Eberron | 5e Dungeons and Dragons | Web DM

well hello wayfinders today we're going to explore the vastness of a bur on whether it's taking an airship to the Dead gray mists of the morn land or hopping on a lightning rail and seeking out the freedoms of the Bree lenders perhaps you would like to commit your post life to the undead workforce of Karnak all of these pleasures are made manifest as we rise from the last war in Eberron on web DM this week's sponsor is hero forge they're masters of customizable miniatures and they are rolling out hero forge 2.0 on Kickstarter right now they're going full-color no more unpainted minis if you back it you'll be first in line to get your custom minis printed and high-quality colored plastic or you can get them professionally hand-painted get your custom minis exactly how you want them no work required it's awesome this Kickstarter just open and they've got early bird specials going on now so check it out link here and in the comments and description all right Jim mmm let us rise from the last episode of web DM oh the constant war against disinformation yeah top roll clown game yeah to review ever on everyone the last war I was hesitantly eager to see this book yeah ever on has a special place because I was really into D&D at the time it came out mhm I sort of felt like oh wow I get to be present like a new campaign setting that Dean he's making me do I know be like the second to last one they would make it forever because we were like what the heart of third edition yeah yeah I was like third edition since or Ygritte 2002 2003 and I think they the first book was in like 2004 right right when like 3.5 this switch from 3 to 3.5 it's come around and so I I can remember looking at like the brochure for it the other preview brochure and it's like halflings on dinosaurs and the Lightning rail and airships and and pulp action and why it captured my imagination in terms of what it could offer and and has informed so much about how I world billed in D&D since then in terms of like level demographics and what constitutes epic and world spanning and and just like the moral ambiguity of the place the fact that alignments are magically imposed on some beings but for the most part are not really it's not really a thing you know there's a whole nation of necromancer is sure right yeah ruled by vampire and and and and of so many things and like everywhere you I would look there would be a other like secret organization working behind the scenes to do something that I hadn't read about yet and you know all the various higher-level and cosmic threats that are tied in to its unique cosmology and history and the draconic prophecy and yada ya it's just like this there's a lot of promise fully realized yes a lot of promise and also like a world in which there hasn't really been an advancement to it right like the world is presented in the 3.5 a broad campaign setting is the same one presented here it was the same one in fourth edition really emphasized different parts they flesh out different areas of it more but it's still a few years after the last war yeah we're in that period of espionage and intrigue and the like that's supposed to evoke the sort of feel of the lead-up to the Second World War the 20s and 30s of of spying and and you know of a powder keg being rearmed rather and why everybody go into their corners yeah get taken a breath you know a long period of instability followed by you know a period of relative prosperity but there's so many seeds of conflict embedded in the game that you could probably run can't you no games out of ever on for the next yar no the rest of your life and you wouldn't touch on the same themes because you're dealing you know with I don't know independent movements and the Western eldeen reaches you know you know or orc gatekeepers in the the Shadowlands trying to keep some cosmic threat at bay or line rights for the war for Star Trek's with war forced or what to do with all the siren you know refugees inhabited Breeland it's just all of that you know you know politics and what to do with the armies of all of these nations that have been at war with each other how do they go back to trusting each other and like it's just so much and if anything this the book itself because we are talking about in the book not just the campaign setting is packed with information yeah and it is definitely a positive it definitely positive it's it's it takes a while to work through them we're still working through it even in terms of just like digesting everything and how would we use it but it's one more denser what you call conceptual density something is on every page if not multiple something's and the way it's kind of laid out and presented there a lot of the useful stuff that you would use to prep your game is first spread out a bit more than I would like but it also ensures that if you're just casually flipping through the book looking for inspiration or something to hook an adventure with it's you're you're spoiled for choice yeah in terms of that now obviously our perspective here is one of sort of looking at the book as its own thing we're not really going to talk much about wayfinders guide or more grave miscellany although I'm sure both of those products would be helpful in either customizing this or or what not you know not necessarily a comparison between those or or itself like an in-depth review of everything that's in a bran just because the book is so but you did you did start with the with layout the layout yes my layout presentation ah yeah like you said it's probably a little bit more spread out but it does um it does kind of flow like D&D books do certainly right right I mean it's kind of kind of starts with the races and stuff and then there's some yeah there's some stuff for the backgrounds and houses and then it moves on to just the world and then you finally get to you know sort of the DM tools Chad's in that sense though just the overall layout of it hasn't really changed from the sort of v what's probably gonna be the fifth edition formula for that kind of thing where character stuff is more in the front loaded and like character creation chapters rather big we've got you know all the new races as well as commentary on what each of the races are you know what they represent one of the neat things is just really spelling out say the difference between the three different kinds of elves and how they differ from each other and and the fact that say drow in this or not the outcast evil you know heretics of elvish society they're just another kind of elf from a different part of the world yeah and I have you know less contact with with other kind or you know really digging into what like as Allegro no you know what their life is like what their cultures like how to avoid you know sort of negative stereotypes that can come from saying like Oh everybody from this countries is scheming you know yeah but also like they're the the place they come from they there's a lot of backstabbing and feuding can lose an arm could lose an arm certainly it's a goes from races to to Dragon marks and how they how they work which are basically if you have a race that doesn't have a sub race than the dragon mark Conley just gives you a variant race on that but if you've got sub race associated then you would pick the dragon mark associated with that CB and elf of shadow as opposed to say in high elf or some yam you know and in that sense like we'll get to like really what what the dragon marks are here just a minute but that's just where the big meanie players chapter you get the background artificer class a big section on group patrons before moving on to the gazetteer and running adventurers in it and of course the book closes with sections on magic items and monsters and the like so it's pretty standard in that sense there's no leaps and bounds or innovations in terms of informational layout or presentation it's it's still pretty standard fifth edition prose mixed with art mixed with tables with various fonts and the like separating information so and someone who's like really loves the the small press boutique kind of RPG products that are obsessively designed and you know it's meant like everything you need to do this one thing is on least this paid two-page spread you don't need to flip over anything with your character sheets that have all the information you need on them it keeps the same mindset so yeah it's got the same trade dress same mindset looks like the rest of fifth edition books in that sense it's probably what you expect I will say though that the Sharn chapter I find very well laid out and organized and especially the use of tables to summarize the incredible amount of information that's contained in it and for a city like Sharn which is like a megalopolis of a fantasy city fantasies it's helpful to have those yes I like that well while we're on that subject the like lore and info yeah right right right right what are what are some of the highlights for you about the Lauryn info the Lauryn info I would say the highlight is really the first chapter which i think is a great introduction to setting if you're new to ever on this is a really good book if this is your first experience with everyone you really just know it as that setting that's kind of like Ravnica that people really like to argue about artificers on the wharf or just pick this one up if you're if you're interested in that if you like what's a guild masters guide to Ravnica had but you thought it was a bit too over-the-top then maybe ever on is the place for you there if you came on board with ever on in fourth edition or third then you'll probably will find something that you don't like about the book you know they're making changes they're adapting everything to the new rule set to the new style of play that the rule set encourages and and so for instance of no action points like I used to be that kind of thing and and you know just the mage right is an NPC you know stat block not a potentially NPC class you can sort of build little changes like that but overall the lore is still the same and the first chapter really goes into sort of like what makes Eberron unique what makes this place different and there are a lot of things that make it unique the the fact that it's explicitly we don't use alignment and that that villains here often have very sympathetic motivations and are often in the right context your allies or something that that people are complicated and and have complicated motivations and sometimes ulterior motivations and so it it has just a lot of really good advice for running games that center around the pulp action genre with noir intrigue and and and really hammer home the fact that this is this is not high adventure in a fantasy world the way safer GaN realms is or something like that this is gritty intrigue and deep back dealings wait so there's moral ambiguity yeah yeah you gotta evil gold dragons and there's the fact that these nations of civilized people have been at war with each other for so long and Unleashed weapons and magic that are terrible right they created the morn land right and and and drove out a people from their nation you know through the use of this weaponized magic industrialized weaponized magic probably what would happen the reason the Forgotten Realms never have progressed right yeah that's like what the nether EES did and then there it goes without saying that almost all of these topics there is a third edition hardcover out there that covers them in much more detail my favorites from that era are five nations which should detail the five human nations of Corvair and go to a really great detail on them and the last war is also a good one forget what the actual title of it is there's like something something of the last war and it really goes into what was the last war like and you know how could you run campaign set in the last war and and like but there were plenty of others want some magic and the different continents and why so I was well sharm is the other my third of the big third edition books yeah the sharm book is really really cool but as opposed just the rest of the lore and info like there's no advancement of the timeline there's no meta plot so there's nothing like that if you're familiar with the campaign set up from you know the campaign setting and third or fourth edition then you'll be familiar with it here as usual the lore and just the writing of it's very evocative they do a very good job of portraying the setting through evocative descriptions and the like and so in that sense it's helpful to read as d-m but you know like I said if you're looking for something exhaustive highly detailed this one isn't it the the gazetteer and here for a setting book is rather short but does hit the highlights which is really what you need right like one of the things they mentioned in advice on just running games in ever honest high-stakes and to let consequences build up to bigger consequences and in that sense the backdrop for those places doesn't need to be Monday in the backdrop for those places needs to be as grandiose an and and and high-stakes as the action so in that sense kind of like it if you're gonna go to one of the you know if you're gonna go to a place take an airship out of the middle of nowhere then set it against someplace iconic someplace fantastic you're gonna need to definitely have a travel montage with a redneck absolutely really grab that feel right yeah it's one of those things it's like if I was wizard somebody be like yeah you can get like a digital pack with a bunch of maps and tokens and thanks for the world 20-game to do the Indiana Jones map the one thing about the Lord info that still leaves me scratching my head is the lack of firearms outside of the artificers artillerists class there are even pictures in there of various characters with like look like flintlock butt and the first generation firearms second generation but yeah yeah it seems like in a setting that everything else is advanced magically at least yeah that you would have something something if only you would have something that has the carries the destructive power with the ease of use you know and I firearms are just one of those things that a lot of teams are very particular on it's an aesthetic choice for a lot of tables ya brought it's easy to replace them with like you know lightning wands and other sort of contraptions I just include firearms as a you know alchemical problem I did the Lightning one thing with my one main character from amber oh yeah there's a lot of fun you know we worked through it all together and how it works and how many charges and all that at the end of the day is just a gunslinger right yeah yeah basically yeah you know the artillery is artifice are not since you know fill that role pretty well I think so that's that's it for like the lore and info you know I get my favorite parts of ever on are the parts where they differ from from baseline DD and sort of the the central ethos of Eberron is that if it's in D&D it's in ever on but it does not mean that it's like presented the same oh yeah you know and the the traditionally evil and you know antagonistic humanoid races of most DD settings a really good place to see that the fact that for thousands of years are along the the goblin OIG's of the decani Empire ruled everything and it was their fight against these psychic creatures from you know another dimension and and and the slog of fighting off those invasions time and time again and the cost that it you know took on them the causes their empire to collapse causes them to to sort of like not regress but become the more savage and just less organized you know so they basically fought Cthulhu known as the dulk here we are not one of the the big enemies that I'd ever really focused on but I think that might change this time around just because I'm way more into like flesh graphs and and now you know artificial synthetic magical organs and the like which they're all about as well crafted flesh yeah you can lend someone a hand the orcs are similar you know that works are if I'm not mistaken like one of the founders of the druidic traditions released one of the druidic traditions and take it as a point of pride that they have fought to defend ever on which is the name of both the setting and the world and the mythical dragon that actually makes up the world you know they are to take a point of pride in that and in that sense you know if you're looking at ways to portray orcs goblins and other humanoids in ways that are you know they are products of a culture not magical manipulation or gods or something like that everyone's really good place to start with that and take inspiration from it yeah yeah yeah there's there's plenty of people to hate otherwise certainly let's move on to some some of the game mechanics yeah you meet you potato the meat and potatoes of it which I have a couple things say like I said we didn't want to draw comparisons but the war forged in this I'm just not as gung-ho about I did I liked the subclasses you show that there are different kinds of builds for a war oh sure yeah yeah yeah you know the I actually like the integrated armor I thought it just made sense for a being that is built right right right that's one thing and also the the fact that they're living humanoids yeah yeah the armor thing I I can see why I you know the compromise of integrated plating is it's a compromise yeah you know not what you want but it's acceptable it's the healing magic medicine skill and and like still working on them because they're living and I just I'm trying to wrap my like what part of the part at what part of them is organic for those things to work on and they might be Grievous so you just casting it on their hearts and lungs and whose hearts and lungs everything are those like that's what I'm I know why and this is one of the things about fifth edition that gets under my skin the most is that there are clearly things that are done in the name of making life easier for the party just convenience yeah convenience and I just they make me want to pull my hair on sometimes because it's like wait a minute it'd be way easier for a DM to like draw those back as opposed to introduce them in I think the elements of convenience you know of other examples of this would be the way that Rangers obliviate like nearly all outdoor challenges or you know similar with like Outlanders and all the different spells that are basically like nope I don't want to worry about food or I don't want to worry about the enemies sneaking up on me and you know to me as a dungeon master I look at those things and I go well those are points of conflict in tension that I used to be able to use to drive a game forward not so much anymore and and I look at with like the wharf Forge and it's like well if someone with the medicine skill can just come up and roll a die and stabilize a wharf Forge then they're not a construct their creature yeah that happens to have metal and wood and wood on like what part of it does the medicine skill work on because medicine is a wisdom and intuition based thing not a logic and technical skills if I break my sword can you cast cure wounds on my sword they don't want to have have people have to cast a different spell other than cure wounds and my opinion on that is yeah you've got to cast a different spell because it's a different kind of creature well either that are you that's why you have somebody with blacksmiths tools because that's what we did in Starbound with E for Oh for the wharf Forge there as I asked key and at the beginning I was like do you want just normal healing to working she was like kind of don't and I'm like okay well it's yeah half is effective yeah whatever you roll it only works a little bit on the murid because it's the magic of it yeah that's kind of knitting you together but it but and the cleric who was also a dwarf and was good with blacksmithing tools but didn't have to get in there with a hammer and the chisel and straighten some [ __ ] out yeah I you know I can see changing a creature type is a big deal there's really not anything that you play in intuition that isn't a humanoid you know the certain magic might not work if they were not living humanoids you know they were constructs think of all the things that they would be that they would not be subject to just by the fact their constructs oh I get it it's just I feel like it is not firmly established in the fictional universe how this works and it gets under my skin yeah it feels lazy it feels like it's not thought through and it feels like it exists solely as a metagame conceit and not as like fidelity to the setting and that's it like a cart this with nitpick but it like saying gets it gets under my skin I would certainly argue for diem to be like okay can I just not for you what's a game mechanics woody what do you like what are you not like the other races I like the take on them they are what you would expect them to me if changelings couldn't alter their appearance whenever they wanted then they wouldn't be changeling so I do I wish it was a bonus action instead of an action yeah you know if only because I find you know in action for that is rather costly but when I really start thinking about it how often am I going to use it in a situation where my action economy really is being stretched to the limit you know most of the time when I use something like a shape change it's gonna be in a stealth or espionage or exploration type thing you know it's I got actions to spare the one of the things that gets me about kailash star is mostly that it doesn't seem like they would make good Saiyans whenever they finally introduce a psionic class and that kind of just bothers me because it's like I always sort of saw them neither telepathic they've got this sort of planar origin there's their mystical and and sort of otherworldly and I come just like well but no int yeah I this is one of the in class our particular actions shortly in a clash term for particular are one of those where I just like I never really paid attention to them and the other times I've done ever on I've been way interested in other things and and ever on is so big and there's so much to it you really can focus on just a little bit and be like I have no idea what's going on with that thing yeah even though it's a player's option so it could be that I'm way off base and that it's always been like this and that's fine and it's more my expectations that are that are off and then finally shifters are one of those where I love shifters I love the idea of them I like including them in my games but most of the execution that I've seen at least in now fifth and then and third has just left me going I just they need something else like they just I feel like they need something kind of like Ganassi right or it's like yeah this checks all the boxes I'm an elemental being I am an animal type being you know for shifters I can yeah I've got lycanthrope heritage but yeah can I just a little bit more just something out like yeah yeah and so I remember Jim hmm it's Jonah is I don't know that it is I don't know that it you guys can think whatever you want you're free to be wrong and I'm free to be whatever I want to be and they give you all kinds of stuff for the others how do you feel about those dragon mark counts isn't besides I'll do that you may go ahead and get go get you a soap box yeah we got yeah I'm this is the part of the book I'm most dissatisfied with and and I did not dive deep into wayfinders guide I was not a part of the you know I didn't get upset when it seemed like we were buying play test rules and and I you know I'm just I wasn't yeah but I liked what they were doing with dragon marks there I really liked where they were headed I thought it was gonna be interesting and you know and I probably would use those or incorporate something of them because as they stand the dragon marked houses now are an option for your race and if you've got you know if your race has sub race options you can pick a dragon mark to be what that instead and if there is no sub race option likes a human or half work then you just get a variant in that sense I don't have a problem with that there's no more feats associated with dragon marks when I can get it not everybody plays with feet except for aberrant dragon marks but it's the fact that the increased you know the magical abilities of the dragon mark houses which were to me always the hallmark of the setting is that some people have access to magic without being users of it so if you learn access to magic without being sorcerers without being Wizards without being clerics without being whatever they are born with this lineage that gives them a very thematic set but you cannot access any of that unless you have the spell casting or pact magic features which to me completely just it it really undermines the concept yeah of the dragon mark house which to me was you don't need a cleric to get healing you know you don't need go to one of the dragon workouts go to a house so George Alaska you know yeah be careful before you talk crap to that guy on the street cuz he might whip out a tattoo in like cast a spell at you even though he looks like a peasant yeah a beggar yeah whatever what else were the bounty hunters house that the house of you know people doubt and find them the inquisitive zijn life wait like part of what was fun about that was that some of these people just rogues and fighters who who are you know they're they're fighting crime but they have this magical edge they've just got a little bit extra you know so tying it like that convenience sure easy sure you know does it accurately represent what the the lore presents is how these things are I I don't think so and I thought it made sense in Ravnica when you've got your guild that it just added new spells you could potentially take but in this sense I really do think it should be something where it's like yeah even if you don't cast spells having access to some actual magic would have been nice now of course you get other things with it the skills and benefits and the like you can combine your dragon mark with the house agent background to represent that that person is very much committed to their dynasty yeah yeah it is the only background we get though house agents and while it represents each one of the dragon mark houses you get some proficiencies and like personality traits like I'm I'm looking here and I'm like there's no journalist background like they'd be a newspapers everywhere newspaper clipping they're offered as is one of the group patrons which will gush about in a second and I think like given the fact that this is a stick this is clearly inspired by like steampunk it's supposed to evoke the period between the two world wars like I think that we could use some updated backgrounds to reflect the fact that the world of Eberron is fundamentally different than the world of gray Hawk we have Forgotten Realms and others come there's no conductors or whatever yeah yeah you know I think made right could have easily been a background choice you know you or someone who uses your magical powers to you know to do this it may be made right has a thing where it's like hey you don't have spells but you count as having the spell casting feature for the purposes of items and other abilities you know I mean it could have been something like that or it could have been you know that you have access to minor scrolls and the like if you want you know there's some class options that I think would work as background options here so like inquisitive the type of row that would work great in ever on oh yeah definitely you could also just do an inquisitive as a background which I think sword coast adventurers guy does like watch commander or something like that yeah but easy enough to fix with a custom background table but sort of yeah you know like minorly disappointing not to see more than one I mean it's a book already crammed full of so much so it's not like you're missing out but it is yeah you probably have enough information to extrapolate your own backgrounds yeah but at least giving like just like a player's handbook at least giving some examples in setting so you at least have a starting point yeah can be just such a big help to some people there's some people yeah then and I you know some ones that I think work really well for forever on are those they're like archaeologist those backgrounds that suggest a more sophisticated and advanced society because one of the things that I really like about ever on is that it is a it's a more modern world there's not a lot of blank places on the map there on the fringes you know but it's not a place where you just like rootless adventurers wonder around righting wrongs at the end of their blade when you do that enough the cops are gonna come after you yeah yeah you know somebody's gonna be like why are these people just wandering around killing and so you know that since it being more modern it's more easily to relate to but it also would mean that there'd be different social groups different professions different different enough reasons to have those more backgrounds but like said my minute big group patrons though oh yeah what other things were the last three releases we've really dug into with the exception of avarice but rabbika and goes to salt marsh there's been something in them that I've just been like yes this needs to be in every other book this you know this this is this is the contribution this book made right to fifth edition and I really think the group patron is that forever on it is a it's for one it's as big a section as the rest of the character of creation section it's like it's this huge chunk of tools for both of the players to kind of like find ways to have a theme that binds their group yeah and and to find ways sort of like fit into the world easier but it's also a section for the dungeon master to come in there and go like all right guys are all part of you know an immortal being you know that's your group patron or whatever let's see what this says what kind of adventures does that mean how does this affect you as a tool for bringing a group together giving them United purpose giving them motivation and and just cohesion and therefore encouraging player investment and the like especially combined with the rest of the stuff in the book man it is really cool and and I really hope that the adventures and the like and the other material for forever on really play up on that and play into the fact there's group patrons and it really like between the group patrons and faction rules in Ravnica really makes me think like you could combine these two books they're very complementary despite the you know the fact that they're two different places and the lore is different yeah the GM support stuff is very much complementary well I mean it could be that the effect of the last war was actually like porting in this city oh yeah there's a log instead of creating the morn land now that's our wrap Nick assists me that it could be a suburb of Sharn then that that's just recently cropped up you know and down there one name like where did this come yeah where did this just chop it up and then but yeah but all the the intrigue and yeah all of that it's just it's right yeah yeah so those sections of rabbika they're like how to construct adventures for your four-year factions that you belong to the guilds I mean you could easily without a lot of alterations use those tables and those that advice for like say running games of intrigue for the houses or like you're in what's called throne hold and it's you know you're there protecting the secrets that are coming about from the negotiations that are ending the last war those kind of things and if you combine that with chapter four of Eberron which is the running adventures in ever on chapter which is another really good resource for ideas structure enemies you know it's one of those things where I'm glad that Wizards of the coast seems to have embraced the the use of randomizers and random procedural generators that the OS are an indie game community has because the OS are an indie game community have really shown people like here's the right way to do this like you can do you can use these random tables in a way that makes for a really mediocre session but here's how you use them to enhance to build to provide structure to do you know to engage with the players I've tried to run several emraan games right and every one of them what stumps me is the fundamentally different nature between a you know what you get up to a regular D&D game yeah kick in the door take the loot slay the enemies that kind of thing versus the kind of pulp adventures that everyone has and every time I've run it I've struggled to come up with what I felt was a uniquely ever on experience that I you know whatever games however many we were able to get in they weren't terrible they weren't awful you know but I felt that they weren't aligned with the world well enough and when I was reading through both the group patron section and then chapter 4 as well as parts of the Sharn chapter was just struck by how useful all of this was how you really are given a lot of tools for running this and given the size of the rest of the book there's so much that you can use to supplement those tools I I was really impressed with that in terms of game mechanics and support maybe it's not what you're looking for maybe it's not perfect or the way you envisioned it but it's a solid base to make your own changes so before we move on to the last section I think we at least have to talk about the artificer yes we Jim yeah what do you want to say well I mean as the artificer has evolved it's not it's not terrible I don't like I don't mind it you know I I mean I've always been more of an artillerist anyway and so the fact that for the most part they they kind of you have the the wand capabilities there and you have the big-ass gun if you want it yeah I mean it's there you can have it fit the infusions are fun even though the what's the one infusion they took away the well the the the pouch of many pockets house was always any artificer that I dreamed up it's like well yeah you would have that yeah I need to just be able to you know the boots like the seven-league boots whatever they're called I removed to the winding path about that one yeah okay but the the introduced introduction of the battle Smith yeah I uh I I like that but I want it to go further I want it still I'm sorry as an artificer I need to make I need to make a suit of armor yeah yeah yeah I want to make a goblin armor yeah in an Iron Man suit yes you know that kind of [ __ ] yeah I still want to be able to do that and maybe you could work with your DM to make that a thing yeah I think you could I think you could especially if you like you picked up the armor proficiency from somewhere or or you took like the what's it called the Mazzini 'm the magic armor from Ravnica yeah or you could make pop yeah yeah intelligence bonus yeah okay hobgoblins make really nice sort of history singing I'm sad that the oh what was the one in the play test that not well the one that Creek could create are arcane intelligences the archivist maybe something like there was one in like the last second to last expansions for the artificer where they did they'd introduce the battle smith yeah I there's so many yeah it got squished out of my brain sponge so yeah there's one was like you know I saw them as connected to war Forge they are the you know the ones that may be either discovered or fostered the sort of developing of intelligence and sapiens for the war forged I like them but they are a bit high concept for for the setting but I am sad about the homunculus becoming an infusion if only because the other two classes still have a pets alchemist doesn't anymore the way that the action economy works it's like it's not like an artillery Astra battle Smith's gonna pick up the homunculus probably not it could but it would caught in clash when you were wanting to get the most out of your action economy and I also like it's a homunculus like how else do you make them but the use of alchemical x' you know like it didn't bother me that the alchemists had a weird little gross thing that followed them around I kind of like that very Rick Sanchez yes but I also recognize that my conception of the alchemists is not what most people's aren't I think really most people's conception of the alchemist is someone that throws vials of acid at people and burns them like it just like they throw chemical miles which miles you do yeah anyway yeah and that's that's a rough visual yeah I just it's it's not it's not my bag I much prefer the I'm bubbling up something and I made this thing who's helping me yeah you know or I drink a bunch of potions and I went to bed I got a tummy ache and then when I had a spit up this came out drink you're come on go I throw them up in the morning I call them hangover yeah there's a variant of homunculus in COBOL presses Toa beasts where you grow them inside your body and then have to get them out before they get themselves out yeah I like that's just everything like that but yeah the artifice are like it's not it doesn't have a lot of raw power to it I think you know you you know you're not getting like nine whole spells like that I think there are a lot of details to work out with the way that your tools actually perform the magic yeah yeah but that's for your DM and you work out but you're still like I think what the what they're there for is to have a broad spectrum rods power magic at your disposal whether it's a thing that you built some spells that you have some infusions that you can do yeah items that you can create yes yeah and just that I mean [ __ ] man I'm sorry but still that last ability like whatever you're in whatever infusions you have on you which is that time I think you have six to six plus six on all your saves yeah but is just like okay there's a lot of fun stuff there's a lot of fun combos there's a lot of it's it's a versatile class yeah it's more versatility over raw power yeah and and traditionally in D&D that's that could be a trap that can signal that you're making a character that's not you know might be weak in the sense of you know power gaming sense but I think the the versatility of the artificer doesn't lead to weakness I think it's a class where if you if a player is willing to put the time and effort into coming up with clever combos oh yeah adaptable is the thinking persons class in the sense that you want to work your way around problems and come up with the you know gear and technological based solutions that can be really fun so let's move on to the last little section here of our overview how do you see this book presenting the look in the feel of ever ah yeah yes I think that it actually does a pretty damn good job I think so too and one of the one of the things I've really liked about you know the Oberon campaign setting and third edition was these sort of one-page comic book type spreads where you know there'd be like you know the big page is only a couple of in sets and then like some sort of text describing what's going on yeah and there's so these mini stories that I felt really conveyed the feel of ever on a pulp comics yeah yeah if not like Lynde the the sort of structures that I like to have for playing a game and I find like the the art here is similarly evocative especially the one page you know sort of chapter pieces you know the the look of a burro nian sky ships of airships is very distinctive with the ring and the struts and the why again it's very very early Vulcan yeah open in early Star Trek anyway I don't know what I'm talking about seen a good piece of like two airships in battle against each other but I don't know I can't really I think they fight each other that much actually at least it's a shame well there's a lot of things in last war that I took a pen to because I was like no my airships are definitely fighting each other I think they ruled they were too expensive the like to like more like dirigibles in World War one then you know like big flying ships I named the elementals to them is probably pretty tough yeah yeah yeah you don't want those things get damaged and have that elemental you lose but I like you know the alternate cover in that sense like has that classic sort of airship it's got the noir feel it's very steampunk oh yeah I think everyone ever on works well when you lean into that oh definitely you know we've got enough pseudo medieval settings out there we can accommodate the more a more steampunk magic punk type setting yeah and I like the little little excerpts in the sections on the every country or whatever mm-hmm a little news II like the different yeah yeah the Kornberg Chronicle yeah the Chronicle oh yeah you see that that news II feel meanwhile on the front you know like I breathed like I when I look at that that voice reads in my head when I'm reading yeah I think the same way and and it it further drives home how the place is different there is a newspaper how do you get rumors you know where are your exploits accounted for and how are they disseminating the front page made the front page you know how do you you know get clued in to the wider happenings of the world and and where your characters might want to travel five or six levels down the road well you do that through the newspaper it's a it's a subtle but very effective way for the GM - like convey information get things to the players like you always have a handy way of doing this we bought an ad in the paper and the cipher will be there on in Tuesday's wait I just realized it's on to some of our audience newspapers other these paper things that have information of the current events yeah if you're looking for a job or something to do bila as the DMV like have you checked classifieds sure you know I mean there's wizards and [ __ ] in there all kinds of stuff yeah yeah lost one please return a reward will give reward I mean like do you think about all the weird little things that a wizard would normally have you get up to yo-yo yeah the classify yeah the Craigslist of above shard is it definitely a fun place to go find adventure it's very effective in getting across what type of campaign world this is what type of adventures you're gonna have what how the setting reacts to the fantastic elements that go on in in the setting I think they're a great great inclusion and I'm sure there's a lot of hooks and ideas you can get from them yeah other than that I you know the whole book overall is you know it's classic fifth edition sort of standard but it effectively conveys this idea of a fundamentally different place that everyone is and I think that that's a good thing I was worried about this one and there's part of the reason why I was hesitant to pick it up because there was a part of me that was like I really like Eberron I don't you know I don't want to be disappointed I don't you know I I had picked up wayfinders guide within read about the whole people who are like wait a minute why are we why is this playtesting and what's you know yeah and and so that kind of soured me on like really digging into it I was like oh man and and so I was hesitant I was I was not really looking forward to it because I was worried that Ravnica would have been fluke in terms of just how useful and effective I thought Ravnica was like I know and that's everybody talking about the artificer and the war forged and this and that which I expected them to but it made me go like I'm not really gonna I'm gonna skip this one but it was you guys out there asking about it and you know figure can't ignore it and you know like I said this is your first time encountering ever on this books really good for you and you know if you're not you got your own flavor of everyone that you like hopefully this one will be useful if you decide to pick it up I think you can be if you liked the video give it a thumbs up and subscribe web DM exists thanks to our patreon patrons the web demons if you join the web demons you'll get our weekly podcast show audio discounts that'll save you way more than five dollars a month on books and dice and so much more check out our free podcast episodes right now including our free interview Luke Gygax about all things DP if you like our advice for your games then why don't you come check us out and watch us play yeah we've got games on Twitch every week and they're archived on our second youtube channel web d in place thanks for watching [Music] it's good it doesn't reach out and grab me like anima or undertow or [ __ ] 10,000 days in lateralis like like those did but it's so solid and then this is what finally did it for me there's an interviewer Maynard said basically like well that album was perfect eight years ago when we should have just released it then and I'm like yeah you should have you're sure you really should I know that y'all guilt is obsess over [ __ ] bridges for like a month or a year but maybe you should like go see a doctor and if you should have put this out a long time ago and you probably made more money yeah sorry if this ever goes on a stinger but yeah sorry tool fans but they're just a band they're just a band they're not summoning demons they're I mean they talk about you know divine geometry and all that [ __ ] and it's fun to talk about because it makes people hey use a for a DD game but they're not like there is no grand you know but is like this kind of Intel is the same reason why people like added up all the Marvel movies and they're like oh my god it's three thousand minutes exactly which is why they did that joke and everybody's like no it's not no no that's what they made a spider-man farver home at the exact time that it was because it made the entire Marvel run up the Infinity war saga 3000 minutes or some [ __ ] like that it's just like yeah we all liked a beautiful mind but stop stop trying to find the golden spiral in everything I don't know it's this is why we can't have nice things but I do this kind of the same kind of [ __ ] you know that's why yeah everybody does it we're looking we're we're looking for meaning in an otherwise abstract and insane world yes and so alright this is why I don't share anything with anyone oh like anyone well most people are certainly

Channel: Web DM

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Keywords: dungeons & dragons, DnD, dungeons and dragons, d&d, 5e, Web dm, webdm, eberron, eberron lore, eberron 5e, unearthed arcana, wayfarers guide to eberron, how to play dungeons and dragons, drow, races, sharn, lore, review, warforged, artificer

Id: sj_WWAlMSlc

Length: 48min 32sec (2912 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 15 2020