D&D 5E Eberron Musings

[Twiggly the Gnome]

I've been pondering how the 5E version of Eberron will balance two of the settings foundational precepts, "If it's in D&D, it's in Eberron" and "Subcultures, not subraces", when it comes to the baked in subraces of the standard game.

The elves seem simple enough: Wood Elf = Elf, Dark Elf = Drow and High Elf = common Eladrin. But what of the others?

Perhaps "Mountain Dwarves" are the descendants of the Frostfell Ur-race that gave rise to Dwarves millennia ago, but never left that frozen land.

Maybe "Stout Halflings" are the hybrid offspring of Halflings and Goblins.

Conceivably, "Rock Gnomes" could be the progeny of the Gnome inhabitants of the Tower of Silver and Bone, who were stripped of their magic, and enslaved by the Giants as craft laborers. My suggestion would be to call them Minoi.

 

[Plaguescarred]

IDK but i'm really looking forward to it!

How it will present Eberron race such as changeling, longtooth/razorclaw shifter, kalashtar is something i'm interested in. Also wonder how Dragonmarks will be handled.... Will they be feat again, or background, prestige class variant, theme or totally new format etc...?

 

[delericho]

My guess is that they'll either quietly insert homelands for the subraces as needed (as with 4e's Dragonborn), or they'll not and just argue that the subraces are just subgroups within the main culture - pick whichever Halfling best fits your conception of the character.

Or, of course, they could replace the existing subraces with Eberron-specific ones. The halflings, in particular, would seem ideally suited to that approach.

 

[Remathilis]

I don't see too much issus with subs: Areneal, valenar, drow, and common elves all can be subraces. Likewise, common and Talentha halflings could each be sub's. Eberron doesn't need to use the ones in the PHB I'd alts are given.

 

[DM Howard]

I could certainly see them making Dragonmarks as backgrounds, but I'd like to see them as feats due to them usually having some sort of power that is comparable to taking a feat.

 

[doctorhook]

I've been pondering how the 5E version of Eberron will balance two of the settings foundational precepts, "If it's in D&D, it's in Eberron" and "Subcultures, not subraces", when it comes to the baked in subraces of the standard game.

The elves seem simple enough: Wood Elf = Elf, Dark Elf = Drow and High Elf = common Eladrin. But what of the others?

Perhaps "Mountain Dwarves" are the descendants of the Frostfell Ur-race that gave rise to Dwarves millennia ago, but never left that frozen land.

Maybe "Stout Halflings" are the hybrid offspring of Halflings and Goblins.

Conceivably, "Rock Gnomes" could be the progeny of the Gnome inhabitants of the Tower of Silver and Bone, who were stripped of their magic, and enslaved by the Giants as craft laborers. My suggestion would be to call them Minoi.

My preference would be for WotC to err on the side of "adding less and integrating more".

With the dwarf example, Frostfell dwarves are certainly a possibility, but I'd rather not have to try to account for why Khorvaire is suddenly crawling with Frostfell dwarves. I think it'd be just as simple to say different dwarven subraces correspond to various clans within the Mror Holds.

 

[DM Howard]

My preference would be for WotC to err on the side of "adding less and integrating more".

With the dwarf example, Frostfell dwarves are certainly a possibility, but I'd rather not have to try to account for why Khorvaire is suddenly crawling with Frostfell dwarves. I think it'd be just as simple to say different dwarven subraces correspond to various clans within the Mror Holds.

I agree, I think this type of approach would be less jarring than "Boom! Frostfell dwarves in the house!".

 

[Osgood]

Eberron us my favorite flavor of DnD, so I can't wait!

I dig the idea of subculture instead of subrace. I think it would look something like this:
High Elf = Eladrin (and perhaps Aerenal Elf)
Wood Elf = Valenar
Drow = Xen'drik Elf
Aerenal and Khorvaire elves would be new

Stout Halflings = Talenta Halflings
Lightfoot = Khorvaire Halflings

Mountain Dwarves = Mror Holders
Hill Dwarves = Khorvaire Dwarves
Frostfell dwarves are new

Rock Gnomes = Zil Gnomes
Forest Gnomes = Khorvaire Gnomes