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View Full Version : Clickety-Clicks, Construct Tricks!



Lycanthromancer
2010-04-13, 12:09 AM
Prologue: The cake CPsi nerf is a lie!

I've been thinking a lot about how versatile and overwhelmingly useful astral constructs (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/monsters/astralConstruct.htm) are, especially when combined with the constructor PrC (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20040625b), and I was wanting to catalog a few tricks you can pull with them (preferably with some help from the community...ie, you folks).

So, what are some ways you've found to make astral constructs easier to use and more useful, as well as some of the tricks you've used in-game to good effect by thinking outside the box?

As for my suggestions, I have a fair few:

-If you use incarnum in your psionics builds (which I sometimes do), and take either the psionic open chakra power or enough meldshaper levels to do so, binding a metamagic rod to your hands chakra grants you a +1 to your ML when, say, Extending a construct...and astral construct is always considered a level 1 power, even when augmented, so if your DM allows you to use metapsionic rods, using a lesser rod is a cheap way to get some extra bonuses to your manifestations.

-The chronocharm of the uncaring archmage (from the Magic Item Compendium) allows you to manifest astral construct as a standard action 1/day for 500 gp.

-Using Linked Power (a metapsionic feat from Complete Psionic) lets you unleash a construct next round when conjoined with a power this round (essentially a Delayed Quickened construct for a minimum of 1 pp). Since ecto protection (otherwise near-useless, but required as a prereq for constructor) is manifested as a swift action on the same round that astral construct is manifested, and it's already limited to EP + AC = ML in PP, you can get your constructs off as swift actions, if you don't have any other cheap swift-action powers available. Linked Power is especially good here because you aren't having to spend an entire round manifesting, so you can't get your manifestation interrupted.

-Note that most menu abilities from different tiers stack, even if they're identical but for a sliding scale of power. For instance, Buff, Improved Buff, and Extreme Buff stack, to grant +50 hp. This is why the Brawn ability of the constructor isn't utterly useless; +9 to damage for all attacks isn't bad at all. The deflection bonuses, however, may or may not stack with each other, depending on if you read +X deflection bonus as adding additional points to preexisting deflection bonuses or not.

-There's a feat in Hyperconscious that allows your constructs to last for a flat 10 minutes. Great for anyone other than a ML 10+ constructor, really.

-Power Attack + Natural Invisibility allow you to (potentially) get a much higher damage output due to rendering most foes flat-footed against your attacks.

-Using share pain on a Utility Construct with fast healing 2 basically means you get DR (half damage dealt) for cheap. Nice when paired with vigor, of course.

-Find a way to make yourself weigh 20 lbs or less (metamorphosis, Tiny-sized with the Skinny flaw, or compression), and now your 7th level and higher constructs can dimension slide with you riding along at will.

-Using the constructor's Enhanced Construction ability lets you manifest lots of little constructs, which can be used to both flank and Aid Another for rather massive attack bonus boosts. Also great for adding to grapple bonuses of already impressive Huge-sized other constructs. If you do so for 7th level constructs, you can form a line of them, which all manifest energy bolt side-by-side, which can assist you with mass battles against tons of weaker enemies.

-Manifesting energy wall and several constructs with Improved Bull Rush lets you deal energy damage several times a round as they pass through; for added humiliation, follow up with an energy push if you can slam them into a wall. (Astral constructs count as 'walls' for this purpose.)

-Putting Blindsight, Improved Fly, Natural Invisibility, Fast Healing 2, and other movement bonuses on a quadrupedal Utility Construct makes it incredibly useful as a mount, a scout, and as a means of taking your watch when you can't be arsed.

-Higher level quadruped constructs with Muscle act basically like animated immovable rods, considering their insane carrying capacities and their stability. Have one plant itself in front of a door; there ain't much that's getting through that without blowing through a nearby wall.

-Speaking of walls, constructs make awesome living animate walls if you give them enough defensive capabilities and put them in the right spots. They're virtually immovable if they're large and strong enough, and act as soft cover, taking ranged attacks for you if you command them to take the hit. Even better if you use naturally invisible constructs to force chargers to waste their turns by trying to charge you without a clear line of effect. Other opponents can get pretty screwed by this tactic as well, such as ray attackers, and flankers (assuming they're trying to move into an occupied space, anyway).

-Giving a construct Pounce, Muscle, Brawn, Improved Brawn, Extra Brawn, and lots of extra attacks makes for a crazy mobile "TWF"-attacker, capable of taking down most foes with a flurry of really powerful strikes in a matter of moments. Also keep in mind that pouncing doesn't require you to make all of your attacks against a single foe, which allows you to spread them out amongst multiple enemies (even better if your pet construct has lots and lots of reach). Hand it a manufactured weapon (kusari-gama for extra reach!) for up to 4 additional attacks (albeit at a -4 nonproficiecy penalty) in addition to a near-full complement of natural attacks (it loses a slam attack, but it can be worth it).

-If all you want to do is make a single really powerful attack against a lot of foes, give it all the Brawn abilities, Reach, Natural Invisibility, Power Attack, and Whirlwind Attack. Add in Muscle and whatever other damage boosters you've got, if you can fit them in.

-An astral construct with energy bolt, concussion blast, and dimension slide can make full-use of its standard, move, and swift actions every round.

-Astral constructs can act even when you can't. Unless stunned, unconscious, or dead, you can mentally give your constructs orders, which they will subsequently perform to the best of their ability. If you get forced into a situation where you can't move (say, you're dazed or cowering), you can order a construct nearby (preferably one that's larger than you) to pick you up and move you out of the way of impending danger.

-Astral constructs are immune to damn near everything, including poisons. Cover them in it using psionic minor creation, and you'll be sitting pretty (and your enemies...won't). They're also immune to mind-control and stunning, so illithids really don't like them much. Those immunities can help you with a ton of otherwise difficult foes, such as undead, aboleths, venomous critters, and nauseating swarms.

-Also remember that you can sculpt a construct to look like just about anything within the size-constraints of the construct of the level you make. If you're up against a blind foe with blindsight, blindsense, or tremorsense, you can always give it extra targets of your size, shape, and weight, to confuse it into attacking any of them but you. If you think you'll be needing a +2 to your Ride checks, making a Craft (sculpting) check to give it a masterwork saddle may just be right what you need. You could also turn one into a mobile cage, if there's a prisoner that needs transporting (or a carriage if it's you that needs transporting).

Feel free to make more suggestions.

Trekkin
2010-04-13, 12:26 AM
Here's a basic one: magic item tester. Two astral constructs give you a hit of known power on a subject of known hp and AC/DR, and depending on what your DM does with aura alterations that can be extremely useful. Depending on your travel needs, one of suitable level with Swim or Fly sculpted into a boat/plane can make excellent use of Durable Construct.

Also, you can't hide that an astral construct is made of ectoplasm, but if you can cover that with a Linked Power Minor Created sheath of, say, colored rubber, you can make a passable simulacrum of anything out of 2-18 pp, two rounds of effort and Craft/ Disguise checks.

Lycanthromancer
2010-04-13, 01:06 AM
Here's a basic one: magic item tester. Two astral constructs give you a hit of known power on a subject of known hp and AC/DR, and depending on what your DM does with aura alterations that can be extremely useful.I'm...not sure what you're talking about here...


Depending on your travel needs, one of suitable level with Swim or Fly sculpted into a boat/plane can make excellent use of Durable Construct.Durable construct in particular needs a serious overhaul. Spending hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of GP per hit die for the larger constructs is insane, inane, and...err...profane? Lame? Bird-brained? Disdained?


Also, you can't hide that an astral construct is made of ectoplasm, but if you can cover that with a Linked Power Minor Created sheath of, say, colored rubber, you can make a passable simulacrum of anything out of 2-18 pp, two rounds of effort and Craft/ Disguise checks.Not a bad idea, that, especially since constructs tend not to breathe.

Trekkin
2010-04-13, 01:25 AM
The magic item tester idea is that it gives you direct information about the properties of, at the very least, magic weaponry, and possibly magic armor. Yes, there exist powers like Identify, but given the various means by which such powers/spells may be foiled magically and the nondetectability of some item curses, direct testing has its place.

To give an example, if you have a possibly or nonspecifically magical sword, make two astral constructs, and have one hit the other with said sword. You know how much damage it does, with a little work you can test for statistic-affecting properties other than Con, generating AC's with various resistances can tell you elemental type, and unlike testing it on summoned monsters you don't have anything that still exists with possible effects on it. Fellow party members and summoned creatures can end up with nasty long-duration curses, but you can't curse what isn't there anymore.

It's not perfect, and it's certainly situational given the various ways DMs have to deal with the identification, accurate or otherwise, of magical items, but it's useful, if for no other reason than to verify Identify's results through experimentation.

And isn't durable construct just the feat that makes your constructs last 10 minutes? Stabilize construct makes them permanent if I recall correctly.

Lycanthromancer
2010-04-13, 01:30 AM
The magic item tester idea is that it gives you direct information about the properties of, at the very least, magic weaponry, and possibly magic armor. Yes, there exist powers like Identify, but given the various means by which such powers/spells may be foiled magically and the nondetectability of some item curses, direct testing has its place.

To give an example, if you have a possibly or nonspecifically magical sword, make two astral constructs, and have one hit the other with said sword. You know how much damage it does, with a little work you can test for statistic-affecting properties other than Con, generating AC's with various resistances can tell you elemental type, and unlike testing it on summoned monsters you don't have anything that still exists with possible effects on it. Fellow party members and summoned creatures can end up with nasty long-duration curses, but you can't curse what isn't there anymore.

It's not perfect, and it's certainly situational given the various ways DMs have to deal with the identification, accurate or otherwise, of magical items, but it's useful.Gotcha.

Well done. It's just that it wasn't worded very clearly before. Thanks for clarifying.


And isn't durable construct just the feat that makes your constructs last 10 minutes? Stabilize construct makes them permanent if I recall correctly.Dur. Me no good at reading comprehension.

Trekkin
2010-04-13, 01:34 AM
Always happy to expound.

And between Boost Construct, Durable Construct, Extend Construct, Stabilize Construct, and any other Construct feats or Constructor abilities out there I get confused constantly. I'm tempted to take Ectopic Form just because it doesn't have "XYZ Construct" as the title.

This is purely a joke, of course. Ectopic Form is something you give to Ectopic Adept NPCs because you want constructs of different colors.

Lycanthromancer
2010-04-13, 02:03 AM
Always happy to expound.

And between Boost Construct, Durable Construct, Extend Construct, Stabilize Construct, and any other Construct feats or Constructor abilities out there I get confused constantly. I'm tempted to take Ectopic Form just because it doesn't have "XYZ Construct" as the title.

This is purely a joke, of course. Ectopic Form is something you give to Ectopic Adept NPCs because you want constructs of different colors.Well, there's technically nothing stating that you can't color your constructs by default. After all, you can create vegetable matter with psionic minor creation, which includes dyes, and it's made from the same stuff (ectoplasm) that astral constructs are.

Ectopic Form is really only useful to get an exploding or burrowing construct. Otherwise, avoid like the plague and get Boost Construct instead.

Hmm. A Durable construct (or one manifested by a constructor) makes for a great party rogue. Their only REAL function IS to find traps...right?

Trekkin
2010-04-13, 02:17 AM
Between Astral Constructs to find the traps and Metamorphing into a Universal Key (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/cw/20061106a) to turn them into nice neat piles of parts (assuming you read Unbind as an attack on objects), a construct-typed Shaper with EK:Metamorphosis can work wonders on traps. Alternatively, use the Soul Crystal power from Magic of Incarnum and have your Astral Construct become the Key for you, allowing you to be of any type.

Actually, Soul Crystal in general is powerful in combination with Astral Constructs, turning them into admittedly expensive power relays.

Lycanthromancer
2010-04-13, 02:29 AM
Between Astral Constructs to find the traps and Metamorphing into a Universal Key (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/cw/20061106a) to turn them into nice neat piles of parts (assuming you read Unbind as an attack on objects), a construct-typed Shaper with EK:Metamorphosis can work wonders on traps. Alternatively, use the Soul Crystal power from Magic of Incarnum and have your Astral Construct become the Key for you, allowing you to be of any type.

Actually, Soul Crystal in general is powerful in combination with Astral Constructs, turning them into admittedly expensive power relays.Correct, though you'd be better off with a psicrystal (and a psychoactive skin of proteus, to conserve power points).

Trekkin
2010-04-13, 02:45 AM
I'd been in low-wealth campaigns for so long I'd forgotten skins of Proteus existed. That makes this much more efficient.

To get back to the original topic, astral constructs also occupy a unique niche in disposable miniondom: where using a thrall or even a summoned creature to do something that will undoubtedly result in dismemberment or death is perhaps Evil, Constructs don't have an Int score and can't feel pain. I can think of more than a few DMs that would allow Good creatures to do without the slightest alignment shift things to constructs that would fell a Paladin.

Lycanthromancer
2010-04-13, 11:01 PM
I'd been in low-wealth campaigns for so long I'd forgotten skins of Proteus existed. That makes this much more efficient.

To get back to the original topic, astral constructs also occupy a unique niche in disposable miniondom: where using a thrall or even a summoned creature to do something that will undoubtedly result in dismemberment or death is perhaps Evil, Constructs don't have an Int score and can't feel pain. I can think of more than a few DMs that would allow Good creatures to do without the slightest alignment shift things to constructs that would fell a Paladin.Even elementals are 'alive,' meaning misusing even the reserve feats could cause some alignment problems.

Undead are disposable like constructs are, but just using them would be considered evil (given the alignment descriptors that always seem to be involved).

Yes, they're the ultimate disposable minion.

Astral constructs improve your action economy just like any summon spell would; use this to your advantage by letting them do things in your stead, especially given their disposable status. Need to rescue a bunch of orphans, but they're at different ends of the burning orphanage, and no single person could get to them in time? Make a handful of constructs, set them loose with the command to 'search and destroy rescue,' and let them take the fire damage and save you from possible Con damage via smoke inhalation. They'll be bursting through walls like the Kool-Aid man, and you get the glory.

They can be used as furniture of sorts, as well. Pull a Palom & Porom act by wedging them between crushing wall traps, or holding up a falling ceiling. Who cares if they're crushed and destroyed? They're replaceable (and this mindset isn't even Evil).

If you make a construct with a hollow head (just big enough for you to climb into), you can use one as a suit of power armor (though you can call it your 'mount'. You can be Iron Ecto Man! If you shape the cage right, you can even give yourself cover this way (cheap though it may be).

Trekkin
2010-04-14, 12:58 AM
The construct armor trick is exactly what I'm using to let my tiny shaper get around at speeds comparable to those of the rest of the party.

Eventually, I'm going to have it and at least one other construct that looks just like it out simultaneously with both equipped with Dimension Slide and using ready actions to simultaneously teleport. It will be like a shell game.

And, just like a real shell game, I'll be having them drop me, invisible, with psionic levitate on, after the first jump and construct-based manifestation, such that both targets are false. My psicrystal will stay behind in the other to serve as a manifesting point. Thanks, Order of the Stick, for a superb defense mechanism.

How's that for a construct trick?