D&D 5E UA Warforged vs. Keith Baker's Warforged

[CapnZapp]

On the whole, I like the UA one better although I feel that it could do with a +2 con modifier instead of +1 (I think that was a critique of all of the races from that article that they only had a +1/+1 instead of +2/+1)

I believe they do give out a sum of +3, it's just +1 to Str, +1 to Con and +1 to AC instead of two abilities.

I kept that in my version. I take it +3 to abilities and +1 to AC is too strong.

 

[CapnZapp]

About warforgeds;

Integrated AC should be 13+dex, so it can compete with various unarmed AC calculations and spells(45gp extra seems just bad).

Soldier; AC 19

Sorry but now you've gone ahead and granted warforged the equivalence of magical +1 versions of the best light and heavy armors. That is way too good, especially at 1st level. It might take the other characters five or more levels to catch up.

You should really reconsider WotC's UA version.

A +1 AC is clean, simple, works universally for all builds.

Yes, it means a Warforged Soldier still needs to wait for plate mail, but that's simply the way the game was designed. If you really dislike the notion of a Warforged wearing armor at all, consider Baker's integrated armor option that lets a Warforge "absorb" a suit of armor into its own body.

 

[CapnZapp]

Is this a trick question?
If your DM allows KB version, use that. You get everything the WoTC version gives & more....
Use the UA version if you aren't allowed the KB version.

Keith Baker's seems more balanced.

Keith Bakers, hands down. Better flavour and I didn't like anything in the UA articial, although Changelings were way worse. Did he try his hand at a better Changeling?

I've used the KB version in my game. The WotC version seems underpowered and uninteresting.

[MENTION=6803664]ccs[/MENTION], [MENTION=6801209]mellored[/MENTION], [MENTION=6670153]gyor[/MENTION] and [MENTION=37579]Jester David[/MENTION] - are you seing something I missed? Are you running Integrated Armor differently than I?

Or perhaps you've made the same mistake as Mr Baker, thinking the ability would be more useful than it really is? Because to me, that ability is USELESS.

The only standard character that gets any use out of it is the Rogue (and possibly a high-Dex Wizard), and then only a 45 gp savings. Everyone else gets better AC out of another solution that does not stack with this.

(by the way, if you are running it so the Warforged can wear armor on top of his intergrated armor, then you are running it as if the ability read simply "+2 AC".)

 

[Horwath]

Sorry but now you've gone ahead and granted warforged the equivalence of magical +1 versions of the best light and heavy armors. That is way too good, especially at 1st level. It might take the other characters five or more levels to catch up.

You should really reconsider WotC's UA version.

A +1 AC is clean, simple, works universally for all builds.

Yes, it means a Warforged Soldier still needs to wait for plate mail, but that's simply the way the game was designed. If you really dislike the notion of a Warforged wearing armor at all, consider Baker's integrated armor option that lets a Warforge "absorb" a suit of armor into its own body.

Maybe,

I forgot to add to soldier disadvantage on stealth.

Giving 12+dex AC means nothing. Ok, it means 45gp, but after 1st session means nothing.

+1 AC if almost the same, better at later levels, worse at first for heavy armors.

 

[Horwath]

AC 19? Right off the bat? Not even making them wait for the money for plate armor?

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I don't look for balance with costs of mundane items.
Anyway the game has only 2 armors really: plate and studded leather.

Plate can be aquired at 1st,2nd or 6th level. Does not matter, It's not magical, it can be bought by anyone with a bag of silver and copper coins, but smiths would prefer platinum.

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

Anyway the game has only 2 armors really: plate and studded leather.

That is far from universally true.

 

[Horwath]

That is far from universally true.

OK, you can add brestplate to that. Not talking about magic variants.

but the rest are filler armour for militia as they are cheap.

Every adventurer will buy himself the best money can buy. That is plate and studded leather, brestplate to a degree.

Either you have best stealth armour or best armour.

Too bad that medium armour is still unwanted basterd child of light and heavy armour.

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

Not talking about magic variants.

Neither was I.

Too bad that medium armour is still unwanted basterd child of light and heavy armour.

While that may well be true in your campaigns, it's not inherently true of everyone else's campaigns.

 

[Wednesday Boy]

Final Messenger: You can cast the animal messenger spell once using this trait without requiring the components or animals present. Instead, the messenger appears as a tiny flying construct produced by your body. You cannot use this ability again until you finish a long rest.

If you are reduced to 0 or fewer HP, you automatically use this ability, even if you have already used it today.

This bit of utility is why I like your version over WotC's and Baker's. I can see how the ability in theirs are beneficial but to me the boons they give are sterile and uninteresting. They need to have more "ribbon" abilities to make the race unique to play.

 

[Sunseeker]

Poison resistance really depends on how you conceptualize Warforged design and poison. Technically poison should have no effect on a robot unless you were injecting sufficient amounts of it to replace a sizable portion of the existing mechanical fluids in the robot. It also depends on if you think a Warforged has "tubes" like veins carrying fluids to parts of the mechanical body, ie: is a Warforged an Android (seemingly humanoid replicant) or a Robot (a machine with no internal similarity to humans)?

So really, I can see the poison thing going either way.

I think Integrated Armor is neat, but too complicated.

The Unearthed Arcana Warforged is more fitting to 5E I think and only slightly weaker.