Dragonmark feats end up either underwhelming or overpowered though there are a few diamonds in the rough.
Dragonmarks have the appearance of tattoos that appear on the skin of some members of the different Dragonmarked houses of Eberron. They grant magical boons and are highly desirable.
When Eberron first came to 5e in Rising From the Last War, Dragonmarks were tied to your species with different marks only appearing on members of the species associated with that house. In Forge of the Artificer, they instead become their own class of feats, allowing members of any species to develop these Dragonmarks. This gives a load more flexibility in character build.
I’ve analysed all the feats from Eberron: Forge of the Artificer to see exactly how good they are, how well they balance and give some advice for Eberron players picking their feats.
Dragonmark feats
Dragonmark feats are their own class of feats. In reality though, they simply replace origin feats, but are exclusively for use in Eberron campaigns (though you could speak to your DM if you really want to use them outside of Eberron). You can grab one by taking the relevant background at character creation.
As they’re their own class of feats, I’ve rated them compared to one another rather than compared to other feat types.
Most Dragonmark feats grant a combination of skill and tool buffs, some spells known and some spells that are added to your class list (but you still need to prepare them as usual).
This last part is unique as some class and subclass features only work if a spell is on your class list. It’s not often that this happens, but this makes Dragonmark feats interesting for optimisation by granting some spells you might want interacting with some of your features.
For example, artificers have an important feature at level 11 called spell storing item which allows you to store spells in an item and repeat cast that spell essentially granting a load of extra level 1, 2 or 3 spells slots (but limited to one spell). Artificers aren’t blessed with many great 3rd level spells for this and only a few subclasses give good options. A couple of Dragonmark feats can help with this.
Another example is for sorcerers and their innate sorcery feature which lets them enhance sorcerer spells, but wouldn’t work for spells from other sources. These feats will still let them cast these spells and benefit from innate sorcery.
Aberrant Dragonmark – 5/5
Prerequisite: Eberron campaign, can’t have another Dragonmark feat
Related background: Aberrant heir
Good for: Spellcasters, especially those with larger hit dice.
Ability: Use a reaction to add 1d4 to a failed constitution saving throw once per long rest. Gain a sorcerer cantrip and 1st level spell and cast once for free. Expend a hit die to grant temporary hit points or damage when casting the level 1 spell from this feat.
Tactics: This is best on spellcasters as they can repeat cast the level 1 spell, will have a good spellcasting ability and will enjoy a boost to constitution saving throws to help with concentration.
You also want to be having the option of using aberrant surge fairly often so will want to cast that level 1 spell more than just once. That means you’ll want to pick a spell you’d be using regularly in combat. I’d suggest spells like burning hands, chromatic orb, magic missile, shield and thunderwave are some of your best options. Bigger hit dice will mean a bigger benefit here too, just be aware that you may run out of hit dice for short rest healing.
Mark of detection – 3/5
Prerequisite: Eberron campaign, can’t have another Dragonmark feat
Related background: House Medani heir
Good for: Spellcasters that want to do more information gathering.
Ability: Add 1d4 to investigation and insight checks. You add the spells in the table below to your class’ spell list. You also know and can cast detect magic, detect poison and disease and see invisibility once per long rest for free.
| Spell level | Spells |
|---|---|
| 1 | Detect evil and good, identify |
| 2 | Detect thoughts, find traps |
| 3 | Clairvoyance, nondetection |
| 4 | Arcane eye, divination |
| 5 | Legend lore |
Tactics: Investigation and insight are decent skills to get boosts for. There’s also a few solid divination spells like clairvoyance, arcane eye and divination.
However, many of these spells are quite poor. Find traps is an absolute drain on spell slots and very hard to time right, nondetection is really a DM tool for keeping NPC disguises hidden and legend lore is rarely of much use. As Dragonmarks go, it’s not the most inspiring bunch of spells.
Mark of finding – 2/5
Prerequisite: Eberron campaign, can’t have another Dragonmark feat
Related background: House Tharashk heir
Good for: Spellcasters that want to do a lot of information gathering, deal with invisibility and have multiple attacks (paladins might be your best option here).
Ability: +1d4 to perception and survival checks. You add the spells in the table below to your class’ spell list. You also know and can cast hunter’s mark and locate objects once per long rest without a spell slot.
| Spell level | Spells |
|---|---|
| 1 | Faerie fire, longstrider |
| 2 | Locate animals and plants, mind spike |
| 3 | Clairvoyance, speak with plants |
| 4 | Divination, locate creature |
| 5 | Commune with nature |
Tactics: I generally don’t like the locate spells. They tend to rarely be useful, and when they are, there should be other methods provided to accomplish what they do anyway. I also find mind spike tricky as it requires anticipating invisibility. Faerie fire can be decent, but tends to fade in effectiveness with later levels.
However, clairvoyance and divination can be great information gathering spells and longstrider is useful for increasing speed. Hunter’s mark can be great on high attack builds, but you really want this mark on a spellcaster. Most full casters will usually want something more powerful to concentrate on, even if they have more than one attack. Paladins might be the exception here though.
The skill boost is good with perception being a top skill and survival sometimes useful.
Mark of handling – 3/5
Prerequisite: Eberron campaign, can’t have another Dragonmark feat
Related background: House Vadalis heir
Good for: Nature-loving spellcasters that want minions to scout for them and to enlist the aid of beasts and monstrosities. Though I don’t think this is best on druids who already have access to a lot of these things. In fact I’d favour a charisma caster like a bard or sorcerer as you’ll like still need to do some convincing.
Ability: +1d4 to nature and animal handling checks. You add the spells in the table below to your class’ spell list. You also know and can cast animal friendship and speak with animals once without a spell slot. You can also use these 2 spells on monstrosities once per long rest.
| Spell level | Spells |
|---|---|
| 1 | Command, find familiar |
| 2 | Beast sense, calm emotions |
| 3 | Beacon of hope, conjure animals |
| 4 | Aura of life, dominate beast |
| 5 | Awaken |
Tactics: Between find familiar and beast sense, you can now see what your scout (familiar) sees which is really handy for some sneaky reconnessance. Animal friendship and speak with animals can be a little limiting due to their restriction on beasts, especially as most beasts occupy lower CRs too. Opening this up to monstrosities makes this significantly more potent. Conjure animals is also a great spirit guardians alternative.
Unfortunately, beacon of hope is a bit situational for a spell you’ll need to concentrate on. Aura of life does too little for a level 4 concentration spell, dominate beast comes too late to bother with much as your capabilities make dominating a beast other than trex and a few other creatures, pointless. I also think awaken is a bit rubbish as the suggested stat blocks are pathetic for a level 5 spell, even if it’s a minion without a concentration requirement.
The skills you get boosted aren’t the best, but they at least fit the theme.
Mark of healing – 4/5
Prerequisite: Eberron campaign, can’t have another Dragonmark feat
Related background: House Jorasco heir
Good for: Spellcasters that want to be able to heal.
Ability: +1d4 to medicine and herbalism kit checks. You add the spells in the table below to your class’ spell list. You also know and can cast cure wounds and lesser restoration once per long rest without a spell slot.
| Spell level | Spells |
|---|---|
| 1 | False life, healing word |
| 2 | Arcane vigor, prayer of healing |
| 3 | Aura of vitality, mass healing word |
| 4 | Aura of life, aura of purity |
| 5 | Greater restoration |
Tactics: Loads of great healing spells here which is excellent for making any spellcaster into a proper healer on par with a cleric or druid. This propensity for healing renders the ability check improvements almost useless as you have no need for medicine checks for healing when you have much better healing spells.
A few spells are a bit inconsequential on this list though. Arcane vigor is pointless when cure wounds heals more and can be cast on others at a lower spell slot without needing to use hit dice (or you can use healing word if you need to use your bonus action). I also think aura of life is too situational to take your use of concentration. Most of the rest of these spells are great though.
Mark of hospitality – 3/5
Prerequisite: Eberron campaign, can’t have another Dragonmark feat
Related background: House Ghallanda heir
Good for: Spellcasters that want some healing, some protection and some utility in their magic.
Ability: +1d4 to persuasion, brewer’s supplies and cook’s utensils checks. You add the spells in the table below to your class’ spell list. You also know and can cast purify food and water, unseen servant and calm emotions once per long rest without a spell slot.
| Spell level | Spells |
|---|---|
| 1 | Goodberry, sleep |
| 2 | Aid, enhance ability |
| 3 | Create food and water, Leomund’s tiny hut |
| 4 | Aura of purity, Mordenkainen’s private sanctum |
| 5 | Hallow |
Tactics: A persuasion boost is good and is a top skill. The boost to brewer’s supplies and cooking utensils may never come up though.
You get some decent spells like goodberry, sleep, unseen servant, aid and aura of purity. Leomund’s tiny hut and Mordenkainen’s private sanctum can be helpful too, but you don’t need both.
Purify food and drink and create food and water are almost never needed unless your DM is big on survival. Hallow also happens to be really situational due to its casting time (24hrs).
There’s nothing really exciting in here, but there are a decent number of practical options.
Mark of making – 4/5
Prerequisite: Eberron campaign, can’t have another Dragonmark feat
Related background: House Cannith heir
Good for: Spellcasters that make weapon attacks like rangers and paladins. It’s also great on artificers that need a strong option for their spell storing item.
Ability: +1d4 to arcana and artisan’s tools checks. You add the spells in the table below to your class’ spell list. You also know mending and magic weapon and can cast magic weapon once per long rest without a spell slot.
| Spell level | Spells |
|---|---|
| 1 | Identify, Tenser’s floating disc |
| 2 | Continual flame, spiritual weapon |
| 3 | Conjure barrage, elemental weapon |
| 4 | Fabricate, stone shape |
| 5 | Creation |
Tactics: Artisan’s tools includes a huge range of tool proficiencies, but they tend to be the kinds of tools that rarely come up unless you engage in plenty of crafting. The arcana boost is alright.
Mending is rarely useful, but magic weapon is a really solid buff, especially when you can cast it without a spell slot.
I don’t love most of the spells you get access to. Tenser’s floating disc solves a problem that rarely comes up. Continual flame solves problems already handled by cantrips. Spiritual weapon demands a lot from your bonus action and concentration with too little damage. Fabricate and creation can be interesting, but their limitations make them quite situational.
However, the level 3 spells are very useful. Conjure barrage is an excellent AoE damage dealer, but importantly, it adds the spell to your class’ spell list. For artificers, they want strong level 3 spells on their spell list for their spell storing item. Some subclasses, like cartographers and alchemists, lack that, but conjure barrage is an excellent option there. Elemental weapon can also be pretty good.
While there’s a fair bit of wasted space in the spells here, some excellent options save this feat.
Mark of passage – 4/5
Prerequisite: Eberron campaign, can’t have another Dragonmark feat
Related background: House Orien heir
Good for: Spellcasters that want more teleportation, speed and stealth. It’s also great for spellcasters that want to regularly use a mount.
Ability: +1d4 to acrobatics and athletics checks. +5ft movement speed. You add the spells in the table below to your class’ spell list. You also know and can cast misty step once per long rest without a spell slot.
| Spell level | Spells |
|---|---|
| 1 | Expeditious retreat, jump |
| 2 | Find steed, pass without trace |
| 3 | Blink, phantom steed |
| 4 | Dimension door, freedom of movement |
| 5 | Teleportation circle |
Tactics: A boost to athletics and acrobatics is decent and a bit more movement speed is great on anyone.
Misty step is great for escaping enemies and restraints. Pass without trace is great for group stealth. Jump can give more movement and the steed spells can be great to build a consistent mounted build that isn’t a paladin.
Dimension door can be useful, but can also be a bit limiting on where you can teleport and who with. Blink’s a bit random, but can be useful for characters wanting to avoid harm.
I do tend to find expeditious retreat rarely useful and teleportation circle more a narrative pragmatism. Overall though, I’d say this is a solid set of spells.
Mark of scribing – 2/5
Prerequisite: Eberron campaign, can’t have another Dragonmark feat
Related background: House Sivis heir
Good for: Spellcasters that want some mind control and information gathering spells.
Ability: +1d4 to history and calligrapher’s supplies checks. You add the spells in the table below to your class’ spell list. You also know the message, comprehend languages and magic mouth spells and can cast comprehend languages and magic mouth once per long rest without a spell slot.
| Spell level | Spells |
|---|---|
| 1 | Command, illusory script |
| 2 | Animal messenger, silence |
| 3 | Sending, tongues |
| 4 | Arcane eye, confusion |
| 5 | Dream |
Tactics: History and calligrapher’s supplies checks aren’t the most common but a boost to these is alright. I think the spells you know and can cast for free are quite situational. The same is true for spell list options like illusory script, animal messenger, tongues and dream.
Confusion usually isn’t a spell I choose as it tends to be worse than 3rd level options like hypnotic pattern due to its random nature. Command and silence are better combat options and sending and arcane eye are decent information gathering spells. I’m not sure any of these spells are really exciting though.
Mark of sentinel – 4/5
Prerequisite: Eberron campaign, can’t have another Dragonmark feat
Related background: House Deneith heir
Good for: Melee spellcasters, especially those that can take a decent beating.
Ability: +1d4 to insight and perception checks. You add the spells in the table below to your class’ spell list. You also know the shield spell and can cast it once per long rest without a spell slot. Can use a reaction to swap places with a creature hit by an attack.
| Spell level | Spells |
|---|---|
| 1 | Compelled duel, shield of faith |
| 2 | Warding bond, zone of truth |
| 3 | Counterspell, protection from energy |
| 4 | Death ward, guardian of faith |
| 5 | Bigby’s hand |
Tactics: Insight and perception are both great skills that come up a lot so boosting them is great. Vigilant guardian can be useful to protect an ally, but only if you happen to be a bit of a tank yourself and are fighting side-by-side with an ally. It’s a tad situational, but could be decent. Note that you will be hit by this attack even if your AC is higher.
A free casting of shield is great and anyone can be using this a fair bit. I also think you get access to some spells some classes really want but don’t normally have access to (shield, shield of faith and counterspell are the big 3 here). Some of the other spells in here are pretty good too, like guardian of faith, zone of truth and Bigby’s hand. I don’t think protection from energy is worth the concentration cost though.
The problem you’ve got is the ideal class for all of this is a paladin, but they do have access to much of this (though there are still other benefits). A ranger, cleric or druid might do well here though, or really any melee caster like valor bards and pact of the blade warlocks.
Mark of shadow – 5/5
Prerequisite: Eberron campaign, can’t have another Dragonmark feat
Related background: House Phiarlan heir, House Thuranni heir
Good for: Spellcasters that want more sneaky spells. Bards can be a good option, as can warlocks, though bards do already have access to a lot of the spells on this list already. I’d also consider an arcane trickster or ranger, but they will gain access to these spells more slowly.
Ability: +1d4 to stealth and performance checks. You add the spells in the table below to your class’ spell list. You also know the minor illusion and invisibility spells and can cast invisibility once per long rest without a spell slot.
| Spell level | Spells |
|---|---|
| 1 | Disguise self, silent image |
| 2 | Darkness, pass without trace |
| 3 | Clairvoyance, major image |
| 4 | Greater invisibility, hallucinatory terrain |
| 5 | Mislead |
Tactics: Stealth is a really strong skill and performance can be decent (especially if you’re using disguises, your performance might be an impersonation). This Dragonmark is very much about subterfuge so there are lots of illusions and sneaky spells. Most of these are great options and darkness and greater invisibility are even strong option for in combat as well.
The one spell I don’t rate in that list is hallucinatory terrain. I’ve never found a good use for this spell, but maybe I’ll be corrected one day.
Otherwise, this is a strong option for a sneaky spellcaster.
Mark of storm – 5/5
Prerequisite: Eberron campaign, can’t have another Dragonmark feat
Related background: House Lyrandar heir
Good for: This is best for spellcasters that can be making multiple attacks per round to take advantage of conjure minor elementals. This primarily means classes like paladins, rangers, eldritch knights, mystic arts monks, bladesingers and pact of the blade warlocks. There’s enough versatility here though, that it can be pretty good on most spellcasters.
Ability: +1d4 to acrobatics and navigator’s tools checks. You gain resistance to lightning damage. You add the spells in the table below to your class’ spell list. You also know the thunderclap and gust of wind spells and can cast gust of wind once per long rest without a spell slot.
| Spell level | Spells |
|---|---|
| 1 | Feather fall, fog cloud |
| 2 | Levitate, shatter |
| 3 | Sleet storm, wind wall |
| 4 | Conjure minor elementals, control water |
| 5 | Conjure elemental |
Tactics: Navigator’s tools are rarely used (I don’t think I’ve ever used them) but an acrobatics boost is decent. Lightning resistance is alright too, but isn’t a hugely common damage type. thunderclap is good on a melee spellcaster, but is available on most spell lists (it might be good for a paladin or ranger though).
Feather fall is rarely used, but excellent when it’s needed and good for every party to have someone with this. Fog cloud and levitate have some decent utility, wind wall is great for battlefield control and shatter is a solid damage dealer. Artificers without a strong 3rd level spell for their spell storing item might want to consider shatter for that.
Frustratingly, conjure elemental is a concentration AoE that can only affect one creature at a time, and it’s immobile so I don’t think it’s great. I think control water is quite situational but possibly fun in the right moment.
However, conjure minor elementals is outstanding and this is one of the easiest ways to access it if you aren’t a druid or a wizard. If you build around this with multiple attacks, you can be dealing some insanely increased levels of damage for each attack you’re making. For instance, a valor bard, pact of the blade warlock or eldritch knight can easily be making heavy use of this spell, especially at higher tiers of play. If you take potent Dragonmark, you can even use conjure minor elementals on a high attack, non-caster like a fighter or a monk.
Mark of warding – 3/5
Prerequisite: Eberron campaign, can’t have another Dragonmark feat
Related background: House Kundarak heir
Good for: Spellcasters wanting to keep danger away with spells.
Ability: +1d4 to investigation and thieves’ tools checks. You add the spells in the table below to your class’ spell list. You also know the alarm, mage armor and arcane lock spells and can cast them once per long rest without a spell slot.
| Spell level | Spells |
|---|---|
| 1 | Armor of Agathys, sanctuary |
| 2 | Knock, Nystul’s magic aura |
| 3 | Glyph of warding, magic circle |
| 4 | Leomund’s secret chest, Mordenkainen’s faithful hound |
| 5 | Antilife shell |
Tactics: Investigation and thieves’ tools both come up a fair bit so can be good options. A free use of mage armor will save the wizard and sorcerer a spell slot. It’s got better AC than studded leather too so a bard or warlock might consider it as well. Alarm can help avoid surprises when resting while arcane lock has some situational benefits for locking things in or out.
For the rest of the spells, there’s nothing here that’s really exciting and many of the spells are really situational or just not great. Knock is a costly alternative to picking a lock, Nystul’s magic aura is extremely niche, magic circle rarely is needed and Leomund’s secret chest is almost never required. There are uses for the other spells, but it’s not an exciting list.
Greater Dragonmark feats
Greater Dragonmark feats are enhancements to the Dragonmark feats and there’s one enhancement per mark with an extra one that can be used to enhance any Dragonmark feat (potent Dragonmark). You can take them in place of another feat from level 4+.
Greater aberrant mark – 5/5
Requirements: Level 4+, aberrant Dragonmark feat
Good for: Spellcasters that use plenty of cantrips. This mainly rules out paladins and rangers, but works for most full spellcasters.
Ability score improvement: Constitution
Ability: Aberrant fortitude grants an extra 1d6 instead of a 1d4 and it is regained whenever you finish a short or long rest. Can use one or 2 hit dice to grant temporary hit points and damage a few times per long rest when you cast a cantrip.
Tactics: The enhanced constitution saving throws are great for spellcasters, enhancing concentration saving throws more often.
The extra temporary hit points and damage is substantial and well worth expending a couple of hit dice on. It more than doubles the impact of your hit dice and allows you to make use of them during combat. All of this without expending extra action economy. You’ll just want a build that makes use of plenty of cantrips.
Greater mark of detection – 2/5
Requirements: Level 4+, mark of detection feat
Good for: Highly deductive characters that often face invisible creatures. But these is too situational to be a highly recommended feat.
Ability score improvement: Any
Ability: Deductive intuition now grants an extra 1d6 instead of a 1d4. Another creature can benefit from see invisibility when you use your mark of detection to cast it.
Tactics: Even better investigation and insight checks is alright and sharing see invisibility is decent too. However, see invisibility is only being shared once per long rest and it’s still quite situational. I don’t think this grants enough of a boost.
Greater mark of finding – 2/5
Requirements: Level 4+, mark of finding feat
Good for: Scouts and multi-attack characters maybe, but this isn’t a great feat.
Ability score improvement: Any
Ability: Hunter’s intuition now grants an extra 1d6 instead of a 1d4. Using your mark of finding to cast hunter’s mark allows its range to be doubled and prevents the target benefitting from the invisible condition.
Tactics: Even better perception and survival skill checks is alright, but hunter’s mark doesn’t really have a range problem. Preventing invisibility is situationally useful, but rarely comes up. I don’t think this feat does enough either.
Greater mark of handling – 3/5
Requirements: Level 4+, mark of handling feat
Good for: Characters with easy access to mounts.
Ability score improvement: Any
Ability: Wild intuition now grants an extra 1d6 instead of a 1d4. When mounted, your mount can use its reaction to attack or move after you hit with a melee attack. Use an action to frighten a beast or monstrosity a few times per long rest.
Tactics: Nature and animal handling aren’t the best of skills. I’m not sure I’d want to enhance this further but it’s something. If you intend to be riding a mount a lot, this can be great. Your only problem is that the steed spells belong to another Dragonmark. You can buy, borrow, charm or steal a steed, but summoning one is more reliable. If you can wrangle being mounted a lot, then this is great for what would basically be a free attack each round.
I’m not keen on subdue animal though. Getting one creature frightened with an action isn’t much, and they’re only frightened for one round. Spending an action on this just isn’t worth it.
Greater mark of healing – 3/5
Requirements: Level 4+, mark of healing feat
Good for: Full spellcasters that want to be better at healing.
Ability score improvement: Any
Ability: Medical intuition now grants an extra 1d6 instead of a 1d4. Can use healing touch to cast cure wounds more often and can 1s or 2s as 3s when casting cure wounds.
Tactics: The medicine and herbalism kit check increases are fairly meaningless as these checks will likely rarely happen as you should be healing with spells. However, more uses of cure wounds on a healer build is pretty decent and that healing should be improved with 1s and 2s becoming 3s.
Greater mark of hospitality – 4/5
Requirements: Level 4+, mark of hospitality feat
Good for: Charismatic spellcasters that want to buff the whole party and be the party face.
Ability score improvement: Any
Ability: Ever hospitable now grants an extra 1d6 instead of a 1d4. Casting purify food and drink can now remove a level of exhaustion and grant nearby creatures a bunch of temporary hit points once per long rest.
Tactics: Boosting persuasion further is decent. I find that purify food and drink is almost never useful. This amendment to it is much more helpful though. Exhaustion isn’t common, but it is a big problem when it happens. The temporary hit points will always be useful. This will help the whole party too so will work even better on large parties.
The problem here is that inspiring leader does this better already. They can buff temporary hit points multiple times a day and while the temporary hit points are probably smaller at low levels, they’re higher at mid-high tiers of play. Of course, this adds in improved persuasion and exhaustion healing so both are still good.
Greater mark of making – 4/5
Requirements: Level 4+, mark of making feat
Good for: Spellcasters that want to make plenty of weapon attacks like paladins and rangers.
Ability score improvement: Any
Ability: Artisan’s intuition now grants an extra 1d6 instead of a 1d4. When using spellsmith to cast magic weapon without a spell slot, you cast it as a level 3 spell.
Tactics: Even more improved arcana and artisan tools checks is decent. Magic weapon as a level 3 spell means you have easy access to a +2 weapon which is quite good, especially at lower tiers when magic weapons are more scarce.
Greater mark of passage – 3/5
Requirements: Level 4+; mark of passage feat
Good for: Any spellcaster can make decent use of this.
Ability score improvement: Any
Ability: Intuitive motion now grants an extra 1d6 instead of a 1d4. teleport a couple more creatures with your free use of misty step.
Tactics: You get even better athletics and acrobatics checks here. I’d say the shared misty step can be really good, but it is only once per long rest that you’ll be able to do this. Great for charging into combat quickly or escaping nasty restraints and grapples, but the limitation on uses prevents this being better than average.
Greater mark of scribing – 2/5
Requirements: Level 4+, mark of scribing feat
Good for: Spellcasters that want to communicate better. It’s perhaps slightly better on charisma casters like bards and sorcerers.
Ability score improvement: Any
Ability: Gifted scribe now grants an extra 1d6 instead of a 1d4. Once per long rest, can cast comprehend languages to affect 3 creatures who can also speak telepathically for the duration.
Tactics: Comprehend languages doesn’t come up loads, but that can be campaign dependent. Telepathy can be useful and that range is large, but it’s also kind of situational. A boost to history and calligrapher’s supplies also isn’t that exciting.
Greater mark of sentinel – 3/5
Requirements: Level 4+, mark of sentinel feat
Good for: Resilient spellcasters like paladins and rangers.
Ability score improvement: Any
Ability: Sentinel’s intuition now grants an extra 1d6 instead of a 1d4. You can also make a weapon attack when using vigilant guardian to swap places with an attacked ally.
Tactics: The benefits here depend on how much you can use vigilant guardian. The problem you’ve got is range. 5ft is tricky to engineer. It’s easier with other melee builds, but you may not always want to take the hit for other resilient classes.
On that note, you probably want this feat on a spellcaster anyway because of the spells from the mark of sentinel feat. Paladins and rangers still make good choices here, but others may struggle to use this in a way that doesn’t just lead to them dying quite quickly. Still, the additional attack is quite nifty and if you can use it on a rogue, they can deal sneak attack with that attack (you’ll probably want it on an especially resilient rogue).
Insight and perception are great skills though and boosting those further is quite handy.
Greater mark of shadow – 4/5
Requirements: Level 4+, mark of shadow feat
Good for: Spellcasters that want improved stealth spells.
Ability score improvement: Any
Ability: Cunning intuition now grants an extra 1d6 instead of a 1d4. When using shape shadows to cast invisibility without a spell slot, it’s now cast as a level 3 spell.
Tactics: Improving stealth and performance further is pretty good. Casting invisibility as a level 3 spell means you can bring someone with you for all that sneaking. It’s only once per day, but that’s probably enough. It also means a couple of you can easily surprise some enemies.
Greater mark of storm – 4/5
Requirements: Level 4+, mark of storm feat
Good for: Spellcasters that want to be able to fly.
Ability score improvement: Any
Ability: Windwright’s intuitition now grants an extra 1d6 instead of a 1d4. Using storm magic to cast gust of wind without a spell slot also grants you a fly speed of 60ft.
Tactics: The ability check improvements are OK, but nothing too exciting. A fly speed is very handy though. This will last for a minute and I’d probably view it more like a free casting of fly with gust of wind added on as I think that’ll be the bigger purpose of using this now. Flight is great for keeping you out of danger, reaching flying creatures and for scouting (though this won’t last long enough for much scouting).
Greater mark of warding – 4/5
Requirements: Level 4+; mark of warding feat
Good for: Any spellcaster.
Ability score improvement: Any
Ability: Warder’s intuition now grants an extra 1d6 instead of a 1d4. Can sometimes use a reaction to impose disadvantage on an attack roll.
Tactics: Investigation and thieves’ tools are 2 of the better skill/tool checks so boosting these is decent. Reaction disadvantage is pretty good too as many characters don’t use their reaction a lot. I’d save it for big attacks from hard hitting creatures.
Potent Dragonmark – 5/5
Requirements: Level 4+, any Dragonmark feat
Good for: Great for anyone, but especially to grant spellcasting to non-casters.
Ability score improvement: Spellcasting ability score used by your Dragonmark feat
Ability: You have all the spells from your spells of the mark list prepared and get a free casting of one of these spells each short and long rest.
Tactics: This can be outstanding if combined with the right Dragonmark feat. Those with lots of strong spells are an obvious option, but this also enables higher spellcasting for half casters and even some decent amount of spellcasting for non-casters like fighters and rogues. For example, a fighter with mark of storm and potent Dragonmark can now cast conjure minor elementals from level 7 and apply it to all their attacks (which could be a lot depending on your build).
Similarly, combining mark of sentinel with a fighter will get them spells like shield of faith to use regularly (and shield sometimes too). This makes for some very powerful loadouts that aren’t possible in any other way than some serious multiclassing.
Epic boon feats
Boon of Siberys – 5/5
Requirements: Level 19+, Eberron campaign
Good for: Anyone with a decent spellcasting ability score (though even that may not be necessary depending on the spell you take).
Ability score improvement: Any
Ability: Gain a level 8 or lower spell slot that you can cast once every short or long rest without a spell slot.
Tactics: Level 8 spells are powerful and having a casting every short or long rest is quite a lot. There’s enough variety on the sorcerer spell list and with the extra Siberys Dragonmark spells too.
Importantly, you don’t need to use spell components either to cast in this way. This means that spells with costly components (like Heroes’ feast) have that cost removed as well.
Are the feats in Eberron: Forge of the Artificer any good?
The feats in Forge of the Artificer are quite unique. At first glance, the Dragonmark feats seem quite powerful, but many of the spells they grant access to aren’t necessarily the best. This ends up meaning that those marks with great spells end up a bit overpowered with many of the rest kind of underwhelming.
For the most part though, the more powerful feats aren’t unbalanced, but there are a couple of exceptions which is rare for an official book.
My big issue is with the mark of storm which grants conjure minor elementals which becomes amazing on certain classes. This now grants easy access to it for all spellcasters. Potent Dragonmark makes this situation even worse as it allows even a non-caster to cast conjure minor elementals, including high attack classes like fighters and monks.
Even without this combination, potent Dragonmark is very powerful as it allows access to multiple level 5 spell castings per day. Compare this to feats like fey touched where you get a free casting of a level 1 and 2 spell with fewer choices of spells and it becomes clear how much more powerful potent Dragonmark is.
One thing these feats do solve is fixing a couple of issues in niche design areas. For artificers, some subclasses almost become unviable from an optimisation standpoint as they lack decent spells for their very powerful spell storing item feature at level 11. However, by adding spells to their spell list, a feat like the mark of making can add conjure barrage to their spell list which fixes this issue.
The mark of passage also makes mounted builds more viable for classes that aren’t paladins by giving you steed summoning spells.
Despite this, I don’t love these feats. Either the spells are a bit underwhelming or they add too much to a class with just a few exceptions. There are too many feats I don’t like and a couple that are overpowered making it difficult to be excited about these feats, even if a couple fix some niche design problems with a crudely wrapped bandage.
What did you think of the feats in Eberron: Forge of the Artificer? Let me know in the comments below.
