Warforged 5e Stats
- Ability Score Increase: CON +2/ any other +1
- Age: 2 years or older & unaffected by aging magic
- Alignment: Lean Lawful or Neutral
- Size: Height- 5ft +10in + 1-12in/ Weight: 270 + 4 x “1-12”
- Speed: 30ft
- Constructed Resilience: (1) Advantage on saving throws against being poisoned & resistant to poison damage/ (2) No need to drink, sleep, or eat/ (3) immune to disease/ (4) Magic can’t put you to sleep
- Sentry’s rest: Must be inactive for 6 hours, but not rendered unconscious
- Integrated Protection: (1) AC +1/ (2) takes 1 hour to put on or take off armor & can only do that with ones you are proficient/ (3) Armor cannot be removed against your will
- Specialized Design: 1 free skill & tool proficiency
- Languages: common & 1 other
Warforged 5e: Who Are They
For those of you who remembered the 5e Warforged from Unearthed Arcana, things have changed. Unearthed Arcana had subclasses for specialization & a broken Integrated Protection. If you wanted to read the full difference, here is a link to the unearthed arcana version.
But the new warforged, is factory-made and ready for anyone. With a +2 CON and a +1 to any other stat, this can be a solid class for any race. Moreover, their specialized design, integrated protection, and constructed resilience is a nice addition to any build.
Released in the new Eberron book and built for the Last War, the 5e warforged were once mindless automation. However, throughout the war, they were built into their own race with emotions & senses. You can think about this like a cleaning robot maid seeing a Roomba as their great grandfather. As a result, the warforge has only known war; leaving many without purpose as they are forced to integrate into a world that only associates them with death and destruction.
This leaves lots of roleplay potential as you can play up numerous angles. You can be a war-weary veteran trying to find out what is his meaning in life. Or, it could be a warforged who has moved on but receives constant racism and bias toward people of “your kind”. And these are just two of the numerous different possibilities that are given by the lore provided. Because of this, the warforged is definitely a strong contender for a race choice for their character.
Constructed Resilience
Imagine a dwarf. an elf, and a robot mega-morphed. You would probably get constructed resilience. This is a fantastic ability for a multitude of reasons. One, you now have advantage on saving throws against poison, couple that with a +2 con, you will probably make the save. In fact, assuming you would already have the +2 con from another race, you will see that on average you will take 16.18% less damage than over adventures with the same CON. A nifty ability to be sure.
You also gain the paladins immune to disease, a small effect but still incredibly game-breaking in the right situation. Playing a campaign where disease runs rampant? No worries, your immune. But the real benefit comes from being immune to disease effects. Few monsters give diseases. One notable variant use is the swarm of rats homebrew where if bitten make a DC 13 CON save or be infected with sewer plague. It creates a new air of tension when diseases are thrown in the game.
Moreover, there is one spell in particular that is either hated or loved, contagion. This spell forces you to make CON saves and upon failure be ridiculed with a disease for 7 days that can range from being stunned every time you take damage or vulnerability to everything. Why sometimes used on legendary monsters, I have known many DM’s to use this on players. Therefore, by being immune you now no longer need to worry about it.
Finally, the ability to not eat, sleep, or be put to sleep is incredibly useful. Making more spells ineffective against them and allowing you to be unaffected by the environment. Thus, allowing for uses that while niche can be incredibly potent.
Sentry’s Rest
Another solid if not niche ability is Sentry’s Rest. With this, you become the ideal guard, able to rest but not be rendered unconscious. This means while resting you are not affected by being (1) unaware of your surroundings, (2) being prone, (3) automatically fails Strength and Dexterity saving throws. (4) attack rolls being at advantage, attacks from within 5ft being considered critical hits. All of these are debilitating for those who take rests. Now, your entire party can rest while you can scan the perimeters and react if need be to anything dangerous going on.
While not a large concern late game, considering most games only get to level 8, this ability will be extremely useful until level 5 and fairly useful until level 10. After that, I find there are much less night time encounters unless they are assassins from the big bad. And those are when you already feel safe. Therefore this is a fantastic early game feature but pretty useless late game feature.
Integrated Protection
Now, this is what I want to see! The Unearthed Arcana version was completely broken with Plate armor at level 1 and +3 plate armor at level 13. For free I should add. The only downside was that you could not equip other kinds of armor on top of that. A limiter but nothing too detrimental when you can have a 25 AC with no magical items. Wizard of the coast took this into account when releasing the 5e warforged and as such gave us a weaker version. Integrated protection allows a +1 to whatever armor you are wearing which in some ways can make this incredibly powerful. For example, assuming you have plate armor, you can expect to see a roughly 11.32% drop in damage taken just from gaining a +1 to your armor class.
Moreover, you can wear armor that has magical items to it. For instance, a +1 armor or resistance armor. Therefore, if you are able to get your hands on adamantine armor, you can now effectively have +1 adamantine armor. A huge boon for any adventurer. Allowing you to effectively wear two different kinds of magic armor at the same time.
Specialized Design & languages
Finally, we have the specialization for the 5e warforged. While everything else was factory-made, this is where you can specialize your race. With a free skill, tool, and language, you can make your race fit whatever campaign or backstory you created. While useful there are only a few that are noteworthy. With a ton of different ways to get the skill. Therefore it is not considered game breaking. If you are trying to be optimized I would suggest a universal skill like perception, & stealth. However, if you are building these for backstory then go for whatever fits your character best.
Not a whole lot to say on this ability except have fun and choose the skills, tools, and languages, you have always wanted to have!
Recommended Builds
Taking into account their stat bonuses, the warforged make a great race for any class that has only one primary stat. Therefore, the 5e warforged will make an adequate monk as monks’ primary stats are dex and wisdom with a secondary stat of con. Choosing warforged will mean you can only bump one of your primary stats by one. This can be incredibly detrimental for those with low stats and even those with high starting stats not fantastic.
Meanwhile, choosing classes with the need for one stat, such as a wizard would make a great choice. Not only do they gain a +1 to armor class, but they also gain advantage on numerous different defensive capabilities, receive a +1 to Intelligence and boost their Constitution by 2. An incredibly solid choice for those who need to shore up their defenses and improve their primary stat.
Some good feats that go with this race depend on your class. However, some good feats that pair with your race are alert, heavy armor master, and resilient (CON). Each of these plays into a bonus of the warforged. With alert, since you are never unconscious while resting you can never be surprised. Meanwhile, since you get a +1 bonus to AC, reducing all basic damage by 3 helps shore up your defenses. Finally, Resilient is just a really good feat and couple your +2 CON with an additional +1 and proficiency in CON saves, if you are a spell caster or just a fighter needing to avoid CON saves, this will go incredibly well for you.
Warforged 5e Conclusion
In conclusion, the warforged is a solid race for any class, but primarily for those with classes whose focus is on one ability score. Therefore, I would choose a wizard, fighter, or bard. These will all play really well into the race. A fighter will make an excellent tank, the wizard will shore up their defensive capabilities, and the bard can gain both these features and be a jack of all trades with an additional skill on top of it. Therefore the Warforged are a strong contender for a race choice. because of their adaptable features and ability to play well with any class. So go out there and play your warforged. If you are looking for a certain class, I highly suggest the war wizard they are a perfect match for the race.
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