D&D 5E So Now We Are Paying for Early Access?

[Gradine]

I have absolutely no issues with the Warforged shtick being "really, really, really hard to take down".

It's been pointed out in numerous spaces that the Warforged armor bonus tends to keep pace with other classes (at least if magic armor starts showing up) and at nearly all levels are either exactly at or one point above what would be considered "maximum" for most characters based on recommended magic items per level.

 

[oreofox]

I have absolutely no issues with the Warforged shtick being "really, really, really hard to take down".

It's been pointed out in numerous spaces that the Warforged armor bonus tends to keep pace with other classes (at least if magic armor starts showing up) and at nearly all levels are either exactly at or one point above what would be considered "maximum" for most characters based on recommended magic items per level.

I have said similar to posts I have cared to comment on. I got basically yelled at by someone saying a racial feature shouldn't be balanced on the existance of magical armor, let alone legendary (+3) armor, or else a level 17 warforged paladin would have +4 AC more than a human paladin of level 17, instead of the +1 when you take magic items into account. If you are playing a low magic campagin where a +1 plate armor is excessively rare, what is the DM doing allowing a warforged, which is basically a magical suit of armor (or golem) with a mind.

My "fix" to this is increase the effective armor of the 3 types of warforged integrated protection to be the best armor for the tier (studded leather, half-plate, plate) and allow the warforged's body to be enchanted as if they were a suit of armor (effectively allowing them to have an Armor of Resistance effect, or a +3 armor bonus), while removing the +proficiency bonus. That way a warforged paladin isn't inherently terrible compared to a human paladin (only getting AC of 16 while the human can get 18). This is basically what I am doing for my world (and added a tortle's shell can be enchanted as if it were armor).

My gripe with Jester David's proposal is it gimps the warforged, making them worse than a human fighter at 17. A human fighter at 17 can have an AC of 21 (just armor), where as the heavy plated warforged fighter at 17 would have an AC of 19. So instead of being 1 point better, they are 2 points worse. If the warforged as is makes it the go to for a heavy armored melee combatant, I honestly wouldn't have a problem with that. Because as it stands, variant human is the go to for nearly every class.

 

[Zardnaar]

The problem might be a Warforged with a magical shield. Best of both worlds.

Otherwise the AC won't be much higher than a human with magical armor. AC 15+ prof might be better than AC 16 though which is more or less full plat at level 1. A static +1 AC or +2 would also be better IMHO.

 

[oreofox]

Static AC of 16 is chainmail. Full plate is 18. Full plate +3 is 21. Heavy plated lvl 17 warforged is AC 22. Add on a +3 shield and their ACs go to 26 and 27. This is the warforged as written.

A composite plate warforged at 17 will be 21 (13 + 2 Dex + 6 prof), while a human in +3 Half-plate will be 20 (15 + 2 Dex + 3 magic). Darkwood Core warforged at 17 will be at 22 (11 + 5 Dex + 6 prof) while a human in +3 studded leather will be at 20 (12 + 5 Dex +3 magic). So, as it stands, Darkwood Core gives the best AC of any Integrated Protection option (I miss read, it gives the same as Heavy Plating), yet I see most people complaining about Heavy Plating (which requires either being a paladin or fighter or a certain cleric, multiclassing into one of them, or burning 1-2 feats to get heavy armor proficiency).

 

[Remathilis]

Honestly, I think they "plus prof" mod should go away and just set the armors as 12 + Dex, 14+Dex (max 2) and 17 (no dex). Shield usable with all. I mean, Tortles have a 17 AC (even as wizards) and never get better without a shield or magical item; I see no reason warforged should be different.

 

[Mercule]

Actually, I'm not paying for early access. I'm paying an incentive for Keith Baker (and WotC) to do work on a campaign setting I love. The early access is nice, but -- coincidentally enough -- I was just poking at Kristian Serrano over at DDB about whether there was any way that I could throw money at the folks doing the Manifest Zone podcast to help ensure their bills were at least covered, if not encourage them to continue to do the podcast, even with busy schedules. He said that they had to be extremely careful with making money off Eberron because it wasn't open for 3P work and, even though it sprang from Keith's brain, it still belongs to WotC.

About a week later, we get the WGtE. I ran through the whole "early access" and "not official" bit, in my head, for about 10 minutes. Then, I said, "Heck with it. I was just looking for a way to throw money at Keith."

Of course, I'm also moderately active on Kickstarter, so the idea of paying for something to help get it developed isn't exactly a foreign concept, to me.

 

[oreofox]

Honestly, I think they "plus prof" mod should go away and just set the armors as 12 + Dex, 14+Dex (max 2) and 17 (no dex). Shield usable with all. I mean, Tortles have a 17 AC (even as wizards) and never get better without a shield or magical item; I see no reason warforged should be different.

Problem with that is the Tortle has an ability to get an AC of 21 without armor or shield (Shell Defense), whereas the warforged does not. Only other combat ability a warforged gets is Iron Fists (as juggernaut), which is something the tortle has as well (their claws. Both abilities do 1d4). As base, they get poison resistance (dwarves have it as well), Sentry's Rest (lesser version of the elf Trance, which is 4 hour rests instead of the warforged's 6 hours). They are immune to disease (I have yet to see a disease come up, though maybe there is one in ToA?), are immune to exhaustion from lack of sleep (I have yet to see this come up either, even though this is good, but most parties take long rests frequently as possible). Envoy's tool specialization and base warforged's Integrated Protection is really all they have. Nerf their Integrated Protection too much and you may as well just not have the race (the other Eberron races have many better racial abilities, as do a lot of the PHB races).