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?
I believe while in wild shape you would need food/water/oxygen, as it’s turning into the creature as opposed to a robotic form of the creature. You’d lose the poison/disease resistances, as well, and the protection from being warforged wouldn’t carry over.
i think the idea itself is rather neat, if not somewhat weird - but personally I find most warforged weird. I could certainly imagine some wooden automaton defending the forest like that.
When I started running Tomb of Annihilation one player wanted to be a Warforged Moon Druid.
We decided he was created when (magical?) lighting struck the swamp/jungle it was formed. It believes it was created by Ubtao to rid the jungles of the undead.
I gave him a choice. He can either turn into a living animal, and would look just like one.... or he can keep some of his Warforged traits, but he would look like a dinobot and no one will never think he's a natural creature in this form. He had until level 2 to decide. As expected he choose to be a horrifying semi-organic dinobot that unfolds and rearranges his body like a supernatural body horror. For balance he doesn't get to keep the Integrated Protection.
RAW: Keep in mind you don't lose *all* your racial traits, just the ones the GM decides are based on pure physiology. So a Dragonborn can still use Breath Weapon, but an Elf loses their Darkvision, but a Drow keeps Sunlight Sensitivity. Lizardfolk are generally assumed to lose their Scaly Skin, but keep Bite as long as the new form has a Bite. Sadly there is very little RAW guidance... so it's a lot of fiat no matter what.
RAW: Keep in mind you don't lose *all* your racial traits, just the ones the GM decides are based on pure physiology. So a Dragonborn can still use Breath Weapon, but an Elf loses their Darkvision, but a Drow keeps Sunlight Sensitivity. Lizardfolk are generally assumed to lose their Scaly Skin, but keep Bite as long as the new form has a Bite. Sadly there is very little RAW guidance... so it's a lot of fiat no matter what.
I would have ruled that a drow loses sunlight sensitivity when it loses superior darkvision, as these 2 traits are strongly linked.
RAW: Keep in mind you don't lose *all* your racial traits, just the ones the GM decides are based on pure physiology. So a Dragonborn can still use Breath Weapon, but an Elf loses their Darkvision, but a Drow keeps Sunlight Sensitivity. Lizardfolk are generally assumed to lose their Scaly Skin, but keep Bite as long as the new form has a Bite. Sadly there is very little RAW guidance... so it's a lot of fiat no matter what.
I would have ruled that a drow loses sunlight sensitivity when it loses superior darkvision, as these 2 traits are strongly linked.
I would TOTALLY agree with you. Jeremy Crawford agrees with neither of us and considers the "sunlight sensitivity to be a supernatural quality of a "creature of darkness" not a biological one based on their superior darkvision for living underground.
RAW: Keep in mind you don't lose *all* your racial traits, just the ones the GM decides are based on pure physiology. So a Dragonborn can still use Breath Weapon, but an Elf loses their Darkvision, but a Drow keeps Sunlight Sensitivity. Lizardfolk are generally assumed to lose their Scaly Skin, but keep Bite as long as the new form has a Bite. Sadly there is very little RAW guidance... so it's a lot of fiat no matter what.
I would have ruled that a drow loses sunlight sensitivity when it loses superior darkvision, as these 2 traits are strongly linked.
I would TOTALLY agree with you. Jeremy Crawford agrees with neither of us and considers the "sunlight sensitivity to be a supernatural quality of a "creature of darkness" not a biological one based on their superior darkvision for living underground.
So then the supernatural quality of a creature of darkness being able to see in the dark better than anything else, should carry over. If it were sunlight hypersensitivity from vampire weaknesses, I'd be inclined to agree because that is different, and vampires don't have superior darkvision.
I believe while in wild shape you would need food/water/oxygen, as it’s turning into the creature as opposed to a robotic form of the creature. You’d lose the poison/disease resistances, as well, and the protection from being warforged wouldn’t carry over.
i think the idea itself is rather neat, if not somewhat weird - but personally I find most warforged weird. I could certainly imagine some wooden automaton defending the forest like that.
Had a thought. If a wildshape warforged has to eat and drink, does that mean the beast has a different stomach than the warforged? Then if a wildshape human eats then returns to normal form, is he now hungry? I do wish we had more examples to go on. If sunlight sensitivity is supernatural, who's to say not eating or breathing isn't also?
This actually gets into one reason I've thought Elves and Warforged make some of the most interesting Druids).
Once they get high level, because they don't "sleep", are not subject to the unconscious condition when they rest. So it's possible for a Warforged or an Elf Moon Druid to long rest, while in Animal Form.
The reason I think this is cool, is that I like the idea that a Druid can just f*@% off into the forest and not have to worry about freezing to death in their sleep or turn into a badger and take a rest in a hole.
So then the supernatural quality of a creature of darkness being able to see in the dark better than anything else, should carry over. If it were sunlight hypersensitivity from vampire weaknesses, I'd be inclined to agree because that is different, and vampires don't have superior darkvision.
I believe the lore is that Drow were cursed with sunlight sensitivity for siding with Lloth not because they're subterranean. They then developed the improved Darkvision over time and through the weird twisted magic that filled the Underdark (earth nodes). Of course that isn't at all spelled out the description... but Jeremy seems to think that it's still relevant given his ruling.
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?
"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. However, you can’t use any of your special senses, such as darkvision, unless your new form also has that sense." - Druid, Wild Shape write up
Going by this, you're going to have to check with your DM, but for the most part, the answer to all of these feel like a "no." A warforged's racial abilities are all tied up into the fact they're a living construct. Poison and disease aren't a big deal, because you're made of metal. The integrated protection is a thing because your body is armor - you don't get more armor, you ARE armor. Turning into an animal tends to replace your metal body with flesh, so its quite iffy to assume that the new form is physically capable of the same things as a warforged body.
As for what I think of a warforged druid? Sure, why not? If its something you'd have fun playing, go for it. I personally don't feel much of a story to explore there, so I wouldn't do it myself, but if others want to, sure. I've always been more of a fan of warforged working to build a Machine God; it has always been something I find amusing and interesting. Forge clerics and Transmuter wizard would be more my cup of tea, so to speak.
I believe the lore is that Drow were cursed with sunlight sensitivity for siding with Lloth not because they're subterranean. They then developed the improved Darkvision over time and through the weird twisted magic that filled the Underdark (earth nodes). Of course that isn't at all spelled out the description... but Jeremy seems to think that it's still relevant given his ruling.
Drow have sunlight sensitivity primarily because they're an Underdark race, I think. Otherwise, it wouldn't make sense for other evil underdark races, like the myconoids, troglodytes, kuo-toa and duergar to have the same or similar issue. Mind flayers have historically found sunlight to be painful as well, though there's no mechanic for it in 5e. Deep gnomes oddly get a pass, not sure why, but they seem to be the exception rather than rule.
Lots of things in the Underdark seem to dislike direct sunlight. Historically, items crafted in the Underdark also seem to lose their power when exposed to sunlight, unraveling. So, I'm willing to wager that sunlight sensitivity is related to the magic of the underdark rather than any godly curse or demonic blood. Some creatures don't seem to have the issue, so the mutation seems selective, but it does seem to be enough of a trend that we can say that the Underdark is likely the cause.
Anyways, Jeremy very likely made his call based on strict reading of the rules, rather than relying on something based in lore. Is it physically possible for an animal to be sensitive to sunlight? Yes, therefore they're senitive. The rules say no darkvision, therefore no darkvision. Jeremy is a very strict by the exact rules as printed type of person, even when it doesn't make sense, or causes inconsistencies elsewhere.
I think it depends on your interpretation of the effects of the ability. For example if you rule that the ability changes your shape and appearance into that of the animal, but doesn't turn you into the actual animal (as the polymorph spell actually does), then it would make sense to keep more of their racial abilities.
Wild shape: "you can use your action to magically assume the shape of a beast that you have seen before." Polymorph: "This spell transforms a creature that you can see within range into a new form."
It still makes sense for your senses to be different because your eyes, nose, ears are structured a different way.
By this interpretation, a warforged could keep his resilience and sentry's rest the way an elf would keep Fey ancestry and trance.
Integrated armor is still a hard sale though, but warforged can't wear armor and other druids can keep their armor when they shift, so maybe a compromise can be made, like only the darkwood core setting is kept.
I believe the lore is that Drow were cursed with sunlight sensitivity for siding with Lloth not because they're subterranean. They then developed the improved Darkvision over time and through the weird twisted magic that filled the Underdark (earth nodes). Of course that isn't at all spelled out the description... but Jeremy seems to think that it's still relevant given his ruling.
Drow have sunlight sensitivity primarily because they're an Underdark race, I think. Otherwise, it wouldn't make sense for other evil underdark races, like the myconoids, troglodytes, kuo-toa and duergar to have the same or similar issue. Mind flayers have historically found sunlight to be painful as well, though there's no mechanic for it in 5e. Deep gnomes oddly get a pass, not sure why, but they seem to be the exception rather than rule.
Lots of things in the Underdark seem to dislike direct sunlight. Historically, items crafted in the Underdark also seem to lose their power when exposed to sunlight, unraveling. So, I'm willing to wager that sunlight sensitivity is related to the magic of the underdark rather than any godly curse or demonic blood. Some creatures don't seem to have the issue, so the mutation seems selective, but it does seem to be enough of a trend that we can say that the Underdark is likely the cause.
Anyways, Jeremy very likely made his call based on strict reading of the rules, rather than relying on something based in lore. Is it physically possible for an animal to be sensitive to sunlight? Yes, therefore they're senitive. The rules say no darkvision, therefore no darkvision. Jeremy is a very strict by the exact rules as printed type of person, even when it doesn't make sense, or causes inconsistencies elsewhere.
This is from the sage advice FullMetalBunny linked: A sensitivity to sunlight is a trope in fantasy, associated with creatures of darkness. It's usually more metaphysical than biological.
I may be incorrect about the source of the curse, it may be because the magic of the underdark changes creatures to be sunlight sensitive, but according to him Drow are magically influenced into the their weakness. It's not due to a biological influence, which is why an Drow Druid would still be affected in wild-shape.
I think it depends on your interpretation of the effects of the ability. For example if you rule that the ability changes your shape and appearance into that of the animal, but doesn't turn you into the actual animal (as the polymorph spell actually does), then it would make sense to keep more of their racial abilities.
Wild shape: "you can use your action to magically assume the shape of a beast that you have seen before." Polymorph: "This spell transforms a creature that you can see within range into a new form."
It still makes sense for your senses to be different because your eyes, nose, ears are structured a different way.
By this interpretation, a warforged could keep his resilience and sentry's rest the way an elf would keep Fey ancestry and trance.
Integrated armor is still a hard sale though, but warforged can't wear armor and other druids can keep their armor when they shift, so maybe a compromise can be made, like only the darkwood core setting is kept.
Edited for spelling and to add quotes.
It's pretty well established that a druid takes on all the statistics of the beast form they take. In fact the druid so thoroughly transforms that spells that target humanoids no longer affect them while they're transformed (charm person, hold person, etc). In addition if the transformation worked in the manner you described it seems many of the beasts features would no longer work; for example a dire wolf's advantage on survival and perception checks due to their sharp hearing and sense of smell.
That said this is all my take on RAW. I think it can be balanced and fun to introduce an interesting compromise. I like FullMetalBunny's solution with the wooden Beast Wars setup. After all it's a unique combo a creature are 'artificial' life doing what it can to protect 'natural' life. It sounds like it would be plenty of fun to play and I think even should require some homebrewing.... my point is though that it will need to be homebrew, the RAW isn't going to help you out a whole lot to cover what is pretty unique situation.
This is from the sage advice FullMetalBunny linked: A sensitivity to sunlight is a trope in fantasy, associated with creatures of darkness. It's usually more metaphysical than biological.
I may be incorrect about the source of the curse, it may be because the magic of the underdark changes creatures to be sunlight sensitive, but according to him Drow are magically influenced into the their weakness. It's not due to a biological influence, which is why an Drow Druid would still be affected in wild-shape.
Well, that is the reason why the original designers gave sunlight sensitivity to drow at a metagame level. That's different from the lore behind it. The in game story doesn't say "You're EVIL therefore you get sunlight penalties." At least not in this edition, though it did happen in 1st/2nd edition. I mean, 5th edition tieflings don't get sunlight penalties, and they're as much a "creature of darkness" as 5th edition drow are.
I think it depends on your interpretation of the effects of the ability. For example if you rule that the ability changes your shape and appearance into that of the animal, but doesn't turn you into the actual animal (as the polymorph spell actually does), then it would make sense to keep more of their racial abilities.
Wild shape: "you can use your action to magically assume the shape of a beast that you have seen before." Polymorph: "This spell transforms a creature that you can see within range into a new form."
It still makes sense for your senses to be different because your eyes, nose, ears are structured a different way.
By this interpretation, a warforged could keep his resilience and sentry's rest the way an elf would keep Fey ancestry and trance.
Integrated armor is still a hard sale though, but warforged can't wear armor and other druids can keep their armor when they shift, so maybe a compromise can be made, like only the darkwood core setting is kept.
Edited for spelling and to add quotes.
It's pretty well established that a druid takes on all the statistics of the beast form they take. In fact the druid so thoroughly transforms that spells that target humanoids no longer affect them while they're transformed (charm person, hold person, etc). In addition if the transformation worked in the manner you described it seems many of the beasts features would no longer work; for example a dire wolf's advantage on survival and perception checks due to their sharp hearing and sense of smell.
That said this is all my take on RAW. I think it can be balanced and fun to introduce an interesting compromise. I like FullMetalBunny's solution with the wooden Beast Wars setup. After all it's a unique combo a creature are 'artificial' life doing what it can to protect 'natural' life. It sounds like it would be plenty of fun to play and I think even should require some homebrewing.... my point is though that it will need to be homebrew, the RAW isn't going to help you out a whole lot to cover what is pretty unique situation.
You didn't actually mention anything about the transformation that I didn't already address, including specifically senses.
But yeah, it will ultimately be up to the DM. My DM is a fan of beast wars, so maybe he'll cut me a break.
Ah yeah, I did not make my intent clear. My comment was mostly to address your first statement:
I think it depends on your interpretation of the effects of the ability. For example if you rule that the ability changes your shape and appearance into that of the animal, but doesn't turn you into the actual animal (as the polymorph spell actually does), then it would make sense to keep more of their racial abilities.
I'm not sure how you came to this conclusion if mechanically you ARE a beast after you wild-shape. I'm repeating myself but the druid no longer even counts as humanoid anymore. It seem clear to me that there is no half measure. You are the beast, and now you do what you must in order to maintain your beast body. The intent behind wild-shape seems to be that Physiological traits change, while metaphysical traits do not.
Are a Warforge's resistances based on metaphysics? Seems unlikely to me. They seem more a byproduct of their being sentient constructs made of wood and metal rather than some inherent magical protection.
This is from the sage advice FullMetalBunny linked: A sensitivity to sunlight is a trope in fantasy, associated with creatures of darkness. It's usually more metaphysical than biological.
I may be incorrect about the source of the curse, it may be because the magic of the underdark changes creatures to be sunlight sensitive, but according to him Drow are magically influenced into the their weakness. It's not due to a biological influence, which is why an Drow Druid would still be affected in wild-shape.
Well, that is the reason why the original designers gave sunlight sensitivity to drow at a metagame level. That's different from the lore behind it. The in game story doesn't say "You're EVIL therefore you get sunlight penalties." At least not in this edition, though it did happen in 1st/2nd edition. I mean, 5th edition tieflings don't get sunlight penalties, and they're as much a "creature of darkness" as 5th edition drow are.
I was simply trying to elaborate on why the sunlight sensitivity for a Drow holds over in wild-shape. Drow are cursed. There is a stain on their soul that makes them sensitive to sunlight. A Drow changing shape doesn't free them of that curse. They remain cursed even in while they are in beast shape. Jeremy's quote supports my understanding of that mechanic.
Also I think you're taking 'creatures of darkness' too broadly. Darkness and evil aren't mechanically interchangeable in DnD. I would expect any creature referenced with a 'Creature of darkness' to have some tie to the plane of shadow or undeath. Demons and Devils in Dnd are just cruel and evil, they don't care about light and dark. In general they're all to happy to ruin your life in daylight or darkness, and will use whatever tools they can against mortals. Drow, on the other hand are pretty well tied to darkness. It's in Lloth's portfolio and the barriers between the Prime Material and the Shadow Plain are notoriously thin in the Underdark.
Also I think you're taking 'creatures of darkness' too broadly. Darkness and evil aren't mechanically interchangeable in DnD. I would expect any creature referenced with a 'Creature of darkness' to have some tie to the plane of shadow or undeath. Demons and Devils in Dnd are just cruel and evil, they don't care about light and dark. In general they're all to happy to ruin your life in daylight or darkness, and will use whatever tools they can against mortals. Drow, on the other hand are pretty well tied to darkness. It's in Lloth's portfolio and the barriers between the Prime Material and the Shadow Plain are notoriously thin in the Underdark.
In the early editions, the terms "evil" and "darkness" were very much interchangeable, to the point that all "evil races" had sunlight penalties. As in, the rule book flat out stated that creatures with a default LE or CE alignment suffered. That includes the various fiends, as well as goblinoid and orc hosts. So the line is very much blurry when it comes to these things in D&D. That has changed in more recent editions, but the hold over is still there at times. That's why we see races like the duergar with sunlight sensitivity when they lack any connection to the Shadowfell, or darkness magics.; its a hold over from previous editions.
Also I think you're taking 'creatures of darkness' too broadly. Darkness and evil aren't mechanically interchangeable in DnD. I would expect any creature referenced with a 'Creature of darkness' to have some tie to the plane of shadow or undeath. Demons and Devils in Dnd are just cruel and evil, they don't care about light and dark. In general they're all to happy to ruin your life in daylight or darkness, and will use whatever tools they can against mortals. Drow, on the other hand are pretty well tied to darkness. It's in Lloth's portfolio and the barriers between the Prime Material and the Shadow Plain are notoriously thin in the Underdark.
In the early editions, the terms "evil" and "darkness" were very much interchangeable, to the point that all "evil races" had sunlight penalties. As in, the rule book flat out stated that creatures with a default LE or CE alignment suffered. That includes the various fiends, as well as goblinoid and orc hosts. So the line is very much blurry when it comes to these things in D&D. That has changed in more recent editions, but the hold over is still there at times. That's why we see races like the duergar with sunlight sensitivity when they lack any connection to the Shadowfell, or darkness magics.; its a hold over from previous editions.
I didn't realize that about the older editions. I started in 3.0 where only specific creatures got sunlight sensitivity. Again I was lead to believe that so many creatures in the Underdark have a weakness to sunlight because the Underdark itself often broke through to the Plain of Shadows.
I think my original point still stands though. Drow are sensitive to sunlight not because their eyes are structured a certain way, but because they are magically afflicted, and therefore the physical changes brought on by Wild-shape do not relieve them of that burden.
I will preface this with the fact that I strongly dislike the warforged armour proficiency addition. I also feel that advice since release on wildshape has made wildshape more confusing and a gordian knot to untangle about how and why it would work the way it does in your 'world'.
Wildshape states you lose senses, and gain the new forms. so far so good
You gain the creatures statistics, so no ASI movement speeds or natural weapons transfer.
Wildshape prevents abilities you could not use in beast form (intended to mean you can not fly if you no longer have wings you cheeky flying characters) BUT and here we go down a rabbit hole, dwarven resilience has been cited as working!? Wouldnt dwarven resilience require dwarven physiology? Toughness feat adding multiple hitpoints has been cited as not working with wild forms... when if you have developed the ability to survive blows others wouldnt irrespective of your race and other feats are useable why wouldnt it work? in this case game balance - getting multiple extra hitpoints each form would be overly beneficial but it was not explained that way at all.
So in summation if your interested in the stats and not the world background or the evolving science of the worlds then as written currently you can make the case that integrated armor is just like dwarven resilience or bugbear reach or fury of the small. None of which makes a lick of sense. Make sure your DM is ok with it though. Alternatively you can ask for another errata / ruling on wording intent. All hail our new warforged overlords.
As for drow magic resistance, when they were introduced they were given a load of crazy abilities including at the time 50%+ chances to ignore spells cast at them (what magic resistance was in first) Later when they actually began to have lore added and a certain ranger became popular enough to sell merch entire backgrounds of material on drow (of the forgotten realms) were introduced in 2nd. In some of this it was mentioned that the innate spells and magic resistance of the drow was due to their exposure to underdark radiation and that exposure to daylight for any long period of time would erode both the magic resistance and ability to use innate spells away (permanently until back home and again exposed to the radiation the drow build cities around for an extended period) This does not mean that is the case for 5th. In 5th a dragons breath has bean stated as being non magical in an errata I laughed at which in 3rd was the very opposite of the case so what powers the drow is possibly energizer batteries for all we know, wait for confirmation.
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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 believe while in wild shape you would need food/water/oxygen, as it’s turning into the creature as opposed to a robotic form of the creature. You’d lose the poison/disease resistances, as well, and the protection from being warforged wouldn’t carry over.
i think the idea itself is rather neat, if not somewhat weird - but personally I find most warforged weird. I could certainly imagine some wooden automaton defending the forest like that.
When I started running Tomb of Annihilation one player wanted to be a Warforged Moon Druid.
We decided he was created when (magical?) lighting struck the swamp/jungle it was formed. It believes it was created by Ubtao to rid the jungles of the undead.
I gave him a choice. He can either turn into a living animal, and would look just like one.... or he can keep some of his Warforged traits, but he would look like a dinobot and no one will never think he's a natural creature in this form. He had until level 2 to decide. As expected he choose to be a horrifying semi-organic dinobot that unfolds and rearranges his body like a supernatural body horror.
For balance he doesn't get to keep the Integrated Protection.
RAW: Keep in mind you don't lose *all* your racial traits, just the ones the GM decides are based on pure physiology.
So a Dragonborn can still use Breath Weapon, but an Elf loses their Darkvision, but a Drow keeps Sunlight Sensitivity. Lizardfolk are generally assumed to lose their Scaly Skin, but keep Bite as long as the new form has a Bite. Sadly there is very little RAW guidance... so it's a lot of fiat no matter what.
I would have ruled that a drow loses sunlight sensitivity when it loses superior darkvision, as these 2 traits are strongly linked.
I would TOTALLY agree with you. Jeremy Crawford agrees with neither of us and considers the "sunlight sensitivity to be a supernatural quality of a "creature of darkness" not a biological one based on their superior darkvision for living underground.
https://www.sageadvice.eu/2017/01/20/would-a-wildshaped-druid-still-suffer-from-sunlight-sensitivity/
So then the supernatural quality of a creature of darkness being able to see in the dark better than anything else, should carry over. If it were sunlight hypersensitivity from vampire weaknesses, I'd be inclined to agree because that is different, and vampires don't have superior darkvision.
Had a thought. If a wildshape warforged has to eat and drink, does that mean the beast has a different stomach than the warforged? Then if a wildshape human eats then returns to normal form, is he now hungry? I do wish we had more examples to go on. If sunlight sensitivity is supernatural, who's to say not eating or breathing isn't also?
This actually gets into one reason I've thought Elves and Warforged make some of the most interesting Druids).
Once they get high level, because they don't "sleep", are not subject to the unconscious condition when they rest.
So it's possible for a Warforged or an Elf Moon Druid to long rest, while in Animal Form.
The reason I think this is cool, is that I like the idea that a Druid can just f*@% off into the forest and not have to worry about freezing to death in their sleep or turn into a badger and take a rest in a hole.
I believe the lore is that Drow were cursed with sunlight sensitivity for siding with Lloth not because they're subterranean. They then developed the improved Darkvision over time and through the weird twisted magic that filled the Underdark (earth nodes). Of course that isn't at all spelled out the description... but Jeremy seems to think that it's still relevant given his ruling.
"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. However, you can’t use any of your special senses, such as darkvision, unless your new form also has that sense." - Druid, Wild Shape write up
Going by this, you're going to have to check with your DM, but for the most part, the answer to all of these feel like a "no." A warforged's racial abilities are all tied up into the fact they're a living construct. Poison and disease aren't a big deal, because you're made of metal. The integrated protection is a thing because your body is armor - you don't get more armor, you ARE armor. Turning into an animal tends to replace your metal body with flesh, so its quite iffy to assume that the new form is physically capable of the same things as a warforged body.
As for what I think of a warforged druid? Sure, why not? If its something you'd have fun playing, go for it. I personally don't feel much of a story to explore there, so I wouldn't do it myself, but if others want to, sure. I've always been more of a fan of warforged working to build a Machine God; it has always been something I find amusing and interesting. Forge clerics and Transmuter wizard would be more my cup of tea, so to speak.
Drow have sunlight sensitivity primarily because they're an Underdark race, I think. Otherwise, it wouldn't make sense for other evil underdark races, like the myconoids, troglodytes, kuo-toa and duergar to have the same or similar issue. Mind flayers have historically found sunlight to be painful as well, though there's no mechanic for it in 5e. Deep gnomes oddly get a pass, not sure why, but they seem to be the exception rather than rule.
Lots of things in the Underdark seem to dislike direct sunlight. Historically, items crafted in the Underdark also seem to lose their power when exposed to sunlight, unraveling. So, I'm willing to wager that sunlight sensitivity is related to the magic of the underdark rather than any godly curse or demonic blood. Some creatures don't seem to have the issue, so the mutation seems selective, but it does seem to be enough of a trend that we can say that the Underdark is likely the cause.
Anyways, Jeremy very likely made his call based on strict reading of the rules, rather than relying on something based in lore. Is it physically possible for an animal to be sensitive to sunlight? Yes, therefore they're senitive. The rules say no darkvision, therefore no darkvision. Jeremy is a very strict by the exact rules as printed type of person, even when it doesn't make sense, or causes inconsistencies elsewhere.
I think it depends on your interpretation of the effects of the ability. For example if you rule that the ability changes your shape and appearance into that of the animal, but doesn't turn you into the actual animal (as the polymorph spell actually does), then it would make sense to keep more of their racial abilities.
Wild shape: "you can use your action to magically assume the shape of a beast that you have seen before." Polymorph: "This spell transforms a creature that you can see within range into a new form."
It still makes sense for your senses to be different because your eyes, nose, ears are structured a different way.
By this interpretation, a warforged could keep his resilience and sentry's rest the way an elf would keep Fey ancestry and trance.
Integrated armor is still a hard sale though, but warforged can't wear armor and other druids can keep their armor when they shift, so maybe a compromise can be made, like only the darkwood core setting is kept.
Edited for spelling and to add quotes.
This is from the sage advice FullMetalBunny linked:
A sensitivity to sunlight is a trope in fantasy, associated with creatures of darkness. It's usually more metaphysical than biological.
I may be incorrect about the source of the curse, it may be because the magic of the underdark changes creatures to be sunlight sensitive, but according to him Drow are magically influenced into the their weakness. It's not due to a biological influence, which is why an Drow Druid would still be affected in wild-shape.
It's pretty well established that a druid takes on all the statistics of the beast form they take. In fact the druid so thoroughly transforms that spells that target humanoids no longer affect them while they're transformed (charm person, hold person, etc). In addition if the transformation worked in the manner you described it seems many of the beasts features would no longer work; for example a dire wolf's advantage on survival and perception checks due to their sharp hearing and sense of smell.
That said this is all my take on RAW. I think it can be balanced and fun to introduce an interesting compromise. I like FullMetalBunny's solution with the wooden Beast Wars setup. After all it's a unique combo a creature are 'artificial' life doing what it can to protect 'natural' life. It sounds like it would be plenty of fun to play and I think even should require some homebrewing.... my point is though that it will need to be homebrew, the RAW isn't going to help you out a whole lot to cover what is pretty unique situation.
Well, that is the reason why the original designers gave sunlight sensitivity to drow at a metagame level. That's different from the lore behind it. The in game story doesn't say "You're EVIL therefore you get sunlight penalties." At least not in this edition, though it did happen in 1st/2nd edition. I mean, 5th edition tieflings don't get sunlight penalties, and they're as much a "creature of darkness" as 5th edition drow are.
You didn't actually mention anything about the transformation that I didn't already address, including specifically senses.
But yeah, it will ultimately be up to the DM. My DM is a fan of beast wars, so maybe he'll cut me a break.
Ah yeah, I did not make my intent clear. My comment was mostly to address your first statement:
I was simply trying to elaborate on why the sunlight sensitivity for a Drow holds over in wild-shape. Drow are cursed. There is a stain on their soul that makes them sensitive to sunlight. A Drow changing shape doesn't free them of that curse. They remain cursed even in while they are in beast shape. Jeremy's quote supports my understanding of that mechanic.
Also I think you're taking 'creatures of darkness' too broadly. Darkness and evil aren't mechanically interchangeable in DnD. I would expect any creature referenced with a 'Creature of darkness' to have some tie to the plane of shadow or undeath. Demons and Devils in Dnd are just cruel and evil, they don't care about light and dark. In general they're all to happy to ruin your life in daylight or darkness, and will use whatever tools they can against mortals. Drow, on the other hand are pretty well tied to darkness. It's in Lloth's portfolio and the barriers between the Prime Material and the Shadow Plain are notoriously thin in the Underdark.
In the early editions, the terms "evil" and "darkness" were very much interchangeable, to the point that all "evil races" had sunlight penalties. As in, the rule book flat out stated that creatures with a default LE or CE alignment suffered. That includes the various fiends, as well as goblinoid and orc hosts. So the line is very much blurry when it comes to these things in D&D. That has changed in more recent editions, but the hold over is still there at times. That's why we see races like the duergar with sunlight sensitivity when they lack any connection to the Shadowfell, or darkness magics.; its a hold over from previous editions.
I didn't realize that about the older editions. I started in 3.0 where only specific creatures got sunlight sensitivity. Again I was lead to believe that so many creatures in the Underdark have a weakness to sunlight because the Underdark itself often broke through to the Plain of Shadows.
I think my original point still stands though. Drow are sensitive to sunlight not because their eyes are structured a certain way, but because they are magically afflicted, and therefore the physical changes brought on by Wild-shape do not relieve them of that burden.
I will preface this with the fact that I strongly dislike the warforged armour proficiency addition. I also feel that advice since release on wildshape has made wildshape more confusing and a gordian knot to untangle about how and why it would work the way it does in your 'world'.
Wildshape states you lose senses, and gain the new forms. so far so good
You gain the creatures statistics, so no ASI movement speeds or natural weapons transfer.
Wildshape prevents abilities you could not use in beast form (intended to mean you can not fly if you no longer have wings you cheeky flying characters) BUT and here we go down a rabbit hole, dwarven resilience has been cited as working!? Wouldnt dwarven resilience require dwarven physiology? Toughness feat adding multiple hitpoints has been cited as not working with wild forms... when if you have developed the ability to survive blows others wouldnt irrespective of your race and other feats are useable why wouldnt it work? in this case game balance - getting multiple extra hitpoints each form would be overly beneficial but it was not explained that way at all.
So in summation if your interested in the stats and not the world background or the evolving science of the worlds then as written currently you can make the case that integrated armor is just like dwarven resilience or bugbear reach or fury of the small. None of which makes a lick of sense. Make sure your DM is ok with it though. Alternatively you can ask for another errata / ruling on wording intent. All hail our new warforged overlords.
As for drow magic resistance, when they were introduced they were given a load of crazy abilities including at the time 50%+ chances to ignore spells cast at them (what magic resistance was in first) Later when they actually began to have lore added and a certain ranger became popular enough to sell merch entire backgrounds of material on drow (of the forgotten realms) were introduced in 2nd. In some of this it was mentioned that the innate spells and magic resistance of the drow was due to their exposure to underdark radiation and that exposure to daylight for any long period of time would erode both the magic resistance and ability to use innate spells away (permanently until back home and again exposed to the radiation the drow build cities around for an extended period) This does not mean that is the case for 5th. In 5th a dragons breath has bean stated as being non magical in an errata I laughed at which in 3rd was the very opposite of the case so what powers the drow is possibly energizer batteries for all we know, wait for confirmation.