Warforged, Dragonborn and Composite Plating (3.5)

[JellyPooga]

So here's the thing. Warforged qualify for the Dragonborn template, being as any non-evil creature with Int 3 or higher does. They lose all their racial traits bar their ability scores, size and movement...in the case of a Warforged this means they lose their Slam Attack, Light Fortification and Composite Plating, but none of the traits of a Living Construct.

The prerequisites for the various feats that alter a Warforged Composite Plating (Adamantine Body etc.), however, don't require you to actually have Composite Plating...just to be Warforged and level 1. Is it abuse to have a Dragonborn Warforged with the Adamantine or Mithral Body Feat, or is this just a loophole that is fair game to exploit?

[jiriku]

The feats themselves aren't especially powerful, and dragonborn goes out of its way to say you continue to qualify for effects that check for your original racial type. I don't think it's abuse by any means, if by abuse you mean an attempt to break the game.

Now, a DM might still disallow it (I would), but if he does, it's going to be coming from a fluff/flavor/common sense perspective, not an abuse of power perspective.

[JellyPooga]

The feats themselves aren't especially powerful, and dragonborn goes out of its way to say you continue to qualify for effects that check for your original racial type. I don't think it's abuse by any means, if by abuse you mean an attempt to break the game.

Now, a DM might still disallow it (I would), but if he does, it's going to be coming from a fluff/flavor/common sense perspective, not an abuse of power perspective.

That's pretty much what I figured. Hey ho, suspicions confirmed.

[Myrmex]

Well, you need adamantine plating to qualify for warforged juggernaught prc.

[Darrin]

Is it abuse to have a Dragonborn Warforged with the Adamantine or Mithral Body Feat, or is this just a loophole that is fair game to exploit?

I don't really play in any high-level games, but a good rule of thumb... if you're not inflicting quickened maximized twinned persistent mindrape on an ancient dragon while polymorphed into a feral greenbound sandwich after your animal companion/familiar/mount casts timestop for you, you're probably not coming all that close to "broken" as you think you are.

[AslanCross]

Considering that the armor material feats for warforged are pretty much just instant armor that you don't have to buy, I don't consider this broken at all. The armor enhancements you'll be putting on yourself later on will end up costing more.

[JellyPooga]

I don't really play in any high-level games, but a good rule of thumb... if you're not inflicting quickened maximized twinned persistent mindrape on an ancient dragon while polymorphed into a feral greenbound sandwich after your animal companion/familiar/mount casts timestop for you, you're probably not coming all that close to "broken" as you think you are.

Oh I never considered it "broken", not by a long shot...I was talking about "abuse"...slight difference. The former is something that ruins a game because of the 'mechanical' impact of "winning D&D", the latter is (to my mind anyway) usually more concerned with the verisimilitude of the game; to take a familiar example, Dragonwrought Kobold cheese...it's "abuse" to have every one of your kobold characters be dragonwrought and venerable just for the stat increases to your mental ability scores. It's "broken" to start taking Epic feats, Loredrake and other normally unavailable options for a character of that level.