Eberron: Forge of the Artificer Review

Is the latest expansion to the Eberron setting worth buying?

At a glance

What to expect from Forge of the Artificer

The main thing to keep in mind is that this isn’t a full-fat release. Unlike it’s predecessor, Eberron: Rising from the Last War, or even the most recent, comparable release, Heroes of Faerun, Forge of the Artificer is quite short. It’s only 112 pages long. That’s 42-65% less book.

It is cheaper, but not 42-65% cheaper. What this also means is that it’s not the full setting guide that the Forgotten Realms books are. In fact, the most accurate way to portray it is perhaps as a 2024 update to the Rising from the Last War character options with some support on creating campaigns for an Eberron setting. What you won’t find here is a lot on the lore of Eberron. If you want that, the suggestion is that you go back to Rising from the Last War. So really this is an add on and a refresh, not a full setting guide.

But what exactly is in Forge of the Artificer itself?

Contents	Forge of the Artificer	Heroes of Faerun	Eberron: Rising from the Last War	Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything
Pages	112	192	320	192
Species	5	0	16	1
Classes	1	0	1	0
Subclasses	5	8	3	25
Backgrounds	17	18	0	0
Feats	28	34	2	15
Spells	1	19	0	21
Magic items	9	3	14	48
Items	0	12	0	0
Monsters	25	2	40	3
Maps	1	13	19	0

To best demonstrate this, I’ve put together a side by side view above to compare what it contains Vs some previous books.

While the page count is low, I think the character options are justified. It has as much as you could want from an Eberron setting in this department. An updated class, 4 updated subclasses and one brand new subclass. You’ve also got the 5 core, unique species covered with Dragonmarks being separated from species into their own separate feats. I think that this was the best approach for tackling dragonmarks, even if some of the execution has issues.

On top of this, you’ll have some campaign ideas, setup and advice for running different types of adventures in Eberron. I like that the focus is on different types of adventures (specifically things like investigations).

I don’t think Wizards of the Coast needed to refresh the lore so I don’t mind too much that this is a shorter book. The price still feels a little steep for a book of this size though ($40 for 112 pages) but isn’t as atrociously priced as the Forgotten Realms digital DLC like Astarion’s Book of Hungers and Lorwyn: First Light.

How good is the content?

The artificer gets mostly solid quality of life improvements

I enjoyed playing an artificer with the 2014 rules, but it definitely had its issues and you had to work quite hard to keep up with other classes. There’s a fair bit that’s improved with the new artificer, and most of it is good. It’s still a more advanced class and takes a bit more work to keep up with other classes, but it’s also got a lot of utility.

This isn’t a comprehensive list, but below are a bunch of the improvements I think they got right with the artificer:

• Replicate magic item gives you much more options than infusions
• Flash of genius is more regularly useful
• Spell storing item now works for level 3 spells
• Alchemist elixirs can be consumed with a bonus action
• Alchemists also have more elixirs to use and they get more powerful with higher levels
• Dreadnaught armor for the armorer gives even more flexibility
• The artillerist’s eldritch cannon can now use any cannon type
• Homunculus servant is now a spell giving more flexibility for having it and more magic items

It’s not all good though. I do have a few issues with implementation including:

• Some subclasses lack a strong level 3 spell for spell storing item which creates a gulf in power from level 11
• The armorer gets an unnecessary nerf with improved armorer, replacing an infusion for a +1 weapon which is weaker than the infusion options you could have taken.

Thankfully the positives outweig the negatives by a fair bit and largely, they’ve made good changes here.

The cartographer is a big mis-step

Unfortunately, when it came to creating a new subclass, the design choices just weren’t great. A transportational subclass is fine as a concept, but decisions like tying the subclass down to faerie fire, which is fine at low levels, but not great beyond that feel frustrating. They also lack a good level 3 spell for spell storing item and guided precision is the worst of the level 5 damage boosts among the subclasses (it’s tied to either faerie fire or your cartographer spells which leaves you with poor options).

Sadly, this makes the cartographer hard to recommend.

But species are solid

The species get a few updates. Most of them aren’t too big, but they’re generally solid. There’s an arguement to be made that the changeling having advantage on charisma checks is quite overpowered, especially when combined with already charismatic classes like bards (even more so when you have expertise in face skills).

Otherwise, the changes are positive and balanced and there’s a place for all these species among the other species options.

Dragonmark feats are kind of uneven

Generally, these feats are fine, but there are 2 issues. The first is that they mostly benefit spellcasters more than martials as they grant spells to your list of available spells to choose from your class list. These go up to level 5 spells so there can be some quite potent options to add to your list here, but that’s no good for martials.

The second is that one feat is just considerably more powerful than the others, to the point of being overpowered. That is the potent Dragonmark which eventually grants a level 5 spell and gives all the spells from your other Dragonmark feats as prepared spells. This is just considerably better than any other Dragonmark feats and is again, better on spellcasters.

Personally, this is one that I’ll simply ban or adapt at my table as it just dwarfs other feats in power.

Campaign models are thematically great, but lack fully realised ideas

3 whole sections of the book are dedicated to campaign models to help DMs run adventures in different genres that fit an Eberron campaign. The genres are great with investigations, house intrigue and treasure hunting taking centre stage.

They approach this by giving players some information on the main groups and locations, a very broad outline for a campaign from levels 1-20 and a couple of examples adventures that are fine enough as one page adventures you can whip out easily. They lack the kind of quality in depth that I normally prefer from published adventures though. I’d sort of prefer a hook or a full adventure rather than the in-between thing we get here, but what is here is OK enough, but relies a lot on me as the DM to fill in the details that turn this from something fairly basic, into something really interesting.

If I compare these to the campaign frames produced for Daggerheart, it’s easy to see the gulf in inspiration that’s there. Investigations, political intrigue and treasure hunting are all the kinds of things I’d love to tackle in a campaign, but nothing in here makes me feel nearly as excited to run an adventure from here, meaning I have to rely on my own ideas (still).

Elemental airships give opportunities for completely different kinds of encounters

I haven’t tried an encounter using an elemental airship yet, but I would like to give it a go as vehicles offer a completely different situation for an encounter with completely new hazards.

One of the good things here is that they give different members of the party different things to do with various airship weaponry, ways to board other vessels and upgrades you can make. In fact, for the party with more gold than sense, I might suggest that an airship is a more interesting use of that money than a bastion (of course, your airship could be your bastion too).

There seems to be enough thought here to tackle most situations and with different parts of an airship that can be targeted or handled, can make for unique encounters. There are some problematic hazards (like falling 250ft to your death) but none of this is insurmountable or a critique of the rules here which seem solid.

Art and design is perhaps some of my favourite of any D&D book

Wizards of the Coast have generally set a high bar in the art and design department over the last few years. While it’s been good for a long time, the artwork in books like Spelljammer: Adventures in Space and the 2024 core rulebooks have been genuinely stunning.

Which is what I think makes this statement even more incredible. I think it’s my favourite artwork for any D&D product to date! It goes for a steampunk, investigative newspaper style and it just has phenomenal personality and absolutely nails the vibe. They’ve definitely gone heavy on the sort of street level, investigative noire vibe and it not only works, it’s also excellent and a nice shift from the usual high fantasy (that I also enjoy).

Its also worth noting that I think they’re purposefully giving different books a different artistic approach and I think that’s awesome!

Overview

Eberron: Forge of the Artificer is a decent enough book that does just enough to make it worth your time. If you want to play an artificer or dive into an Eberron campaign, then this is probably worth your money. It’s not necessarily a spectacular book and there’s maybe a little less meat to it than I’d like, but I think largely, the design approaches and choices are justified.

The artificer changes are mostly great, the species are well created, the art is fantastic and airship rules seem solid. It’s let down though by a lackluster cartographer subclass and campaign models that are quite basic and just fine to let you know how to tackle things, but give very little on top of this. If anything, I wish they’d given the campaign models more attention, or even given us some more fleshed out adventures or campaigns to work with. I can’t decide if this is a symptom of sloppy design, or unnecessary restrictions on length (for cost cutting purposes) that lean into this attitude towards adventures and campaigns at the moment, but I hope they realise players aren’t happy with this approach and shift course soon.

3/5

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