Summoner Archetype: Mechanomagician

[ShineShadow]

Here`s my first Archetype. I apologize in Advance for English is not my forgein Languade, but i wanted to post this Archetype so badly after ive red some of the "Create an Archetype"-Archetypes of your Messageboard. Constructive Critisism is needed.

Mechanomagician (Summoner)
while most Summoner use Extraplanar Powers to reate an Eidolon to fight for them, the Mechanomagican uses his superiour mechanical Understanding to form a Golem instead of an Eidolon and summon Constructs on his Side, the Mechanomagican only Summons the Material to Work with.

An Mechanomagician adds Knowledge (engineering) and Disable Device to his class skills.

Golem:
Instead of an Outsider, the Mechanomagician forms an Eidolon, which is an Constructs with all the Traits of an Construct, simply called Golem. Its statistics are changed from a standard eidolon as follows:

Attributes:
The Golem receives +4 Strengh and -2 Dexterity
It doesnt have an Constitution or Intelligenz-Score.
He can Buy an Intelligenz-Score of 1 for an Evolution-Point.

natural Armor
The NA increases by +2

Hitpoints
due to his hard Shell the Golem receives 2 Hitpoints per HD.

BAB
3/4 of the HD (As Cleric)

Saving Throws:
The Golem has 3 Bad saving throws

Skills:
The Golem’s class skills are Acrobatics, Climb, Craft, Escape Artist, Fly, Perception, Sense Motive, Sleight of Hand, Stealth, Swim, and Use Magic Device.
He can only invest Skillpoints if he had bought an Intelligenz-Score. He then receives 1 Skillpoint per HD.

Damage Reduction:
If the Mechanomagican chooses this evolution, he may select DR/Adamantit instead of one of the alignment-based types of damage reduction.
Once created an Golems functions as an Eidolon with the following exceptions:
- An Golem cannot be summoned or send away.
- On each Level up the Golem must be modified to get the new Evolutions. This takes the Mechanomagican 1 Hour of Work.
- Should the Golem be destroyed (reduced to 0 HP) the Remains vanish. The Golem can summon them at any Time as a full round Action to repair his Golem. The Repair is Supernatural and takes the Mechanomagican 2 Hours to perform. He can Perform this only once every 24 Hours. At the End of the Repair the Golem is at full Hitpoints.
- An Golem doesnt heal naturally or can he healed by the means of positive Energy. Only Summoner-Spells can heal him. Alternativly the Mechanomagican can use Craft(Mechanics) to Heal the Golem. This takes one Hour to perform and heals the Amount of Damage equal to his check. The Repair can only be used once every 8 Hours and requires proper Tools.

This otherwise works like and replaces the eidolon ability of a normal summoner.

Golem summons (sa)
At 7rd level, a Mechanomagican adds the following creatures to the lists of what he can summon with his summon monster spell-like ability:
Summon Monster IV: Wax Golem
Summon Monster V: Rope Golem
Summon Monster VI: Flesh Golem
Summon Monster VII: Clay Golem
Summon Monster VIII: Stone Golem
Summon Monster IX: Iron Golem

Mechanomagic Folding: (SA)
At 6. Level, the Mechanomagican gains the Ability to fold his Golem into an much smaller Item. The Form depends on the Size of the Eidolon at the Time of the Folding:
Small: He can becomes a mechanical Pocket-Watch, a
Medium: He becomes a Spyglas
Large: He becomes a small Chest
Huge: He Becomes a Backpack
The Golem remains his Hitpoints and natural Armor class while folded. Anytime as a full Round Action the Mechanomagican can tell his Golem to unfold itself. This Call is Supernatural in Nature and the Mechnolon can hear it Anywhere, as long as he is on the same Plane as the Mechanomagican. The Golem then automatically runs to his Master in the most direct Route possible. This Ability replaces Makers Call and Transposition.

Mechanomagic Aspect: (SA)
This Ability, the Mechanomagican gets at lvl 10, Works exactly like the Summoners Ability "Aspect" exept as follows:
The Evolution Points are transfered to the folded Form of the Golem.
The Summoner can use the Evolution Points only if he wears the folded Golem.
He can transfer 3 Evolution Points instead of 2.
He can only transfer Abilitys which make sense onto a much smaller Item. (GMs Decision)

Mighty Mechanomagic Aspect: (SA)
At lvl 18, the Mechanomagican can transfer up to 8 Evolution Points to his folded Golems.

Thats it. I hope you Guys like it.
Here is the Repost, i renamed it Mechanomagician and the Mechanolon simply Golem. Its just a placeholder thou. Anything is Version 1 still.

[ShineShadow]

Is there no Opinion or am i just to impatient? :(

[The black raven]

I like the idea and style of this, but I do not know enough about Summoners to give relevant comments/advice about this archetype from a mechanical (ie, rules) point of view

[LazarX]

This archetype represents a significant powerup over the standard summoner with no real drawbacks. While the Golem as described has three poor saves, it makes up for it with a whole bucketload of immunities. And then there is the summoner boost to the transfer aspect ability.

[ShineShadow]

He actually has a lot of Drawbacks.
Since he has no Intelligence-Score he cant take Skillpoints and cant understand complex Languade.
He has no Constitution-Score so all Abilitys that fokus on Constitution have a default DC of 10 (which isnt that much)
He cant be Summoned at will and therefore is hard to hide, espacially at low levels and
he cant be healed with positive Energy, repair is time consuming and if it gets destroyed you must invest two hours to rebuild it (the Default Summoner has nothing of that).

And what do you mean with Summoner boost? He has to have the Item (the folded Golem) with him, instead of just getting the Points and cant loose them, so a boost should be resonable.

With that in Mind, what in Detail would you change?

[LazarX]

ShineShadow wrote:

He actually has a lot of Drawbacks. Since he has no Intelligence-Score he cant take Skillpoints and cant understand complex Languade. He cant be Summoned at will and therefore is hard to hide, espacially at low levels and he cant be healed with positive Energy. And what do you mean with Summoner boost? He has to have the Item (the folded Golem) with him, instead of just getting the Points and cant loose them, so a boost should be resonable.

Eidolons aren't generally used as skill monkeys or conversationalists. They're used to hurt and kill things. Your eidolon is essentially boosted in it's basic function. So the drawbacks aren't really drawbacks in this case. What you've done is a min-maxed adjustment.

[ShineShadow]

That depends entirely on your DM what the Main Function of an Eidolon is. Yeah, Basicly he is there to hurt People, thats true, but in Roleplay it makes a lot of Problems having a Golem with you instead of an Eidolon who you can always send back when he is unpleasend.

But Again: What would you change? Taking Away the Attribut-Changes and keeping the "No Constitution/Intelligence" Fakt?

And i Made this because i really like the Idea of an Charakter who has a Golem to tinker on instead of a Monster with him. And i tried to Balance it out, not to Min/Max it.

[LazarX]

ShineShadow wrote:

That depends entirely on your DM what the Main Function of an Eidolon is. Yeah, Basicly he is there to hurt People, thats true, but in Roleplay it makes a lot of Problems having a Golem with you instead of an Eidolon who you can always send back when he is unpleasend.

But Again: What would you change? Taking Away the Attribut-Changes and keeping the "No Constitution/Intelligence" Fakt?

And i Made this because i really like the Idea of an Charakter who has a Golem to tinker on instead of a Monster with him.

Let me ask you this then, why can't you get what you want with the standard wizard/cleric maker of a Golem? Character classes should not be based on singular characters but on what would be a group of people.

[ShineShadow]

Okay.. as i said english isnt my forgein Languade, i try to understand.

First: I dont Like the Mechanics of the normal Golems for several Reasons.
1. It is way to Expensive for what you get, even with the Manuals
2. it needs a lot of Feats to use (Craft wonderous Items, Craft Magic Arms and Armor and Craft Constructs)
3. Golems doesnt scale with Level, they dont get stronger so they get useless after a while
4. You cant customize them in any Way, what a "normal" Inventer would do.

And all these Problems you can solve if you make an Archetype for the Summoner: Its Cheap, It doesnt start at very High Level, the Golem gets Stronger and you can Build together whatever Golem you want.

Second: A Archetype is always some Form of Specialization based upon a more general Concept. And i think a tinkering Summoner is actually a very broad Concept.

[Artanthos]

Without a con score the boost to hp is not a true advantage. It is only 1 hp/hd baseline gain, break even if you boost your eidolon's con to 14 at level 5 and a net loss if your eidolon is large.

I'll look further into the archetype idea when I have more time. Until then, I like the concept but need to look closer at balance.

[ShineShadow]

No other Thoughts on this?

[Kolokotroni]

I think the first step to managing this is to not make it a construct. Give it a new type without all the immunities a construct gets. Next take away the +4 strength bonus. Like was said above, its not ok to make the eidolon even better at combat then it already is. It already is extremely powerful adding to that is kind of a rediculous proposition, with or without the proposed drawbacks.

If you want to offset the thematic drawback you have come up with, do it with non combat bonuses.

[ShineShadow]

hmm.. as i see the most Problematic Immunies a Construct gets are:
- Immunity to all mind-affecting effects (charms, compulsions, morale effects, patterns, and phantasms).

It would thematicly make Sense to keep it, the "normal" Eidolon gets a kind of Bonus on this. And the Golem doesnt have a Intelligence-Score so i think ill Stick with it.

- Immunity to bleed, disease, death effects, necromancy effects, paralysis, poison, sleep effects, and stunning.

Kinda hard one.. most of these Things are Immunities that make total Sense even in a lifelike-Golem like the Warforged. I Think i would Stick with them too.

- Not subject to ability damage, ability drain, fatigue, exhaustion, energy drain, or nonlethal damage.

Would be kicked out.

- Immunity to any effect that requires a Fortitude save (unless the effect also works on objects, or is harmless).

Would be kicked out.

- Not at risk of death from massive damage. Immediately destroyed when reduced to 0 hit points or less.

First part would be kicked out, secound part is actually a Drawback so it stays.

Also the +4 Str is out.

But what could make these additional Immunities even? I would have to make some other Combat-Statistiks worse. The no-Constitution is a minor drawback as the "no good Saving Throw" i could stick with -2 Dex but that wouldnt be enough.

Hmm.. i like the Fluff of the Class, but its kinda hard to Balance.