Mechanatrix Cheese

[Rusvul]

Mechanatrixes (Mechanatrices?) are a race described in the Fiend Folio, for those who don't know. They're Mechanus planetouched, which grants a number of features in addition to the big one: Lightning immunity and healing from lightning damage. It's inefficient, (3:1) but if you had a lightning-spammy build it could prove quite useful.

So I was wondering... What kind of build would be able to capitalize on that best? Sorcerer or Evoker seems an obvious choice... Warmage could also work, but with the Mechanatrix CHA penalty it wouldn't be ideal. Perhaps the Lightning healing plus the racial CON bonus could make a good gish?

[Dusk Eclipse]

IIRC the usual way is with Shape Souldmeld (Lightning Gauntlets) which give you an at will 1d6 electricity touch attack, without investing essentia it isn't good for in-comba use, but out of it you can spam it until you are full health for every battle. The nice part is that you can do it with pretty much any class you want since it only costs 1 feat.

[Vhaidara]

Well, as with most things, a dip into Incarnum (either Incarnate or just Shape Soulmeld) is great for the Lightning Gauntlets. At will touch attack for some electrical damage. A friend of mine did that and it was pretty cool.

Honestly, infinite out of combat healing is something people seriously overestimate. It's nice, but hardly gamebreaking at most levels of play.

[Telonius]

Storm Bolt (a reserve feat from Complete Mage) would do it as well.

If it weren't for the 3:1 return, you could get a +1 Shock Sap.

[Doc_Maynot]

Are you going Lesser Planetouched? Making them Humanoid (Planetouched) in order to get rid of the +1 LA?

[daremetoidareyo]

Energy affinity (minuratures handbook) can be used for the reserve feat...Storm bolt from complete mage: gives you unlimited 20' lines of lightning @ 1d6/per highest level lightning spell you got. Aim at your feet. Turn all of your energy spells into lightning spells. Consider heightening a lightning/any-energy-damage spell that you never cast. I suggest turning fireball into lightning ball and travelling with your mechanatrix buddies and just blasting down on them while they engage in combat.

Conductivity from UA, is an interesting thing...take damage from an electricity effect, send a line of electricity arcing from your body at any single target within 30 feet. This bolt deals half the damage you just took; a Reflex save (DC 16 + your Cha modifier) for half. Looking at the text for mechanatrix, "Because of a mechanatrix’s electricity affinity, any electricity attack directed at it cures 1 point of damage for each 3 points of damage it would otherwise deal. The mechanatrix gets no saving throw against electricity effects." This would be a great way for a team of mechanatrixes working together to heal and do damage simultaneously. Especially if they ride flesh golems into battle (using A & EG rules).

bane magic from HOH might help...might not.

renegade mastermaker (Magic of Eberron) 10 + Shocking fist (PGTE) If you go this way, consider grell alchemy for lightning lance shenanigans.

[sleepyphoenixx]

Make a Druid.
At level 8 use Enhance Wild Shape to turn into a Shambling Mound and get its (Ex) immunity to electricity that also grants 1d4 Con every time you're hit with electricity damage.
Then get Extraordinary Concentration and the Swift Concentration skill trick.
Cast Call Lightning (Storm), then start grappling with your standard actions while using your swift and move actions to hit yourself and your enemy with lightning bolts.

For more damage get a Ring of Mystic Lightning (MIC). Get Snowcasting, Cold Spell Specialization and Cold Snap to increase damage. Get immunity to sonic and get Born of Three Thunders. Get immunity to daze with Mark of the Dauntless.

If you don't want to grapple get Energy Substitution(electricity) and start casting any of your good druid blasting spells with yourself in the area, hitting either yourself or your enemy with lightning bolts with your move & swift actions depending on if you need more hp.

Or just get Body outside Body on your spell list and have them grapple while blasting things with lightning.
Get a level of Hierophant for Power of Nature and give your animal companion and melee the ability to wild shape into Shambling Mounds (while blasting things with lightning).
Summon Storm Elementals (MM3). Blast things with lightning.

[Rusvul]

Yes, though I didn't mention it, the plan was to be a Lesser Mechanatrix.

Druid is an interesting thought. Thematically weird, but mechanically interesting.

Not quite sure what 'lightning lance shenanigans' entails, though... As in just zapping myself for healing, a few times a day? Wouldn't a Wand of Shocking Grasp or Lesser Lightning Orb (etc) be better?
...So here's a thought...

I could start off as a Lesser Mechanatrix with the Human Heritage feat. I could take Factotum up until 5th level, then take a level of Chameleon. From there, take Renegade Mastermaker 10, then take Shocking Fist. This allows me to zap myself as much as I like for pretty effective healing.. my BAB would be 12 by that point, so... 12d4-12 is an average of 30 HP (-1d6+?? slam damage) per slam.

Or, heck, I could just skip Renegade Mastermaker and put Shock on a Fine dagger and prick myself out of combat for infinite heals without a feat investment.

What if I wanted to build a Factotum/Chameleon character? My DM bans Incarnum (and ToB, and ToM) so that's off the table... We do mix in a few PF rules, including infinite cantrips, but I doubt he'd let infinite shocking grasp heals fly... The reserve feat would probably work. How would I best optimize a Factotum/Chameleon to take advantage of energy healing while in combat? (Or is that just a bad idea, what with not being a full caster and all?)

[Vhaidara]

In combat healing as a whole is bad.

In combat healing that could be three times as much damage aimed at an enemy is REALLY bad.

[Rusvul]

On the other hand, a large AoE that deals damage and heals you for 1/3 as much seems pretty good.

[Vhaidara]

Questionable, given how bad blasting is. Take fireball as a base. Just to get an area and dice values, I know it doesn't work for this.
Level 10 means 10d6. Average is 30. So a bunch of guys near you take 30/15/0 damage (depending on saves and evasion) and you heal 10. That's kind of pathetic.

[sleepyphoenixx]

In combat healing as a whole is bad.

In combat healing that could be three times as much damage aimed at an enemy is REALLY bad.

Except when it doesn't cost you actions or resources. It's pretty much half of the crusaders claim to awesomeness.
In the case of healing from damage, that's accomplished when it's AoE and hits you and your enemies both.

Blasting may not be the most efficient way to play a caster, but it's fun if you've build well enough to be effective with it. And if you're going to do it anyway getting free heals out of the deal isn't really a downside.
Sure, you could get a bonus feat by going human instead but that gets a little bland. Sometimes you just want to do something different, and the opportunity cost isn't that high.


Questionable, given how bad blasting is. Take fireball as a base. Just to get an area and dice values, I know it doesn't work for this.
Level 10 means 10d6. Average is 30. So a bunch of guys near you take 30/15/0 damage (depending on saves and evasion) and you heal 10. That's kind of pathetic.
One would assume that if you intend to blast you actually build for blasting.
Warriors invest feats into doing damage too, and so should casters who intend to make blasting their main contribution to combat. A blaster throwing unaugmented Fireballs is like a fighter who doesn't take Power Attack.
A mailmen is a pretty good damage dealer even if you don't push it to the limit. Other classes can blast pretty well too if you spend a few feats on it.

[Rusvul]

Hmm... At level ten, a full caster would have better blast spells and/or more metamagic than that, if you Maximize then that's 60/30/0, depending on saves and evasion, and I heal for 20. Still not fantastic, but significantly better than using a straight fireball. Then there's the additional fact that our party consists of myself and a Cleric, (making horrible debuffs less effective as we can't kill things quickly) and that it's a fairly low-op game in general. I'm not someone who's necessarily opposed to playing a suboptimal concept, as long as it's thematically or mechanically interesting (in this case both) and isn't too terrible, but I do like to make said concept as effective as I can.

[daremetoidareyo]

Questionable, given how bad blasting is. Take fireball as a base. Just to get an area and dice values, I know it doesn't work for this.
Level 10 means 10d6. Average is 30. So a bunch of guys near you take 30/15/0 damage (depending on saves and evasion) and you heal 10. That's kind of pathetic.

With the reserve feat, this is far less about casting during combat and more about fully healing between combats. So duskblade is probably the way to go. So long as you leave that 3rd level slot an unused lightning bolt, go can completely heal between fights.


I do agree though, this isn't an optimized small party. But as a group of enemies, 5 or 6 mechanitrixes with the conductivity feat are pretty fearsome. Casters in the back, raining chained blast spells all over the place, with their opponents making more saves. All you need is a way to shut down evasion.

[Vhaidara]

With the reserve feat, this is far less about casting during combat and more about fully healing between combats. So duskblade is probably the way to go. So long as you leave that 3rd level slot an unused lightning bolt, go can completely heal between fights.

Um, the topic at hand specifically was in combat healing.

Also, the other side of it is that electrical spells tend towards lines or targets in my experience, which are very hard to hit yourself with.

[Rusvul]

Sculpt Spell (With or without your choice of metamagic cheese, it's only +1 spell level) allows you to change the area of a spell. Alternately, Energy Substitution allows you to change the damage type of a spell for +0 LA. You could choose to throw Sculpted Lightning Bolts or Substituted Fireballs, same effect really.