Warforged

Warforged Race Details “Pierce was built by design, while you were built by accident,” Lakashtai said. “The soul is what matters, not the shape of the vessel.”
“What makes you think he has a soul?” Gerrion said.
“What makes you think you do?”
—Keith Baker, The Shattered Land

The warforged were built to fight in the Last War. While the first warforged were mindless automatons, House Cannith devoted vast resources to improving these steel soldiers. An unexpected breakthrough produced sapient soldiers, giving rise to what some have only grudgingly accepted as a new species. Warforged are made from wood and metal, but they can feel pain and emotion. Built as weapons, they must now find a purpose beyond war. A warforged can be a steadfast ally, a cold-hearted killer, or a visionary in search of meaning.

Living Steel and Stone Warforged are formed from a blend of organic and inorganic materials. Root-like cords infused with alchemical fluids serve as their muscles, wrapped around a framework of steel, darkwood, or stone. Armored plates form a protective outer shell and reinforce joints. Warforged share a common facial design, with a hinged jaw and crystal eyes embedded beneath a reinforced brow ridge. Beyond these common elements of warforged design, the precise materials and build of a warforged vary based on the purpose for which it was designed.

Although they were manufactured, warforged are living humanoids. Resting, healing magic, and the Medicine skill all provide the same benefits to warforged that they do to other humanoids.

Warforged Personality The warforged were built to serve and to fight. For most of their existence, warforged had a clearly defined function and were encouraged to focus purely on that role. The Treaty of Thronehold gave them freedom, but many still struggle both to find a place in the post-war world and to relate to the creatures who created them.

The typical warforged shows little emotion. Many warforged embrace a concrete purpose — such as protecting allies, completing a contract, or exploring a land — and embrace this task as they once did war. However, there are warforged who delight in exploring their feelings, their freedom, and their relationships with others. Most warforged have no interest in religion, but some embrace faith and mysticism, seeking higher purpose and deeper meaning.

The typical warforged has a sexless body shape. Some warforged ignore the concept of gender entirely, while others adopt a gender identity.

The more a warforged develops its individuality, the more likely it is to modify its body, seeking out an artificer to customize the look of its face, limbs, and plating.

Quirks Warforged often display an odd personality trait or two, given how new they are to the world. The Warforged Quirks table contains example quirks.

Warforged Quirks d8 Quirk

1 You analyze — out loud — the potential threat posed by every creature you meet.

2 You often misread emotional cues.

3 You are fiercely protective of your friends.

4 You try to apply wartime discipline to every situation.

5 You don’t know how to filter your feelings and are prone to dramatic emotional outbursts.

6 You don’t understand clothing beyond its utility and assume it denotes a person’s function.

7 You are obsessed with your appearance and constantly polish and buff yourself.

8 War is the only thing that makes sense to you, and you’re always looking for a fight.

Warforged Names

Most warforged were assigned numerical designations for use in military service. Many of them adopted nicknames, often given to them by their comrades. As independent individuals, some have chosen new names as a way to express their path in life. A few take on human names, often the name of a fallen friend or mentor.

Warforged Names: Anchor, Banner, Bastion, Blade, Blue, Bow, Cart, Church, Crunch, Crystal, Dagger, Dent, Five, Glaive, Hammer, Iron, Lucky, Mace, Oak, Onyx, Pants, Pierce, Red, Rod, Rusty, Scout, Seven, Shield, Slash, Smith, Spike, Temple, Vault, Wall

Warforged Traits Your warforged character has the following traits. A few of the traits give you a choice; consider how your choice reflects the purpose for which your character was built. Ability Score Increase Your Constitution score increases by 2, and one other ability score of your choice increases by 1.

Age A typical warforged is between two and thirty years old. The maximum warforged lifespan remains a mystery; so far, warforged have shown no signs of deterioration due to age. You are immune to magical aging effects.

Alignment Most warforged take comfort in order and discipline, tending toward law and neutrality. But some have absorbed the morality, or lack thereof, of the beings with which they served.

Size Your size is Medium. To set your height and weight randomly, start with rolling a size modifier:

Size modifier = 2d6

Height = 5 feet + 10 inches + your size modifier in inches

Weight in pounds = 270 + (4 × your size modifier)

Speed Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

Constructed Resilience You were created to have remarkable fortitude, represented by the following benefits:

You have advantage on saving throws against being poisoned, and you have resistance to poison damage. You don’t need to eat, drink, or breathe. You are immune to disease. You don’t need to sleep, and magic can’t put you to sleep.

Sentry’s Rest When you take a long rest, you must spend at least six hours in an inactive, motionless state, rather than sleeping. In this state, you appear inert, but it doesn’t render you unconscious, and you can see and hear as normal.

Integrated Protection Your body has built-in defensive layers, which can be enhanced with armor:

You gain a +1 bonus to Armor Class. You can don only armor with which you have proficiency. To don armor other than a shield, you must incorporate it into your body over the course of 1 hour, during which you remain in contact with the armor. To doff armor, you must spend 1 hour removing it. You can rest while donning or doffing armor in this way. While you live, the armor incorporated into your body can’t be removed against your will.

Specialized Design You gain one skill proficiency and one tool proficiency of your choice.

Languages You can speak, read, and write Common and one other language of your choice.

Feats specific to Warforged

A feat represents a talent or an area of expertise that gives a character special capabilities. It embodies training, experience, and abilities beyond what a class provides.

At certain levels, your class gives you the Ability Score Improvement feature. Using the optional feats rule, you can forgo taking that feature to take a feat of your choice instead. You can take each feat only once, unless the feat’s description says otherwise.

You must meet any prerequisite specified in a feat to take that feat. If you ever lose a feat’s prerequisite, you can’t use that feat until you regain the prerequisite. For example, the Grappler feat requires you to have a Strength of 13 or higher. If your Strength is reduced below 13 somehow — perhaps by a withering curse — you can’t benefit from the Grappler feat until your Strength is restored.