Updates to 3E Books: Dragons & Stormreach

According to Chris Perkins in this thread, 4E updates for City of Stormreach and Dragons of Eberron, which were an advertised features of those two books, will be released this July.

"That's correct. The following updates will release in July:

Exemplars of Evil
Elder Evils
Fortress of the Yuan-ti
Stormreach
Dragons of Eberron
Anauroch


Normally I'd say "Better late than never," but these are pretty damn late. Again, profuse apologies. We suck.

Chris"

It's been a long time coming! Hopefully they'll live up to expectations.

Ancient Exas

Well, in this Post-EPG release era, I've little to report! ECG news is still flowing in from the official site, but we haven't seen any other leaks yet. All in good time, I should think!

For now, I have another conversion for you. Though the Colossal+ size category doesn't exist in 4E any more, don't be afraid to have this construct take up an entire battle mat!

Ancient Exas

You may recognise the art for this one, drawn by Cameron Kolbe back when I made the 3E version. This time, it's in colour!

EPG Previews on Facebook

The D&D Facebook page is currently previewing Eberron content. The more followers they get, the more they leak, so make sure you do! At the moment we have:
-Cannith Mastermaker description and 11th level power (Power Siphon)
-Simulacrum (level 29 artificer daily attack power)
-Living Caltrop Swarm (level 27 artificer encounter attack power)
-The artificer title art at Aint it Cool News.

The Spider Lords return!

The Spider Lords of False Presage is one of the most popular features on this site, so it's almost criminal I've waited this long to convert it! Well I finally found the time, and after the tweaks to the rules for solo creatures in the MM2, the first in the series is ready.

The White Spider of Adar

The conversion is accompanied by an illustration by Cameron Kolbe. Check out his DeviantART gallery here. Be sure to follow that link if you fancy a clue to what's coming next in the series.

The EPG has arrived!

User Jack99 has the Eberron Player's Guide, and has been revealing its details on this thread.

Here are some of the juicy bits:

Races

"Changelings get +2 dex or +2 int, +2 cha. +2 bluff, +2 insight, +1 will, changeling disguise at will (change self) and changeling trick (minor action, get CA until the end of your next turn)"

"Shifters get 3 new feats, from what I can tell."

On Kalashtar: "+2 wis, +2 cha, +2 insight +2 skill of own choice, save at the beginning of their turn against daze and dominate effect, and a racial encounter power that gives you and all allies in a close burst 5 a +4 bonus to Will as an immediate interrupt."

"Devas: Former allies of the couatls in the old battles against the demons and rashakas, persisting despite the couatls being long gone."

"Eladrins: Have always been there, but kept to themselves, only coming out of their 7 great cities when they occasionally world-falled. But after the Day of Mourning, they found themselves severed from the Feywild and stuck on Eberron. From what I read, they are still trying to get back."

"Goliath: Originate from Xen'drik, but left when the giants rose to power. They exist as always, spread out in the mountains, living as they always have, with traditions etc etc."

"Genasi are extremely rare and no one knows what they are, not even themselves! They could be everything from dwarves warped by the volcanic eruptions of the fist of Onatar or creations of the Arcane Congress. They have no homeland and live on the frindge of society."

Artificers

"The second Artificer build is called the Tinkerer, a build that focuses on building constructs. From a quick glance, he works much like a summoner."

"Only 4 at-wills, sorry mate. As for the artifices, they follow the rules of summoned creatures."

On healing:
"Curative Admixture: target regains hit points equal to its healing surge value + your wisdom modifier, scaling up to surge + wisdom + 10 at level 26.

Resistive Formula: taget gets +1 ac until the end of the encounter. The target can end the bonus and gain temporary hit points equal to its healing surge value + your constitution modifier, scaling to surge + 3 times your constitution modifier."

Dragonmarks

"Take the appropriate feat, gain benefits. Benefits include some bonus (roll twice for perception rolls or extra shifts under certain circumstances) and the ability to cast certain rituals, no matter your class/skills or ability to otherwise cast rituals."

"Mark of passage gives a +1 bonus to all shifts and teleports granted by a power. The Orien Swiftblade has quite a few teleport powers, including a daily that lets you attack, teleport to another target, attack and then teleport again to a third target and attack that."

Paragon Paths

Alchemist Savant
Battle Engineer
Chameleon
Clockwork Engineer
Exorcist of the Silver Flame
Gatekeeper Mystagogue
Lightwalker
Self-forged
Warforged Juggernaut

Cannith Mastermaker
Deneith Protector
Ghallanda Sanctuary Guardian
Jorasco Jadehand
Kundarak Ghorad'din
Lyrandar Wind-rider
Medani True-seer
Orien Swiftblade
Philarlan Phantasmist
Sivis Truenamer
Tharashk Wayfinder
Thuranni Shadowkiller
Vadalis Griffonmaster

Epic Destinies

Champion of Prophecy
Dispossessed Champion
Mourning Savior
Sublime Flame


That's it for now, but by the time you read this there will probably be more on ENworld thread!

Kalashtar, Dragonmarks - a summary

Here's what we know so far:

Kalashtar
-Have +2 Wis, +2 Cha. (+2 Wis, +2 Int is also a possibility based on the pre-gen stats, but other hits suggest Cha is correct)
-Have telepathy 5 as a language.
-Have a racial encounter power which helps protect themselves and allies from Will attacks.

Dragonmarks
-Are, at least at the entry level, feats which grant some free rituals and a minor ability.
-Are designed to make bearers better at what the house does, rather than granting an ability which everyone can use. Eg., the Mark of Healing improves healing rather than giving out a low level healing ability.
-The Mark of Storm provides a bonus to lightning and thunder based powers.
-The Mark of Warding improves marks (as in the defender ability) in some way.
-The Mark of Making improves 'making things'.

More Leaks - Dragonmarks

Smug has shared a few more goodies in the Kalashtar thread linked below, and Keith Baker has even posted there concerning the balance of 'telepathy 5'. I think that's enough to confirm this is the real deal!
Apparently the Mark of Warding, Storm and Making appear on the Free RPG Day pre-gens. Here's what Smug has to say regarding them:

"The marks are feats possessed by second level characters. There's no way to know if they have prereqs or what progression might be. They generally seem to provide a broadly useful ability (an overall enhancement to other powers or abilities as opposed to a new power) and access to certain rituals. So the Mark of Warding is useful to any class that has marking abilities, the Mark of Storm helps if you do lightning or thunder damage, and the Mark of Making is good for (surprise) making things. Overall, I like the looks of them, but it is a very limited amount of info to work with."

I'm sure a lot of mystery will be solved when we get the preview of the heroic tier feats next month.

Kalashtar Confirmed!

Fantastic news has emerged on the WotC boards - Kalashtar are confirmed to be in the EPG. According to user Smug over at this thread, the Free RPG Day adventure Khyber's Harvest by Keith Baker includes a kalashtar invoker pre-gen. The kalashtar race apparently have "telepathy 5" as a language, as well as a few psi-flavoured racial abilities and feats.
Sounds good to me!

EPG Excerpt 1

Today's except will be familiar to anyone with the 3E Eberron Campaign Setting, but there are few points of interest for the long-time fans. Notably, the excerpt also lists what we can expect in the coming weeks. Alas, no dragonmark or kalashtar!
Here are some of the interesting tidbits I could dig up:

-Shavarath still exists. It's fate is still uncertain, what with archons changing, but it's at least there. "Desolation spreads over that land like wildfire, like plague, and Eberron bears the scar of it for thirteen cycles of the
Battleground."
-Dragonborn might be linked to the Prophecy somehow. The illustration of the Champion of Prophecy is clearly a dragonborn, though of course that doesn't mean that it's only open to dragonborn. The symbol on his shield doesn't look familiar, does anyone recognise it? Note that neither the dragonborn under that epic destiny title, nor the one under the alchemy title, looks Seren.
-With the printing of an illustration of a changelings, it seems very likely the 4E doppelganger race has stats in there somewhere.
-There's more than one class! "You can create a character who could be found only in Eberron, using the new races, classes, backgrounds, and feats found in this book." Now either the dragonmarks are indeed classes, the artificer isn't alone, or they are referring to the paragon paths/epic destinies. I guess we'll have to wait and see!

Expeditionary Dispatches

The Mournland Express article has been posted to the official site, and includes plentiful plot hooks, NPC stats and maps of the lightning rail carts. Unfortunately there's little we can extract from the article in terms of previewing EPG or ECG content. There are a few dragonmarked individuals, but alas there's no indication of how they might work for PCs rather than NPCs.
I guess we'll have to wait until tomorrow for the first of the EPG excerpts! Watch this space.

May Previews

A few juicy bits in the May and Beyond previews over on the official site.

There's a brief write up of the Dreaming Dark along with a Dreaming Dark Assassin monster stat block. The stats aren't too bad, it has some cool attack powers, but it's "Dual Mind" ability forces attack rolls against it to be rolled twice, and for the character to take the lowest value. I see a couple of problems there:
1. Longer combat may get boring.
2. If players are aware that is an ability of the Inspired, it's difficult to keep your monster undercover if you ask them to roll everything twice. You can always use other stats for undercover agents, though, so it's not big deal.

There is also a less obvious hint in there: the mention of kalaraq quori. Does that mean kalaraqs appear in the ECG too? It seems likely, although the write up might just mention other quori types.

The EPG preview is less crunchy, but there is one interesting section:

"Interested in becoming a self-forged and using warforged components . . . even if you're not a warforged? Purchasing a clockwork bomb? Perhaps learn feats tied to your dragonmark? It's all in the Player's Guide, so look for detailed previews and excerpts in the coming months!"

Looks like the Renegade Mastermaker is making a return!
And clockwork bombs? Intriguing. I hope they're magical or alchemical items rather than scientific devices.

Expeditionary Dispatches in May

The table of contents for Dragon #365 has been release, and so we have the topic of the first DDI Eberron article of the year!

Expeditionary Dispatches
By Andrew Schneider
Most lightning rail voyages are uneventful, but one run near the Mournland holds the unexpected for its passengers.

The article is due for release on 15th May.

Here's hoping we see rules for encounters atop or within the lightning rail!

Eberron in May's Dragon Magazine

The editorial calender for May's Dragon Magazine is released, and it looks like Eberron is going to get plenty of love!
In addition to four excerpts from the Eberron Campaign Guide (could change to Player's Guide, given the release date swap), In the Works is likely to have more previews, and on May 15 we see the return of Expeditionary Dispatches. Until the table of contents is released the subject remains a mystery, but I'll keep you posted!

Soldier Updates and Artefact

The very first 4e monsters I uploaded to the site were a set of soldiers themed to each of the Five Nations, built using preview material from DDXP back at the start of 2008. After a very sensible request, I've now updated those stats to reflect the rules for monster creation in the DMG. The differences are fairly minor, just a few number tweaks here and there, but hopefully they should run a bit smoother now.
Soldiers of the Five Nations

I've also finally linked up the Legacy of the Six Kings, which has been sitting on the site for a long time now. This 4e artefact is of ancient goblinoid origin, and is imbued with the souls of six Dhakaani generals. Some of you might recognise it from an UnCon contest a few years ago.

Enjoy!

Release Date Swap Confirmed

The release dates for the EPG and ECG were reported at the GTS 2009 D&D Seminar. True to the rumours, the EPG now comes in June before the ECG in July. Specifically:

Eberron Player's Guide: 6-16-09
Eberron Campaign Guide: 7-21-09

Switched Releases?

Amazon.com and Barnes & Nobles are apparently reporting switched release dates for the EPG and ECG. Instead of the ECG in June and EPG in July, it looks like we could have the EPG first. WotC are still listing it the original way, so this is by no means confirmed, but it is an interesting development!

For all those artificers out there, a new artificer power 'Punishing Eye' appears in the Dragon article Arcane Schools: White Lotus Academy. Unfortunately it doesn't give a glimpse into any changed mechanics!

Wyatt on Genre Themes

This month's Ampersand gives just a short titbit on the Eberron Campaign Guide:

And what are you personally working on right now?

"I'm putting the finishing touches on the Eberron Campaign Guide even as we speak," James said. "My favorite part of the book is the chapter that introduces the themes of the campaign and shows you how to apply these themes to your own campaign."

Sounds juicy.
A minor and probably irrelevant Eberron detail also shows up in today's Hybrid Characters playtest. The illustration accompanying the Ranger hybrid class has an elf bearing an aberrant dragonmark, specifically the least mark from Dragonmarked. Could it be an unfinished art order for one of the Eberron books? I guess we'll have to wait and see!

Eberron at Free RPG Day

Hot off the press:

According to the sponsor list for Free RPG Day, a 4E Eberron adventure entitled "Khyber's Harvest" will be WotC's offering. Handily, Free RPG Day is only a few days after the release of the Eberron Campaign Guide in June, so you'll be able to start playing almost straight away.

More on Shifters

After the official heroic tier feat excerpt and the leaked photograph of the paragon feat list, there are some interesting tidbits to share.
It appears that the 3e shifter traits gorebrute, cliffwalk and beasthide are now racial feats rather than separate races. Perhaps dreamsight and swiftwing will appear as epic feats. It's an interesting mechanic, which can serve to make a shifter's racial power pretty powerful. If you take all the feats, you'll end up with +2 situational damage bonus (either gorebrute or blurring claws), a climb speed and damage resistance while shifting.
Maybe that's why the designers didn't feel the need to add any secondary racial abilities. I'm not sure if it's the best decision, it would have been nice to have interesting abilities without having to invest feats. After all, that was one of the problems with the 3e shifter. I guess I'll reserve full judgement until I see the race in play!

PHB2 Arrives - Shifter details emerge

Some lucky people have already got their hands on the PHB2. Expect more here after more discussion, but I do have one tidbit for Eberron fans, a question answered on the Critical Hits blog linked above.

Q: I’m most interested in your thoughts on the new Shifter. Are there still just two shifters? How do they compare to the MM versions? What other options do they have in the book (Feats/Paragon Paths)? I understand you can’t list everything, I’m just interested in anything about Shifters that particularly caught your eye.

A: It’s just the two from MM. They’re essentially the same, which just a little tweak that makes it better. They also get racial feats and a paragon path (Moonstalker, and it’s pretty vicious!)

Eneko Conversion

Another conversion for 4E, and this time one that's unlikely to see official treatment any time soon.

Eneko

For those unfamiliar with the race, which was first published in Secrets of Sarlona, the eneko are descendants of half-giant immigrants from Xen'drik and the ogres of Borunan in Sarlona. Most now live in the free nation of Syrkarn.
The conversion includes three racial feats and a paragon path to develop an eneko's oni blood.

As always, let me know what you think!

Grand History Update

Chris Monte has updated his Grand History of Eberron compilation:

"Well it's arrived! The new edition of the Grand History of Eberron has now been posted! There have been massive formatting changes, revisions, removal of typos, tightening of the text and major additions at every level of the book. Now more than ever, the GHoE can serve as your primary supplement to the upcoming 4th Edition Eberron Campaign Guide and Player's Guide. I have included a brand-new introduction that can help both veterans of the setting and those new to Eberron get a better grasp of the world and what sets it apart from the core D&D setting as well as new chronological entries, new maps, a new entry covering the Frostfell and Everice, a brand new look at the 4E Eberron cosmology (to be revised as we learn more) and even new crests. Ever wonder what the symbol of Cyre looked like? It's in there! Want a crest for the Lords of Dust? It's in there! All terminology and magical effects have also been upgraded to their 4E equivalents."

You can download the Grand History right here. Just follow this link:
Grand History of Eberron

Shifter DDXP Sheet

The shifter druid has finally surfaced!

Front
Back

There doesn't appear to be much difference between the razorclaw here and in the MM, though that could mean their other abilities are more passive (and so not listed on the sheet).
As far as I can tell, the only differences are:
-Shifters get Elven as a bonus language
-Razorclaw shifters get +2 Endurance rather than +2 Stealth as in the MM, like their longtooth counterparts
-Shifting no longer ends when you fall unconscious

If you notice anything else, post in the comments!

Razorclaw Shifter Avengers

The first two pages of the Avenger from the PHB2 were on show at the New York Comic Con. In it, we see an unfortunately vague reference to shifters:

"...razorclaw shifters make excellent pursuing avengers..."

So, this could mean that there will still be different stat blocks for the different shifter traits as we see in the MM. However, it could also just be referring to the trait, like saying 'earthsoul genasi', for example. It's all very vague, and really there isn't much difference between the two approaches. It's just presentation, really.
Either way, it does mean that the different shifters still have different ability bonuses, otherwise it'd just say 'shifter'.

Changelings Confirmed for EPG?

Ok, I know I'm filling in the blanks on this one, so it's not an explicit confirmation, but this quote from the latest Design and Development is particularly interesting:

"Some races need more tweaking than others. If we ever get around to doing a version of the kobold as a PC race, we'll probably change shifty pretty significantly. You'll see more examples of how a PC race is not always the same as a monster race in the Eberron Player's Guide this summer."

So that confirms we'll see at least 2 races from the MM in the EPG. Warforged is probably one of them, and shifters are in the PHB2, so this seems like confirmation that doppelgangers are included. It could be hobgoblins, goblins or orcs, but I'd put my money on changelings reappearing.

Trolls of Eberron, part 5

The Trolls of Eberron feature has returned! In the new, one-off addition to the series, I've include six new trolls to use in your 4E Eberron game, with one standard monster and one elite from each of the cultures detailed in the series.

Trolls of Eberron, part 5

As always, please post any suggestions or comments you have, especially if you get a chance to use these guys in combat!

Unobstructed Eberron 4E Covers

Thanks to Hobo over on ENworld for this juicy find. Artist Wayne Reynolds has updated the galleries on his website to include the images used on the cover of the 4E Eberron books.


Prescott's LoBster in Five Nations was pretty badass, but WAR has nailed it with the cover of the Eberron Campaign Guide:



And let's not forget our plucky adventuring duo on the Eberron Player's Guide:



And finally, the Emerald Claw returns in Seekers of the Ashen Crown:

Eberron Previews in Dragon

For the non-subscribers out there, this month's Ampersand includes a pair of previews from the Eberron Campaign Guide out in June.

First off, we're treated to a picture of the new poster map of Khorvaire. Sadly, it's only low resolution so it isn't usable yet. Interestingly, though, they've dropped the cartoon style of the 3E map for a more realistic one.

Second, we get stats for Mordain the Fleshweaver. I was going to take a shot at this one myself for this site, but I guess they beat me to it! The stats look fun, although there is a lot to keep track of with regards to saving throws - lot's of ongoing damage, slowed and dazed conditions attached to his abilities. I think it's a good representation of him, though.

We're also told that come May there will be regular Eberron (and FR) features in Dragon/Dungeon, the first of which will deal with encounters on the Lightning Rail.

Covers and Character Sheets

I know, it's not exactly Eberron related, but I thought I'd post about this anyway. A thread over on Horderlings has photographs of the Delve character sheets for this year's D&D XP, so you can check out the never before seen stats for Devas, Half-orcs, Avengers and Shamans. That'll be out of date by tomorrow, when the Shaman preview is live on DDI, but it can't hurt to be a little early! Incidentally, if anyone can get their hands on the shifter druid sheet so we can see how shifters differ from their MM stats, post a link in the comments!

In other news, I've finally stumbled upon the cover for the 4E Eberron adventure despite watching the official site like a hawk for Seekers of the Ashen Crown to appear in the product schedule. Turns out I should have been watching Amazon instead! Anyway, here it is:

Web 2.0!

In an effort to have at least some interactivity on the site, I've moved the news over to Blogger. Now, you'll be able to comment on the news that appears on the site, and subscribe to an RSS feed to keep up to date.

And because I don't want important news to suddenly disappear, I'm going to repost the last couple of news posts.

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Three new features for you today:

Paragon Path Pack I - Fifteen paragon paths for you to use in your 4E Eberron games

Kalashtar - 4E racial stats

And last but certainly not least, Chris Monte's compilation, the Grand History of Eberron is now available to download right here!

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A bit of graphical news: the covers of the Eberron books now appear on the official site: