Creating Warforged

[Yogibear41]

So suppose a world has no war-forged in it, approximately dark ages technology, but still has high level wizards/psions and such. What would it take for a high level wizard/psion to discover a way to create war-forged? What level could he do it at? What would it cost etc. Supplies etc. What would it cost just to make the first one, or a handful before mass production began?

[Big Fau]

Given that House Cannith only did it when they discovered the Xen'Drik Giants' ancient creation forges, and said forges have never been given proper in-game stats, you're looking at Epic-level magic at minimum (in fact there is an Epic spell that creates a species).

It's a safe assumption that the forges are artifact-level items, possibly even beyond that.

[Blackhawk748]

I agree with Fau, i mean you are making a soul and then effectively putting it into a golem body

[Greenish]

Given that House Cannith only did it when they discovered the Xen'Drik Giants' ancient creation forges, and said forges have never been given proper in-game stats, you're looking at Epic-level magic at minimum (in fact there is an Epic spell that creates a species).

It's a safe assumption that the forges are artifact-level items, possibly even beyond that.

Well, they were able to replicate the forges, so while designing them (and maybe some key components) can be much higher level, building them likely isn't. They're Eldritch Machines (read, "pure fiat") instead of artifact items.

As for production costs, FoW gives warforged a ~6k gp pop price (training included), with larger batches being cheaper.

[unseenmage]

I actually have a method for this using special materials. Uses several special materials and alchemical agents that when woven together could make up a Warforged.

Livewood (ECS), counts as a living thing.
Living Metal (MoF), is metal that heals
Thinaun (CWa), is a metal that can non-magically contain a soul

Quintessence (srd), after the psionic Power makes it it's no more magic than a Wall of Stone after the spell makes it. Maybe used as blood for your creation, gives them a timeless quality perhaps.

Additionally Shapesand (Sa), works as a binding agent to keep your woven conglomerate together.

And finally, the Minor Servitor spell from Savage Species. Gives your creation mental scores and makes it a Construct.

Weaving each material together in small enough layers would allow the every part of the creature to share the same materials traits. It's living, has a soul, heals, and can reshape enough of it's form to heal a wound closed.

It's not perfect but it's all I've come up with through RAW so far.

Edit: This would be waaaay more expensive than the 6k listed price for Warforged.

[Greenish]

Livewood (ECS), ****s as a living thing.

Missing an "o" there.

Not bad, though warforged don't heal naturally, so you could skip Living Metal.

[FinnDarkblade]

Another thing to keep in mind is that the warforged weren't supposed to be sentient. Non-sentient warforged were produced throughout the Last War and only gradually began to become sentient through a process no one understood or could explain.

[Greenish]

Another thing to keep in mind is that the warforged weren't supposed to be sentient. Non-sentient warforged were produced throughout the Last War and only gradually began to become sentient through a process no one understood or could explain.

It was tweaking the creation process for other purposes (by Merrix d'Cannith [grandfather of that Merrix]) that accidentally caused the warforged to become sentient, if I remember my FoW correctly.

[FinnDarkblade]

It was tweaking the creation process for other purposes (by Merrix d'Cannith [grandfather of that Merrix]) that accidentally caused the warforged to become sentient, if I remember my FoW correctly.

I believe you're correct but it was still an accident and as far as I can remember they still don't know why or how the tweaking caused sentience.

[Greenish]

I believe you're correct but it was still an accident and as far as I can remember they still don't know why or how the tweaking caused sentience.

Yeah, no one really understands how creation forges or warforged work.

[Faily]

And any setting that introduces Warforged should get a Lord of Blades to go with the deal. Because even sentinent machines need their champion.


House Cannith knows how to make Warforged (and according to some, still do... shhh), but there is yet no explanation to why they became sentient. The technology that creates Warforged is based on the ancient Giant-technology that the Canniths discovered, and they used it to create automatons to use in warfare (hence the name Warforged). The sentience came later, and no one knows why. IIRC.

[Ruethgar]

There is the 9th level Fabrication domain spell from AEG's Gods under Impossible Things page 71. That could easily make a Warforged. It would cost 6,400gp per casting(DMM Occular, Ray Burst for more efficiency). However I like unseenmage's idea more. It is more involved and of course doesn't have that fall back of "who cares how it works, magic did it."

[SethoMarkus]

If this is something you plan on PCs accomplishing in a game, it should be the focus of the campaign, or at least a major facet of it, and not some individual player's whimsical goal.

If it is an NPC under the DM's control attempting such a feat as creating the Warforged race, make it some secret project that has been going on for generations rather than a single Wizard's doing in one lifetime (even magically enhanced).

[Ansem]

Given that House Cannith only did it when they discovered the Xen'Drik Giants' ancient creation forges, and said forges have never been given proper in-game stats, you're looking at Epic-level magic at minimum (in fact there is an Epic spell that creates a species).

It's a safe assumption that the forges are artifact-level items, possibly even beyond that.

Which one are you referring to?

[Shining Wrath]

There's also the ghul'la, the mark on a Warforged's forehead. No one puts it there, but it is different for every Warforged, and if you replace that plate the ghul'la appears. It appears to be related to sentience / ensoulment of the Warforged - although I believe it's still up for debate if WF have souls, as they don't wind up in Dolurr after death.

So I think you need some sort of "divine" assistance to produce sentient Living Constructs, not just constructs. Something no one can explain happens during the process, and it's not just "Oh it's magic", because House Cannith is all over magic and they don't have a clue what's going on.

I therefore opine that to introduce Warforged you not only need epic magic, you need luck. Your Warforged-maker has to create a forge, and then tinker with it, improve it, polish the shiny parts, and repeat over and over. Eventually, you may make the change no one understands and produce sentience.

[Karnith]

Which one are you referring to?

Origin of Species: Achaierai, probably.

[Big Fau]

Origin of Species: Achaierai, probably.

Yeah, which can easily be adapted to other species.

[Yogibear41]

If this is something you plan on PCs accomplishing in a game, it should be the focus of the campaign, or at least a major facet of it, and not some individual player's whimsical goal.

If it is an NPC under the DM's control attempting such a feat as creating the Warforged race, make it some secret project that has been going on for generations rather than a single Wizard's doing in one lifetime (even magically enhanced).

More like something I planned on potentially making a character go for, so that the next character I made could be a warforged himself, and would have a reason for existing in that world, more or less a year of real life work to be able to make a level 1 character one day. Yes, I know I'm crazy, but It would be one heck of a ride

[Emperor Tippy]

An Origin of the Species spell is the only RAW way to do species creation.

That being said, you can make a better than normal Warforged if you want.

Step 1: Make a Shadesteel Golem (I would advance it to 26 HD) and pay the extra 8,000 GP for it to get an Int score equal to 1/2 your CL.
Step 2: Hit your golem with a Psychic Reformation, Embrace/Shun the Dark Chaos, +5 Tomes for every stat, and the Ritual of Shadow Walking to get it optimally set up and capable. If you can convince your DM to let you, PAO it into a human and level drain it down to one HD while using 25 Thought Bottles to store its XP and then restore the XP, having it pick class levels instead of HD.
Step 3: Create an auto rest trap of Ice Assassin of your Shadesteel Golem. Calling it a Creation Forge seems like a good name.
Step 4: Get 4 "Warforged" every day (more if you time accelerate your creation forge) that are all utterly loyal to you.
Step 5: Cast Telepathic Bond on each "Warforged" and have a Solar with Tenacious Spell: Permanency make those bonds permanent (along with all other useful Permanency choices). Hide Life is also a nifty choice.

Profit with your ever growing army of utterly loyal robots of deal.

There is also creating a Shadesteel Golem and then changing it to a non construct form before whacking it with True Mind Switch. You now basically uploaded yourself to a robot body.