Children of Cyre Overview

Campaign Information

Tone and Theme

Many of the core books for the setting go over the "10 Things you Need to Know About Eberron", but for the purposes of this campaign, I'm focusing on three key elements:

1. Situations where the lines between good and evil are not clear. I'm not saying that the characters can't be heroes, but rather, that they will likely be faced with challenging situations, where good-aligned NPCs could come into conflict with the PCs due to their differing goals, or an evil NPC may make for a close (if untrusted) ally.. In Eberron, many of the traditional rules about built-in alignments are not true. Evil-aligned metallic dragons are as common as good ones, and it's possible to run into good (or at least, neutral) mindflayers. Clerics can maintain their spellcasting ability without necessarily keeping the same alignment as their god. A good-aligned character may pay tribute to an evil deity who governs a part of their everyday life. Meanwhile, a fanatical evil priest may torture the enemies of his religion, all in the name of his Lawful Good deity. In this setting, being a hero is not a simple matter of always choosing the "good" outcome, but rather, a continual struggle to make the right choices.
2. The world has just come out of a period of one hundred years of war. A war which was largely unresolved. Today, the powers still move against one another in an ongoing cold war, and people do not ask if the Last War will start again, but rather, when. While many people truly desire peace and will work hard to preserve it, others are just looking for opportunities to kickstart the conflict. The scars of the war still lie heavily upon the continent, and the grudges and hatred will take generations to heal. Many questions about the war still remain unanswered, and the world is clearly in a state of change, with many new nations having been forged out of the old. In this time of chaos, is peace even possible?
3. Society in Eberron is much more advanced than in traditional D&D settings, owing to the prevalence of magic, and the Dragonborn Houses. Many features of 19th Century Europe have been replicated through the use of magic. Newspapers are printed on a daily and weekly basis. Transportation takes the form of elementally driven trains, and airships. Communcation between cities is common. Textiles are mass produced. Magical lighting is common in the major cities, and the main thoroughfares of smaller ones. Magic is used to increase the production of food, and to breed stronger animals and plants. Many craftsmen use minor magic to improve the quality of their goods. But this is not to say that Eberron has a lot of powerful spellcasters. Better to say that Eberron's magic is broad and wide, but not deep. There are many, many low powered casters in the world, simple men and women who only know a spell or two to help them with their daily work. Truly powerful magic is still quite rare.

Character Creation

Stat Generation

Standard point buy (27 points) applies. Please see PHB p. 13 for details.

Races

• Humans
• Elves
• Dwarves
• Halflings
• Half-Elves
• Half-Orcs
• Gnomes
• Tieflings
• Changelings
• Warforged
• Shifters

If you have a particular race other than the above that you would like to play, please contact me directly and we can discuss how to make it work in play.

Classes

All standard PHB classes are permitted. If you are interested in a class or build from a different source, please let me know so I can review ahead of time.

History

Please give some thought to what your character was doing during The Last War, and how it affected their life. Also, with the campaign being centered around New Cyre, I'd advise players to have their characters either be Cyran, or to have a good reason for being invested in the community.

Optional Rules

New Feat: Dragonmark

You have a magical mark that indicates you are a member of one of the dragonmarked houses. Select one of the options from the Dragonmarks table, you must belong to the race listed. You gain the ability to innately cast spells and cantrips, as summarized in the Dragonmark Benefits table, using the spellcasting ability listed under the Ability column. You cast each spell at its lowest level. You may cast a cantrip granted by this ability at-will. Other spells, once cast this way, require you to complete a long rest before you can cast it innately again. You must still expend any material components. Your dragonmark confers the following benefits:

• When you first take this feat, you gain the least dragonmark. You learn the spells listed under the Least column as well as the Cantrip column.
• At 5th level and higher, your mark becomes more potent, improving to lesser dragonmark. You also learn the spell listed under the Lesser column.
• At 9th level and higher, your mark’s power increases again, becoming a greater dragonmark. You also learn the spell listed under the Greater column.

SPECIAL: A 1st-level character may reduce their starting point buy pool from 27 to 22 points to begin play with this feat.

Mark	House	Race	Ability	Cantrip	Least	Lesser	Greater
Detection	Medani	Half-elf	Wisdom	Mage hand	Detect magic	Detect Thoughts	Clairvoyance
Finding	Tharashk	Half-orc, human	Wisdom	Mage hand	Identify	Locate object	Clairvoyance
Handling	Vadalis	Human	Wisdom	Druidcraft	Speak with animals	Beast sense	Conjure animals
Healing	Jorasco	Halfling	Wisdom	Spare the dying	Cure wounds	Lesser Restoration	Revivify
Hospitality	Ghallanda	Halfling	Charisma	Friends	Unseen servant	Rope Trick	Leomund's Tiny Hut
Making	Cannith	Human	Intelligence	Mending	Identify	Magic weapon	Fabricate
Passage	Orien	Human	Intelligence	Light	Expeditious retreat	Misty step	Teleportation circle
Scribing	Sivis	Gnome	Intelligence	Message	Comprehend languages	Sending	Tongues
Sentinel	Deneith	Human	Wisdom	Blade ward	Compelled duel	Blur	Protection from energy
Shadow	Phiarlan, Thuranni	Elf	Charisma	Dancing lights	Disguise self	Darkness	Nondetection
Storm	Lyrander	Half-elf	Intelligence	Shocking grasp	Fog cloud	Gust of wind	Sleet storm
Warding	Kundarak	Dwarf	Intelligence	Resistance	Alarm	Arcane lock	Magic circle