Magic of Eberron

This is the first supplementary sourcebook from Eberron that I've looked at. It's generally divided into three areas (but not always grouped together): options for “magic” characters, stuff for “magic” characters, and new enemies.

Chapter 1 starts off with explaining the concepts and perspectives of magic as they are in Eberron. It presents things like cities in Eberron being a magic-heavy but still a pre-industrial society.

It goes into more detail with very Eberron-specific stuff like elemental binding, dragonshard harvesting and supply/demand, and also daelkyr magic. Personally, I find elemental binding to be akin to slavery so I've never been of it (although I admit the vehicles were a great idea). Other forms of magic are briefly touched upon, specifically those from Aerenal, Argonnessen, Karrnath, and Riedra.

The chapter closes with two new organisations and some adventure hooks scattered about. They're not much to write about and not very memorable.

Chapter 2 presents 2 new races and 1 core class variant, along with your expected slew of new feats. The new races are the Daelkyr Half-Blood and Psiforged. Not very creative to be honest, with the former being evident in the name, and the latter just a psionic version of a warforged. The new class is basically a psionic version of the artificer, named.... Psionic Artificer. The feats are only somewhat mildly interesting, but they run the gamut from elemental binding feats to item creation to artificer feats, all quite Eberron-specific.

Chapter 3 showcases 8 new prestige classes that I personally would never want to try. I found them to be subpar, particularly in how the concept of the class gets translated into mechanics. For example, the Dragon Prophet is all about the Draconic Prophecy, yet he gains bonuses not through knowledge, but when being in a sort of trance. And also the Renegade Mastermaker of House Cannith. From the name alone, you simply would not have guessed that all of them start off replacing their hand with a mechanical hand, and their end goal being to literally turn into a warforged. Each prestige comes us adventure material like sample organisations, a random map here and there, but there's really not much value to them as they feel pretty arbitrary.

Chapter 4 is one of the better chapters I think. It contains new spells, new infusions, and new psionic powers. I don't know much about psionics, so no comment there, but the new infusions and spells are quite interesting (in a fun way, rather than powerful way), with only a few being Eberron-specific.

New items, equipment, and other options are in chapter 5. There's a good selection of stuff, with heavy Eberron-flavouring, which is a good thing. It has new materials, new vehicles, and dragonshard-powered items. The only bit I didn't like is the grafting section. You get options to graft elemental parts (which I found to be completely nonsensical), deathless parts (ok, although it felt really odd that the Aereni would even consider it), and plant parts (and perpetuated by druids no less, which I also found to be difficult to accept).

The sourcebook ends with Chapter 6, which contains just a few entries on symbionts (for the new race and one of the prestige classes), new homunculi (which I liked), two new Quori spirits, two extremely weird undead and some aberrations. It's a very short chapter that doesn't really tie into the whole “magic of Eberron” topic.

All in all, it's a decent “general” sourcebook, as opposed to being actually “focused” on the magic Eberron. It treats “magic” more like a “science” and briefly touches them in a broad spectrum. If you're looking for something that provides a in-depth look at the state of magic in Eberron, I don't think this is it. But if you're looking for more character options, then the sourcebook does provide, although I found them to be uninspired and generally somewhat bland.