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LibraryOgre
2009-11-17, 12:39 PM
So, we're playing a non-Eberron game, and my Warforged is, apparently, the only one active in the world. They're not completely unknown (scholars have recognized me for what I am), but they're an old technology and no one knows how to make them anymore.

Optimus, in his Far Realm-addled madness, wants to correct this. He wants to make more Warforged and warforged-like creatures. He's knowledgeable in Arcana, and is allied with an Artificier who is also interested in the project. Both are currently 11th level... this is a goal, not an action item.

What would you require for a warforged and an artificer to start making more Warforged? At what level would you start allowing them to have successes (either preliminary designs or things like iron defenders and other non-sentient living constructs)?

Kurald Galain
2009-11-17, 12:50 PM
What would you require for a warforged and an artificer to start making more Warforged?
I suppose you could MC into wizard, take a summon spell, and say that instead of a Fire Warrior, it summons a Fire Warforged. Starting from level 10 (the earliest where you can powerswap dailies) you'd have your pick of warforged that last until the end of the encounter.

dsmiles
2009-11-17, 12:57 PM
I disbelieve the entire concept of warforged. I very much dislike constructs as characters, even "living constructs."

Tiki Snakes
2009-11-17, 12:58 PM
So, we're playing a non-Eberron game, and my Warforged is, apparently, the only one active in the world. They're not completely unknown (scholars have recognized me for what I am), but they're an old technology and no one knows how to make them anymore.

Optimus, in his Far Realm-addled madness, wants to correct this. He wants to make more Warforged and warforged-like creatures. He's knowledgeable in Arcana, and is allied with an Artificier who is also interested in the project. Both are currently 11th level... this is a goal, not an action item.

What would you require for a warforged and an artificer to start making more Warforged? At what level would you start allowing them to have successes (either preliminary designs or things like iron defenders and other non-sentient living constructs)?

MY instinct on this, especially with the two of you working on it, is that it should be perfectly possible.

My first thought would be, you should be having preliminary success as you move through the paragon tier, maybe finally creating the first new Warforged in the latter parts of it. Rudimentary, but good enough to call a true war-forged.
As you moved into epic, you'd refine the designs and get them really working, (probably this could include a home-brewed Epic Destiny, but could work fine without as long as a decent amount of rp effort is put in.)

For comparison, there is the Artificer 'Self Forged' Paragon Path. They start grafting bits onto themselves, and by level 16 essentially count as a warforged for the purposes of using those warforged built-in-items.

I'd say by mid to late paragon, you'd be seeing rudimentary iron-defenders and other non-sentient versions. Early Paragon you'd have some basic plans, and late paragon, roughly, is when you'd see your Prototype begin construction.

Of course, your DM likely has his own opinions on the issue, but I feel the concept of limited but exceptional acheivments is a paragon thing, and impossible acts of sheer awesome is practically manditory for Epic Tier. :)



[edit] Of course, I could see arguments for earlier success, especially depending on the nature of the campaign. If things start getting militaristic or strongholds start coming up in discussion, I could see that bumping down half a tier, personally, with you finishing Paragon with a small army of True Warforged, and Epic tier having time and space to detail your rise to Mythic Robot Lord, or so on.

Mando Knight
2009-11-17, 01:09 PM
What would you require for a warforged and an artificer to start making more Warforged? At what level would you start allowing them to have successes (either preliminary designs or things like iron defenders and other non-sentient living constructs)?

I would start with rituals, based off of Undead Servitor and Enchant Magic Item for creation. Probably Arcana, with a possibility of adding Nature for the living components.

The big problem is creating the soul. For this purpose, I'd throw in a Philosopher's Stone as a required material focus.

Making the first one would be a quest ending in a ritual. Making more would probably be a quest involving getting enough components for the rest. Making a sufficiently large group of them to count as a race would probably be part of the Epic Destiny.

Indon
2009-11-17, 01:10 PM
What would you require for a warforged and an artificer to start making more Warforged? At what level would you start allowing them to have successes (either preliminary designs or things like iron defenders and other non-sentient living constructs)?

Plenty of residiium and some quests for rareified components.

I'd allow for nonsentient constructs at mid-Paragon, when other PCs would be bringing in fancy mounts, and for honest successes starting in the Epic tier.

In fact, "Warforged Progenitor" sounds like a pretty sweet epic destiny.

Edit: At level 30, you are forever immortalized in the racial memory of the people you have created. A title is appended to your name: "Prime".

LibraryOgre
2009-11-17, 01:27 PM
Actually, I'm planning on going the Demigod route. This world needs a Lord of Blades. ;-)

However, to Kurald: I'd multi into wizard (or artificer), but my guy just isn't smart enough. He's a beatstick cleric, currently dedicated to Erathis.

And Indon? My character is already known as Optimus Prime. But... yeah. I'm kinda going there. ;-)

Thanks, all.

chiasaur11
2009-11-17, 01:54 PM
Sounds more like Primus, really.

Hal
2009-11-17, 04:46 PM
If I were a DM, I'd be likely to put a twist on this. I'd let you learn how to craft the body, though it might require the artificer tinkering with your innards more than you might find comfortable.

However, I think the whole "crafting" of the soul part would likely be one of those, "Comes with a terrible price" things. I'm not familiar with the lore of Eberron in that regard, but if it's been forgotten how they're made, well, then I'd probably go hogwild.

Perhaps the creators of Warforged must give up a piece of their own soul to imbue one within their creations. The resulting process can leave the creator scarred. Or perhaps you can't create a soul, and the soul must actually come from an intelligent creature. Perhaps the process of transfer wipes all memory and personality from the warforged, so they essentially enter in as a "tabula rasa." Thus, it could be the last act of a penitent creator (wipe yourself of who you were and transfer yourself into a warforged to get a fresh start) or an act of despicable evil (strip people of their very essences in order to create an army of followers who don't know any better).

Like I said, that's if I were your DM. You might want to get his thoughts on the matter first.

LibraryOgre
2009-11-17, 04:58 PM
Thanks, Hal. My DM is Hzurr, who's a frequenter of the board. I started this conversation largely because I knew he'd be looking on.

Over lunch, I was thinking about the soul question, and there, I think, we have a slight advantage: I'm a cleric, meaning I've got access to a degree of "soular" power.

Hzurr
2009-11-17, 05:35 PM
Over lunch, I was thinking about the soul question, and there, I think, we have a slight advantage: I'm a cleric, meaning I've got access to a degree of "soular" power.

*Ducks in*

*facepalms at the pun*

I like the idea of creating progressively more and more powerful constructs, and eventually learning how to imbibe them with a soul. This could lead to an adventure hook after we finish the current adventure. We'll sit down at some point and brainstorm some ideas.

What Hal said is interesting. Since Warforged are both sentient, and have souls, this brings up a good question about where they get them. This brings up a number of interesting possibilities; because (as far as I know), aside from the gods the only other group in the d&d world who knows about collecting souls are devils. Which could lead to all sorts of fun high-paragon and epic level adventures...

LibraryOgre
2009-11-17, 05:48 PM
*Ducks in*

*facepalms at the pun*

I like the idea of creating progressively more and more powerful constructs, and eventually learning how to imbibe them with a soul. This could lead to an adventure hook after we finish the current adventure. We'll sit down at some point and brainstorm some ideas.

What Hal said is interesting. Since Warforged are both sentient, and have souls, this brings up a good question about where they get them. This brings up a number of interesting possibilities; because (as far as I know), aside from the gods the only other group in the d&d world who knows about collecting souls are devils. Which could lead to all sorts of fun high-paragon and epic level adventures...

Actually, I was gonna point out that the Tear of Ioun is supposed to be an artifact of incredible power and antiquity, granting great knowledge to those who can use it. Do ya' think I can take the wizard?

Randel
2009-11-17, 07:27 PM
I think if you are looking to create warforged then it would make sense to go through the steps leading up to their creation.. ie building the various magiteck components and prototypes needed to lead up to true warforged.

1. know the create magic item ritual and make one or two items to show you can make them.

2. cast the Raise Dead ritual at least once so you know the components needed for a lifing creatuer.

3. The undead servitor or unseen servant rituals if there are any, possibly also the eye sensor rituals.

4. Create an intelligent item (or a series of them to form the prototypes for the warforged mind).

5. Craft some constructs, either the various magic items that summon creatures to fight for you or an actual golem if there are rules for them.

6. Create a prot-forged, probably a wooden golem (sort of like pinochio) who is the prototype for later versions. You might get a few succesivly better warforged prototypes (like the frankensteins monster or whatever other proto creation you want).

7. After you get the bugs worked out of those first ones then you can finish your warforged. You might have your artificer do some research in making warforged components to let your creations use them (make some weapons for Optimus and see how they integrate into his body and stuff.)

Note that as with any scientific advancement, the more people and resources you have working on it the better off it generally will be. If you can use your prototypes to make some cool gizmos like mechanical horses or tireless guards then you can get people interested in investing time and resources into it. Say that for every 'toy' you guys make and impress an invester in then it decreases the level that you'll need to be at to make warforged.

The House Cannith guys were able to whip up warforged despite all being level 5 or so because they had a HUGE magic item industry and resource network to back them up.


A few ideas:

1.The Arcane Computer - Imagine HEX from Discworld, basically a huge magitec brain/computer used to research spells and perform calculations for stuff. Build one of those and he could help with all sorts of stuff like targeting scrying spells or decreasing the cost of certain rituals (a ritual that was normally using the skull of a crocodile, a litre of virgins blood, and only works in the full moon could be done instead using a lantern full of virgin olive oil, a silk screen, and thee 10cm long reed sticks).

Build one of these guys and start selling them to get the funds and interest in magical AI to further your warforged research.

2. The Clockwork Guard - not necessarily clockwork, but a simple semi-intelligent golem whose main purpose is to guard areas where human guards might be bribed (I recall hearing about some sort of 'mechanical eunuch' being used to watch over a sultans harem) and whose loyalty is exclusive to their owner. They have some fighting skills but their main feature is never needing rest, being able to recognize intruders, and sounding the alarm to the human guards.

3. The Mechanical Miners - Despite what dwarves tell you, mining is a dangerous occupation. By building constructs who can withstand the dangers of a mine (and who don't have to worry about poison gas, or breating... if the tunnel collapses then they can just stay there under the rubble until someone excavates them). One Mechanical Miner can keep working nonstop with only occasional need for maintenance. Make a few for human mine owners who don't want to submit to dwarven workers demanding ale and belitteling their ingenuity.

The plot of The Protomen rock-opera involved a mining town where the miners occasionally died in the dangerous working conditions. Dr. Light and Wily invented robots who could work the mines instead of people. Wily hijacks the project and makes himself rich and in control of the city, with robots doing all the dangerous or unwanted jobs for people, the city goes into a golden age of prosperity until Wily just declars himself the ruler and sends out an army of robot guards to keep everyone in line.

4. The Sacred Grove - The construction of warforged requires specific materials to make them as adaptable as they are. Livewood is a magical wood that stays alive even after harvested. You manage to find a grove of them but someone else is using it for their purposes (or its just full of monsters). To make true living constructs you need to grow and harvest this wood to make them. This wood is also ideal in making a variety of constructs, so others might want to use it to make traditional constructs instead of warforged.

This is inspired by the Wooden Soldiers used by the Empire in the Fables series.

NeoVid
2009-11-17, 11:45 PM
You know, there's no reason for your characters to have to make everything from scratch. If warforged existed in the past of the setting, then the ancient warforged creation forges must still be around in some ruins somewhere.

And you know how you find things in old ruins?

Adventuring.

Anyway, I'd like to hear how this turns out. There are stories you can tell with warforged that you just can't with any other race.

Asbestos
2009-11-17, 11:53 PM
Btw, since this is 4e I thought I'd point out this little piece of mechanical strangeness unique to Warforged.

In 4e a Warforged that has exhausted its healing surges and drops to negative HP, without dropping below its bloodied value, will never 'die' unless it suffers enough damage to push it below its bloodied value. Also, it will never 'wake up' until it receives some amount of healing. Since healing HP per day with rest is gone and Warforged do not need to eat, drink, breathe, or age it is entirely possible that some of the original Warforged still exist in some sort of pseudo-hibernation. According to the mechanics at least, but I still think it could make for an interesting scenario.

LibraryOgre
2009-11-18, 12:47 AM
I'm not so sure about that, Asbestos. After 4 hours of not doing anything, doesn't the warforged essentially say "Gee, that was a nice extended rest. It's great to be all healed and stuff"?

Randel
2009-11-18, 01:27 AM
I'm not so sure about that, Asbestos. After 4 hours of not doing anything, doesn't the warforged essentially say "Gee, that was a nice extended rest. It's great to be all healed and stuff"?

Yeah, I think that a warforged could easily decide to take an extended rest and then pop back up. I think that would be one of the biggest advantages of a living construct soldier (or at least a major selling point) that a wound that would kill a normal human and at the very least disables the warforged doesn't kill it. In a big warforged battle, there could be countless warforged strewn about the battlefield that after four hours just get back up after their rest.

Warforged are the soldiers that do not die... well at least not easily. You'd pretty much have to hack their heads off to be certain.

That doesn't prevent them from getting buried alive however. If a tunnel caves in and traps them under the dirt, or if they are disabled in battle and someone digs a mass grave to bury them all under tons of dirt then it would be next to impossible for them to escape. As long as they can't get the leverage to move their arms, they can't escape and are basically trapped forever until someone rescues them.

Farmer: Oh, I've diggin in my dirt farm, all the live long day...

???: one billion nine hundred and thirty seven million six hundred and seventy five thousand two hundred and nineteen, one billion nine hundred and thirty seven million six hundred and seventy five thousand two hundred and twenty, one billion nine hundred and thirty seven million six hundred and seventy five thousand two hundred and twenty one, one billion nine hundred and thirty seven million six hundred and seventy five thousand two hundred and twenty two...

Farmer: Say... whats that voice under the ground? *digs up the warforged*

Warforged: One billion nine hundred and thirty seven million six hundred and seventy five thousand two hundred and twenty three, one billion nine hundred and thirty seven million six hundred and seventy five... why hello there. What brings you to this... aw, dammit I lost count!

Farmer: *surprised to say the least* What were you counting?

Warforged: Sheep... after that nice rest I had a while ago I've been having trouble sleeping.

The_Snark
2009-11-18, 03:49 AM
Btw, since this is 4e I thought I'd point out this little piece of mechanical strangeness unique to Warforged.

In 4e a Warforged that has exhausted its healing surges and drops to negative HP, without dropping below its bloodied value, will never 'die' unless it suffers enough damage to push it below its bloodied value. Also, it will never 'wake up' until it receives some amount of healing. Since healing HP per day with rest is gone and Warforged do not need to eat, drink, breathe, or age it is entirely possible that some of the original Warforged still exist in some sort of pseudo-hibernation. According to the mechanics at least, but I still think it could make for an interesting scenario.

Yup—this is present in 3e too: a Warforged between 0 and -10 hit points won't bleed to death, but they don't naturally heal either, so they'll remain inert until repaired. (Or until they degrade and die; since they can potentially lose a point of Con to age (wear and tear) after a century or so, this could happen, although not necessarily.) I believe the possibility is referred to somewhere in one of the 3.5 Eberron books, so it's not just a mechanical hiccup.

Anyway, this sounds interesting. Creating warforged in their original setting requires a creation forge, which is an artifact that's either been taken directly from Xen'drik or reverse-engineered (not sure which). It's possible that this artifact is what supplies the soul, but then, the question of whether warforged have souls is a hotly debated question in Eberron. They're thinking creatures, and they can be affected by spells like Raise Dead—but none of them can remember Dolurrh at all, or anything between death and resurrection, which is unusual. And some people would find it politically expedient to declare them soulless and therefore not really people...

Of course, you're not in Eberron, which frees you to pick and choose as much of this as you like. It'd be pretty easy to import a creation forge to 4th edition, I imagine—or even just as a very expensive, forgotten ritual. Or you could do something else entirely; I like Hal's ideas more than anything I can come up with regarding souls, so I'll just throw out the idea that maybe warforged don't have souls. Figuring out what places them a half-step between living beings and constructs, if not souls, could make for some interesting plots.

And if I were your DM, I'd probably start working out who originally devised the warforged, where they've appeared in history, and why they're not around much anymore. You've already been recognized and presumably not decried as a walking blasphemy, so that rules out amusing options like making the original warforged an army forged by devils, imbued with the souls of the wicked, and sent to conquer the Material Plane... but I'm sure he could still come up with something fun.

Asbestos
2009-11-18, 09:13 AM
I don't know, does being actively incapacitated, 'dying' by definition, count as 'rest' for a warforged? I like the mass grave/cave in idea too.

Maybe your warforged comes across some ancient Final Messenger that leads him to find one of these old tombs and discovers some of the warforged are still functioning (and possibly insane)

Asbestos
2009-11-18, 09:23 AM
And if I were your DM, I'd probably start working out who originally devised the warforged, where they've appeared in history, and why they're not around much anymore. You've already been recognized and presumably not decried as a walking blasphemy, so that rules out amusing options like making the original warforged an army forged by devils, imbued with the souls of the wicked, and sent to conquer the Material Plane... but I'm sure he could still come up with something fun.

Another possibility is that they were some ancient civilization's version of a lich, but able to be applied on a grander scale. An entire population reborn as liches clashes with the generally accepted rarity of liches, a population of people whose souls are transferred into an army of constructs sounds doable. Also, isn't this basically the route the Self-Forged is taking? Transcending their fragile, organic form?

Optimystik
2009-11-18, 09:30 AM
Don't forget the WAR part of WARforged; it's the most important facet of their existence. Not saying you can't be a gentle giant, but they definitely get restless in peaceful situations. I'm not an expert on 4e by any means, but I don't think they'd have changed that psychology much.

"Freedom is wonderful, but it can also be terrifying. Warforged were created to fight and follow orders; lacking a war to win or a leader to follow, many warforged are intimidated by the possibilities of freedom and seek comfort in roles where expectations are clear.
...
Feelings about freedom can impose themselves on even the smallest decisions. A warforged offered the choice of several colors of cloaks to wear might take them all, choose a color it has seen others choose, or beg off choosing entirely."


I disbelieve the entire concept of warforged. I very much dislike constructs as characters, even "living constructs."

NO U.

They're my favorite race and subtype. Magitek ftw!

CarpeGuitarrem
2009-11-18, 09:36 AM
The big problem is creating the soul. For this purpose, I'd throw in a Philosopher's Stone as a required material focus.

The secret ingredient is PEOPLE!! /double reference

Anyhow, I'd say that if you're making warforged, you MUST have at least one or two experiments go horribly wrong and produce, say, a homicidal maniac golem or something like that.

Yakk
2009-11-18, 11:41 AM
I'd also be tempted to make sure that the act of making a Warforged should be on the same level of effort and commitment to raising a human being. Say, 10 years of 80 hour a week effort, followed by 5 years of 40 hours a week effort, or 50k hours. Plus 15+ years of food and shelter costs.

Per warforged.

This is just a baseline; scaling up or down from this generates interesting world plot points.

Tyrmatt
2009-11-18, 02:45 PM
I had a idea as a kind of quest hub/midpoint for an adventure in 4E to be a village of Warforged being made by an old mage. The world was succumbing to a mass outbreak of undead engineered by a lich who was trying to cheat both the Raven Queen and Orcus at the same time. Since they were not technically "living", they were immune to the plague, designed to be a little safe haven for the PCs and potential allies as well.

Anyway, the mage had been making crystalline hearts and the symbols warforged have on their forehead in order to make his constructs live. They had a little town with a blacksmith/doctor, growing little crystals and drilling for oils for "food". Their brains were supposed to be a kind of living crystal/silicon compound I think because I have plans for a bar full of intoxicating "beverages" that would kill any living creature.

I'd maybe go for a kinda Adam and Eve thing, making the warforged from small parts of yourself in order to imbue it with life if you don't already have an established "biology."

NeoVid
2009-11-18, 04:02 PM
I'd maybe go for a kinda Adam and Eve thing, making the warforged from small parts of yourself in order to imbue it with life if you don't already have an established "biology."

You just made me realize something.

Warforged are mostly made of magical living wood... and you have one warforged available that you could take cuttings from...

LibraryOgre
2009-11-21, 03:18 AM
You just made me realize something.

Warforged are mostly made of magical living wood... and you have one warforged available that you could take cuttings from...

Some people say a man is made outta mud
A warforged's got oil for blood
Metal and wood and steel and bronze
A mind that's a-weak and a back that's strong

You load sixteen tons, what do you get
Another day's orders and ya ain't free yet
Sweet Maker don't you scrap me 'cause I don't know....
What happens to a warforged when he ain't no mo'

link (http://rpg-crank.livejournal.com/32674.html)

flabort
2009-11-21, 02:11 PM
Some people say a man is made outta mud

I'm sorry, gonna hafta correct you here:
Red Clay

mikeejimbo
2009-11-21, 02:22 PM
Some people say a man is made outta mud
A warforged's got oil for blood
Metal and wood and steel and bronze
A mind that's a-weak and a back that's strong

You load sixteen tons, what do you get
Another day's orders and ya ain't free yet
Sweet Maker don't you scrap me 'cause I don't know....
What happens to a warforged when he ain't no mo'

link (http://rpg-crank.livejournal.com/32674.html)

That...that is beautiful! :smalleek:

Reinboom
2009-11-21, 02:23 PM
Some people say a man is made outta mud
A warforged's got oil for blood
Metal and wood and steel and bronze
A mind that's a-weak and a back that's strong

You load sixteen tons, what do you get
Another day's orders and ya ain't free yet
Sweet Maker don't you scrap me 'cause I don't know....
What happens to a warforged when he ain't no mo'

link (http://rpg-crank.livejournal.com/32674.html)

I love you. And I'm sure Tennessee would think the same.
In other news, I'm sorry for not contributing more than that.

Asbestos
2009-11-21, 02:34 PM
I'd also be tempted to make sure that the act of making a Warforged should be on the same level of effort and commitment to raising a human being. Say, 10 years of 80 hour a week effort, followed by 5 years of 40 hours a week effort, or 50k hours. Plus 15+ years of food and shelter costs.

Per warforged.

This is just a baseline; scaling up or down from this generates interesting world plot points.

It always seemed to me that Warforged were somehow created with the basics for getting by already 'programmed' into them. Reallllly makes one wonder where the souls/motive force are/is coming from doesn't it?

Yakk
2009-11-21, 07:45 PM
It always seemed to me that Warforged were somehow created with the basics for getting by already 'programmed' into them. Reallllly makes one wonder where the souls/motive force are/is coming from doesn't it?
Sure - but my point is, it shouldn't be any easier than generating a fully adult human. Or, more accurately, that you should be extremely careful making generating a fully adult warforged being massively easier than a fully adult human, and realize the consequences...

Asbestos
2009-11-21, 08:07 PM
Sure - but my point is, it shouldn't be any easier than generating a fully adult human. Or, more accurately, that you should be extremely careful making generating a fully adult warforged being massively easier than a fully adult human, and realize the consequences...
But I mean, in terms of why they even exist, isn't it supposed to be easier to make Warforged than to make people?

Hzurr
2009-11-22, 03:15 AM
But I mean, in terms of why they even exist, isn't it supposed to be easier to make Warforged than to make people?

I think you're forgetting how easy it is to make people. Why, I know some that were made by accident!

Theoretically, once you have a full Warforged factory up and running, but starting from scratch is a completely different matter. (Take cars for example: prototypes cost millions, even though the car will only cost 20,000 once it's mass produced.)

lord_khaine
2009-11-22, 05:01 AM
Sure - but my point is, it shouldn't be any easier than generating a fully adult human. Or, more accurately, that you should be extremely careful making generating a fully adult warforged being massively easier than a fully adult human, and realize the consequences...
Yesterday 02:34 PM


But that was the main reason for why they were making warforget to begin with, it was a lot faster and much more efficient than making soldiers the standard way.

Asbestos
2009-11-22, 04:09 PM
I think you're forgetting how easy it is to make people. Why, I know some that were made by accident!

The resource + time investment needed to create an adult human is quite high. Even a baby takes 9 months to make.

Gamerlord
2009-11-22, 04:18 PM
If I were your DM, I would force you to spend XP, 3.5 magic item creation style, to make the first few,as well as hunt for components. You would also have to teach them whatever you feel like you need to teach them.


Perhaps one of your "apprentices" becomes disgusted with you, perhaps he hates your ties to the far realm, or maybe he is just plain evil, either way, he abandons you. He might even start building his own army, so a war between master and apprentice could start.

Yakk
2009-11-23, 04:35 PM
But I mean, in terms of why they even exist, isn't it supposed to be easier to make Warforged than to make people?
Sure; but how much easier?

If it is 100 times easier to generate a Warforged expert at subject X for nearly any subject X, you'd expect something whose impact would be similar to an utter collapse of the human economy, or an economic singularity, to occur.

If it is 10% easier to generate a Warforged, you'd still have significant effects: by that point, the differences between Warforged and Human capabilities would dominate over the cost difference.

In the middle ground lies ... well, the middle ground.

Even if it cost the same, the fact that Warforged don't sleep, can be knocked unconscious and get back up again, maybe can be mass indoctrinated and trained (which might make them cheaper to train in an environment where experts are not in sufficient supply), might use different resources than humans to build (which, if you have an excess of residuum but not of food and time, might make it really tempting), etc.