Post/Author/DateTime	Post
lordmolay 12-22-05, 10:19 AM	I'm preping for my turn as DM and i would love to run a game in eberron. Now i am the only one who has read enough about eberron to run it and yet i know very little. What i want to do is set up a cheat sheet for the players (and my slef) about some of the major things in ebberon. I'm also looking for some early advice. I plan on playing the printed adventures From WOTC and\or Paizo first mostly because they are a great intro into eberron. First 10 things i need to know Fallowed by 10 things they need to know Thanks fora any help..
DragonWatcher 12-22-05, 10:49 AM	1. Fuzzy Alignments: While Eberron defines alignments in the same general manner as the Player's Handbook, the setting doesn't constrain itself to typical placement of alignments. What I mean by this is that with the exception of Planar beings (celestials, demons, etc.) who are the personification of an alignment, alignment is not inherently tied to race or species. Instead, in Eberron, alignment is tied to culture, and more specifically, the actions of members of that culture. So, in Eberron it is not true that All (or even most) orcs are Chaotic Evil. One cannot assume that a gold dragon will be Lawful Good. Each culture will determine the general alignment of its members, and even then, each individual will decide for themselves by their actions. So, in a community of Gatekeeper Druids, most of the orcs would tend to be Lawful Neutral. On the other hand a community of followers of the Dragon Below would likely be Chaotic Neutral to Chaotic Evil. Yet, in both cases, there would possibly be exceptions to the rule. Also, having an alignment does not mean blindly or stupidly reacting. Evil characters can work for the greater good, but their methods of achieving that good would likely offend the good characters that they travel with. Not all evil characters need be villians, and even those that are villians need be stupid or single-minded about their goals. Alignments in-and-of-themselves, are not goals, and every character in an Eberron story (PC and NPC, hero and villian) should have something motivating them to behave as they do. It will vastly improve your story if the BBEG is not just slaughtering babies "because he's evil". Likewise, not every hero has to get personally involved in every plotline just "because he's good". Play to characters' motivations. That said, spells, weapons, and other effects that target alignment work the same in Eberron. So while the party might face a Chaotic Evil gold dragon, their Holy Longsword would still function normally.
lordmolay 12-22-05, 10:57 AM	Cool deal... Keep it coming this will be a great resorce for me and my players
Missekat 12-22-05, 12:35 PM	2: A lot of "common magic items", but generally low magic levels accessible. It is easy to attain "normal" magic items suchs as potions, +1 swords and lower level scrolls, but if the players want that Vorpal sword, or an 9th level spell they will have to go on a major quest for the stuff. Most, (actually like 95%), of the high level mages and sorcerers were killed during the battles of the Last War, and are no longer able to teach or sell magic. Magewrights en masse, and a few higher level artificers of house Cannith still hammer out the base items of this high magic society, (yeah.. a world with flying ships and magic trains would have to be labeled "high magic" even though it lacks high level casters, right?). (Edited for sucky spelling)
aelryinth 12-23-05, 04:37 AM	3) the Higher level characters use NPC classes. PC class people are rare....you are likelier to find a level 8 Magewright then a level 5 mage. So don't expect to run across many high level people anywhere...and don't be suprised if they kinda suck as far as the power curve goes when you do find them. 4) NPC's do NOT level like PC's. PC's are going to rapidly outlevel just about all the NPC's they associate with...these people do not 'grow with them' as they do in other settings. Only the very rare 'campaign villain' is going to be able to keep up with them in levels...defeating that one should be a long time coming. 5) Remember you have Action Points to do cool things. NPC's don't have Action pOints. Be cooler then NPC's. 6) There is no safety net. You are the action heroes and the stars of the movie. Elminster and Mordenkainen and their friends and flunkies are not out there to save the day. It's all up to you if things go bad or good. You are the stars of the show...play like it! ==Aelryinth
Errant 12-23-05, 06:50 AM	7) Plots and conspiracies. Not only are [1]the Five Nations still suspicious of each other after a century of warfare, changing alliances and endless battles, [2]you have older, more sinister powergroups lurking in the shadows working on their own interests. Your patron/barkeep/nobleman may be no more than what he seems, or he may secretly be an agent of a foreign realm, the Lords of Dust, the Emerald Claw, the Cabinet, the Chamber, and/or the Dreaming Dark (even if he doesn't realise it yet!). [1] Something you and your players should know; [2] Something you should know and your players come to be paranoid of! :cool:
Errant 12-23-05, 07:09 AM	oh yeah: 8) Something you need? See the Dragonmarked Houses. - Arcane magic items? House Cannith. - Hired muscle? House Deneith. - Food or lodging? House Ghallanda. - Healing? House Jorasco. - Something to keep safe? House Kundarak. - Passage on a ship (sea or air)? House Lyrandar. - Something to detect? House Medani. - Delivery or overland travel? House Orien. - Discretion required? House Phiarlan or Thuranni. - Message to send or translate? House Sivis. - Something or someone to find? House Tharashk. - Need an animal? House Vadalis.
Endless_Helix 12-24-05, 09:32 AM	9. Think Cinematically Eberron is all about exceptional people doing things that normal people can't even imagine, so when someone wants to try to topple a giant idol on the badguys, expect it and encourage it. It leads to really fun games :D
Uller999 12-24-05, 10:17 AM	National Identities are extreemley important. A Dwarf from Karrnath and a Dwarf from Thrane are going to hate each other whilst an elf from Thrane and that Dwarf from Thrane are far more likely to get along. There are nation-states in Eberron but the 5 "nations" aren't them. So your players should think much more in terms of nations and culture than, hey a dwarf as Orc I hate dwarves. This type of thing is probably not true.
Capfalcon 12-24-05, 10:26 AM	To expand on number nine, all of the action should be over the top. I mean, the stuff you see in blockbusters action movies. Here are two examples of action that is taking place in an Eberron campain: Wrong: The masked man just ran by and snatched your backpack with the map to the Temple of the Giants. Right: The masked man just dived out of the piles of rubble that was the Magewright's guild where the were storing Alchemest's fire for the local Skylights festival, which collapsed when the ship you were just on was attacked by air pirates and crashed, and snatched your backpack with the map to the Temple of the Giants. Which is more fun? Also, if a player wants to do something cool, such as swing down on a rope from a balcony, before asking for that use ropes check, first ask, "Is it Cool?" If the answer is yes, then go to question two, which is, "Does he get an advantage for doing this?" (i.e. he would be avoiding three minions and go straight for the wizard) If the answer is no, then let the players do it. It will make your job a whole lot easier if the players start embelishing their actions themselves.
lordmolay 01-04-06, 01:18 PM	Thanks everyone this will help alot Any more things i need to know would be great
Edymnion 01-04-06, 05:04 PM	To re-iterate something that was alread said, there are no pure good guys, or pure badguys in Eberron. Even those that seem to be pure evil have driving motivations that are, in and of themselves, often very good and noble. Two big names that spring to mind are the Lord of Blades, and Erandis d'Vol. The LoB is the WF leader in the Mournlands that wants to destroy humanity, elvenkind, and all of the other fleshies, and rule over all himself. Sounds evil enough, but whats actually motivating him is the fact that his people have been slaves and tools their entire lives, and he believes that as long as the fleshies are out there, there is the risk that his people are going to be enslaved again. He wants to defend his race against it's aggressors, and make sure they never have to live in fear of being used as nothing more than weapons of war. Which is a very righteous, noble goal. He just goes about it in a very evil way. Vol is the half-dragon elf lich that heads up the Blood of Vol that produces all manner of nasty undead and terrorist groups. But, she was also a young, innocent woman who's entire family was wiped off the face of Khovaire simply because she was born, and it was the dying effort of her own mother that turned her into a lich in order to save her. She has since been on an unending quest to try and find some living trace of her family, something to lessen the horrible knowledge that she was the direct cause of the destruction of everything she knew and loved. She just goes about it in a less and less "good" way as time passes. She's built up the Blood of Vol into a major religion, and uses the Emerald Claw as her muscle, but its all mainly a way to gain information about all that she can learn, hoping to find someone with the Mark of Death, and hence a blood tie to her own family. None of the mortal foes the players face should ever be totally evil, totally beyond reason, or totally off the deep end. There are some forces like that out there already (the Daelkyr, the Dreaming Dark, etc), but people are people, and no one really wakes up and says "I'm going to be evil". They always think that, in their own way, they are doing the right thing. That the ends justify the means. The guy out killing children may be doing it because he lost his own child, and has found a way to bring them back from the dead (which is extremely rare in Eberron), but it takes a sacrifice of blood to do it. Good intentions, bad means. As for a number 10: Death is almost always permanent in Eberron. You can't just get to town and have somebody raised. If they die, they die, and you can't bring them back through anything short of a miracle (not the spell, but a miracle miracle), or a herculean quest into the realm of the dead to bring them back. Which means your players MUST fight smarter, not harder. You don't just charge into combat and swing your sword, or you will die, and you will stay dead. Use tactics, ambushes, strategy. And above all, know when to turn tail and RUN.
Lurkalot 01-05-06, 03:26 PM	Ah Heck with it..., 11. Power is not based on class level but on knowledge and influence. Feel free to make the main villain a level 2 Aristocrat if you want. You don't need to be a master or magic or a super-tough fighter in order to mastermind the assasination of the king. You just need to have wealth and contacts. In other words, the PCs should have far less to fear from the Level 8 Wizard than they do the baron who can make them outlaws throughout the kingdom with the stroke of a pen. Eberron has a realism that's long since been lacking from most D&D settings.
Adhevan 01-05-06, 11:50 PM	6) There is no safety net. You are the action heroes and the stars of the movie. Elminster and Mordenkainen and their friends and flunkies are not out there to save the day. It's all up to you if things go bad or good. You are the stars of the show...play like it! I'm not sure Mordenkainen was a good example. He and his Circle of Eight are not a bastion of goodness and light. They are servants of the Balance, or rather, servants of Mordy's meddling interpretation of the balance. He released an evil demigod on the world because he thought the forces of good were gaining too much of an edge. He would only show up to save the PCs' bacon if they are important to one of his long range plans, not out of any particular concern for their well-being. Most of the work of the Co8 is behind the scenes and has very much a noir feel that would be, aside from the power level, perfect for Eberron.
Wolfen Fenrison 01-06-06, 12:33 AM	Don't be afraid of "uniqe" characters, let palyers draw from as much books as are willing to allow for races, classes, feats, magic, after thes are supposed to be the heroes of the age able to in time tackle the great evils that plague eberron, but keep a tight hold on it though.
Edymnion 01-06-06, 01:57 AM	Don't be afraid of "uniqe" characters, let palyers draw from as much books as are willing to allow for races, classes, feats, magic, after thes are supposed to be the heroes of the age able to in time tackle the great evils that plague eberron, but keep a tight hold on it though.Actually, I'd advise the opposite of this. Eberron is a very unique setting that could quickly turn into yet another Faerun "just throw it wherever" setting if you just allow anything and everything under the sun into it. *DON'T* allow in new stuff unless there is a good reason for it to be there. Just because some new splatbook introduces "winged insectile flumph people" doesn't mean they need to be in Eberron, or that they should even be considered. Eberron has a very good feel and balance to it, especially with the races in it. Adding new races above all else should be done with excruciating caution. There is so much good stuff here that could go wrong if you let the wrong thing in the front door that you as the DM really have to play guardian. Only let in what will make the setting/story/game *BETTER* as a whole. it doesn't matter if your player just really really really wants to play that Flumph man, if you can't think of a damned good reason why there should be flumph people in Eberron, tell them they can't have it. Classes, feats, spells, those you can be more lieniant with, as they aren't as potentially world shattering as a new race. But even then, stop and think of the basics. "Where would something like this have come from in Eberron?", "How did this play a part in the last war/Why didn't this play a part in the last war?", and "How would your normal person on the street react to this?". If you can't answer those satisfactorly, then don't allow it into your game. The bigger the addition, the bigger the problems you will have making it work without ruining the great feel Eberron has.
rampant 01-06-06, 02:38 AM	12. Sane people stay away from any ship called the forgotten freedom and any of its crew.
Dex 01-06-06, 03:18 AM	Actually Keith Baker (on the ask Keith thread) specifically said there's a place for everything in Ebberon.
Zelk 01-06-06, 04:05 AM	To expand on number nine, all of the action should be over the top. I mean, the stuff you see in blockbusters action movies. Here are two examples of action that is taking place in an Eberron campain: Wrong: The masked man just ran by and snatched your backpack with the map to the Temple of the Giants. Right: The masked man just dived out of the piles of rubble that was the Magewright's guild where the were storing Alchemest's fire for the local Skylights festival, which collapsed when the ship you were just on was attacked by air pirates and crashed, and snatched your backpack with the map to the Temple of the Giants. Which is more fun? Like the quoted above, you must be creative. Railroading isn't fun. Being creative is fun. Send a bounty letter to your group. They can chase after it if they want to, or do something else; make it so that they don't have to do everything you throw at them. Options are always fun. Also, if a player wants to do something cool, such as swing down on a rope from a balcony, before asking for that use ropes check, first ask, "Is it Cool?" If the answer is yes, then go to question two, which is, "Does he get an advantage for doing this?" (i.e. he would be avoiding three minions and go straight for the wizard) If the answer is no, then let the players do it. It will make your job a whole lot easier if the players start embelishing their actions themselves. Creativeness is enforced. This is D&D; anything can happen(providing it makes some kind of sense :P). For example: In a fight against 5 Hill Giants in Xendrik, 10 minutes after a Sibernys Dragshard storm, I asked my DM to draw in the craters that the storm of Dragonshards created. The Master-Thrower in my party threw a 'decanter of endless water' into the biggest crater on 'geyser' mode. The Bard in my party used the spell Suggestion on them, suggesting them to take a swim since it's so hot today. Myself being an Artificer, then used my wand of lightning bolt to shock the Giants to death. -It was fun for us players, and if we enjoy it, we'll stay :D) Fun for both you and the players is what's key to keeping a game going. Well, that's my :twocents: anyway.
Adhevan 01-06-06, 05:50 AM	Actually Keith Baker (on the ask Keith thread) specifically said there's a place for everything in Ebberon. There is a place for everything. The difficulty, as a DM, is figuring out the best place for some of these things. The streets of Sharn might not be the best place for the Flumph man. For some things the best place would be hidden deep in the jungles of Xen'drik where no one will ever find them, or perhaps even the depths of Khyber. This isn't just true of Eberron, though. No matter what setting you use, you should carefully consider before adding classes and races that are not already included in the setting-specific material. This isn't saying that you should automatically exclude them, but you should think out what impact they would have and how they would change the dynamics of the setting. What role did this new race have in the history of the world? Do they have settlements on Khorvaire? How do the other races react upon seeing them? Were they involved in the Last War? If so, on what side? If your group is purely into hack & slash, then maybe these questions and the answers to them don't matter. But if that's the case, you're not adding them into the setting, just into a game, because setting involves story and background, too.
Sieylianna 01-06-06, 07:37 AM	Actually Keith Baker (on the ask Keith thread) specifically said there's a place for everything in Ebberon. Just because there is a theoretical place in Eberron where something fits doesn't mean that it makes sense for the typical campaign. Unfortunately, most players want classes/races/etc which give them the most power even if makes absolutely no sense. Take Raptorans, for example. If they were commonly available in Eberron, Sharn would be overrun by them. They would also make good couriers, so I can see potential affiliations with House Sivis and House Orien. Now, if there are some isolated in the jungles on Xen'drik and the PCs discover them, possibly allowing one to be taken as a cohort or a new PC. But putting everything in Eberron without working through the relationships to existing races/classes/houses/nations of Eberron will destroy the Eberron feel of the game. Ed
Wolfen Fenrison 01-06-06, 09:01 PM	I belive i said under the DM's approval, there are things in other books I would not allow in my game but if a player brings me something makes a good case for including a good story for it I will allow or at least consider it. There is no reason why a player shouldn't be able to play a i raptorian air shugenja or a whisper gnome ninja as long as there is a damn good story for the character, something cinematic and kinda epic, as I said before in your game these characters are THE BIG HEROES of this age and should be allowed to out shine thier NPC peers. But this comes at a price as the DM should scour his books to make the most insane vilian ever, for example a main mournland horror was a necronaut (MM 3) with the evoled undead template (LM) and the entropic template (PlH), it scared my player s who where over confident in thier "uniqeness".
Count Nerindil Van Seraph 01-06-06, 09:36 PM	13) Beware of the number 13. Avoid it at all costs. This rule is most likely fulfilling some prophecy some were. Why are you still reading this?! 14) DROW?! No! Bad newbie! Very bad newbie! I'll sic Edymnion on you!
Macrovore 01-06-06, 11:23 PM	There is a place for everything. The difficulty, as a DM, is figuring out the best place for some of these things. The streets of Sharn might not be the best place for the Flumph man. . when in doubt, stick them in Xen'Drik
ydirbut 01-07-06, 12:39 AM	15) Half-Orcs are the Coolest. Half-Orc Pirates are even Cooler.
Kalanth 01-07-06, 12:40 AM	Actually Keith Baker (on the ask Keith thread) specifically said there's a place for everything in Ebberon. This makes me think of the default answer I kept getting when trying to find a solid reason why a Gnoll from Droaam would become a first mate on a Merchant Ship in the Lahzarr Principalities, "Just say he's from Sharn, it will all work out in the end." With some things, you could change Sharn for Xen'drik, but there is still things out there that just don't fit Eberron. For example, I would never dream of placing Draconians in the setting, nor would I take anything from the Forgotten Realms books. Some PrC's should go the wayside as well, but those are mostly because they are either broken or for a specific thing that does not exsist on Eberron (I don't like renaming a class, so the ones with a Gods name in the title are out). When it comes down to creative race / class mixes, promote creativity, but go with the races and classes that are readily provided to you, such as standard monster fair (Gnoll, Goblin, Orc, Ogre, etc.) and those in the core and ECS. And always, and I mean always, make the player think about why they would be doing what they are doing when they pick a race, to include human. Afterall, as it has been said numerous times, alignments are fuzzy and the motivations of a Lawful Good Paladin of Karnath may not be on the same level of good as the Lawful Good Paladin of the Silver Flame. Which reminds me, let the players know, and keep in mind yourself, they do not have to follow a religion as a Paladin or Cleric because a Philosophy will do just fine (such as the Paladin of Karnath following the presented ideals of the nation of Karnath, while the Paladin of the Silver Flame follows the relgious ideals of the Silver Flame).
lordmolay 03-08-06, 02:04 PM	Thanks everyone this is some great stuff anyone have any more???
Salla 03-08-06, 05:29 PM	Which means your players MUST fight smarter, not harder. You don't just charge into combat and swing your sword, or you will die, and you will stay dead. Use tactics, ambushes, strategy. And above all, know when to turn tail and RUN. My players learned this one the hard way. At the end of Shadows of the Last War, I beefed up the Fire Elemental fight (five players, high-point build, and slightly over-equipped, and using the 'saving throw to determine death' variant from Unearthed Arcana). I couldn't decide if I was overdoing it or not, then I realized ... the players could simply, and easily, run. The elementals obviously couldn't beat or burn down the door, or else they would have by now. The players should have been aware that they were entering a place of fire (since they saw the observation crystal previously). If they start getting hammered, they can fall back, lock the door, and heal up. Heck, they can simply rest for a day and go back in at full spell/psionic power, while the elementals have back a single day of healing, tops. At least two of my players claim good tactical ability, so I figured, hell, I'll go for it. But they failed to prepare (the Spirit Shaman could easily have prepared Resist Energy spells, but chose not to), and didn't realize how easy it would be to retreat. They were banking on the Shaman's Chastise Spirit ability, apparently ... which worked, of course, but he couldn't rate more than 7 damage on 3d6 due to bad luck, and the psion's Crystal Shards similarly went adrift. Everybody got pretty severely hammered, but the only death occured when the party Warmage, wisely seeking cover in the hallway, didn't back up 5' before casting and got slammed critically on the AoO.
igotsmeakabob!! 03-08-06, 06:07 PM	Salla, I take it that you don't give any slack when a player forgets to say 5 foot step before casting/shooting? Maybe you can explain why? I currently do but if I see that its more beneficial on the whole to penalize them for not saying it, then I'll pick it up.
Acev 03-08-06, 06:47 PM	I don't know about Salla, but I play with minis. If you didn't move your mini before casting, you didn't move. Concentration check please.
jonthegm 03-08-06, 09:18 PM	I don't know about Salla, but I play with minis. If you didn't move your mini before casting, you didn't move. Concentration check please.For me, it depends on the mood of the encounter. If it's a climactic one, then I don't pull punches. If it's a "wandering monster" style encounter, then I cut everyone some slack...
ArcTan 03-09-06, 05:24 PM	As for a number 10: Death is almost always permanent in Eberron. You can't just get to town and have somebody raised. If they die, they die, and you can't bring them back through anything short of a miracle (not the spell, but a miracle miracle), or a herculean quest into the realm of the dead to bring them back. Which means your players MUST fight smarter, not harder. You don't just charge into combat and swing your sword, or you will die, and you will stay dead. Use tactics, ambushes, strategy. And above all, know when to turn tail and RUN. Wait, are you serious? Aside from Eberron being a low-magic setting compared to others, and Dolurrh being a somewhat less pleasant realm of the dead than that portrayed in other settings, where does it actually say that high-level clerics don't get access to spells like _raise dead_, _resurrection_, _true resurrection_ and _miracle_, or that high-level wizards and sorcerers can never learn _wish_, or that high-level psions or wilders can't manifest _psionic revivify_ or _reality revision_, or that high-level artificers or psionic artificers can't scribe scrolls of all of these? Eberron as written very definitely *does* have such abilities extant and available, just very expensive and out of the reach of almost all low level characters or NPCs. There's even stuff about the kinds of interesting interactions between things like the _raise dead_ spell and Dolurrh being coterminous, and arguments about the nature of warforged based on what they experience after being _resurrect_ed, and so on. I mean, yes, you can't just stroll on down to the local temple and ask one of their staff of 20 15th-level clerics to please bring back your buddy for a pittance, but if you've got the gold and the connections you ought to be able to find someone who can bring back your friend, and if you've got those high class levels yourself there's no reason why you shouldn't be able to do the impossible and defy death. Cinematic heroism where your PCs are the hub on which the world turns, and all. I agree that in Eberron and in general resurrection shouldn't be a cost-free thing -- the way the DM handled it in the campaign I'm in right now involves using Heroes of Horror's taint mechanic on anyone who's seen the mists of Dolurrh and been wrenched back to mortal existence -- but saying that because Eberron is a gritty place means that high-level abilities that cheat death simply don't exist seems a tad harsh to me, as does the general idea of always forcing a character who has a bad day to crumple up her sheet and toss it away. Perhaps a character who's killed in a particularly dramatic way can't be restored without openly challenging the Keeper in some kind of quest, but Dolurrh, unlike Dal Quor, is definitely one of the accessible planes that you can muck with using spells and psionics.
igotsmeakabob!! 03-09-06, 05:37 PM	in Sharn a Raise Dead spell is quite possible. If you have the cash you can get a Raise Dead.
ArcTan 03-09-06, 05:38 PM	Pulp/noir rather than heroic fantasy is the main thing to remember with the flavor. This is a setting where, sure, heroic knights in shining armor and world-striding mages wielding eldritch powers exist, but their place in the spotlight is being jostled for by grim, hard-bitten mercenaries, scholarly government conspirators and shadowy alleyway thugs. This is the setting that introduced prestige classes for the hardnosed private eye and various kinds of shadowy government agents. So -- the plot is much less about good, noble kingdoms struggling against titanic evils and far more about negotiating complex political alliances and betrayals and trying to find the greater good amid all of it. There should, of course, still be butt-kicking action, but the setting as it stands has a lot fewer places for titanic armies clashing on vast battlefields and far more for slinking through urban cityscapes, clandestinely infiltrating hidden fortresses, and carrying out assassinations under cover of night. Unlike standard heroic fantasy the world is a complicated place, and discretion and subterfuge ideally should accomplish as much as might of arms. When there are massive heroic battles for survival they tend to take place in the faraway corners of the world, Indiana Jones-style, in forgotten ruins or barren wilderness -- when the fate of the known, civilized world is being decided, it's usually being decided in smoky back rooms and hidden basement headquarters rather than in open war. "The Last War is over" is how the ECS puts it -- the feeling should be that this is a tense interregnum between open hostilities, a time when everyone's jockeying for power and distrustful of each other but the swords stay sheathed as long as everyone talks nice. For me this is the main thing that separates Eberron from stuff like Forgotten Realms -- the bards don't sing songs about you, and the common folk are never made aware of your accomplishments. The key thing that distinguishes pulp and noir from heroic fantasy is that pulp and noir have a sense of a peaceful, everyday "real world" that your fantastic adventures occur on the outskirts of or in the space underneath. So in Eberron, if you save the world from being destroyed by an enormous and vengeful ancient warforged monstrosity in Xen'Drik, you do it *in Xen'Drik*, cut off from all human civilization or support out in the middle of nowhere, and when you get back your whole adventure will be a tall tale (a la Allan Quartermain or Indiana Jones); if you take out a major kingpin of the Dreaming Dark who's infiltrating the leadership of Sharn, it will be in his bedroom in the dead of night using tactics as quick and silent as you can make them, and your accomplishment will only be heard as vague rumors and whispers that the _Korranberg Chronicle_ will be quick to dismiss as hearsay (a la Sherlock Holmes or James Bond). The common folk will never know how many times you've saved their lives in a given campaign -- and it's probably better that they don't. That's my 2 cents, anyway.
Salla 03-09-06, 06:17 PM	where does it actually say that high-level clerics don't get access to spells like _raise dead_, _resurrection_, _true resurrection_ and _miracle_, or that high-level wizards and sorcerers can never learn _wish_, or that high-level psions or wilders can't manifest _psionic revivify_ or _reality revision_, or that high-level artificers or psionic artificers can't scribe scrolls of all of these? It's not that high-level characters don't get the abilities in question, it's that there aren't many high-level characters in general, much less high-level characters with heroic classes like the ones you mention. The highest level cleric in Sharn is 12th (and Lawful Evil to boot), for example. So, basically, unless someone in your party has the spell/power/ability in question, good luck finding it in the first place.
Salla 03-09-06, 06:27 PM	I don't know about Salla, but I play with minis. If you didn't move your mini before casting, you didn't move. Concentration check please. Yes, I use minis, and no, he didn't move it, nor did he declare Defensive Casting even though I had said, at the beginning of the session, that I was no longer going to prompt Defensive Casting checks, because we've all been playing D&D since 2000 and we know how it works. (He didn't even get to the Concentration check part of the casting anyway ... *SMASHthud*)
ArcTan 03-09-06, 07:59 PM	It's not that high-level characters don't get the abilities in question, it's that there aren't many high-level characters in general, much less high-level characters with heroic classes like the ones you mention. The highest level cleric in Sharn is 12th (and Lawful Evil to boot), for example. So, basically, unless someone in your party has the spell/power/ability in question, good luck finding it in the first place. Sure. It's just the extreme way Edymion put it that bugged me, especially when he implied that it would take an actual "miracle" that couldn't be requested by the spell _miracle_ to bring a character back to life, when that's precisely one of the things that spell is supposed to do. I can deal with _true resurrection_ being incredibly rare, even mythical -- so that if you asked your average scholar they might even believe it was simply impossible -- but _raise dead_? 9th-level clerics are rare but not so rare that your party of adventurers -- who are the cinematic butt-kicking heroes upon whom the fate of the world rests -- shouldn't be able to find one and find a way to convince him to bring back your poor friend.
igotsmeakabob!! 03-09-06, 08:35 PM	True Resurrection is totally possible in Eberron, but you'd have to be a close personal friend of the highest powers in the Silver Flame church, since (I forget who) is a 17th level cleric in Flamekeep, but only in Flamekeep.
Talkkno 03-09-06, 10:28 PM	True Resurrection is totally possible in Eberron, but you'd have to be a close personal friend of the highest powers in the Silver Flame church, since (I forget who) is a 17th level cleric in Flamekeep, but only in Flamekeep. The person you are looking for is Jaela Daran, and how can you cast a 9nth level spell at the 17nth level? Shes a 18nth level cleric in the catheral of the silver flame, when shes out, she has the power of a 3rd level cleric, also she is 11 years old. Also, there is a tenth level cleric in Karranth........aand shes neutrul good..
igotsmeakabob!! 03-09-06, 11:30 PM	Yeah, its completely possible with the right resources for a True Resurrection, and its easier to get a raise dead. End result being, while its not common for normal people, its quite possible to get a character raised.
Chicharron 03-10-06, 12:07 AM	All these posts are great. Everyone has great ideas about "their" Eberron. One of the things I like best about it is the treatment of gods. Eberron still has 'em, but there are not personified. People aren't even exactly sure they exist at all. In 'regular' D&D the gods seem almost like untouchable NPCs, vastly powerful but with distinct personality. In Eberron the gods are removed. No one can even explain for certain where divine magic comes from. That's why true clerics are so rare. Understand that because of this and because of Eberron's treatment of alignment, no one is confined to worship a deity acconding to alignment. It is entirely possible (but unlikely) for a Chaotic Evil cleric to worship a Lawful Good deity. The main religion, The Sovereign Host, is a pantheism. You worship the pantheon, although you most likely have a patron, you follow the entire set. Pray to the war god before a battle pray to the god of fortune for good luck, and so on. Part of that religion is also The Dark Six, sort of the Host's evil counter parts. Although, technically they are their own religion, th Six are still considered part of the Host in many ways. i hope this helps. I'm not as eloquent as some of the others on this site.
igotsmeakabob!! 03-10-06, 12:22 AM	Chicharron, from another not-so-eloquent member of the boards, that was a nice little write-up.