D&D 5E interview with Jeremy Crawford on Eberron: Rising from the Last War

[Bitbrain]

LOUD BOOOOOOOING! BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

I just can't get over how dumb/cheap those changes are. The way they'd executed both was brilliant and relatively well-balanced. I gotta figure they changed the AC thing just to make it so magic armour mattered to them.

Crawford mentions in the podcast that through feedback and playtest, they discovered a considerable difference in quality between the Warforged subraces.

 

[Charlaquin]

Agreed on both counts.

I think if they'd bumped the dex on Medium to 3 and done away with proficiency stacking on, it would have been fine. That would top each level out at 16 AC for the Integrated Armor + shields if they have them.

Then let them still wear armor if they want to put on that +1 Plate mail or something to get

Personally I’d go 13 + Dex for light, 15 + Dex (Max 2) for Medium, and 16 + Str (Max 2) for heavy with Stealth disadvantage. That gives Light frame Warforged the equivalent of permanent Mage Armor, which is the same bonus they’ll get with the new +1 AC version. Medium frame would get the equivalent of half plate, minus the Stealth disadvantage. And Heavy frame would get the equivalent of chainmail without the Str 13 requirement, or up to full plate with Str 14 instead of 15. Pretty strong early game, leveling out to being about on par with other characters before magic armor once fully upgraded. And again, if they get magic armor they could just wear it.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Crawford mentions in the podcast that through feedback and playtest, they discovered a considerable difference in quality between the Warforged subraces.

So they got rid of them instead of fixing that? Sheesh.

The Integrated Protection was really well done, and for perhaps the first time ever truly justified the existence of the Warforged (together with their other traits), and explained why they were created. The whole idea with them, from the beginning, was that they were armour, rather than needing to wear it. So them flouncing around in suits of plate and stuff is going to be pretty damn weird.

Integrated Protection was, in my opinion, too strong as written on Wayfinder’s Guide. But a simple +1 AC is swinging too far the other direction.

Aye, maybe, but it just needed somewhat lower values - and not even much lower. +1 AC is flavourless and potentially actually worse for balance in the long-term, if it basically stacks with everything, which I suspect it will.

 

[PsyzhranV2]

Trouble finding the source, but on the Eberron Discord somebody mentioned that Warforged would get custom armour attachments in lieu of both normal armour and Integrated Protection. Will see if I can find more info.

EDIT: apparently it's from this Dragon Talk? Haven't watched it to verify though:

 

[Charlaquin]

Crawford mentions in the podcast that through feedback and playtest, they discovered a considerable difference in quality between the Warforged subraces.

Yeah, the Envoy was far and away better than the other two, but like... That’d have been pretty easy to fix just by making it +1 to one ability instead of two and making the integrated tool just be proficiency instead of expertise.

 

[Bitbrain]

Yeah, the Envoy was far and away better than the other two, but like... That’d have been pretty easy to fix just by making it +1 to one ability instead of two and making the integrated tool just be proficiency instead of expertise.

No wonder I somehow blocked the Envoy from memory. Comparing that to the Juggernaut and Scout, why would I ever play any Warforged other than an Envoy?

 

[Salthorae]

Yeah, the Envoy was far and away better than the other two, but like... That’d have been pretty easy to fix just by making it +1 to one ability instead of two and making the integrated tool just be proficiency instead of expertise.

Envoy was certainly the most broadly applicable/usable. Juggernaut was actually great for what it was conceptually. Skirmisher definitely left something to be desired, but it was stacked on already nice Warforged chassis, so it's hard to say what more you add to it.

Honestly Juggernaut is great for a melee build given that it's got all the high point features of a Mountain Dwarf + Powerful Build on top.

Skirmisher just needs something... maybe a mini-disengage ability. Heck maybe even like the Goblin ability to disengage as a bonus action.

 

[Charlaquin]

Aye, maybe, but it just needed somewhat lower values - and not even much lower. +1 AC is flavourless and potentially actually worse for balance in the long-term, if it basically stacks with everything, which I suspect it will.

Yeah, honestly just reducing the base values of each by 1-3 would have been fine.

 

[Leatherhead]

Crawford mentions in the podcast that through feedback and playtest, they discovered a considerable difference in quality between the Warforged subraces.

That isn't wrong, but that has less to do with the idea of the subraces themselves and more so with the stat restrictions imposed upon them.

The Juggernaut (which is a just your stock dumb bruiser type) is an obvious design for a weapon of war in a world where guns don't exist. Unfortunately, in 5e, STR underperforms, unarmed strikes don't really work unless you are a Monk (and monks don't use STR), and Powerful Build is already on like 5 other races (making it a kind of boring power). In the end they have one good unique combat ability despite being "designed for combat." They could have thrown on some kind of extra weapon damage to help make up the difference.

The Skirmisher, on the other hand, totally outperforms the others in weapon based combat by virtue of having more movement speed and using Dex (which overperforms unless you are using a two-handed melee weapon, and even then it isn't a bad 3rd stat for a Ranger or Barbarian). The third ability of being able to move at normal speed while maintaining stealth for overland travel makes them ideal for weapons. For starters, they should have been small, but even then they would still be relativly high on the totem pole.

Finally, the Envoy just isn't well built for war at all. It does have floating stats, which is more useful for a greater range of classes and subclasses. But other than that, they are all about tool use. Which makes for fun and interesting concept characters, doesn't make for killing machines.

 

[Charlaquin]

Trouble finding the source, but on the Eberron Discord somebody mentioned that Warforged would get custom armour attachments in lieu of both normal armour and Integrated Protection. Will see if I can find more info.

I do like the sound of that.