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[Reaper_Monkey]

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I'm thinking of making a warforged character who embraces his construct side and maintains a highly armoured and electricity theme. End goal is to obtain Warforged Juggernaut and to use shield and fist styled fighting (using a battlefist) which taps into the shocking fist feat. The campaign is gestalt so I'll be having warblade down one side, and anything else with the Warforged Juggernaut on the other to help emphasise the electricity powered theme.

Due to losing any benefit from normal healing when I get deep enough into the juggernaut, and having noone else in the party able to use repair, I need some form of self maintenance or other source of healing. I came to the conclusion that if I could heal electricity damage then I could possibly convince the Dragon Fire Adept in the group to get lighting breath and then just always stand in the firing line (where I should be as a tank anyway). It would also really fit with the characters theme, and be handy so I could use my shocking fist more frequently.

My goal therefore is to obtain a method of healing a warforged from electricity damage. I've looked into possibly adding templates to a warforged, but there are very few which can be added to constructs and I can't find any which do what I need. I did find the half-golem templates which looked appealing due to maintaining the construct theme but they cannot be added to constructs (logically enough), and the only ones who heal from lightning are the organic ones.

So, does anyone know how I can do this, via feats, class abilities, templates or even using a golem that as the ability as a base and making it viable for a player character (not a perfect solution but it will do so long as it can keep the metal theme)?

EDIT: Thanks for the additional help, but this character did get scrapped in the end, too many ifs in its build so it got rejected. I'm now working on a different character entirely as I couldn't find a way to build this one legally.

[Sir.Swindle]

There is a variety of Planetouched in the Fiend Folio the is healed by electricity and can cast shocking grasp (once per day?).

Not really what your after but you might be able to convince your DM to let you do a "Half-Warforged" template, +1 gives warforged traits/treated as warforged for feats and classes, somthing kinda like a half-golem. Apply it to the Planetouched

[Grumman]

Could you ask your DM about combining the benefits and penalties of the Warforged and Mechanatrix races, for a +1 total LA? That's the only way I can think of, beyond single use spells.

ETA: What he said.

[charl]

Don't half-iron golem characters gain an ability like that?

[JeenLeen]

I have two ideas, the first of which might not work.

1. A very roundabout and inefficient way to do it would be to take a class of arcane caster or have UMD to be able to use wands of Repair.
Take Spell Thematics, themed on electricity, to make uses of repair an electrical spell. It won't give you healing from non-originally healing electricity (i.e., all real electricity).

Although I'm not sure if you'd need Metamagic Spell Trigger (or whatever the feat is that allows you to apply metamagic to wands) or to have to craft the wands yourself to apply your Spell Thematics to it. Your DM might work with you on this.


2. Depending on the power level of your game, with gestalt you might be able to take enough caster levels to be able fight well and to heal yourself with your own Repair spells reasonably well, 'Spell Thematic'ed into electricity.

If a psionic version of Repair exists, psionics might work better thematically as its your inner AI circuitry that manifests the power, not arcane knowlege you happen to know.

[Douglas]

I think homebrew is your only good option here. I'd suggest trying something like a half storm elemental template. There are half elemental templates for the four basic types in Manual of the Planes that you could try to base it off of.

[crazedloon]

I would say run it by your dm is the only way to go about this particularly because you would end up with a character who can punch himself better (i.e. shocking fisting yourself) some dms may see that as cheesy or ridiculous add onto that the fact that you are trying to bypass the flavor of the WF Juggernaut seems a little ridiculous.

also there is the option of maxing your craft skill and just repairing yourself at night

[Cyclocone]

You can do Incarnate Construct--> Half-Golem; not very thematic though.

Or you could refluff the Frostrager and take it from there.

[Foryn Gilnith]

the fact that you are trying to bypass the flavor of the WF Juggernaut

What is this flavor that is allegedly being violated? Because we seem to have different perceptions of what "the flavor of the WF Juggernaut" is.

[RagnaroksChosen]

not a way to heal from electrical... as i can't think of any... but a grat combo with battle fist/shocking fist, is stone power from TOB feat that works like power attack accept it doesn't add dmg it ads temp HP.

[Grumman]

I would say run it by your dm is the only way to go about this particularly because you would end up with a character who can punch himself better (i.e. shocking fisting yourself)

Not if you use my and Swindle's suggestion. At absolute best, you are dealing 10 points of damage and healing only 8.33.

add onto that the fact that you are trying to bypass the flavor of the WF Juggernaut seems a little ridiculous.

What are you talking about? Warforged Juggernauts cannot be healed by Conjuration [healing] spells. That's all. Relying on abnormal means of healing like Repair spells (or lightning) is what you're supposed to be doing.

[Reaper_Monkey]

Don't half-iron golem characters gain an ability like that?

No, iron golems treat electricity as slow.

I would say run it by your dm is the only way to go about this particularly because you would end up with a character who can punch himself better (i.e. shocking fisting yourself) some dms may see that as cheesy or ridiculous add onto that the fact that you are trying to bypass the flavor of the WF Juggernaut seems a little ridiculous.

also there is the option of maxing your craft skill and just repairing yourself at night

I did consider the punching myself to heal issue, but the usual implementation of healing via elemental damage (more so with the golems) is to heal 1 for every 3 damage deal. As the shocking fist only deals 1d4 per 1 health sacrificed I'd be unable to ever heal from using it. I also don't see how I'm trying to bypass the flavour of the WF juggernaut at all...

I'm aware I can self heal with craft checks, but with no other form of healing at all I need only get into one bad fight or overuse my shocking fist and I'll be out of the fight for days. The suggestions of picking up some arcane classes to benefit from casting repair myself is an option, but I'd rather avoid doing that as I want the character to be a melee based killing machine with armour covered in more armour and the arcane spell failure chance of that is too hideous to even think about.

stone power from TOB feat that works like power attack accept it doesn't add dmg it ads temp HP.

This does look like a handy want to use my shocking fist more often without worrying about the hp burn. Although the reduction to hit might mean I only use my shocking fist against easier foes to down them easier, but still very handy and I'll see if I can work it into my build.

It looks like I'm going to have to homebrew or simply break a few rules to really conceptualise this as I want it to be though, which is what I figured going in. Either that or abandon the idea and fall back to something like crusader for their healing on hits which doesn't count as healing from the healing subschool so I can still benefit from it even whilst being a WF Juggernaut.

EDIT to avoid double post:

Lots of clever things that I also just said

Yes thank you, this is exactly what I'm trying to achieve, and it would've saved me the effort of typing it up if I had seen you mention this. I could rely on the crusaders healing as I just mentioned, but I find it hard enough to justify the healing from hurting other people normally, but when its a construct with very little humanity left I couldn't really think of a way of explaining it at all.

But I was already planning on investing some feats so I could get the Aura of Chaos so I could swap stance to that and "overload" whilst dropping lots of health into my shocking fist, as converting 1 health into an exploding 1d4 is very very appealing and fits the erratic electrical discharge feel. So I guess picking up levels of crusader only makes it easier to obtain this.

[Sstoopidtallkid]

If nothing else, devoted Spirit would let you heal yourself, and could be refluffed.

There's a feat in LM, IIRC, called Tomb Tainted soul. It swaps how Neg Energy and Pos Energy affect you. See if you can get something similar homebrewed is the only thing I can think of.

[Grumman]

With Aura of Chaos, I think the self-healing would actually work. You'd heal 1.11 points of damage for every 1 point you inflict upon yourself. Healing yourself for 1 point of damage as a standard action at level 10 doesn't seem broken to me.

[Reaper_Monkey]

With Aura of Chaos, I think the self-healing would actually work. You'd heal 1.11 points of damage for every 1 point you inflict upon yourself. Healing yourself for 1 point of damage as a standard action at level 10 doesn't seem broken to me.

This is actually true, but I'd have no form of healing until this point, and it is requiring me to be in a specific stance, be able to hit myself (should be auto hit, but does require me to not be restrained etc) and is limited in its healing by how many hp I have to fund it. It's still by no means overpowered so shouldn't be a problem.

Anyway, I think I have achieved my end goal! Digging through every template I know, I have found a slightly less than ideal and overly convoluted way of obtaining electricity healing!

A Shadow Warforged Half-Golem (Dragonflesh or flesh)!
It's a +3 LA, means I have to succeed a will save after spending a load of money or lose the character to evil NPCdom, and means I have at least one limb fleshy, but it works.

The shadow creature template can be applied to any corporeal creature and turns it into a magical beast, and the acquired half-golem templates can be applied to magical beasts thus allowing me to pick up some additional construct traits.

I'm thinking graft two dragon wings on and flavour them as having metal bones and visible mechanical workings, whilst having them from a shadow dragon and have my metal body be blackened (and mined from the shadow plane) to explain the shadow creature characteristics. It picks up a lot of stuff I didn't exactly want, but its still mostly useful, in fact the shadow template can even grant fast healing which means I can use my shocking fist every round when on full HP without any care.

Overall its not quite what I pictured, but it solves the problem and is more logical in its implementation than the crusaders self healing through beating other peoples skulls in (which has never made any sense to me except when used by one character who flavoured it as stealing their life force, also had a habit of stealing souls so very much in keeping of the character), and its all legal by the official rules so I don't need to rely on homebrew.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone though!

[Pharaoh's Fist]

Shaaaaaaambling Mooooouuuuund!

[Grumman]

This is actually true, but I'd have no form of healing until this point,

That's not true. You can still be healed by electricity from anything except shocking fist before then, and you only gain immunity to Conjuration (Healing) spells at level 8.

[lord_khaine]

If Repairing yourself was your only goal, then you could also as previous mentioned have looked into adding a few levels of psion, that would both give self repair, as well as whatever refluffed powers you could pick up.

[Reaper_Monkey]

Shaaaaaaambling Mooooouuuuund!

Yes, I know, I will cry myself to sleep if I run into anything immune (or worse still heals from {or even worse still gains free constitution from}) electricity. But I'll still have bludgeoning & slashing 1d8 dam from my battle fist, as well as shield bash (okay not the strongest thing in the universe), and ultimately a pile of bonus damage from warblade maneuvres. So coming across that sort of monster is not the end of the world really.

That's not true. You can still be healed by electricity from anything except shocking fist before then, and you only gain immunity to Conjuration (Healing) spells at level 8.

Well yes, I was meaning I have no means of healing myself, I fully intend on convincing the Dragon Fire Adept in the party to pick up Lightning Breath so I can benefit from that healing me. Although using my shadow warforged half -dragonflesh golem build I should have some fast healing to keep me in positive hp otherwise.

If Repairing yourself was your only goal, then you could also as previous mentioned have looked into adding a few levels of psion, that would both give self repair, as well as whatever refluffed powers you could pick up.

Repairing myself was my main goal, but not my only goal, I did and do want him to be "charged up" by getting hit by electricity, and being able to discharge some of that power to deal more damage to others (ie, shocking fist). I didn't consider psion to tell the truth, because I generally prefer characters that maintain a constant power level whilst adventuring, so try to steer clear of casters (other than warlock) and classes which have noteworthy abilities with per day limits (like barbarian, despite my love for the fluff of the class).

[lord_khaine]

Repairing myself was my main goal, but not my only goal, I did and do want him to be "charged up" by getting hit by electricity, and being able to discharge some of that power to deal more damage to others (ie, shocking fist). I didn't consider psion to tell the truth, because I generally prefer characters that maintain a constant power level whilst adventuring, so try to steer clear of casters (other than warlock) and classes which have noteworthy abilities with per day limits (like barbarian, despite my love for the fluff of the class).

As long as you get what you want, if your gm throws dice after you when you explain your build then you can allways come back for fresh ideas.

[JeenLeen]

There's a feat in LM, IIRC, called Tomb Tainted soul. It swaps how Neg Energy and Pos Energy affect you. See if you can get something similar homebrewed is the only thing I can think of.

This feat, combined with the Dread Necromancer class from Heroes of Horror, enables the Dread Necromancer to heal via a touch attack (Su ability, deals negative energy to hurt living/heal undead.)

Perhaps your DM could use that as a base for a homebrew with electricity. Basically, the cost for neg energy healing is:
1. a specific class (with evil connotations)
2. a feat
3. now hurt by positive energy

The templating sounds okay, though. +3 LA might not be crippling in gestalt, depending on what the other players are making. As long as you are on equal power-levels, it should be okay. And as free healing can get cheesey, it might make up for it if the others take 0 LA races/templates on both sides.
If you need something cheap to stay on par with the other players, I hear Mineral Warrior is a nice +1 LA that you might be able to add on; not too familiar with it myself.

EDIT: to be clear, with Tomb-Tainted Soul et al., I meant to use that as a basis for refluffling or homebrewing things to do what the OP wants.

[Sliver]

There's a feat in LM, IIRC, called Tomb Tainted soul. It swaps how Neg Energy and Pos Energy affect you. See if you can get something similar homebrewed is the only thing I can think of.

I don't think Pos Energy heals you normally, pretty sure it will damage you just fine if you don't channel it through a curative spell specifically.. TTS is better that way as you are cured by any negative energy..

[Reaper_Monkey]

The templating sounds okay, though. +3 LA might not be crippling in gestalt, depending on what the other players are making. As long as you are on equal power-levels, it should be okay. And as free healing can get cheesey, it might make up for it if the others take 0 LA races/templates on both sides.

As long as you get what you want, if your gm throws dice after you when you explain your build then you can allways come back for fresh ideas.

Heh, with any luck it'll be accepted, and the +3 LA shouldn't be an issue really as its a cost worth paying imo. The "free" healing is also countered by the chance of losing the character, and the fact that the immunity to magic from half-golem swings both ways. Even more so as warforged enchant their bodies to improve their armour, so I may have to try and suggest that the armour gets enchanted before it gets attached to me after I pick up that template (which as it improves when I level in WF Juggernaut is implied that its being added to).

It's a very fiddly build overall and I'd prefer it to be cleaner but it does what I want it to and so long as I can make those will saves when I get my wings I think it'll look and be pretty badass. If it gets rejected then I've a lot of alternatives to work with in this thread so I should be able to make something work, thanks again everyone.

[Reaper_Monkey]

if your gm throws dice after you when you explain your build

Your not a prophet by chance are you?

Okay, so it has been pointed out to me that the half-golem templates (found in the MM2 or here for the dragonflesh one) doesn't have an LA but does boost CR, and templates or races with no LA are not intended to be used by player characters. It's not been dismissed, but it has been highlighted that perhaps it shouldn't be played, more so as the character could be lost on a single roll.

Is it fair to say that my shadow warforged half-dragonflesh golem is actually a +6 LA (+3 for shadow and +3 for the half-golem as thats the CR plus) and allowed to be played like that? I know it's a really cheesy work around to add it in the first place, but is it really overpowered in anyway? I lose a lot in the build as it is, even though I do gain a lot of interesting abilities, I think it balances out quite fairly.

What do you guys think? Fair, or send him to the scrapheap and rebuild something less cheesy? (Also, sorry for the double post, but my last post was all "woo, I'm done" whereas now I'm most definitely not)

[Darrin]

Hmm. What about Warlock+Eldritch Disciple with Healing Blast...? I don't think you can combine that with electrical damage, though.

[AslanCross]

not a way to heal from electrical... as i can't think of any... but a grat combo with battle fist/shocking fist, is stone power from TOB feat that works like power attack accept it doesn't add dmg it ads temp HP.

Yeah, this is what I was thinking. Just reflavor the healing of the Devoted Spirit strikes as electricity.

Of course, that doesn't mean that someone can zap you with Chain Lightning to heal you.

[Mongoose87]

Yeah, this is what I was thinking. Just reflavor the healing of the Devoted Spirit strikes as electricity.

Of course, that doesn't mean that someone can zap you with Chain Lightning to heal you.

I think the whole point of the build is to have him literally by electricity, thus making the Shocking Fist both increase his damage, and heal him.

[AslanCross]

I think the whole point of the build is to have him literally by electricity, thus making the Shocking Fist both increase his damage, and heal him.

Yeah, can't think of anyway that's gonna happen without homebrew. It's also kinda vague as to what type the damage he deals to himself is. One source can have multiple types of damage, anyway. As far as I can tell, it's untyped.

[Darrin]

I think I might have found something that works... but it requires 9 levels of cleric. Racial substitution level, Dragonblood Cleric 9th (Races of the Dragon p. 107):

"To use energy sustenance, the cleric expends a turn energy use as an immediate action when she is subjected to an attack that deals energy damage of the specified type. If she does so, she heals 1 point of damage for every 3 points of damage the attack would otherwise deal."

Unfortunately its a (Su) ability, so a warforged would only get half of the healing benefit: 1 hp for every 6 points of electricity damage. And I think a warforged juggernaut would get zero hp.

Does anyone know an easy way to get rid of that half-healing restriction on Warforged? Does Dragonborn of Bahumat work? Or a template that switches the type to dragon/fey/outsider?

Other than that... use the Incarnate Construct spell/template in Savage Species to turn the Warforged into a humanoid. Then apply the Half-Golem: Flesh/Dragonflesh template to get electrical healing. (Dragonflesh doesn't go irrevocably berserk on you.)

[deuxhero]

Become a shambling mound?

edit:Wait, you have a DFA in your party, why doesn't he have UMD, it's a class skill for him!