Eberron: What should Dragonmarks be capable of doing?

[Cardea]

So Dragonmarks are talked about at length in the various books as being these strange alien and almost powerhouse bringing things, with heavy ties to the Draconic Prophecy, and sparking confusion and interest from the dragons of Argonessen. But mechanically, they are dull, with the functionality of an Eternald Wand. So I was wondering, has any DM done anything to make them more interesting? Not precisely overpowering for the feat, as they are supposed to be an option, rather than THE-BEST-CHOICE (tm), but surely someone in the past few years has done something to make them a bit more engaging or more versatile and interesting, in lieu of just being SLAs?

[Gildedragon]

I've made them into a prestige class that advances other class's features; and adding a +X to the CL of effects related to the mark or a free metamagic to it depending on the mark; each level has some HD prereqs, each level corresponds to a level of dragonmark

[Afgncaap5]

Well, Dragonmarks are mostly interesting as story hooks. I once used the Forgotten Forge adventure, and noted that it suggested that a player with a Cannith dragonmark could use it to open a mostly unopenable door (though another route was given for parties with no Cannith players). Similarly, dragonmarks are used to control a lot of the more interesting pieces of travel technology.

A few uses of Dragonmarks that I've considered for games I've run...
-Using the Mark of Storms to redirect the BBEG's weather machine.
-Using the Mark of Scribing to empower a Lich's phylactery (since most phylacteries are boxes containing magical writing such as prayers and arcane formulae) and, on the flip side, using the same mark to nullify a lich's phylactery.
-Using the Mark of Handling to perform a (effectively) rebuke check on a pack of magebred wolves who were the result of the player's in-game father's experimenting.
-Using the Mark of Passage to be the only way to safely navigate a giant, secret bridge that stretches from an entrance of Khyber that connects to Mabar (plane of shadow). The Bridge of Mists was a scrapped project, but still exists, and it takes a child of Orien to not get lost in its web-like maze and to avoid the gaze of the titan-sized Guardian of the Bridge.
-Using the Mark of Hospitality to erect abjurations capable of warding away those who would do harm to an individual, be they spirits or creeping aberrations.
-It wasn't for the players, but I also introduced an Assassin from house Thuranni that was from a sub-family in the house known as the Mabarian Blooms. Their victims always wind up with a dark rose-like flower made of pure shadow growing out of their heart. I've not yet in-game established what can be done with the petals of Mabarian Blooms (a flower otherwise only found in Mabar itself), but I have said that wizards highly prize them.

Also, it wasn't something that I established as a GM, but I once had my favored-in-house House Orien news reporter use it to bring all the shattered pieces of a massive dragonshard back together while everyone else worked on the actual repairing and mending. Sort of using teleportation as a way to bring broken pieces "back home", the equivalent of (as my GM put it) 7th level magic since I was using teleportation for what should really be a high-powered transfiguration or telekinesis effect.

[Rizban]

I've always felt like the simplest "fix" to making dragonmarks relevant mechanically is to just consolidate the feat chain into a single feat that scales as you level.

The marks themselves are supposed to be visible and have cultural/religious significance, so have NPCs who see them react accordingly. Perhaps some react with reverence, some with fear, and some with outright hatred. Perhaps a merchant refuses to due business with the marked while another offers a discount. Most of the benefit of dragonmarks was intended to be RP.

[Prime32]

So Dragonmarks are talked about at length in the various books as being these strange alien and almost powerhouse bringing things, with heavy ties to the Draconic Prophecy, and sparking confusion and interest from the dragons of Argonessen. But mechanically, they are dull, with the functionality of an Eternald Wand. So I was wondering, has any DM done anything to make them more interesting? Not precisely overpowering for the feat, as they are supposed to be an option, rather than THE-BEST-CHOICE (tm), but surely someone in the past few years has done something to make them a bit more engaging or more versatile and interesting, in lieu of just being SLAs?Don't overlook all the dragonmark-based items. Even the Least Mark of Passage qualifies you to operate a teleportation circle that someone else constructed.

[The_Snark]

I always thought dragonmarks were supposed to be significant on a setting level more than an individual level. A dragonmark is not that big a deal by PC standards, because the magic they offer is generally something you could have gotten by being a spellcaster.

On a large scale, though... the existence of the Greater Mark of Passage means that there are a number of low-to-middling-level NPCs out there who can teleport, and will take passengers for a fee. Yes, a level 9 wizard could theoretically do the same, but a) there are lots of other things a wizard of that level could be doing with their power, and b) mid-level aristocrats are probably a lot more common than mid-level wizards. The Mark of Warding offers access to a number. The Greater Mark of Storms offers control weather, which normally calls for a high-level druid. The Mark of Warding gives access to a number of trap and ward spells, many of which are permanent and/or normally have expensive material components. The Mark of Healing offers healing, which may or may not be a big deal depending on how common divine casters are in your version of Eberron (and how willing they are to sell their services).

This isn't to say that the mechanics always succeed in portraying this, mind you. The Mark of Making and Mark of Handling offer spells that are thematic, but it's hard to see how to leverage them into a business model - it seems like Cannith and Vadalis get more mileage out of training members to be artificers or spellcasters. The Mark of Sentinel and Mark of Shadow's powers are moderately useful for a bodyguard or spy, respectively, but they're not game-changing, especially since those are professions where you expect to see more PC classes than aristocrats.

This is not a very satisfying answer to the question of how to make dragonmarks interesting for PCs, I realize. Consolidating the Least/Lesser/Greater line into one feat makes them more appealing for PCs who wouldn't otherwise get that sort of magic: one feat for teleportation powers isn't a bad deal for a fighter. For casters, you could write custom feats that make them better at magic associated with their house, e.g. adding a selection of movement-related spells to an Orien sorcerer's known spells...

[Afgncaap5]

I think I also remember Keith Baker once saying that the spell-like ability a dragonmark gives should be among the least useful things that a Dragonmark does for a person, but that a lot of the specifics should be up to an individual DM's campaign once you get beyond the magic item uses. I'd suggest looking for times that a player with a dragonmark tries to do something that's sort of in line with dragonmarks, and letting the mark itself solve the problem even if the player wouldn't be enough.

Like, if a player has a Mark of Warding and they're trying to guard a hallway from a small army of trolls that are rapidly breaking through all the defenses, if the player decides to hold the line while everyone else runs off, I'd let the trolls get up to him or her, and then suddenly have the Mark of Warding activate and create a rocky image of itself on the floor that acted as a Runic Circle (from races of stone) while imparting a few Dwarven Defender benefits on the wielder.

Or if someone with the Mark of Passage is running along a mile-high bridge that's collapsing behind him, if it looks like the player isn't going to make it that's when I have the Dragonmark activate and suddenly triple or quadruple the character's running speed.

[Psyren]

I've always felt like the simplest "fix" to making dragonmarks relevant mechanically is to just consolidate the feat chain into a single feat that scales as you level.

The marks themselves are supposed to be visible and have cultural/religious significance, so have NPCs who see them react accordingly. Perhaps some react with reverence, some with fear, and some with outright hatred. Perhaps a merchant refuses to due business with the marked while another offers a discount. Most of the benefit of dragonmarks was intended to be RP.

All of this sounds perfectly reasonable to me.