Warforged: Like them or loathe them?

[BryonD]

Warforged are a good idea, but the healing problem is just annoying. It basically pushes the class' downside off on somebody else.

Exactly. People try to say that is a weakness of the race. But what it really means is that they take more of the party resources away from everyone else.

 

[Mallus]

I like them, mechanically and otherwise.

I don't see what the big deal is about designating Warforged as 'core'. Use them if you like, exclude them if you don't. Like any other part of the rule set, they're just tools to use to build your game environment. Just because your toolbox might contain a hammer doesn't obligate you to start pounding nails in hither and yon...

My homebrew doesn't have a single core race from the RAW in it. But it does have Warforged, oddly enough...

 

[Glyfair]

I You can argue that their pluses and minuses balance out. But if the pluses and minuses are excessive (and they are) then they still screw up the game even if the total is zero.

Which isn't necessarily relevant to a 4E warforged. We have no idea how they will be balanced in 4E and it might work out quite well. We do know DR is an issue, but it might just be an issue with DR and not warforged. Even if it is an issue, it might be fixed by the time 4E comes out.

I dislike the whole android thing.

Android doesn't work any better than robot for warforged (but it is closer).

Robot: a machine that resembles a human and does mechanical, routine tasks on command.

Warforged aren't machines.

Android: an automaton in the form of a human being.
Automaton: a mechanical figure or contrivance constructed to act as if by its own motive power; robot.

Again, warforged aren't mechanical.

Golem: a figure artificially constructed in the form of a human being and endowed with life.

This, however, fits.

 

[WhimsyTheFae]

Meh. I really like the Warforged for my GenCon True20 pickup game, which was a planetary romance-type adventure set on Saturn. They made good steam-powered robots.

In my fantasy, however, robots really are out of place (except, once again, if they are a rare technological creation - like in an Atlantean setting). So, no, keep the robots out of the PHB I.

 

[Simia Saturnalia]

Dear Warforged,

It's not that I hate you, far from it. If they put you in the core I'll find a place for you, but for right now you and gnomes should be working together on the "artifice" power source for PHB II, sitting nicely alongside psionics and something else for Eberron. You don't really fit in to the PHB, you know?​

Big fan,
S.S.
​

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

I like them quite a bit in the context of their setting. I'd rather other, more universal races make the cut for the PHB.

 

[BryonD]

Which isn't necessarily relevant to a 4E warforged. We have no idea how they will be balanced in 4E and it might work out quite well. We do know DR is an issue, but it might just be an issue with DR and not warforged. Even if it is an issue, it might be fixed by the time 4E comes out.

I agree.

Android doesn't work any better than robot for warforged (but it is closer).

I disagree.

Golem: a figure artificially constructed in the form of a human being and endowed with life.

This, however, fits.

Ah, so you agree they should be constructs.

 

[CleverNickName]

While I wouldn't go so far as to say they do not belong anywhere in D&D, I can say this: I have never used them in any of my games, and I don't plan to start using them anytime soon. They just don't fit into my mental picture of what a fantasy setting should be. Sci-fi, definitely. Spelljammer, maybe. D&D Core, certainly not.

 

[Mercule]

Golem: a figure artificially constructed in the form of a human being and endowed with life.

This, however, fits.

I was thinking about the "robot" epithet as I typed my earlier response. After rolling it around a while, I realized what sort of flavor the warforged have.

They'd play nicely along side the "races" in the nWoD Promethean: the Created game. Frankensteins, golums, Galatea, all have similar themes and traits to the warforged. Hey, metal and wood are both core Eastern elements. Maybe there's a Japanese lineage that looks like warforged.

 

[Mallus]

Ah, so you agree they should be constructs.

The construct mechanics aren't suited for a PC race, so why would want to use them for one?