Eberron for D&D 2024: Complete Player and DM Guide

Introduction

Eberron: Forge of the Artificer is the D&D 2024 book for Eberron, the setting where magic runs like industry: lightning rails, elemental airships, and merchant houses built on hereditary magic. It's written as a companion to Eberron: Rising from the Last War, though you don't need that older book to use this one.

The book breaks into four parts. Chapters 1 and 2 are for players: a revised Artificer with a new Cartographer subclass, updated Changeling, Kalashtar, Shifter, and Warforged species plus the new Khoravar, seventeen backgrounds, and twenty-eight feats that turn dragonmarks into a feat system. Chapter 3 adds Bastion options. Chapters 4 through 6 each give the DM a ready campaign model: noir investigators in Sharn, intrigue among the dragonmarked houses, and pulp expeditions for Morgrave University. Chapter 7 covers elemental airships, and an appendix adds nine magic items.

Choose one of those three campaign models before building characters. A house tie, a dragonmark, or an Artificer works best when it gives the party a job in Sharn, a reason to deal with the houses, or a place on a Morgrave expedition.

This guide follows the same order: character options, then Sharn and the ruins beyond it, then the factions, then magic and airships, and finally the tools for running the campaign.

Character Options

Every option in this section needs DM approval, the same as any non-core sourcebook. The rules detail lives in the maintained class, species, feat, and background guides linked below; this section covers how the pieces fit together.

The Dragonmark System, Summarized

The book introduces a new feat category, Dragonmark feats. There are thirteen: one for each of the twelve house marks (Detection, Finding, Handling, Healing, Hospitality, Making, Passage, Scribing, Sentinel, Shadow, Storm, and Warding) plus Aberrant Dragonmark for characters outside the house system. Mark of Shadow is shared by two houses, Phiarlan and Thuranni, which is why thirteen houses carry twelve marks. Each of the twelve house marks has a Spells of the Mark feature that adds its spells to your class spell list if you have Spellcasting or Pact Magic. Aberrant Dragonmark works differently, giving a Sorcerer cantrip, a level 1 Sorcerer spell, and a once-per-Long-Rest boost to a failed Constitution save.

Thirteen General feats represent greater dragonmarks, one more (Potent Dragonmark) increases a mark's potency, and the Epic Boon feat Boon of Siberys can stand in for a Siberys mark or a powerful aberrant one. That's twenty-eight feats in all. The book also drops the old species restriction: any species can manifest any dragonmark.

• Full mechanics and ratings for every mark: Dragonmark Feats Guide
• Boon of Siberys: the D&D 2024 Epic Boons Guide
• The only way into a Dragonmark feat at level 1 is a dragonmarked-heir background, covered below. Otherwise, take the feat whenever you have an unrestricted feat choice.

The book suggests four origins for a marked character: a true heir of the house, a distant offshoot of the family line the house would try to absorb, someone whose mark has nothing to do with their bloodline, or a bearer of an aberrant mark who would be wise to stay clear of the houses.

The Artificer and Its Subclasses

The Artificer is back as an Intelligence-based class, revised to match the 2024 Player's Handbook. It prepares spells from its own list with half-caster slot progression, and its signature level 2 feature, Replicate Magic Item, lets it build magic items from plans it knows. Five subclasses appear in the book: Alchemist, Armorer, Artillerist, Battle Smith, and the new Cartographer. Features that were class options in older printings now appear as magic items in the book's appendix.

• Artificer Class Guide (the subclass breakdown rates all five)
• Artificer Spell Guide
• Best Feats for Artificer

Mark of Making is the natural Dragonmark pick for this class; the Artificer guide's feat section covers the crossover.

Five Species

Four species are revised versions of those from Rising from the Last War (Changeling, Kalashtar, Shifter, and Warforged), and the Khoravar is new, representing Khorvaire's people of mixed human and elf descent who dislike the term "half-elf." None of them needs a dragonmark or a house tie.

Seventeen New Backgrounds

Fourteen backgrounds represent dragonmarked heirs: one for each of the thirteen houses, plus Aberrant Heir. Each grants a specific Dragonmark feat in place of an Origin feat. The other three are House Agent (house affiliation without a mark), Archaeologist (built for Morgrave expeditions), and Inquisitive (built for Sharn investigations). The book also suggests Player's Handbook backgrounds that fit a house's trade, such as Artisan for Cannith, Sailor for Lyrandar, Entertainer for Phiarlan or Thuranni, and Scribe for Sivis. Compare all seventeen in the D&D 2024 Backgrounds Guide.

Building a Dragonmarked Party

The book's Party Makeup table (a d8 roll) gives ready-made reasons for a group to work together, from a one-house party to bodyguards (Deneith, Jorasco, Medani, and Phiarlan), bounty hunters (Sivis, Tharashk, and Vadalis), and a strike force of a Cannith Artificer, Deneith Fighter, Jorasco Cleric, and Thuranni Rogue. Use it at session zero when the table wants a mix of houses without inventing the reason from scratch, and give characters from rival houses a personal bond (old friends, a shared mission) so the rivalry stays in the story instead of the party.

Sharn and the Wider World

Eberron's places split into two kinds of material. Sharn, the City of Towers, is one city stacked into wards, each with its own crime and adventure hooks. Beyond it lie the ruins that give a Morgrave University expedition somewhere to go. Give your character one usable connection to a place; you don't need the whole map.

How Sharn Fits Together

Sharn divides into five quarters: Central Plateau, Dura, Menthis Plateau, Northedge, and Tavick's Landing. Each quarter has three levels (Upper, Middle, and Lower), and a quarter plus a level makes a ward, like Upper Dura or Lower Menthis. Four more areas sit outside that grid: Skyway, Cliffside, the Cogs, and the City of the Dead.

You don't need all nineteen areas before the first session. Pick the one your character is from or works in, learn its defining pressure, and treat the rest as places the campaign might visit later.

Central Plateau: Money, Politics, and the Watch

Central Plateau is Sharn's seat of wealth and government. Upper Central is patrolled so heavily that its crime leans toward elaborate heists: the Kundarak Bank's supposedly impenetrable Vaults and the Aurora Gallery magic item auction house attract brilliant schemers, often with inside help. The book also suggests a lower-profile job here, helping people in the lower wards push back against nobles and businesses that exploit them within the law. Middle Central holds Ambassador Towers' embassies, the King's Citadel, and the primary enclaves of the dragonmarked houses, so espionage and blackmail are its defining crimes; Dragon Towers is home to Thora Tavin and House Tarkanan. Lower Central is largely peaceful and draws nonconformists and artists, though the Broken Mirror gang and a radiant idol cult meeting in Boldrei's Hearth both operate there.

The City of the Dead and Cliffside

The City of the Dead is a necropolis in the cliffs north of Sharn, peaceful mostly because its residents are dead. Grave robbing rarely goes beyond pranks. The real threats are necromancers raising Undead, restless spirits cursing intruders, and Gath, the Lich-Priest of the Keeper, whose rites bring plague into the city. Cliffside is one of Sharn's most crime-riddled districts despite the Watch: a dockside neighborhood where sailors get robbed or kidnapped, and some captains ransom their own crews.

The Cogs: Everything Below the City

The Cogs is the name most residents give to everything beneath Sharn's towers: the industrial districts of Ashblack and Blackbones, the tenements of Khyber's Gate, the sewers, and the ruins of Old Sharn. The Watch keeps a presence around the water purification plants, but gangs run much of the rest. The Quiet Folk (thieving goblins) work the sewers below Tavick's Landing, the Red Jackals (shifters and orcs) hold ground below Menthis Plateau, and Daask keeps its headquarters in Khyber's Gate. Investigations here slide into dungeon delving: a mind flayer studying daelkyr relics in the Citadel of the Closed Circle, or a rakshasa tied to a corrupt archierophant of the Cathedral of the Cleansing Flame.

Dura: Xen'drik Gateway and Sharn's Underworld

Upper Dura is where Xen'drik-bound adventurers gather. It holds the Citadel of Light (a temple to Dol Arrah), a large Watch presence in Daggerwatch, the Brokenbridge Brawlers (Brelish veterans who harass Cyrans), and Sharn's largest kalashtar population in the Overlook district, a useful community for anyone working against the Dreaming Dark. Middle Dura centers on the Bazaar, Sharn's largest commercial district and its densest spot for petty crime, much of it controlled by the Boromar Clan through the Little Fingers gang. Lower Dura has decayed as the city rose: Daask and the Boromars clash there, a bugbear gang runs a protection racket, and House Tarkanan and the Tyrants hold ground in Callestan.

Menthis Plateau: University, Immigrants, and Nightlife

Upper Menthis is Morgrave University's ward; when artifacts go missing from its museums, it's hard to say whether to blame thieves or the faculty. Middle Menthis mixes immigrant communities, including Little Plains, the halfling neighborhood where the Boromar Clan was born and where most residents still call the family "hometown heroes." Lower Menthis is Sharn's cheap-entertainment ward, crowded day and night, and home to the Burning Ring, an illegal gladiatorial circuit with Daask ties that the city's gangs also use as cover for assassinations.

Northedge and Skyway: Sharn's Quiet Wealth

Northedge hides its crime behind respectability. Upper Northedge has little overt crime, so inquisitives find work digging up the buried scandals of the rich or following unfaithful spouses. Middle Northedge is a quiet residential ward whose closed doors might hide an embezzling factory overseer, a serial killer, or a Dragon Below cultist serving a hidden beholder. Lower Northedge is close-knit and lower in crime, which makes it hard for outside inquisitives to learn anything. Skyway floats above it all: burglaries there are rare enough to be notable, and some of the aristocrats' neighbors are crime lords who bought estates seized during the Last War.

Tavick's Landing: Sharn's Front Door

Tavick's Landing is where overland travelers arrive. Upper Tavick's Landing is openly hostile to disorder, yet House Deneith's Copper Arch enclave secretly serves the Dreaming Dark, and a family of Karrnathi vampires in Ocean View serves the Order of the Emerald Claw. Middle Tavick's Landing is a crossroads for traders, smugglers, and exiles, where Blood of Vol followers among Graywall's Karrnathi families aid Emerald Claw spies. Lower Tavick's Landing is the land entrance to the city: the Boromar Clan keeps smuggling warehouses in Cogsgate, the Tyrants operate from Dragoneyes, and the High Walls district houses Cyran refugees, some of whom have turned to Dragon Below worship or plot to restore their fallen nation.

Dangerous Destinations for Expedition Campaigns

A Morgrave expedition campaign sends characters to ruins across Eberron, and the book groups them into four destinations. Each carries its own tone, which makes the choice a quick way to set the feel of the campaign before the first expedition leaves Sharn.

Age of Demons Ruins

Ruins from the Age of Demons, when fiendish overlords ruled the world, are rare and wrapped in myth. The few that remain, mainly in the Demon Wastes and Q'barra, survived through their builders' fiendish magic or an archfiend overlord imprisoned beneath them. This is the supernatural horror option: relics here look evil and grotesque, and what characters learn about Eberron's oldest history can disturb them. The Lords of Dust are the natural antagonists.

Dhakaan

The Empire of Dhakaan, ruled by hobgoblin kings for thousands of years, was Khorvaire's first major empire. The Daelkyr War, when mind flayers, beholders, and other Aberrations poured out of Xoriat, destabilized it so badly that it collapsed even after the Gatekeeper druids drove the daelkyr back. Dhakaani ruins lie across Droaam, Breland, Zilargo, Darguun, Valenar, and the Mournland, and Droaam's sites may hold daelkyr flesh-warping secrets, Gatekeeper planar spells, or Dhakaani war magic. Expeditions lean toward heroic fantasy (traps, Construct guardians, subterranean monsters) with a horror option from daelkyr-descended creatures. Hobgoblins from Darguun who want to revive the empire treat these antiquities as theirs, which builds in a rival.

Khyber

Creation myths describe the dragon Eberron holding her sibling Khyber in her coils, and the depths that carry Khyber's name hold more than the Underdark: whole demiplanes, prisons for overlords and daelkyr, and sealed portals to those beings' home realms. Expeditions default to supernatural horror but can swerve into alien weirdness through the demiplanes. Most are prospecting trips for dragonshards, which power airships, Lyrandar galleons, and the lightning rail. House Tharashk increasingly brings Morgrave scholars along for their expertise, and the university takes a cut of the profits.

Xen'drik

Xen'drik is the core of Morgrave University's archaeological work and its reputation, good and bad. Founder Lord Lareth ir'Morgrave was among the first Khorvaire explorers to reach the continent's interior and find the ruins of its ancient giant civilization, and the university runs several expeditions there at any time. The continent seems to hide its secrets from outsiders, and Morgrave's scholars know better than anyone how to get around those barriers. Most expeditions sail about fifteen hundred miles from Sharn to Stormreach and continue on foot.

Factions of Eberron

Eberron runs on factions the way other settings run on nations. The dragonmarked houses control magic, trade, and information across Khorvaire, while Sharn and Morgrave University add gangs, spies, and ancient threats underneath.

Choose the Job Before the House

Name the role first, then let the house explain it. "I keep records for a family that vets every hire twice" says more than "I work for House Sivis." "I flew airship routes before the family recalled me" beats "I'm in House Lyrandar." Every house below has a default line of work; treat it as a job, not a life sentence.

The Thirteen Dragonmarked Houses (Eberron)

The book covers all thirteen houses, each tied to one of the twelve house marks. The table covers what each house does and why a character might work for it.

House Cannith: Three Barons, One Name

House Cannith lost its leaders and its headquarters when Cyre was destroyed, and it now works as three organizations. Zorlan d'Cannith runs Cannith East from Korth in Karrnath, specializing in siege weapons and experimenting with constructed undead. Merrix d'Cannith runs Cannith South from Sharn, which rumor says hides the last creation forge able to make warforged. Jorlanna d'Cannith leads Cannith West near Fairhaven in Aundair, pushing to unite the house under her banner while an affair with a Deneith heir some thirty years ago still dogs her reputation. A Cannith character almost always ends up on a side: which baron trained you, and what do they expect back?

House Kundarak: Trust as a Product

House Kundarak sells secrecy, so it treats every outside relationship with the same caution it gives its vaults. Lord Morrikan d'Kundarak keeps dealings with other houses and nations strictly professional; its only close ties are with House Sivis and the Gatekeeper druids. A Kundarak character fits a guard, an auditor, or a dwarven clan contact better than a house heir looking for adventure.

House Tharashk: One House, Three Families

House Tharashk is an alliance of three families ruled together by a Triumvirate from Zarash'ak in the Shadow Marches. The Torrn keep the traditions of the Gatekeeper druids, who guard the world against aberrations. The Aashta have old ties to Cults of the Dragon Below. The Velderan have no particular spiritual tradition and tend to cooperate. Most heirs only know the old conflict casually, but a character built around it gets an internal struggle without needing an outside villain.

House Phiarlan and House Thuranni: The Shadow Schism

About twenty years before the book's present, Baron Elar d'Thuranni ordered the murder of the entire Paelion line of House Phiarlan, claiming the Paelions planned to end the Last War, kill the leaders of the other houses, and rule Khorvaire. The book leaves the truth open: the plot might have been real, faked by the Order of the Emerald Claw, arranged by the dragons of the Chamber to fulfill prophecy, or planned by both barons together. That makes it a strong open question for a Phiarlan- or Thuranni-connected character to carry into a campaign. Both houses still share the Mark of Shadow and still wrap their work in performance.

Dragonmarked House Renown

The book tracks a character's standing with a house using the renown rules from the Dungeon Master's Guide. House Agent starts you at Renown 3, and a house heir background starts you at Renown 5. A Dragonmark feat taken after level 1 (other than Aberrant Dragonmark) adds 1 with its house, the matching greater mark adds 2, and Boon of Siberys (or another Epic Boon that represents a Siberys mark) adds 3. Acquiring any aberrant mark drops your Renown by 2 with each house once its leaders learn of it.

Four perk tiers unlock bigger favors and a better stipend:

Each house also has its own special favors, such as half-price magic items from Cannith, free inn stays from Ghallanda, or free vault storage from Kundarak. You can request favors up to your Renown Score, and if your score falls below the favors you've used, a senior house member may call one in and send you on a mission. Treat renown as a two-way relationship.

The house perks also tie into Bastions; the Bastions guide's Eberron section covers mobile Bastions and house-linked facilities.

Rival Houses and Internal Tensions (Eberron)

Rivalries among the houses shape who a character's family expects them to distrust. Cannith and Tharashk clash over political influence even though Cannith depends on Tharashk dragonshards. Cannith and Vadalis are philosophically opposed, since Cannith's machines threaten to replace magebred animals. Deneith and Medani compete for bodyguard contracts, and Deneith resents Tharashk recruiting Droaam's monsters as mercenaries. Lyrandar's airships threaten Orien's old travel monopoly. Medani and Tharashk run rival inquisitive guilds. Kundarak's secret assassins, the Ghorad'din, dog House Thuranni because Baron Morrikan refuses to believe the charges against his murdered friend Lord Tolar Paelion. Ghallanda quietly pulls strings on everyone. Inside the houses, Cannith's three barons compete, Sivis's twelve families feud, and Tharashk's clans pull in opposite directions. A character can carry any of these as an inherited grudge they don't fully agree with.

House Tarkanan: The Aberrant Outcasts (Eberron)

House Tarkanan isn't a real dragonmarked house. Thora Tavin founded it from survivors of a suicide squad of Brelish spies who carried aberrant dragonmarks, took the surname of Halas Tarkanan (an aberrant champion of the ancient War of the Mark), and shaped the group into a gang of thieves and assassins that mocks the real houses. Thora recently handed leadership to a mysterious figure called the Son of Khyber, who bears the strongest aberrant mark seen in modern times; some believe he's raising an aberrant army against the houses. Thora remains his second-in-command and the gang's public face.

A Tarkanan-connected character plays an outcast, not a criminal by default. Aberrant marks carry no house welcome, which gives a character a reason to have found community in a group most of Khorvaire fears. Most members just want to profit, and a former or reluctant tie works well as a past the character is trying to outrun. The Aberrant Heir background is the cleanest mechanical fit.

Sharn's Criminal Underworld (Eberron)

The Sharn inquisitives chapter builds its conflicts around three groups: two gangs at war over the city's underworld, and a hidden power already inside its institutions. The book notes you can swap in the Tyrants, House Tarkanan, the Aurum, or the Sharn Watch instead.

The Boromar Clan

The Boromar Clan began as a family of halfling immigrants from the Talenta Plains and is headquartered in Little Plains in Middle Menthis. Its reach runs into the city council, the Sharn Watch, House Jorasco, Skyway society, and shipping, along with extortion, gambling, smuggling, and theft. It bribes Watch officials, treats short-term schemes as steps toward keeping its grip on the city, and now has an urgent goal: wiping out Daask. A Boromar tie fits a reformed smuggler, a family member trying to leave, or an inquisitive who took Boromar money without asking questions.

Daask

Daask looks like a violent gang of muggers, extortionists, looters, cultists, and drug dealers, backed by harpies, medusas, minotaurs, ogres, and trolls. In truth it takes orders from Sora Katra, one of the three hags who rule Droaam, and its work in Sharn is a small part of a larger scheme whose purpose the DM chooses. Its immediate goal is breaking the Boromar Clan's hold on the underworld, and its trade in a dangerous new drug called dragon's blood is harming the city. A Daask connection works best as an investigation angle, such as someone who traced dragon's blood back to its source.

The Dreaming Dark

The Dreaming Dark is a metaphysical force trying to prolong an age of despair. Over a century ago it compromised House Deneith's enclave in Upper Tavick's Landing, and the Sharn Deneith now serve the Inspired (its psionic agents) without most of them realizing it; quori spirits have possessed fifteen members of the house. Its agents include council member Bestan ir'Tonn, who also has Boromar ties, and Warden Maira ir'Talan of the Watch. Its goals are sowing chaos between law enforcement and gangs, promoting its possessed Deneith champions, and undermining the kalashtar of Upper Dura. It's a faction a character discovers inside their trusted circle, often only after real time in Sharn.

Morgrave's Antagonists (Eberron)

A Morgrave expedition campaign draws opposition from rival explorers first and villains second. These two villains give the campaign clear opposition.

Order of the Emerald Claw

Led by the undead Lady Illmarrow and backed by undead soldiers, the Order of the Emerald Claw hunts powerful magic items, especially necromantic ones, and uses them to spread terror. Its methods range from military raids to espionage and assassination, and the book's sample arc plants an Emerald Claw spy on the Morgrave faculty. At high levels, the order chases the Mark of Death, and Illmarrow plans a ritual in Shae Mordai, the elven City of the Dead, that would destroy Aerenal and raise her to divinity.

Lords of Dust

The Lords of Dust are fiendish servants of the overlords who ruled during the Age of Demons, working to free them from their prisons in Khyber by bending events to match their reading of the Draconic Prophecy. Because dragonmarks seem tied to the Prophecy, many Lords of Dust collect or kill dragonmarked characters. This faction works best as a slow build: a demon that attacks only the marked character, or a strange job that must be done in one very specific way, before the stakes become clear.

Magic Items and Airships

The book's appendix adds nine magic items, and chapter 7 gives full rules for elemental airships. The items drop into any D&D 2024 game. The airship rules supplement the general vehicle rules in the D&D 2024 Mounts & Vehicles Guide.

The Nine Eberron Magic Items

Repeating Shot and Spell-Refueling Ring are the two build standouts. Repeating Shot lets a crossbow user skip both ammunition tracking and the Loading property without spending a feat, and Spell-Refueling Ring is an extra low-level slot every day for any caster who can spare an attunement slot.

Hot Take: Mind Sharpener is the best item in this appendix for most casters, and its Uncommon rarity undersells it. Losing Concentration is how a big spell ends early, and a ring that turns up to four failed saves into successes, then refills 1d4 charges each dawn, protects your strongest spell better than a Rare weapon improves your damage.

Elemental Airships: How They Actually Work

Elemental airships are the most advanced elemental vehicles in Khorvaire, first built only a few years ago by House Cannith's workshops, House Lyrandar's heirs, and Zilargo's elemental binders. An elemental spirit bound in a core carved from a Khyber dragonshard powers an arcane matrix across the whole ship, forming its glowing ring. The ring's look depends on the spirit: a fire elemental makes a ring of orange flame, and an air elemental makes a ring of lightning.

Only a pilot with the Mark of Storm can easily use the Helm, which is why House Lyrandar holds a monopoly on airship travel.

Crewing and Piloting

A standard crew is a captain, a pilot, and one or more crew members for the ship's other systems. Each crew station has its own AC and Hit Points. A station at 0 Hit Points becomes inoperable, and a Dispel Magic on a station shuts it down for 1 minute. Some stations require a specific dragonmark or give a bonus to a marked operator.

Every ship has a Helm (AC 15, HP 20) with two actions, Drive and Shift Engine, both of which require the Mark of Storm. Drive can also flip the ship on its axis, and anything unanchored falls unless a creature makes a DC 15 Dexterity save to grab hold. At the DM's discretion, a pilot without the mark can try either action with a DC 20 Intelligence (Arcana) or Charisma (Intimidation or Persuasion) check to command the elemental, wasting the action on a failure. Charm Monster on the spirit grants Advantage on those checks, and Dominate Monster makes them succeed automatically for the spell's duration.

Repairs and Crashes

An airship or a damaged station with at least 1 Hit Point can get emergency repairs: 1 hour of work, 100+ GP of spare parts, and a DC 16 Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) or Intelligence (Arcana) check with Carpenter's, Smith's, or Tinker's Tools. Success restores 2d4 + 2 Hit Points and uses up the parts; a failure can be retried with the same parts. After one emergency repair, the ship or station can't benefit again until the ship docks.

A crash deals Bludgeoning damage to both the ship and what it hits, based on the target's size: 2d10 for Medium or smaller, 4d10 for Large, 8d10 for Huge, and 16d10 for Gargantuan. Creatures aboard make a DC 10 Strength or Dexterity save or take that damage and fall Prone, taking half on a success. A creature in the ship's path makes a DC 15 Dexterity save to move clear and take no damage.

Suppressing the elemental core, whether by the pilot, an Antimagic Field, or Dispel Magic, drops the ship's Fly Speed to 5 feet (it can still hover) and shuts off station actions that need the core. The Helm still works.

The Three Named Airship Classes

The Air Cruiser is the largest and most iconic, ferrying the wealthy across the Five Nations, with six lightning turrets and a shield station. The Skyskiff is a compact ship for short trips and rescues, with a harpoon station that fleets of skiffs use to tow marooned ships to dock. The Strider is the independent merchant's, explorer's, and privateer's ship.

The Strider is the most practical party vehicle: big enough for a crew and cargo, small enough that a party can plausibly own one, and the book notes how heavily owners customize them, which gives your party a reason to make theirs its own.

Running an Eberron Campaign

Each of the book's three campaign models gives the party a shared employer and a set of conflicts. Pick one at session zero and build characters toward it.

Patrons: Inquisitive Agencies and Group Benefits

Inquisitive agencies (Sharn Inquisitives). In a noir Sharn campaign, an inquisitive agency acts as the party's patron and supplies missions and rewards. The Inquisitive background fits, along with Player's Handbook backgrounds like Charlatan, Criminal, Guard, and Wayfarer. The agency's level of the city sets the tone: Lower Sharn means poor clients and lawless streets, Middle Sharn means merchant rivalries and better pay, and Upper Sharn means secrets behind a respectable front. An agency can stay independent or affiliate with House Tharashk's Finders Guild (the best at finding lost people and things) or House Medani's Warning Guild (theft prevention and protection); guild inquisitives charge at least 2 GP per day plus expenses. Talk with your players early about tone, since noir tips into parody easily.

Group Patron Benefits (Morgrave Expeditions). When Morgrave University is the party's patron, the book gives three benefits. Group Assistance lets each party member grant Advantage on another member's D20 Test once per Long Rest, as long as they can see or hear each other and neither is Incapacitated. Compensation is 1 GP per day each (a Modest lifestyle) or a bounty of at least 250 GP for each relic handed to the university. Documentation provides identification papers, travel papers, and, for Xen'drik, Brelish letters of marque. The Archaeologist background fits, along with Guide, Sage, and Scribe.

Dragonmarked Intrigue. In a house campaign, the patron is the house itself, and Dragonmarked House Renown does the work of rewards.

None of these requires a Dragonmark feat. A group patron is a separate way to tie a party together with a shared employer instead of shared blood.

Faction Relationships Are Starting Conditions

The book gives each group default alliances, rivalries, and grudges. Treat them as pressure the DM can use, not a script. A Kundarak character and a Thuranni character can trust each other while their houses stay enemies, and a former Boromar smuggler and a Watch officer can work the same case for different reasons.

Make a Faction Tie Work at Session Zero

Write three short answers:

1. What did I do for or with this faction? A trade, training, a debt, or a family obligation all work.
2. Who knows me? Name one contact, even if the DM fills in the details later.
3. Why does the party come first? Say why you'll share information and take risks for the group instead of protecting the house's or gang's interests.

For example: "I audited shipments for House Kundarak until I found a fellow auditor skimming from a client's vault. The house quietly reassigned me rather than face the scandal. I stick with the party because they were the first people who believed me." That's enough setting detail for session zero.

Related Guides

• Artificer Class Guide
• Artificer Spell Guide
• Best Feats for Artificer
• Dragonmark Feats Guide
• D&D 2024 Epic Boons Guide
• D&D 2024 Species Guides
• D&D 2024 Backgrounds
• D&D 2024 Class Guides
• D&D 2024 Feat Guides
• Mobile Bastions and house-linked facilities
• D&D 2024 Mounts & Vehicles Guide
• Forgotten Realms for D&D 2024