Warforged

Overview

Physical Description

Warforged are living constructs, made from a special combination of magic, steel, stone and fibrous materials woven from certain trees, given life and made to serve in the Last War as soldiers. Originally created by House Cannith during the last three decades of the war, the oldest warforged is no more than 35 years old (in most campaign timelines). Designed to either stand a little taller than humans or a little shorter than halflings, warforged were made for a number of covert or overt missions, specially tailored by their Cannith creators to the needs of perspective clients.

Physically, warforged are humanoids, with a plates of steel covering most of the surfaces of their bodies. Their eyes are usually faceted gemstones of any number of colors and while there is a mouth joint, providing warforged the capability of speech, there is no visible nose or ears (although warforged can smell, taste and hear just fine). Their solid, reinforced arms end in hands with only two fingers and a thumb. Likewise, their feet end in only two toes. When standing still, warforged can easily pass for metal statues or some of the smaller sized golems. It is only at their joints that one can find evidence of their true nature. The muscular structure that lies underneath their metal plates is made of thousands of tightly woven fibrous strands that flex and stretch, much in the same way organic muscle tissue does. Likewise, the mechanisms within a warforged do rely on some form of slightly viscous liquid to power these strands and massive damage can cause 'fluid loss', which is just as dangerous as blood loss to living beings.

It is important to note that while warforged do not truly have a gender, their Cannith creators do and thus all warforged are crafted under the guise of either a male or female persona. As time goes on, this artificial emotional imprint may wear off, but for the foreseeable future, all warforged refer themselves as either 'himself' or 'herself', never 'itself'.

While warforged often show dents, dings and other signs of battle on their frame, the only universal sign of identification is their ghulra, or mark of life. Each one is unique and thus can be used to identify one warforged from another. Given that a ghulra is always located on the forehead, it is very rare for a warforged to cover this and instantly a sign among other warforged that something is very wrong with that individual.

Society

Warforged were made for the Last War and were, first and foremost, soldiers. Raised from the moment of their creation to follow orders and perfect military tactics, warforged fit better, culturally, in a wartime barracks than in a peacetime tavern. Given their youth and lack of common social norms, it is typical for a warforged to refer to things, people and ideas with military equivalents rather than regular expressions. Living children are often referred as cadets; shop owners and employers are referred to as commanders and what should be friendly competitions can easily be seen as enemy engagements if warforged are not specifically told it is a training exercise.

However, it is important to know that the freedom granted all warforged since the end of the war has not escaped the mind of the warforged. It is just a concept so new, so alien, that many are having a hard time understanding what to do with it. It is from this confusion that many warforged become adventurers, seeking danger and combat that is more familiar, more comfortable, than spending days on end, doing the same job with the same group of people working with the same set of laws and rules that everyone, but the warforged, seems to automatically know.

Relations

Warforged are often solitary and extremely patient, which leads for very lonely existences for most. Occasionally, warforged will form strong friendships (literally brothers-in-arms) with members of other races, but that is on a case-by-case basis. Far more important than how warforged feel about others is how the outside world feels about them. Given that their very presence is a reminder of a conflict many are trying to forget, most people do not like the warforged. Worse still, while the end of the Last War did declare warforged free, many lands subsequently ruled that warforged are indentured servants until the cost of their manufacture is paid for with hard labor. In both cases, warforged are usually content to simply toil away at some project, so long as doing so does not put themselves in immediate harm.

Alignment and Religion

Warforged are usually neutral or lawful neutral, depending on whether or not their participation in the Last War was under multiple owners or only one. While warforged can, and sometimes do, wrestle with matters of morality, most choose not to. Many will follow another's lead or take the path that is most likely to ensure their continued survival. Likewise, warforged are not often followers of any of the deities or churches. This is due to the fact that, to date, no warforged has even been seen or detected in the afterlife, nor has any undead warforged appeared. This gives rise to the claim that they do not actually have souls. However, since they can be raised or resurrected, it is believed by the more educated that they do have souls, just not those like most 'normal people'.

A special note should be made of two small, but growing churches of warforged; the Lord of Blades and the the Becoming God. Both of which are dedicated to the welfare of all warforged everywhere, but where the Becoming God seeks to better understand the place for warforged without the presence of war, the Lord of Blades seeks eliminate all non-warforged life, claiming that the 'breathers' are no longer fit to govern the world that warforged find themselves in.

Adventurers

Warforged make great adventurers and easily more than half their remaining population can call themselves some kind of hero or another. Given their stoic, steadfast nature, warforged are quick to trust those that treat them the same way, but conversely are just as dedicated in pursuing those that might betray them.

Names

Male and Female Names: Warforged are a new enough race that they do not have a list of common names. For the most part, warforged take names that reflect the first thing that they are good at or the first skill they mastered.

Pathfinder Version

  • Ability Score Racial Traits: +2 Constitution, +2 Intelligence, -2 Charisma

  • Size: Medium Size or Small Size. Once chosen, this size cannot be changed.

      • Those that choose to be Small Size get the standard +1 size bonus to hit and armor class and -1 penalty to CMB and CMD.

      • Those that choose to be Medium Size do not get any size bonuses or penalties.

    • Type: Humanoid (Living Construct Subtype)

    • Base Speed: 30' for both Medium and Small.

    • Languages: Common. Bonus Languages: Draconic, Dwarven, Elven, Goblin, Gnome, Halfling and Orc

    • Construction Metabolism: Warforged have the following alterations to a normal humanoid's natural processes

      • Warforged do not need to eat, breathe or sleep, but do need to rest for 8 hours to regain spells or similar abilities.

      • Warforged do not heal hit points or attribute damage naturally, but can be repaired with use of the Craft skill or with effects that repair constructs. Repairs made with the Craft skill take 8 hours and a warforged repair kit. The amount of hit point damage repaired per check is the result of the Craft check -15. Repairing a point of attribute damage requires 8 hours and a Craft check, DC 25. Repairing both hit point damage and one point of ability damage can done during the same 8 hour period, but still requires two different checks. Appropriate Craft skills include armorsmithing, blacksmithing, gemcutting and sculpting. A conscious warforged can repair itself.

      • All applications of the Heal skill while used on a warforged are replaced with an appropriate Craft skill.

      • Spells from the conjuration (healing) subschool or supernatural abilities that duplicate them are only half as effective, rounded down.

      • Warforged are not capable of procreation, having to rely on a Lifeforge to create new warforged.

      • Warforged do not change size or appearance naturally over time.

    • Construct Mind: Warforged get a +2 racial bonus to resist mind-affecting and stunning effects and are immune to paralysis and sleep effects.

  • Construct Resistance: Warforged get a +2 racial bonus to resist disease, death effects, energy drain, exhaustion, fatigue, nausea, poison and sicken effects as well as stabilization checks and checks to remove negative levels.

    • Natural Plating: Warforged have a metal plating that provides them with a +2 natural armor bonus to AC. Warforged can still wear normal armor as can other races, however this plating also counts as metal for the purposes of a druid's armor limitation. Warforged can be targeted by spells, powers and effects that affect objects made from metal, stone and wood.

  • Slam: Warforged have a single slam attack: Medium (1d4) or Small (1d3). This follows the normal rules for natural attacks.

  • Age:

      • Adulthood: 0 years

      • Intuitive: +1d12 / Self-Taught: +1d6 / Trained: +1d4

      • Middle Age: 150, Maximum 150 years

  • Base Height & Weight:

      • Height: 5' 10" (Medium) or 2' 10" (Small)

      • Weight: 270 lbs (Medium) or 50 lbs (Small)

      • Modifier: 2d4 / Weight Modifier: x4

Alternate Racial Traits

The following alternate racial traits may be selected in place of one or more of the standard racial traits above.

  • Adamantine Plating: The composite plating of the warforged was made with adamantine, granting you a +2 natural armor bonus and damage reduction of 1 / -, as well as making your slam attack, or any other natural weapons you possess, count as adamantine, in addition with other material types. However, you are always considered to be wearing metal armor and your base movement is reduced to 20'. This damage reduction does not stack with other sources of damage reduction, except with the Improved Damage Reduction Feat. Warforged with this alternate racial ability weigh eight times as much as a normal warforged for their size and can be targeted by spells, powers and effects that affect metal, stone and wood. This racial trait replaces the normal movement rate and natural plating.

  • Elemental Redundancy: The internal workings of these warforged are protected against common elemental damage, but at the cost of a redundant neural matrix. They still get a +2 racial bonus to resist mind-affecting and stunning effects, but have fire resistance 5, cold resistance 5 and electricity resistance 5. This racial trait replaces construct mind.

  • Darkwood Plating: The warforged still has a +2 natural armor bonus to AC and their plating is made of darkwood, which satisfies the metal requirement for druids. Warforged with this alternate racial ability can be targeted by spells, powers and effects that affect stone and wood, but not metal. Only Craft: Woodworking can be used to repair warforged with this alternate racial trait. This racial trait replaces natural plating

  • Psiforged Plating: The composite plating of the warforged was made with dozens of crystals. These crystals act as a cognizance crystal, allowing you store 1 psionic power point within them at 1st level. Every odd level thereafter, you can store 1 additional power point into the crystals of your body. These crystals cannot be targeted separately from you and cannot be disenchanted or suppressed. In all other ways, these crystals act as a single cognizance crystal. Warforged with this alternate racial ability can be targeted by spells, powers and effects that affect crystal, glass, wood and metal, but not stone. This racial trait replaces natural plating.

Favored Class Options

The following favored class options are available to all characters of this race who have the listed favored class, and unless otherwise stated, the bonus applies each time you select the favored class reward.

    • Artificer: Add +1/4 to the caster level of any infusion cast that only targets yourself.

    • Fighter: Add +1 to the fighter's CMD when resisting bull rush or disarm attempts.

    • Paladin: Add +1/3 on critical hit confirmation rolls made while using smite evil (maximum bonus of +5). This bonus does not stack with Critical Focus.

    • Ranger: Add +1/2 round to the duration when using Hunter's Bond to grant his companions a bonus.

    • Rogue: Reduce the penalty for not being proficient with one weapon by 1. When the nonproficency penalty for a weapon becomes 0 because of this ability, the rogue is treated as having the appropriate Martial or Exotic Weapon Proficiency feat for that weapon.

    • Wizard: Add 1 spell from the wizard / sorcerer spell list to the wizard's spellbook. This spell must be at least one level lower than the highest-level spell he can cast.

Build Notes

ARG Build

  • Type: Humanoid (Half-Construct Subtype): 7 RP

  • Size: Medium: 0 RP or Small: 0 RP

  • Speed: Normal (30'): 0 RP

  • Ability Score Modifier: Standard (+2 Constitution, +2 Intelligence, -2 Charisma): 0 RP

  • Language: Standard (Automatic: Common, Bonus: Draconic, Dwarven, Elven, Goblin, Gnome, Halfling and Orc): 0 RP

  • Subtype Traits: Included with Type

    • +2 racial bonus vs. disease, exhaustion, fatigue, mind-affecting effects, or poison

    • Spells from the healing subschool or supernatural abilities that duplicate them are 1/2 effective (replaces 'Cannot be raised or resurrected').

    • Does not eat, breathe or sleep, but does need to rest for 8 hours to regain spells and similar abilities

  • Exact Racial Traits:

    • Natural Armor and Improved Natural Armor (Total: +2 Natural Armor): 3 RP

    • Natural Attack: Slam (1d4, bludgeoning): 1 RP

    • Lifebound (+2 racial bonus vs. death effects, negative energy effects, remove negative levels and stabilize checks): 2 RP

    • Construct Mind (Immunity to paralysis and sleep): 3 RP

    • Plagueborn (+2 racial bonus vs. nauseated or sickened): 1 RP

    • Weakness (Does not heal naturally, but can be repaired with the Craft skill or effects that repair constructs): -1 RP

    • Weakness (Vulnerability to spells and effects that target mixed stone, metal and wood): -2 RP

  • Removed Racial Traits:

    • Light Fortification cannot be duplicated

  • Total: 14 RP

3.5 Version

  • Construct (Living Construct Subtype)

    • Has Constitution score

    • Does not have low-light vision, darkvision, or immunity to ability damage, ability drain, critical hits, death effects, mind-affecting effects, necromancy effects, nonlethal damage or stunning

    • Immune to disease, energy drain, exhaustion, fatigue, nausea, poison, paralysis, sickened and sleep conditions

    • Cannot heal damage normally, but can be repaired with the Craft skill or effects that repair constructs

    • Spells from the healing subschool or supernatural abilities that duplicate spells from the healing subschool are 1/2 effective.

    • Vulnerable to spells and effects that target stone, metal and wood if capable of targeting mixed objects (Heat Metal, Chill Metal, Repel Metal or Stone, Repel Wood and Rusting Grasp work, but Stone to Flesh, Stone Shape or Wood Shape do not).

    • Automatically stabilizes when reduced to below 0 hits, but cannot heal

    • Can be raised or resurrected

    • Does not need to eat, breathe or sleep, but does need to rest for 8 hours to regain spells and similar abilities

  • Medium Size

  • Base Speed: 30'

  • Attributes: +2 Constitution, -2 Wisdom, -2 Charisma

  • Composite Plating: +2 armor bonus, 5% spell failure, cannot wear armor, but have docent slots instead

  • Light Fortification: 25% chance to negate critical hits or sneak attacks

  • Slam: 1d4 / bludgeoning

  • Automatic Languages: Common, Bonus Languages: None

  • Favored Class: Fighter

  • Source: ECB, pg. 20