Copyright 2008 Wizards of the Coast

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Warforged are a 3e creation, first appearing as a playable option in the Eberron campaign setting. In 4e they would also become playable characters, but their first appearance was in the Monster Manual.

The Lore

The warforged lore given to us by the Monster Manual has been stripped of all Eberron-specific information, which means it’s extremely terse and generic.

Warforged are living constructs created by magic. The “living” part means they’re gifted with true sapience, and with souls. It also means they’re a little less tough than a golem, but they make up for that with their large numbers.

Warforged are created in magical factories called Creation Forges. They’re sexless and can’t reproduce in any other way. As their name implies, the original purpose of the warforged was to serve as an army. In peacetime, individual warforged often end up working as bodyguards and mercenaries for people who share their individual ideals and disposition.

In Eberron, the secret of building and operating creation forges belonged exclusively to House Cannith, who sold warforged armies to all five sides of the Last War but whose main customer was the nation of Cyre. The treaty that ended the War (signed after Cyre got swallowed by a magical disaster) freed all existing warforged from servitude, and I think it also tightly regulated their creation.

Most warforged PCs from Eberron are going to be veterans of the Last War, which is like a combination between our Hundred Years War and World War One. However, in the ruins of Cyre, a powerful warforged supremacist named the Lord of Blades controls a fully working creation forge and is using it to build an army.

Warforged in the 4e implied setting might have been alive to see the fall of Nerath. They could also have been built more recently by someone operating an Nerathian creation forge, or even assembled by hand by an isolated artificer.

The Numbers

Warforged are Medium Natural Humanoids with the Living Construct keyword. Monster Manual warforged have several signature traits: they get a +2 to saves against ongoing damage, they employ Battlefield Tactics that grant them a +1 bonus to melee attack if any ally is adjacen to the target, and they can use the Warforged Resolve encounter power as a minor action when bloodied to recover a healing surge’s worth of HP.

Playable Warforged would appear in the Eberron Player’s Guide: they’d get the save bonus against ongoing damage and a modified form of Warforged Resolve, along with a few other things.

Warforged Soldier

This is a Level 4 Soldier with 56 HP and all standard warforged traits. It wears plate, and wields a longsword and a shield. Its ground speed is 5, and it’s trained in Endurance and Intimidate.

The soldier’s basic (and only) attack is the longsword, which does average damage for its level and marks for a turn. Its Warforged Resolve heals it for 14 HP when used.

The warforged isn’t too different from a human fighter, but its racial traits give significantly more staying power. You can slap them onto any human stat block to get the warforged version. If you use them in a tight formation then most of them will get the +1 Battlefield Tactics bonus all the time when attacking targets directly in front of the formation.

Warforged Captain

This is a Level 6 Soldier (Leader) with 72 HP and all common warforged traits. Its speed is 5 due to armor and its Warforged Resolve heals it for 18 HP when used.

Captains fight with a Reach 2 glaive, which does average damage and marks for a turn. It can use this weapon to performa Tactical Switch maneuver (recharge 4-6), in which it makes a basic attack that also slides the target 1 square. If this hits, the captain or an ally within 10 squares can also shift 1 square.

Captains excel at fighting from the back row of that warforged soldier formation, since they have a reach weapon. Tactical Switch is good for disrupting enemy formations, or interrrupting flanking attempts by individual strikers.

Sample Encounters and Final Impressions

We have a single sample encounter: Level 4, three human guards, 1 warforged soldier, and 1 warforged captain. A mixed force that makes it look like warforged make up the command and elite in this particular army.

Mechanically, these Monster Manual warforged are very simple and present little in the way of exciting surprises other than the fact that they will. Not. Stay. Down. If I’m being honest the book might have done without them entirely.

However, I absolutely love the concept of warforged, both as player characters and as NPCs. I love them so much I adapted them to GURPS here. I understand why the first MM included these: the Eberron books were still a little ways away, and the authors might have felt its fans needed a little reassurance.