Warforged Deficiencies

[mediocresurgeon]

Warforged is by far my D&D character race. However, at present the warforged race remains the least effective choice for play in DDO. There are two reasons for this, and I would like to address a solution to one of them:

1). Warforged have penalized healing. In order to reduce the healing penalty, a warforged must spend 2, 6, or 12 action points, and it still does not increase the amount a warforged is healed to the amount that another race gets healed for. Other races get this healing without spending the action points. In theory, this is balanced out by warforged immunities and 25% fortification, but in high-level gameplay, the use of spells (such as mass deathward) and items (Minos helmet) mean that other races receive the same immunities, but without the healing penalty. (I will ignore Vision of Destruction, as that quest setup is the exception, not the rule, to warforged healing.)

2). Warforged do not have much of an armor selection. They do not get special docent materials, like mithral, which has quickly become a requirement for any armored tank that wants to maintain a respectable armor class. They do not have raid docents which provide an effect worth pursuing (the Titan docent might look good on paper, but is inefficient in battles). The one exception to this is the Docent of Defiance. As my main character is a warforged barbarian who uses a docent of defiance, I can tell you that the docent is ineffective in most battles in DDO--the mobility restriction of the docent makes it difficult to optimize your position in the battle, and archers who activate the Defiance ability might prevent your from reaching the battle before it is over. This is the problem I intend to address.

My solution to the poor selection of effective docents would be to include a recipe which changes an armor from an armor into a docent. (This does not mean, that one should have to power to turn a docent into an armor, however.) Making this change would ensure that warforged aren't penalized by a lack of available gear in addition to their racial traits.

[Lithic]

Since you have a lvl 16 WF you should know that the WF healing penalty becomes a non-issue when your clerics are lvl 11+. Especially if you take even the first tier of healer's friend for 65% healing (more than that is a waste IMO).

Now consider you also get +100% healing from repair spells. Other races get 0% with no way to increase this. With the amount of WF casters running around, that is a HUGE benefit.

As for spells and items taking the place of your immunities, other races need to give up precious item slots and find clickies or a friendly caster/cleric to get such immunities, while WF get them built in. That is awesome, especially the immunity to negative levels at endgame.

WF is one of the best races in DDO. If it wasn't for their monotonous appearance I'd have more than one myself.

[Freeman]

The only deficiency a Warforged has is a reduction in backpack space while they are carrying the stones of the fleshies to the next shrine. Yes, I have one, but I'm out of space in my signature.

[Aspenor]

My solution to the poor selection of effective docents would be to include a recipe which changes an armor from an armor into a docent. (This does not mean, that one should have to power to turn a docent into an armor, however.) Making this change would ensure that warforged aren't penalized by a lack of available gear in addition to their racial traits.

This has been suggested before by Angelous Dead, and once again I agree.

[CrimsonEagle]

This has been suggested before by Angelous Dead, and once again I agree.

I'm not quite sure I understand what is being asked for here?

Is this a request that in essence allows a WF who does not take a body feat, (Mith or Addy) to be able to have a Docent that gives the protection of the body feats?

Would this include the AC granted from say Mithrial?

I'm only asking, because if this were the case, what would be the point of having/choosing the body choices in the feat list when all that would have to be done is to equip a Docent.

Not saying I agree or disagree, just trying to understand exactly what is being asked for.

[Tanka]

I'm not quite sure I understand what is being asked for here?

Is this a request that in essence allows a WF who does not take a body feat, (Mith or Addy) to be able to have a Docent that gives the protection of the body feats?

Would this include the AC granted from say Mithrial?

I'm only asking, because if this were the case, what would be the point of having/choosing the body choices in the feat list when all that would have to be done is to equip a Docent.

Not saying I agree or disagree, just trying to understand exactly what is being asked for.

What A_d has suggested is allowing armor to be put into the Altar of Change and change it into an equivalent Docent. Or, obviously, making all raids with armors in them have equivalent Docents, because right now there are only two raids with named docents -- VoN (which is most decidedly worthless) and Titan (which, after you manage to activate it and any other buffs that disable clickies -- Rage, Madstone Rage, etc -- is incredibly unimpressive).

[RATRACE931]

And to think i've spent so much time helping u do Prey runs for youre wh0reforge and here you go and make a post saying how useless they are... tsk tsk. Oldbusted is enraged at this and Grimjob wants to stealthily place his greataxe in ur scalp:P

[hu-flung-pu]

On the armor fix I'd like to see cheaper/more DR for warforged. Everything else is perfect.

[Amabel]

Warforged is by far my D&D character race. However, at present the warforged race remains the least effective choice for play in DDO. There are two reasons for this, and I would like to address a solution to one of them:

1). Warforged have penalized healing. In order to reduce the healing penalty, a warforged must spend 2, 6, or 12 action points, and it still does not increase the amount a warforged is healed to the amount that another race gets healed for. Other races get this healing without spending the action points. In theory, this is balanced out by warforged immunities and 25% fortification, but in high-level gameplay, the use of spells (such as mass deathward) and items (Minos helmet) mean that other races receive the same immunities, but without the healing penalty. (I will ignore Vision of Destruction, as that quest setup is the exception, not the rule, to warforged healing.)

2). Warforged do not have much of an armor selection. They do not get special docent materials, like mithral, which has quickly become a requirement for any armored tank that wants to maintain a respectable armor class. They do not have raid docents which provide an effect worth pursuing (the Titan docent might look good on paper, but is inefficient in battles). The one exception to this is the Docent of Defiance. As my main character is a warforged barbarian who uses a docent of defiance, I can tell you that the docent is ineffective in most battles in DDO--the mobility restriction of the docent makes it difficult to optimize your position in the battle, and archers who activate the Defiance ability might prevent your from reaching the battle before it is over. This is the problem I intend to address.

My solution to the poor selection of effective docents would be to include a recipe which changes an armor from an armor into a docent. (This does not mean, that one should have to power to turn a docent into an armor, however.) Making this change would ensure that warforged aren't penalized by a lack of available gear in addition to their racial traits.

This is arrant nonsense.

Clerics are quite capable of healing WF. In addition, they can be healed by arcanes.

As well as being immune to poison, disease and fatigue, they are immune to two of the most dangerous spells in the game - hold person (for lower levels) and evervate (at higher levels, mostly against beholders that will dispell deathward).

As for armour, you can take mithril or adamantine as a feat. The docent of defiance offers almost complete protection against most mobs when it procs and, while it restricts movement, does not slow attack speed or prevent tumbling. It is perfectly viable to tumble to position in fights or move into combat in most adventures. I do agree that a wider selection of useful docents would be great though.

Minos Legens basically broke the helmet slot, but a WF can have 100% fort just using the head of good fortune. They will also generally have 100% fort from lvl 7 onwards.

They also have some of the best enhancement lines - racial toughness IV, CON, arcane penalty reduction, power attack, tactics and so on.

Warforged are one of the most powerful races in the game. Make and play a warforged wizzy with a high INT, high CON, decent STR and insightful reflexes and let me know if you still think they're "deficient".