Construct Tournament?

[tadkins]

Had an idea that I'm considering implementing for my high-magic campaign world. Basically each organization in the universe builds or sponsors the construction of a construct that is entered into tournament that is fought in a week-long grand event that attracts people from all over. The PCs would of course be allowed to take part in some capacity. In addition, there'd be a carnival of sorts taking place outside the arena building with all sorts of other fun things in between fights.

These would consist mainly of 1v1 elimination-style fights, but I would consider other types of events as well.

What do you guys think, can such a thing work? What kind of rules would you implement? And just for fun, what sort of construct would you consider building for such an event?

[mabriss lethe]

It's like Rock-em-sock-em Robots: D&D style.

If it's going to be that big of an event, have some minor league entertainment before/between the main event to showcase "up and coming talent"

You'd also want to separate the combat tournament into at least two different brackets. One for directly controlled/commanded constructs and one for independent contstructs (you could even have a 3rd designated for truly independent/freewilled constructs and living constructs.)

[Rubik]

Where do astral constructs and eidolons fit in?

[Jack_Simth]

Hey now! Real Life Stuff! (http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/07/tech/giant-robot-fight-challenge-accepted/)

[tadkins]

It's like Rock-em-sock-em Robots: D&D style.

If it's going to be that big of an event, have some minor league entertainment before/between the main event to showcase "up and coming talent"

You'd also want to separate the combat tournament into at least two different brackets. One for directly controlled/commanded constructs and one for independent contstructs (you could even have a 3rd designated for truly independent/freewilled constructs and living constructs.)

Yep, that's partly the inspiration. xD

Are there a lot of examples of the controlled/commanded ones out there? Like, constructs that people can enter and pilot like a mecha? I figured most constructs were just hulking things that can be given simple commands.

I could consider the third bracket as well. Warforged in my universe consist of those from multiple races with extremely Lawful-aligned mindsets, who sought to become more "perfect", and got themselves transformed into constructs. There'd even be a story arc involving a faction of them bent on spreading their "perfection" to all, that the PCs would be fighting.

In either case, I'd just have to give them a reason to participate.


Where do astral constructs and eidolons fit in?

I'm actually not too familiar with those. Got a source I can look at?


Hey now! Real Life Stuff! (http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/07/tech/giant-robot-fight-challenge-accepted/)

I had no idea that was a thing. Holy hell, that's awesome. xD

[Jack_Simth]

I had no idea that was a thing. Holy hell, that's awesome. xDThere have been lesser versions for a while (http://www.battlebots.com/), but apparently it's getting kicked up a few notches.

[tadkins]

There have been lesser versions for a while (http://www.battlebots.com/), but apparently it's getting kicked up a few notches.

Oh yeah, knew a bit about that one, another source of inspiration for the idea.

I'd have to figure out whether constructs would be "remote controlled" by a single wizard or just sent out with a command to crush the opponent.

[Rubik]

Astral constructs are psionically created by the Astral Construct power. They're in the SRD, (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/monsters/astralConstruct.htm) and have plenty of options (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20040625b) for optimizing them. (http://www.realmshelps.net/charbuild/feat/Boost_Construct) There're plenty of options in Hyperconscious (http://www.amazon.com/Hyperconscious-Explorations-Psionics-Roleplaying-Adventure/dp/1588469956) (written by Bruce Cordell, the author of the XPH) and Untapped Potential (http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/20758/Untapped-Potential-New-Horizons-in-Psionics?it=1). (Which, incidentally, does contain drivable astral mechs.)

Eidolons, on the other hand, are a feature of the summoner Pathfinder base class. (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/base-classes/summoner)

[ZamielVanWeber]

First one to shade steel golem has a huge edge. Those things are brutal.

[Vizzerdrix]

Build an effigy siege crab. Fill it with as many swarms of clockwork menders as you can make fit, then disguise it as a regular Effigy giant crab.

As for rules. ban internal spaces.

[Fizban]

There's a few problems including players. NPCs can show up with whatever you want to have a good show, but PCs have to follow some sort of rules. This means they will research and probably bring the most powerful options without fail. Which means that if the NPCs are using anything less, they're screwed. This would be mitigated if constructs included the same range of abilities as PCs or other monsters, but most are severely lacking. Assuming the PCs have a budget, you can mitigate this by "cheating" and giving the NPCs better stuff, but there's still the problem of what the creator is even doing. Using a custom building system gives you more input but still basically puts the PCs building technique against the DM's X-many builds.

I'd say what you want is to open the floodgates. Pick one resource such as gp cost or total CR/EL and let the players go nuts. Build a custom robot, build a team of robots, build the straight most powerful robot you can find, whatever. Equip your robots with mithril chain shirts and repair salves, whatever. And then instead of putting them in a bland 1v1 empty arena like they might expect, the curtain unfolds to show a battlefield with all sorts of terrain and active hazards and traps that can completely overturn the odds. The golem with a ranged attack just circle strafes to victory. One with a bull rush power no one cared about is throwing bots into razor death pits. Some stupid climbing thing is just hiding on roof dropping rocks. After they hopefully take a few knocks in round 1 they go back to the drawing board and bring something more interesting than before.

Essentially the players get to take a time out from running their characters and go sandbox mode building robots that get thrown into adventurer-class combat situations. Be sure to skim over any resources allowed so you know beforehand what's got the highest stats, and make sure to include environments that can challenge them.

As for what I'd build, it'd depend on what I know about the competition and what resources I'd have to pay for it. Assuming it's not coming out of my adventuring budget, I'd pick whichever one of my favorite constructs would be most effective, coordinating with buffs/terrain/expected foes. Dread Guard, Caryatid Column, Slaughterstone Eviscerator, Bronze Serpent, Shaboath (if it had construction rules), Stone Golem, Web Golem, Mud Golem, Coral Golem, Drakestone Golem, Ironwyrm Golem, one of those might do. Or there's the templates, Effigy Creature the easiest and most well known, Elder Eidolon probably not worth it in this situation. Dustform and Ice Beast are nice, except Dustform has insta-death when crit by blunt weapons and generally sucks, and neither is craftable. For best results you go with Hyrda, Dragon, or Aberrations.

Hey, that's an easy way to involve people: summoning fights. Summon Desert Ally and Conjure Ice Beast make construct versions of their summoned creatures. There's a level 4 Summon (Marked) Homunculus spell in Dragonmarked, a level 9 Summon Golem in PHB2, and it's pretty easy to make more summon spells once you know what you're doing. I actually made a Summon Construct 1-9 list I can provide, as well as concentration based summons (see Summon Greater Elemental, Summon Hound Archon, Summon Aspect of Bahamut, etc). You could also use the Call [Inevitable] spells, but they would probably not be pleased. Set up the summon fights as wacky as desired, loan the PCs the ability to cast the spells and tada.
Summon Construct List (I think animals refer to the summon monster list, and objects are obvious Animated Objects)
I:
small chair (hardness 5, 50' speed)
small handkerchief (fly 20' clumsy, blind, constrict)
small clod of earth
warforged warrior (unarmed) (MMIII)

II:
effigy animal I
medium table (hardness 5, 50' speed)
medium rug (fly 15' clumsy, blind, constrict)
medium boulder (hardness 8)
hommunculus
clockroach (MMIV)

III:
effigy animal II
large table (hardness 5, 30' speed)
large sheet (fly 10' clumsy, blind, constrict)
large boulder (hardness 8)
iron cobra (with poison) (FF)
dread guard (MMII)
automaton (pulverizer or hammerer) (MMII)
magmacore golem (MMV)

IV:
effigy animal III
maug (FF)
stained glass golem (MMII)
force golem (MMV)
warforged charger (MMIII)

V:
effigy animal IV
huge table (hardness 5, 30' speed)
huge carpet (fly 10' clumsy, blind, constrict)
huge boulder (hardness 8)

VI:
effigy animal V
gargantuan clod of earth
shardsoul slayer (MMV)

VII:
effigy animal VI
gargantuan table (hardness 5, 30' speed)
gargantuan tent (fly 5' clumsy, blind, constrict)
gloom golem (MMIII)

VIII:
effigy animal VII
gargantuan iron statue (hardness 10, 20' speed, trample)

IX:
effigy animal VIII
colossal clod of earth
bronze serpent

Constructs tend to have more hp but less attack power at each level. The last few levels are rather bare, and the IX choices push a bit to get something in.


Summon Individual Construct (these are concentration duration, using the easily noticeable formula from similar spells of CR less than or equal to minimum cl)

3rd:
Stained Glass Golem (MMII)

4th:
Flesh Golem

5th:
Clay Golem

6th:
Stone Golem
Dragonbone Golem (Draconomicon)

7th:
Iron Golem
Slaughterstone Evicerator (MMIII)
Dragonflesh Golem (MMII)

8th:
Drakestone Golem (Draconomicon)

9th:
Slaughterstone Behemoth (MMIII)

That's another possible challenge: instead of robot v robot, robot v waves of puny summoned creatures. Whichever bot lasts the longest/kills the most is the winner. Or vs tough summoned creatures, who's bot can punch the furthest above it's weight. I think these are actually really good, a big part of constructs is their DR and various immunities, but fighting each other most of those don't come up. With a nice plate of summons you can highlight those. People using more/less flashy constructs that trade the usual hardness or DR or golem immunities for other stuff will have a chance to show that off or be punished for ditching their defenses. For extra tough fights, see the aforementioned concentration based summons.

You could also make some sort of fudgy fluff spell that you cast on a construct which projects a quasi-real phantom version with identical stats that can only fight other phantoms made with the same spell (and/or summoned creatures) to avoid sending literal castles worth of gold into destruction.

Finally, less construct and more kiddy ride, you could have an events with animated mannequins the challengers try to outfit for battle. They're practically nothing, maybe not even full medium object strength, and winning is more about transferring PC abilities to the constructs. What gear do you have that they can use, how effectively can they use it, what buff spells do you have that can target them? This is the arena where an Artificer would actually be able to say it's them winning the fight.