Warforged troubles

[sambouchah]

I have a problem. Warforged do not interest me as an option for a player. I feel like I could come up with some awesome warforged character concepts but they don't inspire me. If someone could explain a couple of their characters, how to make a good warforged, etc for me so that maybe I may be able to warm up to them for a future character that would be most excellent.

Thanks in advance, Sam

[avr]

Warforged Crusader - "I cannot die"

Warforged Druid - "Ultimately everything is part of nature, even that we call artificial"

Warforged Rogue - "Why not live in the sewers?"

Or did you want detailed builds?

[Tankadin]

Someone here once mentioned that he or she always wanted to play a Warforged Warlock that may or may not have been a gnome in a power-suit. Either the gnome had been in the suit for so long they didn't know if they were a gnome or warforged, OR the warforged thought there was a gnome living inside of them, controlling their own actions and confusing their sense of self.

I think that'd be a fun character with a lot of interesting connections to the people in the world around them. And ultimately deciding/figuring out if you were warforged or a gnome could be a pretty dramatic point in the plot of a campaign--sounds like a lot of fun to RP.

[sambouchah]

Warforged Crusader - "I cannot die"

Warforged Druid - "Ultimately everything is part of nature, even that we call artificial"

Warforged Rogue - "Why not live in the sewers?"

Or did you want detailed builds?

Well I meant more why they are fun to play. I feel I could come up with things like this haha. I do enjoy all three quotes

[sambouchah]

Someone here once mentioned that he or she always wanted to play a Warforged Warlock that may or may not have been a gnome in a power-suit. Either the gnome had been in the suit for so long they didn't know if they were a gnome or warforged, OR the warforged thought there was a gnome living inside of them, controlling their own actions and confusing their sense of self.

I think that'd be a fun character with a lot of interesting connections to the people in the world around them. And ultimately deciding/figuring out if you were warforged or a gnome could be a pretty dramatic point in the plot of a campaign--sounds like a lot of fun to RP.

Blasted goblin poo! I just saw this. I absolutely love this idea!

[Fyermind]

I play warforged DFAs when I can. They rock at low levels with DR 2 and good AC for a feat. With flaws they can be napalm breathing robots from level 1.

[Rubik]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/0/09/DataTNG.jpg/250px-DataTNG.jpg

That is all.

[supermonkeyjoe]

Are you asking for interesting backstories or builds?

Build wise I would love to play a warforged dungeoncrasher fighter/ warforged juggernaut:- enter every room Kool-aid style OH YEAH!

There's also the warforged scout, with levels in scout, called scout who acts as the party scout. He knows his lot in life.

Warforged urban druid with the ACF that lets if wildshape into animated objects instead of elementals? Transform and roll out.

Warforged Warlock is always fun if you want to be Iron man, at-will flight, eldritch (repulsor) blast etc.

[Drackstin]

well i like the warforged race a lot, its all i use, my main char, he is a bit of a beast, my DM was running a evil campaign so he had to be evil, but its not that he is evil, it just the people around him, he makes his own choices and sometimes are quite good.

he is a Evil paladin and he abides by his own code (so no god, or faith, he just believes in himself and gains spells because he believes his path is right, but only for him)

he is a paladin 5/Juggernaut 5/fighter 2/warhulk x

he is mostly construct and is immune to almost everything other then direct spells. he was also "built large" DM let me build him that way with no LA, he has 2 more arms grafted to him and uses no weapons. his STR is in the 60s, and his main choice of attack is charge you into death.

he also has grafted fast healing, so he kinda just sits in the middle of groups and laughs.

how he looks, think of a 12 ft tall, iron man, hulk, goro, wolverine.

in one crit he can do +500, and i loves to fight the biggest guy he can find, in many battle i have charged upto the boss (Zeal spell) and ignored everyone. also my party hates it but i love to just say, you guys go around back, ill go threw the front, and ill solo battles ment for my party.

he isnt optimal or overpowered, i know i messed up a few feats but i love how he turned out.

[Hendel]

Someone posted the Data picture and that is one type of warforged that I have played.

It was in a Greyhawk setting, not Eberron, and the group did not know who or really what he was. They found him early on with a local dwarf clan and the dwarves had claimed that he had fallen from the sky out of a fiery comet like structure. The DM said that it was an Eberron flying ship and that the fire elemental had broken loose and the entire ship was caught in the aftermath as the elemental attempted to open a gate back to the plane of fire but everything went wrong and it traveled to Oerth instead and crashed in the mountains in a fiery burst. Of course, the warforged character knew none of this just that the dwarves found him and reanimated him.

He worked for the dwarves in the mines and the forges and they treated him kindly but more like a tool than a being. Again, none of the Greyhawk folk know about the struggle for warfoged identity and such. The party took him on as a companion but regarded him in different ways. They called him Bot for the lack of anything better (actually it started out as The Bot but as feelings grew the article was dropped).

Bot began a struggle to find out what he was as he adventured with this group. He would spend long nights in solemn contemplation guarding his sleeping companions. He would sculpt items during the night and give them as presents to party members. He would clean weapons and everyone liked him. He was fiercely loyal and would always be at the front of a fight.

I really enjoyed taking him on his Data-like journey of self-discovery. Being removed from Eberron helped as nobody knew what he was but everyone would speculate. Every new town the inn keep would offer to take his helm and then a Full Metal Alchemist type scene would unfold as they discovered there was no knight inside the armor.

That may be a little stereotypical but it was fun. I just kept Star Trek: Next Generation, The Terminator, and Full Metal Alchemist type ideas flowing and ran with him up until high levels.

[Derjuin]

I once had the idea for a warforged Binder who dumped charisma and acted as a kind of crucible for vestiges' personalities. See, when you fail the check to bind a vestige, your characters' actions become modified/guided/influenced by the vestige; this warforged felt she had no sense of self/personality/soul, so she bound ancient spirits and the souls of dead gods to herself to gain a personality, even if it was temporary and not hers.

[Asmodai]

A warforged offers a couple of interesting hooks just by what it is.

The classic "What Makes a Man" story, where you have a entity that has morality and sentience, but lacks experience and tries to find its own path and place in a society that takes it at face value. This could also be coupled with an exploration of concepts such as faith and religion, playing up the humanity and exploration of his identity by such a character. Playing a warforged is an excellent way to indulge about the nature of humanity.

Face value is also an interesting way to look at him. A Warforged can be an excellent way to introduce bigotry and xenophobia into the game. Many people hate the warforged for their role in the last war, others seek to treat them as property, withold their rights, ban them or outright exile them. It is no wonder there are groups like the one led by the Lord of Blades that have taken a strong and hostile pro-warforged agenda.

Slavery and freedom are also themes. The Warforged were made to be killing machines. They were given sentience as an exploration of team dynamics for soldiers in the Last War. Noone intended them to actually be fully rational, sentient and show emotions. Heck, some people still claim its just their programming and not them. There are still nations and people who want their moneys worth and don't care about such things as Warforged freedom. Just imagine what might happen to a free Warforged stuck with such people?

Beyond that, there's always the simplest method. Warforged are sentient magitech robots that can be upgraded to taste capable to kick ass and chew bubblegum. You can turn them into walking battering rams, or build wands into their hands and generally customize them to taste. For a lot of people, that's enough.

[G.Cube]

Don't forget, not all Warforged are made of the same material, for example, you could have a Druid Warforged built out of Darkwood and hit with a huge ironwood spell when he was created, or maybe a Dwarven inventor outcast built himself a friend or bodyguard out of stone or even Adamantium(costs a feat though.) Being of artificial make with an organic soul brings out a lot of possibilities!

Oh, and in a current campaign I'm playing in two players have teamed up, a Warforged Fighter and a Gnome Artificer. The Artificer built the Warforged, and as they learn more about the world (level up) the Artificer builds improvements into his robot bodyguard, upgrading things like weaponry( a retractable blade and an arm crossbow) or even the body itself,( his eyes now have low light vision) of course, they need to find the materials and make the successful craft checks as they go along, and the improvements, if major, should be approved by the DM.

[Shining Wrath]

Not quite certain what OP wants from the Waforged, but my guy was created after the end of the Last War, illegally, and sold into slavery. He escaped from slavery when the owner (House Thurrani, 'nuff said) got killed. So he's got no past, no connection to the world outside the adventuring party, no where to go next except where adventure takes him. Oh, and he's a Warblade, so the idea of looking for a challenging fight just because it lets him test and improve himself appeals to him. His response to being thrown into an arena fight against troll barbarians was "Bring it on!".

He was created to fight, he does it better than anyone (so he thinks), and he intends to prove to the world that a Warforged deserves respect as a person by defeating evil. He longs to be knighted or receive some similar honor from one of the 4 remaining kings or queens of Khorvaire. Can you say "Chaotic Good with swagger"? I knew you could! He complains to the party bard that she's not doing her job well enough when people don't recognize his name.

[panaikhan]

I like my Warforged char in my sig (who, incidentally, was inspired by my avi pic)
I have immense fun crashing through walls, giving an ear-splitting roar, and setting things on fire with my heat vision.

The only thing i didn't like, was when my DM called a halt on my research into getting Enlarge to stack.

[Soranar]

I really liked my boombox warforged

Was a paladin with the dragonborn of bahamut template (for the breath weapon) and the from smite to song feat (refluffed worshipping Milil with Olladra to make it work in Eberron)

I used all the paladin substitution levels for warforged (combined with the holy warrior ACF to dump spellcasting since singing usually takes up my swift actions).

With all of that, I had all the warforged immunities + immunity to stunning and my Con modifier to will saves twice (due to the paladin substitution + steadfast determination). The Con was also nice for the breath weapon which often proved useful as a backup weapon (and the entangling breath is really useful).

The end result was a booster bard like character with a ton of HP, immunities and high saves. Also let me completely dump CHA and WIS, making me an unusually smart (and ugly) paladin with a compelling voice when singing.

[NEO|Phyte]

General warforged tips:

You don't need to sleep, you don't get tired. In a standard party, this doesn't add much, but if you got an adventuring party together that were all warforged of classes that don't have enforced rest times, you can keep going forever (assuming you have a way to restore HP damage).

In Eberron at least, plenty of people don't really see warforged as people. This can be handy depending on what sort of character you've made. Stay in a party member's shadow, don't speak unless spoken to, let everyone assume you're just some obedient little pet.

:edit: oh right, character examples too. Avatar related, gimme a bit to type him up.

Malous. Psiforged Psion(Telepath)/Thrallherd. Not what you'd call a good person, but he at least tries to be diplomatic before busting out the mind powers. In most cases. Was particularly fond of his initial thrall, to the point of snapping off one of his crystal bits to leave with the body. The person responsible didn't get a quick death (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/brainLock.htm). (Note the duration, combined with my earlier point about not needing rest) Seeks knowledge, for varying reasons depending on the setting he's in. In Eberron's case, he's trying to find out what the day of mourning actually was, so he can find the people that would have been able to do it, so he can find the people that DID do it, so he can show them what he thinks about it.

[sambouchah]

Everyone, you have given warforged a new place in my heart! At first I just saw them as blander constructs, I now see them as the underdog-like, lave hero, masters of combat(three of my favorite things).

I love hearing all these wonderful ideas and stories. PLEASE feel free to continue posting, I am enjoying this more than the illithid chapter of LoM:smallbiggrin:

[TheIronGolem]

Someone here once mentioned that he or she always wanted to play a Warforged Warlock that may or may not have been a gnome in a power-suit. Either the gnome had been in the suit for so long they didn't know if they were a gnome or warforged, OR the warforged thought there was a gnome living inside of them, controlling their own actions and confusing their sense of self.
I did a similar character concept once a few years ago.

Essentially, I was "really" an extraplanar being that was bound to a construct body to allow it to explore and interact with the material realm. Only it turns out that the wizard that bound me was just trying to create what would essentially be Fantasy Battle Droids. So I escaped his lab and got out into the world, adventure ensues, etc.

This being a 3.5 game, I split my levels roughly evenly between Fighter and Warlock, focusing on augmenting Eldritch Blast with ranged feats and downplaying incantations. If I were to play that character again in Pathfinder I would go pure Soulknife with the Soulbolt (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/psionics-unleashed/classes/soulknife/archetypes/dreamscarred-press/soulbolt) archetype to maximize the PEW PEW MAGIC LASER ROBOT concept.

Anyway, the point is that Warforged are a more conceptually flexible race than they seem at first.

[Shining Wrath]

My son wants to play a Adamantine Warforged Wizard sometime.
Take the Adamantine body feat (35% arcane failure chance), go wizard 4 / Warblade 2 to get the pre-reqs, then take 3 levels of Spellsword to get 15% off the arcane spell failure. Pick up the armor that grants 10% reduction to asf (thistledown? AFB), and then work with the DM to get rid of the last 10% (various ways that have to be refluffed / handwaved). Then pure wizard for the last 11 levels.

It's far from optimal, I'm certain. But if the idea of a massive robot with DR 2/adamantine hiding at the back of the party casting spells doesn't give you giggles and grins then you don't share my son's sense of humor.

[sambouchah]

My son wants to play a Adamantine Warforged Wizard sometime.
Take the Adamantine body feat (35% arcane failure chance), go wizard 4 / Warblade 2 to get the pre-reqs, then take 3 levels of Spellsword to get 15% off the arcane spell failure. Pick up the armor that grants 10% reduction to asf (thistledown? AFB), and then work with the DM to get rid of the last 10% (various ways that have to be refluffed / handwaved). Then pure wizard for the last 11 levels.

It's far from optimal, I'm certain. But if the idea of a massive robot with DR 2/adamantine hiding at the back of the party casting spells doesn't give you giggles and grins then you don't share my son's sense of humor.

If it wasn't such a high LA I would do that but play a warforged charger(afb):smallbiggrin: That would give my whole group a good laugh

[Darrin]

Warforged Warlock w/ Fell Flight. Load up Black Sabbath on the iPod. "Has he lost his mind? / Can he see or is he blind? / Can he walk at all, / Or if he moves will he fall?"

Warforged Factotum. "Here I am, brain the size of a planet, and they ask me to open the door. Oh, gawd, I'm so depressed. I'm not getting you down, am I?"

Warforged Expert, dump everything into Speak Language. "I am fluent in over six million forms of communication."

Warforged Scout Feat Rogue, max out Open Locks, Disable Device, Decipher Script, Profession: Mechanic, etc. "*beep* *boop* *bu-beep* *bwhrrrl*"

Warforged Wildshape Ranger w/ City Soul ACF. "Transform and Roll Out!"

[sambouchah]

Could anyone post links to good guides or book names for useful warforged items, feats and other things? That'd be super cool.

"Warforged are cool." Except in Dr. Who Cybermen are the equivalent so the Doctor wouldn't say that

[otakumick]

Warforged are more like K9 than Cybermen... Cybermen being cyborgs and warforged being robots... like K9... or data... more like Data really, but Data is Trek not Who.

[Hunter Noventa]

Could anyone post links to good guides or book names for useful warforged items, feats and other things? That'd be super cool.

"Warforged are cool." Except in Dr. Who Cybermen are the equivalent so the Doctor wouldn't say that

Magic of Eberron and Races of Eberron both have a selection of magic items and feats for warforged. Most notable is probably the Warforged Components. They're basically magic items that integrate directly into the warforged and can't be removed unless the Warforged allows it, and any wearable magic item can be made as a Warforged Component.

[Fyermind]

Of particular note are wand chambers build into the arms of your warforged for you favorite spell you never want to be without. Works particularly well for artificers and high level warlocks

[sambouchah]

Assuming I had enough feats at first level could I take more than one body feat? In particular I was planning an Obsidian(or Crystalline) psiforged

Also Warforged Paragons?

[Swaoeaeieu]

the fact that warforged can build stuff into themself (via components or helpfull articifers) you can do the weirdest stuff with them.
i myself had someone build a bag of holding in my chest, then before battle i would load the cannon i hid in there together with the party gnome.

then as i suprise attack i could open up my chest and fire a cannonball out of nowhere. The look on the diplomats face was priceless

[Hawk7915]

My only and favorite Warforged character was a Warforged Factotum, designed by the Dwarven Empires to be "the perfect adaptable lifeform" but also designed to be as humble/dorky/silly about it as possible, so as to not intimidate others with his ability to do literally anything with a few seconds to analyze the situation. It was a Skype game, so my typical after combat joke was to make a horrible pun complete with :smallcool: afterwords, which the party loved.

You don't have to play up the "Warforged = Robot" angle, but it is one angle. I love Warforged for the same reason I love most of the weird, monstrous, or outcast races: they give an additional layer of self-discovery, character growth, and heroism by asking the question of "what makes a hero" and then adding on "what makes a normally savage/outcast race into a hero of all people"?

[123456789blaaa]

Q: Who is Gazebo Jones?
A: He is a monk/drunken master who can transform into any small to large-sized object and then kill people as that object. Ever wanted to beat people to death as a hat-rack? Now you can.

Q: How does he do that??
A:
1. Thrall of Jubilex 4 grants Alter Self into 4HD forms at will.
2. As a warforged, Gazebo can use Alter Self to transform into other constructs, including animated objects up to Large size.
3. Drunken Master gains +1d4/1d8/1d12 damage when using improvised weapons. According to C. Warrior (Pg. 158), common tools can be used to do awesome stunts - a ladder can be used to trip people ala Jackie Chan, while a tapestry can trip - these are physical properties of the items that provide these bonuses. Alter Self gives you the basic physical properties of whatever you transform into. A monk is proficient with his body as both a natural and a manufactured weapon.
4. Combine all of the above, and you have a drunken pogo stick hopping on the body of its latest victim.
5. Because no drunken master build would be complete without a wide repertoire of combat options, Gazebo has Improved Overrun, Improved Bull Rush, Improved Grapple, Improved Sunder, Shock Trooper, and Combat Brute, along with a high BAB and natural strength

Q: Do improvised weapons REALLY work that way?
A: Well, we have 2+ pages arguing over the poorly written improvised weapons rules, including that drunken masters apparently still suffer -4 to attacks with them and that they provide opponents with a bonus to their disarm attempts. At this point I think there is only one rule that matters for a Drunken Master, and that is the rule of cool. Is it awesome to turn into a chair and disarm somebody with yourself? Is it something a drunken master would do? Do the rules appear to support it? I think the answer to all 3 is yes.

Character roles: Tank, Assassin, Crowd Control. Gazebo has superb saving throws and decent HP, so he can take hits for a party. Assassin: Nobody ever suspected their sock drawer of jumping up and stabbing them in the gut. Finally, like any self-respecting melee fighter, he has a variety of combat options to lock down opponents.

Sources: 3
Eberron CS (Warforged)
Complete Warrior (Drunken Master, Warshaper, Shock Trooper, Combat Brute, improvised weapons)
Book of Vile Darkness (Thrall of Jubilex, Thrall to Demon, Willing Deformity)

Gazebo Jones
Warforged Monk 2/Fighter 4/Thrall of Jubilex 4/Drunken Master 10
BAB +16, 8d10/12d8 HD

Build created by Akal Saris for Iron Chef Optimization Challenge XV. Full build located here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=9823824&postcount=132)

Actually though -while Gazebo Jones is amazing-the build itself is probably weakened by the inclusion of Drunken Master. The core trick of Thrall of Juiblex + Warforged = Animated objects (and other constructs) is still a very nice trick to build around.

[tadkins]

Had an idea for a Warforged Factotum/Gnome Artificer duo. The story would go that the gnome built the warforged for companionship and to perform a variety of tasks that she didn't have the skills for. She could upload skill data into the warforged's knowledge banks using a set of "arcane disks", depending on what type of skill was needed at the time. Eventually the gnome would grow fond of her creation and consider it her best friend.

I think it'd be fun, especially considering that Warforged and Artificers have good synergy. What do you guys think?

[sambouchah]

Had an idea for a Warforged Factotum/Gnome Artificer duo. The story would go that the gnome built the warforged for companionship and to perform a variety of tasks that she didn't have the skills for. She could upload skill data into the warforged's knowledge banks using a set of "arcane disks", depending on what type of skill was needed at the time. Eventually the gnome would grow fond of her creation and consider it her best friend.

I think it'd be fun, especially considering that Warforged and Artificers have good synergy. What do you guys think?

That's pretty nifty! I enjoy the idea

[wanderingbishop]

I played a warforged once - made him a Shaman. His backstory was that he'd been bought as an escort for a caravan, and during passage through the woods, they were attacked by creatures which struck so fast and ferociously, and the entire caravan was dead before he could even draw his weapon. No master, lost... he wandered into the woods. There he stayed for decades. The war raged on outside, and within the trees of the forest, he found that he had more in common with nature than he realised. It followed certain patterns, obeyed certain rules. It had an almost... mechanized simplicity to it. Nature would be the pattern he based his personality off, and it would be his strength - inner and outer.

Also, when he shapechanged into a panther or whatever as per his class ability, his construct body would shift, twist, unfold and rearrange into that shape.

Kind-of like a certain line of popular action figures based around the concept of shifting from a humanoid form to an alternate mode...

[Prime32]

Given that they're LA +0, it might not be obvious at first why warforged were so popular as soldiers (beyond being considered more expendable than normal citizens), but lets take a look at some of their features:

Can march non-stop without rest, making them much faster than conventional troops.
No need for supplies, preventing enemies from cutting them off and improving support among civilians (who would normally be required to feed soldiers in the area, or have their food taken from them if enemy citizens).
Cannot be separated from their weapons or armor, making them hard to catch by surprise.
Can travel through normally inhospitable or impassable terrain, opening up entirely new tactics like marching along riverbeds to avoid detection.
Incredibly fast learners in their "childhood" stage and can be taught 24/7 by other warforged, allowing units with specialised skills to be provided almost as soon as they're needed. Conscripts are lv1 commoners who play dead if they get hit, but warforged generally enter the world with 3 levels in a PC class (equivalent to an experienced veteran).
Immunity to many conventional anti-army spells like cloudkill, reducing the impact of enemy mages and allowing your own to cast them without worry of friendly fire.
Cannot be interrogated by the enemy via raise dead (and maybe speak with dead?), nor can their bodies be animated as undead and turned against you.


Best. Soldiers. Ever.