Warforged w/o CON

[Baron Opal]

Can the Eberron playtesters comment on the problems with having Warforged run w/o Constitution? I was wondering if they had too many hit points from the first level bonus or were too vulnerable from Fortitude saves, or whatever. I'm curious what spurred the movement away from a more ideal "construct" type character race.

Baron Opal

 

[hiryuu]

Simple: level adjustment. As standard constructs without a Con, they have 20 bonus hit points on top of all the construct immunities, which is an awful lot - the design decision was to make Warforged playable as a +0 LA before playtesting even began.

 

[Klaus]

Also, having no Con is actually a huge advantage. It renders you immune to all effects that require a Fort save, unless an effect specifically mentions it can harm objects.

So a warforged without Con is immune, among other things, to level drain, poison, fatigue, stunning...

 

[Zappo]

But he also has few hit points - those 20 extra aren't that much, especially when compared to high-level fighters. Besides, they are extra vulnerable to Disintegrate.

 

[Mouseferatu]

Lack of a Con bonus to HP is only a downside to some characters: specifically, those who would have had more than a 13 or so Con to begin with. And while warforged are usually martial characters, that still only applies to some of them.

Immunity to poison, level drain, and almost everything else requiring a Fort save is an advantage for everyone, regardless of class or Con.

 

[Andre]

Also, having no Con is actually a huge advantage. It renders you immune to all effects that require a Fort save, unless an effect specifically mentions it can harm objects.

So a warforged without Con is immune, among other things, to level drain, poison, fatigue, stunning...

Unless there's been errata that I haven't seen, a warforged is already immune to many of these things. From the Eberron Campaign Setting book:

"Immunity to poison, sleep effects, paralysis, disease, nausea, fatigue, exhaustion, effects that cause the sickened condition, and energy drain."

"Unlike other constructs, warforged are subject to critical hits, nonlethal damage, stunning, ability damage, ability drain, and death effects or necromancy effects."

 

[Epametheus]

On the other hand, a creature with - Con is destroyed on the spot when reduced to 0 HP, instead having the extra little buffer that living creatures get. I guess in terms of survival, a proper construct warforged would have a net 9 or 10 HP over a living person at L1, with that advantage eventually disappearing if the other person ever gets a con of 12 or higher.

Between the immunities and the whole "you're either fine, or totally annihilated" bit, they probably decided that the Construct type doesn't work terribly well for a PC race.