Can a Shardmind use Warforged Components?

Question

In the Eberron Player's Guide there is a section called Warforged Components, containing components that are said to be for the Warforged. However, the items themselves say:

Requirement: You must have the living construct racial trait to use this item.

Can a Shardmind use these items? They aren't Warforged, but they do have the living construct racial trait that's required.

Additionally, Shardminds apparently have limited transformation abilities, story-wise. Would I be allowed to have crystal versions of the Warforged Components, going by the rules, instead of the presumably metal original versions?

Answer 1

If your DM plays by the rule, then the rules are on your side. Actually even if she/he would argue that Warforged components are for Warforged only, I would say that crafting Sharmind components (basically a crystal version of warforged components) is totally possible by the rules. So if you play RAW then yes, it's totally ok.

Answer 2

Can a Shardmind use these components?

Requirement: You must have the living construct racial trait to use this item.

If this is the only requirement, and there's no references to "You must be a Warforged" in the item's stat block, then yes, you can equip those items. Shardminds have the Living Construct racial trait.

Can they be made from crystal, and be Shardmind parts?

Yes. This is completely by the rules. Page 224 of the Player's Handbook contains the following text (and the Rules Compendium has a similar paragraph on page 279):

[The description entry] gives a brief description of the item, sometimes explaining what it does in plain language, other times offering flavorful information about its appearance, origin, effect or place in the world. This material isn't rules text; when you need to know the exact effect, look at the rules text below.

Furthermore, Player's Handbook 1, on page 54, says almost the same thing about powers - and that you can change the description entry of powers as much as you like, so long as the mechanics stay intact.

D&D 4e's philosophy is simple: the mechanics are absolute, and any flavor or story or description can be changed and is subservient to the mechanics. If the mechanics are weird, it's up to the flavor to make sense of it.

Whether it's made from Warforged parts and for a Warforged is flavor and can be replaced with flavor text saying it's made from crystal for a Shardmind.