One of my players had a Warforged Barbarian who was essentially The Iron Giant. He wanted his character to feel conflicted about his relationship to violence and this “mode” he went into.
So after session zero I added Warforged to our setting, but the idea was that they are only known as soldiers from the last Great War. They were all decommissioned.
In his backstory, he’d been brought to life by another PC’s wild magic and felt bound to protect her.
She was a wild magic sorcerer who didn’t like killing living creatures and did her best to avoid it when possible. He was a hulking walking construct that flew into rages to protect her and killed everything around. She was on a journey to figure out how to control her magic. He wanted to figure out where Warforged came from and how to control his rage.
She eventually multi-classed Warlock and took a patron to save the Warforged character’s life while mucking about in an ancient temple. Her new patron was a very obscure god who represented inevitable certainties like gravity, weights, measures and the idea that death is part of life.
The Warforged Barbarian eventually gave himself up to the bad guys (to save the druid’s sister) who wanted him as a weapon. We did a separate session where they used him as a weapon and it was super sad. To my surprise he escaped and ruined the BBEG’s Plan A in the process.
Through this sidequest he came to terms with the difference between being a weapon and using violence to stop Slaad’s bent on bringing chaos. He was one of the most interesting characters we’ve ever had.
A big part of that was thinking about what the mechanics MEAN to him and the other players. This Warforged Barbarian had never played D&D before which I weirdly think helps. He had a character concept in mind and we found a way to make it work within the rules. I'll never forget that character.
So after session zero I added Warforged to our setting, but the idea was that they are only known as soldiers from the last Great War. They were all decommissioned.
In his backstory, he’d been brought to life by another PC’s wild magic and felt bound to protect her.
She was a wild magic sorcerer who didn’t like killing living creatures and did her best to avoid it when possible. He was a hulking walking construct that flew into rages to protect her and killed everything around. She was on a journey to figure out how to control her magic. He wanted to figure out where Warforged came from and how to control his rage.
She eventually multi-classed Warlock and took a patron to save the Warforged character’s life while mucking about in an ancient temple. Her new patron was a very obscure god who represented inevitable certainties like gravity, weights, measures and the idea that death is part of life.
The Warforged Barbarian eventually gave himself up to the bad guys (to save the druid’s sister) who wanted him as a weapon. We did a separate session where they used him as a weapon and it was super sad. To my surprise he escaped and ruined the BBEG’s Plan A in the process.
Through this sidequest he came to terms with the difference between being a weapon and using violence to stop Slaad’s bent on bringing chaos. He was one of the most interesting characters we’ve ever had.
A big part of that was thinking about what the mechanics MEAN to him and the other players. This Warforged Barbarian had never played D&D before which I weirdly think helps. He had a character concept in mind and we found a way to make it work within the rules. I'll never forget that character.
Last edited: