Constructs and Constitution scores

[sorryjzargo]

I've been playing D&D 3.5, Star Wars Saga, and Pathfinder for a while now, and I've always been confused about Constructs/Droids and their lack of a Constitution score. None of the in-game explanations seemed to make much sense. Why is this the case?

(I'm new to the forum, so if I broke forum etiquette or something let me know so I can fix it)

[torrasque666]

A Constitution score is what defines a creature as "Living" and thus allows it to qualify for things that specify "Any Living creature". Constructs are not "alive" and thus don't have one, instead getting HP from their Hit Die and a pool of bonus HP dependent on their size category.

[sorryjzargo]

I guess that makes sense, but it still feels wrong that Constructs can be vulnerable to actions that require Fort saves without having a Con score.

[torrasque666]

They are only vulnerable to ones that are either harmless, and thus have no reason to save against, or ones that also effect objects, and thus are more of a global effect.

[Phelix-Mu]

All that you really need to know is that, even with a bit of a handicap from the implications of no Con score, the array of immunities that constructs benefit from are among the strongest and broadest in the game. And bigger constructs gain a set of bonus hp to partially compensate from the loss of bonus hp due to Con.

All in all, it's more of a fluff thing than not. You could give them back their Con and the bonus hp and it wouldn't make them that much stronger, to be honest. Tougher to kill, maybe, but a good bit of their toughness is down to almost universal DR, their immunities and traits, and case-by-case resistance/immunity to magic (mainly golems there).

Ironically, "living" isn't actually a very good term in game. The main effect of "living" is "dying," which allows one to be not dead all the way down to -10 hp, and it is characteristic of a whole slew of creatures that aren't subject to any form of natural death (outsiders, elementals, some fey). So it doesn't mean as much as you might think. Creatures that aren't living are usually destroyed at 0hp (can't think of an exception, but wouldn't surprise me if there was).

[Omoikane13]

I always thought of a Constitution score as representing the metabolism. Constructs lack both, as do Undead.

[Phelix-Mu]

I always thought of a Constitution score as representing the metabolism. Constructs lack both, as do Undead.

Except a bunch of stuff that explicitly doesn't eat/sleep/breath (or photosynthesize or the like) still have Constitution scores. Earth elementals are giant piles of rock and dirt. They have Constitution scores, despite being very similar to constructs (some constructs are even made by binding the spirit of such an elemental to an inanimate form). It's not even clear by RAW if they naturally are born or die of old age, or if there are just an infinite number of immortal rock creatures on the Elemental Plane of Earth.

[Omoikane13]

Except a bunch of stuff that explicitly doesn't eat/sleep/breath (or photosynthesize or the like) still have Constitution scores. Earth elementals are giant piles of rock and dirt. They have Constitution scores, despite being very similar to constructs (some constructs are even made by binding the spirit of such an elemental to an inanimate form). It's not even clear by RAW if they naturally are born or die of old age, or if there are just an infinite number of immortal rock creatures on the Elemental Plane of Earth.

Not that this isn't a great point, but:


Any living creature has at least 1 point of Constitution. A creature with no Constitution has no body or no metabolism.

Source for the above: http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRD:Constitution. Might not be completely trustworthy. If so, ignore this post.