D&D 5E UA Warforged vs. Keith Baker's Warforged

[Mercule]

Additiomally, warforged don't need to eat, but can take advantage of imbibing potions or eating magical foods. If they had no internal "organs," or at least a rudimentary stomach or circulatory system to carry the magical potion through the body, I don't see them being able to benefit as they do. Unless of course you go "because magic," which I feel is generally a valid response.

I think this is a good justification for poison having an effect on them. Cannith made an effort to give them some level of benefit from things a soldier might want to benefit from (potion of healing, if nothing else). The side effect was some level of susceptibility to the negative stuff, too. Whether the whole thing was a partial success, an intentional trade-off, or completely serendipitous is your guess.

It's a difference in other abilities. +1 armour gets the point across (you're made of metal) but means that's all there is to the race. It can't do much else. It's a static bonus that gets written down and forgotten. It's also fairly potent, as high AC characters are hard enough to hit already.
Self-stabilizing is something that comes up more often and is different. But to justify that the AC bonus needs to be ticked down slightly. (I'd prefer something else... but *shrug*). Making it so your unarmoured AC is 12 not 10 is fine and works with the concept. Plus it makes sense that the AC of the warforged skin wouldn't "stack" with heavy plate armour.

I kinda like the +1 to AC, for flavor, but I'm not sure it's really necessary with the other "I'm a robot" mechanics. I do agree that the AC 12 is a fine ribbon ability and don't feel at all bad about them losing out on it, when they upgrade.

What I definitely think should be kept, though, is the ability to bolt armor onto yourself. I actually don't like the idea of warforged being able to wear unmodified armor, at all. So, I'd add that penalty, along with the modifications ruining the armor for any other non-warforged character. Probably best to grant the warforged light armor proficiency and just say they have start with studded bolted on, really.

 

[Creamsteak]

The whole darkvision thing you've mentioned has given me the thought that the warforged should have upgrade slots instead of subraces. You could have the basic shell with various abilities that can be tailored to the role the warforged was designed to fill.

Warforged components were definitely a thing originally.

 

[Hawk Diesel]

I think this is a good justification for poison having an effect on them. Cannith made an effort to give them some level of benefit from things a soldier might want to benefit from (potion of healing, if nothing else). The side effect was some level of susceptibility to the negative stuff, too. Whether the whole thing was a partial success, an intentional trade-off, or completely serendipitous is your guess.

I guess I could see this reasoning, but I would counter that while warforged have things that correspond to organs/serve similar functions, and some of these components may be semi-living, it does not mean that they react to poisons in the same way. From my perspective, you can't really justify immunity to disease but not at least resistance to poisons.

 

[Mercule]

I guess I could see this reasoning, but I would counter that while warforged have things that correspond to organs/serve similar functions, and some of these components may be semi-living, it does not mean that they react to poisons in the same way. From my perspective, you can't really justify immunity to disease but not at least resistance to poisons.

We're talking about magical wooden robots. At a certain point, you decide what you want the rules to be and say, "just because." Those decisions can be based on flavor, balance, or something else.

In this case, 5E seems (IMO) to make disease such a minor factor that I don't see any answer as being unbalanced. I'm not sure there's a way to give resistance to disease, but that'd probably be ideal. I was really focused more on the poison part of the debate.

 

[Creamsteak]

I thought they were but couldn't quite remember. I think creating a modular subrace system for them might be a good way to bring them back.

Essentially, they came out of your magic item budget, and I think usually they still would in 5th.

 

[Uchawi]

The original warforged rocked. However, I do like the 4E version with racial options, while still maintaining equipment slots, but overall still keeping it simple.

 

[Jester David]

I kinda like the +1 to AC, for flavor, but I'm not sure it's really necessary with the other "I'm a robot" mechanics. I do agree that the AC 12 is a fine ribbon ability and don't feel at all bad about them losing out on it, when they upgrade.

Yeah, you're right that it's pretty much is just a ribbon ability. It's needed for the metal skinned robot thing, but waforged should be able to wear armor, to upgrade their gear.

What I definitely think should be kept, though, is the ability to bolt armor onto yourself. I actually don't like the idea of warforged being able to wear unmodified armor, at all. So, I'd add that penalty, along with the modifications ruining the armor for any other non-warforged character. Probably best to grant the warforged light armor proficiency and just say they have start with studded bolted on, really.

That's almost more a flavour thing. It doesn't *need* to be baked in. At best it should be a sidebar...

 

[Mercule]

That's almost more a flavour thing. It doesn't *need* to be baked in. At best it should be a sidebar...

Eh, maybe. Depends on how tight you want the flavor. Personally, I really don't like the idea of a warforged actually wearing armor. I really like the distinction. As a DM, I don't want to have a player tell me he puts on the armor he just found. It just grates, a bit like if the PCs find a generic +1 weapon that is equally useful for the GWF master or the halfling rogue. Blech.

Since the whole "warforged component" thing is something I found easy to overlook, when I had a player with a warforged, I see the repurposing of standard armor as a reasonable compromise. The flavor of making it useless being optional flavor. Either way, magic armor would certainly work as part of the resizing rule.

 

[Horwath]

The whole darkvision thing you've mentioned has given me the thought that the warforged should have upgrade slots instead of subraces. You could have the basic shell with various abilities that can be tailored to the role the warforged was designed to fill.

The basic chassis might be:
Constitution +1
Living Construct: Immune do disease, does not need to eat or breathe, does not sleep(but needs 4 hours of inactivity to get long rest bonuses), halve effective exhaustion levels(I.E. needs 12 levels to die); resistance on poison damage, advantage on saves vs poison.

And, as some ideas for subsystems (Each slot can only hold a single upgrade, upgrades cannot be replaced once the warforged comes online):
Head Slot
Stealth Detection System: Proficiency in Perception, Darkvision.
Targetting System: Double the short range of ranged weapons.

Chest Slot
Integrated Armour: +1 AC bonus.
Regenerative Plating: When below half health, regain 1 hit point at the start of your turn.

Limb Slot
Integrated Weapon: Unarmed Strikes deal a base 1d6 damage or either bludgeoning, slashing, or piercing damage (chosen when this slot is taken)
Upgraded Leg Servos: Your base movement speed is 35 feet.

All of the above are ideas, I'm not currently considering anything like balance for the race.

I like the idea. but for limbs I would add:

Hand Slot:
Integrated weapons: same as yours
Nimble fingers: proficiency in thief tools and sleight of hands

Leg Slot:
Upgraded Leg Servos: Your base movement speed is 35 feet.
Stabilizing servos: adv vs trip and push.

 

[TwoSix]

I'm not that incredibly concerned with balance but I always loved the theme around warforged. I don't want to lose the mental image I had for them in 3rd edition, and a lot of the 4e and 5e mechanics done so-far just feel like compromises. I know everyone is homebrewing here, but I think this is fairly clean while covering at least the considerations I have, including allowing it to work with any class.
<snip>

This is all perfect, and I am stealing it.