"The warforged possessed many advantages over traditional constructs. Aaren had incorporated organic material into their design, binding steel and stone together with a flexible material similar to the roots of livewood trees. These binding roots could be rapidly grown within a creation forge, reducing the cost of production; they also responded to traditional healing magic, though these spells were not as effective on the warforged as they were on creatures of flesh and blood."
This states that there are organic components that can be affected by the aura of corruptive stench that is being exuded by the Corruption Corpse. Think of the stench aura that is being oozed out as a sort of contact poison for purposes of affecting a Warforged. While it is a vapour, it could have properties consistent with a vaporous acidic cloud in that the corruption odor may only have to contact the organic binding roots of the Warforged to harm it. As the Warforged is listed as a living being, and the description of the Grave Stench aura clearly lists it as affecting LIVING ENEMIES, then your friends Warforged is affected.
However, the final decision on how to play this out is in the hands of you, the DM. If you choose to say that the Warforged is immune to inhaled poisons or smells, then that is your call. Just make the ruling and stick with it every time.
Most of all have fun too.
Cheers!
✦ You don’t need to eat, drink, or breathe, but this doesn’t render you immune to any effect.
Does this answer your question?
one of my players is a warforged. on PG 279 in Monster manual 4th ed. it states "You dont need to eat, drink or breath, but this doesn't render you immuneto any effect" since it says that my player decises he want to hold his breath since he doesnt need to breath to avoid the Corruption Corpse on page 274 also in monster manual. which is a stench that gives -5 penalty to attack rolls if you adjacent to the zonbie. is he correct? or
Side question, will you allow the other PCs to hold their breath once they see that the warforged can do it? How long will they be able to hold their breath and fight?
I think the "doesn't make you immune to any effect" line covers it well.
General question to all: Can warforged drown?
I think the "doesn't make you immune to any effect" line covers it well.
General question to all: Can warforged drown?
Yeah, that was my first question upon seeing that line, though there are others:
Technically, Drowning and Starving, along with Dehydration, are effects. How does one not need to eat, but still die from starvation?
If my DM instincts are right (and I have been known to be wrong) the line SHOULD read:
Warforged don't need to eat, brethe, or sleep, though this doesn't render them immune to any effect except for drowning, suffocation, starvation, or dehydration.
If players moan, tell them that things like stentch or stinking cloud still effect you, because you have 'olfactory detectors' which you cannot shut off. This would also explain why warforged can smell without needing to breathe. You can still be put to sleep because it is magic effecting your organic componants, and you need 4 hours for an extended rest because you need some downtime for your organic componants.
Thus: as a warforged, you cannot be strangled to death, though someone can knock you out with their nasty gym socks.
I think by "but this doesn’t render you immune to any effect" the ability means that the warforged is not immune to any power or ability. This would mean that they could survive under natural water but if someone was to put a sphere of water around the warforge's head it would still effect the warforged. If the warforged was not effected by such things they would be incredibly strong. Just think that the magical suffocating water, rotting stench, or an aura of starvation effect the warforge's soul and not the body physically (these would be powers, likely magical, and not natural).
This is what I was thinking as well. Besides, I need someone capable of building my undersea castle.
1- how did the warforged know it was a toxic stench? Visable effects, knowledge rolls, or simply players reading the MM? If the first two I'd let him.
2- As for the other players, I treat it like underwater combat in the DMG with endurance checks made each time you are hit or you loose healing surges as you begin suffocating.
Would you let a non-warforged hold his or her breath as well? After all, combat takes place in rounds, and you can hold your breath for several rounds before needing to make checks. If you do, then let the Warforged be immune. Otherwise, don't. Personally, I wouldn't let anyone hold their breath to avoid these kinds of stench effects.
Holding your breath isn't that difficult, with a decent level of fitness its fairly easy to hold your breath for over a minute.
However, holding your breath whilst exerting yourself physically (in combat) is probably a big no-no. People who train to hold their breath for long periods of time do so by reducing the energy their body uses, and reduce their oxygen needs. In a fight, the opposite is true, you need more oxygen, not less. Holding your breath in a fight will save you for a short while against gas attacks, but nowhere near as long as holding your breath whilst relaxing your body and slowing your heart-beat.
As for Warforged, well the wording is badly written, i'd just veto any effect that would injure the warforged through starvation, dehydration or suffocation, even the aforementioned 'bubble of water around the head' spell. Magic or not, the warforged doesn't breath, so preventing him from doing so is similar to preventing a human from glowing - we don't do it, so preventing it doesn't have any affect.
If players moan, tell them that things like stentch or stinking cloud still effect you, because you have 'olfactory detectors' which you cannot shut off.
I would go with Degausser opinion on this one.
Since unlike "Normal" constructs a warforged have organic components, I would subject the warforged to any and all effects such as stench and so on.
Just like he can get a bonus from Heroes Feast and the likes (if any
).As a rule of thumb, I will subject said Warforged to any and all effects, penalties and bonuses but never any HP damage or death from it.
So a stinking could, that causes HP damage, would not affect him at all.
And now that you know of the problem, try to check before the session what is reasonable that will affect the warforged, how and why and then when you'll play you can just tell the player the reason and continue. Hopefully.
BTW Degausser, warforged doesn't need to sleep, or rest his "organic components", he is only required to rest if it needs to memorize spells.
one of my players is a warforged. on PG 279 in Monster manual 4th ed. it states "You dont need to eat, drink or breath, but this doesn't render you immuneto any effect" since it says that my player decises he want to hold his breath since he doesnt need to breath to avoid the Corruption Corpse on page 274 also in monster manual. which is a stench that gives -5 penalty to attack rolls if you adjacent to the zonbie. is he correct? or
Don't make the assumption that warforged "breathe" anyway. Maybe they get energy, oxygen, and water from the atmosphere around them. That way they can still suffocate, die of starvation, dehydrate, etc. without violating the descriptor line.
I mean, oxidating your blood isn't the same as breathing, and absorbing moisture isn't the same as drinking.
How much war could a warforge forge if a warforge could forge war?
A warforge would forge as much war as a warforge could if a warforge could forge war.
How much war could a warforge forge if a warforge could forge war?
Is it a melee class or a spellcaster class?
This is not overly powered, and any other solution will simply create more problems then it solves.
It should be seen as the same way for the warforged. It isn't breathing in the cloud that causes damage but the magic that has created and runs throughout the cloud that causes damage. A cloud wouldn't harm a warforges metal/wood skin but instead damages the warforge soul.
I also think that other type of effects can be viewed in a similar manor. It is the magic of the spell that damages the warforge no matter what the form of the magic is.
No, don't run away, stay with me for a moment.
Humans are made of flesh and blood
Warforged are made of steel, stone and wood
Wood needs sustenance to live(And it is alive by the way) just like Flesh and Blood do. However, plants need natural gases(oxygen AND carbon dioxide), water and minerals just like animals, so I don't see any reason for Warforged NOT to breathe, eat or drink beyond MAGIC, which is of course the reason they can even live in the first place. So I guess it's kind of a wonky cross between Biology and MAGIC.
For me this is what I'll tell me players.
"Despite what the rules say, Warforged in my world eat, breathe and drink. They need as much water as humans do, they eat similar food to humans. Though they breathe they have no lungs so they don't seem to be doing it to the naked eye, but a Warforged deprived of air will die, although unlike humans they can survive in areas of carbon dioxide and not oxygen, although I doubt this will actually come up in game."
Warforged cannot starve, suffocate, or suffer from thirst. Some people have been confused by the statement "You do not need to eat, drink, or breathe, but this does not render you immune to any effects." I spoke with WotC designers to get this cleared up, and the point is that you are immune to mundane consequences of not eating, drinking, or breathing (as described on page 159 of the DMG). This does not provide you with immunity to any combat power or effect which is simply described in such a way as to imply breathing is involved. For example, if the bugbear strangler uses his "strangle" power on you, you can't say "I don't breath - wouldn't that have no effect?" In your case, he's actually ripping your throat apart instead of squeezing the life out of you.
So: as a warforged you CAN be affected by the bugbear strangler, the stinking cloud, or for that matter, by drinking a potion. But you cannot die of thirst, feel hunger, or drown due to simple submersion in water.
He is the guy who knows.
They CAN be poisoned, and yes, they can catch diseases. In this, 4E is playing a little more to the idea that warforged are living constructs. In the case of something like a disease, as a writer I envision a warforged suffering different symptoms than a human would from the same disease; his fibrous tendrils become pale and oily, or his leather components begin to rot as the lifeforce that normally maintains them begins to fade. It's stupid to imagine that a warforged would get a sore throat - but a warforged might suffer other equally debilitating effects from the flu that are unique to warforged physiology.
With all that said, warforged are not immune to disease or poison. But they are resistant to both of these and more. Warforged receive a +2 bonus to Endurance (on top of a +2 Constitution) and a +2 to saving throws versus any sort of ongoing damage - which can include poison, but also being set on fire, struck by acid, affected by a life draining attack, some mental attacks, and so on. They also receive a bonus to Will defense - so while not immune to mental powers, they are resistant to them.
It's a step down from blanket immunity [as with 3.5], but it still preserves the idea that they are BETWEEN human and construct... that they are not immune to the things that trouble humans, but they are resistant to them.
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I play a Warforged who was sucked into the water by a water elemental of sorts (My character doesn't really know what it was, and since, I didn't inquire further), but was able to fight it off without fear of drowning.