Hey everybody. I've never been a DM over an Eberron game before and like a lot of people I just got the new book. After reading through it briefly I feel like an entire party (6 in my case) of PCs having dragonmarks may be too powerful. Most of my players go for stats first, roleplay second. I'm sure given the chance to take powerful magic they will and they'll make it fit they're background instead of the other way around.
One of the things that appeals to me about Eberron is the pulp nature and the danger. That seems to be lessened if all the PCs have super magic power and connections. Has anyone had experience with this before? Should I maybe limit the dragonmarks to 1 or 2 per party? Thanks.
There is a cost associated with having a dragonmark, being you have to pick that race variant. Which should make things reasonably balanced even if everyone has one.
It seems to me that in order to take full advantage of the marks you need to play a spellcasting class. If your entire party chose to be spellcasters it could lead to some very serious weaknesses in the group that you can use to spice things up. What if they enter a zone that is constantly under an antimagic field, like the one created by the spell sink eldritch machine? Beholders could be especially difficult, and many enemies are immune to mind affecting effects. Think of ways to throw a wrench in their gears and create real challenge, and if they overcome it better than you expected improvise, adapt, overcome.
If you feel that the challenge is not there play on their weaknesses and see how they react. The only thing I'd say as a caution would be don't give them access to too many items that fill in the gaps in their skill set, or do but make it part of the story? If all else fails maybe have a conversation with the players about your concerns and make a change accordingly so that the game remains fun and challenging.
Make sure to read up on the lore of the Dragonmark houses and their relationships with each other. Unless they all pick the same house/mark, there will be a lot of potential issues with cross-house politics. Could make for great RP, but also can be a significant hindrance in the world.
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Hey everybody. I've never been a DM over an Eberron game before and like a lot of people I just got the new book. After reading through it briefly I feel like an entire party (6 in my case) of PCs having dragonmarks may be too powerful. Most of my players go for stats first, roleplay second. I'm sure given the chance to take powerful magic they will and they'll make it fit they're background instead of the other way around.
One of the things that appeals to me about Eberron is the pulp nature and the danger. That seems to be lessened if all the PCs have super magic power and connections. Has anyone had experience with this before? Should I maybe limit the dragonmarks to 1 or 2 per party? Thanks.
There is a cost associated with having a dragonmark, being you have to pick that race variant. Which should make things reasonably balanced even if everyone has one.
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For example, you could now have a healing wizard but it will take longer to Max it's casting stat since mark of healing doesn't grant an int bonus.
It seems to me that in order to take full advantage of the marks you need to play a spellcasting class. If your entire party chose to be spellcasters it could lead to some very serious weaknesses in the group that you can use to spice things up. What if they enter a zone that is constantly under an antimagic field, like the one created by the spell sink eldritch machine? Beholders could be especially difficult, and many enemies are immune to mind affecting effects. Think of ways to throw a wrench in their gears and create real challenge, and if they overcome it better than you expected improvise, adapt, overcome.
If you feel that the challenge is not there play on their weaknesses and see how they react. The only thing I'd say as a caution would be don't give them access to too many items that fill in the gaps in their skill set, or do but make it part of the story? If all else fails maybe have a conversation with the players about your concerns and make a change accordingly so that the game remains fun and challenging.
Make sure to read up on the lore of the Dragonmark houses and their relationships with each other. Unless they all pick the same house/mark, there will be a lot of potential issues with cross-house politics. Could make for great RP, but also can be a significant hindrance in the world.