I have a player asking me about having a half construct race in an upcoming campaign I am going to run. There will be caravan travel similar to the Jade Regent campaign and as such the whole system of provisions and jobs. Now he is playing an Alchemist, and as such wishes to work a job during the 12 hour day. Then while everyone else rests and sleeps he will craft through the night.
The only problem I see with this is while he is not required to sleep. He is only Half a construct, not a full one. Shouldn't he be exhausted or fatigued over time? I mean not resting for 4 days should take it's toll against his humanoid parts right?
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Forced march rules are the only thing that I've found to simulate the fatigue of not resting.
What's the player's goal? More wealth? More power? Or just playing an untiring machine?
The source is from the new Advanced Race book, thus made by him using 10 points. Essentially he is using the fact that in those rules Half-Constructs do not need sleep for the sole purpose to craft at night. I think this is really stretching some rules, it is legal. I just think that it goes a bit too far.
All in all, its who he is, this is a player who wants to be the best, will find ways to be the best, and will try to persuade me to let him have "blank" to be the best in a better way.
There is also a point where it doesn't inconvenience the team as much, but in my opinion those choices are part of what makes the game fun. Choosing to wait on the party member or say heck no, we are leaving with or without your potions/poisons/things.
Golems don't get tired, he is basically half that, I don't see a problem with it to be honest, nothing gamebreaking or rule stretching. There are other ways to have a character immune to sleep/tiredness/aging as well so it isn't even unique, just flavorful.
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I know back in 3.5, the Eberron campaign setting included the Warforged, a type of living construct. They didn't need to eat, sleep, or breathe, but those strengths were counter-balanced by weaknesses like vulnerability to Rusting Grasp and Warp Wood, or gaining only half benefit from healing spells, amongst others. The half-golems from 3.5 also had counter-balancing weaknesses, and a tendency toward mental instability. While an insane party member is probably a bad idea, letting him know in advance that his lack of a requirement to sleep might be countered by him being vulnerable to certain abilities/conditions should be an appropriate balance.
I know back in 3.5, the Eberron campaign setting included the Warforged, a type of living construct. They didn't need to eat, sleep, or breathe, but those strengths were counter-balanced by weaknesses like vulnerability to Rusting Grasp and Warp Wood, or gaining only half benefit from healing spells, amongst others. The half-golems from 3.5 also had counter-balancing weaknesses, and a tendency toward mental instability. While an insane party member is probably a bad idea, letting him know in advance that his lack of a requirement to sleep might be countered by him being vulnerable to certain abilities/conditions should be an appropriate balance.
Anything like that would require changing the race through ARG, a 10 point race is very average, and he gets thus nothing overpowered. No need to nerf it.
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Not having to sleep can be fairly potent at low levels, and it is fairly easy to game the point system in the ARG. The OP has stated some cause for concern in regards to his player wanting to push things power-wise, so there may be some other issues with the race. What are the other stat and racial bonuses he's getting along with this lack of a need to sleep?
@Dracomaxis
Do you have the race build? I would love to see it.
Humanoid (Half-Construct, Halfling) (7 RP)
Small (0 RP)
Normal Speed (0 RP)
Standard (0 RP) - +2 Dex, +2 Int, -2 Wis
Standard (0 RP) – Common and Halfling
Dwarven, Elven, Gnome, Goblin, Draconic, Giant, Orc
Plagueborn (1 RP)
Dual-Minded (1 RP)
Low-Light Vision (1 RP)
This is the race as is, he has a +2 to will, a a plethora of other +2's to poisons, diseases, and status effects. He is also playing an alchemist, with the intent of manufacturing poisons, alchemical items, and magical items. There was also talk about, when they get to this point, jumping into a Portable Hole and just sitting there crafting while the party is asleep and jumping out afterwards. The 10 minutes of air is useless because he does not need to breathe.
that is an innovative and genius idea actually XD
but honestly, if I would have a non-sleeper companion, I would constantly place it on night watch duty
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It would totally go on watch duty.
It looks like he does have a few built-in weaknesses (can't be Raised or Resurrected? Ouch!) and just because he doesn't need to sleep to function, doesn't mean he gets the beneftits of resting (e.g. a half-construct wizard still needs to sleep 8 hours to regain his spells, and you have to sleep to gain the benefits of natural healing, so his healing will all have to come from potions and spells).
It's a potent race, and a good example of my earlier statement that's it's really easy to game the points system for race building in the ARG, but it's not game breaking.
just because he doesn't need to sleep to function, doesn't mean he gets the beneftits of resting (e.g. a half-construct wizard still needs to sleep 8 hours to regain his spells, and you have to sleep to gain the benefits of natural healing, so his healing will all have to come from potions and spells).
I did not realize that you cannot heal without resting, that will make it more interesting to see how the player works it out. And while he can take potions, it will be a more expensive way to heal up id think.
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just because he doesn't need to sleep to function, doesn't mean he gets the beneftits of resting (e.g. a half-construct wizard still needs to sleep 8 hours to regain his spells, and you have to sleep to gain the benefits of natural healing, so his healing will all have to come from potions and spells).I did not realize that you cannot heal without resting, that will make it more interesting to see how the player works it out. And while he can take potions, it will be a more expensive way to heal up id think.
Yeppers, if you don't sleep, you don't heal. I'll copy it in here for you, but you can find in the prd by just typing in healing.
Healing
After taking damage, you can recover hit points through natural healing or through magical healing. In any case, you can't regain hit points past your full normal hit point total.
Natural Healing: With a full night's rest (8 hours of sleep or more), you recover 1 hit point per character level. Any significant interruption during your rest prevents you from healing that night.
If you undergo complete bed rest for an entire day and night, you recover twice your character level in hit points.
Magical Healing: Various abilities and spells can restore hit points.
Healing Limits: You can never recover more hit points than you lost. Magical healing won't raise your current hit points higher than your full normal hit point total.
Healing Ability Damage: Temporary ability damage returns at the rate of 1 point per night of rest (8 hours) for each affected ability score. Complete bed rest restores 2 points per day (24 hours) for each affected ability score.
so there, if he gets damage he still has to rest, or drink potions or use spells
...ah right, he is an alchemist, I am sure he can make heal potions for himself =)
Not sure if this was intentional by him or just a random extra to the concept, if its the first one then I like the guy due to how clever the concept is.