Just looking for a clarification for a character idea I have in my head. The idea is to make use of the Envoy model Warforged's Integrated Tool feature to turn him into a walking, talking Blacksmith Forge, thinking some combination of Barbarian and Fighter for class.
First and (hopefully) simplest. To be a Blacksmith, that would be Smith's Tools, right? Unfortunately none of the Details pages on Tool items have specific descriptions, instead all having the same generic reference to proficiency. I'd want to talk to the DM about whether or not I'd need to do any modifications to make that work, of course, since I'd clearly be heavier than the Envoy model is meant to be just to accommodate the anvil, let alone the bellows system for the forge.
More than that, I'm torn on the class selection. In my head, a Barbarian would, thematically, be more appropriate for a living smelting furnace. With a short fuse, he'd be just as content to pound the flesh of an enemy as he would hot iron. But looking at it mechanically/numerically, Fighter seems like it would be more appropriate. Most of the Barbarian Primal Paths are referring to ancestors, or spiritual type things, or communing with the environment. None of these things really mesh with the idea of a mechanical being fueled by magical energy. And looking at the Fighter, especially the playtesting Brute Archetype, is exactly what I was thinking for the character. And Fighter would also provide access to Heavy Plating through the proficiency for Heavy Armor. This also assumes the Brute is ultimately approved and given final implementation as a permanent Archtype.
Which then brings me to another question. I understand there was a tweet about the Integrated Protection ability on Warforged, in that whether they are considered to be wearing their integrated armor or not is intentionally ambiguous to see what people prefer and/or what problems people have with it. Has there been any update on that? Because if either of the Plating modes are considered to be wearing armor, there goes the benefits of Barbarian Rage, meaning the benefits Rage related features of Barbarian only apply in Darkwood Core.
Smith's tools weight 8lbs, I think it's a fair assumption that they do not include a forge or even an anvil, just the tools needed to make use of a forge.
Barbarian rage works as long as you aren't wearing heavy armor, it seems that even the heavy plating would technically work, though your DM may decide otherwise.
Both of the Plating models do make you count as wearing armor, so only darkwood works for a barbarian.
Might I suggest trying a Forge domain Cleric? They are strong physical combatants (no martial weapons, but a mace skinned as a blacksmith hammer would be cool), also get heavy armor proficiency, and much of their magic leans towards forging. You could avoid the healing or more "divine" feeling magics, and go full practical spells and Forge-fire. You were created as an act of worship to this Forge god, maybe you yourself are not so religious, but still the eternal fire of creation burns within you; and when your time of need comes the Forge god will answer your plea.
First, as per the PHB, Smith's tools contain: hammers, tongs, charcoal, rags, and a whetstone.
You could say magic replaces the charcoal, and thin layers of your wood replaces the rags, with your stone for the whetstone. Remember though, your hands must be used to wield everything.
Also, you get expertise with integrated tools.
As to armor, it depends on if you follow wotc interpretation, or that of Keith Baker (maker of warforged). Wotc says composite and heavy plating are medium and heavy armor respectively, Keith Baker says they both just count as armor.
So under wotc, barbarians cannot rage in heavy plate, under Keith Baker they can.
Yeah, forge and anvil are not part of a Smith tools. DM will have to house rule that, and it should count against your carrying capacity. Smith tools are mostly meant to repair items while away from a forge.
A forge domain cleric can use channel divinity to forge some items with magic (gets bonuses from heavy armor though, DM will have to house rule that for Warforged). An artificer is a master craftsman.
Honestly, while a forge and anvil are not typical, if you look at Keith Bakers answers after the WGTE FAQ, it could be possible for a warforged.
I suggest asking if the following is OK:
Hammer & tongs fold out from forearms to the hands, wood cloth coverings on forearms as rags, belly as forge, whetstone as part of hatch, breathing as bellows action, back of thighs fold down to make a stool, front of thighs as anvil surface, wood cloth from lower leg expanding to form container for quenching, and built in alchemical fluid acting as quenching fluid.
Barbarian rage works as long as you aren't wearing heavy armor, it seems that even the heavy plating would technically work, though your DM may decide otherwise.
I didn't realize that. After posting I went and did more reading and found it. Which is nifty, but I fear it would run into a similar problem that the Lizardman Ranger I played today did. Natural scale skin pushed me to 16 AC, which was the same or better than all Armors I could wear (no Heavy prof). I was dual wielding Finesse, so no Shield. I got flattened by 3 Vampires (1 was a "Spawn Lord"?) after 2 turns, and I had 62 HP to work with (level 5). So with a Warforged Blacksmith, I'd be using a shield, but since I'm not Dex focused I'm only going to get up to 18 with Medium + Shield. Dunno, have to see how it pans out, if at all.
I will have to read that one again, but I was hoping to avoid magic as much as possible to "abuse" the Sentinel's Rest feature. Ignoring Exhaustion from lack of Long Rest/Sleep is just plain too good to pass up where possible. Party needs some blacksmithing work to fix or upgrade an item? I can work through the night on it while everyone else sleeps. Further, though, I've read a few comments that the Forge Domain's signature AC buffs can't work on Warforged, because the Integrated Protection "armors" do not count as wearing Armor, so the Forge specific spell doesn't affect it. Still able to buff others, of course, but it's important to consider.
It would also contribute as an income stream for me/the party, as well, because I could take work from people in towns and things we pass through, anything from commissioning weapons/parts or doing repairs. And with the Clan Crafter background, I could pick a second set of Tools, so why not Jeweler's?
First, as per the PHB, Smith's tools contain: hammers, tongs, charcoal, rags, and a whetstone.
You could say magic replaces the charcoal, and thin layers of your wood replaces the rags, with your stone for the whetstone. Remember though, your hands must be used to wield everything.
Yeah, forge and anvil are not part of a Smith tools. DM will have to house rule that, and it should count against your carrying capacity. Smith tools are mostly meant to repair items while away from a forge.
Hammer & tongs fold out from forearms to the hands, wood cloth coverings on forearms as rags, belly as forge, whetstone as part of hatch, breathing as bellows action, back of thighs fold down to make a stool, front of thighs as anvil surface, wood cloth from lower leg expanding to form container for quenching, and built in alchemical fluid acting as quenching fluid.
My concept was more along the lines of the entire thing being internal to the character's body, and he deploys like a Terran Siege Tank and then ignites the forge. Extra limbs come out internally to work all the parts, still 100% connected to the single framework that folds out of the body. So size/weight wise, I'd be more in line with the Juggernaut model rather than the implication of the Envoy model being smaller and more delicate like the examples given in the Envoy model's section.
I will have to read that one again, but I was hoping to avoid magic as much as possible to "abuse" the Sentinel's Rest feature. Ignoring Exhaustion from lack of Long Rest/Sleep is just plain too good to pass up where possible. Party needs some blacksmithing work to fix or upgrade an item? I can work through the night on it while everyone else sleeps. Further, though, I've read a few comments that the Forge Domain's signature AC buffs can't work on Warforged, because the Integrated Protection "armors" do not count as wearing Armor, so the Forge specific spell doesn't affect it. Still able to buff others, of course, but it's important to consider.
It would also contribute as an income stream for me/the party, as well, because I could take work from people in towns and things we pass through, anything from commissioning weapons/parts or doing repairs. And with the Clan Crafter background, I could pick a second set of Tools, so why not Jeweler's?
While you can't use the AC buff on your internal armor, you can still use it on a shield if you use one.
I will have to read that one again, but I was hoping to avoid magic as much as possible to "abuse" the Sentinel's Rest feature. Ignoring Exhaustion from lack of Long Rest/Sleep is just plain too good to pass up where possible. Party needs some blacksmithing work to fix or upgrade an item? I can work through the night on it while everyone else sleeps. Further, though, I've read a few comments that the Forge Domain's signature AC buffs can't work on Warforged, because the Integrated Protection "armors" do not count as wearing Armor, so the Forge specific spell doesn't affect it. Still able to buff others, of course, but it's important to consider.
It would also contribute as an income stream for me/the party, as well, because I could take work from people in towns and things we pass through, anything from commissioning weapons/parts or doing repairs. And with the Clan Crafter background, I could pick a second set of Tools, so why not Jeweler's?
While you can't use the AC buff on your internal armor, you can still use it on a shield if you use one.
...are you sure?
Blessing of the Forge
At 1st level, you gain the ability to imbue magic into a weapon or armor. At the end of a long rest, you can touch one nonmagical object that is a suit of armor or a simple or martial weapon. Until the end of your next long rest or until you die, the object becomes a magic item, granting a +1 bonus to AC if it’s armor or a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls if it’s a weapon.
Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a long rest.
Copy/paste straight from the page, makes no mention of Shields.
Yeah, that mentions 'a suit of armor', not just armor, so Blessing of the Forge would not apply.
As to how you would be a forge, however you flavor it, just remember that you would not be able to use your hands to do anything else while using your tools.
Also, only 1 set of tools gets expertise, so all others will only get proficiency at best.
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Just looking for a clarification for a character idea I have in my head. The idea is to make use of the Envoy model Warforged's Integrated Tool feature to turn him into a walking, talking Blacksmith Forge, thinking some combination of Barbarian and Fighter for class.
First and (hopefully) simplest. To be a Blacksmith, that would be Smith's Tools, right? Unfortunately none of the Details pages on Tool items have specific descriptions, instead all having the same generic reference to proficiency. I'd want to talk to the DM about whether or not I'd need to do any modifications to make that work, of course, since I'd clearly be heavier than the Envoy model is meant to be just to accommodate the anvil, let alone the bellows system for the forge.
More than that, I'm torn on the class selection. In my head, a Barbarian would, thematically, be more appropriate for a living smelting furnace. With a short fuse, he'd be just as content to pound the flesh of an enemy as he would hot iron. But looking at it mechanically/numerically, Fighter seems like it would be more appropriate. Most of the Barbarian Primal Paths are referring to ancestors, or spiritual type things, or communing with the environment. None of these things really mesh with the idea of a mechanical being fueled by magical energy. And looking at the Fighter, especially the playtesting Brute Archetype, is exactly what I was thinking for the character. And Fighter would also provide access to Heavy Plating through the proficiency for Heavy Armor. This also assumes the Brute is ultimately approved and given final implementation as a permanent Archtype.
Which then brings me to another question. I understand there was a tweet about the Integrated Protection ability on Warforged, in that whether they are considered to be wearing their integrated armor or not is intentionally ambiguous to see what people prefer and/or what problems people have with it. Has there been any update on that? Because if either of the Plating modes are considered to be wearing armor, there goes the benefits of Barbarian Rage, meaning the benefits Rage related features of Barbarian only apply in Darkwood Core.
Smith's tools weight 8lbs, I think it's a fair assumption that they do not include a forge or even an anvil, just the tools needed to make use of a forge.
Barbarian rage works as long as you aren't wearing heavy armor, it seems that even the heavy plating would technically work, though your DM may decide otherwise.
Both of the Plating models do make you count as wearing armor, so only darkwood works for a barbarian.
Might I suggest trying a Forge domain Cleric? They are strong physical combatants (no martial weapons, but a mace skinned as a blacksmith hammer would be cool), also get heavy armor proficiency, and much of their magic leans towards forging. You could avoid the healing or more "divine" feeling magics, and go full practical spells and Forge-fire. You were created as an act of worship to this Forge god, maybe you yourself are not so religious, but still the eternal fire of creation burns within you; and when your time of need comes the Forge god will answer your plea.
First, as per the PHB, Smith's tools contain: hammers, tongs, charcoal, rags, and a whetstone.
You could say magic replaces the charcoal, and thin layers of your wood replaces the rags, with your stone for the whetstone. Remember though, your hands must be used to wield everything.
Also, you get expertise with integrated tools.
As to armor, it depends on if you follow wotc interpretation, or that of Keith Baker (maker of warforged). Wotc says composite and heavy plating are medium and heavy armor respectively, Keith Baker says they both just count as armor.
So under wotc, barbarians cannot rage in heavy plate, under Keith Baker they can.
Yeah, forge and anvil are not part of a Smith tools. DM will have to house rule that, and it should count against your carrying capacity. Smith tools are mostly meant to repair items while away from a forge.
A forge domain cleric can use channel divinity to forge some items with magic (gets bonuses from heavy armor though, DM will have to house rule that for Warforged). An artificer is a master craftsman.
Honestly, while a forge and anvil are not typical, if you look at Keith Bakers answers after the WGTE FAQ, it could be possible for a warforged.
I suggest asking if the following is OK:
Hammer & tongs fold out from forearms to the hands, wood cloth coverings on forearms as rags, belly as forge, whetstone as part of hatch, breathing as bellows action, back of thighs fold down to make a stool, front of thighs as anvil surface, wood cloth from lower leg expanding to form container for quenching, and built in alchemical fluid acting as quenching fluid.
Only heavy armor prevents rage, which means composite is fine, heavy too if the DM is fine with Keith Bakers interpretation.
I didn't realize that. After posting I went and did more reading and found it. Which is nifty, but I fear it would run into a similar problem that the Lizardman Ranger I played today did. Natural scale skin pushed me to 16 AC, which was the same or better than all Armors I could wear (no Heavy prof). I was dual wielding Finesse, so no Shield. I got flattened by 3 Vampires (1 was a "Spawn Lord"?) after 2 turns, and I had 62 HP to work with (level 5). So with a Warforged Blacksmith, I'd be using a shield, but since I'm not Dex focused I'm only going to get up to 18 with Medium + Shield. Dunno, have to see how it pans out, if at all.
I will have to read that one again, but I was hoping to avoid magic as much as possible to "abuse" the Sentinel's Rest feature. Ignoring Exhaustion from lack of Long Rest/Sleep is just plain too good to pass up where possible. Party needs some blacksmithing work to fix or upgrade an item? I can work through the night on it while everyone else sleeps. Further, though, I've read a few comments that the Forge Domain's signature AC buffs can't work on Warforged, because the Integrated Protection "armors" do not count as wearing Armor, so the Forge specific spell doesn't affect it. Still able to buff others, of course, but it's important to consider.
It would also contribute as an income stream for me/the party, as well, because I could take work from people in towns and things we pass through, anything from commissioning weapons/parts or doing repairs. And with the Clan Crafter background, I could pick a second set of Tools, so why not Jeweler's?
My concept was more along the lines of the entire thing being internal to the character's body, and he deploys like a Terran Siege Tank and then ignites the forge. Extra limbs come out internally to work all the parts, still 100% connected to the single framework that folds out of the body. So size/weight wise, I'd be more in line with the Juggernaut model rather than the implication of the Envoy model being smaller and more delicate like the examples given in the Envoy model's section.
While you can't use the AC buff on your internal armor, you can still use it on a shield if you use one.
...are you sure?
Blessing of the Forge
At 1st level, you gain the ability to imbue magic into a weapon or armor. At the end of a long rest, you can touch one nonmagical object that is a suit of armor or a simple or martial weapon. Until the end of your next long rest or until you die, the object becomes a magic item, granting a +1 bonus to AC if it’s armor or a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls if it’s a weapon.
Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a long rest.
Copy/paste straight from the page, makes no mention of Shields.
Yeah, that mentions 'a suit of armor', not just armor, so Blessing of the Forge would not apply.
As to how you would be a forge, however you flavor it, just remember that you would not be able to use your hands to do anything else while using your tools.
Also, only 1 set of tools gets expertise, so all others will only get proficiency at best.