Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Explosive_Zombie 05-22-07, 12:11 AM	So a druid can summon an elemental army... A wizard can fill the field with fiends... And a cleric has the pwer to call for the champions of heaven... Yet a psion can only have ONE FREAKIN' CONTRUCT?! Forgive me if I'm behind the time because this book has been out awhile, but I just had this pointed out to be and my brain still hurts... Does anyone know why this happened?!
Tempest Stormwind 05-22-07, 12:20 AM	So a druid can summon an elemental army... A wizard can fill the field with fiends... And a cleric has the pwer to call for the champions of heaven... Yet a psion can only have ONE FREAKIN' CONTRUCT?! Forgive me if I'm behind the time because this book has been out awhile, but I just had this pointed out to be and my brain still hurts... Does anyone know why this happened?! Hi. See the FAQ at the top of the forum. No one actually uses the nerf. The story behind it: Bruce has said on his website that there were people in playtesting with wilders with Expanded Knowledge: Astral Construct. In other words, WILDERS (narrow focus with a lot of power) spending a feat on a power they didn't normally get and using it to great effect. In particular, he noted that the constructs being created were often too powerful for the party. Thus, the solution implemented limits them to just one. This had the added benefit, he said, of cutting the time the summoner's player takes at the table, by cutting the available actions. He also said that similar nerfs were likely coming for casters. Of course, the nerf doesn't solve that problem (since a wilder can STILL do just that and create the same strength construct, and if it were truly a problem then the battle would be over before the second came out, and the 1-round manifest time means he can't move at all during this and crippling his own output (He can't move or refocus if he wants to manifest it with minimal risk)). The book it was introduced in also included powers that summoned multiple creatures at once, so it was hypocritical to say it was to limit the constructor's play time. And of course, no such nerf has appeared to magic. That said, an objective comparison between an unboosted construct and the Summon Monster/Nature's Ally spells shows the constructs to be comparable to, but offensively weaker than, earth elementals. No flashy support spells for the party. No movement modes that can catch enemies by surprise. Nothing except a high AC and a lot of HP. In order to make the constructs competitive, you need a lot of menu options -- which only show up if you have many levels in Constructor, a PrC focused on doing just that. The constructs are tough nuts to crack, yes -- but that's their job, defensive tanks. We can only conclude Bruce's playtest group never saw a summoner, let alone a summoning druid, and did a knee-jerk reaction. They likely also had the ectopic adept and wanted to show it off, so they nerfed astral construct for everyone else instead of giving the ectopic adept a good ability at level 5 (my suggestion is to allow Twin Power to hit a construct and to let Twin happen similarly to how the Constructor allows Quicken to happen).
Thomar_of_Uointer 05-22-07, 12:28 AM	So a druid can summon an elemental army... A wizard can fill the field with fiends... And a cleric has the pwer to call for the champions of heaven... Yet a psion can only have ONE FREAKIN' CONTRUCT?! Forgive me if I'm behind the time because this book has been out awhile, but I just had this pointed out to be and my brain still hurts... Does anyone know why this happened?! Because WotC hates psionics, duh. Stormwind covered it better than I could hope to. I would recommend omitting several portions of the CPsi, as much of its material might not be suitable for your game.
Explosive_Zombie 05-22-07, 12:31 AM	Thank you very much for your very quick response.
Fafnir 05-22-07, 08:40 AM	There is no CPsi. There is no CPsi. *rolls Will Save to disbelieve.* :cool:
SlanderPanic 05-22-07, 10:00 AM	Long before Complete Psionic came out, I introduced a similar nerf for summoning spells in my campaigns. Creature-summoning effects overlap, rather than stack. If you already have a summon spell active and you cast a new one, the creatures summoned by the previous spell are returned to their home planes at the start of the casting. For example, a wizard named Marco has used summon monster III to bring forth a celestial dire badger. As the badger takes a beating from the trolls he's fighting, Marco decides to kick things up a notch and use the summon monster IV spell he was saving for later. When he begins casting the spell, the badger dissipates. Marco and his party are on their own against the trolls until Marco's next turn, when his celestial lion enters play. Admittedly, part of this was to keep my players, many of whom were new to the game, from going crazy with the summons, but it's proven to be an effective and popular houserule with the group. Even with it, the summon spells are still a more powerful, more versatile option than astral construct. I don't like the Ectopic Form feats. I don't think it's worth blowing a feat just to get a new movement type or a time-bomb beetle. I'd rather merge them all into one feat that opens up these new forms as augmentation options. For the ectopic adept, I'd give him the ability to select specific forms he can use without having to spend the extra power points. Speaking of, I should post my non-suck version of the ectopic adept sometime soon.
Particle_Man 05-22-07, 10:04 AM	I still haven't told my DM that the book exists. I hope that he never finds out.
NoldorForce 05-22-07, 12:11 PM	The story is similar to why Shapechange grants supernatural abilities.* In essence, one game run by the designers took precedence over reasoning and playtesting data. *Someone designer had thought that his druid needed a power boost. And I think that we've seen that druids don't need such at all.