D&D Launches New Eberron-Themed Playtest With Dragonmarked Feats

The D&D design team has launched a new Unearthed Arcana playtest focused on the upcoming Eberron: Forge of the Artificer book, featuring Dragonmarked feats and a new Artificer subclass. The new packet contains rules for a Cartographer subclass for the Artificer, along with a handful of new magic item options and over 25 Dragonmarked feats. The Artificer base class rules also received a few tweaks to some of its features, with an eye towards more general versatility.

The other big feature is the new Dragonmarked feats, most of which are considered either Dragonmarked Feats or General Feats. The Dragonmarked Feats are specifically limited to Eberron campaigns and allow only one Dragonmark per character (thus preventing Warlocks from accumulating Dragonmarks). The General Feats are Greater Marks and specifically upgrade existing Dragonmarks as a requirement. It's interesting that D&D is keeping with campaign setting specific feats and feat trees, as both of these design traits were found in the Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen book.

You can check out the full playtest on D&D Beyond.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

So rather than the one free casting per long of the entry level dragonmark up it to two?

I’d design the greater mark feats to simply give you 1/LR of the higher level spells on the “spells of the mark” list, like in 3.5 (and I rarely want anything to be more like 3.5).

I’ll get to reviewing the new mechanics and options later, but I will make a quick point on the Dragonmark discussion.

In my opinion, the fact that Dragonmarked Houses are restricted to specific species is the least important part of their lore and I’ve never been wholly satisfied with the specific races that the Dragonmarks were assigned to. I always thought that given the Dragonmarks originated in Khorvaire, it was weird that there wasn’t a single Dragonmark for any of the Goblinoid races.

The role of the Dragonmarked houses is similar to that of the Megacorps in Cyberpunk. They are monopolistic corporations with insane amounts of power that create some of the most dangerous inventions in the setting, and they often serve as both benefactors and antagonists for the main characters. None of this requires them to be of specific races, and I think expanding their role to allow for them to absorb other species would allow for them to fill this role even better.

I understand if others disagree, but to me the species-locking was always the least important aspect of the Dragonmarked Houses.

I think that the bloodline aspect makes sense, exactly because megacorps are full of nepotism and exclusion in terms of leadership and opportunities. It adds to the degree to which they are the oligarchs of a new age, slowly replacing the aristocratic oligarchy of the previous age.

This makes me think we'll get UA for the new species options in a month. Construct Warforged seem like a gimme, but will the Khoravar be different from the 2014 Half Elves?

I hope they update the Khoravar, even if it is basically 2014 with the 2024 style.

 

[Marandahir]

Based on Keith's blog, I'd like to see the Greater Dragonmarks reflect what they could do back in 3.5e, if only for story verisimilitude reasons. Misty Step is very different from teleporting across the continent, and I think there's limited room for that (maybe ability to cast a spell as a ritual?).

Maybe there should be Least/Lesser/Greater Marks, plus Siberys Marks (not feat chained), plus Aberrant Marks (unrelated). And I'd like to see the Mark of Death a la Morgrave Miscellany, even if Keith personally said he'd never want it published.

 

[Yaarel]

I'm getting 11th Doctor vibes from him. He's got that Matt Smith feel. At least, some of that "Gentleman Explorer."

My favorite Doctor.