Children of the Forge
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Warforged Guide
By Darkgolem
Warforged are the most unique race of Eberron, and have interesting and
powerful abilities which make them very fun to play. However,
with their unique abilities come different limitations which players
who wish to play warforged should be aware of, so that when they
plan their character, they have a good idea of what works and what
doesn't in character design.
History:
href="http://ddo.tentonhammer.com/modules.php?full=1&set_albumName=album67&id=Undead_Slayer_3&op=modload&name=Gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php">
alt="Warforged in Battle"
src="http://ddo.tentonhammer.com/files/gallery/albums/album67/Undead_Slayer_3.jpg"
style="border: 2px solid ; width: 250px; height: 188px;" align="left">The
Last War occurred in the Eberron setting before the time that the
Dungeons and Dragons Online (DDO) is set. During the Last War,
House Cannith created a group of construct soldiers who were then sold
to any side in the war that wished it. As House Cannith produced
more sophisticated "warforged" soldiers, they eventually created self
aware beings. While these beings were alive, subject to spells
such as raise dead and so on, they were not made of flesh, instead
being a composite of metal, flesh and stone. They did not appear
to have souls (since they did not "go" to any reward when they died),
but other qualities about their status in the spiritual world is
unclear.
At the end of the Last War, the leading monarch in the Treaty of
Thronehold (as it was called) caused Warforged to be considered free
and self willed, released from the control of the signatories of the
treaty, and had the creation forges of House Cannith destroyed (though
rumors persist that forges exist, found here or there throughout
Eberron). Since Warforged had no society to develop in, they
eventually reacted in a myriad of ways to their freedom. Some
continued to work as indentured servants for their former
masters. Some went their own ways in warlike and non warlike
professions. Some rejected the entire societies of Eberron, and
now can be found in a wasteland, worshiping a warforged deity who's
body they are creating, and led by a warforged known as "the Lord of
Blades" who, it appears from DDO's approach to the lord of the blades,
has or is attaining deityhood (since
they get benefits from worshiping him).
Warforged Nature:
href="http://ddo.tentonhammer.com/modules.php?full=1&set_albumName=album67&id=Unead_Slayer_2&op=modload&name=Gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php">
alt="Warforged Fighting"
src="http://ddo.tentonhammer.com/files/gallery/albums/album67/Unead_Slayer_2.jpg"
style="border: 2px solid ; width: 250px; height: 188px;" align="right">Warforged
do not sleep or eat. In the pen and paper Eberron setting, they
do not breathe, but in DDO they can drown (it takes a long, long
time). They are immune to poison, disease and energy drain (but
not ability damage, such as wraith con damage). Warforged are
also immune to sleep, paralysis, exhaustion, fatigue. Warforged have no
society, and as such, have a difficult time relating to others, and are
often gullible or lacking in understanding of things one normally would
learn in one's parent society. As such they have a +2
Constitution bonus (due to their hardy bodies) and a -2 penalty to
Charisma and Wisdom.
In pen and paper rules, warforged are not healed by clerical magic, but
instead, by arcane repair magic. In DDO, warforged receive a 50%
penalty to the effect of healing magic upon them (but not paladin lay
on hands), but are healing by repair magic (cast by arcane
casters). This penalty can be affected by enhancements
however. Warforged cannot wear armor, including robes, but can
use sheilds. However, they can wear clothing such as boots,
goggles,
gloves and so on. There is a unique item that takes the armor
slot for Warforged, called "Docents" which are magical orbs or similar
items that can be inserted into a warforged's body to grant magical
qualities to a warforged. These no only change the appearance of
the warforged slightly, they also provide enhancement bonuses
(enhancement
bonuses such as found on armor), and other qualities.
Basically in game terms they are warforged only armors that have no
armor bonus, that except the "no armor" rule for warforged.
Warforged can choose to take armor types that grant improvements to
their bodies via natural damage reduction, by choosing specific
feats. The base "composite armor" body warforged receive without
choosing any feats provides a +2 armor class bonus, light fortification
(25% chance to ignore sneak attacks and critical hits) and 5% spell
failure chance, and counts as light armor. Warforged do not bleed
to death when at -1 through -10 hit points.
Warforged Professions:
Warforged have benefits and penalties for any class. In general,
warforged make any class more fit for surviving and acting in
combat. However, that quality doesn't always fit well with a
class, and the interactions between the benefits a warforged gets and
class abilities are not always obvious.
Name
of being Warforged
of being warforged
poison, disease and energy drain, built in damage reduction, warforged
enhancements are geared toward melee abilities, Constitution is primary
statistic
types of docents (since most don't use them), wisdom is a penalty (so
penalty to will saves), healing is weaker without using enhancements to
heal self, must take enhancements for armor class bonuses (rather than
wear armor). Cannot have Dragonmarks. Must use feats for
heavier armor types upon creation.
to "person" spells, poison, disease and energy drain, built in damage
reduction, warforged enhancements are geared toward melee abilities,
Constitution is primary statistic. Not affected by barbarian
exhaustion
in finding specific types of docents (since most don't use
them), wisdom is a penalty (so penalty to will saves), healing is
weaker without using enhancements to heal self, must take enhancements
for armor class bonuses (rather than wear armor). Damage
reduction of Warforged body does not stack with Barbarian damage
reduction. Cannot have Dragonmarks. Must use feat at
creation for armor types heavier than light.
poison, disease and energy drain, built
in damage reduction, warforged enhancements are geared toward melee
abilities, Constitution is primary statistic.
types of docents (since most don't use
them), wisdom is a penalty (so penalty to will saves and ranger
spells), healing is
weaker without using enhancements to heal self, must take enhancements
for armor class bonuses (rather than wear armor). Cannot have
Dragonmarks. Charisma penalty hurt's ranger empathy
ability. Must use feats at creation for armor types heavier than
light.
to "person" spells, poison, disease and energy drain, built
in damage reduction, warforged enhancements are geared toward melee
abilities, Constitution is primary statistic. Unique Warforged
Only faith based enhancements are available
in finding specific types of docents (since most don't use
them), wisdom is a penalty (so penalty to will saves and paladin
spells), healing is
weaker without using enhancements to heal self, must take enhancements
for armor class bonuses (rather than wear armor). Cannot have
Dragonmarks. Charisma penalty hurts paladin abilities. Must
use feats for heavier armor types than light upon creation.
poison, disease and energy drain, built
in damage reduction.
types of docents (since most don't use
them), wisdom is a penalty (so penalty to will saves), healing is
weaker without using enhancements to heal self, must take enhancements
for armor class bonuses (rather than wear armor). Cannot have
Dragonmarks. Wisdom and Charisma penalty hurts skill based upon
these ability scores. Since rogue abilities often avoid poison,
disease and other affects, there is an overlap of abilities between
class/race choice. Must use feats upon creation for heavier armor
types than light.
to "person" spells, poison, disease and energy drain, built
in damage reduction. Unique faith based enhancements available to
warforged clerics and paladins.
in finding specific types of docents (since most don't use
them), wisdom is a penalty (so penalty to will saves), healing is
weaker without using enhancements to heal self, must take enhancements
for armor class bonuses (rather than wear armor). Cannot have
Dragonmarks. Wisdom and Charisma penalty hurts skill based upon
these
ability scores, and clerical spell and turning abilities. Since
clerical spells can heal the things a warforged is immune to, class and
race abilities can be reduntant. Warforged enhancements are
geared toward melee not clerical abilties. Must use feats upon
creation for armor types heavier than light.
poison, disease and energy drain, built
in damage reduction. Can self heal using repair spells.
Docents can provide enhancement bonuses to armor class without arcane
casting penalties.
types of docents (since most don't use
them), Healing is
weaker without using enhancements to heal self. Cannot have
Dragonmarks. Warforged enhancements are geared
toward melee not arcane abilties. Composite body provides a 5%
spell failure penalty.
to "person" spells, poison, disease and energy drain, built
in damage reduction. Can self heal using repair spells.
Docents can
provide enhancement bonuses to armor class without arcane casting
penalties.
in finding specific types of docents (since most don't use
them), Healing is
weaker without using enhancements to heal self. Cannot have
Dragonmarks. Warforged enhancements are geared
toward melee not arcane abilties. Charisma penalty toward primary
sorcerer ability score. Composite body provides a 5% spell
failure penalty.
poison, disease and energy drain, built
in damage reduction. Can self heal using repair spells.
Docents can
provide enhancement bonuses to armor class without arcane casting
penalties.
types of docents (since most don't use
them), Healing is
weaker without using enhancements to heal self. Cannot have
Dragonmarks. Warforged enhancements are geared
toward melee not arcane abilties. Charisma penalty toward primary
sorcerer ability score. Must use feats upon creation for armor
types heavier than light, and further feats to make those armors light
type.
href="http://ddo.tentonhammer.com/modules.php?full=1&set_albumName=album58&id=Von2_Fire_Giant&op=modload&name=Gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php">
alt="Warforged Faces Down Giant"
src="http://ddo.tentonhammer.com/files/gallery/albums/album58/Von2_Fire_Giant.jpg"
style="border: 2px solid ; width: 250px; height: 188px;" align="right">Note
that warforged benefits and detractions weigh differently from class to
class. For example, it would appear that the charisma and wisdom
penalties a warforged paladin would get would make that class/race
choice a bad idea. But remember that the benefit of a paladin's
charisma is fairly good, even with a midling ability score, and the
benefit of damage reduction is worth the exchange for this loss.
On the other hand, a warforged barbarian's loss of the "post rage"
enhaustion ability is nice, but since the damage reduction of the class
and race does not stack, and barbarians usually make saves against the
things warforged are immune to, many of the presumed benefits of a
warforged barbarian choice are quite negligible, especially
considering their penalty to healing magic's effectiveness toward
them. In that case, the immunity to "person" spells such as hold
person and dominate person is very useful, however. Very
careful choice of enhancements and feats can do wonder's in mitigating
the problems warforged class choices have.
Warforged Feats:
Warforged have unique feats that are available only to their
race. Many of these must be picked at creation, and the need for
these feats for one build can mitigate that builds usefulness.
Note that enhancements that affect armor type also the "armor"
warforged feats below.
Name
Qualities
armor, grants a +8 armor bonus and
damage reduction 2/adamantine, but also provides a 35% arcane spell
failure chance, -5 armor check penalty to certain skills, and a +1
maximum Dex bonus. Must be taken upon character creation.
Body
body counts as light armor and grants a +5 armor bonus, but
also provides a 15% arcane spell failure chance, -2 armor check penalty
to certain skills, and a +5 maximum Dex bonus. Must be taken upon
character creation
is increased by 1, and the armor check penalties are decreased by 1.
Fortification
your warforged fortification, granting you immunity to sneak
attacks and extra damage from critical hits. However, you lose the
ability to be healed by spells from the healing subschool, such as cure
light wounds. You must have a base attack bonus of +6 before taking
this ability.
1/adamantine, or improve your existing damage reduction by
1/adamantine. This can be taken multiple times.
Warforged Enhancements:
Warforged Enhancements are too numerous to list here. However,
they can be found
href="http://ddo.tentonhammer.com/index.php?module=ContentExpress&func=display&ceid=453">here.
Of note, there are certain enhancements that provide great benefits in
mitigating some of the issues warforged face. Warforged inscribed
armor can mitigate spell casting failure, and there are docents
available which assist in this. Warforged receive a constitution
bonus as an enhancement, which is useful for any class. They also
receive a damage reduction enhancement, theoretically a warforged can
attain a damage reduction of 9/adamantine by taking multiple improved
damage reduction feats as character feats, and taking these
enhancements along with adamantine body. Finally, warforged
healer's friend enhancements can mitigate the penalty a warforged has
with healing spells, reducing the healing spell penalty to only 25%.
In Parting: Warforged Builds
Some warforged builds are available for ideas on how various warforged
might be developed. Note that these can be used "as is" or as
ways to generate your own, unique, build which you might choose.
href="http://ddo.tentonhammer.com/index.php?module=ContentExpress&func=display&ceid=470">The
Undead Slayer: A warforged paladin/fighter dedicated to the
destruction of undead.
href="http://ddo.tentonhammer.com/index.php?module=ContentExpress&func=display&ceid=508">The
Bladesworn Knight: A warforged paladin/fighter dedicated to the
service of the lord of blades.
Does this guide work like clockwork? Does it fail to construct a
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