Eberron: Rising from the Last War (2019)
Written by: Wizards of the Coast
Genre: Tabletop Game
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
Why I Chose It: Eberron has been one of my favorite Dungeons and Dragons settings for ages. I’ve been eagerly waiting the new book and dove into it the day it was released!
The Premise:
This book provides everything players and Dungeon Masters need to play Dungeons & Dragons in Eberron — a war-torn world filled with magic-fueled technology, airships and lightning trains, where noir-inspired mystery meets swashbuckling adventure. Will Eberron enter a prosperous new age or will the shadow of war descend once again?
• Dive straight into your pulp adventures with easy-to-use locations, complete with maps of floating castles, skyscrapers, and more.
• Explore Sharn, a city of skyscrapers, airships, and noirish intrigue and a crossroads for the world’s war-ravaged peoples.
• Include a campaign for characters venturing into the Mournland, a mist-cloaked, corpse-littered land twisted by magic.
• Meld magic and invention to craft objects of wonder as an artificer — the first official class to be released for fifth edition D&D since the Player’s Handbook.
• Flesh out your characters with a new D&D game element called a group patron — a background for your whole party.
• Explore 16 new race/subrace options including dragonmarks, which magically transform certain members of the races in the Player’s Handbook.
• Confront horrific monsters born from the world’s devastating wars.
No Spoilers Below
Discussion: Eberron is one of my favorite settings in Dungeons & Dragons. The combination of machines and magic makes for a wonderful adventure with strange possibilities everywhere you turn. Unlike Avernus, this book does not contain a full campaign ready to be run straight from the book. Instead, it serves as a world encyclopedia for the war-torn land of Eberron.
The book adds several new PC — player character — races: changeling, kalashtar, orc, shifter, and warforged. I love the new races; they add some fun variety to the existing D&D universe. Changelings create a lot of fun potential with their shapeshifting abilities, while the kalashtar are an interesting combination of a mortal living with a spirit in their body.
The races also introduce dragonmarks, which are special marks that manifest unique abilities for a character. These are a great way to add something strange and fun to a game. The marks are physical manifestations of different magical abilities and are connected to powerful families in Eberron.
A new class option is (finally!) in this book as well. The artificer brings another intelligence-focused class to the field and offers three specialties: alchemist, artillerist and battle smith. This a unique class that focuses on building and creating magical effects and items to aid during combat. I think the class has a lot of potential and seems like a nice addition for someone who is looking to run a tinkerer-type character.
After the new races and class, there are some new background options and a new dynamic I am really excited about, the group patron. I mentioned this in my Avernus review, and so far, I think the Eberron group patron does a much better job than the shared background offered in Avernus.
A group patron is essentially an organization or person that all the characters work for. It could be an adventurer’s guild, a criminal organization, a noble-person, or some strange eldritch creature. There are a lot of options, and it provides a great groundwork to create a patron that resonates with your own D&D group. Personally, I think it’s an amazing dynamic, and I cannot wait to add it into my own games.
After we get through the character options, we dive into the history and lore of Eberron. Each nation is explored in depth, including several newspaper-clipping style reports that add some nice, unique flavor to the cities. The section on history and the world itself is by far the largest, and it provides a ton of information that a game master can dole out to curious players. I love the way this section is laid out, and it even offers hints and tips for anyone creating a character from the different regions. It’s a really helpful thing to have available at a glance.
There is an entire chapter dedicated to Sharn, one of the largest cities in the region. The city is made up of a series of rings in the air and falling off the many bridges of the city is a real possibility. The book also provides an intro adventure for level 1 characters to introduce everyone to Sharn and the world of Eberron. I like the adventure, and it does truly highlight some of the dangers and wonders of the magic and machines in the world.
The final section is a glossary of new items, monster stat blocks, and some NPC options. It’s shorter than I expected, since Eberron is known for gadgetry, but there are some great gems in here and a lot of options for a warforged character.
The artwork is great and captures the steampunk pulp style of the world. I wish there was more art, but that’s more selfishness than criticism. The illustrations are amazing, and I just want a giant tome of Eberron artwork.
In Conclusion: The book is a great introduction to Eberron and an excellent resource for anyone looking to run a game in this exciting world of machines and magic. I cannot wait to dive into a campaign!
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