranks in Heal and Knowledge (Religion), as well as any craft or profession skills they need to perform rites, create appropriate items to their faith, etc.Well, churches aren't in the whole healing business anymore, having been ousted by House Jorasco. You want a resurrection or Heal, they're the peeps you go to (and their Hippocratic Oath includes promising never to heal anyone without being paid up front).

Half-elves have a distinctive culture, and contain one of the dragonmarked houses; if you're a half-elf it's more likely than not that both your parents were half-elves.Half-elves (or Khorovari, "Children of Khorvaire, as they sometimes call themselves) have two dragonmarked houses. Everyone forgets House Medani. :smallfrown:

Burner28
2011-01-24, 09:21 AM
LE vampire king was one of the central figures in achieving peace and ending the last war, and now spends his efforts to maintain the peace and correct his mistake of allying with a cult led by a half-dragon elf lich.

NG queen wants to restart the war and conquer the world!
:

The "NG" queen sounds more like NE :smallconfused:

Prime32
2011-01-24, 09:25 AM
The "NG" queen sounds more like NE :smallconfused:It's for the greater good, you see. She is the most compassionate of all rulers, so if she ruled the world no one would ever suffer.

At least that's how she sees it. She genuinely is a selfless person, she just goes about things weird.

AslanCross
2011-01-24, 06:35 PM
It's for the greater good, you see. She is the most compassionate of all rulers, so if she ruled the world no one would ever suffer.

At least that's how she sees it. She genuinely is a selfless person, she just goes about things weird.

Yeah, she wants to rule the world because she feels she can do it better than anyone else, and as such will make life better for everyone. Aurala just tends to be...obsessed with her goal and often manipulates people. For the greater good. She's utilitarian, sure, but not necessarily evil.

The LE vampire king wants world peace because it's easier to get away with his scheming that way. On the other hand, he also genuinely cares about his country, and his being a vampire is part of having to have made a Faustian pact in order to save it when it was on the brink of losing the war.



Well, churches aren't in the whole healing business anymore, having been ousted by House Jorasco. You want a resurrection or Heal, they're the peeps you go to (and their Hippocratic Oath includes promising never to heal anyone without being paid up front).

Yep. It's still true that most of the church workers are experts rather than monolithic organizations of with class levels and prestige classes to boot.

sonofzeal
2011-01-24, 09:33 PM
Halflings are dino-riding barbarians, orcs are druids, elves are ruthless expansionists, hobgoblins are noble remnants of a shattered pre-human empire (and some still dream of rebuilding it), hardly anyone is above lvl 7, lvl 0-1 magic is pretty ubiquitous, the Great Houses pretty much control commerce, and DO NOT SCREW AROUND WITH DRAGONS; in Eberron it's less that you taste good with ketchup and more that they consider genocide as "acceptable collateral damage". No modern civilization has yet regained the heights of the last one the dragons nuked, although humans are starting to get close. And yes this might be a very very bad thing.