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.