Construct Suit [Archive] - Wizards Community

Construct Suit [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Feor
03-06-06, 06:49 PM Just a little something I'm looking into building for my current character. Looking for some opinions on how balanced it is. (I imagine it's still pretty overpowered, remeber, most wearers will be wizards/Sorcerers in melee combat)

Construct Suit
A Construct Suit is a suit of armor that has been enchanted by a spellcaster giving it many of the properties of a Golem, Allowing it to serve as a weak construct, but providing considerable combat bonuses when worn by another living being in combat.

Creating a Construct Suit.
Construct Suit is a template which can be applied to any suit of armor (referred to hereafter as the “base armor”).
Size and Type: A construct suit's type is Construct and it is of the same size as the base armor. Base attack bonus is equal to 3/4 its HD (as a cleric).
Hit Dice: A Construct Suit has a number of Hit Dice equal to 1/2 its hardness, rounded down, to a minimum of 1. (See the DMG page 283 for special material hardness, regular metal armor has hardness 10, regular wooden or Leather armor has hardness 5, Cloth armor has hardness 1) Its hit die are d10.
Speed: A Construct Suit whose base armor had an armor check penalty up to -5 has a base speed of 30ft. If the base armor's penalty was greater than -5, its base speed is 20ft.
Armor Class: A Construct Suit's base Armor Class is equal to 10 + Armor bonus of the Base Armor + size modifier.
Attack: If the base armor was spiked, the Construct Suit gains a Spike attack with damage equal to 1d6 plus its strength bonus. This attack is considered piercing. If the base armor was not spiked, the Construct Suit gains a slam attack which deals damage depending on the base armor's size – 1d2 small, 1d3 medium, 1d4 large, 1d6 huge or larger, plus its strength bonus. In either case the Suit may make 2 suck attacks as a full round action.
Special Qualities: A Construct Suit has construct traits, damage reduction according to table 1-1, Magic Immunity to any spell subject to spell resistance, and the ability to repair 1 damage per day.
Saves: A Construct Suit has normal saves for a construct (no good saves).
Abilities: A Construct Suit has Strength score of 6, a Dexterity score equal to 10 – (½ armor Check Penalty, rounded up), a Wisdom of 11, and a Charisma of 1. A Construct Suit has no Constitution or Intelligence score.
Skills and Feats: A Construct Suit is mindless and so has no skills or feats.
Environment: Any
Organization: Solitary or Platoon
Challenge Rating: A Construct Suit's challenge rating is equal to its Hit Dice +1.
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always Neutral
Advancement: None
Level Adjustment: --

Worn Construct Suit
A Creature may don a suit of construct armor as he would a normal suit of armor. The suit aids him in this, so the creature is always considered to have help when donning or removing a Construct Suit. Once the creature has successfully donned the Suit it makes telepathic contact with the wearer to best synchronize its movements with its wearer's intentions.
When a creature wears a construct suit it receives all the bonuses and penalties it would receive for wearing the base armor, except as noted below:
Abilities: The creature receives a +4 bonus to Strength, a -2 penalty to Dexterity, and a +2 Resistance bonus to any Constitution based check.
Spell Resistance: The Creature receives +5 Spell Resistance, this increases to 10 + the Suit's HD against any mind affecting spell or effect.
Speed: The wearer's land speed changes to that of the armor. This has no affect on other methods of movement beyond what the base armor would apply.
Damage Reduction: The wearer gains the same damage reduction as the Suit.
Arcane Spell Failure: The suit's magical nature can disrupt magic which the user attempts to cast, increase the suit's arcane spell failure chance by 10% to a maximum of 50%. Spells lacking somatic components are subject to 1/2 the suit's regular arcane spell failure chance (rounded up to the nearest 5%). The wearer may elect to double the casting time of any spell with a somatic component. During the extra time he communicates to the suit exactly the gestures needed to cast the spell, allowing the suit to mimic his actions quite closely. The spell is then subject to half the suit's regular Arcane Spell Failure chance as though it did not have a somatic component.
Other: If the wearer is the target of a Break Enchantment or Dispel Magic spell his telepathic connection to the suit is disrupted and he is Slowed, as the spell, for 1d4 rounds. If he comes within the range of an Antimagic field his connection is fully severed. The suit will cease to attempt to provide any assistance to his actions under these circumstances. The Wearer loses all ability bonuses, spell resistance, and his land speed changes to what it would be in a regular suit of the base armor. He retains the Suit's Damage Reduction, +2 Resistance bonus to constitution based checks and added Arcane Spell Failure chance.
The wearer may telepathically command the suit to cease helping him, at which point the wearer loses all ability modifications and its land speed changes to the normal speed it would have wearing a suit of the base armor. This is a Free Action and the suit may also be order to resume helping as a Free Action.
As long as the suit is worn it provides breathable air and nourishment to its wearer, and will make itself as comfortable as possible for the wearer, and heal an additional 1d3 points of damage per day to the wearer.
While wearing the suit the wearer effectively doesn't need to eat, drink or breath, and is considered to be under the effects of an Endure Elements spell. Sleeping in a Construct Suit does not cause a wearer to become fatigued, however, resting in the suit will not allow a character to recover from fatigue.

Construction
Creation of a Construct Suit begins with a suit of non-magic Masterwork Armor, the cost of this suit is not included in the below Cost or Price. The suit must then be soaked with specials potions and alchemical agents which allow the spells to take hold of the material, typically created with a mind to repelling magical affects. This process takes one day for cloth armors, a full week for regular leather or metal armors, 2 weeks for Dragonhide or Mithral, 3 weeks for Admantite, during this process the crafter must attend to the suit for at least an hour each day to ensure the appropriate potions and agents are added to the bath in the appropriate quantities and to cast any additional spells needed from memory, scroll ,wand, or staff. At the end of the period the crafter must make a DC15 Craft(Alchemy) or Profession(Brewer). Note that the cost of the Potions is included in the below listed price. Finally, to fully animate the armor the crafter must make a DC15 Spellcraft check.

CL 10th; Craft Construct; Animate Object, Repair Minor Damage, Rary's Telepathic Bond, Price: 24,000gp; Cost: 6,250gp + 710XP

Table 1-1: Damage Reduction
Material Armor Type Damage Reduction
Metal Chain Shirt/Mail 5/Piercing or Admantine
Scale Mail 5/Slashing or Admantine
Splint/Banded Mail 5/Admantine
Breastplate, Full, or 10/Admantine
half-plate
Leather Regular/Studded 2/Admantine
Hide 3/Admantine
Cloth Padded 1/Admantine
Admantine Chain Shirt, Mail 10/Piercing or Admantine
Scale Mail 10/Piercing or Admantine
Splint/Banded Mail 10/Admantine
Breastplate, Full, or 20/Admantine
half-plate
Dragonhide Hide 5/Admantine
Scale Mail 5/Slashing or Admantine
Splint/Banded Mail 5/Admantine
Breastplate, Full, or 10/Admantine
half-plate
Mithral Chain Shirt, Mail 7/Piercing or Admantine
Scale Mail 7/Slashing or Admantine
Splint/Banded Mail 7/Admantine
Breastplate, Full, or 15/Admantine
half-plate
Feor
03-08-06, 08:41 AM well, it's fallen off the first page, so:

:bump:
kdyal
03-08-06, 12:15 PM An interesting idea, but who's going to actually use it? It INCREASES the arcane spell failure %?

I'm currently working on two related projects, which I will post once complete:

1. Constructs as vehicles/mecha (imagine the wizard in an iron golem!)

2. Three words to strike terror in the very bowels of the most stalwart:
Gnomish
Power
Armor.

The mishap chart is longer than the feature page!
Illion the Red
03-08-06, 12:20 PM Green Ronin's Arms and Armor guide had Golem Armor in it. You might want to check it out for a comparison.
Feor
03-09-06, 09:07 AM An interesting idea, but who's going to actually use it? It INCREASES the arcane spell failure %?

Warmages, Bards, Spellswords, any of the other casterly classes who can wear one or more catagories of armor while ignoring acrance spell failure. Not to mention warriors with caster friends.

This is obviously supposed to be one step down from vehicles/mecha and into the Powered Armor catagory.

Also, my DM has specifically banned anything not in a Wizards book or a Dragon magazine, so I'm probably not going to spend money on that book, Illion.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Feor 03-06-06, 06:49 PM	Just a little something I'm looking into building for my current character. Looking for some opinions on how balanced it is. (I imagine it's still pretty overpowered, remeber, most wearers will be wizards/Sorcerers in melee combat) Construct Suit A Construct Suit is a suit of armor that has been enchanted by a spellcaster giving it many of the properties of a Golem, Allowing it to serve as a weak construct, but providing considerable combat bonuses when worn by another living being in combat. Creating a Construct Suit. Construct Suit is a template which can be applied to any suit of armor (referred to hereafter as the “base armor”). Size and Type: A construct suit's type is Construct and it is of the same size as the base armor. Base attack bonus is equal to 3/4 its HD (as a cleric). Hit Dice: A Construct Suit has a number of Hit Dice equal to 1/2 its hardness, rounded down, to a minimum of 1. (See the DMG page 283 for special material hardness, regular metal armor has hardness 10, regular wooden or Leather armor has hardness 5, Cloth armor has hardness 1) Its hit die are d10. Speed: A Construct Suit whose base armor had an armor check penalty up to -5 has a base speed of 30ft. If the base armor's penalty was greater than -5, its base speed is 20ft. Armor Class: A Construct Suit's base Armor Class is equal to 10 + Armor bonus of the Base Armor + size modifier. Attack: If the base armor was spiked, the Construct Suit gains a Spike attack with damage equal to 1d6 plus its strength bonus. This attack is considered piercing. If the base armor was not spiked, the Construct Suit gains a slam attack which deals damage depending on the base armor's size – 1d2 small, 1d3 medium, 1d4 large, 1d6 huge or larger, plus its strength bonus. In either case the Suit may make 2 suck attacks as a full round action. Special Qualities: A Construct Suit has construct traits, damage reduction according to table 1-1, Magic Immunity to any spell subject to spell resistance, and the ability to repair 1 damage per day. Saves: A Construct Suit has normal saves for a construct (no good saves). Abilities: A Construct Suit has Strength score of 6, a Dexterity score equal to 10 – (½ armor Check Penalty, rounded up), a Wisdom of 11, and a Charisma of 1. A Construct Suit has no Constitution or Intelligence score. Skills and Feats: A Construct Suit is mindless and so has no skills or feats. Environment: Any Organization: Solitary or Platoon Challenge Rating: A Construct Suit's challenge rating is equal to its Hit Dice +1. Treasure: None Alignment: Always Neutral Advancement: None Level Adjustment: -- Worn Construct Suit A Creature may don a suit of construct armor as he would a normal suit of armor. The suit aids him in this, so the creature is always considered to have help when donning or removing a Construct Suit. Once the creature has successfully donned the Suit it makes telepathic contact with the wearer to best synchronize its movements with its wearer's intentions. When a creature wears a construct suit it receives all the bonuses and penalties it would receive for wearing the base armor, except as noted below: Abilities: The creature receives a +4 bonus to Strength, a -2 penalty to Dexterity, and a +2 Resistance bonus to any Constitution based check. Spell Resistance: The Creature receives +5 Spell Resistance, this increases to 10 + the Suit's HD against any mind affecting spell or effect. Speed: The wearer's land speed changes to that of the armor. This has no affect on other methods of movement beyond what the base armor would apply. Damage Reduction: The wearer gains the same damage reduction as the Suit. Arcane Spell Failure: The suit's magical nature can disrupt magic which the user attempts to cast, increase the suit's arcane spell failure chance by 10% to a maximum of 50%. Spells lacking somatic components are subject to 1/2 the suit's regular arcane spell failure chance (rounded up to the nearest 5%). The wearer may elect to double the casting time of any spell with a somatic component. During the extra time he communicates to the suit exactly the gestures needed to cast the spell, allowing the suit to mimic his actions quite closely. The spell is then subject to half the suit's regular Arcane Spell Failure chance as though it did not have a somatic component. Other: If the wearer is the target of a Break Enchantment or Dispel Magic spell his telepathic connection to the suit is disrupted and he is Slowed, as the spell, for 1d4 rounds. If he comes within the range of an Antimagic field his connection is fully severed. The suit will cease to attempt to provide any assistance to his actions under these circumstances. The Wearer loses all ability bonuses, spell resistance, and his land speed changes to what it would be in a regular suit of the base armor. He retains the Suit's Damage Reduction, +2 Resistance bonus to constitution based checks and added Arcane Spell Failure chance. The wearer may telepathically command the suit to cease helping him, at which point the wearer loses all ability modifications and its land speed changes to the normal speed it would have wearing a suit of the base armor. This is a Free Action and the suit may also be order to resume helping as a Free Action. As long as the suit is worn it provides breathable air and nourishment to its wearer, and will make itself as comfortable as possible for the wearer, and heal an additional 1d3 points of damage per day to the wearer. While wearing the suit the wearer effectively doesn't need to eat, drink or breath, and is considered to be under the effects of an Endure Elements spell. Sleeping in a Construct Suit does not cause a wearer to become fatigued, however, resting in the suit will not allow a character to recover from fatigue. Construction Creation of a Construct Suit begins with a suit of non-magic Masterwork Armor, the cost of this suit is not included in the below Cost or Price. The suit must then be soaked with specials potions and alchemical agents which allow the spells to take hold of the material, typically created with a mind to repelling magical affects. This process takes one day for cloth armors, a full week for regular leather or metal armors, 2 weeks for Dragonhide or Mithral, 3 weeks for Admantite, during this process the crafter must attend to the suit for at least an hour each day to ensure the appropriate potions and agents are added to the bath in the appropriate quantities and to cast any additional spells needed from memory, scroll ,wand, or staff. At the end of the period the crafter must make a DC15 Craft(Alchemy) or Profession(Brewer). Note that the cost of the Potions is included in the below listed price. Finally, to fully animate the armor the crafter must make a DC15 Spellcraft check. CL 10th; Craft Construct; Animate Object, Repair Minor Damage, Rary's Telepathic Bond, Price: 24,000gp; Cost: 6,250gp + 710XP Table 1-1: Damage Reduction Material Armor Type Damage Reduction Metal Chain Shirt/Mail 5/Piercing or Admantine Scale Mail 5/Slashing or Admantine Splint/Banded Mail 5/Admantine Breastplate, Full, or 10/Admantine half-plate Leather Regular/Studded 2/Admantine Hide 3/Admantine Cloth Padded 1/Admantine Admantine Chain Shirt, Mail 10/Piercing or Admantine Scale Mail 10/Piercing or Admantine Splint/Banded Mail 10/Admantine Breastplate, Full, or 20/Admantine half-plate Dragonhide Hide 5/Admantine Scale Mail 5/Slashing or Admantine Splint/Banded Mail 5/Admantine Breastplate, Full, or 10/Admantine half-plate Mithral Chain Shirt, Mail 7/Piercing or Admantine Scale Mail 7/Slashing or Admantine Splint/Banded Mail 7/Admantine Breastplate, Full, or 15/Admantine half-plate
Feor 03-08-06, 08:41 AM	well, it's fallen off the first page, so: :bump:
kdyal 03-08-06, 12:15 PM	An interesting idea, but who's going to actually use it? It INCREASES the arcane spell failure %? I'm currently working on two related projects, which I will post once complete: 1. Constructs as vehicles/mecha (imagine the wizard in an iron golem!) 2. Three words to strike terror in the very bowels of the most stalwart: Gnomish Power Armor. The mishap chart is longer than the feature page!
Illion the Red 03-08-06, 12:20 PM	Green Ronin's Arms and Armor guide had Golem Armor in it. You might want to check it out for a comparison.
Feor 03-09-06, 09:07 AM	An interesting idea, but who's going to actually use it? It INCREASES the arcane spell failure %? Warmages, Bards, Spellswords, any of the other casterly classes who can wear one or more catagories of armor while ignoring acrance spell failure. Not to mention warriors with caster friends. This is obviously supposed to be one step down from vehicles/mecha and into the Powered Armor catagory. Also, my DM has specifically banned anything not in a Wizards book or a Dragon magazine, so I'm probably not going to spend money on that book, Illion.