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View Full Version : I want to play a Gnome with a Construct [3.5]



Gnaritas
2010-08-14, 04:36 AM
So, i want to play a Gnome, that is a handyman. He will be the character i play, but the power will come from his construct.

The problem i run into is that the Gnome will not be able to build a construct on the right power level.

The other option is building a Warforged and taking Leadership to get a Gnome follower. I will actually play the follower and make the Warforged mindless (or whatever it's called).

Does anyone have other options or advice?

hamishspence
2010-08-14, 04:38 AM
The Gondsman PRC in Faiths and Pantheons might do. Or maybe the Effigy Master in Complete Arcane?

AslanCross
2010-08-14, 04:46 AM
...this suddenly reminds me of the guy who once played (or wanted to play) a warforged who thought he was a gnome in a power suit.

Beelzebub1111
2010-08-14, 05:10 AM
Dragon Magazine #341 has Lesser Golems with required caster levels as low as 5. (Paper, Tin, Wood, and Wax) They also have two at 7th (Fungus and Junk)

The paper are pretty cheap, too. 400gp and 16xp (plus 200 for the body)

Gnaritas
2010-08-14, 05:34 AM
Yes, i found those. But a Tin Golem at level 5 is not really powerfull and gets worse as i level. The Gnome itself is obviously more usefull.
I want it to be the other way around, the Construct should be the power while the gnome is the weak link.

Scarey Nerd
2010-08-14, 05:39 AM
I started building a character very like this once. He was a Gnome Wizard that took the Techsmith PrC from Faiths and Pantheons (Modified so that it could be allowed in a non-FR setting). He would then have taken a Spark Familiar from Complete Warrior at level 7. And if you look to the left of this post, you'll see a picture of said Gnome :smallcool:

This gave a Wizard with the ability to make strong constructs, with a metal bird that shoots electricity and a medium sized clockwork robot.

Also, you may want to make Clockwork armour for other players (Can't remember where it is in the WOTC site, if I find it I will edit this post). It's cool, useful and other players will love the character that makes them awesome stuff :smalltongue:

Fizban
2010-08-14, 08:04 AM
Effigies are just about the only construct you can make at a low levels, since even golems and other constructs that have lower caster levels still require high level spells. The effigy template works best with creatures that have lots of natural attacks and lots of raw numbers without special abilities, so dragons and hydras are usually your best bets.

Edit2: if the lowest level you can build something is 5th, the best creature to build is the Deinonychus (in core). If you start at 7th or 8th then you'll want a Wyrmling Red/Gold Dragon. No matter what you make, Mithral Chain Shirt Barding (1,200-1,400gp) is usually a must have +4 AC with no penalties, and you can afford it for either the Deinonychus or the dragon at creation.

If you're starting any lower than 4th you can't really afford a construct that will survive combat. If you're starting higher, I did some rough estimates and found that a construct with CR at your level (so, appropriate for combat) usually costs around 1/4 to 1/3 of your cash to build. You will definitely need some way to reclaim the cash you spent on older constructs, either by upgrading them directly or cannabalizing them for full price (either requires houserule), otherwise you'll have to sink all your cash into building replacements every couple of levels instead of just 1/3 of it. It goes without saying that you should treat your construct better than a party member: party members can be rezzed for a few thousand gold; your construct is worth more than that, and my google fu only turns up links confirming there is no Revive Construct spell.

You could also try homebrewing something. I was figuring an Animate Construct spell based on Animate dead, and I think it came out to about 1 HD per level created/ 2HD per level controlled seemed fair, with some restrictions on what materials you could animate (say stone at 7th and iron at 10th). Now that I think about it, I would absolutely love to see a Construct Companion feat: like Wild Cohort (Animal Companion for everyone minus a couple HD), but a single bonded construct that is fueled by awesome instead of cash.
------------------
Alright, low HD creatures to effigy. Since you mentioned 5th level I'm going to aim for that. Wealth by level gives us barely enough cash for a large creature with 4 HD, or a medium creature with 5 HD and some cash left over (thanks to our HD limit). You could fly in style on pretty much any common flying mount: dire bat, hippogriff, pegasus, giant bird, spider eater, etc, but those aren't quite meant for fighting. The Deinonychus looks like your best bet for this level: 4HD and errata makes it medium, so you an afford it with cash left over for barding. It has pounce with 4 attacks and 19 strength before templating, with 60' speed and a modest +5 natural armor. Black bears are obsolete at this point, but the druid's leopard won't be better than yours until next level

I checked bugs for the lulz, and oddly enough the Giant Soldier Ant looks kinda badass. Cheap 2HD, high land speed, climb speed, high natural armor, and it doesn't lose it's acid sting. Low strength and attack bonus means it's not likely to get the sting unfortunately, kinda like a wolf but with grapple instead of trip, but better otherwise. A spider would be even worse in combat, but would actually retain it's web ability (as a special attack that allows no save).

Edit3: speaking of bugs, I forgot about the clockroach. It's in MMIV, and you an actually make one as early as 3rd level, since they only require a 2nd level spell and about 1,000gp. The aren't any good as bruisers, but they have a decent breath weapon: catching someone in the crossfire of two or three would be painful.

Gerrtt
2010-08-14, 08:54 AM
Step One: Play a warforged who has a gnome commoner or expert NPC following him around, tweaking his gears and what not when they need repair.

Step Two: Role-Play that you are actually playing the gnome.

There's not even a step three, you just get what you want out of that.

Here's the catch though, since your gnome follower is the one who is sentient you'll either want leadership to give him some class levels (AKA survivability) or some other way keep him out of trouble because since he's controlling all the actions all it will take is a failed save or some other form of disabled condition and you'll be out of action.

Not to mention that your Warforged is still a valid target for all the damage from attacks and spells being flung at your party.

Because of the crunch I think you're much better off Role-Playing this one in stead of trying to make it work mechanically (no pun intended).

Urpriest
2010-08-14, 12:46 PM
Artificers' Homunculi are pretty easy to make useful in combat, accessible at lowish level (same as your leadership warforged anyway), and come in a fun variety of flavors. I'd advise one of those. Load up your homunculus with grafts if possible and you can make a decent combatant and build focus.

LibraryOgre
2010-08-14, 12:53 PM
...this suddenly reminds me of the guy who once played (or wanted to play) a warforged who thought he was a gnome in a power suit.

That was an alternate explanation for the character who became "Optimus Prime", yeah. ;-)

togapika
2010-08-14, 01:19 PM
...this suddenly reminds me of the guy who once played (or wanted to play) a warforged who thought he was a gnome in a power suit.

Yes! I win the internet!

Back on topic, leadership is probably your best bet without using some sort of PRC...

Beelzebub1111
2010-08-14, 01:34 PM
Yes, i found those. But a Tin Golem at level 5 is not really powerfull and gets worse as i level. The Gnome itself is obviously more usefull.
I want it to be the other way around, the Construct should be the power while the gnome is the weak link.

They're cheap, though. Make a lot of them. of different types. With a fifth level character you could easily make at least five of the papers. The Woods are pretty impressive as well, able to be fully healed with a single spell if you have a druid or cleric with the plant domain in the party.

Escheton
2010-08-14, 01:43 PM
I recommend a warforged fighter: very basic, mindless, no feats that provide options at all. Not even power attack.
Give him leadership at lvl 6. Get him a lvl 5 gnome artifcer cohort.
Dump all cash from both the warforged and artificer in arbalesters, iron defenders and packmates.
Profit.

Though perhaps you are looking for 1 golem and not 20.
Then just pump all cash into the golem....ehm warforged.
Artificers derive most of their power from wherever they pump their cash in, as such the gnome would be rather harmless and the warforged a beast.

FMArthur
2010-08-14, 03:05 PM
Would you be okay with a *summoned* construct? Astral Construct is a great psionic power for building a customized construct on the fly, and can be augmented rather easily. Ardents, Psions and Erudites can do it.

A Shaper Psion with the Personal Construct (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20070411a) alternate feature (or an Ardent with the Creation Mantle and using Dominant Ideal (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20070629a)) is a good start and the Constructor prestige class (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20040625b) is quite good at making Astral Constructs (later you can even make an hours/level one that can perform noncombat tasks for you and let you ride it if you really want a persistant construct partner).

If you are interested in making it as strong as possible very, very early... in Complete Psionic, two feats right next to each other can make Astral Construct very awesome, very fast: Linked Power and Metapower. A first-level human Shaper with two flaws gets 5 feats. With one Linked Power and four Metapowers, you can bring out a '4th-level' Astral Construct for 1pp after linking it to another power. More shenanigans can make it better: Psion 1/Psychic Warrior 2/Erudite 1/ is a 4th level character with 8 feats (one of which needs to be Practiced Manifester), leaving room for 6 metapowers. You can make an 8th level Astral Construct by level 4! (Astral Constructs' "levels" line up with spell levels; thus an 8th-level AC is made for 15th-level characters).

edit: whoops, errors! It's correct this time, honest.
edit2: Heh, I seem to have developed a pattern with my posts: one short paragraph to throw an idea out there, a second longer paragraph details a nice thing to do with that idea, and the third, much larger paragraph flies the idea into a building.

Fizban
2010-08-15, 08:43 AM
As I dig through books looking for interesting creatures to effigy, I notice some other things. The Craft Construct feat requires both Craft Wondrous and Craft Magic Arms, so even with bonus feats you can't craft your own stuff until 6th. You can enter Effigy Master at 8th anyway, so there's no reason to waste the two extra feats if you decide to go with Effigies. Of course, Artificers are the standard for item crafting nowadays, and they might be able to do it a bit earlier: I don't see a line saying they have to meet prerequisites on their bonus feats, so you might be able to take Craft Construct as early as 4th level with that. Even if you can't slide that by Artificer is still really the best bet with all their infusions and free crafting feats.

I also re-found the Dread Guard. This is a very nifty little construct in the MMII. They used to be horribly expensive and they require the usual 8th level and higher spells to create, but the 3.5 errata made them quite affordable. As in, you could buy one off the shelf at 4th level if you had to kind of affordable: 5,000gp and change depending on what you build them with. Nothing special, but they've got a solid 5 hit dice, plus the 20 hp from being a medium construct, and you can arm them with your choice of one or two handed weapon with/without shield. And here's the real kicker: they have an intelligence score of 6. Ignoring the stupid fluff lines saying they can't understand more than one or two concepts, that's just as smart as the classic "I dumped int lolz" fighter/barbarian. If you wanted a more humanoid construct (which I admit will fit into society much better than a dinosaur or dragon), the Dread Guard is a fine low level choice.

Edit^: And I hear you FMArthur. My posts tend to start with one idea, and then edit in about 200% more content before anyone even reads them.

Prime32
2010-08-15, 09:59 AM
Ubermount build perhaps? Play a gnome with a warforged cohort, and use the DMG rules to designate him as your paladin special mount for +2 LA. Then use Devoted Tracker to make him your animal companion as well.

Let's say a druid 3/fighter 2/prestige paladin 2. You'd need to waive the alignment restrictions or use the exarch (CN) variant paladin.