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Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Construct Handbook

3.70/5 (based on 6 ratings)
Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Construct Handbook
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We Have the Technology!

Mortals have been obsessed with replicating life through metal and magic, and from their great labors have come all manner of constructs. The secrets to creating these marvels are usually reserved for the powerful and skilled, but now they are finally revealed! Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Construct Handbook opens the book on the powerful knowledge to create constructs and reveals never-before-seen clockworks, golems, and robots. Within these pages, you'll find:

  • Information on how to build a construct, as well as new modifications for your constructs.
  • Archetypes for characters who assemble or fight constructs, such as the construct caller, who builds constructs from planar energies.
  • New magic items that assist with both the creation of constructs and their destruction.
  • More than a dozen new constructs of all types, including clockwork goblins, gladiator robots, sand golems, and the powerful and enigmatic automatons.

Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Construct Handbook is intended for use with the Pathfinder campaign setting, but it can be easily adapted to any fantasy world.

ISBN-13: 978-1-60125-989-9

Other Resources: This product is also available on the following platforms:

Hero Lab Online
Fantasy Grounds Virtual Tabletop
Archives of Nethys

Note: This product is part of the Pathfinder Lost Omens Subscription.

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3.70/5 (based on 6 ratings)

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So this book is great bestiary and construct gm tool :D

5/5 —

I really love Automatons. Hopefully they won't disappear after this book, I want to see those in 2e! Not just flavor wise, they are also mechanically pretty tough. I also really like all the customization options and templates for constructs. I'm not good with words, but I've gotten great use out of this book

Kill your PCs -- with SCIENCE!

5/5 —

...or horrible robots with chainsaws, which is a decent proxy for science.

So, this is a GM-focused book, but with a bit of PC material. The first three chapters are fairly quick, covering general construct construction, archetypes, and magic items. By and large, this section is decent but not exceptional. A few good archetypes (I particularly like the Construct Caller Summoner and the Voice of Brigh Bard), some interesting items (an Automaton Core is a minor artifact with actual methods for PCs or NPCs to get, if they're not very nice), and a bunch of golem manuals.

The meat of the book is the fourth and final chapter, which occupies 2/3rds of the page count. And this has some beauties.

First up are the Automatons, which are my new favorite thing in Pathfinder. Short version, in ancient days the Jistka Imperium was waning, and so as a way to preserve it some of the elders of the Imperium started uploading their citizens minds into thaumaturgical robots. Thus you have the living constructs known as Automatons, ranging from the adorable and familiar-grabbable Familiar Automaton to the mountain-shredding CR 20 Master Automaton. These guys have everything. Imposing stat-lines, gorgeous art, fascinating backstories, oodles of plot-hooks... you want it, you got it.

There are a bunch of new robots, golems, and clockworks. The stand-out here is the CR 17 Gladiator Robot, which is what happens when you give a hyper-effective killing machine a chainsaw and a directive to please the crowd. This thing is basically a slasher movie villain, and thus awesome. At the other side of the spectrum is the Clockwork Goblin, which is small and silly and kind of adorable.

Finally, there are templates, a half-dozen of them. Golems wreathed in caustic mist, constructs haunted by ghosts, constructs with artificial psychic minds, constructs with someone else's brain stuffed into them, commando constructs (as scary as they sound), hilarious malfunctioning recycled constructs, and the most awesome, steam-powered mechanical dragons.

Allow me to repeat: steam-powered mechanical dragons.

Conclusion: This is a GM book primarily, though a few of the archetypes are nice for a PC. It is a very good GM book, useful if you want any kind of constructs in your game.

Automantions, Clockworks, Golems, and Robots...Oh My!

4/5 —

Not what I was expected but interesting non the less. I really like the automations, too bad they came around so late in 1e's life time. The book is more a min-bestiary + players companion then a campaign setting book but I could always use more monsters so that is okay with me.

A year late and not really worth the wait

1/5 —

I was incredibly excited when this was announced last year, as I love constructs and playing characters who make them, however this was mostly a letdown.

Most of the archetypes are just terrible, some like the Paladin one are unbelievably bad, trading away class abilities do something the altered/ruined smite already does. The Wizard one trades away all bonus feats among other things, in return for...a bonus feat. And +50% cost/time to every construct they ever make. Truly amazing.

The bard archetype however I will say was very interesting, though it's weird they gave bards the new way to reanimate constructs.

Alchemist can now kill themselves as an immediate action, so that's great. 1 con drain to heal a homunculus 1d6HP per drain. Phenomenal.

Additionally, in combat healing of constructs is still at the same awful level it's always been at. Fast healing 5,and 10 minutes of greater mending. Have fun.

Hurray.

The one good thing to come of this book are some of the new Templates for constructs, but most of the interesting ones are priced high enough as to mostly be DM territory. Steam was great though, as was the repaired one.

Somewhere between 1-2 of 5 stars, but we round down in Pathfinder.

Flavorful if not Accessible to Players

3/5 —

This book is...ok.
More of a GM's book than a PC's

While it presents a number of construct related character options, it doesn't really make coructs any more accessible for PCs; you still need to be quite high level and exorbitantly rich to really get into them.
Those who thought they would finally be able to march their golem army like the necromancer's shambling horde or the conjurist's heavenly legion are going to be disappointed.

A good chunk of the book focuses on Shory constructs.
An interesting bit of lore, but one ultimately tied to artifacts, making following in the Shory's footsteps a thing that serves best as a campaign focus rather than a PC option in any existing Adventure Paths.
That said, they are pretty cool.

The character options for construct flavored characters are...well, lukewarm.
There are better options in a number of preexisting books.

All in all, good for a GM or if you REALLY want to make a golemmancer.
If you have a casual taste in constructs, I can't really recommend.

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Silver Crusade
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Razmiran is Jason Bulhman, and he totally is with Paizo. James is doing quite a lot with Varisia, since Rise of the Runelords is upcoming. And as far as I recall, Galt didn't really have much in the way of anybody championing it at the moment, Erik is primarily a Nex/Geb person.

We will just have to wait and see what areas will be next.

Technically this was an October release originally so it got pushed back three months.

Yikes! Have we seen a push back like this one before?! I want to say no, but I'm not certain.
Fourshadow wrote:
Yikes! Have we seen a push back like this one before?! I want to say no, but I'm not certain.

You'd do well not to say "no," I reckon. Unless my mind's gone absolutely bonkers (which is definitely a possibility), delays have happened before, and certainly before Starfinder was a thing. It's not the first time that a book has been pushed back several months.

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Maps, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

The Strategy Guide still holds the record, I think. I seem to recall it eventually being pushed back by a whole year or possibly longer.

Yeah, but that was a hardcover book, this is a campaign setting book. Campaign setting books rarely get pushed back more 1-2 months.
Paizo Employee Creative Director
6 people marked this as a favorite.

And "rarely" is the key there—rarely doesn't mean "Never." Delays happen, and usually we try to solve them without having schedule impacts, but sometimes that's impossible.
Silver Crusade

*offers hugs to the Directorsaur*

I wonder if this book is being pushed back to take advantage of some change to the campaign setting product line we do not know of yet.
Grand Lodge

Personally, I don't mind it getting pushed back. I'd Rather wait and bet a polished product.
Paizo Employee Creative Director
6 people marked this as a favorite.

It was pushed back because it needed SIGNIFICANT rewriting and redesign to make it more appropriate for Golarion and Pathfinder alike.

Interesting, a campaign setting book that wasn't Golarion/Pathfinder appropriate enough.

Thank you for the information Mr. Jacobs:)
1 person marked this as a favorite.
James Jacobs wrote:
It was pushed back because it needed SIGNIFICANT rewriting and redesign to make it more appropriate for Golarion and Pathfinder alike.

Huh. Well, best of luck on the rewriting work, and as always, looking forward to seeing the final result!

ASCII 7

ASCII 7?
Pathfinder Maps, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

ASCII 7 = Control-G

I don't know what that means either.

According to my reference (yes, I keep a list around), 7 corresponds to •.

But what does it mean.
Liberty's Edge

Yeah, sure, if you say so.

You'll just have to find that out•••

Yeah, I'm not doing that.
Pathfinder Maps, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Oh -- he's "dotting", or posting so that he can keep track of future updates to this thread.

Well that is disappointing, I was hoping it actually meant something interesting.
1 person marked this as a favorite.
James Jacobs wrote:
It was pushed back because it needed SIGNIFICANT rewriting and redesign to make it more appropriate for Golarion and Pathfinder alike.

You can rebuild it. You have the technology.

This one I can't wait for. I am curious, this feels more like a Player Companion type of product, wonder why it's campaign specific?
2 people marked this as a favorite.
Barachiel Shina wrote:
This one I can't wait for. I am curious, this feels more like a Player Companion type of product, wonder why it's campaign specific?

James Jacobs addressed this here most recently, as well as here earlier.

It is a shame that this one will not be out for Halloween but I wouldn't want a rushed product and/or other issues.
Paizo Employee Creative Director
2 people marked this as a favorite.
Dragon78 wrote:
It is a shame that this one will not be out for Halloween but I wouldn't want a rushed product and/or other issues.

For what it's worth, there's nothing particularly "Halloween" themed about this book. It's not really a "Frankenstein Handbook" at all.

Well golems, clockworks, and robots fit the "Frankenstein" theme and soulbound dolls fit along the lines of "Chucky". So it is not like it wouldn't have fit the holiday season even if it wasn't "Halloween" themed book:)
Paizo Employee Creative Director
1 person marked this as a favorite.

I get where you're coming from, but with horror being such a diverse and mutable genre, almost ANY product we produce could in some way fall into the lines of a horror trope.

My point is, this book isn't designed with horror themes in mind, regardless of whether or not it could have been or whether or not it can.
Dark Archive

I guess this book focuses more on the "scientific" arcane aspects of crafting a construct than on the supernatural ones.

I bet Magnimars "Golemworks" will feature, as well as Nex´s and the Spellscar Desert´s construction sites (Alkenstar).
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

As well as a certain Patriarchal clan out of Eastern Varisia...

I really want to see some Wyrwood stuff in this. And more specific example of construct modifications.
Dark Archive

This book and the "Cradle of the Night" module are the only january products which havn´t been updated when some february products have already been updated.
I hope that´s not a bad sign.

Well if it gets pushed back, it gets pushed back, no big deal.
Web Production Manager
4 people marked this as a favorite.

Unfortunately, this product is not going to be releasing in January 2018. Since a date is necessary in our system to set on delayed products, it now reflects late 2018. When we have more information regarding this product, we'll let everyone know!
Silver Crusade

Okies!
Silver Crusade

Thanks for the update!

Thank you Chris!

Holy crap, I was looking forward to this and now an entire year!? Ugh...the hell?
2 people marked this as a favorite.
Barachiel Shina wrote:
Holy crap, I was looking forward to this and now an entire year!? Ugh...the hell?

I don't think Late 2018 is necessarily meant to reflect the final date so much as they don't know when it will be so put a safe cushion on it until there's an update.

Paizo Employee Chief Creative Officer, Publisher
9 people marked this as a favorite.

Basically this book had a lot of issues in development that caused it to "miss" its window. This is very, very, very difficult to claw back from, as all of our dev resources are already slated to be working on the _next_ thing, so we've got to find our time in bits and pieces.

It's in the mix, and we WILL release it, but I can't tell you exactly when right now (it'll be in 2018). We're in the midst of a developer hiring frenzy that will no doubt help a lot.

Well... I was really interested in this book, even though, rather than the construct thematic, what took said interest was the semblance with the revisited campaign setting "line", from which I count some of favorite setting books.

In contrast, I have near to zero interest in Inner Sea Taverns, so unfortunately I will have let go of the campaign setting line until the Nidal setting book.
Scarab Sages
2 people marked this as a favorite.
Erik Mona wrote:

Basically this book had a lot of issues in development that caused it to "miss" its window. This is very, very, very difficult to claw back from, as all of our dev resources are already slated to be working on the _next_ thing, so we've got to find our time in bits and pieces.

It's in the mix, and we WILL release it, but I can't tell you exactly when right now (it'll be in 2018). We're in the midst of a developer hiring frenzy that will no doubt help a lot.

So before you can finish constructing the construct builder's handbook, you need to construct a proper team of builders of construct builder's handbooks? Sounds complex, I hope you have a handbook.

Dark Archive
Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Well at least it will get released eventually I guess <_< Unlike encounter codex which I'm pretty sure got quietly cancelled

Well at least it will come out eventually.
Grand Lodge

Well, maybe I can hope for a class that has a construct "pet" as part of this book.
Herald wrote:
Well, maybe I can hope for a class that has a construct "pet" as part of this book.

Classes are released in hardcover books. Archetype, perhaps, although we’ve got two Alchemist archetypes that do that already.

Pathfinder Maps, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Herald wrote:
Well, maybe I can hope for a class that has a construct "pet" as part of this book.

There are a couple of Alchemist archetypes that can do that already:

1) The Promethean Alchemist from Occult Adventures gets a homunculus companion.

2) The Homunculist archetype from Familiar Folio gets a homunculus as an improved familiar.
David knott 242 wrote:
Herald wrote:
Well, maybe I can hope for a class that has a construct "pet" as part of this book.

There are a couple of Alchemist archetypes that can do that already:

1) The Promethean Alchemist from Occult Adventures gets a homunculus companion.

2) The Homunculist archetype from Familiar Folio gets a homunculus as an improved familiar.

There’s another one- tinkerer, I think?- that gets a clockwork construct familiar.

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