Constructs and magic items - Opening a can of worms

[thecrimsondawn]

So I have a magic item crafter that has gotten far too powerful, and everyone in the group knows it. I have decided to put him on a back burner and make him an NPC that crafts stuff for the party still while I come in with a new guy to play with. This is when I noticed the War Machine template.

To sum it up, its a template my crafter can make by paying an amount of gold and making a proper skill check. You loose feats from leveling up, but keep bonus feats. You gain all kinda neat stuff too, but you loose your CON and INT score as comes standard with constructs (your new type)

Under building and modding constructs, I can pay a chunk of gold to give him a brain. This allows skill points and feats for leveling up, but makes you subject to loosing them when targeted by a mind effecting effect.

So, this construct, with a brain as a storage device will it
A) be able benefit from magic items since this was once a living being and retains the basic knowledge of how to fight from its former life
and
B)If it cant wear magic items on its own, is there anything stopping me from integrating said items directly into its body and form to make them work?

[Extra Anchovies]

A few issues with the brain:
1. War machines "are created in the same manner as golems", but Bioconstruct Modification is created and applied to the golem separately from its creation. Be sure to clear it with your DM if you want them to be compatible.
2.

This upgrade doesn’t permit the golem to think independently, but instead, the brain works as a storage device, permitting the golem to acquire skills and feats as if it had an Intelligence score of 10.
It doesn't grant an Intelligence score - it only grants skills and feats as if it had an Intelligence score. It's still mindless and still has Int of — for everything except skills and feats, so it won't be able to start with or later acquire class levels.
3. A single critical hit against the war machine will destroy the brain, and you need to pay for and construct a completely new modification to replace it. That's not a big deal for a one-off AP baddie, but when it's in every fight it's going to take some crits now and then.

The war machine can still wear and benefit from passive magic items (belts and cloaks and such), but its mindlessness probably limits the sorts of activated items it could use.

[thecrimsondawn]

A few issues with the brain:
1. War machines "are created in the same manner as golems", but Bioconstruct Modification is created and applied to the golem separately from its creation. Be sure to clear it with your DM if you want them to be compatible.
2.

It doesn't grant an Intelligence score - it only grants skills and feats as if it had an Intelligence score. It's still mindless and still has Int of — for everything except skills and feats, so it won't be able to start with or later acquire class levels.
3. A single critical hit against the war machine will destroy the brain, and you need to pay for and construct a completely new modification to replace it. That's not a big deal for a one-off AP baddie, but when it's in every fight it's going to take some crits now and then.

The war machine can still wear and benefit from passive magic items (belts and cloaks and such), but its mindlessness probably limits the sorts of activated items it could use.

A Crit breaks the brain? Maybe I missed something, gotta run to work in a moment so I will read that paragraph again once I get home, but I dont remember seeing anything about a major flaw like that.
Passive boost items are what I am going for. I want to make (improve) my brawler body I am bringing into the game, and I thought this may be a cool way to go about that playing something akin to a created android.
About the start with class levels bit - that may or may not be true. Im not really sure tho. As a war machine, you keep all bonus feats, and saves (since it makes no mention about saves at all in the description of creating a war machine) so the feats at every odd level aside, you keep your other class features. Templates keep everything you add them to and only change what they say they change. I would loose my con to hp, and that will hurt, but I will gain hp as a construct based on size (20 for a med creature) so that is not too too bad.
No I wont be able to level up by raw, but I am hoping my dm will allow a small amount of gold and maintenance at every level to 'upgrade' my unit. Otherwise, I am just going to stack a massive amount of STR on this guy and maybe some wisdom and beat the ever living hell out of anything that happens to be in my path :3

[Extra Anchovies]

Two third-party classes that may be relevant to your interests are the Aegis (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/psionics-unleashed/classes/aegis), who creates a psionic armor suit and can be easily refluffed as Iron Man, and the Vanguard (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/3rd-party-classes/ascension-games-llc/vanguard), a 6th-caster with a robot pet. Only the latter of the two actually uses constructs (the Aegis can just seem like a robot soldier), and you seem interested in playing the construct rather than its creator, but the level-scaling construct stuff in the Vanguard may be worth adapting.


A Crit breaks the brain? Maybe I missed something, gotta run to work in a moment so I will read that paragraph again once I get home, but I dont remember seeing anything about a major flaw like that.


All bioconstruct upgrades have the same weakness—they are susceptible to critical hits. An attacker that confirms a critical hit against a golem with a bioconstruct upgrade deals damage to the construct and also destroys one upgrade. The damaged upgrade ceases to function and the construct loses abilities associated with the upgrade. If a construct has more than one bioconstruct upgrade, only one is damaged. The GM randomly determines the damaged organ.

It's one of those things that's obviously designed with the idea in mind that it'll only be used for enemies - an enemy who's not meant to survive the fight may face two or three crits at most, but a PC will deal with quite a few over their career.


Passive boost items are what I am going for.

Then you should be fine in that area.


I want to make (improve) my brawler body I am bringing into the game, and I thought this may be a cool way to go about that playing something akin to a created android. About the start with class levels bit - that may or may not be true. Im not really sure tho. As a war machine, you keep all bonus feats, and saves (since it makes no mention about saves at all in the description of creating a war machine) so the feats at every odd level aside, you keep your other class features. Templates keep everything you add them to and only change what they say they change. I would loose my con to hp, and that will hurt, but I will gain hp as a construct based on size (20 for a med creature) so that is not too too bad.

It's worth noting that War Machine is an inherited template:

Some templates, such as the half-dragon and half-fiend templates, are part of a creature from the beginning of its existence. These types of templates are called “inherited templates.”

Creatures are born or created with these templates already in place, and have never known life without them.

The War Machine template does use chronological terms like "loses" and "gains", but those refer to the out-of-game chronologically linear process of applying the template to a creature's statistics, not to any sort of in-game means of transforming an existing creature into a War Machine. Unless your DM makes an exception, "8th-level brawler" (or whatever) isn't a valid base creature for the template, because an 8th-level brawler has to have previously been 7th, and 6th, and so on. First-level humanoids might be valid bases, but the rules on how minimum character age interacts with inherited templates is unclear.


No I wont be able to level up by raw, but I am hoping my dm will allow a small amount of gold and maintenance at every level to 'upgrade' my unit. Otherwise, I am just going to stack a massive amount of STR on this guy and maybe some wisdom and beat the ever living hell out of anything that happens to be in my path :3

The basic modifications (armor, HD, weapons, and ability scores) are available to all constructs, and can AFAIK be applied after the construct's creation as long as it's rendered temporarily inactive.

[thecrimsondawn]

Just talked to the DM. He LOVES my idea of having a super strong character, with a glaring zelda boss like weak point that is my brain. He is also giving me the ability to learn and evolve past my structural standards. A couple questions just came to my head, and while I write this, I am looking this up as well.

1) As a war machine, can I wear armor that gives an armor bonus, or am I stuck with bracers of armor? Obviously I can 'enchant' my natural armor to +5(10)
2) As a construct, I have the option to 'enchant' my physical weaponry, as per Weapon Modifications. This should be legal and far more cheap then the god awfully expensive amulet of mighty fists right?
3) While I am not going to do this yet, I should be able to upgrade my physical stats with raw gold thanks to Ability Score Modification rules right? What kind of check would this be for my crafter to do? homunculus requires a heal check instead of a spellcraft/craft check so I want to make sure my crafter has the proper items to do the job before he goes NPC.
4) Its not an animated object, but is there any way to make a war machine out of a much better metal (such as Addy?) and if so, what type of bonuses would it give? Im assuming this one is way too far up in the air, but you cant blame me for trying :)


Edit: So I did some research, and yes, constructs can wear armor. Depending on the size of the construct, the armor may need to be specialty fitted or made, but other then that, they can benefit from an armor bonus this way. They also can be enchanted just fine, but the natural armor enchantment is an enhancement bonus, and thus, will not stack with amulet of natural armor. Still curious about what type of skill check is needed to 'upgrade' your construct tho.