Saturday, May 27, 2023

Warforged [Hackmaster]

Warforged at a Glance


Ability adjustments
-2 Wisdom
-1 Dexterity
+4 Constitution
-2 Charisma
No Looks Attribute

Warforged Pros
*Warforged are made out of metal, stone, and wood. They have a natural Damage Reduction equivalent to Scale Mail, with a DR of 6. This armor can degrade as normal (PH 197), and must be repaired separately from the Warforged. No matter how badly damaged, however, it can always be repaired with enough time and money.

*Warforged are always considered armed; they may make unarmed attacks as equivalent to clubs (including speed, reach, and damage, though requiring separate specialization from clubs).

*As sentient golems, Warforged do not need to eat, sleep, or breathe. They are immune to common diseases and poisons. They are able to fatigue, but receive a +4 modifier against fatigue checks. Additionally, they receive a +4 bonus to their Threshold of Pain and Trauma Saves.

*As sentient golems, warforged are immune to some spells designed to affect humanoid minds (qv. The 2nd level Mage spell Charm and similar spells). Spells which affect wood, stone, or metal have half effects on them (though if normally not resisted, the warforged is entitled to a Physical Save to negate it).

*Warforged are size Medium for Hit Points (10 + Constitution), but Size Large for Knockbacks; they are deceptively heavy.



Warforged Cons
*Warforged armor and construction slows them down; they have a penalty of 6 to defense, 3 to initiative, and 2 to speed. While they have a base walking speed equal to humans, their jogging, running, and sprinting rate is 50% that of a human. Likewise, they suffer penalties to initiative and skills as if wearing Scale Mail (q.v. page 206 of the PH).

*Warforged do not naturally heal or recover. They receive only ½ benefit from any healing spells applied to them, and any single wound may only have a single healing spell applied to it. Otherwise, they must seek out an armorer with at least Journeyman ability to be repaired. Each point of damage repaired costs 5 sp and requires 2 days of work, or a sufficiently skilled Mage with knowledge of the Repair spell.

*Warforged cannot wear additional armor, though they can make use of shields.

*Warforged are frequently not considered “people”; at best, they are a curiosity, but they are frequently regarded as little more than pieces of equipment, or, possibly, soon-to-be-malfunctioning murder bots. Encounter reactions for racial preferences run from -4 (dislike) to -10 (Fear)

*Warforged do not have a Looks attribute. See “Life with No Looks” sidebar.



Sidebar: Life with No Looks
Warforged do not have a Looks attribute as is conventionally understood. This is not to say that they don’t recognize differences in appearance or attractiveness amongst themselves, nor to say that an individual warforged cannot be beautiful to look at. It is simply that the variation in their looks has no effect on humanoid perceptions of them; humans don’t instinctively trust beautifully crafted warforged the way they do pretty elves or dwarves. As such, they have neither Charisma nor reaction modifiers due to Looks. 
Only two skills key off of Looks, but these have very different reactions to this lack of an ability. Mastery in the Acting skill for Warforged keys solely off the Charisma attribute; a warforged can attempt to act, though they face some limitations in getting others to believe that they’re not robots (though they may, for example, convince people that they’re some other warforged, or a non-sentient golem, or something similar). For Seduction the Looks of the warforged is considered to be 1; -5 to all Mastery die rolls, with a base mastery score of 1. It’s hard to make them think you’re sexy when you’re made of steel and wood. Warforged, for their part, do not respond well to seduction; Seduction checks are always one difficulty harder, and mastery level is counted as one lower when attempting to influence a warforged via Seduction.


Character Classes:
Barbarian: N/A
Fighter: 30
Fighter/Thief: 40
Cleric: 50
Thief: 40
Assassin: 75
Mage: 60
Fighter/Mage: 55
Mage/Thief: 75
Ranger: 75
Rogue: 75


Sidebar: Warforged Mages
Warforged are always wearing the equivalent of Scale Armor. This poses some unique problems for Warforged mages. To their benefit, they are considered elf fighter/mages for the purposes of spell mishaps due to armor, regardless of their class. However, there is still a significant chance of spell mishaps for Warforged mages. Warforged Mages, Rogues, and Hybrid Mages may choose to have Repair as their apprentice spell, however; the spell is crucial to the Warforged, and widely available to them.


New Talent: Hammerhand (5 BP)
Requirements: Warforged

A warforged who trains with their fists may learn to make them more effective weapons. With this talent, a Warforged may use the statistics for a Warhammer instead of a club with their fists, applying all of their mastery of unarmed attacks. They may switch between the two at will (taking advantage of a club’s slightly greater reach), resetting their count.

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