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Eberron (D&D 3.5 manuals) #8
Dragonmarked
You belong to one of the great dynastic houses of commerce, and you bear an arcane symbol of your house's power on your skin. This dragonmark makes you special. It grants you access to arcane powers. Whether it's a gift of the great dragon Eberron or a sign of the draconic Prophecy, no one knows. However, one thing is certain: Those who possess dragonmarks have a destiny, the exact nature of which has yet to be revealed....
160 pages, Hardcover
First published June 25, 2003
2 people are currently reading
47 people want to read
About the author
Keith Baker
73 books190 followersI've been interested in games since I first fell under the sinister influence of the Dungeons & Dragons boxed set, back in sixth grade. Over the last few decades I have managed to turn gaming from a hobby into a career. Here is a list of the highlights of my life as a game designer. If you have any questions, let me know!
From 1994-2002, I fell into the computer games industry. My first job was with Magnet Interactive Studios, in Washington DC. Sadly, Magnet never managed to hit the big time as a game developer. I worked on a number of projects during my stay at Magnet; for a time I was lead designer on a game called BLUESTAR, a position that was held at other times by such roleplaying luminaries as Ken Rolston and Zeb Cook. However, the only work that ever saw the light of day was some level design on the abstract arcade game Icebreaker.
Magnet began a slow implosion in 1996, and along with a number of other people I went to work for a Colorado company called VR1. I started as lead designer on VR-1 Crossroads, a text-based MUD centered on warring conspiracies – The X-Files meets Illuminati, with a world of dreams thrown in for good measure. When VR1 decided to move away from text games, I started work on a graphical MMORPG based on the pulp serials. After a few twists and turns, the project ended up being known as Lost Continents. But early in 2002 I decided that I'd had enough of the computer games industry and left VR1 to focus on writing. Then in June of 2002, Wizards of the Coast announced their Fantasy Setting Search, and I thought: What about pulp fantasy? And the rest is history. . .
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
From 1994-2002, I fell into the computer games industry. My first job was with Magnet Interactive Studios, in Washington DC. Sadly, Magnet never managed to hit the big time as a game developer. I worked on a number of projects during my stay at Magnet; for a time I was lead designer on a game called BLUESTAR, a position that was held at other times by such roleplaying luminaries as Ken Rolston and Zeb Cook. However, the only work that ever saw the light of day was some level design on the abstract arcade game Icebreaker.
Magnet began a slow implosion in 1996, and along with a number of other people I went to work for a Colorado company called VR1. I started as lead designer on VR-1 Crossroads, a text-based MUD centered on warring conspiracies – The X-Files meets Illuminati, with a world of dreams thrown in for good measure. When VR1 decided to move away from text games, I started work on a graphical MMORPG based on the pulp serials. After a few twists and turns, the project ended up being known as Lost Continents. But early in 2002 I decided that I'd had enough of the computer games industry and left VR1 to focus on writing. Then in June of 2002, Wizards of the Coast announced their Fantasy Setting Search, and I thought: What about pulp fantasy? And the rest is history. . .
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 7, 2020
Upon finishing Eberron: Dragonmarked, I think I figured out one thing that contributes to a better D&D supplement: In the case of Eberron sourcebooks, the presence of Keith Baker, primary creator of the setting, on the sourcebook.
Dragonmarked, as suggested (at least for those familiar with the Eberron setting), deals with members of the twelve (technically thirteen, but I digress) captain-of-industry families within the setting who all have distinctive marks on their bodies that grant them supranatural magical powers, more so than others of their in-game races. It would be a bit of an understatement to say that I found story ideas and roleplaying seeds for the players in my Eberron campaign in the pages of this book; I know I eventually had to just provide a PDF link to the Dragonmarked book to fully two of my six players, which is no small feat (no pun intended). Eberron is simultaneously sufficiently fleshed out and sufficiently open-world that its better sourcebooks provide a plethora of game play options for the campaign; the fact that I found at least half a dozen such options for use down the road, both as DM and as guide for my PCs, speaks well of just how useful Dragonmarked effectively is as a rulebook. It's not perfect—it's not always easy to translate the mechanics of v.3.5 of D&D to 5th edition—but aside from that quibble, Dragonmarked really is a better-than-average D&D sourcebook.
Dragonmarked, as suggested (at least for those familiar with the Eberron setting), deals with members of the twelve (technically thirteen, but I digress) captain-of-industry families within the setting who all have distinctive marks on their bodies that grant them supranatural magical powers, more so than others of their in-game races. It would be a bit of an understatement to say that I found story ideas and roleplaying seeds for the players in my Eberron campaign in the pages of this book; I know I eventually had to just provide a PDF link to the Dragonmarked book to fully two of my six players, which is no small feat (no pun intended). Eberron is simultaneously sufficiently fleshed out and sufficiently open-world that its better sourcebooks provide a plethora of game play options for the campaign; the fact that I found at least half a dozen such options for use down the road, both as DM and as guide for my PCs, speaks well of just how useful Dragonmarked effectively is as a rulebook. It's not perfect—it's not always easy to translate the mechanics of v.3.5 of D&D to 5th edition—but aside from that quibble, Dragonmarked really is a better-than-average D&D sourcebook.
May 30, 2012
Stuff I Read D&D Edition – Dragonmarked
One of the unique and rather important aspects of Eberron is the dragonmark, the magical marks that set certain families apart from the rest of the work, and have created powerful mercantile forces in the world that have a monopoly of sorts on the domains their dragonmarks cover. And this book delves deeper into the specifics of the families and structures of the hierarchy, the alliances and schisms between houses and within houses. Though it is a little limited on the history it provides on the histories of these houses, it does so in a way as to leave the most freedom to the DM. On one hand this is freeing as a DM to decide if certain houses are dark or light, if certain actions were legitimate or legitimized after the fact. On the other hand, it is a bit daunting to have to fill in so many blanks, and a DM needs a strong vision to keep all of the houses straight and on track for something, and it seems easy enough to loose track and confuse everything. More yet it seems to set up more easily to have these houses be adapted toward evil cabals as opposed to less malevolent organizations.
That said, the book does offer a great deal more options for NPCs and PCs looking to become dragonmarked, as the prestige classes and feats take up large sections of the book and offer opportunities for a great deal of customization and optimization towards making dragonmarked characters. To me this is the greatest strength of the book, as these sections provide the tools to really get a character that has a unique relationship with his or her dragonmark. These expanded rules even provide for the more powerful aberrant dragonmarks, which is what intrigues me a great deal about dragonmarks in general. Unfortunately or fortunately, the books hesitates from going into great detail about aberrant dragonmarks, and again defers to the DM to decide what role they would play in a campaign. Still, a bit more insight into their nature would have been helpful, though I appreciate that the book does not want to tie the DM’s hands at all.
At the same time, there are aspects of the dragonmarks that I feel are not explored very much, such as the dragonmarks relationship to the dragons. There are feats and spells that amplify damage and such against dragons, and at the same time some feats and abilities that seem to forge a stronger bond between dragonmark and dragon. So I am curious about how dragons relate to the dragonmarks, and how the dragonmarked feel about dragons in this setting in particular, a subject that is avoided throughout. So part of me wanted more information about that, though it is possible that such information will appear in one of the other Eberron books. Still, the book is one that refuses to take a hard stance on anything within the setting. It is excellent at adding new dimensions to the dragonmarked, but it fails to ground these too fully into the setting itself. And I understand, because dragonmarks are so central to what makes Eberron unique, and as such it should be left to the DM how dragonmarks work and how the houses act. But at the same time I thought there was more than could have been related out, from the aberrant dragonmarks and how they fit into the draconic prophesy or more information about the shadow schism.
But I suppose if the book did spell out more and I didn’t agree with it I would be disappointed. Really it is because generally I agree with most of the decisions the Eberron books make, and because I had ideas about the nature of aberrant dragonmarks and the houses and such before I read this book and I was hoping to find a little more that I could use to reinforce my theories about the various conflicts and factions. But the book does leave open the possibility for just about anything. It just necessitates a bit more work from the DM, which I won’t shy away from. Really I would have liked to read more about the history of the dragonmarks, but I was happy with the information on feats and prestige classes presented in the book, and in the end I give it an 8/10.
One of the unique and rather important aspects of Eberron is the dragonmark, the magical marks that set certain families apart from the rest of the work, and have created powerful mercantile forces in the world that have a monopoly of sorts on the domains their dragonmarks cover. And this book delves deeper into the specifics of the families and structures of the hierarchy, the alliances and schisms between houses and within houses. Though it is a little limited on the history it provides on the histories of these houses, it does so in a way as to leave the most freedom to the DM. On one hand this is freeing as a DM to decide if certain houses are dark or light, if certain actions were legitimate or legitimized after the fact. On the other hand, it is a bit daunting to have to fill in so many blanks, and a DM needs a strong vision to keep all of the houses straight and on track for something, and it seems easy enough to loose track and confuse everything. More yet it seems to set up more easily to have these houses be adapted toward evil cabals as opposed to less malevolent organizations.
That said, the book does offer a great deal more options for NPCs and PCs looking to become dragonmarked, as the prestige classes and feats take up large sections of the book and offer opportunities for a great deal of customization and optimization towards making dragonmarked characters. To me this is the greatest strength of the book, as these sections provide the tools to really get a character that has a unique relationship with his or her dragonmark. These expanded rules even provide for the more powerful aberrant dragonmarks, which is what intrigues me a great deal about dragonmarks in general. Unfortunately or fortunately, the books hesitates from going into great detail about aberrant dragonmarks, and again defers to the DM to decide what role they would play in a campaign. Still, a bit more insight into their nature would have been helpful, though I appreciate that the book does not want to tie the DM’s hands at all.
At the same time, there are aspects of the dragonmarks that I feel are not explored very much, such as the dragonmarks relationship to the dragons. There are feats and spells that amplify damage and such against dragons, and at the same time some feats and abilities that seem to forge a stronger bond between dragonmark and dragon. So I am curious about how dragons relate to the dragonmarks, and how the dragonmarked feel about dragons in this setting in particular, a subject that is avoided throughout. So part of me wanted more information about that, though it is possible that such information will appear in one of the other Eberron books. Still, the book is one that refuses to take a hard stance on anything within the setting. It is excellent at adding new dimensions to the dragonmarked, but it fails to ground these too fully into the setting itself. And I understand, because dragonmarks are so central to what makes Eberron unique, and as such it should be left to the DM how dragonmarks work and how the houses act. But at the same time I thought there was more than could have been related out, from the aberrant dragonmarks and how they fit into the draconic prophesy or more information about the shadow schism.
But I suppose if the book did spell out more and I didn’t agree with it I would be disappointed. Really it is because generally I agree with most of the decisions the Eberron books make, and because I had ideas about the nature of aberrant dragonmarks and the houses and such before I read this book and I was hoping to find a little more that I could use to reinforce my theories about the various conflicts and factions. But the book does leave open the possibility for just about anything. It just necessitates a bit more work from the DM, which I won’t shy away from. Really I would have liked to read more about the history of the dragonmarks, but I was happy with the information on feats and prestige classes presented in the book, and in the end I give it an 8/10.
January 11, 2016
This book offers a lot of information on the different dragonmarked houses in Eberron. This is very handy if you have PCs that are in the houses, run a campaign that heavily incorporates the houses, or you are looking for some inspiration on adventure hooks.
May 1, 2015
nice book for dragonmarks for eberron!
June 24, 2019
Though no longer current mechanically, this book adds a lot to the Eberron campaign setting that you can't get anywhere else in D&D fifth edition.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews