Homebrew Warforged 101 Species Details

Personality 

Warforged can have unique personality traits though, being constructs, they are restricted in some ways. They experience anger, pain, fear and hatred like their human creators; not all warforged are incredibly reserved and pensive, hiding an array of emotions behind their metallic face. Their faces were not designed to display facial expressions and so it can seem like they are distant to the conversation. Despite their lack of physical facial expressions they're not completely without them as their eyes tend to brighten when experiencing strong or specific emotions.

Some warforged are incredibly naive and lack introspection; however, many others are the opposite and question their existence, wonder if they have souls and ask what becomes of them in the after life. The more intelligent warforged create complex philosophies about what they perceive and learn. Though warforged can show loyalty to religions and organisations, typically they become loyal to a small group of comrades.

Warforged often have little life experience as they spent most of their time assigned to one specific duty, usually soldiering. If there is one interest all warforged share it is the love of working and many create endless lists of goals and chores. They take pride in their work and work incredibly hard which makes them dislike idleness and failure. Warforged can excel at most tasks having a single-minded efficiency, especially in combat related roles.

War and military conditioning create the foundation of warforged personalities, they understand duty, the chain of command and conflict. Due to their bodies more closely resembling males than females, most warforged prefer to be called "he" than "it". Some warforged adopt female names though most of their names are straightforward and are related to their job, abilities or rank. Many warforged simply accept the nicknames given to them by their comrades while others seek to earn more meaningful names that best describe them. 

Leisure

Warforged never tire and rarely allow themselves to become bored. Having no fear of ageing and no need for sleep or food warforged have an almost unending patience, yet a hard life as constant soldiers has accustomed them to endless toil and so long periods of inactivity can make them anxious. A warforged without orders or a task to complete will create one for themselves to keep active. Individual warforged choose different hobbies, yet these activities tend to always be repetitious or unending. Some warforged enjoy counting objects, what they count doesn't need to be interesting as warforged will count even mundane things such as counting each blade of grass in the area. Other warforged may carry strips of materials to braid into patterns then un-braid them to recreate a new pattern. For many warforged their routines inherited from the military are not so easily undone as some will repeatedly perform weapon and equipment maintenance and checks.

Warforged also tend to take an interest in crafting though they will endlessly perform their craft. A smith would hammer and weld all day and night and if the noise disturbs anyone during the nights they'd take up a more silent craft such as weaving or sewing before returning to smithing during the day. Many adventuring warforged take up crafts to keep themselves busy when their allies sleep such as carving wooden figures. Many warforged enjoy games of strategy such as chess or gambling. Few warforged actively pursue group activities though when requested to do so they participate with gusto.

Description 

The warforged are made of stone, metal and wood fibres. The core of a warforged is a skeletal frame made of metal and stone with wood fibres acting as a muscular system. Covering the warforged is an outer shell of metal and stone plates. An internal network of tubes run through the warforged's body, these tubes are filled with a blood like fluid that is designed to lubricate and nourish their systems. Their hands have only two thick fingers and a thumb whilst their feet only have two broad toes.

The warforged's face loosely resembles their human creators though they have a toothless jaw, heavy brow line and are lacking noses and hair. Each warforged has a ghulra engraved upon their foreheads. Each of these runes are unique to the warforged giving them a sense of individuality.

The warforged have a sexless form and are considered to be mono-gender. The warforged are able to be repaired and modified by artificers or even themselves giving them an endless possibility to their appearances.

Lifespan

Being living constructs the warforged theoretically can live for eternity as long as they receive maintenance and repairs. Being created in 965 YK the oldest a warforged can be (providing the campaign starts in 998 YK) is 33 and the youngest 2.

Creation

Newborn warforged come fully formed from Creation Forges at birth, with rudimentary language and instinctual knowledge of movement. Over the first few months they are extremely adaptable and able to learn new skills, just like children of other races. It is during this period that the majority of warforged were trained by House Cannith in the art of warfare. Warforged are born with clean slates for minds and are at the mercy of their creator's tutoring as they have no concept of morality or good and evil. In their infant years they will believe all that is told to them by their creator and will treat what is taught to them as the only truth until proved otherwise.

Warforged in Eberron 

The warforged have taken up many roles inn Eberron and though many in Karrnath and Thrane have become servants to masters again, others have become labourers in various roles whilst others have used their military experience to become guards, escorts and mercenaries. Not needing to eat or sleep the warforged only desire shelter and a purpose so working is still important to them and it is common for warforged to work twenty hour shifts in labouring roles. In Thrane and Karrnath the warforged are in some cases exploited for their ability to perform multiple tasks and are used to dominate the production of goods. This has caused tension between nations and houses and has also led to many workers despising the warforged. The warforged live as outsiders in all nations and live lives that are completely different to the rest of the populace. Surprisingly some warforged have become bards and have even written their own songs, whilst some also have become artists, usually by mistake, and now a warforged art market exists in Breland. There are warforged who have taken an interest in their neighbours culture and ways of life and have chosen to wear clothes and imitate their country men's accents and manners. 

Warforged Names 

Warforged often take up the nicknames given to them by their friends, colleagues and superiors though they also name themselves after their rank, job title or something that describes an aspect of themselves. It is not rare for a warforged to change his name when they feel their old one no longer suits them. Others could take names from other races, such as humans.

Example Names: Azm, Book, Bulwark, Cart, Charger, Cutter, Falchion, Graven, Hammer, Mark, Morg, Nameless, Pierce, Pious, Relic, Rune, Steeple, Sword, Three, Titan, Unsung, Victor, Watcher, Zealot.

Prejudice

Despite the warforged's peaceful nature, most citizens of the five nations see them as reminders of a dark past. Some still see them as implements of destruction, killing machines and equipment made in the form of a man, and see them as a danger that must either be destroyed or removed from society. Of the five nations it is Karrnath that has the least liberal social attitude towards warforged. Most Karrns see them only as machines rather than individuals, this is perhaps due to their relation with undead soldiers. Warforged prejudice isn't exclusive to Karrnath and there are those who make the common Karrn citizen seem fair in their views. Some citizens hold outright racist views towards the warforged, an example of such an individual would be Nolan Toranak, a member of the Sharn council. Nolan endorses anti-warforged organizations and advocates the banishment or the murder and melting down of warforged.

History

During the Last War, House Cannith played a major role through arms dealing but it was in 965 YK that they would create their greatest weapon. The first batch of warforged were created in Cannith's secret forgehold at Whitehearth Cyre. The warforged were supplied to all five nations for each of the countries war efforts and brought great prosperity to the house for almost three decades. 

In 996 YK the warforged were set free and given equal rights. This was somewhat traumatic for the warforged who were accustomed to having a single purpose with orders and instructions, in Karrnath and Thrane the warforged became indentured servants instructed to repair the damage of war whilst in Aundair, Breland and other nations the warforged became idle after losing their only purpose in life. The idle warforged stood still in fields for days, hoping they'd receive orders but it wasn't until after a few weeks that they learned that the orders would never come so instead, warforged began to band together to seek out new purposes whilst others searched for leaders within their own race to give them meaning.  

Religion

During their years as soldiers conversations about religion were kept to a minimum so that they could be sold to anyone regardless of their religious beliefs. In recent years, the warforged have learned of religion though few embrace it, as many see worshiping a deity to be identical to working for a master who never gives a command. Still, a few warforged seek out the meaning of their existence and turn to religion for answers.

 

Warforged 101 Traits

The warforged were built to fight in the Last War. The first warforged were mindless automatons, but House Cannith devoted vast resources to improving these steel soldiers. An unexpected breakthrough produced fully sentient soldiers, blending organic and inorganic materials. Warforged are made from wood and metal, but they can feel pain and emotion. Built as weapons, they must now find a purpose beyond the war. A warforged can be a steadfast ally, a cold-hearted killing machine, or a visionary in search of purpose and meaning.

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 lifespan of the warforged 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. Ti set your height and weight random,y start with rolling a size modifier.

Size modifier = 2d6
Height = 5 feet + 10 inches + your size modifier in inches
Weight in pounds = 270 + (4 x 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 enchanced 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.

Languages

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