Be ridden into battle with this ferocious mount species.
Worgs are large wolfish creatures with strong muscles and a fierce bite. Their muscular frame allows them to move quicker than most creatures and their 4 legs facilitate this further.
Worgs of Eberron are more intelligent than the usual variety of other settings which tends to be more animalistic. In Eberron, Worgs are able to integrate into society as intelligent creatures, though they lack the dextrous fingers of other members of society. This leaves them less inclined towards tool use.
If you play a Worg, you should expect a species that leans heavily into melee combat and unarmed strikes. They also struggle with spellcasting as they’re unable to use material components with their hands. However, Worgs are uniquely able to act as a mount for medium and smaller creatures.
The Worg is one of several 3rd party species released in Frontiers of Eberron: Quickstone from legendary Eberron creator, Keith Baker. Below I dig into capabilities, optimisations and tactics for a Worg character.
Is a Worg the right species for me?
Choose a Worg if you want to…
- Play a melee build
- Use unarmed strikes
- Move quickly
- Be a mount for allies
A Worg might not be for you if…
- Want to engage in ranged combat
- Want to be a spellcaster
- Don’t want expensive armor (barding)
Worg traits
| Creature Type | Monstrosity |
| Size | Medium |
| Speed | 40ft |
| Traits | Darkvision, keen senses, bite, for the pack, natural armor, quadruped |
| Resistances | None |
| Proficiencies | Perception |
| Darkvision | Yes |
| Innate spellcasting | None |
| Book found in | Frontiers of Eberron: Quickstone |
Tactics
Worgs are extraordinarily unique in their capabilities. They can’t hold things in their paws, can act as a mount and have powerful unarmed strikes. I’ve put together a bunch of advice on tactics for a Worg below.
Worgs and spellcasting
Spellcasting using any kind of item is essentially ruled out for Worgs due to their paws lacking the capability to hold items. This means you can cast spells using verbal and somatic components just fine, but not those requiring material components.
To help understand which spell lists this really affects, I had a look out how many spells on each class’ spell list required material components from the 1st party 5.5e books as well as Exploring Eberron and Frontiers of Eberron:
- Artificer: 48/80 (60%)
- Bard: 84/146 (58%)
- Cleric: 68/123 (55%)
- Druid: 82/139 (59%)
- Paladin: 17/52 (33%)
- Ranger: 34/62 (55%)
- Sorcerer: 88/160 (55%)
- Warlock: 51/94 (54%)
- Wizard: 169/259 (65%)
As you can see, most classes end up with between 54-60% of spells on their list unavailable to them which is a hefty handicap. The 2 exceptions are wizard with 65% of spells unavailable (pretty much 2/3) and paladin with just 33%. This doesn’t necessarily account for the actual spells you might want to take, but if you do want a spellcasting Worg, then paladin is your most viable option. Other spellcasters aren’t out of the question, but you’ll be seriously hampered if you take one.
Unarmed strikes all the way: Worgs can’t use weapons, but do have a bite attack that deals solid damage. So you don’t get left behind by other martial classes with weapon mastery uses, I’d take the tavern brawler and grappler feats. This will allow you to push and grapple as part of your unarmed strikes which can be useful tools in combat. This does necessitate a strength build unless you are a monk.
Become a mount: You can carry creatures of medium size or smaller as a mount. With your increased speed, this will help allies be more mobile and can be combined with something like mounted combatant to provide additional bonuses. You’ll usually want to be carrying martial allies on your back as you’ll also want to get in the thick of combat too.
Bonus action help: If your bonus action is free, you can just keep helping allies next to you in combat. If you’re their mount, you’re automatically close enough to provide the help action anyway. This does favour classes with less uses of their bonus action, like fighters and barbarians.
Need to think about armor: If you’re a dexterity build, you’ll be fine here, just get that dexterity as high as possible. However, many Worgs will favour strength builds for unarmed attacks, this means using expensive barding which is 4 times the cost in gold of standard armor.
Decent scouts: If you can weave dexterity into your build, then Worgs can make decent scouts with darkvision, perception proficiency and a high speed.
Choosing a class for your Worg
Below I’ve scored how well each class works with a Worg:
Artificer⭐
Barbarian ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Bard ⭐
Cleric ⭐⭐
Druid ⭐⭐
Fighter ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Monk ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Paladin ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Ranger ⭐⭐⭐
Rogue ⭐
Sorcerer ⭐
Warlock ⭐
Wizard ⭐
*Star ratings scored out of 5
Best classes for a Worg
You really need a melee class and preferably don’t want to be hampered by issues with spellcasting (though paladins perform alright here). This means I’d recommend the following as your best choices.
All of these work really well for an unarmed build and some, like fighters and barbarians, have lots of space for bonus action help. Barbarians and monks in particular will be unconcerned by the armor issues with the species as they have unarmored defense anyway and monks can eschew strength for their martial arts die anyway.
Rangers can work OK but they’re not the best as unarmed strength builds and will be stifled a fair bit by what spells they can use.
Worst Worg classes
I mentioned that melee classes are best on a Worg, but there are some exceptions and that’s those that are weapon reliant. This means that rogues, who can’t sneak attack with unarmed strikes just don’t work. Pact of the blade warlocks are also no good and are stifled by spellcasting too and melee artificers like the battle smith rely on weapon attacks as well. I’m not sure if the armorer counts as an exploit here with their built in weapons in their armor. Talk to your DM, I think it could work, but the interaction isn’t clear.
As mentioned before, dedicated spellcasters will really struggle with a Worg. They’ll have much more limited spellcasting and have no use for unarmed strikes usually making wizards and sorcerers especially poor options. A Worg bard also wouldn’t be able to use their musical instruments for things like bardic inspiration.
About Worgs
Appearance
Worgs are quadrupeds so have 4 legs and paws with a very wolfish appearance. They tend to be more muscular than their wolfish cousins with sharper teeth and a more intelligent mind. Their paws aren’t capable of holding much and certainly not easily.
Personality
Because of the lack of capability with traditional tools, Worgs tend to be used more for their brawn. This can be as mounts, mercenaries or simply for lugging heavy stuff. You may want to consider how they find their place in a world where tools and technology are beyond your capabilities and how you attempt to keep up with the more traditional humanoid members of society.
How to roleplay a Worg
Consider how you deal with the problems everyday life among bipedal creatures creates. How do you feel about being used as a mount? How do you feel about the technology that is often inaccessible to you? You might also think about how the inner animal is represented. Is that beast controlled, or is it released during moments of heightened emotion?
The Worg is completely unique among playable species. It’s one of very few mounts for a playable species and the only one I’ve come across that can act as a mount for medium sized creatures. It’s a shame they are very stuck with a few limited melee builds, but to be fair, that is partially by necessity due to their physical traits.
