How would Vampires and Vampire Spawn interact with a warforged character? As far as I can tell the Warforged do NOT have blood but rather alchemical fluids that run through their body.
By RAW, Warforged are Humanoids and therefore subjected to effects of a vampire's bite attack: Bite. (Bat or Vampire Form Only). Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 5 ft., one willing creature, or a creature that is grappled by the vampire, incapacitated, or restrained. Hit: 7 (1d6 + 4) piercing damage plus 10 (3d6) necrotic damage. The target’s hit point maximum is reduced by an amount equal to the necrotic damage taken, and the vampire regains hit points equal to that amount. The reduction lasts until the target finishes a long rest. The target dies if this effect reduces its hit point maximum to 0. A humanoid slain in this way and then buried in the ground rises the following night as a vampire spawn under the vampire’s control. (Emphasis mine)
Of course, you, as the DM could always rule differently (think RAF). I sell these sort of discrepancies as: yeah it's not "blood" in the human sense, but I am willing to bet the blood of one of the other numerous unique Humanoid races is drastically different (in other ways) than traditional "human" blood. It's not too much of a stretch to imagine some aspect of the Vampire's bite is - one might say - "infecting" or "cursing" the recipient of the bite. And as such, that aspect is effective on all possible Humanoid creatures.
A) A Warforged is essentially a robot. A vampire cannot drain a robot's blood, as they don't have any. Therefore, they cannot become vampires.
B) Warforged are half-machine, half organic matter (plants). It's conceivable that a vampire could drain fluids from the organic part of the body. Additionally, the vampire may simply be infecting targets, and the organic half of a warforged (AKA where a warforged gets their emotions and potentially soul) could be subject to the vampire spawning effect of the bite attack.
In 5e, effects such as Vampirism and Lycanthropy are magical curses, not bloodborne diseases. As such, any creature not explicitly immune to such effects are vulnerable.
Necrotic damage is "anti-life" energy that all living things are susceptible to, unless otherwise resistant/immune. Warforged may be unconventional, but they are still alive.
In 5e, effects such as Vampirism and Lycanthropy are magical curses, not bloodborne diseases. As such, any creature not explicitly immune to such effects are vulnerable.
Necrotic damage is "anti-life" energy that all living things are susceptible to, unless otherwise resistant/immune. Warforged may be unconventional, but they are still alive.
I second Memnosyne. You could make the argument that vampires do not consume blood for its nutritional value-- they're dead, after all-- but rather they consume it because it represents their victim's life force, which they are consuming and taking into themselves. Since warforged possess life force, they would also be susceptible, by that reasoning.
The interesting thing about "Undead Warforged" is that they canonically do not physically age, thus there is no "natural decay".
So, an Undead Warforged could either look exactly like a living one, or it could take on elements of decay for purely metaphysical reasons. The magic that animates it opposes pleasantness, so the manifestation of decay could be influenced by the universal expectations of those who might interact with it. It would literally become a manifestation of the world's fear and disgust, to some degree. Get groovy with it.
This thread has sparked some fantastic, yet horrific, ideas for undead warforged monsters for an Eberron campaign. I loooove this aesthetic.
Heh. My players absolutely hated me when I included Undead Warforged in my campaign. They were raiding a Warforged Colossus inside of the Mournland when they triggered the malfunctioning security system, which then sent a ton of Husk Zombies on them, which I gave Warforged features to, a Rust Monster's corroding feature on an Armblade attack, and called them "Rust Zombies". Undead Warforged are great.
I'm with CharlesthePlant and Memnosyne on this one. Rules as Written, it works, and Rules as Cool, it also works. I also flavor it as the Vampire sucking out the life force of its warforged victims, as well as some of the alchemical fluids that are inside its body. Keith Baker (the creator of Eberron) also agrees.
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Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
The construction of a Warforged is kept purposefully vague. You make it what you want it to be. But the text describing Warforged is that some do go the Pinocchio route. They gradually replace their constructed parts with organic parts. Organic parts won't survive without oxygen or whatever magical life essence is used in these fantasy settings. And blood is the organic alchemical solution that provides it.
In D&D Vampire lore, a vampire can not gain sustenance from an entity without a soul. So it's more than the creature having blood that the vampire needs. It's more than just sucking out the life essence. It is somehow interacting with the soul.
So if the Warforged has a soul, and if it's a player character it does, then the Vampire might need a can opener to pop that bottle top, but they can still chug away. Yum. Artificial sweetener. Great taste, less filling!
Vampirisim is magic and war-forged are magic you cant really references real world physics for how they interact only game rules and lore. For balance reasons the warforged acts the same as every other player character except for it's abilities so based on that they would become a vampire but that's possibly a relic from when it was made because the autognome is a construct. If you wanted to you could redesign the warforged to match.
At the same time it could be worth reimagining the vampire for eberron the same way many monsters are reconceptualised for that setting. You could for example have a warforged vampire lineage based on carnivorous plants that corrupts the wooden parts of warforged perhaps based on the vampiric gulthias tree. You could also look to things like dracula and have vampirism be spread by the vampire feeding their blood to some one in which case the idea of cursed blood corrupting a machine is maybe more intuitive than draining life force from it.
So if the Warforged has a soul, and if it's a player character it does, then the Vampire might need a can opener to pop that bottle top, but they can still chug away. Yum. Artificial sweetener. Great taste, less filling!
This is also interesting but opens a whole bunch of metaphysical questions which could be very interesting to explore in their own right.
How would Vampires and Vampire Spawn interact with a warforged character? As far as I can tell the Warforged do NOT have blood but rather alchemical fluids that run through their body.
By RAW, Warforged are Humanoids and therefore subjected to effects of a vampire's bite attack:
Bite. (Bat or Vampire Form Only). Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 5 ft., one willing creature, or a creature that is grappled by the vampire, incapacitated, or restrained. Hit: 7 (1d6 + 4) piercing damage plus 10 (3d6) necrotic damage. The target’s hit point maximum is reduced by an amount equal to the necrotic damage taken, and the vampire regains hit points equal to that amount. The reduction lasts until the target finishes a long rest. The target dies if this effect reduces its hit point maximum to 0. A humanoid slain in this way and then buried in the ground rises the following night as a vampire spawn under the vampire’s control.
(Emphasis mine)
Of course, you, as the DM could always rule differently (think RAF). I sell these sort of discrepancies as: yeah it's not "blood" in the human sense, but I am willing to bet the blood of one of the other numerous unique Humanoid races is drastically different (in other ways) than traditional "human" blood. It's not too much of a stretch to imagine some aspect of the Vampire's bite is - one might say - "infecting" or "cursing" the recipient of the bite. And as such, that aspect is effective on all possible Humanoid creatures.
I see two interpretations:
A) A Warforged is essentially a robot. A vampire cannot drain a robot's blood, as they don't have any. Therefore, they cannot become vampires.
B) Warforged are half-machine, half organic matter (plants). It's conceivable that a vampire could drain fluids from the organic part of the body. Additionally, the vampire may simply be infecting targets, and the organic half of a warforged (AKA where a warforged gets their emotions and potentially soul) could be subject to the vampire spawning effect of the bite attack.
In 5e, effects such as Vampirism and Lycanthropy are magical curses, not bloodborne diseases. As such, any creature not explicitly immune to such effects are vulnerable.
Necrotic damage is "anti-life" energy that all living things are susceptible to, unless otherwise resistant/immune. Warforged may be unconventional, but they are still alive.
I second Memnosyne. You could make the argument that vampires do not consume blood for its nutritional value-- they're dead, after all-- but rather they consume it because it represents their victim's life force, which they are consuming and taking into themselves. Since warforged possess life force, they would also be susceptible, by that reasoning.
This thread has sparked some fantastic, yet horrific, ideas for undead warforged monsters for an Eberron campaign. I loooove this aesthetic.
The interesting thing about "Undead Warforged" is that they canonically do not physically age, thus there is no "natural decay".
So, an Undead Warforged could either look exactly like a living one, or it could take on elements of decay for purely metaphysical reasons. The magic that animates it opposes pleasantness, so the manifestation of decay could be influenced by the universal expectations of those who might interact with it. It would literally become a manifestation of the world's fear and disgust, to some degree. Get groovy with it.
Heh. My players absolutely hated me when I included Undead Warforged in my campaign. They were raiding a Warforged Colossus inside of the Mournland when they triggered the malfunctioning security system, which then sent a ton of Husk Zombies on them, which I gave Warforged features to, a Rust Monster's corroding feature on an Armblade attack, and called them "Rust Zombies". Undead Warforged are great.
I'm with CharlesthePlant and Memnosyne on this one. Rules as Written, it works, and Rules as Cool, it also works. I also flavor it as the Vampire sucking out the life force of its warforged victims, as well as some of the alchemical fluids that are inside its body. Keith Baker (the creator of Eberron) also agrees.
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
Another concept for a vampire war forged is that they were possessed/they had vampire bits put in them, like bones
Two things to consider.
The construction of a Warforged is kept purposefully vague. You make it what you want it to be. But the text describing Warforged is that some do go the Pinocchio route. They gradually replace their constructed parts with organic parts. Organic parts won't survive without oxygen or whatever magical life essence is used in these fantasy settings. And blood is the organic alchemical solution that provides it.
In D&D Vampire lore, a vampire can not gain sustenance from an entity without a soul. So it's more than the creature having blood that the vampire needs. It's more than just sucking out the life essence. It is somehow interacting with the soul.
So if the Warforged has a soul, and if it's a player character it does, then the Vampire might need a can opener to pop that bottle top, but they can still chug away. Yum. Artificial sweetener. Great taste, less filling!
Vampirisim is magic and war-forged are magic you cant really references real world physics for how they interact only game rules and lore. For balance reasons the warforged acts the same as every other player character except for it's abilities so based on that they would become a vampire but that's possibly a relic from when it was made because the autognome is a construct. If you wanted to you could redesign the warforged to match.
At the same time it could be worth reimagining the vampire for eberron the same way many monsters are reconceptualised for that setting. You could for example have a warforged vampire lineage based on carnivorous plants that corrupts the wooden parts of warforged perhaps based on the vampiric gulthias tree. You could also look to things like dracula and have vampirism be spread by the vampire feeding their blood to some one in which case the idea of cursed blood corrupting a machine is maybe more intuitive than draining life force from it.
This is also interesting but opens a whole bunch of metaphysical questions which could be very interesting to explore in their own right.
I urge you all to read The Stainless Steel Leech by Roger Zelazny.
https://i.4pcdn.org/tg/1590481815568.pdf