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knightsaline
2006-07-21, 04:21 AM
I wondered if it was actually possible to make a "shell" of a construct, make it hollow enough for a medium humanoid to fit inside and use it like a suit of armour. you are treated as if you were a construct
the only disadvantages of this would be an arcane spell failure of 100 % , a max dex bonus of +0, you lose one of your attacks if you use full attack, you move slower and cannot carry anything else except your weapons. even dwarfs cannot use their unmodifible speed to move 20 feet

thats right, no arcane spells can be cast while inside.

i can imagine a group of fighters or paladins using these shells to wage war on a theives guild. since they are so heavily armoured, no sneak attacks are possible on the shells, as if they were constructs.

please be honest, could something like this actually work? if so, tell me what to add and what to take out.

TheOOB
2006-07-21, 04:32 AM
Theres two way to do this. First is make the suit essentially really powerful armor that makes the character large and immune to critical hits, though they would still retain their own stats.

The other is to acually give the suit stats as a character, but no mental stats/HD, so a character using it uses the suits physical abilitys and special attacks, but their own mental abilities HD, skills, and feats.

In either case the character is never a construct while inside, they would just gain many construct like qualities.

Blade-Bearer_Ian
2006-07-21, 04:57 AM
Wasn't there a Living Breastplate or something like that in the Eberron Campaign Setting?

Zincorium
2006-07-21, 05:08 AM
Yes, there was, but it's far from what has been described.

I will say that such a suit of armor would be hideously expensive, even if it only gives the immunity to critical hits and sneak attacks (compare with heavy fortification). The weaknesses are formidible, yes, but several suits of heavy armor already have a +0 max dex mod, so you aren't losing anything there, a caster would have to be crazy to wear heavy armor in the first place without some kind of armored casting ability. As a primary spellcaster, even a 25% penalty is going to seriously ruin your day if you aren't lucky.

Also, still spell, one of the spells already w/out somatic components, or any divine spell would work anyway.

Not to say it's not a good idea, and useful in many circumstances, but it's still providing a lot of benefit for easily managed (for the most part) penalties.

The_Pyre
2006-07-21, 06:18 AM
Of course, you can always make a new campaign setting where these are common. You can make a new base class meant to pilot them, and have armor performance based off of skills (Piloting?). That would be fun, IMO. ;D

(No, this post wasn't inspired by any anime. It's just a really cool idea.)

Zincorium
2006-07-21, 06:44 AM
Sorta like the power-armor version of a dragonmech. Would it be a fun thing to have in a campaign? Yes. Would it be a nightmare to integrate into a campaign in which no basis for their creation exists? Probably.

That said, as artifacts or un-makeable items, these are fine for the kind of story you appear to want. Just do not let your pcs customize them, make more, or drag them into a section of campaign you didn't plan them for.

Closet_Skeleton
2006-07-21, 08:00 AM
Golem Armour is a Major Artifact in the Epic Book. Perhaps have a look at that and then tone it down a bit if you're in a lower level campaign.

knightsaline
2006-07-22, 12:55 AM
i actually got the idea from exoskeletons. now that i think about it, you should get a bonus to stength if the suit is enchanted. or enchant it to carry a "rider", who has no control over the direction the suit goes in, yet can use the suit like a mount (change ride skill to pilot skill) .

Maerok
2006-07-22, 01:00 AM
Mechs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*delights in the thought of stomping around in Mad Cat*

The Demented One
2006-07-22, 01:23 AM
Wasn't there a Living Breastplate or something like that in the Eberron Campaign Setting?
Yes, but it's a symbiotic creature that bonds with its host, giving it basically a biological exoskeleton. According to MoE, however, it's valued at about the same amount a minor artifact would be, so you can't really sling the buggers at your players.

Knight_Of_Twilight
2006-07-22, 01:37 AM
Mechs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*delights in the thought of stomping around in Mad Cat*

I was thinking the same thing. Maybe just adapt some of the Mecha rules from D20 future? It gives you an equipment bonus to strength and what not.

Zincorium
2006-07-22, 01:55 AM
Or...DragonMech? Maybe I'm the only one who was foolish enough to shell out the cash for it. Oh well.

TheOOB
2006-07-22, 03:39 AM
I acually have a D&D campaign set in the future where the characters all pilote power suits that have a similar concept. The suits let the players do crazy crap, like jump across the battlefield (with a +40 to jump checks from advanced jump jets) wielding a large heavy machine gun and shoulder mounted gernade launchers. It took me a long time to work out the system but I found that the best way is the simplest way and just made the suits give various stat bonuses, AC, and DR.