Homebrew Warforged (Steampunk) Species Details

“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

Beyond the Great Wheel of the multiverse exists the reality knot that holds Eberron. However it is not just one. Across the Sidereal threads that form the knot there are many versions of Eberron. These Warforged originate from an Eberron more techno-magical than most. Consequently their warforged are subtly different.

The warforged were built to fight in the Last War. While the first warforged were mindless automatons, House Cannith devoted vast resources to improving these steel soldiers. An unexpected breakthrough produced sapient soldiers, giving rise to what some have only grudgingly accepted as a new species. The Warforged were constructed by the Artificers of Cannith and are formed from woods, metals, clockworks and dragon shards. Built as weapons, they must now find a purpose in a world where the war has ended, for they can feel pain and emotion. A warforged can be a steadfast ally, a cold-hearted killer, or a visionary in search of meaning.

Living Steel and Stone

Warforged are formed from a blend of organic and inorganic materials. Root-like cords infused with alchemical fluids serve as their muscles, wrapped around a framework of steel, darkwood, or stone. Armored plates form a protective outer shell and reinforce joints. Warforged share a common facial design, with a hinged jaw and crystal eyes embedded beneath a reinforced brow ridge. Beyond these common elements of warforged design, the precise materials and build of a warforged vary based on the purpose for which it was designed.

Although they were manufactured, warforged are living humanoids. Resting, healing magic, and the Medicine skill all provide the same benefits to warforged that they do to other humanoids.

Warforged Personality

The warforged were built to serve and to fight. For most of their existence, warforged had a clearly defined function and were encouraged to focus purely on that role. The 'Treaty of Thronehold' gave them freedom, but many still struggle both to find a place in the post-war world and to relate to the creatures who created them.

The typical warforged shows little emotion. Many warforged embrace a concrete purpose — such as protecting allies, completing a contract, or exploring a land — and embrace this task as they once did war. However, there are warforged who delight in exploring their feelings, their freedom, and their relationships with others. Most warforged have no interest in religion, but some embrace faith and mysticism, seeking higher purpose and deeper meaning.

The typical warforged has a sexless body shape. Some warforged ignore the concept of gender entirely, while others adopt a gender identity.

The more a warforged develops its individuality, the more likely it is to modify its body, seeking out an artificer to customize the look of its face, limbs, and plating.

Quirks

Warforged often display an odd personality trait or two, given how new they are to the world. The Warforged Quirks table contains example quirks.

Warforged Names

Most warforged were assigned numerical designations for use in military service. Many of them adopted nicknames, often given to them by their comrades. As independent individuals, some have chosen new names as a way to express their path in life. A few take on human names, often the name of a fallen friend or mentor.

Warforged Names: Anchor, Banner, Bastion, Blade, Blue, Bow, Cart, Church, Crunch, Crystal, Dagger, Dent, Five, Glaive, Hammer, Iron, Lucky, Mace, Oak, Onyx, Pants, Pierce, Red, Rod, Rusty, Scout, Seven, Shield, Slash, Smith, Spike, Temple, Vault, Wall

Warforged Traits

Your warforged character has the following traits. A few of the traits give you a choice; consider how your choice reflects the purpose for which your character was built.

Ability Score Increase. Your Constitution score increases by 2, and one other ability score of your choice increases by 1.

Age. A typical warforged is between two and thirty years old. The maximum warforged lifespan remains a mystery; so far, warforged have shown no signs of deterioration due to age. You are immune to magical aging effects.

Alignment. Most warforged take comfort in order and discipline, tending toward law and neutrality. But some have absorbed the morality, or lack thereof, of the beings with which they served.

Size. Your size is Medium. To set your height and weight randomly, start with rolling a size modifier:

Size modifier = 2d6

Height = 5 feet + 10 inches + your size modifier in inches

Weight in pounds = 270 + (4 × your size modifier)

Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

Constructed Resilience. You were created to have remarkable fortitude, represented by the following benefits:

• You have advantage on saving throws against being poisoned, and you have resistance to poison damage.
• You don’t need to eat, drink, or breathe.
• You are immune to disease.
• You don’t need to sleep, and magic can’t put you to sleep.

Sentry’s Rest. When you take a long rest, you must spend at least six hours in an inactive, motionless state, rather than sleeping. In this state, you appear inert, but it doesn’t render you unconscious, and you can see and hear as normal.

Integrated Protection. Your body has built-in defensive layers, which can be enhanced with armour:

• You gain a +1 bonus to Armor Class.
• You can don only armor with which you have proficiency. To don armor other than a shield, you must incorporate it into your body over the course of 1 hour, during which you remain in contact with the armor. To doff armor, you must spend 1 hour removing it. You can rest while donning or doffing armor in this way.
• While you live, the armor incorporated into your body can’t be removed against your will.

Specialized Design. You gain one skill proficiency and one tool proficiency of your choice.

Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and one other language of your choice.

Warforged (Steampunk) Traits

More versitile than an automaton, Warforged were built with a purpose. Pick skills that reflects the purpose for which your character was built.

Ageless

You do not age, nor are you affected by magical aging affects.

Alignment

Most warforged take comfort in order and discipline, tending toward law and neutrality. But some have absorbed the morality – or lack thereof – of the beings with which they served.

Size

Warforged are generally quite imposing.

Your size is Medium. To set your height and weight randomly, start with rolling a size modifier.

• Size modifier = 2d6+2
• Height = 6 feet + 10 inches + your size modifier in inches
• Weight in pounds = 270 + (4 x your size modifier)

Ability Score Increase

Your physical metal body enhances your resilience.

Speed

Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

Sink, Don't Swim

Warforged cannot swim, as they will sink in most liquids. They can function underwater however and will usually just walk across the bottom of bodies of water they encounter.

Therefore you do not have a swimming speed.

Constructed Resilience

You were created to have remarkable fortitude, represented by the following benefits:

• You have advantage on saving throws against being poisoned, and you have resistance to poison damage.
• You don’t need to eat, drink, or breathe.
• You are immune to disease.
• You don't need to sleep, and magic can't put you to sleep.

Sentry's Rest.

When you take a long rest, you must spend at least six hours in an inactive, motionless state, rather than sleeping. In this state, you appear inert, but it doesn’t render you unconscious, and you can see and hear as normal.

Integrated Protection

Your body has built-in defensive layers, which can be enhanced with armor.

• You gain a +1 bonus to Armor Class.
• You can don only armor with which you have proficiency. To don armor, you must incorporate it into your body over the course of 1 hour, during which you must remain in contact with the armor. To doff armor, you must spend 1 hour removing it. You can rest while donning or doffing armor in this way.
• While you live, your armor can't be removed from your body against your will.

Pass The Wrench

Being mechanical, Warforged do not regenerate hit points through healing spells or rest. However, they can repair themselves with a tinker's toolkit and spare parts which most of them carry in internal storage pockets, and tools designed for other purposes may be easily substituted.

It is possible to heal a Warforged through the use of the Mending. Each casting of mending will heal one hitpoint.

Limited education

Warforged are just taught what they need to know for battle and as such are not widely educated.