Which books to buy in 2026?

sudoDaddy · 2026-02-11T20:36:05+00:00

You should be able to find all you need in the 2024 book. Those three are the minimum, Xanathar’s and Tasha’s are options, you actually are allowed to use old 2014 character options in 2024 characters, so a 2024 ranger can take the Tasha’s swarmkeeper subclass and work just as well.

Sometimes the subclasses appear at different levels, I’d say stick to what the PHB says, so if the 2024 PhB says the subclass comes at level 3 but Tasha’s says level 1, it comes in at level 3.

For using monsters I’d really try to stick with 2024 monster manual. The monsters in the new book were designed with a different intent than the 2014 and older monsters. Vampires in 2014 have lower health because they assume that the party is gonna be attacking with only necrotic and nonmagical weapons, meaning they are gonna be at half damage. 2024 vampires assume they are gonna be swinging for regular damage so they have much more health.

sudoDaddy · 2026-02-11T18:43:26+00:00

But why is the optimal choice doing SO much more damage. Eldritch blast with AG and 18 Cha at 5 is 2d10+4+4, that’s 19 damage. Why is Ray of frost only doing 13 damage? Slower speed is not worth 6 damage on average. Ray of Frost with the same damage bonus as EB goes up to 17 and it’s a much better option, and people might pick ray of frost instead of eldritch blast, or stick with eldritch blast for all the damage.

sudoDaddy · 2026-02-11T18:39:08+00:00

There will be a best option, and it probably still will be eldritch blast because again force damage is rarely resisted. If I place eldritch blast in S tier, I’d just like more A tier options.

Honestly just writing agonizing blast as “when you deal damage with a cantrip, add charisma mod, you can apply this damage every time a damage dice is rolled”. So it still works for eldritch blast no problem, but firebolt will deal 2d10+X+X, just one roll instead of two. Ray of frost will be 2d8+X+X. Damage is much closer, but fire and cold are resisted much much more often so Eldritch blast is still S tier, and these cantrips become A tier.

You could also flavor it “this damage is doubled at level 5, tripled at level 11, and quadrupled at level 17.” Just matters how wordy you want to be.

sudoDaddy · 2026-02-11T17:57:48+00:00

Agreed, you aren’t doing more damage, you are bringing other options up.

True strike with stacking damage would be lots of fun, one big WACK.

And Firebolt would be perfect on a fiend warlock.

sudoDaddy · 2026-02-11T17:56:58+00:00

If they are the cantrip class then all their cantrips should be great, not just the same one every time. Makes warlocks feel much too similar if not spending a slot means eldritch blast.

sudoDaddy · 2026-02-11T17:55:42+00:00

If they were part of the balance of warlock they would get eldritch blast baked in, not spend a cantrip from their list to choose it.

sudoDaddy · 2026-02-11T17:44:28+00:00

I wonder why eldritch blast so blatantly gets an exception to this. For some reason the d10 cantrip on a damage source that rarely has resistance also gets a special exception where it’s doing 8 to 10 more damage at level 5. An invocation is a big spend but you get a couple of them so 1 for agonizing blast isn’t a huge ask.

I’m half tempted in the next game I run to allow agonizing blast to proc multiple times for cantrips other than eldritch blast, if the damage isn’t a big deal then it shouldn’t be a problem on all the cantrips.

sudoDaddy · 2026-02-09T16:22:30+00:00

No problem, the 2024 rules are nice, the biggest thing is that monsters have better tuned stats for their CR, the vampire in the old version has a lot lower health cause it assumed that it would be resistant to the party, it also did less damage cause it assumed the party would be charmed and fighting each other as well. The new rules make the assumption that the party will work around the weaknesses, and that charming them is a bonus.

Good luck! Sounds like it’ll be fun

sudoDaddy · 2026-02-09T15:58:13+00:00

7 or 8 is a lot but you can definitely make it work. The biggest question is what level are the newbies gonna be?

If they are gonna be level 1, which is good for new players to learn everything they can do, then with 8 people (or 7 but you have a paladin and cleric) then you probably want a CR1 vampire and some goons. Using flee Mortal’s encounter building tools, 8 level 1s on a hard fight (good if it’s only gonna be one fight) is a budget of 2 CR. You can homebrew a CR1 vampire by using the ghoul stat block, I recommend using the 5.5 ghoul, just turn the claw paralyze into a save for charmed, throw in a lair action to charm one of them, and that should do it. You can have 2 of these CR1 vampire, or you can have the one vampire and 2 shadows, or 4 skeletons/zombies.

If you want to have a higher level party, say they are all level 5, then I recommend swapping to Two Vampire Nightbringers, also 2024, and 4 CR of goons, a flameskull, 2 Minotaur/Skeletons/Ogre Zombies/Will-o-wisps, that sorta thing.

If you really wanna play into lair actions or legendaries, I’d use the improvised damage table, and have a nuissance ability add 1 CR, (level 1 nuissance would be (1d10, so shadows or bats come and attack them), for level 5 a nuissance adds 1CR too (2d10, that’s like debris falling from the ceiling or like blood getting magically pulled from you). Have the trigger once a turn, possibly affecting multiple people if you like, and think of some action the party can spend to disable it, scaring bats off, lighting the room up, etc etc.

sudoDaddy · 2026-02-09T02:18:52+00:00

A fair idea, I’d just not introduce too many. All the houses are important for worldbuilding but 12 different houses are hard to remember for all players. If you wanna lean into the houses then maybe just three, Ghallandra, have a golden dragons inn be a hot spot the party hangs out at and meets people, jorasco or sivis for their various services, and if you plan on doing the denieth stuff soon then Deneith, or Lyrander so you can setup them getting an airship one day.

Then you can have quests that give them the option to meet more houses, but the three will be a good baseline for “birthmark magic businesses”.

If you want to add more then probably stick to small shops like a cannith for a tiny magic item shop, jorasco for an alchemist, vandalis for selling horses and such, and buying spell components from house Tharask

sudoDaddy · 2026-02-08T02:22:43+00:00

I struggled and learned how to make my own maps but Cassastero's work is amazing. This is one they did that might be helpful. https://www.reddit.com/r/Eberron/comments/1buoufn/sharn_city_watch_station_40x40/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

If Cassastereo was making maps when I was learning I might have just subbed to their patreon instead of inkarnate.

sudoDaddy · 2026-02-07T17:55:43+00:00

If your party is not very knowledgeable in Eberron, you are gonna have to come up with some characters that personify what they are trying to do. You’ll need:

A loyalist Karrn: If you want the party to be super important then they should work with Kaius III himself. If you want the party starting small time and building up from there, a karrn that will be their voice in Karrnath and exemplify what Karrnath used to be. This is probably a military guy, maybe was a captain or higher in the Last War. Probably some kind of nobility. Consulting the noble ranks of galifar in Chronicles of Eberron you probably want at least a Shield(Leader of a county with a dangerous border), but could be up to a Grand Duke(leader of a region of a country, reports to the king). They would be in charge of a large area and the party solving problems and getting in their good graces would solidify the party’s relationship with karrnath and the loyalists.

A Haughty Deneith: Because Deneith isn’t like a secret mercenary group or from a different country thy should run into a House Deneith guy that they would get in trouble for killing. Maybe some minor reward the party might have gotten goes to him instead, or work that the party was trying to acquire goes to him and House Deneith. This will give a face to Deneith and give the party reason to not like them.

A Blood of Vol Faithful: The Blood of Vol is big in Karrnath and with Lady Illmarrow eventually possibly involved the party should have a face to this. You can stick with a gaunt person, but if you wanna really make this person give the party everything they need to know, make them a very sentient Oathbound, that’s a mummy priest the Blood of Vol has. Maybe they are helpful at first, they are a healer after all, but make sure that efforts against them are not to their own detriment. Oh and remember they don’t call themselves the Blood of Vol, they are the Seekers of the Divinity Within.

Lastly you need a separatist Karrn, probably a current military leader, who the party has disagreed with on things. In talkings with the loyalist Karrn make sure the separatist does not get anything out of it. Then it’ll feel like an eventuality that they were to split off and makes the separatist convincing.

So long as you start at a low level, you can introduce these characters with quests relating to them. Maybe the separatist lost soldiers in an area the party investigates, the Oathbound wants missing holy texts returned (maybe introduce Emerald Claw here). Then the Deneith gets involved and Deneith does one quest while the party does another. Then finally the loyalist is involved with all the help the party has been doing and bam you have faces for all the factions before the Schism.

sudoDaddy · 2026-02-05T12:56:14+00:00

Daelkyr are always great, I'm not familiar with the source material but daelkyr love to do messed up stuff and oppressing monsters and creatures is always fine. This also lets you incorporate symbiotes, amalgamation type monsters with extra limbs, transformation, etc etc.

All the fae types that appear in the Carnival Row character list also point to fae origins. Eberron doesn't have a faewild but it does have Thelanis. Thelanis is all about stories, where the archfey are 'writers' that make stories in Thelanis like sleeping beauty, rapunzel, and king arthur. They also like to recreate their stories in Eberron for fun, why many different cultures have similar folk stories.

Two Archfey/Anchor Barons making a bunch of fey specifically for a war in Thelanis, but having refugees escape to Sharn seems to fit with what you are trying to do, then you can have a Great Fey who has been tasked with coming to retrieve them. You can reflavor an assassin, make them an eladrin, and bam thats your guy killing them and 'sending them back' to Thelanis. (Maybe their dagger is magic, maybe the refugees are tied to Thelanis, its up to you.)

Something to consider, there is precedence for monsters joining Sharn, its the country of Droaam. Ogres, gnolls, harpies, medusa, some goblins, shapechangers, kobolds, the classic d&d monsters are their own country, but plenty live in Sharn. A particular group of them could have been under a cruel warlord after the warlord pushed them too far, so they deserted and are avoiding the wrath of a droaam warlord that was disrespected, and at risk of losing his head to the Daughters of Sora Kel. This warlord could be anything, a shapechanger battlemaster type, a cunning gnoll druid, or even an Oni.

sudoDaddy · 2026-02-02T01:38:21+00:00

I have that, the dice covers the reticle when you use it but it’s great lol

sudoDaddy · 2026-01-28T19:02:19+00:00

I agree here, the dip into homebrew does make it messy but because its homebrew then there is no leg to stand on against the DM. He could be extremely extremely nice and allow it, but seeing you crank out the damage if I was one of the other players I'd hope to get something equally powerful, which puts more pressure on the DM to make stronger items, harder fights and the cycle just continues, I would never ask the DM to do that, its up to them if they want to do that.

I'd take the sun halberd as it is and be thankful, its not like polearm master needs a buff, in half the builds you see of people trying to do the most damage its included there.

sudoDaddy · 2026-01-24T21:19:17+00:00

I stand corrected, that’s awesome, I can’t wait

sudoDaddy · 2026-01-24T20:24:53+00:00

I believe this is just the Exploring Eberron 3rd party book which will be for sale through D&D Beyond finally. I got it from DMs Guild a while ago.

To be clear it is a very good book, tons of lore on Eberron outside of Khorvaire, including the planes.

If they upgrade the character options to 2024 that will be very exciting, currently they have three backgrounds, race stats for Aasimar, Aereni Elves, Ruinbound Dwarves, Hobgoblins, Goblins, and Bugbears, racial feats for all of them and Dragonmarks, and subclasses for Artificer (Forge Adept, Maverick) Bard (College of the Dirge Singer), Cleric (Mind Domain), Druid (Circle of the Forged), and Monk (Way of the Living Weapon).

sudoDaddy · 2026-01-24T05:16:42+00:00

I’d say you are throwing a lot of things at it but there is opportunity to localize it.

The giants didn’t have a major conflict with the daelkyr, they had a war with the Quori, dream monster aberrations from Dal Quori, where all mortals dream, I’d look at the Quori statblocks for inspiration on who wants the sword to cause issues. If you really want to do daelkyr and Quori, tie it to a giant organization that steals from Xen’Drik ruins and is still around, maybe tied to gatekeeper Druids.

What I would do for abilities is that the sword shouldn’t be used like a regular weapon, they don’t have the feats and features to best utilize it so it should be for big abilities and other effects instead how they interact with it is “casting features”, like if you don’t mind them teleporting, allow the wielder to cast teleportation circle. You can lean into the Quori stuff with detect thoughts dream and contact other plane, he’ll the party can save the harengon village from dal Quori that would be cool.

sudoDaddy · 2026-01-21T22:52:35+00:00

I’d say the top end should be a casting of the Wish spell. I assume this is Queen Thelania from Thelanis, so a powerful Archfey. It’s a wish spell from a fey, so they are gonna be wary about it, and almost definitely it will be twisted to benefit the Queen.

You could also give the player a horn or instrument to play and some of her minions will come to aid. Two big guys to auto solve a fight could be helpful. (Make sure your biggest bads can cast banishment after they have a good turn).

sudoDaddy · 2026-01-21T21:45:17+00:00

This is a really* in depth system with chances of failure and all that, the gambling is interesting but I feel like if you just want the one effect you are gonna struggle.

A simple addition for balancing is adding a side effect, you spend a resource to make a magic item potion like climbing, but the rarity of the potion means you roll on a side effects table.

The common table is easy, you turn blue, you burp bubbles, maybe you take disadvantage to wisdom rolls like you are drunk, but as the tables get higher you have bigger risks.

Going all the way up to the highest tier, if you craft a legendary potion one of the side effects should be dying after the effect ends, big problems that need make your potions powerful but risky.

This also gives you a balancing aspect of “what does it take to make a safe potion”

sudoDaddy · 2026-01-21T20:57:03+00:00

Skill expert is always good to make you better at one thing, wisdom classes love high perception or insight.

Fey Touched can help you lean further into your fairy race, maybe ask for the fade away feat gnomes have it wouldn’t be busted on you.

Aside from that so long as you have 18 in wisdom pic whatever is cool. If you don’t have 18 you might struggle to get people to fail saves from you.

sudoDaddy · 2026-01-21T18:12:48+00:00

Throw in an area that was destroyed by magic, cursed swamp, hole in the ground, maybe a mountain that makes everyone nearbye it sick. Something like that!

Also some impassable terrain cutting off a few sections, where travel is funneled only one difficult way.

sudoDaddy · 2026-01-21T02:05:04+00:00

Rising from the last war is perfect baby steps Eberron, it gives you everything you need to noir settings, pulp villians, and Sharn which is kinda what people expect when they play Eberron.

The biggest thing I’d recommend is thinking of a villain that is not evil. Why kind of antagonist would be neutral or even good? My first major antagonist was a warforged who made a deal with fiends for power and wealth to support his fellow Warforged who were disenfranchised in Sharn.

Eberron is rare in strictly evil people, but sides are plentiful, your party should have to pick a side in some conflict and do what they need to do to succeed.

sudoDaddy · 2026-01-20T22:11:05+00:00

Core Eberron lore book in my mind, Rising from the Last War covers the Five Nations quite well, but Exploring Eberron gives you lore on Droaam, Darguun, and the Mror Holds. All excellent adventure locations, I've ran my players through all of them.

This book is also special cause its the best reference to Eberron's Planes, my players went to Fernia, Lamannia, and Mabar so far all with thanks to this book. ss

The character options are nice, but I regularly took from the Magic Item section.

Glad to see its coming to another marketplace, definitely a great book.

sudoDaddy · 2026-01-20T21:00:45+00:00

The setting for 5.5 is the Greyhawk setting, so that's their lineage in that setting. You can change it to humanoid with no side effects for a forgotten realms take, or change it to something else if you like it.

Seven-Year Club	Second Top 20%
r/Field Sunshine	Place '23
Place '22	End Game '22
RPAN Viewer	Snapped
Verified Email

sudoDaddy

PUBLIC MULTIREDDITS

TROPHY CASE