I played a warforged in a campaign for a while, the DM said my wildforms had to still look like a warforged. I think it should be able to go either way though, magic and all. I just bought into it and RP'd it as best I could though.
Personally, given beasts don't have a high AC, I don't think it's game breaking if a transformed warforged keeps the integrated armour, at least for large beasts (brown bear, elk, etc) but for smaller, more nimble beasts, taking a long rest to "remove" the armour would be necessary.
Wanna be a bird? Good luck flying with all those armour plates weighing you down.
Wanna be a sneaky panther? Buddy, you weigh more than your barbarian like that.
So yeah, we're incorporating a need to think ahead at the long rest, ultimately it's leading to not having the armour most of the time, so when he does become a bear, he's not often one with a high AC. We find it's a good compromise, letting the druid have his cake and eat it, but he has to think about it first.
What stands out to me is that Druids don't wear metal, so, not sure how that works at all
On this one, I would rule that the druid can be partially made out of metal, as they had no choice in the matter of what they were created with.
An alternative could be saying they were made of some kind of enhanced wood, potentially magical or just exceptionally hard like the ironwood in Steven Erikson's Malazan series.
here's the problem with Warforged. The eating, breathing, sleeping thing. May or may not change. It doesn't actually make a huge difference much of the time. These abilities don't affect most game play and an agreement can be reached on the rare time they might be affected by that party. It's a nice bit of flavor that doesn't exactly matter much in most of the likely scenario's.
The problem is more in their resistances and in their integrated armor. As these two abilities are written are directly described as being physiological makeup to the war forged and ingrained deeply in the makeup of their bodies. Integrated armor talks about how it's basically having control over the makeup of your body and it requires a rest to reset that and use it differently. And the resistances are from the inherent non-fleshy nature of them materials of your body. On top of this they have an inherent effect on a lot of gameplay for Druids.
Some DM's may rule somewhere in between because it can be essentially a cool effect. But if we look at these abilities as written and the impact they have on play. They problematically collide and these abilities based on what we've seen of other races (such as the Tortle and their shells) then when wild shaped these abilities disappear because the make up of the bodies they turn into are not capable of them just like the Tortle is not capable of using it's shell for innate protection and most races are incapable of using dark vision without changing into a creature that has it.
As for the Lore Argument. That is a very messy argument. And the Curse isn't exactly confirmed. That's just the excuse that is given for why the Drow were driven underground in some editions. 1st edition as somebody pointed out was particularly harsh and just about everything that was evil past a certain degree suffered certain penalties for it. Second edition let go of some of that but introduced a fair bit of lore that some was known as fact and some wasn't (For example not even the elves actually remember what really caused the rift or drove the Drow underground and they only have stories because it happened that very far in the past). And the Editions have kind of waffled a bit between the two ever since.
Traditionally it was that Druids had a taboo against wearing metal armor and wielding a metal shield. The taboo has been part of the class’s story since the class first appeared in Eldritch Wizardry back in the 70's (Before my time). Druids don’t lack the ability to wear metal armor. They choose not to wear it. This choice is part of their identity as a mystical order. Think of it in these terms: a vegetarian can eat meat, but the vegetarian chooses not to. However in the 3e forgotten realms campaign guide Mielikki waved this restriction for her druid followers. I think story wise it was because many of them multiclassed as rangers/paladins/ fighters and not being able to wear metal armor was problematic. Its a story element that has been mixed into a game feature. Its also something that can be easily ignored without unbalancing the game. The DM can wave the restriction for your druid or for the god your druid worships. You can also workaround it simply by having armor made of something besides metal. Dragon scales, ankheg chitin, ironwood, magical stone, coral, gorgon hide and many many other interesting options.
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Check out my Disabled & Dragons Youtube Channel for 5e Monster and Player Tactics. Helping the Disabled Community and Players and DM’s (both new and experienced) get into D&D. Plus there is a talking Dragon named Quill.
well rules wise it can probably go ether way but in terms of lore you are no longer in your artificial, semi-biological form, you become a beast and thus able to suffocate, be affected by disease etc
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i am soup, with too many ideas (all of them very spicy) who has made sufficient homebrew material and character to last an thousand human lifetimes
I'm thinking of trying out a warforged druid in an upcoming campaign. I have some questions regarding what warforged features carry over to wildshapes. For example:
Does a wildshaped warforged need to eat, sleep, drink, and breath?
Are they still resistant to poison and immune to disease?
Can their integrated protection carry over? Does it need to be the unarmored version to do so?
And what do you think of a warforged druid?
I had a friend play a warforged moon druid in a oneshot. He pulled out his phone and played the sound effect for a transformer from the movies when he wildshaped. I think its up to you and your DM. I would let my player choose. I think keeping the construct traits would be really cool.
Ultimately its up to how a DM would play it. If one of my players came to me with this, this is how I would proceed:
Does a whildshaped warforged need to eat/sleep/drink/breathe?
Aside from breathing, why would it come into play if you need to eat/sleep/drink? I don't know of any reason why you'd want to long rest while in your wild shape form, and if you did the wild shape would be getting the benefit from the rest, not your body. Since part of the requirements of wild shaping is to gain the beast's hit die, anything you recover over the rest (short or long) would only benefit the wild shape.
I don't see why it's not so farfetched to think that "magic" will save you from being in a "starving" state if you have never eaten anything prior to using wild shape.
Are they still resistant to poison and immune to disease?
You retain the benefit of any features from your class, race, or other source and can use them if the new form is physically capable of doing so.
I would say no to this. Warforged are resistant/immune because they are constructed beings "created to have remarkable fortitude," (as stated by the class description for Constructed Resilience). Once they wild shape, they become flesh and blood temporarily. The new forms would be susceptible to poison/disease unless they, themselves, are resistant to it. However, if you are poisoned or somehow diseased in your wild shape form, I 100% think that the effects would wear off immediately upon reverting to your normal form. That being said, Constructed resilience also states "You don’t need to sleep, and magic can’t put you to sleep." which, similar to Fey Ancestry, could still be true while wild shaped. The only argument here I can think of is Fey Ancestry is a bloodline thing while Constructed Resilience is in the design of the warforged.
Can their integrated protection carry over? Does it need to be the unarmored version to do so? This question is partially moot since Warforged was changed since this question was asked back in 2018 (this thread has had a long life). However, addressing it for the current iteration: I would argue that no it would not.
You choose whether your equipment falls to the ground in your space, merges into your new form, or is worn by it. Worn equipment functions as normal, but the DM decides whether it is practical for the new form to wear a piece of equipment, based on the creature’s shape and size. Your equipment doesn’t change size or shape to match the new form, and any equipment that the new form can’t wear must either fall to the ground or merge with it. Equipment that merges with the form has no effect until you leave the form.
Integrated protection is defined as being part of the Warforged's physique. When that goes away, so does any bonuses it provides.
And what do you think of a warforged druid?
I like the idea of them, just havent been able to come up with a backstory for one that made sense. Granted, I also dont have an opening anywhere to play one at present.
Sidenote, I'm impressed that a thread that was answered and then necro'd from 2018 is still being commented on haha. To that note, @DxJxC did you end up making this character? If so, how'd it go?
I recently made a warforged moon druid; the backstory is that they're (of course) a veteran of the Last War who sort of fell in love with the culture of the Talenta halflings. Incorporated hide armor, so I imagine plates of hardened dinosaur leather, with feathers, bits of fur, teeth and talons as embellishment. Also picked a totem for my druidic focus, which I envision as a carved dinosaur tooth on a necklace that gets plugged into a port in the chest as a sort of key to "unlock" the various forms.
One thing to note: When wild shaped, a druid cannot benefit from the armor they were wearing in humanoid form unless their new form can also wear it, and wild magic doesn't change the shape of form of any of your equipment, only if it is worn, dropped, or melded.
Honestly, I came up with the best and most hilarious Warforged Druid build. My brother/the DM will smite this character immediately because of the shapes this druid will only turn into. I made this build because it is fun, hilarious, and pretty simple. Warforged Druid Outlander, Circle of the Moon. Name is Grimlock, Dinobot Leader and will only be able to shape into dinosaurs. Restriction for this build: No creatures for wildshaping except for dinosaurs. Strength is average (10-12), Dexterity is above average (12-16), Constitution is excellent (16-20), Intelligence is terrible (6-8), Wisdom is excellent (16-20), and Charisma is garbage (6-8). Rolls are 8, 8, 12, 16, 18, 17. How does everyone like this build? LOL
The best part about the Warforged is the inability to sleep. Get a Warforged Echo Knight with Alert and nobody can surprise you and your party while everyone is sleeping. Using Observant with high Wisdom also is great.
I wish they had left the part in about not suffering form exhaustion when not sleeping, I had a great idea for a Warforged monk build, now I need to get DM buy in if I play that character
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I played a warforged in a campaign for a while, the DM said my wildforms had to still look like a warforged. I think it should be able to go either way though, magic and all. I just bought into it and RP'd it as best I could though.
Personally, given beasts don't have a high AC, I don't think it's game breaking if a transformed warforged keeps the integrated armour, at least for large beasts (brown bear, elk, etc) but for smaller, more nimble beasts, taking a long rest to "remove" the armour would be necessary.
Wanna be a bird? Good luck flying with all those armour plates weighing you down.
Wanna be a sneaky panther? Buddy, you weigh more than your barbarian like that.
So yeah, we're incorporating a need to think ahead at the long rest, ultimately it's leading to not having the armour most of the time, so when he does become a bear, he's not often one with a high AC. We find it's a good compromise, letting the druid have his cake and eat it, but he has to think about it first.
What stands out to me is that Druids don't wear metal, so, not sure how that works at all
On this one, I would rule that the druid can be partially made out of metal, as they had no choice in the matter of what they were created with.
An alternative could be saying they were made of some kind of enhanced wood, potentially magical or just exceptionally hard like the ironwood in Steven Erikson's Malazan series.
That's what mine is going with. Went with the skirmisher, but the composite armour is resin strengthened ebony
here's the problem with Warforged. The eating, breathing, sleeping thing. May or may not change. It doesn't actually make a huge difference much of the time. These abilities don't affect most game play and an agreement can be reached on the rare time they might be affected by that party. It's a nice bit of flavor that doesn't exactly matter much in most of the likely scenario's.
The problem is more in their resistances and in their integrated armor. As these two abilities are written are directly described as being physiological makeup to the war forged and ingrained deeply in the makeup of their bodies. Integrated armor talks about how it's basically having control over the makeup of your body and it requires a rest to reset that and use it differently. And the resistances are from the inherent non-fleshy nature of them materials of your body. On top of this they have an inherent effect on a lot of gameplay for Druids.
Some DM's may rule somewhere in between because it can be essentially a cool effect. But if we look at these abilities as written and the impact they have on play. They problematically collide and these abilities based on what we've seen of other races (such as the Tortle and their shells) then when wild shaped these abilities disappear because the make up of the bodies they turn into are not capable of them just like the Tortle is not capable of using it's shell for innate protection and most races are incapable of using dark vision without changing into a creature that has it.
As for the Lore Argument. That is a very messy argument. And the Curse isn't exactly confirmed. That's just the excuse that is given for why the Drow were driven underground in some editions. 1st edition as somebody pointed out was particularly harsh and just about everything that was evil past a certain degree suffered certain penalties for it. Second edition let go of some of that but introduced a fair bit of lore that some was known as fact and some wasn't (For example not even the elves actually remember what really caused the rift or drove the Drow underground and they only have stories because it happened that very far in the past). And the Editions have kind of waffled a bit between the two ever since.
Man, I just want to be a dinobot.
I feel it's a little weird to have a Warforged druid (just my opinion)
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Traditionally it was that Druids had a taboo against wearing metal armor and wielding a metal shield. The taboo has been part of the class’s story since the class first appeared in Eldritch Wizardry back in the 70's (Before my time). Druids don’t lack the ability to wear metal armor. They choose not to wear it. This choice is part of their identity as a mystical order. Think of it in these terms: a vegetarian can eat meat, but the vegetarian chooses not to. However in the 3e forgotten realms campaign guide Mielikki waved this restriction for her druid followers. I think story wise it was because many of them multiclassed as rangers/paladins/ fighters and not being able to wear metal armor was problematic. Its a story element that has been mixed into a game feature. Its also something that can be easily ignored without unbalancing the game. The DM can wave the restriction for your druid or for the god your druid worships. You can also workaround it simply by having armor made of something besides metal. Dragon scales, ankheg chitin, ironwood, magical stone, coral, gorgon hide and many many other interesting options.
Check out my Disabled & Dragons Youtube Channel for 5e Monster and Player Tactics. Helping the Disabled Community and Players and DM’s (both new and experienced) get into D&D. Plus there is a talking Dragon named Quill.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPPmyTI0tZ6nM-bzY0IG3ww
you assume the statistics of the chosen beast, thus no benefits to your new form,
i am soup, with too many ideas (all of them very spicy) who has made sufficient homebrew material and character to last an thousand human lifetimes
But also:
Thus the question.
well rules wise it can probably go ether way but in terms of lore you are no longer in your artificial, semi-biological form, you become a beast and thus able to suffocate, be affected by disease etc
i am soup, with too many ideas (all of them very spicy) who has made sufficient homebrew material and character to last an thousand human lifetimes
I had a friend play a warforged moon druid in a oneshot. He pulled out his phone and played the sound effect for a transformer from the movies when he wildshaped. I think its up to you and your DM. I would let my player choose. I think keeping the construct traits would be really cool.
Your secret is safe with my indifference - Percy
Ultimately its up to how a DM would play it. If one of my players came to me with this, this is how I would proceed:
Does a whildshaped warforged need to eat/sleep/drink/breathe?
Aside from breathing, why would it come into play if you need to eat/sleep/drink? I don't know of any reason why you'd want to long rest while in your wild shape form, and if you did the wild shape would be getting the benefit from the rest, not your body. Since part of the requirements of wild shaping is to gain the beast's hit die, anything you recover over the rest (short or long) would only benefit the wild shape.
I don't see why it's not so farfetched to think that "magic" will save you from being in a "starving" state if you have never eaten anything prior to using wild shape.
Are they still resistant to poison and immune to disease?
I would say no to this. Warforged are resistant/immune because they are constructed beings "created to have remarkable fortitude," (as stated by the class description for Constructed Resilience). Once they wild shape, they become flesh and blood temporarily. The new forms would be susceptible to poison/disease unless they, themselves, are resistant to it. However, if you are poisoned or somehow diseased in your wild shape form, I 100% think that the effects would wear off immediately upon reverting to your normal form.
That being said, Constructed resilience also states "You don’t need to sleep, and magic can’t put you to sleep." which, similar to Fey Ancestry, could still be true while wild shaped. The only argument here I can think of is Fey Ancestry is a bloodline thing while Constructed Resilience is in the design of the warforged.
Can their integrated protection carry over? Does it need to be the unarmored version to do so?
This question is partially moot since Warforged was changed since this question was asked back in 2018 (this thread has had a long life). However, addressing it for the current iteration: I would argue that no it would not.
Integrated protection is defined as being part of the Warforged's physique. When that goes away, so does any bonuses it provides.
And what do you think of a warforged druid?
I like the idea of them, just havent been able to come up with a backstory for one that made sense. Granted, I also dont have an opening anywhere to play one at present.
Sidenote, I'm impressed that a thread that was answered and then necro'd from 2018 is still being commented on haha. To that note, @DxJxC did you end up making this character? If so, how'd it go?
I recently made a warforged moon druid; the backstory is that they're (of course) a veteran of the Last War who sort of fell in love with the culture of the Talenta halflings. Incorporated hide armor, so I imagine plates of hardened dinosaur leather, with feathers, bits of fur, teeth and talons as embellishment. Also picked a totem for my druidic focus, which I envision as a carved dinosaur tooth on a necklace that gets plugged into a port in the chest as a sort of key to "unlock" the various forms.
One thing to note: When wild shaped, a druid cannot benefit from the armor they were wearing in humanoid form unless their new form can also wear it, and wild magic doesn't change the shape of form of any of your equipment, only if it is worn, dropped, or melded.
Honestly, I came up with the best and most hilarious Warforged Druid build. My brother/the DM will smite this character immediately because of the shapes this druid will only turn into. I made this build because it is fun, hilarious, and pretty simple. Warforged Druid Outlander, Circle of the Moon. Name is Grimlock, Dinobot Leader and will only be able to shape into dinosaurs. Restriction for this build: No creatures for wildshaping except for dinosaurs. Strength is average (10-12), Dexterity is above average (12-16), Constitution is excellent (16-20), Intelligence is terrible (6-8), Wisdom is excellent (16-20), and Charisma is garbage (6-8). Rolls are 8, 8, 12, 16, 18, 17. How does everyone like this build? LOL
I think the circle of stars is a pretty good option for a warforged druid. You're basically a sentient telescope.
The best part about the Warforged is the inability to sleep. Get a Warforged Echo Knight with Alert and nobody can surprise you and your party while everyone is sleeping. Using Observant with high Wisdom also is great.
I wish they had left the part in about not suffering form exhaustion when not sleeping, I had a great idea for a Warforged monk build, now I need to get DM buy in if I play that character