Races of Eberron (Dungeons and Dragons v3.5 Supplement): A Race Series Supplement (Dungeons & Dragons) [Hardcover]

Despite being part of the "Races of" series, this is an Eberron book, but don't let that stop you from buying it because it does provide information on how to introduce these new races into other settings.

The new Eberron setting introduced several new concepts to D&D, including several new races and this book greatly expands upon them.

The Warforged are basically "fantasy robots", and as a living construct they are very different from the "normal" races of D&D. This chapter expands how this very young race lives day to day, their psychology, culture and rather short history.

Next we have Shifters, they are belived to be children of those infected with Lycanthropy (werewolves). As such, they inherit several bestial traits, and this book adds several new ones based on other types of lycanthropes.

The best chapter IMHO, is Changelings, the descendants of Dopplegangers that had infitrated Eberron in the past. There are three basic types of Changelings, Becomers: who maintain a bunch of alternate identites, Passers: Who try to live their life under one identity and Reality Seekers: Who live openly as a Changeling.

Lastly we have the Kalashtar, a psionic race who are actually two beings in one. If you are a fan of the Soul Knife class from the Expanded Psionic Handbook, you will love all the new feats and prestige classes introduced in this chapter.

My one and only complaint of these chapters is the lack of a "How to fight this race" sidebar. In the Eberron setting, you are not just going to be playing these races, you will be fighting them as well. How do you ID an Chageling in disguise?

The next chapter covers the basic races of D&D, but with as they exist in Eberron. If this book is truely considered part of the "Races of" series, it would have been nice if the new races in those books and the psionic races had been included here as well.

Next we have feats, prestige classes and racial substitution levels, and it does include Psionic & Tactical feats and Psionic substitution levels. The book ends with new spells, artificer infusions and psionic powers as well as magic items crafted for these races.

Overall, a very good book, even the matrerial that might not directly fit your world can be adapted to work quite easily.

Let me start with this: I haven't been totally thrilled with Wizards recently.The "complete" series of books suffered from boringness, and that could have been fixed with more editing. I was afraid that all the new supplements I got would be junk. Then I started to look at the Eberron campaign setting... 3 months later I am happily running and playing in an Eberron campaign. When the first page opened ofRaces of Eberron, I can tell you I was expecting a lot. The original campaign setting really delivered, and I was hoping for something equally as good. I didn't get it. I got something waaaaaaaaaaaay better. Every page, every page, was filled with new material that was PERFECT. I had a few gripes, but none of them took away from my enjoyment of the book.

A Rundown of the Chapters:

Chapter one:Warforged. As you probably know, Warforged are sentient constructs built for war. This chapter expands on themes presented in the Eberron campaign setting. How do warforged deal with being in society? Who is the Lord Of Blades, and what does he want? What wmotions to warforged have? What are their needs? You get the picture. Also, The "A day in the life" Section is great.

Chapter 2:Shifters

This chapter takes the normally awesome shifters to the stratosphere of cool.It gives new shifter traits, like one that lets you fly. Shifters may have seemed wild and stupid before, but with races of eberron thay are more like a tribal group close to nature, always adventuring. This chapter is awwsome.

Chapter 3: Changelings

This chapter says that all changelings have a behavioral type.

Passers, who take an identity of a non-changeling and live their whole life like that, Becomers, who live under many identities, and Reality seekers, who live in their real form and are constantly seeking for something called "the perfect form". The chapter then goes on to explain how each type feels on different topics.

Chapter 4: Kalashtar

This chapter mostly talks about how kalshtar live, how they fight the Dreaming Dark,and how they got their quori spirits. The chapter introduces a new side of the kalashtar: the warring kalashtar. This chapter is really interesting.

Chapter 5: Other Races

This chapter talks about the roles of the core races in eberron. This isn't the most exciting chapter, but it does talk about the Drow, and that was something much needed in eberron IMO (In My Opinion).

Chapter 6: Character Options

This is the best chapter of all. Awesome new feats (though they gave the warforged and shifter too many, and not enough to the changelings) , Cool new Racial Substitution levels (Lets you take a special level in a class that gives abilties designed for characters of a certain race), and that's all it needs to be the best part of the book.

Chapter 7: Prestige classes

This chapter contains 8 prestige classes, 2 for each race of Eberron. The prestige classes aren't that thrilling. 1 or 2 neat ones, and the just get bad from there. Take an example. The Reforged, a warforged that becomes more like a human. UGH.

Chapter Eight: Eqipment

This chapter has new armor (2 kinds) and a few new weapons. The magic items I saw weren't thrilling, except for the warforged components. Why give the warforged all the stuff? That has to be the biggest mistake in the whole book, or even the campaign setting.

Chapter 9: Magic and Psionics

This chapter is pathetic. I found only one interesting and/or good spell.

All in all, this is the best non-campaign setting book on the market,even if you don't play in Eberron (it gives sidebars on how to put the race in any campaign). Go buy it!!!!!

I would preface this with saying that Races of Eberron is NOT part of the Eberron line of books. It is part of the Races of XXXX books, in the Generic line. While the material here is still useful to Eberron players, there's a good deal here that you will already know. And, taken as a generic Races of XXXX book, its pretty good. It is by no means the next Draconomicon, but it is easily the best of the Races books (which, considering that lines contains what is easily the WORST book WotC has ever published, Races of Destiny, isn't saying much).

However, as an Eberron book, it falls rather flat.

Much of the material in the book is rather uninspired (the exception being the chapter on the Kalashtar, which was personally written by Keith Baker, the setting designer himself), and some of it is downright contradictory to the material provided by the Eberron Campaign Setting book.

The PrC provided are generally pretty good, with the exception of the ReForged (a PrC centered around a WF losing it's armor plating and becoming more alive, essentially an anti-juggernaught, but without the cool factor).

And, perhaps most dissappointing, is that the non-new races (the PHB races) are royally shafted. Keith Baker has a series of excellent FREE articles on Wizard of the Coast's website that go into much more detail than this book does. If you want information on how to play an elf in Eberron, this book is going to be virtually useless to you. And perhaps worse yet, it devotes as many pages, if not more, to the Drow (a race that was specifically said to be unsuitable for play in Eberron) as it does the other non-warforged/changling/shifter/kalashtar races.

The magic section is generally acceptable, although there is an entire line of artificer infusions that, as per the rules for infusions in the ECS, are not even usable as they target specific sections of a fleshie body, and not an item or a construct. Several items also seem to be oddly done (such as low price items with caster level prereqs of lvl 15-20, which as a rule do not exist in the setting).

If you are brand new to the setting, or would like to use the four new Eberronian races in another game, this is a book you will find useful. If you are an Eberron fan that is looking for the next Sharn: City of Towers, don't waste your money on this one. You'll likely find it to be mediocre at best, and flat out wrong at worst.

IMO, the only thing that gives this book any saving grace, other than the Kalashtar section, is that it was not made part of the official Eberron line, so it is easy to dismiss anything you find in it as such.