D&D: ‘Eberron’s Forge of the Artificer Will Bring Half Elves Back From The Void According To New Preview
Half elves are back on the menu boys – in a new Forge of the Artificer Preview, WotC unveils a glimpse at the “Khoravar” and more.
Take a look in the new 5.5E Player’s Handbook and you won’t find half elves. Once a fantasy staple, these more special than a regular human characters were banished to the void by an edition change. At least until August 19th, when Forge of the Artificer releases into the wild. Then, half elves are back, in the form of Khoravar, an updated half-elf for 5.5E. And according to the Forge of the Artificer preview, they work kind of like you’d expect, but with some strange “recharge” times. That plus more await!
Half Elves In The New Forge Of The Artificer Preview
While the preview shows off a glimpse at all five of the new species options in the book, perhaps the one that people are most excited for are the once-nonexistent half elves, now known as Khoravar.
Khoravar get the biggest preview, because they have to be rebuilt the most, I think. This is because both Elves and Humans are now very different than they were in 5E. Elves, in particular, all come with magic options. You can’t be an elf and not know spells. Humans, as always, have extra versatility. And how does that translate?
For starters, Khoravar have a few familiar half-elf features. You get Darkvision out to 60 feet, and Fey Ancestry still gives you advantage on saves vs. being Charmed. Though, you aren’t immune to sleep anymore.
Instead you have a new feature, Lethargy Resilience. This lets you turn a failed save vs. being made Unconscious (crucially, not just sleep) into a success. Though after you use it you have to finish 1d4 Long Rests before you can do it again. Then there’s Fey Gift which grants you the Friends cantrip and lets you swap it for any Cleric, Druid, or Wizard Cantrip on a Long Rest. This is probably the coolest feature of being a half elf. You get to be, like fortune, as changing as the moon.
Finally, Skill Versatility rounds out the khoravar with the good ol’ gain proficiency with any one skill or tool of your choice, swap after a Long Rest. So not so different from the old half elf, but different enough. It makes me curious what other species might look like – I think there’s room to experiment more. And based on some of the previews from the Forged from the Artificer preview, it seems that there’s some very cautious pushing of the envelope.
What About Changelings, Kalashtar, Shifters, And Warforged?
The new Forge of the Artificer Preview doesn’t just show off how the new Khoravar work, though. It hits up all the new species options, at least in part. Including Warforged, which are a fan favorite PC option, and Kalashtar, which are decidedly not – even though they are probably my favorite of the Eberron options. Shifters and Changelings are for your friends who are furries to varying degrees of openness about it, and that’s pretty much all you need to know. Except for the rules, I guess.
I say this, because of the remaining four species, two are printed basically as they were in Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse. Though to be fair, that book was basically the preview of the new Monster Manual, following on with Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything. It was halfway between editions. Nevertheless, both the Changeling and Shifter are “based on” their counterpart from MPMM, with some slight tweaks. Notably, Changelings have Advantage on Charisma checks while shape-shifted, and Shifters can be size Small.
Kalashtar, on the other hand, have seen two of their features change from their original appearance in Rising from the Last War. Mind Link now allows you to work as a telepathic hub, connecting to “many creatures” and without needing to see them. Severed from Dreams has been reworked into a “swap proficiency in a skill” after a Long Rest, instead of the Sleep Resistance that they used to have. Hopefully, their other features (like Advantage on Wisdom Saving Throws and resistance to Psychic Damage) have been retained.
Finally, Warforged get to put on Armor faster, it no longer takes an hour to don armor with their Integrated Protection, and Sentry’s Rest now specifies that they “don’t need to sleep, and magic can’t put them to sleep.” While Tireless means they don’t gain Exhaustion from dehydration, malnutrition, or suffocation (which means your robot can’t drown).
What Else For Eberron?
Of course, it’s not all new species in the new book. You’ll also find the revised Artificer. And the now-five Artificer subclasses join the ranks too. Or you can make any character of any species Dragonmarked with any of the 28 new Feats in the book. If that sounds boring, play with one of the 17 new backgrounds. There’s a ton for players!
And there’s a ton for DMs, too. You might dig into the 20+ new monsters that will lurk within Forge of the Artificer’s pages. Or play with the new campaign genre templates for wildly different games, including: noir intrigue, sky-high pulp, and political peril.
All this awaits you in Forge of the Artificer!
Eberron: Forge of the Artificer releases August 19th!
