Race Idea: Walking Ship

[Admiral Squish]

So, I read a story about a warforged character who played as though he was a ship for a civilation of tiny people, and the idea inspired me. I want to create a race that is, in actuality, a swarm of tiny beings piloting a human-szed construct ship. Unfortunately, with my multiple other projects, I haven't been able to really devote enough time to figure out how to handle it properly. So, I'm turning to the playground to help me figure it out.

Some things I definitely want to include is the ability to 'divert power' from one or more sections toward other purposes, just so you can say 'divert power to weapons' and be in-character. Another thing I was considering is the idea of independant abilities. Like, you would have an action each round that can be used to do ship-related actions. Like, you could fire a secondary weapon system, or activate a ship feature, or deploy a damage control team or something.

The first challenge is to figure out how the construct bodies work, exactly. Do you select from a number of models at 1st level? Do you build the construct out of a list of traits like a eidolon? Can you buy upgrades? Can you freely move from one model to another? Is the body a separate entity from the swarm that interacts with it, or are they treated as the same being? Does the body come in different shapes, other than the traditional 'human' shape, like quadrupedal forms, or even ship-like shapes?

Then, the detail of the occupants. My original idea was something like a new breed of formian, with a hive mind, but I've been thinking more about it of late. If I were to make it such that the occupants couldn't survive outside the walking ship, then I could increase the interdependence, which would allow them to be treated as a single entity in more cases. On the other hand, allowing them to be independent of each other allows some cool options.

[Xerlith]

This seems to make more sense as a class/prestige class for Warforged, just saying.

[togapika]

Just sayin'...

[Admiral Squish]

This seems to make more sense as a class/prestige class for Warforged, just saying.

I don't see how that would work, honestly. You couldn't start suddenly having tiny people inside you.

Just sayin'...

...Technically accurate, but perhaps not quite the flavor I was hoping for.

[LOTRfan]

I don't see how that would work, honestly. You couldn't start suddenly having tiny people inside you.

Sure you can. I mean, there are Prestige Classes where you grow new appendages, or become covered in a shield of living vermin, or even have your insides rearranged so that you're resistant to critical hits. Why not have one that allows you to create a pact with Fine creatures that allows them to live inside you in exchange for certain benefits?

That being said, however, "I simply want this to be a race rather than a prestige class" is reason enough to choose the former option over the latter.

[Cicciograna]

I don't see how that would work, honestly. You couldn't start suddenly having tiny people inside you.

You could always eat a rotten egg salad sandwich from an interstellar vending machine.

[zabbarot]

What size are the things living inside the Construct and do you want them to have any actual statistics?

A good mechanic to ape for the bit about "All power to the shields!" might be the Illumian's sigil thing. Basically a short list of buffs you can cycle though.

[DracoDei]

For "all power to shields" I would recommend the following options:
First give them a racial deflection bonus to armor class... probably at least +2 This is a big deal... maybe make it natural armor and/or DR instead... yeah, that works.

So assuming that they have +2 natural armor, and DR 2/magic (scaling both in number and into Adamintine, then Magic AND Adamintine, and finally to /-... but I won't be worrying about any of that here), then they can do one of the following every round as a Swift action (Swift action to maintain):

-2 Natural Armor, NO DR, +2 Dexterity
-2 Natural Armor, NO DR, +2 Strength
-2 Natural Armor, NO DR, -2 Strength, +4 Dexterity
-2 Natural Armor, NO DR, -2 Dexterity, +4 Strength
-2 Strength, -2 Dexterity, +2 DR
-2 Strength, -2 Dexterity, -2 Natural Armor, +4 DR (good for when you just can't avoid getting hit).
-2 Strength, -2 Dexterity, Energy Resistance = ECL/2 to one element (Acid, Cold, Electricity, Fire, Sonic)

This is just a rough draft! You can probably figure out more stuff or tweak it yourself. Remember, these options aren't meant to account for the scaling nature of the DR.



I would recommend starting with a single bodytype, then come up with others after you have that working and lastly rules for the little guys migrating between body types.

I would give immunity to non-AoE [Mind-Affecting] effects, or maybe just giving them a -2 Dexterity rather than anything else for each single-target effect, as several little guys leave their stations to wrestle the enchanted one to the ground to keep him from trying to carry out the enchanter's orders.

[Pokonic]

This seems to make more sense as a class/prestige class for Warforged, just saying.

Indeed. Warforge with Swarm traits could be fun.

[LordofDragons24]

So, from what I gather your premise is that the human body is a vessel, crewed by very tiny people. These tiny people treat the human body much as ship and look at themselves as her crew. I'm feeling like a combination of Osmosis Jones and Star Trek, for some reason.

So, some ideas:

Upgrades do seem cool, the idea of enhancing the human with specific traits, features, clothes and design to improve performance. but also would the idea that the crew can put the human body to work and training, to increase their ships' abilities. As in, the people would be capable of internal repairs, of directing the vessel and of making it interact with the world. And the idea of these characters surviving outside of the body is akin to an explorer out in space- suits, tethered to the main body, limited time outside. A human space shuttle or space station. Possibly even one with an AI? what if the ship even had a conscience? that there were some things the ship could not be ordered to do, or would feel fear? that would be like an AI again, but still, just ideas. Imagine an AI with an authority problem. yikes.

Unless I've completely misunderstood your premise, and in which case ignore my ideas. :P cool idea though.

[ArkenBrony]

you could build it like essentia, where you invest "points" into different systems

[Admiral Squish]

Okay, so far, the idea is that they start as an armless, legless, medium-sized ship. But they can take some time period (I was thinking a week) to build on a component. They get a pool of points to buy components with equal to 10+1/2 HD (So you can add new features on as you level up). You can use the points to buy legs, or hover engines, or weaponry, and so on.

The way I was thinking of dealing with the 'all power to shields' idea was that you could use a swift action to divert power from one component to another component. The diverted from component takes a penalty, and the diverted to component gets a bonus.
I really like the idea of points that can be invested like essentia, but I'm not sure exactly how it would work. How would one determine the number of points available? Should it be based on constitution, or just a set number, or should it scale with level?

EDIT: Also, I'm thinking about whether the ship should be magic-powered or psionic-powered.

[Plerumque]

Could it be more mundane in nature, with the magic/psionic effects being reserved for specific components? Personally, I like the idea of the tiny creatures operating complex mechanisms more than using magic to power it, but you may feel differently.

[Admiral Squish]

Could it be more mundane in nature, with the magic/psionic effects being reserved for specific components? Personally, I like the idea of the tiny creatures operating complex mechanisms more than using magic to power it, but you may feel differently.

Well, my vague idea was that they were extraterrestrial in origin, which would explain why they can't leave the ship and the advanced technology. I figured if I want aliens to fit into the setting of a typical D&D game, they'd have to have some sort of magic that allowed them to cross the astral sea.

I mean, if they arose on earth, why wouldn't they be able to survive in the typical atmosphere?

[Plerumque]

Well, they wouldn't have to be extraterrestrials to not be adapted to the environment in which the games take place, and an explanation that's a bit less out there might work in more games. Even if you definitely want them to be from across the Astral Sea, the chassis of the ship itself doesn't need to be powered by magic, even if its components are. I don't know, it's just a fluff thing.

[paddyfool]

Weird thought: everything that the Elan gets seems very appropriate for this character. If you took a Warforged as base, then slapped on everything from the Elan, and called it LA+1, that would probably be pretty fair. Or if you somehow took only parts of the advantages of both (it doesn't really make sense for it to have all the construct immunities if it's at least partly biological, since, for instance, the occupants would probably still need to eat, breath etc.), and/or gave it some stat penalties, you could maybe get rid of the LA.

Or you could just refluff the Elan and use as-is...

[Admiral Squish]

Weird thought: everything that the Elan gets seems very appropriate for this character. If you took a Warforged as base, then slapped on everything from the Elan, and called it LA+1, that would probably be pretty fair. Or if you somehow took only parts of the advantages of both (it doesn't really make sense for it to have all the construct immunities if it's at least partly biological, for instance, - the occupants would probably still need to eat, breath etc.), and/or gave it some stat penalties, you could maybe get rid of the LA.

Or you could just refluff the Elan and use as-is...

Oooh, good point. I think I'm liking the 'engine points' idea more and more. It'd be kinda like elan, with immediate actions to activate defenses and such, but it's be invest-able like essentia.
Still not sure how one should determine the number of points available, though. con-based? Level-based? Flat number?

[Plerumque]

Level x 2 + Con?

[Admiral Squish]

Level x 2 + Con?

Seems a bit much for a race, honestly...

Idea. there's a race AND a class. The race is the basic chassis of abilities, but the class increases your number of the various sorts of points and allows you to improve your race abilities. You can choose to never take the class, if you so desire, or you can just level up the class and still end up a pretty reasonable character.