Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Altaris 04-15-05, 01:47 PM	Ok, RoE is awesome. I bought it last night, and have been reading it since. I love it, and I love all the new flunchy goodness. But dangit! As a DM, I was looking forward to having more crunch for the Inspired. It is great to have all these feats for Kalashtar, but crimanidly trigger! :mad: As a DM, this book is rather disappointing to me. The Inspired fluff was awesome... And it left me wanting more. I've had to dig up old issues of magazines I have no desire to buy or read just to get what little has been released on the Inspired and the Quori. It would have been nice to have more resources to better utilize one of my favorite aspects of Eberron. :weep: [/rant]
Streamweaver 04-15-05, 01:57 PM	The book being an overview, I think anyone with an interest in a particular race will be disappointed. I really wanted to see much more in terms of the Valanar Elves myself. I expect we'll see seperate books for the Kalishtar/Inspired someday. Weather that will happen in any useful timeframe to someone running a game now though is another issue.
Rathis Darkwielder 04-15-05, 03:12 PM	Keith Baker has been talking plenty of times about a forthcoming Sarlona book. I suppose that's where you will get all the kalashtar/inspired goodness you are hoping for. I'm still waiting for my copy though, so count yourself happy to have the book already ;)
Dunbar Brasstwister 04-15-05, 03:22 PM	You know what I was really dissappointed about? I wanted more information on the core races' roles in Eberron. I'm a nut about Dwarves, and there was only like two pages about them in RoE. :P
JohnnyONeal 04-15-05, 04:29 PM	Keith Baker has been talking plenty of times about a forthcoming Sarlona book. I suppose that's where you will get all the kalashtar/inspired goodness you are hoping for. Even based on conversations I've had with Keith, it's been clear that the Sarlona book is still purely hypothetical. He'd love to write it, and I know plenty of fans who'd love to see it, but it doesn't exist yet. Keep expressing support for the idea here! I say that if they do it and do it right, they can make it an essential purchase for Eberron fans and non-Eberron fans of D&D psionics. You know what I was really dissappointed about? I wanted more information on the core races' roles in Eberron. I'm a nut about Dwarves, and there was only like two pages about them in RoE. I think the other races will be covered in due time. For now, the Dragonshards (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ebds/20041101a) articles on the common races are awesome... better than most D&D sourcebook content, if you ask me. Five Nations will definitely provide more fluff about different cultures, though the focus will be on humans. Beyond that, I expect we'll eventually see a counterpart to the Five Nations that provides information on the Mror Holds, Zilargo, Valenar, the Talenta Plains, the Lhazaar Principalities, the Shadow Marches, the Eldeen Reaches (if that's not covered along with Aundair), and the Demon Wastes. In the meantime, I think we've got a lot of material to work with.
Altaris 04-15-05, 04:29 PM	Keith Baker has been talking plenty of times about a forthcoming Sarlona book. I suppose that's where you will get all the kalashtar/inspired goodness you are hoping for. I'm still waiting for my copy though, so count yourself happy to have the book already ;) Yeah, I know. And this will be devoured minutes after I purchase it! :D But I really could use some Inspired-specific crunchiness for my current campaign. Afterall, they are the bad guys, and I'd really like to have my players actually encounter some Dreaming Dark agents in combat. So far I've made due by keeping the Inspired in the back drop or encountered only through RP. I wont be able to keep doing that as things progress though. EDIT: RE: JO's post. Everything that has been released for Eberron is premium quality stuff. As most here know (I think,) I'm a diehard Eberron fan'atic.
Gurv 04-15-05, 04:52 PM	You know what I was really dissappointed about? I wanted more information on the core races' roles in Eberron. I'm a nut about Dwarves, and there was only like two pages about them in RoE. :P It is not surprising that RoE doesn't cover these races in detail. The Inspired, while one of the more interested aspect of Eberron in my opinion (combined with the fact that a setting finally acknowledges the rules of the game as a whole) are only one of a number of extraplanar/outsider threats to the world. They are not the only evil to write about, and many DMs might not even intend on making use of them; as a psionic creature, they have been given a "use it if you like psionics" role, and WotC can't make them a central, unignorable issue if they want to keep that role intact. No matter how important they are to one DMs plots (mine also, incidently), they were designed to be ignorable too. Combine that with the fact that they are not a PC race (that is what kalashtar are all about), and it is impressive that there is as much information on them as there is; WotC isn't going to create a bunch of feats and powers that only the Inspired can use. That would be like creating a page of daelkyr feats: very interesting, but not exactly useful to the majority of the market. The Dwarves, while interesting, don't need a large section devoted to them. Although they have an interesting culture on Eberron, they are not a new race, and they already have a number of sources from which to draw on. Although not everything in Races of Stone applies to Eberron dwarves, enough of it can that the designers surely thought they would be better off devoting detail and space to the brand-new, Eberron-specific races. Don't get me wrong. I wish it were possible for WotC to publish a Dwarves of Eberron sourcebook. I really wish I could see more on the Inspired, kalashtar, and Dal Quor. And that goes for every race, core or brand new, which exists in Eberron. I have seen posts from people who want details on the Dhakanni Empire, on Eberron orcs, on the cosmology and the layout of the planes, on the ancient Giant Empires. I would like to know what happened to the giants exactly, what the dragons have been doing for the last fifty thousands years and what they are doing now. I'd like to know that the Lords of Dust are up to, and whether the elves of Aerenal have epic magic and what they plan on doing with it if they do. If we are lucky, WotC will hit on all these subjects and more in years to come. A little more luck, and they will hit on the ones that are the most important to us frst. But it will take time, and money (So stop downloading pfd copies of the sourcebooks. You know who you are!), and a lot of work. So be patient. It takes a while for all the ideas to get to the bookshelves.
Altaris 04-15-05, 05:38 PM	That's a good post Gurv. It is all the juiciness for the Kalashtar that highlights the lack of goodies for the Inspired. Much of the Kal info is at least geared towards use against their immortal and eternal foes. It seems a waste to want to use this great Kalasther stuff, and not use the Inspired. But at the same time (and yeah, I'm getting repetitive) there just isn't enough Inspired-specific crunch. The Hanlabani (I just know I spelled that wrong) are really cool, but not much use in a campaign set on Khorvaire. I suppose I could just houserule certain Kal specific feats or items can also be used by Inspired, but that seems against the fluff of those feats.
MavrickWeirdo 04-15-05, 11:05 PM	Despite the name, the Kalashtar Thoughtshifter feat (page 118) should be available to both kalashtar and Inspired. Here's one
3nigma 04-16-05, 12:37 AM	You know what I was really dissappointed about? I wanted more information on the core races' roles in Eberron. I'm a nut about Dwarves, and there was only like two pages about them in RoE. :P Did you miss the fact that the Dwarven race alone has two back-to-back Dragonshard articles about them? THat's as good as it gets ;) -3nigma
Gnome_Dragon_Disciple 04-16-05, 01:05 AM	Forgotten Realms has its own Monster Manual (Monsters Compendium)... So too will Eberron, eventually. Who knows? Maybe it will be true to Eberron form and have large chunks of fluff to counterbalance the heavy crunch, and HOPEFULLY it might even have a new type of quori... or 16....
Chiba_Monkey 04-17-05, 01:52 PM	Altaris, I'm with you. I'm primarily a DM myself. Races of Eberron makes me want to cry, because I want to play an Eberron game now. :weep:
Flame_Drake 04-17-05, 07:11 PM	Forgotten Realms has its own Monster Manual (Monsters Compendium)... So too will Eberron, eventually. Who knows? Maybe it will be true to Eberron form and have large chunks of fluff to counterbalance the heavy crunch, and HOPEFULLY it might even have a new type of quori... or 16.... Actually it already does.... It's call MM3 :D Drake PS: no joke, if MM2 was Dark Sun and FF was Planescape, then MM3 is MoE despite the utter lack of Quori
Altaris 04-18-05, 11:19 AM	Altaris, I'm with you. I'm primarily a DM myself. Races of Eberron makes me want to cry, because I want to play an Eberron game now. :weep: *nods* :D I convinced one of my players to run an adventure IMC. It will give me the chance I've been looking for to play my 'forged arti. YAY! :D It's call MM3 That is almost true! :D There are a lot of entries on MMIII that seem (or actually are) geared towards Eberron. As an aside, Lords of Madness has some great use potential in Eberron as well. We've already seen one conversion for use with Kal's versus Inspired, but the Sactified Mind is also perfect for use as it stands. From the XPH, Illithid Slayer is also a great PrC to use. With the revelation of recent materials and current events IMC, I'm seriously considering revamping my campaign arch and moving towards an Aberration-focus rather than Inspired. I may save the Inspired for the a game down the road.