Warforged- change Integrated Protection

[AmerginLiath]

Another option is to rework it as a leveled racial ability (similar to other races’ spellcasting), where they begin with a very basic version but can then gain higher AC at third and then five level. That both matches up when they have plate-style AC with other characters better and allows classes which gain AC bonuses through other means to make use of those calculations for a few levels instead of being effectively wasted class abilities.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

I honestly don't think they need a rework. Yes their AC can be high. But that's the benefit of playing a warforged. It's not like other races can't get AC 18 at level 1.

 

[Coroc]

I mainly do not like the switching of the armor class during rests, that is plain useless to me. Either a character is optimized on stealth or it is not. That is like giving a rogue heavy armor proficiency. It does not give him anything, because heavy armor interferes with his assumed dex bonus.

I hope they rule that one different, it is outright bad design.

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

U was wondering, how are they switching out armor between rests? Wouldn't they need some sort of mechanic to remove the armor for them? I've always thought of the warforge as androids, maybe like the Exos from Destiny. Like for them to actually change armor, they would have to go to some facility in a city that is actually capable of taking them apart.

The original intent behind the integrated plating idea by the setting creator is that warforged, as magical constructs, have a level of control over their bodies that allows them to grow plates, spikes etc over time. They're not robots: they can't unbolt parts of their bodies any more than a normal human could.
(For the same reason that you couldn't harvest 3.5e warforged with body feats for precious metals: the adamantine or mithril was a magical growth of their bodies, and would degrade on death like the rest of them.)

If you're using the "hermit crab" idea; that warforged put on and grow into artificial armour rather than their bodies inherently having that potential level of protection, there is no reason that a warforged would need help putting on armour any more than a human would.

 

[Staffan]

I mainly do not like the switching of the armor class during rests, that is plain useless to me. Either a character is optimized on stealth or it is not. That is like giving a rogue heavy armor proficiency. It does not give him anything, because heavy armor interferes with his assumed dex bonus.

I hope they rule that one different, it is outright bad design.

I'm leaning both ways on this, which makes me very dizzy.

On one hand, back in the day, a warforged had to spend a feat at first level to get anything other than the basic composite plating (+2 AC, the equivalent of leather armor in 3e, counts as light armor). The Eberron setting book had two feats: mithral plating (IIRC equal to a mithral breastplate, counts as light armor but protects as medium) or adamantine plating (equivalent of full plate + DR 3/adamantine). Races of Eberron added two more for specialized purposes: unarmored (remove the basic armor but count as unarmored, useful for monks) and darkwood (replace metal components with super-hard wooden ones, for warforged who want to be druids). Anyhow, my point was that this feat had to be taken at first level and could not then be changed.

On the other hand, 3e warforged were clearly able to gradually change their composition. There were feats to improve various aspects (e.g. more DR for adamantine, I think lower armor check penalty/higher maxDex for mithral), and one prestige class in the core book (Juggernaut, for leaning strongly into the construct side of "living construct", growing spikes and getting more DR and crit immunity) and another one in Races of Eberron (don't recall the name, but it went the other way, becoming more living). They could also get their core armor improved just like other magic armor.

On the third limb (I guess I'm doing feet now), these improvements felt rather slow to me. A warforged doesn't become a juggernaut overnight, it takes them however long time it takes to level up.

I guess that where I eventually land (on the other foot, then) is that I'm cool with the concept of warforged changing their integrated protection, but on a slower time-scale than a long rest. Perhaps when leveling up, or as a downtime activity taking a week or so. That would allow for a warforged to e.g discover a taste for the wild and switching to a lighter model when taking ranger levels, or something like that.

 

[Remathilis]

Remove proficiency bonus. Allow them to enchant their bodies. Done.

 

[Coroc]

I still would rather see some fixed base AC based on that a max. Dex Modifier, but give them DR maybe based on proficiency? Like on first level DR 2 on fifth DR 3 etc.

 

[Ymdar]

That's why my warforged are always gold-plated.

Two words:

Kender thieves

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Remove proficiency bonus. Allow them to enchant their bodies. Done.

If 5e had a detailed magic item crafting system like Pathfinder, with prices, level requirements, etc, then this would be a viable option.


As it is, it's far to hit-and-miss.

 

[Coroc]

Let us put a bit of analysis into this: All the ???? armored or ???? armor master feats do not work with the ?official? rules given.

What do we need? We need something so a warforged can fit a class "role".

What does the suggested ?official? rules seem to assume? The warforged needs some method to change his armor class.
For what purpose exactly? And if so why can this not be done with items aka docents?
I can't see any point that the warforged needs something else than an appropriate armor and derived from that applicable dex bonus and eventually a stealth disadvantage.

What would be a thematic fitting property of warforged? Damage reduction.

Damage reduction is much more balanced than high armor classes. DR does not hamper bound accuracy's principles.

How would I resolve that?

Introduce docents. Like in DDO. Composite, Mithral and Adamant plating given by docents.

Composite gives AC+2 no dex penalty no stealth penalty

Mithral gives AC +5 max dex +2 either no stealth penalty or DR 1 (choice of player)

Adamant gives AC+8 and DR 2