Warforged and Peacetime: A discourse on Obsolete War-Mahinery

[KnejaTurch]

So, I'm working on retrofitting my current campaign setting with Steamworks (from Steam & Steel (http://dobby.machinespirit.net/dnd/ENP-3008-Steam_and_steel.pdf)) and I'm faced with a conundrum. I like the idea of Warforged, i do, i may be iffy on "Living Construct" but its a neat idea.
Heres what i need:
I want a Warforged species that is compatible with Steamworks (which centers on being maintenance and fuel heavy) and the fact that they were created en masse.

Background:

They were created 70+ years ago during a war with the goblinoids as a solution to their superior numbers
They were created as mindless Automata, but after the war were repurposed as labor-robots
The Tower of Transmutation decided what the hey and Awakened some of them, just to see what would happen
Until very recently, they were treated as property by the government that paid to have them created
It is a Magocratic, oppressive society


Also

I like the "Soldier without an Army" concept
I dont mind completely redoing the race at all
A feasible power source is a must, how does one supply power to the engines of thousands of war-robots?


All replies appreciated!

[Flickerdart]

Warforged make excellent miners, since they don't need to rest or eat. In fact, you could have their power source be the very substance they mine (with either units designed to function off different energy sources or some sort of universal converter).

[Fizban]

Dunno what these maintenance rules are, but since warforged already repair themselves with craft checks it outta mesh just fine. I'm more worried about the living construct bit. The whole point of the subtype is that a warforged isn't a machine, but an actual living creature, which I wouldn't expect to work well with a steam powered mass produced kind of thing unless you played up the magic part. Warforged don't normally need to eat or anything since they're constructs and thus powered by unspecified magic-ness, so you could replace that with a fuel of some sort, but considering that they're also living beings then whatever fuel it is will need to be converted to magic for it to make sense (at least to me). I guess I'm saying that I think if they're constructs that run on a non-magical fuel like coal or oil, they aren't alive enough to be living constructs (and thus actual warforged). I'm reminded of how dragons can magically metabolize anything-you could give them something like that for whatever fuel seems approrpriate. Heck, you could make them eat coal for the symbolism, as long as it's clear that it's getting magicked along the way so that it can sustain their rudimentary biological functions.

So that'd be a vote for rebuilding them probably. The living construct subtype means they don't get quite as many immunities and are also able to benefit (or regret the loss of) of a constitution score granting scaling hit points. I'd say it's probably enough of a wash that you could just remove the subtype and call it good as long as you're playing in the 5th-10th range. Any lower and the number of immunities seems unfair, any higher and the lack of bonus hit points will make them extremely fragile. Having them be awakened versions of a mass produced robot works either way, since you can just saw whether the awakening spell just gave the robot intelligence, or made it into a new creature.

[Biguds]

How about the Iron Kingdoms warjack´s rules ?

Let´s say, with 1 gallon of water and 3kg of coal, a "Steamjack" works "just fine" for about 6hrs [half that for combat].
When he´s with 1/4 the he become "fatigued" and without foul he become "exausted".

Full imersion in water [or other non-flammabe liquid] cool their pipes, and kill the fire [so, they become exausted].

[Fouredged Sword]

I agree with the above. let warforged require 1lb of coal and 1 waterskin worth of water each day. After 24 hours without fuleing they become fatuiged. After 48 they become exausted. After 72 hours they go inert and act as if they had -1 hp.

Magics that make a normal person able to go without sustinance allow a warforged to go without fuel.

Warforged can take sustinance from spells that make food for normal people, but such food doesn't burn cleanly and the warforged suffers a -1 to all actions untill it is fueld by coal or another fosil fuel.

They recover imidiatly after being given new fule and water.

To further spice it up, make warforged no longer immune to all other fatiuge effects, but rather instead of recovering from it normaly they auto recover by refueling. This allows them to do things like forced march and such, but it eats up thier fule supply.

I would still let them be immune to magic fatuige effects in the way elves are immune to sleep effects.

[Randomguy]

I don't think water refills would be that necessary: the steam could condense in one part of the mechanism and drip back down to the main water supply.

[Godskook]

Ever see Back to the Future 2? The one where the Delorean had a fuel-line powered by garbage?

Anyway, I suggest that due to the process of creating a 'living' construct, they're also enabled to eat like we do. However, there's many differences in what 'eating' means:

-They're constructs, and thus, far more efficient at pulling resources out of their food, making foods that humans wouldn't eat still useful to a Warforged. Think the garbage dumpster.
-Additionally, since they're not 'properly' organic, since they're immune to pesky things like poison and disease, making otherwise rotten food still viable 'fuel' for these abandoned war machines.
-Since these things are ill-suited to trained domestic work, and humanoids try to not let these 'machines' 'steal' the jobs, warforged develop a frugal tendency, supporting the dumpster-eating habits already discussed.

So now we got war veterans eating out of dumpsters cause nobody wants to give them a job.

However, fuel is only one of four fluids typically found in a self-maintained machine, with the other three being coolant, lubricant, and cleaning solution.

Some coolants can last long periods without replacement, while others require replenishment almost weekly(think your house's AC unit and your car's radiator). Personally, I'd assume that warforged coolant is more of a cross between blood and whatever is in an AC unit, and thus almost never needs notable maintenance.

Lubricant(oils) are going to be highly prized, incredibly useful, and downright dangerous to do without. By analog, running a car without fuel is impossible but not too damaging, while running one without oil will turn your engine block into a solid block. Here's a place to explore significant 'downsides' to being warforged, as a poor lubricant is almost as bad as not having one at all.

Cleaning solutions also makes for an interesting place to 'convert' the warforged. Primarily, I'm thinking around the sensory areas like eyes and ears, as those are the ones most likely to be affected by corrosion or build-up.

Overall, what I'm picturing is that these warforged spend most of their time either working or scavenging. The ones with jobs would probably still scavenge, but more likely would have made friends with coworkers, and 'share' in the coworkers' food. The scavengers would eat everything that was organic and not resellable, while trying to pawn off anything else. In either case, both would highly prize lubricants and cleaning solutions to almost a complete exclusion of all other markets.

Additionally, due to their odd nature, humanoid parents would likely quickly grow to trust and adopt one as a family 'golem', but as often as not, the warforged would instead pick the family on the sole basis of having a child* with the right aptitudes to clean the warforged's sensory zones without damaging them.

*A child is prefered for several reasons. Their small nature makes them well suited for the task, particularly parts that require small appendages, like reaching into the eye socket. Secondly, children are quite often easier to approach and trust.

[KnejaTurch]

I agree with the above. let warforged require 1lb of coal and 1 waterskin worth of water each day. After 24 hours without fuleing they become fatuiged. After 48 they become exausted. After 72 hours they go inert and act as if they had -1 hp.

Magics that make a normal person able to go without sustinance allow a warforged to go without fuel.

Warforged can take sustinance from spells that make food for normal people, but such food doesn't burn cleanly and the warforged suffers a -1 to all actions untill it is fueld by coal or another fosil fuel.

They recover imidiatly after being given new fule and water.

To further spice it up, make warforged no longer immune to all other fatiuge effects, but rather instead of recovering from it normaly they auto recover by refueling. This allows them to do things like forced march and such, but it eats up thier fule supply.

I would still let them be immune to magic fatuige effects in the way elves are immune to sleep effects.


This. This is a great idea!

[Fouredged Sword]

In second thoughts I would allow fatuige effects that expire in rounds to recover as normal, and call it a temporary tax on thier steam pressure. This makes barbarians less odd within the rules.

[Doughnut Master]

I feel obliged to mention this. (http://www.nuklearpower.com/warbot/)

[drakir_nosslin]

I feel obliged to mention this. (http://www.nuklearpower.com/warbot/)

That was one of the most depressing things I've read... :smallfrown:

[Doughnut Master]

That was one of the most depressing things I've read... :smallfrown:

They're. All. Like. That.

[drakir_nosslin]

They're. All. Like. That.

Yea, I read them all...