Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 m4kitsu Jun 14, 2011 3:19:53	'Afternoon all,  This is a question that came up in conversation with one of my players the other day, and I wanted to gather some opinions on the topic. We now have two examples of PC races that are not, in the strictest sense of the words, living creatures: Warforged and Shardminds. Both of these races share the Living Construct rule (though I believe they are worded slightly differently) which, for those of you who haven't got your books in easy reach, basically states that they do not eat, sleep, or breathe but that this "doesn't render them immune to any effect." So other than being spectacularly vague in an edition that otherwise features reasonably clear language most of the time, the question that came up was about sun sickness and how it would or wouldn't effect these two races. I can see a case for Warforged being vulnerable to it; they have something resembling circulatory systems that moves lubricants and other fluids around their body and their bodies are partially made of what is described as a pulpy wood-like material. Shardminds, on the other hand, are rocks held together by psionic energy -they have no circulatory system, no nervous system, no liquids to evaporate off -nothing that would render them vulnerable to prolonged exposure to high desert. Likewise, Warforged are a closed system -unless damaged, they can operate continually with no need for external energy intake, which at least implies that they do not suffer the infirmities that render living races vulenrable to the scorched skies of Athas. The other side of this, however, is that I understand the harshness of desert survival is supposed to be a big feature of Dark Sun and rendering a party memeber flat-out immune to it is both contrary to the intent of the setting and potentially unfair to the other PCs. Nonetheless, common sense* seems to indicate that the races should be immune to sun sickness. So how would you rule this? Are they affected (and if so, why? I'm interested in both rules and fluff) or not (and again, why, in terms of both rules and fluff)? * - yeah, yeah, I know; still, there is only so much handwaving I can do before my suspension of disbelief is threatened. That's why I'm asking.
#2 Gallard Jun 14, 2011 4:42:03	warforged: grit/sand in the joints or gears, heat congealing the fluids, heat evaporating the fluids, wooden parts in danger of combustion, ancient magic/defilement areas can have unforseen effects. shardmind: extreme heat can cause body-crystal temperature to rise to threatening levels, light focusing through thier body can endanger friends or cause fire, psionic coalescence can deteriorate due to outside conditions (incl zones of high magic or defilement), scouring sand can score thier crystals causing extreme pain. both: lack of 'refresh time (aka ext rest)' can affect mental function, howling wind can cause brief madness, stark/bare terrain can induce hallucinations, harsh conditions can cause temporary insanity. for sun sickness in particular, look to mental effects over physical ones. other: nothing says that Athasian warforged have to be 'closed-system', or that shardminds dont have nervous systems. i can easily envision a warforged who leaks, and his survival days include oil/other lube. or a shardmind who has everything carbon-based life has, just in a silicon-based form (nerves-small circuits running through the body, etc). expand the mind beyond just the written descriptions. what about obsidian shardmind ? or flesh-golem warforged ?