Post/Author/DateTime	Post
stevelabny 05-31-05, 07:56 AM	My players like to try to figure out how well they're doing in a fight by checking the health of an opponent. I usually will describe slight nicks and cuts or fatigue at first as the hp come down to half or so. And then start letting them know that the opponent is starting to show signs of wear and tear. By 25% of HP I describe the bad guy as bleeding heavily or staggering or anything else to convey that he is on his last legs. But I'm unsure how to do this with Warforged They don't breathe heavy or show any signs of fatigue. They don't bleed blood (and I've seen the alchemical fluid comments, I just havent made my mind up on that yet) They don't bruise. (Do they dent? How do they un-dent?) To me, saying that they've had little bits and pieces chopped off or that parts are loose and dangling, sounds to much like specific body part damage, encouraging called shots and such, which i DON'T want to do. Leaving warforged health in combat as a mystery is an option, but once again falls into the making-exceptions-you-shouldnt-for-warforged trap. How have DMs been doing this with warforged?
EscherEnigma 05-31-05, 08:10 AM	Wow. Hadn't even thought of (or run into) this problem. But since I'm a new DM for an Eberron campaign (or hope to be) this is relevant to me to. As for constructive answer: they can repair themselves after fights (I believe the idea is that while everyone else spends the night sleeping, they sit there with a hammer and work themselves over) so dents and nicks aren't a bad place to start with. And though they don't suffer from fatigue, I don't forsee a problem with describing their motion as becoming 'jerkish' and disjointed (think of most mechanical things, if you bend them too much in certain ways they don't move quite like they used to) As for more extreme damage... I wouldn't go as far as saying limbs are dangling, but you could describe larger gouges and slashes, perhaps tearing through some of the outer layers of their plating. If you go that way, I'd say incorporate it into descriptions for anyone who wears armor as well (after all, if someones wearing armor and getting beat up, the armor's probably taking a beating as well, aye?) Hope that helps some. I'm very interested to hear what other people have to add on this as well.
Psymnotica 05-31-05, 01:33 PM	I'm not sure if it is kosher to mention this (as I don't know how much we can discuss novels in connection with the RPG on these boards), but in Keith Baker's City of Towers novel he describes how a warforged character appears perfectly fine to normal senses, but an artificer who just hit him with some sort of Inflict Damage spell could sense that he was seriously injured. So, looking at that, one way to describe the damage to warforged is by describing a few dents or gashes in their plating, but how they don't seem to be affected by it. Since warforged don't suffer fatigue and don't seem to externalize their pain, people trying to pick up on clues as to how damaged a warforged is from description should be hard pressed to figure it out. Which, if portrayed right, will make the warforged appear all the more terrifying (especially considering the fact that they were created to be living weapons). Just my thought.
Noremac 05-31-05, 03:38 PM	I've done it like this: 100%-75% Max HP: The WF appears fine; no real problems. 75%-50%: The Warforged has some chunks missing from its shoulders, and a cut going across its chest. The WF still fights normally. 50%-25%: The WF's movement starts getting a little jerky, and you can hear some strange clicks and whirrs when it attacks. 25% and under: The WF appears seriously screwed up. One of its eyes may have stopped glowing, holes are visible in various areas of its body, and whenever it talks it sounds strange (think damaged record: "You, you, you can't stop us huhuhuhuhuman!") Works for me.
Wayne 05-31-05, 04:09 PM	As a new 'forged (and Eberron) player, I was actually thinking a lot about this one at our last session (especially since our DM is beginning with the basic adventure in the book, and the first encounter was a Warforged). Given that Warforged don't "heal" lethal damage normally, we saw absolutely no problem with them actually taking dents and tears into their plating. Think about it-- the only way to heal them is via repair (which would patch that sort of thing) or magic (which is... magic, and just restores it, same as Cure spells do to living beings). The only hp damage I took (having 19 AC at level 1 was pretty nice, heh) was a 10hp Slam attack from that 'forged Barbarian, and I described it as taking the punch to the chest, which dented some mithril chain links and part of the plate, and for a minute or so he was staggering and wheezing like Grievous from ROTS. (Which in retrospect makes more sense for 'forged, being living constructs; than it ever did for a droid... but I digress.) After that he was carrying on like the huge wound wasn't even there, which, yeah, is a Warforged thing; they were built to eat damage that would kill normal humanoids. I love Noremac's "record-skipping" thing. :D If my DM (heh, typically being DM, I'm not used to typing that...) wasn't such a stickler for pointing out that "Warforged are not robots!", I'd pull that sometime. Good one.
Noremac 05-31-05, 09:33 PM	Thank you, thank you. And I don't mean to digress, but Grievous did have lungs and a head, so wheezing and coughing make sense...
Wayne 05-31-05, 09:50 PM	Right; my point was that Warforged (being "Living" Constructs) would be more likely to have those weird internal "organs"* (and thus the ability to hack and cough like an old smoker when they take some nasty hits) than a droid, who wouldn't have any such things in the first place. Similarly, we were of the opinion that they also "bleed"; a fluid that's sort of a combination of sap from their wooden components and hydraulic fluid. I figured it'd be a lame sort of hand-waving to invoke "magic" for the reason why Warforged don't need regular treatments of oil for their metal components, when the concept of having living robots bleed isn't entirely unreasonable. *I imagine there's probably some explanation as to why exactly Grievous does have what appear to be lungs and a heart, maybe in that cartoon series; but it makes no sense to me, heh.
Noremac 05-31-05, 10:12 PM	Injured in the Clone Wars. However, he's the best General they've got, so they kept whatever parts they could alive. ...but we're getting off topic...
Sledge d'Orien 05-31-05, 10:36 PM	I believe Grevious was actually a cyborg, and Mace nearly crushed his lungs during the kidnapping of Palpatine. Back on topic, I personally only describe the damage as cuts and gouges, or dents in their plating. Warforged were designed to be ultimate warriors, so they've been trained to not show the signs of wearing down that most "fleshy" races do.
anarco_rata 05-31-05, 11:04 PM	Greavious could use teh force. He was alive. He was coffing because of the a** kickking he received from mace on clone wars. AAaanyhow.... When i run an eberron game, i usually describe the damage as small dents and cuts, but the warforged never show signs of beign tired or wounded. Even at 1hp, with pieces of armor almost balancing in its shoulder, a warforged is still figthing like it was as good as new. Waeyne is absolutely right, since they dont heal normally, you can always say "you take out a small chunk of his shoulder" remember that a WF doesn't die until he is in pieces...
Edymnion 05-31-05, 11:19 PM	Warforged with the default plating have a lot of wood exposed, so a good solid hit can easily send splinters flying instead of blood splattering. Or they could throw their heavily armored forearms up to block a blow, only to get chips of stone cracked off the armor. The metal sections can be dented, etc.
Marshall Stone 06-01-05, 01:35 AM	If I remember correctly Hit Points are not just an indicator of how much physical damage a character takes. I don't start mentioning cuts and bruises until about 50% of the HP is gone. Until then I'll say something like, "You face off against the Orc and begin with a simple swing, thrust manuever" Player rolls and hits but does only 1 point of damage, "You manage to put the Orc on the defensive at the start but now he strikes back!" The Orc rolls and hits for 10 points of damage, but against a 6 level Barbarian Warforged with maximum hit points, fair consititution score and raging it's just beginning to dent Hit Points, "You just barely manage to bring your greatsword up in time to block his vicious overhead axe-chop, the force of the blow sending vibrations up your arms." If the orc had missed, "You easily counter his attack, as he foreshadowed his attack." Another way I describe Hit Point loss in the early stages of combat when you've still got plenty of Hit Points left is by trying to describe the feeling, like, "The Orc strikes back (does 4 points of damage), you duck the axe blow meant to take off your head, a part of you lingering on how close you came to dying just then." Later on in the fight after Hit Points are half gone... "The orc is a skilled fighter as he tries a fient and chop manuever", orc rolls hits for another 10 points. "You manage to block the attack as your arm braces begin to shake loose and you can feel the timber in your forearms begin to crack some."
Crimsonsun 06-01-05, 01:57 AM	Slightly off topic, but I always pictured the Inflict Damage spells as sort of taking an aluminum can and crushing it in your hands. A big hand for a big can'o'forged... but still :D
Alzharade the Artisan 06-10-05, 11:57 AM	According to the book,when a warforged is killed,it's body simply falls apart.The description of an inflict damage spell says that there is basically a webbing of energy that holds them together.When an inflict spell is cast on a warforged,the artificer "stabs" the center of the webbing.So,you could say that it appeared(at 50% or less of it's hp)to be "breathing",except that whenever it would exhale,the plating would kinda loossen,appear as if it's about to fall off,or that the warforged simply looks like it's barely held together by anything.It's movement becomes more sluggish and erratic,it's starting to slow down,and it's barely consious.
Kinger 06-10-05, 11:56 PM	I've always imagined the Disable Construct spell to do the opposite of making 'forged fall apart. Rather than weaken whatever holds them together, I imagine it actually physically transmutes the structure such that the construct siezes up, permanently. Think of it like having glue suddenly materialize in the pistons of your car's engine. I can't see how that would work with the various Inflict spells, however, so I might have to alter that inner image... Hmm... The Inflict X Damage spell, being a transmutation, probably just works in such a fashion as to open holes up in the construct. I picture an artificer planting a hand on the chestplate of a 'forged, and the plate splitting down the middle. Of course, I have an unorthodox view of how the Inflict X Wounds spells work, visually. Anyone else picture the only visual affect being words like "Pain" or "Agony" in Abyssal or Infernal being burned into the flesh of the victim? No? Uh... Nevermind then. :shifty: Since a Warforged is somewhat more... solid, shall we say, than a human being, I expect projectiles to have a much greater chance of remaining stuck in them. In the Forgotten Forge, one of my players was fond of throwing axes. You can bet at least one of those was lodged into the chest or shoulder of each 'forged villain they came across.
ccerose 06-11-05, 12:27 AM	In the book Marked for Death, it read that when a a blade pierced through the armor plating of a warforged, dark fluid spurted from the wound.
Alzharade the Artisan 06-11-05, 12:26 PM	Interesting point of view.That was just my opinion.Your opinion makes a good bit of sense.I like it.Good descriptive terms.Thats what I always thought before I read the novel.
Alzharade the Artisan 06-11-05, 12:31 PM	Anyways,I just like the novels point-of-view because it's so descriptive.That and I like the idea of inflict spells hitting the enrgy that animates the construct in addotion to damageing the armor plates and other components.