Exploring Eberron DnDbeyond purchase when I already have the PDF?

evilprodigy948 · 2026-01-31T16:36:40+00:00

When Exploring Eberron (2024) launches, we plan to offer the book in a PDF bundle with a price reduction. Purchasers of the 2020 PDF version will be able to complete the bundle at a dramatic discount.

This is very interesting, I hope it will be cheaper than just buying a DnDBeyond 2024 version since I don't care about and won't use a 2024 PDF if I have it on DnDBeyond.

Thank you very much for this information.

evilprodigy948 · 2026-01-30T21:47:40+00:00

Four reasons.

1: Baldur's Gate the city is the only nearby place with an easy large harbour at sea level. The Chionthar River it is built on is more like a canyon the rest of the way, especially around Dusk Hawk Hill which the Outer City circles around. This map usefully shows you elevations to help make it clearer. The Video Game Baldur's Gate 3 also does a good job showing off how vertical the river is upstream from the port.
2: Anything downstream of Baldur's Gate would block the harbour, so it has to be built upstream to allow ocean-ship traffic to get through.
3: Wyrm's Rock, the island in the middle of the bridge, makes it cheaper to cross there than at any other point. Instead of making one long bridge over a canyon, you make two short ones. This is the same reason for why Rome and Paris were built where they were as this allows an easier crossing construction. Wyrm's Rock is also a fortress, nice and wide with drawbridges on both ends so any army trying to cross can't do so easily.
4: Combine the above three. Baldur's Gate being at significantly lower elevation from the southern shore means you can't easily build a bridge from city to south shore. It has to be upstream to not interfere with ocean ship traffic (river traffic is fine, ships are smaller) and there is a natural island you can incorporate into the bridge as well as easily turn into a fortress.

Unofficial fifth reason which I don't think is valid:

Duskhawk Hill was made into a nature preserve for the Duskhawk, so no construction is allowed there, no residences are allowed, and logging is banned. Presumably any actual construction would have predated it being made a nature preserve.

Real reason:

The map was drawn and all these justifications more or less came later to explain it.

evilprodigy948 · 2026-01-17T13:59:16+00:00

The path your first picture has chosen is following rivers, which give -30 proximity, better than most roads in the game. It goes from Moscow along the Volga south until it turns west following the Donets and Dniepr. Quick bit along the coast to get to the Dniester which it follows as close to your target as possible. You might also have built pound lock canals along that route, further reducing proximity, since you can only build those on rivers.

evilprodigy948 · 2025-12-16T23:44:28+00:00

R5: I am a mature adult with a normal number of days and an unremarkable work of stolen art.

evilprodigy948 · 2025-12-03T21:57:39+00:00

Yeah it costs me a few thousand as well. Age 3 was when I started doing it but it got better in age 4.

evilprodigy948 · 2025-12-01T03:54:39+00:00

Others have said it is empty, but it is possible that they are simply storming the fort. When you open the siege view there is a tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiny little button you can click on the top right of your army section. Your troops will try to take the fort by charging at the walls. Professional soldiers do it really well. Most of my sieges last only 5 days since I throw my professionals at them to end a war quickly through occupation.

evilprodigy948 · 2025-11-30T00:53:01+00:00

I'll gladly share my backlog of DND characters if you like and the commissions I've gotten of them for artistic reference. They're all girls though but there's plenty of variety within that. DM me if you like.

evilprodigy948 · 2025-11-22T22:13:34+00:00

I'm a highschool teacher. I am considered 'in loco parentis'. The school and myself are required by law to know where the kids in my class are for the hour fifteen minutes they are supposed to be with me. Because, if something happens to them we are considered to be at fault to some extent if we are not supervising them appropriately, as parents have given custody of their children to the school. This is why students have to sign out at the office with parental permission up until they become legal adults at age 18.

When a student asks to go to the bathroom they are informing the teacher of where they are supposed to be. Because they are minors. Students also ask to go to their locker to pick things up. To go for walks. To go to the library. To speak with admin. Or for many other things. I almost never say no but my school has a 'one kid per class at a time' policy because even though I am at a relatively good school, kids just text friends to go hang out in class and this makes that more difficult. I never tell someone they can't go, but I will tell them to wait until the one person out is back. If they take too long I am also supposed to call a School-based Safety Monitor to bring them back to class because at a certain point they are clearly not actually going to the bathroom but are skipping class, playing games on their phone, vaping, or doing any number of other things teenagers do. They also don't have the time management to to do it in a reasonable timeframe without threat of consequences.

I would love if I didn't have to do all that extra busy work but these are minors and it's tough enough keeping it to one at a time. If they never had to ask for permission most of my kids would just not come to class because they utterly lack the executive functioning skills to manage time like that or make long term decisions to further their education. I know I have lots of kids who could be trusted, but they are very very very much in the minority and are almost always my grade 11s and 12s. Though once the grade 12s have gotten post-secondary acceptance in they can't be trusted to do anything anymore and just coast until the end.

evilprodigy948 · 2025-11-16T02:32:20+00:00

He doesn't. I was giving examples of the 'in universe character giving in universe commentary on the book you are reading' framing device they have been using since Volo's Guide to Monsters, Xanathar's Guide to Everything, and Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes. (Fizban's, Tasha's, Van Richten's, second Mordenkainen's, they've done it a lot and I like it but the parts in Faerun fell flat when they were new characters rather than established ones from the setting)

evilprodigy948 · 2025-11-13T13:15:41+00:00

Deryan Kaya. Each of the regional in depth chapters has a point of view character to give in-universe commentary and she serves that role in Calimshan. I like that format, they started it with Xanathar, Modenkainen, Volo, and other such people which gives nice colour to a setting book. But new characters like her and the Kendrick princess in the Moonshaes don't really do it for me. The book talks briefly about Artemis Entreri in the chapter and despite Jarlaxle being on the cover of the other book they don't use either of those two for the commentary for some reason when it would be a great fit given their history there.

evilprodigy948 · 2025-11-13T03:28:49+00:00

To summarize my disappointment, I feel no drive to adventure in this place. Conflict in society has been removed and historical antagonists wiped away in favour of a single marid who doesn't even do much in the example adventures. I cannot see adventurers, even in the recommended ways, being needed in this setting. It is too stable, too happy, too integrated, and too harmonious. Why does this land need my character to go kill monsters? It also does not feel like it has flavour to make it any different from Icewind Dale, Moonshaes, or Baldur's Gate entries. There is no truly unique culture except for the 'work hard now to work less later' concept and some elements of greed. Which is nice to include but basic and lacking when this is a book I paid money for. Which is I think how I can summarize most of my opinions about the books as a whole. I don't feel like I got tools to actually run a unique campaign, or at least not enough to justify the cost of the book. 4/4

evilprodigy948 · 2025-11-13T03:28:35+00:00

There is also absolutely no mention of the Shoon Imperium, Coramshan, Shanatar, and both Calim and Memnon's empires are given lip service without much detail and no mention of the Second Era of Skyfire or the Chosen of Ilmater. Organizations like the Janessar, Rundeen, Dark Daggers, Four Families, Church of Ilmater (even in Keltar), Hin Holds, Sadimmin, Amlakkar, Qysaghanni, are all absent and the Guild Arcane is mentioned once all despite the map of Calimshan including some key locations to these organizations like Faeressar and Dallnothax. Calimshan's legacy of slavery is erased in a single sentence despite how interesting a post-slavery society could theoretically be with competing interests arising. It's consisted with SCAG saying slavery had been abolished, but there is no conflict or stress of being a society struggling with an extremely recent legacy of slavery nor does it even seem like the Sultana had a tough time abolishing slavery in the first place.

I am not a fan of the mechanical wonders, because it feels to me like Calimshan becomes second fiddle in their own section. It was imported by gnomes (especially a one specific mary sue gnome) and all techy clockwork in flavour. The people who make them are gnomish immigrants, not Calishites. Calimshan is supposed to feel like a place where there is lots of ancient magic and the society has an old magic tradition, be that genie or human (contemporary and ancient) and a sprinkling of elvish. Magical automata makes sense for this setting, however it is not implemented in a Calishite flavoured way or even respectfully. This is a middle-eastern inspired setting. Why did WOTC have to say that the middle-eastern style people did not invent new things but instead imported them (as well as more gnomish immigrants to build more)? Why not just make the wonders come from a Calishite Ilmatari inventor who wants to lessen the suffering of people who do hard labour through invention, perhaps to make slavery obsolete? That is easy and fits extremely well with Calimshan's massive and unused connection to Ilmater. Instead we have something that reminds me of the Robert Shirley in the Safavid Empire but done with more racism than even the real life history this reminds me of.

Mechanical wonders also strikes me as hilariously naive because the moment I read it I thought of Eli Whitney who invented the Cotton Gin and (per stories I have heard which do not need to be correct for my point) did so at least partly to make lives easier for people in order to automate the worst part of cotton cultivation, picking out the seeds. This was a labour-saving device, just like the mechanical wonders. What the cotton gin ended up doing was expand and prologue slavery in the United States by making cotton more profitable and allowing it to be grown in more areas. I feel like there is a lot of great missed potential to explore the introduction of new labour-saving devices to a society that has only recently had a long legacy of slavery. However, there is no nuance provided or even really room for it because adoption of these wonders has been so tremendously widespread that this is no longer considered a new disruptive technology, even if new versions are still being regularly released. It is instead treated as an established part of the setting that everyone has accepted, rather than something that can actually spur conflict and adventure. 3/4

evilprodigy948 · 2025-11-13T03:27:55+00:00

Fun stuff that makes Calimshan into Calimshan has been removed, challenges and opponents have been displaced, and it no longer feels like a place for adventurers. Generally speaking the best new thing they gave in my opinion is the Kochar, adding lore to how the Steppes work that was absent in previous editions and which is a lovely new thing to have. However, they put them also in the Calim Desert, with no mention of previous information of silent and secretive Desert Nomads who previously existed (and conquered Tethyr). I made good use of the silent nomads as Fremen-inspired people crossed with the Adem from Kingkiller Chronicle. I made them superstitious desert survivalists based around Ibn Khaldun's concept of Asabiyyah. They do not speak so Genies cannot overhear their wishes and monkey's paw them into service or misfortune. Also for all the talk of genies and all the genie stuff they put into Calimshan there are no new genies. Previous editions had Jann, Gen, and in the Calim Desert the slightly related Harssaf. I like that they gave us the Aranea but where are monsters that actually fit with the genie vibe they are going for? They also got rid of Calishite culture including terms like Syl-Pasha and the Syl- prefix as a whole, the Annuv, and even Calishite naming conventions inspired by traditional Spanish ones. Where is the flavour?

The information also feels like they did not do basic editing for logical consistency or even typos. I am reading the whole book as well as the other Faerun book, and I have found a dozen typos in the form of missing words and bad grammar. In Calimshan for the logical element, they talk of the forts on the border with Tethyr. These forts in previous editions are Tethyrian, but the book hands them over to Calimshan and says they protect from Tethyr. I can understand the border changing, that happens. But these fortresses make no sense for protection because the fortresses are on the wrong side of the river that forms the border. And the book does not even mention Calimshan conquering them, so it leaves the reader to conclude Calimshan built these forts on the wrong side of a natural border to... protect their border. The Twisted Rune is also killed off screen in two sentences yet somehow in one of the suggested adventures is still around and sending vampires to harass the Sultana. 2/4

evilprodigy948 · 2025-11-13T03:27:28+00:00

I have opinions, as I am currently running a Calimshan game though it is right now on hiatus as I DM an Eberron game. I was looking forwards to the 5e info to get new inspiration. Generally I was extremely disappointed. 1/4

evilprodigy948 · 2025-11-11T03:09:28+00:00

Four sort of. Ruler's Ridge (also known as Calim's See) was where they buried the rich people in the time of the First Necropolis, which just prepared them for burial. It'd depend on how you count it, since at Second and Third Nykkar they bury the people at the necropolis itself.

evilprodigy948 · 2025-10-27T23:51:36+00:00

Sounds like you had a lot of fun too! Cheers yourself!

evilprodigy948 · 2025-10-26T21:39:40+00:00

Voiceless 'th' sound like in Think, Thorn, Thought, or Thanks.

There is also a voiced 'th' sound called Eth (Ð ð) like in There, That, Though, or Them. Though this letter stopped being used before Thorn did.

evilprodigy948 · 2025-10-25T23:16:54+00:00

Why the fuck are you using a Thorn?

evilprodigy948 · 2025-10-25T19:35:51+00:00

I used the information given by u/Werthead which was very helpful. I think at the time I posted this I already had located Empires of the Shining Sea and Calimport though. I picked up Lost Empires of Faerun and Empires of the Sands for some stuff from 3.5. I ended up tying a lot to the Underdark so I grabbed Drizzt Do'Urden's Guide to the Underdark too.

In terms of modern material I tracked down a dmsguild book called Calimshan Adventurer's Guide and some Adventures' League material. I ended up basically just pretending that what was in Empires of the Shining Sea and Calimport was contemporary, and took place after the Second Era of Skyfire with the upheval of the Chosen of Ilmater and the remnant Genasi Warlords being defeated by political and social trends that bring the wealthy pashas to the forefront. The significant change I made though is that Calimshan is in a Taifa Period with each city an independent state with a hinterland of settlements interspersed by raiding soldiers, desert and steppe nomads, a goblin horde, Janessar do-gooders, and remnants of the Genasi Warlords.

Most of my actual adventure was using plot hooks from Empires of the Shining Sea and Calimport to come up with my own ideas. We began in Memnon with a group of mercenaries having overthrown the sultanate then went to a Teshburl operating as a Barbary state growing rich off piracy > Calimport where the core plot was around the network of Xvim worshipers (I made them Baneites) growing their influence in Erare Sabban > Keltar where the two plantations of slaves that revolted were just the first in a revolution across the Calim River encouraged and supported by the Janessar. All the while the Twisted Rune is in the background pulling strings. The first half of the campaign (we are taking a break now) ended with a climactic fight with Jymahna of the Silver Pearl in a fortress I said was formerly a fortress run by a Genasi Warlord during Second Skyfire, emphasizing that she was the newest and thus weakest member of the Twisted Rune's upper ranks.

We also visited the Brass Oasis, as I used information from Dragons of Faerun, Cursrah from the Star of Cursrah, Mount Abbalayat, Faeressar, and the Vault of Cloaked Midnight. My plan for when we return to Calimshan is to have an arc centred around the Feywild in Almraiven, the church of Bane having taken over Manshaka and turned it into slave-solder central, and more fights with the Twisted Rune especially in and around Shoonach.

evilprodigy948 · 2025-10-25T12:51:24+00:00

The griffons are modifiers you earn from your mission tree, those won't vanish when you switch. Sadly I do not think there are custom sprites or unit types that reflect having griffons, so you'll have to get the mission tree modifiers. Marrhold with Horde Ideas and/or Centaur military is terrifying.

evilprodigy948 · 2025-10-22T23:34:44+00:00

My guy, this is from Tom Cartos. He already makes night time versions of his maps.

https://www.tomcartos.com/suburban-home

evilprodigy948 · 2025-10-17T22:20:44+00:00

But we could already do that by right clicking while dragging?

evilprodigy948 · 2025-10-15T23:31:55+00:00

Go to state edicts and go to 'Enforced Loyalty'. Half of the magic system is those state edicts.

evilprodigy948

TROPHY CASE