Warforged D&D 2024: Species Optimisation Guide

Play as a robotic construct with the refreshed Warforged species for D&D 2024.

Warforged were created as constructs from organic matter and metal to serve as warriors in Eberron’s last war. While they are constructs, they are not just autonomous robots. They have thoughts, feelings and opinions and are capable of feeling pain like other creatures do.

Without a war to fight, many Warforged now look for a new purpose, seeking self discovery of who and what they are and how they fit in the universe.

Warforged were first introduced in 5e 2014 as part of the Eberron: Rising From the Last War setting book. With Eberron character options getting a refresh in Eberron: Forge of the Artificer, we now have a new iteration to play with.

In my guide below, you can see how the 2024 Warforged has changed, what tactics you can use with them, optimal class combinations and how to play these sentient constructs.

Is a Warforged the right species for me?

Choose a Warforged if you want to…

Be tougher
Not suffocate underwater
More skill and tool proficiencies

A Warforged might not be for you if…

You’re not interested in extra resilience
Don’t want to play a sort of robot

What’s changed?

Mechanically, players will find that Warforged roughly function the same as they did in the 2014 version. There are some slight differences here though, but most of it changed to make the traits easier to read and less complex:

Now a construct: According to the lore, Warforged were always constructs, however, mechanically speaking, they operated as humanoids. That’s officially changed now. They are a construct. This makes them immune to things like the hold person spell (but susceptible to hold monster).
Can now be small: Previously, all Warforged were medium in size, but now you can have a small Warforged which makes sense as not all Warforged are made the same.
No longer immune to disease: These can now affect a Warforged.
Do they drink, eat and breathe or not: The 2014 version stated that they don’t, the 2024 version says they don’t get exhausted by not doing these things. So mechanically, I think this remains the same, but perhaps leaves more open the idea that they could do these things if they wanted to.
No more lengthy donning of armor: It doesn’t need integrating into your body for an hour anymore.

Warforged traits

Creature Type	Construct
Size	Small or medium
Speed	30ft
Traits	Construct resilience, integrated protection, sentry’s rest, specialized design, tireless
Resistances	Poison
Proficiencies	One skill and one tool
Darkvision	No
Innate spellcasting	None
Book found in	Eberron: Forge of the Artificer

Tactics

Warforged are primarily about resilience with their AC boost and poison resilience. I’d focus on the following tactics:

Best for melee characters: Anyone can benefit from greater resilience, but those that benefit most are melee characters. Especially your frontline tanks who are going to draw more attacks than others. +1 AC is a big buff and it stacks with other aspects of AC, including unarmored defense, mage armor and similar AC boosting features.

You’re especially tough against poison attacks of which there are many.

Default guard: Warforged don’t need to sleep, just be inert. This makes them the ideal option for a guard.

Underwater adept: Warforged don’t gain levels of exhaustion when they can’t breathe. This works nicely for underwater combat and exploration where you have less concerns about suffocating. If you can gain a swim speed somehow (perhaps by playing a ranger) then you’re even more adept in the water.

Skillful: Warforged get any skill and tool proficiency which is very flexible. This makes them good for the types of builds that rely on several skill proficiencies like party faces, scouts and even knowledge types like wizards. These extra proficiencies give you the flexibility to be proficient at a wider range of skills and tools. In fact, a shorter rest time may even help a little with downtime activities like crafting.

Choosing a class for your Warforged

Below I’ve scored how well each class works with a Warforged:

Artificer⭐⭐⭐⭐

Barbarian ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Bard ⭐⭐⭐

Cleric ⭐⭐⭐

Druid ⭐⭐

Fighter ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Monk ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Paladin ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Ranger ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rogue ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Sorcerer ⭐⭐⭐

Warlock ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Wizard ⭐⭐⭐

*Star ratings scored out of 5

Best classes for a Warforged

As mentioned, Warforged work well for any class, but your best options are those that will see the most benefit from the extra resilience. This is mainly frontline martials, especially tanks, including:

It’s worth pointing out that many hit and run classes like monks and rogues tend to be a bit softer so may want the AC and resistance boost too. I think it’s also worth considering subclasses and builds that rely on melee combat but struggle with hit and run tactics despite being a bit less resilient. This includes the armorer and battle smith artificers and blade warlocks.

Worst Warforged classes

Warforged work well with any class as everyone benefits from extra resilience. I did mark down druid, perhaps a little harshly, as wild shape suppresses these traits. In combat, this is mostly only affecting the moon druid, but wild shape also does better than a Warforged when it comes to being underwater too, making some traits obsolete.

About Warforged

Appearance

Warforged vary a lot in appearance depending on what they’ve been made from, but are all humanoid in basic structure (head, body, arms, legs etc). They are built from a combination of organic and inorganic material. This manifests as root-like cords for muscles, alchemical liquids fuelling their functionality and a framework of darkwood, metal or stone. This is all protected by armored plates.

Personality

Warforged don’t necessarily have a defined personality, but they are united by their unique creation process and their loss of purpose. Many seek to understand who they are, whether they are mortal and what their purpose truly is.

How to roleplay a Warforged

I’d think a lot about how your Warforged is seeking purpose and the existential questions that may arise from being a sentient construct.

I think Star Wars tackles the varied personalities of robots really well and you could take some inspiration from here. C3PO is the nervous rule keeper who struggles with the rules defined in his code and when these should be broken. B2EMO on the other hand, has developed beyond is programming into a more sarcastic, fatalistic and independent droid. And there’s more ideas you can draw from the universe too.

However you play a Warforged, make sure that your nature guides how you view the world. You’re not completely ignorant, but certain things may make little sense to you like love and intimacy or even families. These can even be learning points for your character.