Eberron, With a System That Actually Fucking Works

[vagrant]

To be fair, AH, the only reason Merrix (one of the Cannith head honchos who controls pretty much the only known creation forge) isn't churning out warforged slaves is because the Treaty of Thronehold gave them civil rights and there are power figures that give a fuck about enforcing that.

He totally wanted to use warforged as slaves to send to the sugar plantation. (And conquer the world, of course.)

[Parthenon]

I'm still interested in how Eberron can be fixed. But to some extent it needs rearranging to make more sense. The fluff needs changing so that socially it makes sense why the dragonmarks lead to monopolies. The fluff needs changing so that either halfling barbarians are an actual danger or they are an annoyance. The fluff needs changing so that arcane, divine and psionic magic doesn't overshadow everything. The fluff needs etc etc...

Dropping out the 3.5 classes, skills, etc and dropping in new ones will still lead to craziness and horrible contradictions.

---

But anyway, your suggested classes. First of all, you have the dragonmark being the source of the Scion's power. They can't be a dragonmarked cleric. Is that the way you want to go with this?

Because if so, does that mean that there are in effect 24 different Scions- a caster and noncaster for each? Because:

• a Scion of Handling will probably have a couple of large animal companions fighting for them,
• while a Scion of Passage is either a flying wandplatform or a nightcrawler style teleporting backstabber,
• the Scion of Warding is a defensive beast that will stop any ranged magic and wade in with a large melee weapon,
• and the Scion of Finding is probably a Bullseye like throwing machine whose thrown weapons seem to home in on their targets and strike weak points for massive damage.

Basically, if you want the dragonmarks to be badass enough that they carve out niches for themselves and they are the source of an adventurers power, then they can't be identical and fit into one class.

[vagrant]

Actually, I think I have a good reason why Dragonmarks lead to monopolies - Dragonmarks give abilities that can't otherwise be replicated by arcane or divine or psionic magic. So shit like fabricate is what you get from a Greater Mark of Making, and shit is teleport is what you get from a Greater Mark of Passage and those are straight-up not spells you can get otherwise.

Magic definitely should overshadow everything - or at least magitek, since that's one of the core premises of the setting. Magic is everywhere, and used by everyone.

I don't want to make a 3.5 hack, so it hopefully won't lead to to the problem of shit suddenly contradicting itself.

To be honest, I'm still brainstorming things to do for dragonmarked characters. Dragonmarked characters should both be able to go the straight Dragonmark route for power, and just use Dragonmarks for assistance in whatever their core focus is.

You shouldn't have people doubling up, though - having a Greater Dragonmark should either make you a shittier cleric or not a cleric at all, while having a Least Dragonmark should just give you a useful trick - a leg up, but not unbalancing.

[Drachasor]

Steal the good things from Pathfinder. Imho, the skill consolidation it does is generally good (though the skill descriptions often aren't). Unlimited 0th level spells is a good thing. And it does some classes better.

I think any classes you go with will need to be rebalanced, especially if you are changing some mechanics around.

Hmm, I am pondering the class issue. I think there's a lot of potential for the Warlock class, though it would need adjustments. I also think Clerics, Sorcerers, Druids, and Wizards should not exist in the setting -- not without heavy alteration.

Arcane Casters would generally be done better by taking the Warmage, Beguiler, and Dread Necromancer as bases and adjusting them -- for instance, alter the spell list and abilities and you could convert a Dread Necromancer into a Construct Master or something.

Divine Casters might be similarly handled. I think the Healer is in the miniatures handbook, though that would require adjustment to work (it's a bit weak).

I think the Tome of Battle can be adapted to handle your martial needs, generally speaking. For a simpler martial class, the Barbarian and Rogue could be adapted into elemental-themed classes without too much trouble.

Feats should be redone, imho.

[vagrant]

At this stage, I'm not even sure I want to keep 3.5 style classes. It'd make my job easier, of course but I think rebuilding shit from the ground up is probably the better bet.

Clerics should still exist, so do druids as they're both integral parts of the setting (conceptually, not the actual 3.5e class). Necromancer should probably be a base class or something, there are two entire nations based on necromancy.

Ditto for warlocks and shit - I like Krusk's breakdown, actually, it's really helpful, but I'm having trouble fitting a few must-have concepts in. I'd also preferably not lock players into a single class, which was why I'd brainstormed a progression path/template sort of thing initially.

I think I should get the concepts down first, though, before jumping into mechanics, since one of the goals is to have the system relatively simulationist.

[Drachasor]

They do have mass-produced constructs. Mindless Warforged CAN be made, and so you can mass-produce labor that doesn't need to breathe, get tired, and give no ethical concerns. So a lot of what I said is still relevant.

Creation Forges are unique artifacts that pretty much come from Previous High Magic Civilization. And they're not being used to churn out mindless warforged to slave away on the sugar plantations. So I don't think those count and I still think you're full of shit.

But they didn't require massive magi-tek infrastructure to create things, nor vast assembly lines, etc, etc. And it is true that initially they made mindless constructs. So everything I said IS possible in Eberron based on the setting info. And given the Creation Forges themselves, it does not seem likely that previous civilization went through an Industrial Revolution. Just because only two or so are supposedly being used, doesn't mean they have nothing to say about how the setting works.

And there does seem to be lesser magical forges that have existed, though I can't find the details on the Forgotten Forge which was used to aid in magical item creation.

Artificers themselves have no real-world counterparts at any point in history. A small lab and money was simply never sufficient to create the sort of things an Artificer can create. In Eberron the sort of extreme productivity one person can have in relative isolation is far beyond what we see in the real world.

[TarkisFlux]

Here's an alternate and intentionally broad in places take on that power breakdown:

Dragonmark caster = Sorcerer (get spells from dragonmarks, each house has a different and largely or completely pre-determined power setup)
Dragonmark noncaster = Dragonmarked Scion (not sure this is even necessary, but whatever. maybe they're the guys in elemental armor because their marks let them overcharge things in some way)

Magitech caster = Wandslinger (yes, really. they fire a bunch of spells at people that come from a magitech source, which is magitech spellcasting)
Magitech noncaster = Extreme Explorer (updated spell-less ranger)

Arcane caster = Specialist wizard (warmage, necromancer, beguiler, etc. are the specialties)
Arcane noncaster = Master Inquisitive (updated rogue, complete with arcane divinations and alchemy for investigation / murder hobo-ing)

Divine caster = Cleric (with distinct powers for the silver flame clerics, and the 5 whatever clerics, and druids, and whatever else worships others to get their powers)
Divine noncaster = Warlock / Paladin / Berserker (if they've just various flavors of "contracts with X for power" then you can run them all off a similar chassis and just drop in alternate powers)

Psionic caster = Psion
Psionic noncaster = Monk/Mindblade

Artificer doesn't need to fit in here, as it may as well be rolled into magewright and made an NPC class / package / whatever. "Item crafter" is a crappy PC concept, but you could do "wand crafter / elemental binder / <some other item specialization>" as bolt on bits for the classes that depend on those item sets.

Some of those are broad classes or ACFs and some might be narrow and distinct classes filling the same niche, but the conceptual coverage seems pretty even. It does still leave out the Valenar raiders I guess, but without knowing more about their shtick my thought is to simply replace them with something that better fits or an NPC class and let them be a dying thing.

[vagrant]

Valenar elves have a pretty sucky shtick, namely - Fantasy Elf Mongol Raiders Who Use Speshul Double-Bladed Swords on Horseback. They should probably die in a fire or something, maybe I'll just have a shitty NPC class that someone could play if they really wanna suck. The fluff says 'They're the most talented cavalry troops in Khorvaire' but let's face it, people can just make magic items to fly or cast it or something. Unless they're in magitek tanks (which would be cool, but unfortunately non-canon), they don't really matter.

I feel like artificer should be a thing, though - it's a pretty core part of the setting, and I /want/ artificers to have tiny construct armies and scratch-built death rays those are wands, derp.

I like the ideas for making divine non-casters be just that.

Master Inquisitive and Extreme Explorer should be swapped, probably, or also run off the same sort of thing like the divine non-casters.

[Ancient History]

What, no incarnum?

[vagrant]

Har Har Har.

[TarkisFlux]

I feel like artificer should be a thing, though - it's a pretty core part of the setting, and I /want/ artificers to have tiny construct armies and scratch-built death rays those are wands, derp.

Yeah, as noted blastificers are already in there as the wand guys. Hordificers could be in there as a wizard specialization (if you want a minion-mancer that wasn't a necromancer) or maybe the non-caster magitech guy (since he just builds an army to do shit for him instead of casting spells).

But once you have those two in there as distinct classes, and they might as well separate be for all the conceptual overlap they have, you have covered the two common artificer builds pretty well. The other fluff of artificers who build custom and temporary items is not a good life plan for a PC. I'm not suggesting you don't have something in the game that fills that spot, just that it shouldn't be billed as a PC class. Plus, this sort of magitech creation fluff division makes it easier to get other classes in on the game. If you want it to be seen as easy to learn, you make it common for lots of people to know how to do some of it and rare (and expensive in terms of PC things so it winds up NPC only) to know how to do most/all of it.

Master Inquisitive and Extreme Explorer should be swapped, probably, or also run off the same sort of thing like the divine non-casters.

Yeah, that division was a bit weird. Dropping them all into the arcane non-caster could work, which conveniently makes space for the desired hordificer.

[Prak]

Honestly, I think what you really want to do Vagrant is something like The Tome of Eberron--that is to say, keep the d20 system, but fix/jury rig it into something more runnable while fixing some of the fluff stuff a bit. Like, basically, reworking classes, feats, spell lists, etc.

For magic, I would be in favour of a classless "anyone can go and learn to cast a spell" system. I would suggest coming up with a spell point system for the purpose, perhaps based on Con to make the stat do more.

[MGuy]

I'd say he IS better off rewriting it from the ground up. Especially if he wants the setting to hold together in any recognizable form. High end magic just straight up changes things and without rewriting what it can and can't do the implications it forces upon the setting would logically produce something that looks wholly different than the original. I'd say he should first decide upon how high end things get. I'd suggest at least making the most troublesome, setting changing, spells either unavailable, unreliable, or difficult/impossible to perform at length over great periods of time.

[Parthenon]

One of the magitech classes needs to be an altered Gadgeteer.

One thing to remember about the Dragonmark Sorceror is that it would need to have stuff from the existing Arcane, Divine and Psionic ability lists. Because at the very least the Healing Mark needs to give you the Divine healing spells.

This could get complex- what is the real difference between a Sorceror of Healing and a Cleric? Between a Sorceror of Warding and an Abjurist? A Sorceror of Handling and a Druid?

And to be honest, how is Arcane different to Divine to Psionic?

I'd still prefer each Mark to have it's own Scion class, and just tell people who want to be a Scion of Hospitality to fuck off. So Handling is a beastmaster with a couple of animal companions, Passage is a teleporting assassin, Shadow is almost a Beguiler, Hospitality gives the best blowjobs, etc...

[vagrant]

I agree on the dragonmark side, Parth. What I'm looking at for Dragonmarked Heirs (or Sorcerers or whatever) is a very limited set of spells lines - based around their Mark, of course, but with the added benefit of having more of them to use and allowing them to be affected by some sort of metamagic feats. No clue on the non-caster Dragonmarked, yet.

There's probably going to be some overlap, to be honest, but that's fine I think, as long as their abilities still feel identifiably different.

One of the things is that in Eberron, Arcane/Divine/Psionic magic isn't really...different. Like at all. That's the trick the Artificer uses - he just imbues straight magic into shit. They're still identifiably different by individual use - warmages wave their hands and chant funny words and boom fireball, clerics pray to Gods no one's ever seen and boom healing.

I tend to view it as a sort of quantum mechanics->chemistry/classical physics sort of thing. Arcane magic, divine magic and psionics all reduce to the same thing, but they're functionally and noticeably different on a macro-level. (Unless you're an Artificer.)

[Parthenon]

Well then. If your power source is just fluff and in-game description then problem solved. Get rid of the Wizard, Psion and Cleric. All such casters are one of the Beguiler, Necromancer, Healer, Warder, Warmage, Enchanter, Transmuter etc.

They also choose whether they are Arcane, Divine or Psionic which gives them a couple of other goodies. So the Arcane Enchanter and the Psionic Enchanter are almost identical, but the Arcane gets a familiar and scrolls while the Psion gets crystals and a mind-link.

[vagrant]

Damn, I really want to do that. But...something feels like their should be a divide. A Chemist shouldn't just be a re-flavoured Physicist (even though he totally is), and a biologist shouldn't be a re-flavoured Chemist (even though he totally is.)

Or something. This'll need more thought and totally throws the post I was typing into shit if I use that. I'll post it anyway for shits.

[vagrant]

(Ignoring Dragonmarks for now.)

Magitek
If the Gods didn't want us building WMDs, they wouldn't have given us portable magic batteries. Obviously.

In Eberron, magic is industry. Magic is science. Magic is technology. Magic power every aspect of life, and permeates every part of existence. Not everyone has the fortitude to learn magic past the simplest spells, however, so for most of history magic was relegated to the sorcerers and wizards of legend.

The Last War changed all that. The high-and-mighty wizards were quickly targeted, or killed each other in spectacular duels. Each year the war dragged on was another year of attrition. The rigors of war could not afford to train apprentices for decades, when an invading army could be on your doorstep tomorrow. So people looked for other ways of duplicating the effects. There was no single invention, no watershed technological revolution - but war breeds innovation.

Innovation in the form of dragonshards. They'd always existed, but their uses were limited. Sure, the Dragonmarked Houses made use of Siberys shards, but Eberron shards were only useful to wizards. Or so it seemed, until there were precious few wizards left. And Eberron dragonshards, along with the realisation that magic, at its source, was undivided, soon paved an entirely new way of using magic, for everyone.

Magitek Caster: Artificer
Oh, that? That's my pet construct. I made him look like a dog. I know he's metal and has spikes everywhere, that's the point. I built a better dog.

Artificers are the engineers of Eberron. More than simple magewrights, these individuals possess that rare spark of genius that allows them to truly create and invent, often coming by their ideas in the midst of combat. They prefer to stay out of danger, using specially-created constructs, known as Haemonculi, to handle any particularly precarious situation that comes up, even imbuing them with magical infusions to make their precious creations hardier and more versatile.

Magitek Noncaster: Wandslinger
You ever seen an assassin put a crossbow bolt square into someone's forehead from a hundred feet away? My question is, why he didn't just use lightning.[/b]

The Last War was a century long, and at the end of that century, trained and experienced troops were at a premium. In Cyre, where undead Karrnathi hordes only grew as each living soldier died, the situation was especially dire. A particularly canny Cannith artificer, tasked with solving this problem happened on an innovation. Wands. Wands had been around for centuries, of course - but they required a trained wizard to use, and were difficult and laborious to make. Using a combination of long-lost schema and modern experimentation, the artificer discovered a way to not only make wands near-eternal (completely, for some weaker spells), but to allow even the most basic of peasant with knowledge of the simplest spell to wield one without issue. These new soldiers, known as Wandslingers, soon discovered ways to use wands that the Cannith artificer had never dreamed of - dual-wielding them, mixing their effects, even bypassing the spells to unleash a ray of pure, destructive magic. Wandslingers prefer to use sniping tactics, make heavy use of cover, and rely on light armour to maintain unparalleled mobility.

Arcane Magic
But in reality, lightning is just Zeus fighting with Hera over the nymph she caught sneaking out of their bedroom. How could is possibly power anything?

Arcane magic is...magic. There’s no explanation. Some say it’s the will of the living visibly using the Prophecy to change reality, some say it’s the remnant of the soul of the Dragon Between, and some just shrug, wave their hands in a funny way, mutter a few nonsense words in long-dead languages that may or may not have existed, and burn you to death with a fireball that appeared out of their hands. Arcane magic comes in all different types and effects, from making swords sharper to temporarily reshaping the land itself - but the one thing it has in common with itself is that, yes, for some reason, you do wave your hands and mutter stuff to make it work. Direbat guano optional.

Arcane Caster: Arcanist
See that crater? In the Last War, they called me Big Bertha. Not because I’m a dwarf - because I killed a whole battalion of Valenar mercenaries right there with a single spell, and then animated their corpses to dance the Karrnathi national polka. There might still be a few skeletons remaining, now that I think about it...Wanna see?

Arcanists are a catch-all term for the various flavours of wizards, sorcerers, mages, and the like. They range anywhere from Aundair warmages to Karnnathi necromancers, and while the particular sort of spells they cast may differ, by and large their tactics don’t. They’re mobile artillery and air superiority all in one, conveniently smaller than a ballista and usually smarter. The Last War may have eliminated much of the scholarly, hedonist wizards of the past, but their students and descendents remain - more specialised, perhaps, but also more effective. A single warmage or necromancer might take a decade or more to train, but the result is one of the most dangerous soldiers on the battlefield.

Arcane Non-caster: Vanilla Noir Hero?
So it was me, three angry shifters who’d started snkting their claws, and two Flame Inquisitors I knew who were about to bust down the door. So I did what anyone would do, right? Dropped a smoke bomb, stabbed a shifter in the face, kicked another in the nuts, made sure my glamerweave wasn’t torn and grew a pair of tits. Told the Inquisitors I was just a poor noblewoman kidnapped by the awful shifter fiends, which got me close enough to use the air-elemental in my bag to suffocate them unconscious, and then I robbed everybody blind. So that was my weekend, how was yours?

??? Something something skillmonkeys/rogues

[vagrant]

Divine Magic
The Silver Flame cleanses impurity with the righteous fires of morality. That’s why I’m paying you to set my loins on fire and suck the impurity out, child.[/b]

Divine magic has always gotten the short end of the stick. On one hand, no angel or demon has ever given a straight answer one way or the other to the existence of the gods they supposedly serve - on the other, praying really hard gives clerics the ability to mend the most grievous of injuries and gives them the ability to smite people who don’t believe in the same gods with what certainly looks like holy fire. And exorcise possession, or use the land itself to hurt those that would harm it. It even gives berserkers the ability to rage beyond the abilities of normal humans when invoking the name of their patron deities, or warlocks the ability shoot eldritch blasts from their hands. The magic rarely requires the flashy gestures and occult phrasing required by arcane magic - just a simple muttered prayer in most cases.

Divine Caster: Cleric
Arawai, bless my crops so that they may grow. Aureon, bless my children so that they may learn. Balinor, bless my bow so that I may hunt. Boldrei, bless my village so that it may stay safe. Dol Arrah, bless my lord so that he may live. Dol Dorn, bless my blade so that it may strike true. Kol Korran, bless my bounty so that it may sell. Olladra, bless my life so that it may have fortune. Onatar, bless my forge so that it may burn bright.

The Cleric is a catch-all phrase for those who rely not on themselves or arcane lore, but divine power however it is found. Where a cleric draws his power from is uncertain - Vol is certainly not a goddess, though she’d like to be one, yet a cleric in her name may still heal and harm. Clerics are not only organised priests for a certain order - they can also be druids, drawing their strength from the land. A Cleric’s spells are true miracles to a believer, distinct proof that a god, or gods, must exist. They heal their allies and use their faith to strike down those who defy them, all in the name of a greater power.

Divine Noncaster: Oath-Bound
Aw, your wand ran out of charges, how sad. I guess the whole demon-pact that lets me shoot dark power out of my hands doesn’t look so bad, does it?

Oath-Bound is a catchall term for anyone who relies on power outside themselves. Whether this be a paladin’s vow of service and submission, or a warlock’s dark pact with demonic or devilish powers, there’s no doubt that the power gained is well-worth the cost. Oath-Bound have no need for prayer in working their faith or pact - it’s simply a part of them, like eating or breathing. Oath-Bound are almost always in melee, diving headfirst into every conflict, relying on their faith and pact to protect and guide them. For them, there’s no question that the gods exist - how else could a berserker gain the strength of twenty men when calling upon their dragon god’s ferocity, or a warlock blast his foes with energy at a thought?

Psionic Magic
I actually try not to read people’s minds. Have you met people? It’s like going to Dal Quor all over again...

Psionics have always existed on Eberron, its influence neither flashy like arcane magic nor reliant on faith or outside intervention like divine magic. Instead, psionics taps the power of the mind itself, directly forcing its will on reality Psionics have not been integrated into daily life on Khorvaire as much as arcane or divine magic has - but across the sea in Riedra, the Inspired, driven by their Dal Quor masters, keep an entire population under constant surveillance and control - even to the extent of monitoring their very thoughts and dreams. Psionics don’t only affect minds - they can affect bodies as well, allowing monks perfect mastery of their bodies. In Khorvaire, this energy is known as a qi - but it is a power of the mind nonetheless.

Psionic Caster: Psion
Wanna go on an out-of-body experience with me? What, no, I meant that literally.[/b]

Psions harness the primal power of their minds to wreak havoc on the minds of others. They can’t call fireballs or magically mend wounds - but they don’t need to, if they can make their enemy think his arm has been chopped in two, or that his body is on fire. A psion stays in the background, keeping the party in constant telepathic contact while providing needed illusions and distractions to the opposing side. He can sift through the mind of the weak-willed with ease, and outright dominate them if he desires. His ability to leave his body behind and travel the Ethereal Plane is an oft-overlooked ability, but it allows the psion a nearly unparalleled ability to scout.

Psionic Non-Caster: Psychic Warrior
My mind and body are temples, forged over decades of training and discipline. I don’t need to carry a weapon - I can stab you with one I make with my mind.

Psychic Warrior is a catch-all term used for those that harness the power of their minds not to tear into their opponents, but to augment themselves. Psychic warriors range from the half-giant infantry in Xen’drik to the mindblades and monks of the Kalashtar. They’re front-line combatants, often preferring to go unarmed save for their psychic weapons forged from their very will. Monks in Khorvaire call this qi, after the monastic techniques first perfect by the goblinoid empires in ancient times, allowing to move as quickly as thought and ultimately transform their very bodies into shields as unbreakable as their minds.

[vagrant]

So, there's that. Which seems like a good place to start fleshing out some of classes, and determining how I'm going to have alternate class features for the different chassis.

[vagrant]

But before I do that, I should probably do something about races. I wanna keep it manageable for now, so we'll just go with the 12 races in Eberron core. Human, elf, half elf, magic robot, not-really-a-werewolf, blahblahblah.

Now, do I want the races to have some sort of mechanical influence? I mean, not really, but I probably should because the races are, in fact, different. At the very least, halflings are smaller than humans and that should provide some sort of a benefit/drawback, and if I'm going to give halflings something, I should give other races stuff as well.

[Krusk]

I actually want to tweak what I said earlier. I also want to elaborate on some. Furthermore, just because they are a noncaster does not mean they don't get spells or SLAs. My example earlier was the dragon shaman, who gets magical auras and SLAs.

Magitek Caster - [need a name] - This guy makes robot and zombie armies. The zombies are more Frankensteins monster than voodoo. Maybe you make two paths and the player picks one. The important part of note is that he gets 1-2 good ones and a bunch of crappy/noncombat ones.
Magitek Noncaster - Artificer - He makes magic items. Battlesuits, +X swords, amulets, anything that gives a passive always on buff. This is your gadgeteer class.

Arcane Caster - Arcanist - He summons walls of fire, fog clouds, but also your utility magic like teleport.
Arcane Noncaster - Wandslinger - He can get the most out of wands. Probably is the one who makes them best. Basically like guns, but can also do some utility wands too. Sure wand of fireball is a standard, but his wand of levitate is real handy. Makes anything he points it at float.

Divine Caster = Cleric - He does buff spells. He doesn't get heavy armor, and since we are rewriting it, he doesn't really get any awesome "in melee combat" spells. Think more bard than cleric.
Divine noncaster - Paladin - He does some minor buffs and healing, but is mostly melee focused.

Psionic caster - Professor X
psionic Noncaster - Monks

---
You mentioned I left out the halfling groups and druids.
Primal Caster = Shaman - They do plant magic. Most is control based (Walls of vines and thorns and stuff) but also some buff stuff.
Primal noncaster = Berserker - They get animal trances they enter. Bear Trance is very similar to a barbarian.

Ill also bring up dragonmarks. I think this should be a power source like classes, and instead of spells you get always on magical bonuses based on which marks you have and which marks you know. You can take the "Banking" mark or whatever and now you are always great at banking. In a pinch, you can expend your banking mark for a short term boost until it recharges. (or whatever)

Note - You do not want warforged to be a class.

Caster Spell divide
Take the 3.5 spells and rebalance them. Easier said than done. Pick your method, or deal with the idea that they aren't. Maybe ban the worst offenders.

[Need a name] - He gets any summoning spell, along with any calling spell. He also gets any random spell you run into that lets you make an army.
Arcanist - He gets walls, zones of X, cloud of Y, that sort of thing. Abjuration.
Cleric - He gets buffing the group or others, and he gets healing.
Professor X - He gets Enchantment, illusion, divination
Shaman - He gets any elemental spells. Stuff like call lightning. He also gets some animal emotional spells. Evocation.

For races, you want them all to feel different, but you also don't want to shoehorn them into classes. EX all warforged must be artificers. Robots dont eat or sleep and are immune to disease and poison seems pretty good. Shifters have an alternative form that does stuff that works well too. Halflings get a bonus to hide checks seems lame in comparison. Halflings getting a short duration invis on the otherhand is pretty cool.

[Stinktopus]

Is GURPS: Eberron the answer?

[Username17]

Is GURPS: Eberron the answer?

considering how poorly GURPS handles large scale combats, no.

We're talking about a game that cares whether you are lunging or swinging a weapon quickly on any particular second. Resolving a fight with 30 goblins in it or something is simply not going to happen.

-Username17

[Stinktopus]

Lunging vs. Swinging in GURPS is like chop-slash-thrust in Morrowind. Your weapon is only going to be good for one, so you don't care about the others. Besides, mooks drop fast in GURPS, especially when the party mage starts dropping fireballs.

Now, figuring out where multiple combatants are in the process of bow combat can be a bitch. Did he draw, fire, or aim last turn? Get the poker chips!