Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 nerraDetroK Dec 02, 2014 19:41:25	In the campaign I'm running, I have Warforged as a rare race, but open to PC's and I have a problem that I can't seem to figure out on my own. In my world, Dragons are gone, long defeated in a war over a thousand years ago.  since Dragons tried to enslave the world, the people created Warforged to fight them off.  Unstoppable soldiers that felt little fear, didn't need to eat and needed little rest.  These warforged could even self-repair in short bursts.  In a commando unit, the captain had his command circlet that allowed hive-mind abilities for all connected Warforged.   You get the picture; they're really powerful and unstoppable, so how do we stop them once they've beaten the Dragons? The people have destroyed the Creation Forges and many of the Warforged were destroyed in the last battle, but what stops the Warforged from taking over?  What's their weakness?   Since they're long-lived and can regenerate (in this world), what's to stop them from taking over? I'm partly basing these Warforged on Mass Effect's Krogan race.  Aggressive, warlike species that were used to destroy another alien race that threatened the known universe.  The other races stopped the Krogan from taking over by severely limiting their reproduction rate.  This brings the Krogan to mercenary work and small clans.  That doesn't work for the Warforged, since there is no known working Creation Forge.   I thought of making it so the rapid regeneration now comes at a cost of part of their memory.  In order to heal quickly, they give up part of their long memory, or perhaps short-term memory.  But that could be a very weird role-playing moment, and otherwise could make Warforged experts at history, since they've lived for so long. What weakness could they have? One that can be reduced to a game mechanic, if possible.  I thought about having a weakness to Lightning, but that seemed blah.   I thought that a Docent could be the source of their regenration and memory, without a Docent, they're semi-autonomous creatures.  Many Docents had been removed and hidden or destroyed.  Without a Docent, they can think independently, but a long rest wipes their short term memory and they revert to basic functions.  This could make them good for slave labor, but not so much if they're supposed to be mercenaries, adventurers, guards, bounty hunters, merchants, etc.   In the campaign outline, the Dragons are returning, first in secret, then in a full out war.  Without the Warforged army, the people would be doomed, if it weren't the PC's and their allies.     So, what can I do about a weakness or other limitation for Warforged, based on these parameters? I'm open to changing the history some too, since the PC's are about to find out more about the World's history, in about 2 weeks.
#2 cowleymen Dec 02, 2014 20:40:19	an Energy requirment, cant use make to make more of themselves, the wizards that made them have a self destruct button. An even simplier solution would be that they dont know how to function like normal people, they dont know what to do outside of combat. They have spent last millineum litterally learning what it means to be....sentient. I think it was in the Races of Eberron that has a day in the life section on the Warforged. They simple dont understand regular life. SO the concept of "taking over" might honestly never occur to them. You could also have something like The Laws of Robotics. They where created to be in capable of doing just that. Or that the kings still hold Master COntrol Amulets, to hold them in check if they ever break laws and try to conqueor.
#3 flying-dutch_man Dec 03, 2014 1:32:03	Another Idea might be that their sole purpose was to fight off the dragons, without an enemy to fight they simply stopped in their tracks (off means off - no self repair during this time). hundreds of Centuries pass as they sat inactive in old caves or decayed in the wilds leaving only a few remaining intact.   A strange collector or wizard/mage studying old lore might activate them by mistake somehow, or the resurgence of dragons might awaken them again.
#4 cowleymen Dec 03, 2014 2:36:12	flying-dutch_man wrote:
#5 nerraDetroK Dec 03, 2014 8:46:22	The concept that they'd never think of "taking over" would never occur to them.  They were engineered to fight off and destroy Dragons.  Their secondary function is to protect life, even if they don't quite understand it.  Over the centuries, they're developing some humanoid characteristics and emotions, but utlimately, the thousand or so that have developed these heuristics would still function as protectors rather than conquerors.   I'll go with that.  Many of them have lain mostly dormant for a thousand years.  Lying in caves or under rubble somewhere.  Still able to think, but without an enemy, they have no purpose.  The few that were not trapped are out in the world.  A PC Warforged would be one of these, but damaged, so the lengthy memory isn't quite there, but there is more to them than just protect and destroy.   Thanks for the ideas fellow DM's!
#6 Coredump00 Dec 03, 2014 9:27:20	Don't know if this helps or not....   http://community.wizards.com/comment/51597891#comment-51597891
#7 Clutchbone Dec 04, 2014 8:43:41	Lack of numbers. As you said, the creation forge was destroyed and so were most of the warforged. Each existing warforged is literally irreplaceable, and they are doomed to die out eventually.   Lack of cohesion. The warforged are not unified. They used to be an army under the control of others, but now they are scattered, directionless.   Lack of power. As a player race, each warforged is really no more powerful than a human of equal level.   Weaknesses could be social discrimination, an innate need to have a master or commander, lack of legal rights or recognition as a sentient being instead of property, a memory that re-writes itself (ageless, but only 50yrs worth of memory space, etc).
#8 Sands666 Dec 04, 2014 19:41:07	Conflict.  The more the better.   Perhaps after the war, the Warforged retired and were commanded to hide away in tombs until a day came again that the world needed them. But some greedy power hungry folks decided to figure out ways to reprogram groups of them. Maybe there was a Cold War between the various political forces in your world and it led to merc groups trying to uncover Warforge locations. Guardians protecting the warforge helped keep most out, but eventually some Warforge groups were stolen and used for new means. Did people fight fire with fire? Did they bring out Warforge groups to then attack the ones who were stolen and reprogrammed? Maybe the eventual outcome led to a magical curse that was supposed to kill these warforged and end this new war, but the magic did something else... the Warforge became sentient and stopped fighting. The calculated the pointlessness and saw that they were slaves of greedy men. The fled and formed their own community! After all was said and done less of the Warforge existed, but with a new sentience formed out of a magical mishap the Warforge found new purpose. They began studying their origins (perhaps going on quests to obtain this ancient information) and finally discovered a way to create new warforged again. The new Warforge were built with a new ideal of peace and prosperity... but did they succeed? Men are kept out of their community.
#9 noaharkwv Dec 04, 2014 22:17:17	Go full G1 Transformers and bring on some Scraplets and cosmic (mystic) rust.  "Forge-lets" could be little constructs made from rust monster parts that tear a Warforged apart like piranha or soldier ants.  And the "mystic rust" can just slowly eat away at the Warforge for weeks till they die.   Vermin and plague my friend, vermin and plague.
#10 Melend Jan 05, 2015 23:55:33	What if the substance they need to repair themselves only came from dragons?  If they're going to be fighting dragons, it'd be plentiful.  And once the dragons are exterminated, the magical army simply wears out and shuts down.  It'd be like that bit from The Simpsons where an increasingly long list of animals preying on other pest animals that prey upon pest animals eventually are killed by winter.   It's the aspect of trolls that I always liked least:  their regeneration didn't come at any cost.  So let's say there is a cost.  Let's say that a distillation of dragon blood is needed for Warforged to continue to repair themselves, and as dragons are now rare, there weren't enough supplies of the distilate for the armies to maintain themselves.