Changes to Race Options in Eberron: Rising from the Last War

Eberron: Rising from the Last War is here! This is a setting book for the world of Eberron, which gives a different spin to the world of Dungeons & Dragons. In this world, players can choose unique race options besides the ones presented in the Player’s Handbook—the changeling, kalashtar, shifter, and warforged.

Wayfinder’s Guide to Eberron gave us the latest version of these options before Rising from the Last War, and there have definitely been some changes! In this post, we’ll talk about these updates. (This post is mainly focused on the changeling, kalashtar, shifter, and warforged options, so we won’t address any changes made to the dragonmark character options just yet.)

Overall, they seem to have tightened up the writing for many of these sections. Each non-PHB race also has a method of calculating a random height and weight now, too.

Changeling

The changeling’s Ability Score Increase still gives a +2 bonus to Charisma, but now you can pick any (!) ability score for the +1 bonus instead of picking between Dexterity and Intelligence. This is a bit more reflective of a changeling’s versatility.

Changelings no longer have advantage on Charisma (Deception) checks to maintain their disguise when they use their Change Appearance feature. Though, the feature still allows you to perfectly mimic another creature’s appearance.

The Unsettling Visage and Divergent Persona features were cut from the Rising from the Last War iteration. This is little bit of a bummer, since I thought those features were fun, flavorful additions to a changeling character, but this does bring the focus back to the changeling’s main feature, Change Appearance.

That’s what changed! Overall, the changeling’s abilities were scaled back from the Wayfinder’s Guide version, aside from their ASI becoming more versatile.

Kalashtar

I’m glad to see the Kalashtar Quirk table has stuck around for Rising from the Last War.

The kalashtar’s Ability Score Increase has changed. The previous version granted a +1 to Wisdom, Charisma, and one other ability score of your choice. The new version grants a +2 to Wisdom and a +1 to Charisma.

The Dual Mind feature is much simpler now, granting advantage to Wisdom saving throws without requiring you to use a reaction to gain that advantage. The resistance to psychic damage remains the same.

In contrast, the Mind Link feature has a little more beef to it now. Instead of a 60-foot range on your telepathy, your range is determined by your level multiplied by 10. So, once you pass 6^th level, your range will be farther than the original Mind Link range. Also, you can enable a creature to telepathically respond for an hour instead of just until your next turn. This change emphasizes your growing power as a player character.

Psychic Glamour is no more, so you do not gain extra skill proficiencies from being a kalashtar.

The changes to Mind Link make it easier to use, especially once you get to higher levels. I also like the simplification of Dual Mind.

Shifter

The shifter race no longer grants an Ability Score Increase, relegating that entirely to the shifter subraces (Wayfinder’s gave every shifter a +1 to Dexterity).

Keen Senses got cut, so no more Perception proficiency here.

The beasthide subrace now grants a +1 to Strength on top of the +2 to Constitution. It’s otherwise the same.

The longtooth subrace now grants a +1 to Dexterity on top of the +2 to Strength, and it’s otherwise unchanged as far as I can tell.

The swiftstride subrace now only grants the movement speed bonus when you are shifted.

The wildhunt subrace adds a +1 to Dexterity on top of the +2 to Wisdom. The Mark the Scent feature got cut, but now your shifting feature not only gives you advantage on Wisdom checks but also prevents nearby creatures from attacking you with advantage so long as you’re not incapacitated.  

These changes emphasize the subrace options and the shifting features, which makes sense since that’s the main draw for the shifter race.

Warforged

In Rising from the Last War, the Warforged Quirks table got cut down and edited somewhat.

The major change here is that warforged no longer have subraces. Instead, some of these features grant choices that you can use to define your individual character.

The Ability Score Increase is now a +2 to Constitution and a +1 to another ability score of your choice.

Constructed Resilience is the same, except now it seems that a warforged could gain levels of exhaustion due to lack of rest.

The Integrated Protection feature has changed. You gain a +1 to AC, and you can integrate any armor you’re proficient in to your body (it takes some time), and that armor cannot be removed against your will.

The Specialized Design feature grants you a skill proficiency and a tool proficiency.

The warforged now get another language option, so you can speak another language in addition to Common.

Without subraces, the warforged race is more streamlined, and they can still vary according to the purpose behind their (in-world) creation. I think opinions are a little mixed, so I’m curious to see what the overall consensus will be.

Orcs

Eberron also uses the Volo’s Guide to Monsters stats for player character goblins, bugbears, and hobgoblings, but Eberron’s orcs are slightly different.

They don’t have a penalty to Intelligence, but the ASI is otherwise the same.

Instead of the Menacing feature, Eberron’s orcs have Primal Intuition, granting them a choice of two proficiencies in the following skills: Animal Handling, Insight, Intimidation, Medicine, Nature, Perception, and Survival.

Basically, Eberron orcs aren’t pigeonholed into the traditional chaotic evil orc archetype.

What do you think of the changes in Eberron: Rising from the Last War? Is your group incorporating the most recent changes, or will you stick with Wayfinder’s Guide? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments! Thank you for reading!