D&D 5E Warforged Disguise Kit

[Horwath]

I would say that Envoy is built as modern ehm,,, "entertainment" dolls.

It is designed to interact in social settings, and having T-800 without the "meat suit" is not a perfect company in many situations.

Maybe some kind of taxidermy or similar thing with real human skin is used in the creation.
Maybe permanent prestidigation spell is integrated to simulate body heat, sweat, good or bad breath, simulated breathing, etc...

 

[Paul Farquhar]

"You can fluff it how you like" is very the attitude of the Wayfinder's Guide, and that includes the basic appearance of any warforged character.

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

This actually comes up in the creator's podcast. He suggests that it isn't like a Changeling's ability, it is just an actual disguise kit, with the restriction as to time needed to create disguises and suchlike.

 

[Perun]

How would you handle a halfling trying to pass as human? A gnome trying to pass as half-orc? An elf trying to pass as dwarf? If you'd give penalties/disadvantage to these checks, I'd say they're appropriate here as well.

If, OTOH, you don't think penalties are appropriate when a dragonborn tries to disguise himself as a half-elf... don't apply them here either.

 

[Horwath]

How would you handle a halfling trying to pass as human? A gnome trying to pass as half-orc? An elf trying to pass as dwarf? If you'd give penalties/disadvantage to these checks, I'd say they're appropriate here as well.

If, OTOH, you don't think penalties are appropriate when a dragonborn tries to disguise himself as a half-elf... don't apply them here either.

Well, for some things diguise would simply auto-fail.
Like halfling to an halforc.

I would say that if Warforged was made as a human by deafult that he does not have any penalties for using disguise as a generic human(hell, I would give him advantage on the check for simply being recognised as a human)

 

[Paul Farquhar]

How would you handle a halfling trying to pass as human?

A human child? sure.

A gnome trying to pass as half-orc?

Not possible.

But a gnome as a halfling or goblin? Sure.

An elf trying to pass as dwarf?

No.

But an elf as a human? Sure, just pull your woolly hat over your ears.

It's not comparing like with like, and a warforged that is built to look human could, with the aid of a disguise kit, impersonate a human without penalties. If the warforged didn't look remotely human (which is entirely up to the player) then it could never impersonate a human, no matter how good the disguise.

 

[Hawk Diesel]

This actually comes up in the creator's podcast. He suggests that it isn't like a Changeling's ability, it is just an actual disguise kit, with the restriction as to time needed to create disguises and suchlike.

I'm not really a fan of this idea. This would essentially mean that any player taking disguise kit as their Envoy Warforged tool is making a walking make-up compact. And hey, if you want to play a Warforged stylist akin to Zohan, then that totally works. However, at least within the Eberron setting, warforged were built to fight a war. Each one was made for a specific purpose towards winning that war, and required significant resources to create. While a warforged may later decide to alter themselves to pursue a passion in make-up and styling after its purpose in war has been served, it seems much more likely that a warforged with such a built-in tool would have been built for infiltration. Thus, such a warforged would by necessity need to be able to convincingly pass themselves off as a human. If that could not be achieved within an acceptable rate of success, then no such warforged would have been created with their envoy tool as a disguise kit. Wars don't need make-up artists. They need effective spies and scouts.

EDIT: I can see the warforged needing the same time to create a disguise as anyone else. Perhaps they are making the fake skin and wig and stuff like a 3D printer. It wouldn't be as quick as a changeling. But I also don't think it would be like a different kind of Warforged using a normal disguise kit. A warforged envoy with a racial disguise kit tool would be more effective and robust, allowing them to pass as human or appropriately sized demi-humans. I don't think regular warforged using a regular disguise kit could pull off a similar disguise.

 

[tglassy]

We played last night, and we decided to make it simple. He’s a Terminator, and can generate a skin-like substance around his body to look human. He can change the appearance of his Disguise with a long rest, but can only have one appearance at a time.

I haven’t told the party about what he is, so they all just assumed he was human, until we got into combat and now a few of them are suspicious. While he does have History as a proficiency, he really just knows facts about history. He is very ignorant of the “Why” of human culture. So he acts very curious and takes other people’s lead during social encounters, often to humorous effect. Oddly enough, he is a very effective liar. Able to tell bold faced lies with a completely straight face. Mostly about who he is and what his mission is.

And then he gets in to combat. I rolled for my equipment and since I don’t need food I opted for a heavy crossbow. Wow. Heavy crossbow plus Arcane Weapon spell = dead bandits. We went to attack a bandit camp and (because our Rogue is an idiot and alerted the whole camp) we wound up fighting 12 of them at lvl 1, and I downed one every round, almost. I critted once, and the damage was enough to kill 2 of them, so the DM allowed the bolt to go trough one guy and into the other. I never realized what a damage boost 1d6 is. That, and I rolled surprisingly well.

And during combat, Ferrous, the curious, easygoing Artificer, goes into “combat mode”, systematically picking off targets with emotionless detachment. Since his “magic” is going to be fluffed as megitech, his crossbow had glowing lights along the sides when he “cast” Arcane Weapon on it, and he used his bonus action to change the type of damage every shot, just cause, and the “lights” would change to match the damage type.

All in all he was a very effective character. I’m very happy so far. We rolled stats, so he wound up with 8, 16, 13, 17, 11, 14.

I figure at lvl 12 he can make his own Gauntlets of Ogre Power if I want to do melee by that point, and at lvl 16 he can make an Amulet of Health, and while I know those are higher levels, I figured Int, Dex and Cha were more important for this concept. I’m going Artillarist at lvl 3, so I won’t be able to use Int for Attack like a Battlesmith, so Dex needs to be high. I plan to take Keen Mind at either lvl 4 or 8, to give that +1 to Int and feel Keen Mind’s abilities work with a robot. I’ll also focus on raising his Dex so he can attack better. Going with the Medium Armor set up until he gets a 20 in Dex, and then I’ll go Light. Funny how the Light Armor version is better than the medium for Warforged. Either way his AC is currently a 17 without a shield (13+2 Dex + 2 prof). More Dex doesn’t help with the Medium Armor setup, but if I had a 20 in Dex, with the Light Armor setup it would be 18 (11+5 Dex+2 prof). So if I ever get a 20 in Dex, I’ll switch.

Planning on utilizing the no sleep exhaustion to work on crafting magical items during travel. Mainly wands, once I get to lvl 3. I plan to have a bandolier of wands at higher levels.

 

[tglassy]

I did a workup of what he’ll be like at lvl 20, and what possibilities there are. I realized that by lvl 20, he can make +2 Shields and Armor, Bracer of Defense, Ring of Protection and Cloak of Protection. Now, this Warforged can’t wear armor, but he can use a Shield.

Because he’s a Warforged, and I plan on getting his Dex up to 20 by the time he is lvl 20, his AC will be 11+5 Dex + 6 Prof = 22. That’s before anything else. +4 from a +2 Shield, +1 Ring of Protection, and +1 Cloak of Protection. That’s an additional +6. That makes his AC 28.

But there’s more. He’s going to be an Artillarist, and at lvl 14, he has half cover while within 10 ft of his Turret. Half Cover is +5 to AC. So that makes his AC 33.

But there’s more! As an Artillarist, he can cast Shield. That makes his AC 38.

Tiamat would almost need to Crit just to hit him.

All this by Attuning 3 out of six magic items, as his capstone let’s him attune to six items at once. And if he has 6, which he will have at least 5, he also gets a bonus to saving throws equal to the number of items he is attuned to. And he’s proficient in Con Saves. And can make an Amulet of Health, and A Belt of Hill Giant Strength to make his Con 19 and Str 21.

So his Con save will be a +16. His Int save will be +17. His Str and Dex saves will be +11. Even Wis and Cha will be +6 and +8, respectively, and that’s not bad.

Essentially, he almost can’t get hit and very rarely fails a Saving Throw unless it’s Wisdom or Charisma. Granted, that’s a pretty big weakness, but even then he basically gets proficiency in them.

Add in fake skin, some blasty spells and homemade wands and he is literally the Terminator.

 

[Perun]

I would say that if Warforged was made as a human by deafult that he does not have any penalties for using disguise as a generic human(hell, I would give him advantage on the check for simply being recognised as a human)

It's not comparing like with like, and a warforged that is built to look human could, with the aid of a disguise kit, impersonate a human without penalties. If the warforged didn't look remotely human (which is entirely up to the player) then it could never impersonate a human, no matter how good the disguise.

Thus, such a warforged would by necessity need to be able to convincingly pass themselves off as a human. If that could not be achieved within an acceptable rate of success, then no such warforged would have been created with their envoy tool as a disguise kit. Wars don't need make-up artists. They need effective spies and scouts.

EDIT: I can see the warforged needing the same time to create a disguise as anyone else. Perhaps they are making the fake skin and wig and stuff like a 3D printer. It wouldn't be as quick as a changeling. But I also don't think it would be like a different kind of Warforged using a normal disguise kit. A warforged envoy with a racial disguise kit tool would be more effective and robust, allowing them to pass as human or appropriately sized demi-humans. I don't think regular warforged using a regular disguise kit could pull off a similar disguise.

Here I disagree with you. An envoy warforged is a warforged. There's nothing in the racial write-up of envoy that would suggest that an envoy with a built-in disguise kit gets any kind of special benefit when disguised as a member of another race.

They get a built-in disguise kit (however you reflavour it).

And they're already better at it than any other warforged, as they get double their proficiency bonus when using their built-in kit. (I initially thought bard and rogue warforged could match their mastery with chosen tool through Expertise class feature, but they actually can't -- Expertise covers only skill checks and, for rogues only, thieves' tools.)

Now, the rules for disguises are anything but clear. If you go by the PHB, in the section on using ability scores (pp. 177-178), it would seem like creating a disguise is an Intelligence (Disguise Kit) check, and trying to pass yourself off in disguise a Charisma (Deception) check. But XGtE then muddles things by saying that copying a humanoid's appearance is DC 20.

So, apparently in RAW, there is no penalty, disadvantage or increase in DC when trying to pass off as a member of another race. And, as such, a warforged inflitrator would have an easier time to pass off as a human than another human. Which, IMO and with all due respect, is silly.

I'd say when you disguise yourself, the quality of the disguise is determined by a Intelligence (Disguise Kit) roll. DC set by the DM, with as much granularity as the DM is willing to deal with (same race, disguising as a member of another sex, races similar in appearance, etc.). If you pass the check, your disguise is good enough not to raise suspicion on appearance alone. Further success depends on various Charisma skills (mainly Deception, but other could be useful as well -- Perform, for example), maybe occasionally used with Intelligence instead of Charisma.

I would give warfoged some kind of penalty on their attempts to disguise as members of other races. The same I'd apply to dragonborn trying to pass off as human, for example. Or a human trying to pass of as warforged. The envoy's integrated tool benefits would give him an edge in such situations, but he wouldn't be as good as passing off as human as another human. OTOH, a warforged would have an easier time trying to disguise himself as a shield guardian, golem, or other similar creatures.

There's nothing in Masque's description implying she's good at disguising herself as human. It just says she's built for infiltration, to blend in and assassinate. She could do that by posing as another warforged. There were a lot of them built, and they were found in armies of all nations.

But, it would all be a lot easier if we had better rules for disguise. This way, it's according to the DM's interpretation. Which means we're all correct. And likely wrong, at the same time

I apologise if the post came out difficult to follow. I started replying this morning, and then continued returning to it when I could get away from work.