Becoming a construct / is there a way?

[DM Eberron D]

Greetings there guys.

I am running an Eberron Campaign as DM, and came up with a situation.

Last session, a player was killed by a vampire's Blood Drain. Being not a pay-to-ressurect fan, I established a story that made the players hunt down the vampire in order to recover the "teardrops" its body produces (equivalent to 5000g worth diamonds that is required for Raise Dead spell) and be able to ressurect their friend. They had their friend left in a church, the Priest there said that if they were not back in 24 hours he would stab the dead body with a wooden stick down its heart so that, in case he becomes a vampire, is kept in "sleep mode"

The facts are that the PCs never made it, the Vampire fled, they can't have their friend ressurected and now we are in a situation.

A PC Artificer wants to take the body and do experiments to bring him back as construct (Frankenstein, it's aliiiiiiiiiive!)

Here come my 2 questions:

1. Is there a way to gradually transform a PC into a construct. Mastermaker Renegade PrC and Half-Golem template is nearest solution from what I've read. My idea was to spend some levels (1-4) with an aquired template preferably so that after that the dead PC can be playable again as living construct.

2. Suppose we have found a way to gradually turn a dead guy into living construct, would that be viable in this situation? I mean, the dead character is already a vampire, but the wooden stick keeps him in a coma-like state. When the stick is out, the vampire is awake. Is there a way to prevent vampirism by enhancing the body with construct parts or even fully replace body with construct parts (RoboCop - like)

I appreciate any answer :) Thanks in advance!

[Starmage21]

Greetings there guys.

I am running an Eberron Campaign as DM, and came up with a situation.

Last session, a player was killed by a vampire's Blood Drain. Being not a pay-to-ressurect fan, I established a story that made the players hunt down the vampire in order to recover the "teardrops" its body produces (equivalent to 5000g worth diamonds that is required for Raise Dead spell) and be able to ressurect their friend. They had their friend left in a church, the Priest there said that if they were not back in 24 hours he would stab the dead body with a wooden stick down its heart so that, in case he becomes a vampire, is kept in "sleep mode"

The facts are that the PCs never made it, the Vampire fled, they can't have their friend ressurected and now we are in a situation.

A PC Artificer wants to take the body and do experiments to bring him back as construct (Frankenstein, it's aliiiiiiiiiive!)

Here come my 2 questions:

1. Is there a way to gradually transform a PC into a construct. Mastermaker Renegade PrC and Half-Golem template is nearest solution from what I've read. My idea was to spend some levels (1-4) with an aquired template preferably so that after that the dead PC can be playable again as living construct.

2. Suppose we have found a way to gradually turn a dead guy into living construct, would that be viable in this situation? I mean, the dead character is already a vampire, but the wooden stick keeps him in a coma-like state. When the stick is out, the vampire is awake. Is there a way to prevent vampirism by enhancing the body with construct parts or even fully replace body with construct parts (RoboCop - like)

I appreciate any answer :) Thanks in advance!

Green Star Adept will also do it. There is a spell which grants the half-fiend template in one of the Forgotten Realms books. A custom spell could perhaps grant half-golem.

[Ianuagonde]

The Green Star Adept from Complete Arcane gradually transforms into a construct, up to gaining the Construct type at level 10. It does require feeding him a mixture of arcane reagents and starmetal, an metal that is superior to and rarer than adamantine.

Hunting down this starmetal could be a new quest for the group, since it only rains down during the appearance of a special comet. Either they have to wait for the comet and fight with all the other collectors, or they have to find someone with a stash of this rare and valuable metal (to give you an indication, a starmetal weapon costs 5000 gp more than a steel one). If you want ten levels in this class, you need ten drinks of Starmetal Slushie.

As for un-staking your friend, well...vampires are always evil, which could be a problem or not, depending on the player. Since the character is now undead, he doesn't need food. Just because you can drain blood, doesn't mean you have to.

EDIT: ninja'd. That'll teach me to write long texts.

[Deadline]

A PC Artificer wants to take the body and do experiments to bring him back as construct (Frankenstein, it's aliiiiiiiiiive!)

1. Is there a way to gradually transform a PC into a construct. Mastermaker Renegade PrC and Half-Golem template is nearest solution from what I've read. My idea was to spend some levels (1-4) with an aquired template preferably so that after that the dead PC can be playable again as living construct.

2. Suppose we have found a way to gradually turn a dead guy into living construct, would that be viable in this situation? I mean, the dead character is already a vampire, but the wooden stick keeps him in a coma-like state. When the stick is out, the vampire is awake. Is there a way to prevent vampirism by enhancing the body with construct parts or even fully replace body with construct parts (RoboCop - like)

I appreciate any answer :) Thanks in advance!

Um... can't you just re-create the character as a warforged and fluff everything? Alternatively, you could make the existing character a Necropolitan for a few levels and then a warforged.

These seem like the easiest, simplest options.

[Drachasor]

What level are you guys?

[Grollub]

You could always homebrew a unique item, let's say a "living heart".

Could make up a quest for the players to find a plant type item that will replace his heart and make him a "plant construct" or plant creature, with a new "plant type seed" to replace his heart and change his body.

This would also give a story wise reason why he wouldnt need a stake in his heart if you want to eliminate that portion of the story. If you didn't, you could make something up like Iron Man's Chest Light thingy, and spike it thru his heart, and have a mini story going on with a "fight" between this item and his undead nature ( the heart ) battling over his body )

[Grollub]

I guess you could also add that "undead vs plant" battle to the original idea I had of having him with a plant symbiosis item.

Occasional quests to revitalize the plant systems in him as the undead nature battles it

[DM Eberron D]

What level are you guys?

They are just attained 5th level now.

[DM Eberron D]

Um... can't you just re-create the character as a warforged and fluff everything? Alternatively, you could make the existing character a Necropolitan for a few levels and then a warforged.

These seem like the easiest, simplest options.

That's exactly what I was thinking (except for Necropolitan), I just don't know about those few levels. Necropolitan is not what I am looking for. I want the player to eventually become a warforged, but I need 1-2 levels of something else to produce the becoming-construct feel.

[Radar]

That's exactly what I was thinking (except for Necropolitan), I just don't know about those few levels. Necropolitan is not what I am looking for. I want the player to eventually become a warforged, but I need 1-2 levels of something else to produce the becoming-construct feel.
Maybe some custom grafts? Take a look at the warforged template and separate it into parts. Add in some penalties to represent the incompatibility between flesh and artifice, which will vanish after finishing the transformation.

If you go with the living plant grafts, then instead of adding new plant parts, make it so the plant slowly grows and replaces the decaying old body.

[Fax Celestis]

Magic of Eberron has the Renegade Mastermaker PrC, which slowly turns you into a warforged. Artificer/Renegade Mastermaker/Spellcarved Soldier is nowhere near optimal but is pretty awesome. It also has grafts, which you can use to enhance your constructiness.

[Rastapopolos]

Making him into a golem would lose him all his class levels as it would technically be a elemental controlling his shell? Necropolitan is out as im pretty sure you have to die during the ceremony. If he's level 5 you can haunt shift(libris mortis) him into a statue of himself... Hes already undead so dont event need to shroud of undeath to qualify...


EDIT- ahh he already is a vampire... are you trying to remove the rediclious vampire ECL/the fact hes under the mental control of the sire vampire? You could undeath to death him or kill him off some other way, then have him come back as a ghost, then haunt shift him, if you have ghostwalk theres a ghost template in there without LA IIRC. I think your biggest problem is that as long as he remains a vampire hes gonna try and kill his party. As far as I know the only way to cure vampirism is to kill them then ressurect them, which you dont want to do. At this point it might be easier just to send them on another quest.

EDIT EDIT- now that im back from work and with books i see that haunting presence needs at least 10 hd to be able to animate the object its in. So no dice as he either has 4hd (vampire spawn) or 9hd (vampire spawn+class levels). libris mortis gives the ecl of a vampire spawn as a playable char so if you have it so theoritically you could have him still play (ecl 4 with 4 rhd) downside is that would make him a whopping ECL 13 so advancing into a golem through levels is gonna take decades.