Body Feats - Does it gimp the WF?

[Boromirs]

Truth be told, I would rather want my WF to wear armor. In fact, I think this is one of the most massive drawbacks to the warforged as a race. The body feats both mithril and especially addy are both pretty much a waste of feat (especially on a feat starved class). I can see how if you want to squeeze out an additional few AC points you can get mithril (on a pure defender build) but addy is totally useless as its DR is surpassed by a lot of stuff you can get toward endgame.

It wouldn't be so gimp if WF were allowed to upgrade armors (better then the measly 3 extra DR or 1 DR per FEAT) with different properties, like Spikes/Elemental guards/permanent protection versus one type of damage or even clickie abilities attached to the armor. As of now however, Im afraid it's a complete waste. Your take?

[Goldeneye]

WF armor is pretty much the same as normal armor, but it takes up a feat.
Addy body + DR AP's = 5 DR - makes a big difference over time.

What is turbine implemented a crafting system where armor had 3 tiers. And by doing certain quests you could collect runes, and upgrade your tiers of armor, drawing properties from pre-set lists? That way you could make armor with properties you wanted.

[Drakos]

Truth be told, I would rather want my WF to wear armor. In fact, I think this is one of the most massive drawbacks to the warforged as a race. The body feats both mithril and especially addy are both pretty much a waste of feat (especially on a feat starved class). I can see how if you want to squeeze out an additional few AC points you can get mithril (on a pure defender build) but addy is totally useless as its DR is surpassed by a lot of stuff you can get toward endgame.

It wouldn't be so gimp if WF were allowed to upgrade armors (better then the measly 3 extra DR or 1 DR per FEAT) with different properties, like Spikes/Elemental guards/permanent protection versus one type of damage or even clickie abilities attached to the armor. As of now however, Im afraid it's a complete waste. Your take?

I don't really have a problem with the Body feats. I't extra AC afterall. I look at it as an advantage. For non-WF they not only have to find armor properties they want, they need to find it on the right type of armor. A Fighter who likes to fight in Full plate and is looking for Acidguard as a property has to find Acidguard Full Plate. The WF with Adamantine Body only needs to find the Docent to Add Acidguard since he already has the equilivant to Full plate always on.

The problem comes in finding decent docents that don't make you look like your the Pink Power Ranger in a skirt.

[Ashiel_Dragmire]

I wish they had the Feat that allowed the WF to go without composite plating, effectively letting them wear regular armor and robes. I don't remember if the Eberron Campaign guide said that it removes only the +2 or if it removes the +2 AC and the 25% Fortification.

I imagine it would be a coding nightmare though.

[Steiner-Davion]

I wish they had the Feat that allowed the WF to go without composite plating, effectively letting them wear regular armor and robes. I don't remember if the Eberron Campaign guide said that it removes only the +2 or if it removes the +2 AC and teh 25% Fortification.

I imagine it would be a coding nightmare though.

Composite should be free, and if you want Mithril or Addy it should cost you.

As it is WF are basically screwed out of 1 feat right?

[Skirmish]

The problem comes in finding decent docents that don't make you look like your the Pink Power Ranger in a skirt.

Here Here!!! I looted nothing but pink docents as a noob in 07. I fought hard to gather all the docents I wanted that were the colors I wanted only to finally loot the Docent from the Mindsunder and turn back into a pink power ranger. sniff.
Now, to upgrade it so I can be a teal one.

One thing that your overlooking when you look at the WF body feats vs fleshling armor.
If they need to, any other race has to have the foresight and take the time to actually change their armor before a fight. WF can change on the fly, mid combat, at a moments notice as needed and not worry about it. One of my favorite docents is simply one that is a low level but it has nightshield on it. As the charge doesn't last long, I wait until I'm just about to run into caster range and pop a NS off and then swap back to my Quarforged Docent, or before that, my +5 of (enter greater resist here). For the most part, the only time Skirm was touched past his DR in the sentinel missions that were just added was when the caster started tossing Magic Missile or someone got a crit. One quick-change and a click later he's good to go.

[Jendrak]

Composite should be free, and if you want Mithril or Addy it should cost you.

As it is WF are basically screwed out of 1 feat right?

Wrong.....composite is free and mithral and addy do cost you so WF arent screwed outta one feat.

[Lymnus]

Wrong.....composite is free and mithral and addy do cost you so WF arent screwed outta one feat.

If you take the body feat, you're missing 1 feat compared to any other race--except Human (common race for any class), then you're missing two.

[SquelchHU]

I wish they had the Feat that allowed the WF to go without composite plating, effectively letting them wear regular armor and robes. I don't remember if the Eberron Campaign guide said that it removes only the +2 or if it removes the +2 AC and teh 25% Fortification.

I imagine it would be a coding nightmare though.

Unarmored body. Removes the +2 armor. Not sure about it letting you use normal armors, but it does remove asf and let you get wis to AC from being a monk.

[SirAppleheart]

The ideal solution would be giving all Level 1 WF's a free feat from a limited selection, essentially letting them pick one of 3 Body Feats (Composite, Mithral or Adamantite).

Getting a Full Plate isn't exactly hard, so its hardly a huge unfair advantage to be able to start off with one, and you still need Docents to make your armor nice and magical.

This way at least it wouldn't be a drawback, but instead let you pick which armor best matches your class/build.

But then I won't exactly be holding my breath for something like that to be implemented.

[toughguyjoe]

Unarmored body. Removes the +2 armor. Not sure about it letting you use normal armors, but it does remove asf and let you get wis to AC from being a monk.

Check races of Eberron. I looked at the WF race and it specifically says WF Composite Plating does NOT count as armor for the purposes of Monk related class abilities.

However, yeah that feat does take away Arcane Spell Failure.

[Ashiel_Dragmire]

Unarmored body. Removes the +2 armor. Not sure about it letting you use normal armors, but it does remove asf and let you get wis to AC from being a monk.

Ah yes, that's what it is called. Looking it up...

"You lose the normal +2 Armor bonus and light fortification common to warforged characters, but you have no chance of arcane spell failure and can wear armor or magic robes and gain their full effects."

[Shade]

I like the look of mithral and admantium bodies allot more then composite.

But taking a body feat on a WF barb gimps they so severely that it is absolutely not an option for me.

So it would be cool if at character creation all warforged got a bonus feat like human..

The big difference would be, this feats can only be spent on 4 new feats that would change your appearance with docents, but confer none of the other benefits of having the full body feat:
Composite appearance
Mithral appearance
Adamantium appearance
Default appereance (composite, but changes if you take the actaul mithral/adamantie body feats)

Or since they like to charge turibne points for everything lately, it could be a store option too.

[eulogy098]

I would spend any amount of turbine points if it would allow my Warforged Barbarian to look like he was wearing adamantine plating. I don't care about the AC at all one bit, im just sick of looking like a freggin wizard carrying an axe. Obviously using a feat on plating cant be justified, its hard to justify even on a fighter with countless feats to burn.

Basically, the body feats are a waste, completely. That being so, i think all WF Fighters and Barbs should have the option of taking Adamantine for free, Rangers and Rogues to Mithril and so on. Since AC is near meaningless for 95% of players and builds by level 20, why not let us enjoy the cosmetics.

[sigtrent]

They aren't a waste if you plan on utilizing the AC you get from them, and they are after all feats to gain AC...

Mithral is actually pretty good, and of course composite is very good for arcanes and the like. I agree the adamantine is problematic, it doesn't have any unique advantage other than the DR which becomes pretty worthless before long. If more docents expanded the dex range on them that would help the AC optimizers justify adamantine, or if it simply had another point of AC or the like. Or if had built in full fort... that might be a little broken at low level but perfectly fine at high level.

Or perhaps you can swap out body feats for free letting folks take advantage of the heavy armor early and then switch over when its no longer useful.

[eulogy098]

Body feats are a total waste of a feat with the exception of only two builds, far as i know. One being a Warforged Sword and Board Intimitank, this build makes Mithril Body valid. The second being Pure WF FvS, making Adamatine Body valid.

Ive crunched my brain, i cant think of any other builds that make choosing either body feat anything but an absolute waste.

Can anyone think of any reason NOT to make these body feats free?