I am curious whether or not you think warforged have a soul. I personally would say that they do not. Where I would agree that warforged are alive, I would say that their life is in fact artificial.
That basically, warforged are nothing more than the d&d equivalent of an Android. They are incredible magical machines, but machines nonetheless.
Whether or not a warforged has a soul matters, because how can they be a Cleric, or a Druid, or a sorcerer without a soul? How can one without a soul understand faith, or the connection to the earth, or the mystical bonds that bind us to our ancestors of ages past?
Yes, Warforged have souls. From a metaperspective (aka it's written in multiple sourcebooks from previous editions, and the setting creator himself explicitly stated to the affirmative), we know they do, in fact, have souls and are 100% considered living things. The debate on them having a soul is only a debate *in universe* (specifically in Eberron), where the point of the warforged story is not everyone knows or thinks of them being alive.
They are not machines. They are truly alive, despite their artificial origins.
Trying to get your physical content on Beyond is like going to Microsoft and saying "I have a physical Playstation disk, give me a digital Xbox version!"
I am curious or not you think warforged have a soul. I personally would say that they do not. Where I would agree that warforged are alive, I would say that, their life is in fact artificial.
That basically, warforged are nothing more than the d&d equivalent of an Android. They are incredible magical machines, but machines nonetheless.
What do you think?
If you had asked me if androids had a soul, the answer is no.
You didn't though, you asked if Warforged have a soul.
So Warforged are created in the creation forges via powerful magics. When first created, they are highly impressionable, like children. They aren't created with knowledge, they have to be taught. From there, they can think, feel, make their own decisions. They aren't programmed in any way shape or form, but rather taught. Androids are turned on with knowledge, and while depending on the media can learn and adapt with said knowledge, Warforged do not have this.
I caught you mid edit, but in the Five Nations Source for 3.5, there is "Three", the warforged Fighter/Paladin who serves Dol Arrah. So we have a canonical representation from the first iteration of Eberron and its updates that a Warforged can serve a deity. Not only that, but Dol Arrah is pretty damn straight forward in that sense. Dol Arrah is the light, not only of the sun, but also of the good aspects of the mortal soul.
I am curious or not you think warforged have a soul. I personally would say that they do not. Where I would agree that warforged are alive, I would say that, their life is in fact artificial.
That basically, warforged are nothing more than the d&d equivalent of an Android. They are incredible magical machines, but machines nonetheless.
What do you think?
If you had asked me if androids had a soul, the answer is no.
You didn't though, you asked if Warforged have a soul.
So Warforged are created in the creation forges via powerful magics. When first created, they are highly impressionable, like children. They aren't created with knowledge, they have to be taught. From there, they can think, feel, make their own decisions. They aren't programmed in any way shape or form, but rather taught. Androids are turned on with knowledge, and while depending on the media can learn and adapt with said knowledge, Warforged do not have this.
I caught you mid edit, but in the Five Nations Source for 3.5, there is "Three", the warforged Fighter/Paladin who serves Dol Arrah. So we have a canonical representation from the first iteration of Eberron and its updates that a Warforged can serve a deity. Not only that, but Dol Arrah is pretty damn straight forward in that sense. Dol Arrah is the light, not only of the sun, but also of the good aspects of the mortal soul.
sorry about the edit, but I thought that I should explain why I was asking this question.
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A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
In D&D, souls can be affected by a variety of spells and special abilities. If Warforged didn't have souls, this would be noted in their stat block due to them being immune to such effects. As they lack such immunities, they must therefore have souls.
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Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
In D&D, souls can be affected by a variety of spells and special abilities. If Warforged didn't have souls, this would be noted in their stat block due to them being immune to such effects. As they lack such immunities, they must therefore have souls.
I find this whole thing intriguing, because where do they get their souls from, if indeed the have one? Dose the magics that that create them include some kind of necromancy, that takes a soul and stuffs it Into a mechanical machine, thereby creating a living machine with a soul?
If in fact, that is not true, and the forges used to create warforged, create an entirely new soul for each one, then that has to be some God level magic that is going on in there. Any mortal who wields magic powerful enough to create souls would be utterly fearsome and deserves the greatest of respect. These people should be kings and queens of men, rulers of vast empires that span the globe, rather than mere forge masters.
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A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
In D&D, souls can be affected by a variety of spells and special abilities. If Warforged didn't have souls, this would be noted in their stat block due to them being immune to such effects. As they lack such immunities, they must therefore have souls.
I suppose this is also a fair point lol
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Formerly Devan Avalon.
Trying to get your physical content on Beyond is like going to Microsoft and saying "I have a physical Playstation disk, give me a digital Xbox version!"
In D&D, souls can be affected by a variety of spells and special abilities. If Warforged didn't have souls, this would be noted in their stat block due to them being immune to such effects. As they lack such immunities, they must therefore have souls.
I find this whole thing intriguing, because where do they get their souls from, if indeed the have one? Dose the magics that that create them include some kind of necromancy, that takes a soul and stuffs it Into a mechanical machine, thereby creating a living machine with a soul?
If in fact, that is not true, and the forges used to create warforged, create an entirely new soul for each one, then that has to be some God level magic that is going on in there. Any mortal who wields magic powerful enough to create souls would be utterly fearsome and deserves the greatest of respect. These people should be kings and queens of men, rulers of vast empires that span the globe, rather than mere forge masters.
We don't know, and that's the joy of it. My *personal* theory is that the Creation Forges pulled husks (aka souls that have lost their memories of previous existence) from Dolurrh (the world of the dead) and put them into the Warforged. But that is just one of many possible answers.
To paraphrase Keith Baker (the setting creator): The answer is whatever is best for your story.
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Formerly Devan Avalon.
Trying to get your physical content on Beyond is like going to Microsoft and saying "I have a physical Playstation disk, give me a digital Xbox version!"
I caught you mid edit, but in the Five Nations Source for 3.5, there is "Three", the warforged Fighter/Paladin who serves Dol Arrah. So we have a canonical representation from the first iteration of Eberron and its updates that a Warforged can serve a deity. Not only that, but Dol Arrah is pretty damn straight forward in that sense. Dol Arrah is the light, not only of the sun, but also of the good aspects of the mortal soul.
Tthat being said it's not even clear if Dol Arrah even exists, as divine magic in Ebrerron is powered by the faith of its users, not their dieties. There are paladins powered by patriotism and not!JudgeDredd belief in the Law, and Blades terrorists include paladins powered by their xenophobia and hatred towards the living
Where do humans or elves or goblinoids get theirs? It's one of the mysteries both in and out of the universe, and the breaking point of many debates between several religions.
With the gods of Eberron being either silent or non-existent depending on your interpretation and 6+ spell level casters being rare and mostly unwilling to share the knowledge they gained from other planes, it's an open question left for the GM to decide once his players get high level enough to actually find answers.
Canonically Warforged have a soul. For your campaign though, they don’t have to. It’s up to you. I will say though, the ability to animate a created body and endow it with levels of intelligence and sentience akin to those of ‘normal’ humanoids is easily on par, power-wise, with several possible explanations for how they could be given a soul instead.
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Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
My favorite answer to "do warforged have souls" is warforged themselves just deciding they do sans proof, the same way people do in real life. Like, in a metagame sense, we reading the source books know they do, but in the world of Ebberon where gods existing isn't a certainty and the metaphysical is much more up in the air like in our world, I think it's great that some warforged are just like "yeah we have souls and we do not care if that is controversial."
In my philosophy, souls are created along with sentience and feeling. I think it's impossible to be intelligent and have feelings for the world around you and not have a soul. It's not a question of where they come from, they're grown from within. Whether it's in a creation forge or a living person, it's the same process.
Your world, your lore. Warforged do not exist in my world (though, perhaps they should) but if I come up with good enough lore to support either side, then that’s what it shall be. Hmmm, maybe the creation or origin of warforged can be an event in my campaign that my PCs live through or are a part of first hand. One of my players is a battle smith artificer, perhaps he can be their creator and then seen as a god. Or maybe when he dies his soul will transfer to his steel defender, creating the first warforged. Boom, there it is. Warforged have souls in my world and my player’s artificer will unknowingly become the first if they ever die. And that’s why I like these forums, gets my brain goin.
If in fact, that is not true, and the forges used to create warforged, create an entirely new soul for each one, then that has to be some God level magic that is going on in there.
Does it? Nearly every peasant in the lowliest village has the same power. Perhaps it has nothing at all to do with the creators of the body.
Warforged have souls, just like humans have souls. We don't have a way to prove it, but we just decided that we have souls, so for all purposes of talking about whether other things have souls, they do. If they can decide that they have souls, they have souls.
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Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
In D&D, souls can be affected by a variety of spells and special abilities. If Warforged didn't have souls, this would be noted in their stat block due to them being immune to such effects. As they lack such immunities, they must therefore have souls.
I find this whole thing intriguing, because where do they get their souls from, if indeed the have one? Dose the magics that that create them include some kind of necromancy, that takes a soul and stuffs it Into a mechanical machine, thereby creating a living machine with a soul?
If in fact, that is not true, and the forges used to create warforged, create an entirely new soul for each one, then that has to be some God level magic that is going on in there. Any mortal who wields magic powerful enough to create souls would be utterly fearsome and deserves the greatest of respect. These people should be kings and queens of men, rulers of vast empires that span the globe, rather than mere forge masters.
I think there's an embedded premise in your logic above that begs a bit more interrogation.
As far as I can tell, in D&D there's a lot written as to where a mortal soul goes when it's mortal body dies. However, it's not explicit, or I'd say even implicit (except maybe for some Elf lore) that a departed soul is returning to origin. Yes, Gods and the outer planes have a great interest in souls, but it's never stated any of those powers actually create souls. Sure in a lot of game worlds, just like the real world, it's likely for parents, family and community to appeal to a deity to bless a newborn. It also happens that childless people will appeal for divine intervention to have a child (with an attendant soul), but while real world theology will often trace the origin of the soul to the divine, that's actually not specified in D&D. Souls have great currency in the outer planes (literally at least in the 9 Hells), and this economy of souls is something I've been playing with in my head as I try to give the outer planes more of a role in my game. The Warforged aren't in my game, but they'd be an interesting factor to the story. Is there some wellspring of souls or soul forge, and why is it there, or is there any reason? If I were to be glib and DMing on the fly, I'd speculate that souls spring from something akin to the Far Realm, but with a much more harmonious relationship with the D&D multiverse than the Far Realm.
Whatever forces that produce a soul in the reproduction of the traditionally defined "living" ... the forgers of the Warforged have figured out an engineering/magical at least approximation if not out right bullseye to tap into those forces. That makes them obstetricians, not kings. The dilemma of the Warforged is that those obstetricians weren't always the best parents, which left the Warforged with a lot to learn.
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Warforged have souls, just like humans have souls. We don't have a way to prove it, but we just decided that we have souls, so for all purposes of talking about whether other things have souls, they do. If they can decide that they have souls, they have souls.
A brain kept alive in a jar would be capable of thought, it might even have consciousness and be aware of its surroundings, if the jar in which it was kept was sufficiently designed.
What about a homunculus? It can move, it can think, it can perceive and react to its surroundings?
By Descartian logic, the brain in the jar and the Homunculus would both have souls, despite thought being nothing but a chemical process, and the Homunculus being nothing more than a magically generated puppet, who only possesses the illusion of life.
What about beasts and creatures that are incapable of intelligent though, do they not have souls, because they can’t choose to have one?
Also, warforged are created by mortals via an artificial practice. So, in creating living beings, who are not just alive, but also poses a soul, have mortals become gods? Do gods even exist, or are will all nothing more than dust upon the wind, that through a series of accidents has clumped together to form a being, that for a moment, believes itself to be alive?
In short, if warforged can have souls, what does that say all the other biological races? What does that say about us?
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A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
A skull is just a brain jar that's been sufficiently designed. Asking "if a brain was kept alive in a jar would it have a soul?" is a bit like asking if a quadriplegic is still human. Of course they are.
The difference between a brain in a jar and a hommunculus is that a brain in a jar *is* a person that's merely being preserved outside their body artificially, but in this case the body is just the casting-- the brain is what does the thinking and contains the memories and personality, basically everything that makes the body a person.
A hommunculus is a simple servant created through alchemical processes. They're never indicated to having human or near-human intelligence like warforged are, and they don't appear to have free will like warforged are.
And ok, I'll bite, what does that say about warforged if they have souls? What *does* that say about us?
It says that it's not how you are born or made that determine your worth, but your capacity to live and your choices of what to do with the gift of life. In real life, if a Turing-test passing AI told me it was alive and had a soul, I would belive it, and I wouldn't believe that I was inherently more alive than it was because I have a meat brain. Instead it'd take the opportunity presented to grow in understanding and be compassionate.
It's like some of y'all didn't listen to Mewtwo at the end of the Pokemon movie.
There's a difference between the homunculus and a brain. The brain is sentient, and sentience is generally required for having a soul. Being able to perceive and react to your surroundings does not give you a soul. Snails can perceive and react to their environment, but they don't have souls (I hope, at least. Otherwise, I'm going to hell for killing those snails).
Creatures incapable of intelligent thought by definition cannot "think", thus not giving them souls. They can't comprehend the concept of having a soul, so they can't decide that they have one, and thus don't have one.
I think you just reinvented Eberron with that second-to-last paragraph. The gods are either unresponsive/inactive or nonexistent there. As stated by others earlier in the thread, creating a soul or creating a vessel for a soul isn't that hard. Any fertile male-female couple can do so fairly easily. Being a parent doesn't make you a god.
You mean D&D races? They have souls. It's pretty obvious in 5e. Humans have souls the same way Warforged have them, be deciding that we have souls. We understand the concept of having souls, thus we have decided that we have souls.
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Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Hi,
I am curious whether or not you think warforged have a soul. I personally would say that they do not. Where I would agree that warforged are alive, I would say that their life is in fact artificial.
That basically, warforged are nothing more than the d&d equivalent of an Android. They are incredible magical machines, but machines nonetheless.
Whether or not a warforged has a soul matters, because how can they be a Cleric, or a Druid, or a sorcerer without a soul? How can one without a soul understand faith, or the connection to the earth, or the mystical bonds that bind us to our ancestors of ages past?
What do you think, do warforged have souls?
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
Yes, Warforged have souls. From a metaperspective (aka it's written in multiple sourcebooks from previous editions, and the setting creator himself explicitly stated to the affirmative), we know they do, in fact, have souls and are 100% considered living things. The debate on them having a soul is only a debate *in universe* (specifically in Eberron), where the point of the warforged story is not everyone knows or thinks of them being alive.
They are not machines. They are truly alive, despite their artificial origins.
Formerly Devan Avalon.
Trying to get your physical content on Beyond is like going to Microsoft and saying "I have a physical Playstation disk, give me a digital Xbox version!"
If you had asked me if androids had a soul, the answer is no.
You didn't though, you asked if Warforged have a soul.
So Warforged are created in the creation forges via powerful magics. When first created, they are highly impressionable, like children. They aren't created with knowledge, they have to be taught. From there, they can think, feel, make their own decisions. They aren't programmed in any way shape or form, but rather taught. Androids are turned on with knowledge, and while depending on the media can learn and adapt with said knowledge, Warforged do not have this.
I caught you mid edit, but in the Five Nations Source for 3.5, there is "Three", the warforged Fighter/Paladin who serves Dol Arrah. So we have a canonical representation from the first iteration of Eberron and its updates that a Warforged can serve a deity. Not only that, but Dol Arrah is pretty damn straight forward in that sense. Dol Arrah is the light, not only of the sun, but also of the good aspects of the mortal soul.
sorry about the edit, but I thought that I should explain why I was asking this question.
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
In D&D, souls can be affected by a variety of spells and special abilities. If Warforged didn't have souls, this would be noted in their stat block due to them being immune to such effects. As they lack such immunities, they must therefore have souls.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
I find this whole thing intriguing, because where do they get their souls from, if indeed the have one? Dose the magics that that create them include some kind of necromancy, that takes a soul and stuffs it Into a mechanical machine, thereby creating a living machine with a soul?
If in fact, that is not true, and the forges used to create warforged, create an entirely new soul for each one, then that has to be some God level magic that is going on in there. Any mortal who wields magic powerful enough to create souls would be utterly fearsome and deserves the greatest of respect. These people should be kings and queens of men, rulers of vast empires that span the globe, rather than mere forge masters.
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
I suppose this is also a fair point lol
Formerly Devan Avalon.
Trying to get your physical content on Beyond is like going to Microsoft and saying "I have a physical Playstation disk, give me a digital Xbox version!"
We don't know, and that's the joy of it. My *personal* theory is that the Creation Forges pulled husks (aka souls that have lost their memories of previous existence) from Dolurrh (the world of the dead) and put them into the Warforged. But that is just one of many possible answers.
To paraphrase Keith Baker (the setting creator): The answer is whatever is best for your story.
Formerly Devan Avalon.
Trying to get your physical content on Beyond is like going to Microsoft and saying "I have a physical Playstation disk, give me a digital Xbox version!"
Tthat being said it's not even clear if Dol Arrah even exists, as divine magic in Ebrerron is powered by the faith of its users, not their dieties. There are paladins powered by patriotism and not!JudgeDredd belief in the Law, and Blades terrorists include paladins powered by their xenophobia and hatred towards the living
Where do humans or elves or goblinoids get theirs? It's one of the mysteries both in and out of the universe, and the breaking point of many debates between several religions.
With the gods of Eberron being either silent or non-existent depending on your interpretation and 6+ spell level casters being rare and mostly unwilling to share the knowledge they gained from other planes, it's an open question left for the GM to decide once his players get high level enough to actually find answers.
Canonically Warforged have a soul. For your campaign though, they don’t have to. It’s up to you. I will say though, the ability to animate a created body and endow it with levels of intelligence and sentience akin to those of ‘normal’ humanoids is easily on par, power-wise, with several possible explanations for how they could be given a soul instead.
Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
I think the quote at the top of the warforged race page does a good job at defining this discussion.
“Pierce was built by design, while you were built by accident,” Lakashtai said. “The soul is what matters, not the shape of the vessel.”
“What makes you think he has a soul?” Gerrion said.
“What makes you think you do?”
—Keith Baker, The Shattered Land
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"Play the game however you want to play the game. After all, your fun doesn't threaten my fun."
My favorite answer to "do warforged have souls" is warforged themselves just deciding they do sans proof, the same way people do in real life. Like, in a metagame sense, we reading the source books know they do, but in the world of Ebberon where gods existing isn't a certainty and the metaphysical is much more up in the air like in our world, I think it's great that some warforged are just like "yeah we have souls and we do not care if that is controversial."
In my philosophy, souls are created along with sentience and feeling. I think it's impossible to be intelligent and have feelings for the world around you and not have a soul. It's not a question of where they come from, they're grown from within. Whether it's in a creation forge or a living person, it's the same process.
Your world, your lore. Warforged do not exist in my world (though, perhaps they should) but if I come up with good enough lore to support either side, then that’s what it shall be. Hmmm, maybe the creation or origin of warforged can be an event in my campaign that my PCs live through or are a part of first hand. One of my players is a battle smith artificer, perhaps he can be their creator and then seen as a god. Or maybe when he dies his soul will transfer to his steel defender, creating the first warforged. Boom, there it is. Warforged have souls in my world and my player’s artificer will unknowingly become the first if they ever die. And that’s why I like these forums, gets my brain goin.
Does it? Nearly every peasant in the lowliest village has the same power. Perhaps it has nothing at all to do with the creators of the body.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
"I think, therefore I am."
Warforged have souls, just like humans have souls. We don't have a way to prove it, but we just decided that we have souls, so for all purposes of talking about whether other things have souls, they do. If they can decide that they have souls, they have souls.
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
I think there's an embedded premise in your logic above that begs a bit more interrogation.
As far as I can tell, in D&D there's a lot written as to where a mortal soul goes when it's mortal body dies. However, it's not explicit, or I'd say even implicit (except maybe for some Elf lore) that a departed soul is returning to origin. Yes, Gods and the outer planes have a great interest in souls, but it's never stated any of those powers actually create souls. Sure in a lot of game worlds, just like the real world, it's likely for parents, family and community to appeal to a deity to bless a newborn. It also happens that childless people will appeal for divine intervention to have a child (with an attendant soul), but while real world theology will often trace the origin of the soul to the divine, that's actually not specified in D&D. Souls have great currency in the outer planes (literally at least in the 9 Hells), and this economy of souls is something I've been playing with in my head as I try to give the outer planes more of a role in my game. The Warforged aren't in my game, but they'd be an interesting factor to the story. Is there some wellspring of souls or soul forge, and why is it there, or is there any reason? If I were to be glib and DMing on the fly, I'd speculate that souls spring from something akin to the Far Realm, but with a much more harmonious relationship with the D&D multiverse than the Far Realm.
Whatever forces that produce a soul in the reproduction of the traditionally defined "living" ... the forgers of the Warforged have figured out an engineering/magical at least approximation if not out right bullseye to tap into those forces. That makes them obstetricians, not kings. The dilemma of the Warforged is that those obstetricians weren't always the best parents, which left the Warforged with a lot to learn.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
A brain kept alive in a jar would be capable of thought, it might even have consciousness and be aware of its surroundings, if the jar in which it was kept was sufficiently designed.
What about a homunculus? It can move, it can think, it can perceive and react to its surroundings?
By Descartian logic, the brain in the jar and the Homunculus would both have souls, despite thought being nothing but a chemical process, and the Homunculus being nothing more than a magically generated puppet, who only possesses the illusion of life.
What about beasts and creatures that are incapable of intelligent though, do they not have souls, because they can’t choose to have one?
Also, warforged are created by mortals via an artificial practice. So, in creating living beings, who are not just alive, but also poses a soul, have mortals become gods? Do gods even exist, or are will all nothing more than dust upon the wind, that through a series of accidents has clumped together to form a being, that for a moment, believes itself to be alive?
In short, if warforged can have souls, what does that say all the other biological races? What does that say about us?
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
A skull is just a brain jar that's been sufficiently designed. Asking "if a brain was kept alive in a jar would it have a soul?" is a bit like asking if a quadriplegic is still human. Of course they are.
The difference between a brain in a jar and a hommunculus is that a brain in a jar *is* a person that's merely being preserved outside their body artificially, but in this case the body is just the casting-- the brain is what does the thinking and contains the memories and personality, basically everything that makes the body a person.
A hommunculus is a simple servant created through alchemical processes. They're never indicated to having human or near-human intelligence like warforged are, and they don't appear to have free will like warforged are.
And ok, I'll bite, what does that say about warforged if they have souls? What *does* that say about us?
It says that it's not how you are born or made that determine your worth, but your capacity to live and your choices of what to do with the gift of life. In real life, if a Turing-test passing AI told me it was alive and had a soul, I would belive it, and I wouldn't believe that I was inherently more alive than it was because I have a meat brain. Instead it'd take the opportunity presented to grow in understanding and be compassionate.
It's like some of y'all didn't listen to Mewtwo at the end of the Pokemon movie.
There's a difference between the homunculus and a brain. The brain is sentient, and sentience is generally required for having a soul. Being able to perceive and react to your surroundings does not give you a soul. Snails can perceive and react to their environment, but they don't have souls (I hope, at least. Otherwise, I'm going to hell for killing those snails).
Creatures incapable of intelligent thought by definition cannot "think", thus not giving them souls. They can't comprehend the concept of having a soul, so they can't decide that they have one, and thus don't have one.
I think you just reinvented Eberron with that second-to-last paragraph. The gods are either unresponsive/inactive or nonexistent there. As stated by others earlier in the thread, creating a soul or creating a vessel for a soul isn't that hard. Any fertile male-female couple can do so fairly easily. Being a parent doesn't make you a god.
You mean D&D races? They have souls. It's pretty obvious in 5e. Humans have souls the same way Warforged have them, be deciding that we have souls. We understand the concept of having souls, thus we have decided that we have souls.
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms