UA Warforged vs. Keith Baker's Warforged

[Shadow_in_the_Mist]

So, we all know that WoTC put out a semi-official 5e Warforged in Unearthed Arcana: Eberron Update 1.1. However, sometime afterwards, Keith Baker, the man who created Eberron, noted his discontent with the WoTC version and put up his own take on his blog. I was just wondering; amongst Warforged fans, which version is generally considered superior? Which version do you use?

For comparison...

Unearthed Arcana Warforged:
Ability Score Modifier: +1 Strength, +1 Constitution
Size: Medium
Speed: 30 feet
Composite Plating: +1 Armor Class
Living Construct: Immune to disease, do not need to eat or breathe (but can do so), need only 4 hours of sleep instead of 8 hours, remain totally aware of surroundings whilst sleeping


Keith Baker's Warforged:
Ability Score Modifier: +2 Constituton
Living Construct: Immune to disease, do not need to eat or breathe (but can do so).
Unsleeping Sentinel: need only 4 hours of sleep instead of 8 hours, remain totally aware of surroundings whilst sleeping
Warforged Resilience: Resistance to Poison damage, advantage on saving throws vs. poison
Integrated Armor: Base AC is 12+Dex modifier, can use a short rest to integrate a suit of armor into your body to make it impossible to remove without spending another short rest doing so
Self-Stabilizing: Advantage of death saving throws
Subrace: Choose between Warforged Scout or Warforged Soldier

Warforged Scout
Ability Score Modifier: +1 Dexterity
Size: Small
Speed: 35 feet

Warforged Soldier
Ability Score Modifier: +1 Strength
Size: Medium
Speed: 30 feet


Sources
http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/unearthed-arcana/unearthed-arcana-eberron
http://keith-baker.com/extra-life-hacking-the-warforged/

[Tetrasodium]

I don't like the UA version of most of the eberron races (ie warforged, changeling, shifters, etc) as they are too conservative & have almost no reason to consider them over the drastically more powerful phb/volo's races. I'd go with Keith Baker's warforged & declare that integrated armor no longer requires proficiency or imposes disadvantage if it would have before

[MeeposFire]

While getting +1 AC is a powerful ability Keith's is the better option (and probably was made a bit later in 5e's life cycle the original UA was done very early hence why it is so conservative). Keith's has more flexibility and feels more fleshed out to boot. Also the idea of attaching the armor to their body is a good way to work the old body ideas with the new system. Now a warforged could "tinker" with their body and improve it as he travels. Also his method means that they have no additional AC benefit over the norm when wearing armor and so less worries about abusing the AC results.

[ProsecutorGodot]

This is the moment I realized that I'd homebrewed Keith's version into my own game without knowing about it. I supposed the ability to integrate the armor during a short rest might be more useful to the party than how I'd had them pay a servicing fee at a blacksmith.

Nothing I can't explain away in the future though.

Definitely think that the UA version is lacking.

[lunaticfringe]

Baker's hands down.

[DivisibleByZero]

UA is test material.
Racial test material *ALWAYS* comes up short of anything officially released. They always have two +1s instead of a +1 and a +2.
It's not exactly a shock to see that Baker's version is preferred.

[MeeposFire]

UA is test material.
Racial test material *ALWAYS* comes up short of anything officially released. They always have two +1s instead of a +1 and a +2.
It's not exactly a shock to see that Baker's version is preferred.

Not exactly since sometimes people think the UA version was better at times (in fact is that not the case with the favored soul for you though technically all the versions are UA but it does seem to trend away from what you want) or at the very least it can be more potent than the released version (such as sorcerer ones that got tweaked down from where they were in UA). On top of that this is not a "officially released" content but just the homebrew of the guy who originally came up with the setting (which I do like a lot and I generally really like his work including this piece of it). Technically by how most people look at things the UA is more official than Kieth's due to the fact that it was developed by somebody attached to the design team while Kieth is not directly involved with 5e.

I would say the reason that Kieth's design works better is possibly due to time, the original UA was very early in 5e's life and he could take what they did and improve on it rather than starting from scratch. The other aspect is that he probably cares more about this than nearly anybody else so he went the extra mile trying to see how he could make it fit not just 5e rules but also get the most out of the flavor he wants from his setting.

[DivisibleByZero]

Not talking about classes. Talking about Races.
When WotC releases new races in UA stuff (or in original playtest material, pre-5e-release), they're always weaker than anything else in play.
Period.
You cannot contest this. It's a verifiable fact.

So when Baker releases one of his own, even if homebrewed, it is not coming from WotC as UA stuff, and it's balanced more around existing official options.
It is no surprise that his is better.

[Grod_The_Giant]

Baker's is better by a landslide. Not only does it have more flavor and remember poison, but it doesn't have that bloody stupid +1 AC. (A flat +1 AC is both boring and bounded accuracy-violating in a way that normal racial abilities aren't.)