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.

 

[Corinnguard]

More lineages for Shifters and maybe Warforged?

They could if WoTC made them more like the Ironborn (In the Company of Monsters by Rite Publishing)

Ironborn – d20PFSRD

www.d20pfsrd.com

Ironborn are a race of constructed humanoids which possess unique racial abilities determined by the purpose they were built to accomplish.

Each Ironborn character has what is referred to as a build purpose. An ironborn crafted to serve a cleric might be covered in holy runes, while one built as a warrior could have a thick, heavy layer of armor. These specialized abilities are organized into a series of purposes. You may choose one purpose for a Medium ironborn character. Think of it as having species and background merged together for these guys.

 

[Aldarc]

Keith gave it his blessing. Good enough for me.

I admittedly have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, it removes something unique from the Dragonmarked Houses and the original setting, and there may a bit more incentive to optimize mechanics.

However, I also know from Eberron's development that the Dragonmarks were intentionally limited to the core 3e races only so that old races would have something shiny and new that was unique to them in the setting. It always felt odd to me that the Shifters, Goblins, Orcs, and Changelings (among others) never had Dragonmarks despite living as long in Khorvaire as other ancestries, if not longer. (Kalashtar and Warforged were relative newcomers.) It may be strange, however, for Dragonborn to get dragonmarks, all things considered regarding dragons, dragonmarks, and the Draconic Prophecy.

If I ever play Eberron again, I know that my House Cannith character will be human and my House Lyrandar character will be a half-elf, so nothing really changes for me. But this also opens up things like Shifters with the Mark of Handling or Changelings with the Mark of Shadow.

All change is a form of loss. I will be interested in seeing what sort of significant impact that this has on the setting.

 

[Weiley31]

2014 PHB.

 

[Parmandur]

Since Eberron was released we've used the dragon marked system as "Runetouched" in our homebrew campaign.

I mean, theybare basically each a modified Magic Initate Fear with some rider or another, with a little refluffing not too hard to use elsewhere.

 

[Remathilis]

There's nothing cultural in those feats. Virtually no lore at all. If I change Mark of Handling to Tattoo of Handling, it loses even that itsy bitsy amount of lore and the lore drops to 0.

That said, I do like the idea of labeling such things as campaign (world) specific to at least telegraph to players and DMs "this isn't a generic option fit for all worlds, you're going to the to put some effort into making this fit in your world."

 

[Weiley31]

Spell Storing Item - This didn't change since the last UA, but I just want to say I'm glad they're still allowing 3rd level spells to be stored. Hopefully that survives playtest, Artificers need a boost, especially at higher levels.

I will be AMAZED if they allow it to survive in its current state.

 

[Parmandur]

I will be AMAZED if they allow it to survive in its current state.

It is a Level 11 ability: by thst point, getting some extra uses of low Level Spells is nice but not mind-blowing.

 

[Selas]

I will be AMAZED if they allow it to survive in its current state.

The updated spell-storing item has been well received, and with the limits of the Artificer spell list, it's not really that broken. The biggest issue I find is that it definitely benefits more subclasses with 3rd level attack spells (once again, Alchemist gets the stick)

 

[Hexmage-EN]

I really like the once per day spell upgrades in the Greater Dragonmark Feats, especially since several modify more niche flavor-based spells into something more broadly useful.

 

[TwoSix]

I admittedly have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, it removes something unique from the Dragonmarked Houses and the original setting, and there may a bit more incentive to optimize mechanics.

However, I also know from Eberron's development that the Dragonmarks were intentionally limited to the core 3e races only so that old races would have something shiny and new that was unique to them in the setting. It always felt odd to me that the Shifters, Goblins, Orcs, and Changelings (among others) never had Dragonmarks despite living as long in Khorvaire as other ancestries, if not longer. (Kalashtar and Warforged were relative newcomers.) It may be strange, however, for Dragonborn to get dragonmarks, all things considered regarding dragons, dragonmarks, and the Draconic Prophecy.

If I ever play Eberron again, I know that my House Cannith will be human and my Lyrandar character will be a half-elf, so nothing really changes for me. But this also opens up things like Shifters with the Mark of Handling or Changelings with the Mark of Shadow.

All change is a form of loss. I will be interested in seeing what sort of significant impact that this has on the setting.

It adds versatility and supports PC exceptionalism at relatively little cost, so I'm OK with it. In my own narration, most of the houses will be primarily made up of members of the house's "classic" ancestries, but some enclaves or just particular individuals will be off the norm.

In my own Eberron, I tend to encourage racial cosmopolitanism over a strict siloing, so lots of people both within and without the Five Nations have two or more ancestries in their background. A Khoravor might have a dwarven great-grandfather, or a shifter might some hobgoblin and orc ancestors.