The Warforged were introduced to Dungeons & Dragons as part of the Eberron setting, but players with cooperative DMs have pushed them into just about every kind of campaign – probably because being a robot is awesome.
The Warforged are living constructs, and in Eberron, they were originally created to be soldiers. Since they have a wide range of skills, Warforged have taken on other roles over time, and they can fit into just about any class. There’s almost no downside to making your character a Warforged, and as long as you know what you’re getting into, you can become the heroic robot of your dreams.
What traits do Warforged get?
Before coming to 5E in Eberron: Rising from the Last War, the Warforged were released as an Unearthed Arcana – essentially a beta for D&D. There are some differences between the UA version of the race and the one that’s now part of the official ruleset, but Warforged is still an incredibly powerful canvas that players can use to create all kinds of different characters. Here are the base stats and traits for a Warforged character:
- Ability Score Increase: Warforged get +2 to Constitution and +1 to any other ability score.
- Age: Most Warforged are between two and thirty years old, but the creatures are immune to magical aging effects and are, in general, immortal.
- Alignment: Warforged usually default to a lawful neutral alignment, but their alignment is often dictated by their creator.– of the beings with which they served.
- Size: Medium
- Speed: 30
- Constructed Resilience: Warforged have advantage on saving throws against being poisoned and resistance against poison damage. They also are immune to disease and don’t need to eat, drink, breathe, or sleep.
- Sentry’s Rest: Instead of a typical long rest, Warforged must remain inactive for six hours. They can’t move, but they also don’t lose consciousness and retain the ability to hear and see.
- Integrated Protection: Warforged get a +1 to Armor Class. They can only wear armor that they are proficient with, and to put on or remove armor, they must spend 1 hour incorporating it into their construct bodies. As a nice trade-off, no one can remove a living Warforged’s armor against their will. Your body has built-in defensive layers, which can be enhanced with armor.
- Specialized Design: Warforged get one skill proficiency and one tool proficiency of your choice.
- Languages: Warforged can speak common and one other language of your choice.
What are the Warforged subraces?
In D&D 5E there actually are no Warforged subraces in the official version of the race. Warforged are strong enough on their own that they don’t really need the support of a subrace, but there were some different subrace options when Warforged were still just an Unearthed Arcana.
- Envoy – These were meant to be the multipurpose Warforged and got +1 to two different ability scores.
- Juggernaut – These were the clear melee Warforged and got +2 to Strength.
- Skirmisher – These were the roguish Warforged and got +2 to Dexterity.
If you have an extremely cooperative DM, you might be able to convince them to let you play the Unearthed Arcana version of the Warforged. Don’t worry about it, though, because the official version is plenty flexible enough to fit any type of character you might want to build.
What are the strongest classes for a Warforged?
Warforged is one of the least restrictive races in all of D&D 5E. The stats and features that come with being a Warforged are broadly useful, which means you can slot a robot into just about any class.
The +2 boost to Constitution means that Warforged make excellent melee characters, and you can’t go wrong with a Fighter or a Barbarian. At the same time, every character is going to benefit from more Constitution, so you can use that +1 to an ability score as a way of shaping your Warforged into a caster.
Do you want your Warforged to be a misguided wizard’s construct with high Intelligence? Or maybe a Warlock that found life thanks to a deal with a devil? My personal favorite build is Warforged Druid, which lets me live out my inner magical Transformer fantasies. In the game, as in the story, Warforged are meant to be shaped by their creators.
