Warforged druids are a strange and unusual combination of race and class. Warforged are artificial humanoids made from wood and metal and were built in the Eberron setting for warfare. However, the war in question eventually ended, and the warforged then had to figure out what to do with their lives afterward. Many tables not using the Eberron setting still use warforged, adapting their origins and backstory as needed for their particular campaign setting.

Most people play warforged druids because the idea of a robot nature priest or a robot who can shapeshift into a bear is funny, though there’s real mechanical and serious roleplay potential here as well.

How to Make a Warforged Druid

Warforged come with a +2 to constitution and a +1 to any other score, though the constitution bonus can be switched to another stat using the Tasha’s character creation rules. Increase your wisdom first, then dexterity and constitution.

Warforged were built for battle, but they were designed with a wide variety of roles in mind, including support spellcasters. That said, the Circle of the Moon druid is probably the most appropriate option, because then you can be a robot who turns into a bear. However, be aware that from levels 2-4, Circle of the Moon may be too intense for your table due to the sheer power of multiple CR 1 beast shapes per day, and at some mid to high levels, it may be too weak. It’s a strange subclass.

Resilient (Constitution) and War Caster are good feats to take if you keep losing concentration on spells while wild shaped.

Talk to your dungeon master if the druid armor taboos concern you; being made of metal doesn’t mean you automatically get a free pass on using metal armor, but they may be willing to make an exception in your case. If you can use metal armor, you can have a stellar 20 AC with nonmagical half plate armor and a shield, at least when you’re not wild shaped.

How to Play a Warforged Druid

Aside from a +1 bonus to AC and poison resistance, your warforged features don’t influence combat a lot.

In combat, you usually want to cast a powerful concentration spell on round 1 such as Entangle or Summon Beast, and then use your wild shape to beat people to death. A brown bear is a solid form, but there are lots of other good CR 1 beasts, from the high health giant hyena to the high attack power deinonychus. Starting at level 10, the CR 5 elementals are usually better than any beast you can wild shape into, including the CR 6 mammoth.

Try not to lose concentration on your spells; something like a Bless spell from an ally will help you a lot, as will the aforementioned feats. You can’t cast spells while wild shaped until you’re at a very high level.

How to Roleplay as a Warforged Druid

Warforged in the Eberron setting aren’t robots, but artificial golem-like humanoids. This means they have emotions, even if their faces aren’t very expressive. Additionally, warforged tend towards structure and routines, which are holdovers from their military days. Most warforged get anxious when they’re not doing anything, so your character probably has hobbies and a desire to do work.

Ideally, these hobbies have something to do with nature, given how you’re a druid. Additionally, warforged are all made partly out of wood, which could explain your character’s attunement to nature magic. It’s also up to you and your DM whether your wild shape animal forms are normal fleshy animals or mechanical beasts; work with them to decide this.

However, you don’t have to stick with the Eberron warforged lore if you’re not playing in the Eberron setting; it’s perfectly fine to be a plain ol’ robot who just happens to have powerful magic and the ability to turn into a bear.