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

[QuietBrowser]

...Isn't that basically what a Ribbon is?

 

[Staccat0]

I ended up borrowing from both versions and making one of my players a Warforged option using these ideas on a Dwarf chassis.

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

...Isn't that basically what a Ribbon is?

I'd view a ribbon as something with no actual mechanical advantage - at least for combat. The Warforged unarmoured AC is a definite combat advantage for some Rogues and casters, at least at low levels. Just not for the more martial characters who can use better armour.

 

[Mercule]

Overall, I prefer Keith's. The armor is slightly wonky, but easy enough to tweak. I also don't really care for a size small warforged.

 

[Beleriphon]

Alright, so, after seeing all the homebrewed Warforged in this thread, I want to try my own hand at one, but here's the thing; in addition to liking Keith Baker's subrace approach, wasn't there also a Large sized Warforged Titan variant in 3rd edition? Since 5e has simplified Large races to the formula of "Medium with Powerful Build racial feature" (even if they do seem to overestimate that feature's actual value), perhaps the right combination of "big, tough, powerful" racial features could allow for a Titan subrace to be viable?

The Titan was a precursor to the warforged. Semi-intelligent it was more like a living siege engine. It was a straight up monster rather than playable race.

 

[collin]

Overall, I prefer Keith's. The armor is slightly wonky, but easy enough to tweak. I also don't really care for a size small warforged.

I also prefer KB's version to the UA version. It has more of a traditional Eberron feel (obviously) than the UA version.

 

[Mercule]

I also prefer KB's version to the UA version. It has more of a traditional Eberron feel (obviously) than the UA version.

Yeah. I'm afraid Eberron may be in a similar state as Greyhawk: No one can quite capture the feel of Greyhawk besides Gary; no one quite captures the same Eberron feel as Keith.

I reconciled myself to Greyhawk being better off left dead, years ago. *sigh*

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

Alright, so, after seeing all the homebrewed Warforged in this thread, I want to try my own hand at one, but here's the thing; in addition to liking Keith Baker's subrace approach, wasn't there also a Large sized Warforged Titan variant in 3rd edition? Since 5e has simplified Large races to the formula of "Medium with Powerful Build racial feature" (even if they do seem to overestimate that feature's actual value), perhaps the right combination of "big, tough, powerful" racial features could allow for a Titan subrace to be viable?

The Titan was a precursor to the warforged. Semi-intelligent it was more like a living siege engine. It was a straight up monster rather than playable race.

I think QB is referring to the Warforged Charger, which was a Large-sized, gorilla-like warforged. While it did have an ECL listed, so could technically be played in 3.5, I'm not sure whether it would be worth trying to turn into a 5e PC race. IIRC it had a fairly low intelligence, couldn't use weapons and was pretty much limited to the "Mongrol smush!" style of play.

You could have a Warforged variant (perhaps intended as a sapper or engineer) with the powerful build trait, but it would probably best to stick to the generally humanoid body plan of a normal warforged, just slightly larger and more solid.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I think giving them a higher than normal unarmored AC, and the ability to integrate armor to gain higher AC makes the most sense thematically, but a flat bonus to AC is easier.

That said, I think it would be fine to have the AC benefit not be a big benefit. I'm fine with it being a convenience benefit, where you don't have to buy armor, and it can't be taken away, and you can integrate any magic armor you find, gain that enchantement, etc.
Maybe it should be based on proficiency, so they get free light, medium, or heavy, their choice, so long as they are proficient in that armor type.

Dungeons and Dragons online, which is based in Eberron, has Warforged Docents, which are basically Warforged only magic items, that provide the benefits of armor, but can't be used by meat bags.

I wonder if those could be included somehow.


I'd also like to see rules for attached weapons, shields, etc.

 

[ak318]

Made a modded form trying to merge bet bits of both and clean up wording what do people think? https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XC9kTD4KwfZduvayB-McM4B00O4POOBdyJ8gI75k15M/edit?usp=sharing

Please notes is view only so if people want to comment on it will have to reply here rather than comment on doc.