tough out there for a Warforged...

[zarg43]

ok, I have to explain the situation at hand so you know where I'm coming from. So one of my friends has a friend that is starting up a group and I've been invited. He has heard the horror stories of how I argued about chromatic dragons for 3 hours in a given session, and has prepared to take on me as a player for about 3 months. I know he is going to give me a hard time on almost everything unless I have stations or credible sources.

The campaign setting is a Eberon like setting. A few key differences is no Eberon exclusive rules (dragon marks and stuff along those lines). Each major town is owned by a very powerful Archmage and is under the jurisdiction of it. Most of them employ slavery of Warforged.

My character is a level 1 Warforged Artificer. Recently I've escaped the influence of the control rods and I'm making my way to one of the major metropolises.

Now most of world see's Warforged as objects to be used and disposed of. Me traveling alone brings much attention.

With all of that in mind, I'm thinking that there is some way to pass as a human or another non-enslaved race. I would like to be able to trade and walk around without fear of being re-enslaved or being rejected service, I would like to have some where around 1-3 hours of being able to be seen as a human or longer. What are my options? (if you say Alter Self keep in mine it's 10min/caster level duration and how I can make it a bit longer)

EDIT: I don't expect to instantly have the means to do this, but I would like to have this be something that I can get within reasonable means to help with the roleplaying side of this campaign.

TL;DR : what spell/item can help a Warforged to look like a human?

[Wyntonian]

Hat of Disguise (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/disguiseSelf.htm) comes to mind. It seems appropriate for an artificer to use a magic item. It might be a little outside your 1st level budget, though.

[Winds]

Go the other direction. Why buy a hyper-expensive item to disguise yourself, when you can find/hire someone to pretend to be your owner? Much more useful than relying on some form of disguise, I think.

If you're real set on disguise, Hat of disguise as above works. In addition to/instead of, you can grab the glamered enchantment. It's +2700, which is pricey at first level, but a suit of armor/clothing that looks like whatever clothing or armor you want it to would go a long way.

[zarg43]

Go the other direction. Why buy a hyper-expensive item to disguise yourself, when you can find/hire someone to pretend to be your owner? Much more useful than relying on some form of disguise, I think.

If you're real set on disguise, Hat of disguise as above works. In addition to/instead of, you can grab the glamered enchantment. It's +2700, which is pricey at first level, but a suit of armor/clothing that looks like whatever clothing or armor you want it to would go a long way.

well I will be eventually be adventuring with a strange bunch of people, which I do plan on getting help. I would just like a long term plan in case the DM gets worked up and decides to throw me off on my own or I have do to something myself.

Thanks for all the suggestions ^^

EDIT: what would be the cost of a item that had the effect of Hat of Disguise on it? (for the sake of infusions)

[Slipperychicken]

For now, assuming you have no resources and are naked, you might want to cover yourself completely in long baggy clothes (disguise check), keep your head down, live in a slum where no one asks questions, and gather resources for...

Crafting an at-will item of Charm Person for 2,000gp (base price, I assume you know the crafting rules and thus that this costs at most 1,000gp for you to make). Get some kind-hearted NPC to pretend to be your master. You can upgrade this with more powerful charm effects once the time comes. Remember the bonus to Bluff checks when your targets want to believe your "master".

Once you have the cash/materials, a continuous item of Alter Self (18k base) seems a more permanent solution.


Thankfully, Artificers are masters of smashing WBL, so this shouldn't be too hard after the initial stages.

[Greenish]

I know he is going to give me a hard time on almost everything unless I have stations or credible sources.That doesn't sound like the most conductive environment for a fun game. :smallconfused:

[Alienist]

Crafting an at-will item of Charm Person for 2,000gp (base price, I assume you know the crafting rules and thus that this costs at most 1,000gp for you to make). Get some kind-hearted NPC to pretend to be your master. You can upgrade this with more powerful charm effects once the time comes. Remember the bonus to Bluff checks when your targets want to believe your "master".

Once you have the cash/materials, a continuous item of Alter Self (18k base) seems a more permanent solution.

Thankfully, Artificers are masters of smashing WBL, so this shouldn't be too hard after the initial stages.

Maybe I got it wrong, but the way I read the original post was that the DM believes that the player in question has a bad history of rules lawyering and/or arguing with DMs. If so, then I think your item creation advice will simply fast track him being booted out and/or having a "rocks fall, everyone dies" event.

If my interpretation is correct, the PC should try instead to fly under the radar:

Step 1 - do not craft custom magic items

Some people will now want me to be burnt at the stake, but honestly there are so many items that are okay, that you can just restrict yourself to core items and still do well. Note also that the prices for custom items are supposed to be based on the existing items, so if you ever find yourself thinking "ha! I could do better than that for heaps cheaper!" then not only are you doing it wrong (as in breaking RAW), but you exponentially increase the chances of wearing a DMG to the face.

Step 2 - if you ignore step 1, whatever you do, do not craft at will items.

The problem with at will items is that it is ridiculously easy to break the game/economy with even level 1 spells.

Step 3 - for every 1 item you make for yourself, make at least 2 for other people in the party.

You want to be seen as "good guy artificer", the team player above all others.

Consider the other party roles. If you have someone who is (heaven forbid) the party healer and perfectly happy in that role, then consider what will happen if you make him obsolete by distributing Healing Belts to the other players. He will be unhappy, and the DM will notice.

On the other hand, if you don't have a dedicated healer, or if you have someone who is only begrudgingly filling that role, then distributing Healing Belts makes you a lifesaver (sic) or the hero of the day respectively.

So try to find niches that the DM will be happy that you filled (by enabling someone else).

As for your feats, have you considered Adamantium armour plating? (Adamantine Body).

For item creation I recommend the xp reduction instead of the gold reduction, since the other players will have enough gold to cover the cost of their items. Time reduction is less important for you as a Warforged.

You might want to (pre-emptively but respectfully) point out to the DM the requirements for item creation are the same as for preparing spells. This may head off at the pass him telling you that you can't use your downtime for item creation because you need a proper laboratory (or workshop equivalent). If he does decide that you can't do crafting "on the road" - then simply resign yourself to this fact, and refuse to craft anything for anybody, and if they ask why, simply shrug and say "DMs orders". Let them argue the point with the DM, not yourself.

If you do get access to a laboratory, instead of using your level 2 crafting pool for more scrolls, consider making some potions for the other players to use, as this fits with your "good guy crafter" theme, and no one needs umd in order to use potions.

When you're making items for yourself, the obvious temptation is to make them class only (artificer) and skill only (umd). This is one of the easy ways for an artificer to break his wbl, but gauge your relationship with the DM first. If you are on thin ice, don't go there. If he seems happy, broach the subject with him to test the waters about whether he would allow a 40% increase in magic items in his campaign, or whether that will freak him out.

[Alienist]

That doesn't sound like the most conductive environment for a fun game. :smallconfused:

Oh good, it wasn't just me thinking that. :D

I think the problem is that he's picked a difficult class. Artificer is confusing and badly written, requiring a lot of DM interpretation (eg infusions are spells except when they aren't).

Additionally, as a skill based class (the entire class revolves around UMD) he will function better with a custom +skill item, but this is exactly the sort of thing that sets off many DMs "cheese-dar".

He needs to keep it simple, and stick to the 'straight and narrow' path as much as possible. This is why I suggest going overboard on the whole team player thing.

It is entirely possible to have a lot of fun as the team buffer, but you have to have the right mindset, let the other players shine, don't try to steal their limelight.

Personally I'd advocate a tier 4-5 character, instead of a tier 1, as it seems less likely to cause trouble and arguments.

[Slipperychicken]

DMG to the face.


If you can contact your DM between sessions (texting, email, so on), and work with him on items/rules clarification, you can avoid incurring his wrath. Also, if something you're planning feels unbalancing, ask him first. Mid-session, if the DM makes a ruling, you pretty much have to roll with it. Once the session's over, however, you can discuss that sort of thing at leisure, without looking like you're challenging anyone's authority, or jeopardizing anyone's fun.

[Rimeheart]

I think you should go with a completely different route. Go with a beaten up rusty looking warforged basically, make your self into the beater of warforged. So run down and ugly, that humans would just see you and think, waste of money and time to refurbish enough to use. This is of course until you can afford more expensive methods. So, rub dirt on your self, act like one leg is broken or not as functioning. hunch your back like your support column is broken. Get a canister of oil and leak it all over!

From a roleplaying perspective I think it would be fun, and I would argue from a psychological perspective make a ton of sense until you run into the do gooder jerk that thinks he could fix you up for some reason.

[lord_khaine]

I still think the cheapest solution here would be to get a eternal wand of disguise self, but of course until you can afford that, then you have 2 options.

a) regular disguise.
b) Lie and pretend that you are allready under order from your master to do something.

[Yuki Akuma]

I like the idea of a hireling you're paying to pretend to be your owner.

[Nero24200]

I personally would just accept the risks. You're playing a race that you know is considered a potential slave in this DM's setting. If you do not want the potential RP elements of a specific race then the only real solution is to not play that race.

Even if you get a hat of disguise there is always the possiblity of losing it or mages detecting an illusion aura over you and all sorts of other issues. Only by not playing the race can you garauntee it won't be an issue, so if you're set on playing Warforged just accept that the race is coming with some RP implications in this setting.

[Geigan]

I personally would just accept the risks. You're playing a race that you know is considered a potential slave in this DM's setting. If you do not want the potential RP elements of a specific race then the only real solution is to not play that race.

Even if you get a hat of disguise there is always the possiblity of losing it or mages detecting an illusion aura over you and all sorts of other issues. Only by not playing the race can you garauntee it won't be an issue, so if you're set on playing Warforged just accept that the race is coming with some RP implications in this setting.

Well the RP implications of playing a race that is normally enslaved is that playing a free one makes said character a fugitive. The RP implications of being a fugitive are that you try not to be caught or you get ready to go back to slavery. It just seems like good sense that he should have some means of disguising himself so he doesn't have this problem whenever the party has to operate within towns. A character doing nothing to prepare for the risks a DM lays out in his world seems unrealistic as opposed to a character that actually adapts to the world he lives in. By making a hat of disguise or making use of some other way to keep himself from being caught and dragged back into slavery he is merely working with the RP elements of the race is he not?

[DarkestKnight]

Ask your GM if you can enchant your plating with Glamer and make it look like (insert race) flesh. if this works you are now a terminator!

[Binks]

Sounds a lot like how droids are treated in Star Wars. Having played a droid a couple of times in that system I've always found the best solution to being independent is the 'pretend this guy owns you' methodology. 'Oh I'm sorry, am I drawing attention? My master sent me out here to retrieve X. He'll be very displeased if I don't get it for him.'

A halfway decent bluff score and a good story can go a long way, and once you're in a party with other PCs you should be pretty much untouchable as long as the highest bluff character pretends to own you. No need for magic items, rule checks, or any of that stuff, just run with the RP aspects of the race, that would be my advice. Play to people's preconceptions, don't try to hide the fact that you're an independent warforged. Hide the fact that you're an independent warforged.

[zarg43]

Sounds a lot like how droids are treated in Star Wars. Having played a droid a couple of times in that system I've always found the best solution to being independent is the 'pretend this guy owns you' methodology. 'Oh I'm sorry, am I drawing attention? My master sent me out here to retrieve X. He'll be very displeased if I don't get it for him.'

A halfway decent bluff score and a good story can go a long way, and once you're in a party with other PCs you should be pretty much untouchable as long as the highest bluff character pretends to own you. No need for magic items, rule checks, or any of that stuff, just run with the RP aspects of the race, that would be my advice. Play to people's preconceptions, don't try to hide the fact that you're an independent warforged. Hide the fact that you're an independent warforged.

Well I'm the only person in the group who probably isn't using CHA as a dump stat so I might be on my own. And one of the few reasons I actually wanted to play Warforged was the fact that there are many open doors for lots of fun RP experiences. I'm basically the grocery shopper for my group, I get the stuff and make dinner (magic items) for every one. I could just fake that I have a owner, but I'm also looking for long term "options". "options" being the keyword in this.


I think you should go with a completely different route. Go with a beaten up rusty looking warforged basically, make your self into the beater of warforged. So run down and ugly, that humans would just see you and think, waste of money and time to refurbish enough to use. This is of course until you can afford more expensive methods. So, rub dirt on your self, act like one leg is broken or not as functioning. hunch your back like your support column is broken. Get a canister of oil and leak it all over!

From a roleplaying perspective I think it would be fun, and I would argue from a psychological perspective make a ton of sense until you run into the do gooder jerk that thinks he could fix you up for some reason.

that sounds like a mighty fun idea :D thanks!

[Rubik]

Bluff your party mates into thinking they own you, then. That way they won't have to make Bluff checks.

And then Bluff them into thinking that they're telling you what they want you to do when it's really you telling them what they want you to do.

Easy! :smallamused: