Warforged as +1 LA race

[shilsen]

Thanks for all the suggestions. It was just something I was considering, and I definitely plan to see them in play before making any serious decisions.

 

[Bihor]

They maybe healed 1/2 by Cure spells but mages can repaire them thet is strong

 

[Staffan]

They maybe healed 1/2 by Cure spells but mages can repaire them thet is strong

Assuming the mage has learned the appropriate spell, and prepared it. Cleric can swap out their spells for cures, wizards can't swap spells for repairs.

 

[shurai]

I play a Warforged Cleric (Level 3 at the moment), in a 3-player campaign with a Shifter Ranger and a human Artificer. Here's my take on the issue of Warforged balance:

* The immunities haven't mattered yet, but the campaign is still young.
* No-need-to-sleep has been pretty useful, but probably no more useful than to an Elf.
* Healing hasn't been a problem (is there an Eberron campaign without an Artificer?).
* Fortification hasn't helped yet (that I know of).
* +2 Con has been mighty, more mighty than I was expecting.
* -2 Wis and -2 Cha are . . . painful. But then, I'm playing Cleric, which is admittedly a bizarre (read: fairly weak) class choice.

Basically there's no way to have a Warforged Druid, Cleric, Paladin, Bard, or Sorcerer without taking a major performance hit. That sucks, because that's half the classes in the game. It was really frustrating making this character, because I had to give up a lot to make him work as a Cleric at all.

The trouble with me is that I can't stand the idea that race should determine class. Still, the character concept was well worth it. I guess I watched The Iron Giant too many times, or else I read Diesel Sweeties too often.

So, based on my experience, Warforged are more well-balanced than they appear to be at a glance.

The real trouble to me is that balance by forced class choice isn't really balance. I suspect that Warforged are stronger Fighters than all of the other Eberron/PHB races, even moreso than Shifters.

Those are my observations. I'm not sure what I'd do to fix it.

-S

PS - Warforged are always 1/2 affected by healing magic unless they take the Warforged Juggernaut prestige class to a certain level or, I believe, certain Warforged feats.

 

[Krinkle]

Remember that a non-Warforged fighter will be able to take advantage of their armor proficiencies. They will start, probably with a +4 or +5, and sooner rather than later will buy/loot full plate. The will then have 2 (or 3) feats to spend on Weapon Focus, Power Attack, Iron Will, PBS etc.

A Warforged fighter will surely take Adamantine Body (assuming they aren't an archer type). They will have a great initial AC at the cost of a feat. They will have one feat left over to improve their capabilities. Within a few levels, the Warforged and non-Warforged fighters both have a +8 AC but the non-Warforged are up by a feat (arguably two if you consider that the non-Warforged can use their Heavy Armor feat). The non-Warforged are also able to take off their armor and use, "out-of-the-box," armor they find. The Warforged always have to take armor penalties and have to hire someone to improve them.

Certainly there are advantages to having your armor built in, and the Warforged have many other advantages as well, but in my experience they are balanced just fine, and if you include non-fighter classes have a distinct disadvantage.

 

[Victim]

Remember that a non-Warforged fighter will be able to take advantage of their armor proficiencies. They will start, probably with a +4 or +5, and sooner rather than later will buy/loot full plate. The will then have 2 (or 3) feats to spend on Weapon Focus, Power Attack, Iron Will, PBS etc.

A Warforged fighter will surely take Adamantine Body (assuming they aren't an archer type). They will have a great initial AC at the cost of a feat. They will have one feat left over to improve their capabilities. Within a few levels, the Warforged and non-Warforged fighters both have a +8 AC but the non-Warforged are up by a feat (arguably two if you consider that the non-Warforged can use their Heavy Armor feat). The non-Warforged are also able to take off their armor and use, "out-of-the-box," armor they find. The Warforged always have to take armor penalties and have to hire someone to improve them.

Certainly there are advantages to having your armor built in, and the Warforged have many other advantages as well, but in my experience they are balanced just fine, and if you include non-fighter classes have a distinct disadvantage.

The DR 2/adamatine provided by Adamantine Body is a huge advantage at lower levels. It's not just plate AC at low levels, it's the kickass DR. A conventional fighter will spend around 10k for his DR 2 armor.

 

[Krinkle]

Certainly, Warforged are a very good +0 ECL race. Better than most other races as a fighter. Maybe as good as a Dwarf, maybe a bit better or bit worse depending on the character. Personally I prefer humans to Warforged because the net +2 feats allows you to do some cool stuff early*. In any case, I think it is balanced enough that changing it to +1 would be counter-productive.

* A cool thing about Eberron is that with the Dragonhouse feats and/or the action point related feats a straight fighter becomes more interesting. You can pursue your primary attack schtick (two-weapons fighting, reach/trip whatever) and also get a greater mark etc. without having it hurt alot, as it would if you were a rouge or cleric.