D&D: The New ‘Unearthed Arcana’ Dragonmark Feats are the Perfect Reason to Play in Eberron

Dragonmarks are one of the iconic parts of Eberron. And the new Unearthed Arcana versions are potent boosts—for the most part.

While the Artificer is front and center of the new Eberron Unearthed Arcana, it’s not the only big thing to go out for a spin. Because Eberron is a world of artifice—though not everyone is an artificer. One big part of the lore are the Dragonmarked houses. Dragonmarks are said to be tied to the great draconic prophecies. And everyone who bears a dragonmark has magical power.

In Eberron’s initial incarnation, this helped to explain how there were so many magic items. Magewrights could make +1 swords without everyone needing to be a wizard to make your economy function. And the revisited dragonmark feats are a nod to the magic that’s ever present in any D&D world. It is a monumental effort to make a low-magic setting in D&D these days. You’d have to cut out so much.

Fortunately, Eberron is a high-magic world. The whole world is, in fact, the body of one massive dragon—Eberron. The other two progenitor dragons, Khyber and Siberys, became the underworld and heavens above. So, you know, already working with fun stuff here.

All of that is background though, to explain why these feats are such a potent option for player characters. The dragonmark feats represent a somewhat more increased power level than some of the other Origin feats. Especially for spellcasters.

Eberron Unearthed Arcana: Dragonmark Feats and Campaign Specificity

There are twenty-eight feats altogether. Each one is tied to one of the Dragonmarks of Eberron. By and large, these feats are even more of a boost than something like Magic Initiate, which gives you two Cantrips and a Level 1 spell that you can swap around.

But each of these feats comes with a special prerequisite: Eberron Campaign. Meaning they’re meant to be in Eberron specifically. Now, you might be thinking “well that doesn’t sound fair, I don’t want to have to play Eberron to have a dragonmark feat” especially after you read through some of the feats. But it sort of highlights one of the problems of D&D having so many settings—WotC has to try and put up guardrails, especially now that they’re more focused on character mechanics in 5.5E.

Rules as written, you can’t play with these unless you’re also playing in Eberron. But, you know, every game if D&D is different. You’d be well within your rights as a DM or a Player to ask if you could make use of these. And why not? They’re fun! They add a lot of flavor to a campaign—especially for Eberron.

But at the same time, it might feel weird to someone to take one of them outside of Eberron. After all, the Dragonmark Feats aren’t just extra abilities for your characters, they’re a part of the world. They’re a manifestation of the draconic prophecy we mentioned earlier. But that’s the neat thing about D&D—you can just do whatever you want. Every table ends up being homebrewed (at least a little) once the game gets going, otherwise you’re not really playing D&D. But that’s the whole point of it. Your imagination is the only limit. And you can do what you want. That’s any TTRPG game working as intended.

But What Do They Actually Do?

What do the Dragonmark Feats actually do, though? There are 12 main Dragonmark Feats plus the Aberrant Dragonmark Feat. They all exist under the category “Dragonmark Feat” and by and large, each follows this general shape:

• Add 1d4 to a set of specific ability checks (Aberrant is different)
• Gain two Level 1 spells that you can cast without a spell slot once per long rest, and they’re always prepared,
• Gain an upgrade at level 3 that adds a level 2 spell
• If you’re a spellcaster, gain a handful of bonus spells that are added to your spell list (you still have to pick them, though)

So, you know, a pretty big boost. Especially since the Dragonmark Feats can give spellcasters capabilities they otherwise wouldn’t have. Are you playing a Wizard or a Sorcerer? For the equivalent of an Origin Feat you can add Cure Wounds, Healing Word, Aura of Vitality and other potent heal spells with the Mark of Healing Dragonmark Feat. That’s a handy way to give yourself increased flexibility.

There are twelve Dragonmarked Houses that follow this pattern with some minor changes. One gives you a cantrip and two 1st level spells and doesn’t upgrade at 3rd level, which seems pretty meh—especially since the spells are Unseen Servant (good) and Purify Food and Drink (when was the last time you ever cast this spell in a campaign?).

Compare that to the Mark of Passage who just gets to cast Misty Step AND have a Speed increase of 5 feet, and get to add 1d4 to Athletics and Acrobatics. Not all Dragonmark Feats are equal is what I’m trying to say.

Aberrant Dragonmark is even more different. It gives you +1d4 to Constitution Saves up to your Proficiency Bonus times per day, it only gives you one level 1 spell and a single Cantrip from the Sorcerer list—but you get to pick. You also can surge with Aberrant power, gaining hit points or damaging enemies when you cast the spell.

Dragonmark Feat Upgrades

Of course, that’s just part of it. At 4th level, there are new Dragonmark Feats that fall under the General category. Each one represents a Greater Mark. You’d have the Greater Mark of Scribing Dragonmark Feat, or the Greater Aberrant Mark, for instance. You have to have the feat it references to take it, obviously, and be level 4+.

Each Greater Dragonmark follows a similar shape as its prerequisite:

• Increase an ability score by 1
• Upgrade the 1d4 bonus to a 1d6 bonus to certain checks
• Modify a spell to be a little more potent

This last one is where the Greater Marks get real interesting. For instance, the Greater Mark of Sentinel lets you modify a Shield spell so that when you cast it, you can magically mark a creature within 30 feet of you—if they try to move away from you, they have to spend 2 feet of movement to move 1 foot away from you. And you can do that any time you cast Shield.

Other modifications are even more potent. The Greater Mark of Shadow lets you include one other ally when you cast Invisibility. But you can only do that once per day.

This is also where we get the Potent Dragonmark Feat which lets you focus even more on your Dragonmark as part of your identity. You add your list of spells to your always prepared list, you can increase an ability score by 1, and you gain a bonus spell slot (equal to one half your level with a maximum of 5) that you can use once per Short or Long Rest to cast a spell from your Dragonmark Feat. Which is pretty great, especially since you don’t have to be a Spellcaster to take any of these feats.

Dragonmark Feats – Epic Boons and Final Thoughts

There’s also a new Epic Boon, the Boon of Siberys, which only requires an Eberron Campaign. It’s not a Dragonmark Feat. You just get to increase an ability score by 1, and then you gain either a spell of any level from the Sorcerer list, or you can pick from the Siberys Dragonmark table. You can cast that spell once per Short or Long Rest without a spell slot. Which is extremely powerful if we’re talking about Wish or the like.

All in all, these are some potent feats. But they hammer home the magical nature of Eberron. I recommend checking them out for yourself, and letting WotC know what you think once the feedback survey goes live tomorrow. You can find both the survey and the playtest documents at the link below.

Sign! me up for one of those Dragonmarks!

Bell of Lost Souls Staff Writer and DM, J.R. covers RPGs of all stripes and on occasion eats sandwiches. You can ask him about either at [email protected]

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