Why do you think warforged = robots?

[Dread October]

To me they don't just look like robots, they look like bil ol Ghost in the Shell robots. That's why folks fall on the "They don't belong" camp.

I think anything can be used in a fantasy context and still be good if done well, like psionics or martial arts. There are fictional representations for all of them.

I have a player who is playing a Warforged in a game I'm running but I'm not running an Eberron game. She found an excellent way to bring the character in so I am allowing it. IMO, the door to this sort of thing was opened when the designers allowed for playing non standard races by using ECL. It's possible that folks may play a depowered version of an elemental in the future. THEN what?

 

[The_Gneech]

Watch I, Robot, then ask again.

Seriously, "warforged = magic droids" is a pretty obvious conclusion to me. Created? Check. Made of artificial materials? Check. Second class citizens? Check. Repaired instead of healed? Check. Have funky "don't eat/don't sleep"-type abilities? Check.

Saying "no, they're not robots, they're living constructs" is more than a little like saying, "no, it's not a duck, it's a small waterfowl!"

Whether people like that or not, is another matter all together. I think there are settings or scenarios where warforged are just hunkydory. In Eberron (which, as has been mentioned before, often has a certain "D&D does Star Wars" feel), they fit beautifully. I could easily see them in Planescape or Spelljammer, too.

On the other hand, they wouldn't fit so well in something like Lord of the Rings or Arthurian-style. It's all about the sub-genre, baby!

I think really the commonality of the warforged is probably the main thing that sets people off, as with the tiefling-as-core-race and so forth. A random mad scientist has a magically-created, sentient construct in his lab? Awesome. Every sixth hero you meet is a magically-created, sentient construct? Quite possibly not-so-awesome.

-The Gneech

 

[pawsplay]

Constructs have been around, in some form or fashion, since Basic D&D. I never heard anybody calling golems "robots."

As have actual robots. The thing is, I don't want someone leaving robots lying all over the porch when I'm trying to run a swords-and-sorcery game.

 

[Drowbane]

I've always been disappointed that more artists didn't emphasize the non-metallic parts of the warforged. Even our own resident artist drew the warforged as almost pure metal.

The original picture makes those elements standout. The rest, not so much (but it usually is visible).

The original you linked is a standard warforged, while Jedi Master Pozas' piece is clearly a Warforged with the Adamantine Body feat.

Considering any tanky 'forged would be silly not to take that feat, I'd say most renditions of the race should be more like Klaus' pic.

edit: what do you mean "Claudio Pozas isn't a Jedi Master"???!

 

[Voadam]

It's possible that folks may play a depowered version of an elemental in the future. THEN what?

In the future? I've read people's posts about their fire elemental fighter PCs, asking questions like what happens if they fall into a river.

 

[Mark Hope]

Well, given that the terra cotta soldiers were, last I checked, inanimate, and so at best only mirror the behavior of human corpses and couch potatoes, I don't think I'm going that far.

You have clearly been duped by the Technocracy. Iteration X laughs at your Sleeper foolishness. Although, perhaps not as much as everyone else laughs at Iteration X

Either way, "magic robots" does it for me. But then, I think that "Expedition to the Barrier Peaks" is one of the finest adventures to see print, so that pretty much figures.

 

[GVDammerung]

I've seen it a lot, especially lately. "I don't like warforged. Robots belong in sci-fi."

As a fan of warforged (in Eberron and certain settings, not everywhere), I honestly have to ask where the idea comes from.

Constructs have been around, in some form or fashion, since Basic D&D. I never heard anybody calling golems "robots."

Sentient constructs have been around for years, too. Maugs. Nimblewrights. Clockwork horrors. To my knowledge, nobody ever called them "robots."

So what is it about warforged that earns this epithet when the others don't?

Come on, now. They are humanoid shaped. Artificial, as in man created. And they appear quasi-mechanical or pseudo-mechanical if you prefer. While not the definition of a robot, that is a superficial similarity sufficient to cause casual observers to draw the comparison.

BTW, I like the Warforged, too.

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

In the future? I've read people's posts about their fire elemental fighter PCs, asking questions like what happens if they fall into a river.

They die. No save.

 

[Tetsubo]

Has anyone used the Factory (magical technology) supplement to create robots for a purely fantasy game?

 

[Michael Silverbane]

When I think of any kind of mechano (whether magical, or not) critter, if it ain't running amok and needing to be put down, I think of it as a robot. So... A golem that is standing around waiting for the PCs to show up so that it can jack them up is *not* a robot... Because its in run amok mode. But a golem that uses its big boy words... Robot.

Of course, I don't have any problem with robots, and I'm planning on springing a power-armor driving goblin war band on my PCs pretty soon, so I suppose that you can tell what my stance on sci-fi in fantasy is...

Later
silver