bulldogc's page

Alright, here's a question for the people who frequent this product page. What do you feel the tinker is missing, other than the following?

1: Connectivity with Paizo classes

2: A system to integrate technology into the game on a "tech level" basis.

3: Feats.

Fun schticks, further customization options, just let it all out. It'll be 2015's headliner Kickstarter, after all.

Mostly for me stuff previously, mentioned here is a must add I think. A stat block for a basic automaton would be helpful for setting up initially and help clarify what the basic version can do(smash attack speed ect)

Some of the stuff could use some clarification, for example as the prereq for mega droid falling in between when you can choose it. adding deploy automations/day would be handy added to the basic class table I think, its easy to miss when reading though the class feature. It might be worth considering reworking the great innovations slightly to be more inline with rogue/slayer talents, at a certain level let people take a greater in place of a regular rather then gaining them at set levels and in super limited quantities.

I think some of the bits could use some balancing still as well, for example a level 20 tinker with all his bots in play and in masters presence have AC and effective attack modifiers that rivel most fighters each(often far more AC in fact), given their stupid nature this might not be problematic but could possibly be unbalanced some. Also some of the inventions seem somewhat pointless for the most part, for example why spend 4(I think?) BP for a crossbow, headmount, reloader, and aerial wep mount(and maybe a quicer, if you still need one with the reloader for +1bp) when I can get the exact same effect (plus more) by giving it arms, crossbow, and quiver for 3bp.
also many of the greater innovations are actually weaker then the normal ones. Prismatic strike for example would be a decent innovation, but as one of 3 greaters, it is super weak. Retaliation and We fight as one I suspect have rarely if ever been taken due to the requirement of honorary tinker. These feats seem more focused towards marshal classes who are unlikely to have high int or spell craft, let alone justify the number of feats required to get them/make them worth wile. Also it might be nice to remove the honorary tinker prereq if you already know directives from some other source. This could open the door to some archetypes for other classes to synergize better.
Also I was never sure if this was intentional or not but the Alpha stats don't follow the standard for monster size changes, assuming they are suppose to be automatons in every way just more so, starting str and dex should be 14/8 not 12 since they are medium now not small, or possibly 16/10 if they were intended to have a boost in basic stats for being special?

Question, How is it possible for a tinker to get Megadroid at level 7 when you don't get a greater innovation till level 10? Can the extra innovation feat be used to buy this?

also how do you create automatons of different sizes other then the base size of small?

megadroid and gigadroid are the only way that I'm aware of.

@Maxximilius

I typically interpret it as this, once they act on a directive that is their init which typically is on the tinkerer's turn (first time they act) so for example should you give them a defend command and they act on that before you act in combat, they go just after the init of the attacker. If an honorary tinker gives them an attack command first it moves on their init ect. Only movement and standard action types things such as disarming and striking with a blade ect happen on their init. Activating abilities and the like happen immediacy when commanded. see the following example

An Honorary Tinker starts combat at init 20, Owning tinker uses switft action to halt drone, Honorary trinker orders drone to attack target. drone performs its "turn" moving to and attacking target. is now at init 20.

At init 15 another honorary tinker commands it to fire its electroblaster. drone shoots target with electroblaster.

At init 12 target hits and damages drone.

at init 10 the owning tinker tells it to active repair pack, drone heals for 2 damage

at init 20, first person does something irrelivent to drone, drone continues to attack target.

at init 15 the HT commands another electroblaster.

drone gets badly damaged at init 12 by target.

at init 10 the tinker decides to explode it and gives a kamakazi directive. The drone explodes immediately.

Since my group has a few honorary tinkerers this approach seems to work best for us, it also makes alittle sense mechanically, honorary tinkers use up their own actions to activate a "loaned" ability via the drone instead of one of their own, the drone takes its "turn" to perform simple actions such as movement and attacking(and is still limited to just 1 per turn). Even though the done is sort of getting multiple actions, its really not the drone using up an action but the player.

So I have three quick questions regarding the Weapon Mount.

1 - Does the Weapon Mount grant Proficiency with the mounted crossbow, or do I need to also equip the Simple Weapon: Crossbow invention as well?

2 - If it DOES grant Proficiency, is that any crossbow mounted (such as a Heavy Crossbow or a Light Repeating Crossbow) or a specific 'group' (i.e. Simple Weapon Crossbows)?

3 - With the Weapon Mount, how does it affect a 'ridiculous' weapon such as the Double Crossbow (with imparts a -4 to hit WITH proficiency), the Hand Bombard (which knocks you over if not 'braced' against a wall or similar steady object), or the Double Hackbut (which has it's own mini-cart for rolling around).

Ill toss some help into the mix that I think should be on the ball, the easiest way to rule out inventions is like this. If it doesn't say it does it, it doesn't do it. They are all very specific, so with the weapon mount for example, you could provide a bot with a weapon mount for an xbow, but if you don't give it a prof with the weapon that mount never even gets loaded with a weapon, never mind allow the bot to use it. with the special xbows you would likely need gm approval, but since they are both likely exotic profs you wont be getting them quickly. I would assume that the wep prof includes the knowledge to brace when firing the weapon, in which case the bot could do that.

The pdf keeps mentioning a superior electroshocker invention without actually providing one. Where is it?

there is a description mentioned in the summary which suggests that it allows 2 out of the 3 exclusive electro inventions to function at the same time. I would suspect at a BP cost of 2, though that's just a guess.

I've also got a quick alpha question. Since the simple weapon prof feat applies to all weapons(when taken as a feat) If I give it simple weapon prof as one of his feats, can it then pick up and use any simple weapon I give him? would this extend to armor profs if the armor was specially made for its frame?
Or I suppose, if it has the simple wep prof feat, does it deploy with 1 of every simple weapon?

Found a typo for ya, in the main book page 29, in the level 4 combat maneuver melee example you list slow repair module instead of stout design as a "design" innovation.

Lord Mhoram, their speed is sized based, so small is 20 feet, medium 30 feet ect.

I have a follow up however to that one, do their base stats change if using Enlarge design per normal monster enlargement rules? Also if the Alpha is given limited use inventions such as the repair kit, how are those items restocked since re-summoning the alpha doesn't really happen too often.

Thanks for the response, some of the early examinations of these robot configurations has been head scratchy but they are slowly but surely being worked out :P
A couple of things that might be worth putting into the book for clarity is stuff like a sample level 1 automaton in a monster stat block style. 3.5 psionic (I suspect elsewhere as well) did this with the astral construct and it made recreating the creature on a pet sheet so much easier. The way things are laid out now a lot of questions remain unanswered definitively, for example, should they move at the normal 20 feet for a small creature, do they get the attack/ac modifiers for being small? Do they get the big strength/nat armor boosts and dex drops for eventually becoming large? a lot of these kinds of things could be very nicely summed up with 1 page of state blocks.
That said, still bought all of the books and I'm looking forward to becoming an innovator with my custom made gnomish shuriken launcher which will be mounting arms that fire 2 more shuriken launchers with a bot standing by to reload them:P
Also, would LOVE to see the "ironman" class, I'm already planning on throwing a cockpit into my gigadroid and "wearing" that around:P

2 others that I thought of as well,
1. If using a weapon mount does the bot deploy with a crossbow, if so what kind/size? If not can I place any crossbow in it including repeating ones?
2. If a bot has arms and a weapon mount and the arms are wielding an crossbow is it also proficient with that crossbow due to the weapon mount? Can it attack with both weapons at full base attack or does two weapon fighting apply?

Quick question about inventions. A number of them have skill ranks for a pre-req. to meet these requirements does the tinker need the skill or does the automaton?