While I'm confident there will be support for Eberron in 5E, I don't know when it will happen or how extensive it will be. Given that, I've posted a few ideas on my website; hopefully they'll be useful or at least spark additional ideas.
Good ideas. I've always been a fan of reskinning or reflavoring to make a concept doable. I'm still very eager for a real Artificer class, though. It doesn't feel like Eberron without them. (Thus the reskin, right? ;) )
I helped a friend with her character concept for our newly launched Eberron campaign using this method. She wanted to play a non-heroic/average citizen Cyran survivor of the Mourning who has no idea why she survived, or how she made it outside the nation's misty borders.
In the time since, she has been rapidly developing arcane powers with no previous hint of arcane talent. We reflavored the Warlock class to provide the chassis, though Sorceror thematically would've worked, too. Though each pact had great potential, she chose to reflavor the Archfey pact with "gray mist" trappings. I'm as excited about her character as I am my own.
Were I the DM, I could have a good time with this. Did she get the powers from exposure to the Mourning, or did she in fact make a pact during the time she can't remember? Did a powerful patron save her for a greater destiny (or their own purposes)? It could be anyone (Sora Teraza, the fey of Shaelas Tiraleth, one of the Lords of Dust, etcetera). Maybe she will remember said pact when the requisite features of the Prophecy align? Or, it could just be that exposure to the Mourning. We just had dealings with the Daughters of Sora Kell in our last campaign, so maybe going simple this time is best. I'm not the DM, though.
Long story short, reflavoring gets the job done, sometimes.
tallric_kruush wrote:
Hellcow wrote:
The Deva Avenger MC Shaman character sounds great. That's a perfect example of the rules serving the concept, instead of enforcing a concept. This is how we do things at our table, but I've found that many D&D gamers get very caught up in the names of the mechanics. I'd rather let the mechanics serve my concept, than dictate it.
Hellcow wrote:
With the small peek at psionics in the thri-kreen MM entry, I'm wondering if that will help others to make psionic characters.
Thoughts?
Anyone have any ideas how Shifters would work in 5E.
Is there a chance that there will finally be an explanation of the catastrophe that created Mournland? It would move a story a bit 'forward'. It looks some sort of Spellplague, which is explained to some degree however.
I don't think the Mourning will ever be given a canon explanation. That would rob the setting of possibly its most important mystery, and the one the that truly prevents the resumption of continent wide war. Based upon Keith's comments on the topic over the years, it's probably safe to say that the Mourning will never be explained in any canon material in which he has a say.
The Spellplague of Toril was a literary device to blow up and rebuild a campaign setting based upon game designers' new (at the time) ideals. The Mourning is an intrinsic part of Eberron, an event that helps make the setting what it is. They are both magical catastrophes, but the similarity ends there, I'd say.
I really don't want an official timeline progression, either. The world is perched upon the perfect edge of tension as is, in my opinion.
That said, this doesn't mean you can't implement either, or both, in your campaigns. Maybe the cause of the Mourning is revealed in your game. How would the world react? How would the events (and your timeline) advance?
I would not want the time line to move forward... but I sort of want to see what it would be like moved backwards. The current timeline is what, two years after the mourning? How about setting things up to be two years BEFORE the mourning, with the focus being on the War and all that entails. Then campaigns could play through the mourning itself and deal with that and all the consequences.
I wouldn't mind moving the timeline a bit, honestly, but I'm fine with it where it is. Or, alternatively, giving a number of different "starting points" on the timeline.
I really love some Eberron, me. If WOTC releases a 5th Edition Eberron book I'd like it to include the obvious mechanical support for the different and unique classes and races in the setting, but I'd really like to avoid them rehashing -- or worse, copy & pasting -- text from the last two iterations of the campaign setting book. All the story elements remain useful to DMs and players, there's no need to reprint that information, the ten bullet points that outline the tonal differences, sure, but no more than that. What GMs and players need are full-on adventures, modules, and 'campaign paths' (or whatever WOTCs answer to 'adventure paths' are called). If not those, then at least fill out a books with a sizeable chapter including lots on adventure seeds and hooks, but again, not a simple copy & paste from prior releases... actual new content.
I've been looking at some of the 4E stuff lately and it makes me wish they took the same approach with 5. They released a Warforged early so people could play them (IIRC), they included conversion notes quickly for the new modules and in general, seemed to give more attention to the setting from the get-go. It's nice to see Eberron references and I know it will come-I just wish they inlcuded some earlier.
Sturmvogel wrote:
Hello everyone. Yesterday Mike Mearls answered some questions in Reddit, and he said the following about support of Eberron in 5e (link: http://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/comments/2l69tp/ama_mike_mearls_codesigner_of_dd_5_head_of_dd_rd/):
-On Warforged:
They are not in the DMG, but they will be made available. That material, along with a few other things, were squeezed out due to page count limits. However, the writing is done and we want to get it into your hands.
-On Eberron 5e:
[–]mikemearlsHead of D&D R&D[S] 7 points 6 hours ago
Eberron's definitely on the radar - my longest running 3e campaign was set there. A few of the rules options in the DMG speak to Eberron campaigns, plus we have the warforged designed already.
Fellow Eberronians,
As you may know, WotC released an excerpt of the DMG yesterday (http://media.wizards.com/2014/downloads/dnd/DMG_67_68.pdf), in which Eberron is mentioned among other D&D World. It may be further referenced in the DMG, but I don't have the book and so cannot confirm it. The excerpt says the following:
"On Eberron (the heroic-fantasy world of the Eberron setting), a terrible war has ended, giving rise to a cold war fueled by political intrigue. On the continent of Khorvaire, magic is commonplace, dragonmarked houses rival kingdoms in power, and elemental vehicles make travel to the far corners of the world possible."
This makes me happy. The years I spent playing in Eberron (and writing fiction) were some of the best years of D&D in my life.
I would hate to see it go.
Looks like we will have the 5e Warforged soon. Mike Mearls answered to a question I asked him on the subject on Twitter. He said: "warforged soon - we've had a few non-work things come up that have kept people out of the office."
I am hoping to see Eberron advance a few years, 3-10 years should do. I do not want to see yet another Eberron book with a new edition, where it is basically the same, or just some minor things added on top. If all I get is the same as I already have from my 3.5 Eberron and 4e Eberron then I see NO reason to buy such a book. Just to see an official Warforged or Artificer is not enough. With a small step forward in the timeline, I still think you can get that dark cold war feeling of the Last War hanging over you, and all the other stuff that makes Eberron great. It also gives the creators some opportunity to be creative, and makes the campaign feel new for those of us who already know it. This is a great opportunity to put in some exciting event that would make Eberron even better. I know this is a sensitive spot for many, but for me, I simply won’t buy it for some updated mechanics.
Basically. Please don’t make it just a campaign book with the same things we already know. Be creative, be bold, add some new stuff, new events, new villains, yet at the same time, don’t go so far as they do in Forgotten Realms. Hope to see more of Eberron soon.
I'd be happy with anything at this point. If it was announced that no changes were being made, and we would only get one novel a year, it would be a step up from what we're getting now. 