[3.5] Dragonmarks

[Malos]

I am reading through both the Player's Guide to Ebberon and Dragonmarked. I have a PC that might want to take a dragonmark feat, but I am having trouble locating the information regarding the actual process of manifesting one. Is there a page number in one of these books or other that goes into greater detail on this?

[bosssmiley]

I think the ECS has all the relevant info.

[Curmudgeon]

Eberron Campaign Setting does have all the information, but I'd talk to your DM before proceeding. The thing is, there are some broken things along that path. Two levels of the Heir of Siberys PrC and your Mark of Making dragonmark can manifest True Creation to create 15 cubic feet of platinum every day -- with no XP cost, because it's a spell-like ability rather than a spell. One more level and you can double that. That's 283,735 gp worth of platinum, twice a day.

The Heir of Siberys PrC is probably the most powerful application of dragonmarks, but there are other abuse possibilities therein.

[Foryn Gilnith]

True Creation Siberys Mark was nerfed in an errata.

[Curmudgeon]

True Creation Siberys Mark was nerfed in an errata.

OK, that's a start. But you could instead use Mark of Scribing to manifest Symbol of Death without the 5,000 gp material cost. That's not quite as much of a windfall as True Creation, but selling your service to put up protection wards should make you pretty wealthy. Symbol of Death normally costs 1,200 gp for the spellcasting service, plus the 5,000 gp in materials. You could seriously undercut this price and still make thousands of gp daily.

As I said, there are other abuse possibilities.

[Kol Korran]

as to the OP's question: it's been a long time since i read the ECS, but if i remember right there is no special process for mark manifestation. the mark just appears gradually through your teen/ young adult years. (or are you born with it? damn my memory!) the dragonamrks book have a few ideas about how to flavour it, but that's all.
and as to the abuse of the marks- all that it takes in order not t oabuse them is just deciding not to. the hier of syberis PrC is quite nice, but far less so if you intend to reach to levels 17 and above.

[Prime32]

OK, that's a start. But you could instead use Mark of Scribing to manifest Symbol of Death without the 5,000 gp material cost. That's not quite as much of a windfall as True Creation, but selling your service to put up protection wards should make you pretty wealthy. Symbol of Death normally costs 1,200 gp for the spellcasting service, plus the 5,000 gp in materials. You could seriously undercut this price and still make thousands of gp daily.

As I said, there are other abuse possibilities.

There's a reason the dragonmarked houses pretty much run the economy.

[Foryn Gilnith]

And Siberys marks are pretty damn rare anyway. If you manifest one you ought to be a powerhouse within the House selling those uber-services.

[Defiant]

The idea behind the dragonmarks is that a person doesn't know when he or she will start manifesting. Some people can go their whole lives without any dragonmarks while others start manifesting more powerful ones at an early age.

Mechanically speaking, this is of course basically from the choice of feats. Choose a dragonmark feat and all of a sudden, you will "start manifesting your dragonmark".

[Sinfire Titan]

Heir of Siberys also requires you not to have taken the other Dragonmark feats IIRC. You have to be born a pure Siberys marked, you can't just climb the ladder to that rank.

[Curmudgeon]

Heir of Siberys also requires you not to have taken the other Dragonmark feats IIRC. You have to be born a pure Siberys marked, you can't just climb the ladder to that rank.

But mechanically, this just means you go from 0 to the power of that mark in two levels of a prestige class. The fluff explanation doesn't really do anything unless the DM makes up house rules.

[Sinfire Titan]

But mechanically, this just means you go from 0 to the power of that mark in two levels of a prestige class. The fluff explanation doesn't really do anything unless the DM makes up house rules.

I know. It bugs me too.

[Yuki Akuma]

The feats were designed to work in that setting and only that setting - with all of the lore baggage such powers imply. It doesn't really work otherwise.

[Flayerman]

"Gosh, a mark just appeared on my skin, giving me strange magical powers! I wonder where it came from!"

"The mark of an ancient god is upon my arm/family's arms! I/we are wonderworkers, his representatives in the modern age! It is a sign!"

"This tattoo I had painted by that old mystic is strange...I think it's magic! ...did you see that?!"

Fluff is made to be changed. 'swhy it's fluff.

[Akal Saris]

Yeah, but in this case the fluff helps a lot to balance the feats - if you reflavor it, you also need to reflavor it along with some new balancing fluff.

The idea of somebody with the mark of making running around creating platinum piles is partially balanced by the fluff that said person would be tightly controlled by his house, which really does not want to upset the economy, or instigate an assassination attempt from another house, as well as the incredible rarity of such marks - the DM has every right to forbid a PC from taking the heir PrC if he thinks it won't fit into the campaign he's created.

Also, not every DM - or even most DMs - will let you refluff things at will. I know neither of the DMs that I currently play with in RL would allow my character to take these feats outside of an Eberron game. Even I would be skeptical, and I'm a pretty easy-going DM when it comes to content - but generally the dragonmark feats range from incredibly weak (actually, that's most of them) to ridiculously strong for the right build, with very little middle ground.

For players interested in really focusing on dragonmarks, the Dragonmarked book for the EBCS has a bunch of dragonmark-focused PrCs and feats.

[CockroachTeaParty]

I was really underwhelmed by the dragonmarks when I first read through Eberron. Most of them are fantastically crappy. Even a few of the Siberys marks are pretty yawn-worthy, and certain houses, such as House Medani, strike me as particularly boring and blinkable.

However, after a while, I realized that they were very flavorful, and actually made playing a core race interesting, especially when you've got warforged and changelings running around.

Now, if only the Dragonmarked Heir prestige class advanced a little bit of spellcasting...

[Fax Celestis]

Now, if only the Dragonmarked Heir prestige class advanced a little bit of spellcasting...

No reason it couldn't. It's not particularly strong. Give it 4/5 casting and call it a day.