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I didn't make it to round 2 in RPG Superstar 2013, so I'm posting the archetype I created for feedback and general home game use.
It includes the Mechanized template in it's word count.
The mechanized simple template can be used to create mecha-dinosaurs from regular dinosaurs and giant robots from giants with little additional work.
If there is enough enthusiasm I might re-write this into an alternate base class with unique spells, feats and Numerian technology based evolutions.
Let me know that you think:
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Mechanists blend the super-science of the Silver Mountain with magic. Exiled by the Technic League who feared their power, the Mechanists moved their practice to The bordering River Kingdoms. Finding kinship with outlaws and exiles, Mechanists often hire themselves off to pirate crews.
Class Skills: The mechanist gains Disable Device as a class skill.
Mechanical Genius (Ex): A mechanist uses Intelligence, rather than Charisma, to determine all class features and effects relating to the summoner class, such as the Spells and Summon Monster class features.
Mecha Eidolon: At 1st level the summoner's Eidolon becomes enhanced by the Summoner's blending of conjuration and super-science. The Eidolon gains the mechanized template.
This replaces Life Link as well as the Eidolon's Evasion, Devotion, and Improved Evasion.
Automaton Summoner (Su): At 1st level Creatures summoned by the mechanist's summon monster spells and spell-like abilities gain the mechanized template if they would normally gain the celestial or fiendish template.
The Mechanist removes elementals, and outsiders from the lists of what he can summon with his Summon Monster spell-like ability, adding the following to those lists:
Summon Monster: Clockwork Spy**.
Summon Monster II: Animated Object (Small).
Summon Monster III: Clockwork Servant**.
Summon Monster IV: Animated Object (Medium).
Summon Monster V: Animated Object (Large), Clockwork Soldier**, Gearsman Robot†.
Summon Monster VI: Animated Object (Huge).
Summon Monster VII: Alchemical Golem*, Animated Object (Gargantuan).
Summon Monster VIII: Animated Object (Colossal), Myrmidon Robot†.
Summon Monster IX: Clockwork Leviathan**, Iron Golem.
* Bestiary 2
** Bestiary 3
† Inner Sea Bestiary
Annihilator Class Allies (Su): At 19th level, a Mechanist adds Adamantine Golem*, Annihilator Robot†, and Clockwork Goliath** to the list of creatures he can summon with his Summon Monster spell-like ability.
Mechanized creatures dwell in Axis, their living bodies made partially or entirely out of component parts. Mechanized creatures are summoned by the summon monster spells of a Mechanist
A mechanized creature's CR increases by +1 only if the base creature has 5 or more HD. A mechanized creature's quick and rebuild rules are the same.
__Rebuild Rules:__Defensive Abilities: gains Mecha-Resiliance (Ex) resistance or immunity to Mind affecting effects, necromancy effects, paralysis, poison, and stun effects as noted on the table; gains Para-constructed (Ex) For the purposes of effects targeting creatures by type (such as a ranger's favored enemy and bane weapons), this creature counts as both it's own type (such as animal, humanoid (giant), or outsider) and construct.; A mechanized creature gains Constructed (Ex) (see inevitable subtype, Bestiary2, page 307) if the base creature has 11 or more HD; Weaknesses Vulnerable to Electricity.
Hit Dice__________Mecha-resiliance_________________Hardness______Special_______ _______
__1-4_______________+4_________________________---_________Para-constructed _______
__5-10______________+8_________________________5__________Indefatigable____ ______
__11+______________----_________________________10_________Constructed_____ ______
i really like what you got here.
my note is with the 5 immunities (not sure how to spell that) probably gives it more then just a +1 to cr my guess a +2 at lower HD and a +1 at higher i would split the differences a 6HD my self
but this did get my copy past of approval
I've been meaning to comment on this, but lacked the time. Praise is great, but criticism is useful :)
Class Skills: Free (useful) skill, OK. Probably should've replaced Handle Animal, which would've made controlling non-robotic summons a bit harder.
Mechanical Genius: Straight buff. We're now the skill monkey of the group. It does makes sense though, so I expect a weaker replacement later on.
Mecha Eidolon: The name is lame, and possibly IP infringing, although I forget which "mecha" related word is protected. It gets rid of devotion, something whose effects it gets again, so that's a wash. It loses Evasion (level 2 ability), devotion (level 6), and improved evasion (level 14). More on the mechanized template below. Evasion will probably be the worth more at low levels than these bonuses, so it's probably OK over all.
Mechanized template: Counting as both makes sense. Lots of big bonuses, but not too many of those will be happening at low levels. Still, they could make a big difference. Weakness to electricity is an OK touch, and I do know where you got it from.
Oh, and indefatigable isn't mentioned anywhere. I mean, I get what it's trying to do, make you immune to fatigue, but still. Don't rely on people knowing +7th grade vocabulary, Gygax be darned! But, you ran into the word count limit.
And hardness. Hardness is interesting and to me is the main draw of this. Unfortunately, I think it may be a bit much. Here's why:
Energy attacks deal half damage to most objects. Divide the damage by 2 before applying the object's hardness. Some energy types might be particularly effective against certain objects, subject to GM discretion. For example, fire might do full damage against parchment, cloth, and other objects that burn easily. Sonic might do full damage against glass and crystal objects.
So once they have 5+ HD, all energy attacks are dealing half damage to them. Fireball that would normally do 35 damage? It's going to be doing 12. Nasty stuff.
Automaton Summoner: Now we're getting interesting. I think most of the robots and alchemical golem are in alright places. You actually have the alchemical golem pointing to the adamantine golem. I'm wary of giving on-demand adamantine golems, especially since the summoner would need to pay for the services when using gate. Although maybe they would still need to with this archetype, as it's not really clear that this replaces Gate. It's kind of a strange corner case where there's no list of gate-able creatures, so we can still technically gate in outsiders and elementals.
Anyways, I don't like the addition of Animated Object to the list. Summon Monster is already a very versatile spell, and the ability to just call in whatever object you want, and then configure it to whatever you need right now, is too good. If you're summoning down a list, do they all need to have the same construction point options? Do they all have to be the same object? This aspect of the ability is too powerful IMO.
Also, the name. I did get what it was doing almost immediately, but that was due to the (Summoner) tag at the end. Mechanist to me means someone who is less interested in magic, and more about the technological means to accomplish things, which obviously clashes with what this archetype does. Just a thought.
Here's another thought: what if we replace summon monster w/animate objects? still 3+int mod/day, CL equals your Mechanist level, etc. and in lieu of gate we can animate collossal objects (which you can't do until CL 32, which isn't going to happen, for the most part).
Would that make up for the stronger eidolon?
I've been meaning to comment on this, but lacked the time. Praise is great, but criticism is useful :)
Agreed, I really appreciate the critique, thank you :D
Class Skills: Free (useful) skill, OK. Probably should've replaced Handle Animal, which would've made controlling non-robotic summons a bit harder.
I agree, probably should replace ride as well given the bump to skill ranks mechanical genius implies.
Mechanical Genius: Straight buff. We're now the skill monkey of the group. It does makes sense though, so I expect a weaker replacement later on.
Mecha Eidolon: The name is lame, and possibly IP infringing, although I forget which "mecha" related word is protected. It gets rid of devotion, something whose effects it gets again, so that's a wash. It loses Evasion (level 2 ability), devotion (level 6), and improved evasion (level 14). More on the mechanized template below. Evasion will probably be the worth more at low levels than these bonuses, so it's probably OK over all.
The biggest feedback I got at my FLGS when showing this archetype around was that all the immunities they were getting and hardness seemed like too much at low levels. After level 6 people generally agreed that it wouldn't matter as much.
Mechanized template: Counting as both makes sense. Lots of big bonuses, but not too many of those will be happening at low levels. Still, they could make a big difference. Weakness to electricity is an OK touch, and I do know where you got it from.
Oh, and indefatigable isn't mentioned anywhere. I mean, I get what it's trying to do, make you immune to fatigue, but still. Don't rely on people knowing +7th grade vocabulary, Gygax be darned! But, you ran into the word count limit.
And hardness. Hardness is interesting and to me is the main draw of this. Unfortunately, I think it may be a bit much. Here's why:
Energy attacks deal half damage to most objects. Divide the damage by 2 before applying the object's hardness. Some energy types might be particularly effective against certain objects, subject to GM discretion. For example, fire might do full damage against parchment, cloth, and other objects that burn easily. Sonic might do full damage against glass and crystal objects.So once they have 5+ HD, all energy attacks are dealing half damage to them. Fireball that would normally do 35 damage? It's going to be doing 12. Nasty stuff.
Wow, nice catch. Had to look up the context for that, and that is from rules specifically dealing with breaking inanimate and unattended objects.
It also leaves room for DM interpretation. Is it too much for the eidolon to have so much resistance to energy? If yes, then he can rule that the eidolon's living mechanical flesh is just as vulnerable to energy as a normal creature, since they share the vulnerabilities of living creatures.
Automaton Summoner: Now we're getting interesting. I think most of the robots and alchemical golem are in alright places. You actually have the alchemical golem pointing to the adamantine golem. I'm wary of giving on-demand adamantine golems, especially since the summoner would need to pay for the services when using gate. Although maybe they would still need to with this archetype, as it's not really clear that this replaces Gate. It's kind of a strange corner case where there's no list of gate-able creatures, so we can still technically gate in outsiders and elementals.
Anyways, I don't like the addition of Animated Object to the list. Summon Monster is already a very versatile spell, and the ability to just call in whatever object you want, and then configure it to whatever you need right now, is too good. If you're summoning down a list, do they all need to have the same construction point options? Do they all have to be the same object? This aspect of the ability is too powerful IMO.
Ack, Annihilator Class Allies was supposed to replace gate and my writeup of the indefatigable special quality was supposed to be included in the mechanized template. I'll have to throw up a revised version later today.
As for adding these constructs as well as versatile animated objects, I wanted the summoner to trade the versatility of elementals and outsiders for mechanical creatures of equivalent CR. Elementals can glide through stone walls or fly through the air with perfect maneuverability. I thought giving them up and replacing them with animated machines of the mechanist's description and function was one of the more balanced out things about this archetype, as the objects replace the elementals at the same interval in the summon monster list.
I'll concede that it would require some play-testing or additional mechanics. I had an idea about requiring specially prepared drafting scrolls as a focus for summoning animated objects requiring a knowledge engineering check to assign construction points to his animated objects, but I knew I didn't have the word count available for that.
I gave the adamantine golem some serious thought. The thing can wreak some serious havoc.In the end, because summons disappear when their hp reaches zero, and un-kill-ability was one of the core conceits of the golem, it was about as balanced as any other option a class receives at 19th and 20th level.
You might consider a special material component for the Adamantine golem (similar to what you might pay for gate), as well.
Also, you could consider scaling DR/- or DR/Adamantine in place of hardness for the Mechanized template.
Since that's the only location that really deals with hardness that I'm aware of, I'm fairly certain that aspect of the hardness rules would apply too. If creatures with hardness aren't affected, then I'm not sure how to figure out which rules regarding hardness do carry over to creatures.
The half-damage from ranged weapons against hardness hurts too. Might be better off with DR of some sort.
Dotting because it says Mecha-Eidolon, Silver Mountain and Technic League...
Will look it over later..,
Now that word count is no longer a concern I am going to take a more comprehensive look at the summoner class.
I'm currently implementing the concept of fixed blue-prints for summoning animated objects, which I am tentatively assigning the name "schematics." I'm not sure how to intuitively price the material cost of schematics, I'm thinking: spell level squared x (some number) gp. I am working on a way to summon mechanical traps as well.
I am on the fence between including traps in the summon monster lists or creating a series of spells like create pit and its ilk.
I see summoning machines as a way to circumvent the unworkable crafting rules. You can have temporary machine allies during combat or for a number of minutes during which you can make creative use of them. Their temporary nature prevents players from stockpiling machine allies to an unreasonable degree.
After that, the next item on the agenda is evolutions representing technology from the silver mount. Lasers, gatling guns, plasma lances, force fields, evolutions featuring skymetal and the like.