In my previous post, I made some general observations about the warforged as presented in 4th Edition D&D. I just wanted to clarify a few points about how I intend to use these 4E warforged in my Eberron campaign, and a few other issues I've seen come up.

Before going any farther, you should download the "Playing Warforged" article from http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/drfe/20080606b . Chris Sims has done an excellent job expanding on the material in the 4E MM, and the first step to using the warforged in Eberron is to use THESE warforged. Key elements are the existence of attached armor and the fact that these warforged do not need to sleep. It even includes the option of having light blades sheathed in your forearms for Indigo fans!

So, with that in mind, let's start with armor. Under 4E rules, it is possible for warforged to wear armor. However, Sims' article also presents the concept of attached armor - armor bonded to the warforged that cannot be removed against its wishes. As it is fitted directly to the warforged, it is also lighter than normal armor.

In my campaign, this is going to be the natural state of warforged in Eberron. A warforged emerges from the creation forged with attached armor already in place as befits its intended purpose; light armor for the scout, heavy armor for the infantry soldier. For the warforged, this armor is more than just a piece of equipment; it is a part of its body, something that has been there since it was "born". Comparing it to a human, the armor is more like skin than clothing; when it is removed, the warforged doesn't simply feel naked, he feels as though something is fundamentally wrong. So the warforged poet who has thrown away his sword likely still has his armor attached, because he doesn't see the armor as a tool of war; he sees it as a part of his body. He might take it off temporarily as part of an upgrade, but he'll be very uncomfortable in the interim.

Tied to this, I will be saying that while attached warforged armor may have statistics that make it mechanically identical to quivalent armor worn by humans, it will often be completely different in appearance and composition. For example, in 4E, the default armor for a fighter is scale mail. Most warforged are, essentially, fighters. But in my campaign, the default plating of a warforged fighter will be just that - plating, not overlapping scales. Mechanically it's identical to scale armor - but from a visual standpoint it's nothing like it.

This is even more important when dealing with the light armors - hide and leather. In my game, most lightly armored warforged will still be the mithral-alloyed folks we've seen in the past. Yes, that mithral is alloyed to the degree that it's not fantastically valuable on its own. But it's still a matter of thin alloy plates and a subtle construction allowing for swift motion. Mechanically speaking, Indigo from The Dreaming Dark may have attached +3 sylvan leather - but it takes the form of mithral plating. Likewise, Pierce may have "Hide" armor - but it's not made of hide. So, the key point: attached armor may behave like other forms of armor, but that doesn't mean that it has to LOOK the same.

The next point that's come up relating to this: what do warforged look like when they take off their armor? The article holds the answer. "Warforged are bulky humanoids fashioned of plates of metal and stone. Supported by a skeleton of similar material and a muscular system of leathery, woody fiber bundles..." While I'd challenge the word "bulky" as depending on the purpose of the warforged, the key point holds - armor or no armor, the warforged still have basic plating. Without additional armor, this plating offers limited protection; it leaves many vulnerable points revealed, and isn't exceptionally solid. But essentially, a naked warforged just looks like a smaller warforged - not like a little wooden man or anything like that.

The article also states that warforged do not sleep, but must spend 4 hours refraining from "strenuous activity". FOr me, the key word there is "strenuous". In The Dreaming Dark, Pierce walks the deck of a ship while his allies sleep. Likewise, I can see the warforged actually using this time to perform physical repairs on his own body; remember, the fact that Craft isn't reflected by a skill doesn't mean that characters are incapable of performing such actions, just that it's not tracked mechanically. To me, the fact that warforged recover fully after a rest may actually reflect active work on the part of the warforged. So, they don't sleep, and they can't perform heavy labor during this period - but in my opinion, they can engage in low-stress activities.

Those are the main things I wanted to touch on, but I do want to clarify another point I've seen come up. Some people have pointed out that because warforged can always choose to take 10 on death saves, that eventually they will return from being dropped below zero hit points - because sooner or later, they will roll a 20 on a death save and be able to spend a healing surge (and even NPCs have a healing surge, though as a general rule they cannot spend it voluntarily). As such, what came up was the concept that you should never find a warforged body on the battlefield - because after about two minutes it would get up again. The flaw in this logic is that NPCs don't make death saves, as described on page 295 of the 4E PHB. The death save mechanic is there for PCs, who may heroically overcome their injuries and rise again. As a rule, when NPCs go down, they stay down. Now, personally, I like the idea of preserving the concept of auto-stabilization by saying that when a warforged is "killed", it won't actually die unless you go back and finish the job - that a warforged dropped to 0 hit points is inert, but salvageable. However, it still won't recover from that "dead" state on its own. So you CAN find the warforged that's been lying abandoned on the battlefield for 20 years, waiting for someone to restore it.

Anyhow, enough with the warforged - next week I'll talk about more general 4E/Eberron issues.