Warforged: Like them or loathe them?

[BryonD]

Explain please.

I'm not going into the full details yet again here.
In a nutshell an attempt was made to make a construct race but it was mechanically constrained by a subjective goal of also making a +0 LA race. Thus, mechanically, they were forced to shoehorn a new build to try to reach both goals.

IMO they did a really terrible job on both counts.

 

[BryonD]

I use Warforged in my homebrew setting. Thus, I want them in the PHB, because it will make my life slightly more convenient.

Cheers, -- N

Fair enough.

 

[mhacdebhandia]

I voted for option 2 - not in the first Player's Handbook, but in a later volume.

I don't want warforged in the first core ruleset because I think they're one of the things which makes Eberron distinctive, and having a core presence would water down that factor.

I love warforged, though, along with all the races of Eberron (both new and re-imagined).

What about warforged in MM1 ?
Developers have say that many "monsters" in MM1 will be decribed both as monster and as race (for example gnomes). So Warforged could be there too.

That would actually be ideal, as far as I'm concerned. It helps Eberron players properly convert and it doesn't take up room in the one book nearly everyone owns.

 

[delericho]

I don't want warforged in the first core ruleset because I think they're one of the things which makes Eberron distinctive, and having a core presence would water down that factor.

Agreed.

 

[olshanski]

How about if inside each warforged was a gnome running the controls! This way you add warforged to the core rules, but you aren't getting rid of gnomes. Its the best of both worlds.

/someone had to suggest it.

 

[Mouseferatu]

/someone had to suggest it.

No. No, they didn't.



(Though I'm having sudden visions of Labyrinth, and that's never a bad thing...)

 

[Agamon]

There needs to be a, "Core: no, Eberron: yes" option. Unless that is a given. That's my opinion. Warforged are a big part of what makes Eberron unique. Don't let them bleed out of that setting.

 

[stonegod]

There needs to be a, "Core: no, Eberron: yes" option.

Would be my vote. If they are going to be "core", then not 'til the PH2 at earliest. I love me 'forges, but they are not a universal trope.

 

[Rystil Arden]

There needs to be a, "Core: no, Eberron: yes" option. Unless that is a given. That's my opinion. Warforged are a big part of what makes Eberron unique. Don't let them bleed out of that setting.

Methinks that the "Core: no, Eberron: yes" people represent a good chunk of the voters for the majority option. Certainly I've seen at least myself and Mouseferatu in that same "great for some settings, not a good choice for the PHI" camp.

But in the end, it looks like the OP may have just been too quick to jump the gun--the Warforged in playtest have have just been the result of an Eberron campaign that the playtesters sort of semi-converted for the purpose of playtesting, just like the 'Psion' who appeared in one of the others but was just a Wizard.

 

[Mouseferatu]

There needs to be a, "Core: no, Eberron: yes" option. Unless that is a given. That's my opinion. Warforged are a big part of what makes Eberron unique. Don't let them bleed out of that setting.

Well...

While I agree that I don't want to see them in the PHB1, or for them to become a "standard" part of D&D to be sprinkled throughout all the settings willy-nilly, I do think there's room for them in some settings outside Eberron. All you have to do is change the background and flavor.

For example:

In my longest-running homebrew, a world called Selion, there exists an elven empire called Tir Nallón. (Or "Tir N'Lon"; I still haven't settled on a spelling, and have gone back and forth. ) It's got many aspects of the Roman Empire, including a militaristic/expansionist mindset.

The most feared of the Imperial Elven military forces is the Bronze Legion. The Legion is made up entirely of volunteers who have sacrificed their humanity (elvenity?) on behalf of their nation. They are magically and mundanely bonded with, and into, a suit of armor. It becomes part of them, they a part of it: one entity of both organic and artificial origin. They are not dead, not alive, not undead. They have become, in effect, living weapons of bone and flesh, leather and bronze.

This concept predates Eberron and the warforged by a few years, but because the PCs never encountered the Bronze Legion directly, I never came up with a good mechanical way to represent them. It seems to me that the warforged would do the job just fine.