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View Full Version : Constructs and undead requiring 'fuel' variant [PEACH]



ace rooster
2015-01-03, 03:24 PM
Motivation:

In universe construct armies are prohibitavely expensive. The main reason for this is that as standard constructs have very few limitations, and making them any cheaper breaks a setting faster than Tippy can say "why don't we ...". For example; Constructs pulling carts are much better than horses, being able to run indefinately and requiring no tending. This is the sort of thing I would like to prevent, except in special cases. The idea is to give the possibility of limitations to both, so that they can be more common without having uses above what they were designed for. Additionally the hope is for none of these changes to affect the combat stats or abilities, with only logistical and setting implications that can be handwaved easily. The easiest way to do this that I can see is to change the main expense of constructs to use, rather than creation.

These rules might seem complex, but in all but the strangest of cases the calculations should not have to be done.

In setting it also irks me that the first construct created by an apprentice wizard is automatically perfect. It will function eternally without fail. In my opinion the magic should be leaky, and the motion should intermittently powerful at best. Such a construct could still be useful for some functions, and having imperfect constructs in universe can open them up to lower level use.


Constructs are built with a gem contained within them, that is the source of the power that moves them. The elemental is still required to direct and animate some constructs, but drawing on it's power would rapidly kill it. There are 9 levels of gem, related to how quickly they can provide power. Each action by the constuct uses power, by the following table. Additionally being aware at all uses power, at a rate of 1 unit per min if no actions are taken. It takes about 10 minutes to change a gem in a construct, and a construct can only benefit from one gem per day.



Action
cost


swift action
1


move action
1


standard action
2


full round action
6




Gems are cut with the size of the constuct in mind, and the cost of a gem is level of the gem cubed times the hd of the construct it is for times the number of days at full use times one gp, though in some regions they are unavailable, and in others considerably cheaper. The maximum power units per day provided by each level of gem is equal to 600*level of gem squared times the hd of the construct it is for. The result of this is shown below.


Level of gem
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9


time of 1 move action per round
1 hour
4 hours
9 hours
16hours
full day






time of a standard action per round
30 mins
2 hours
4 hours 30 mins
8 hours
12 hours 30 mins
18 hours
full day




time of a full round action per round
10 mins
40 mins
1 hour 30 mins
2 hours 40 mins
4 hours 10 mins
6 hours
8 hours 10 mins
10 hours 40 mins
13 hours 30 mins





Level of gem
time of 1 move action per round
time of 1 standard action per round
time of a full round action per round


1
1 hour
30 mins
10 mins


2
4 hours
2 hours
40 mins


3
9 hours
4 hours 30 mins
1 hour 30 mins


4
16 hours
8 hours
3 hours 40 mins


5
all day
12 hours 30 mins
4 hours 10 mins


6

18 hours
6 hours


7

all day
8 hours 10 mins


8


10 hours 40 mins


9


13 hours 30 mins




Undead use similar rules, with onyx gems substituted for the gems used in constructs, in the case on skeletons and zombies. Vampires use blood, ghouls need flesh, wights need to drain levels, and so on. Spawn are created with some of the energy siphoned of the creature that created them, and spell like abilities use additional power.

Gems that recharge themselves over time can exist, but should be very expensive and not very powerful. Similarly certain regions might power undead without intervention, though even in these regions the undead will not be active much of the time.

Spells
For each spell level there is a spell to power groups of constructs or skeletons/zombies. These are special, in that the spell has permanant duration but the spell slot cannot be used until the spell is dismissed. Each spell provides 2^ spell level-1 times spell level hd of constructs with the equivilent of a spell level gem. Constucts of up to spell level hd are affected, and to be affected you must spend an hour within range of a constuct. Constructs can be added and removed from this spell with a touch.

The range of this spell is short for levels 1 and 2, medium for 3 and 4, long for 5 and 6, 1 mile per cl for 7 and 8, and 10 miles per cl for 9.

You can craft items to give control of your constucts to lower minions, letting you get on with more important things.

The undead version is similar, but zombies of up to twice spell level can be affected. Additionally this spell provides a degree of control, though the creature must be 'willing' to begin with. It functions as a command undead spell, but requires either a command undead spell, the command undead ability, or the control granted by animate dead in order for the skeleton or zombie to accept the spell. This control can be extended to intelligent undead creatures that you mark with an arcane or divine mark.




Spell level
Max hd affected
total hd affected


1
1
1


2
2
4


3
3
12


4
4
32


5
5
80


6
6
192


7
7
448


8
8
1024


9
9
2304



To accomedate this I would also prepose to reduce the creation of effigies be a factor of 10, and give craft constuct with any other craft feat, though undead are probably cheap enough already. The numbers in the table above may seem high, but at level 17 9hd constructs are quite weak. 256 of them for 230 000gp and a 9th level spell slot seems about right to me.

Any thoughts?