Warforged ability damage with Improved Fortification

Question

In D&D3.5, I'm playing a warforged crusader who has recently taken a lot of CON damage. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, but I have the Improved Fortification feat which makes him immune to any spell of the 'healing' subtype. We're also not playing Eberron and warforged are very rare in the setting, and 'repair' spells are rare-to-non-existent.

Does the fact that warforged don't heal hitpoints naturally extend to ability damage? If so, is there any other way of restoring ability damage besides throwing myself on the mercy of the DMs?

Answer 1

You could get a Rod of Bodily Restoration, (MIC p173). It costs 3100 Gp and can restore a number of ability points in Strength, Dexterity and Constitution based on charges used.
The rod is conjuration, but not subtype healing.

Answer 2

Strictly, warforged fail to regain hit points, only, naturally. The book doesn’t say anything about ability damage, and healing ability damage isn’t specifically tied to healing hit point damage, so you’d use the default 1/day healing rate even though you’re a warforged.

Your DM might nix that, though, particularly with Improved Fortification. If so, the rod of bodily restoration that Andy mentions is the most cost-efficient way to restore damaged abilities.

Answer 3

You are not the first person to have this problem!

While the feat itself has no errata, I would highly recommend talking to your DM about treating it the same as the errata to the Warforged Juggernaught, which had, in the original printing, a similar problem.

Per the Eberron Campaign Setting Errata

Page 84: Warforged Juggernaut—Class Features The first sentence of the Healing Immunity class feature requires added text (indicated in red type): Starting at 3rd level, as a warforged juggernaut becomes more like a construct and less like a living creature, it becomes immune to the effects of spells from the healing subschool that heal hit point damage.

Until the Warforged Juggernaught becomes immune to ability damage/drain it also fell into the unfortunate situation where only natural rest could recover ability scores. The magic items mentioned in other answers (Rod and Orb) should absolutely work, but your DM should be amenable to the (probable) intent of the errata.