Warforged: MM vs Dragon Magazine

[matthewseidl]

First of all I want to say I love the layout. I think it's very cool and makes me feel slightly better about DDI, but my judgement is still in check.

The warforged article raised a lot of questions for me though. First does the lack of natural armor mean warforged rogues would wear leather armor over their metal plates? It sounds right but looks weird in my head.

Yep, warforged in leather armor. Its strange, but keeps the balance with other races.

Second do warfored now heal naturally like all other characters? I thought they healed naturally but at slower pace, but maybe I'm confusing them with another race.

Warforged used to have issues with healing, but no more. Again, they're much more like other races at the moment.

What does they do not need to eat, breathe or sleep except you're not immune to effects actually mean? I know that if a wizard casts a poison gas spell the warforged would be affected like everybody else. I get that but if a trap fills the room with water? Will the warforged drown? I'm having trouble picturing how something doesn't have to breathe but is still not immune to drowning.

I'd probably rule that the Warforged aren't immune to any power, but that environmental issues are different. So if the trap did 3D6 water damage, they'd take it. If the trap said to use the drowning rules, then the warforged wouldn't drown.

Finally does the warforged's encounter power mean it gets double the HP , half temporary and half healing if it's bloodied? Is that right?

Thats my reading. If you're not bloodied, you just get 3+ 1/2 level in temp hit points. If you're bloodied, you also heal 3 + 1/2 level hit points. It makes warforged into great front line characters. Also helped by the fact thet after a fight, if you have time for some 5 minute rests, they can heal up to just above bloodied before needing to start blowing healing surges.

 

[silentounce]

There's also the phase/faze typo in their racial power.

I'm really getting sick of seeing that one crop up...

Blame spellcheck. No one actually proofreads any more. There were at least two errors, probably more, in KotS. One was at the very beginning.

"As the adventure begins, the player characters find themselves traveling down a road that hasn't been maintained in nearly a hundred years ago."

I mean, if you sit down and read that, it's impossible to miss. I often wonder if anybody actually sits down and reads something from cover to cover before it gets sent to print. Hell, I'll take that job. And I guarantee something like that would not have slipped past me.

 

[ProfessorCirno]

I hope this isn't the beginning of a trend of "We already published rules for this, but if you want a mechanically better version you need a DDI account"

So the MM has been superceded and it isn't even out a day. WotC really knows how to resell you the same stuff.

This is exactly what I was afraid of happening with DDI.

 

[Blackeagle]

First does the lack of natural armor mean warforged rogues would wear leather armor over their metal plates? It sounds right but looks weird in my head.

Check out the picture on page 28. Looks like that could be leather armor to me (could be cloth too).

 

[rkanodia]

So with all this stuff about 'attached' and 'embedded' components, a character could put an orb on their chest, or a rod/wand in their arm, and then still have their hands free for other things? This sounds to me like instant breakage for, say, a Warforged Tactical Warlord who wants to pick up some Wizard spells. Just stick a magic wand in your arm, and forget about ever having to switch weapons! I guess the downside is that the wand would conflict with your other 'arms' slot, which is for magic bracers or shields, but magic shields are a lot less significant in 4E than they were in previous editions.

 

[Sashi]

From the racial entry:
Effect: You gain a number of temporary hit points equal to 3 + one-half your level. You may make an immediate
saving throw against one effect that inflicts ongoing
damage and can be ended with a save. In addition,
if you are bloodied you regain hit points equal to 3 + one half your level.

One of the racial feats:
Benefit: Whenever you use your warforged resolve racial power, you can also make a free saving throw against one condition or ongoing damage effect affecting you.

So it looks like the "use while bloodied" boost is new, but the "free saving throw" boost is a copy-paste error.

 

[Plane Sailing]

There's also the phase/faze typo in their racial power.

Also on page 34, Final Messenger grey text, second line - where it says "small winged animal" a Pi symbol has got itself inserted between the a and l of animal.

They can't even blame the spellchecker for missing that one!

 

[Spatula]

Meh, I'd bring back the innate armor bonus and the armor feats. The idea of a creature clad in steel plates needing to layer on more steel plates in order to protect itself is... well, the 4e designers mocked that very idea when they got rid of natural armor and regular armor stacking. Sure, you can't use armor that you found. But then you don't need it, either. You can disenchant it and use the arcane dust to enchant your own body, which is a hell of a lot more interesting.

I can already see that I won't be picking up the 4e Darksun.

 

[Plane Sailing]

BTW - anybody else think that the shoulderbow is heavily inspired by the Predator movies

 

[ZetaStriker]

I think the point is that Warforged are not automatically armored; although they are metallic, without wearing or attaching armor, their 'innards', so to speak, are vulnerable.