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I wanted to be sure about a few things concerning the construct armor, so I decided to start an FAQ thread:
1) While wearing construct armor, can the wearer use any of the constructs abilities & natural attacks.
1.1) In cases of abilities that affect multiple constructs (such as the terra-cotta warrior's rank fighting), can they be used by the wearer.
2) As for the "counts as a breastplate for AC/...", can that quality be affected by the nature of the construct to establish masterwork/special material status.
I anyone is interested, please FAQ.
Damnit, I dont have Ultimate magic on me. Well, it's in the UM section on building & modyfying constructs. Cant be more accurate than that at the moment. Here's the link in the d20pfsrd)
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/building-and-modifying-constructs
Basically, construct armor allows a player to "wear" a construct as a breastplate. There's an faq towards the specific penalties, but basically you wear the construct like armor. Although only the creator can wear it.
"This modification allows the construct to be worn like armor by its creator."
It's pretty clear in the desciption.
Owner - D20 Hobbies
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1) While wearing construct armor, can the wearer use any of the constructs abilities & natural attacks.
1.1) In cases of abilities that affect multiple constructs (such as the terra-cotta warrior's rank fighting), can they be used by the wearer.
2) As for the "counts as a breastplate for AC/...", can that quality be affected by the nature of the construct to establish masterwork/special material status.
Interesting. I doubt it will ever get FAQ treatment, as it is hardly a frequently asked thing.
1) No, the construct while worn does nothing but absorb attacks directed at you.
1.1) Rank Fighting wouldn't do anything because you use your AC (as if wearing Breastplate) so Rank Fighting wouldn't work and you wouldn't have an adjacent Terra-Cotta to activate anyway.
2) Up to the GM. No rule in the text says to make the Breastplate MW if the construct is MW. So up to the GM.
I agree with James Risner. (Although I would stretch that everything is up to the GM)
1) The construct limb specifies that the construct retains special attacks and the wearer uses these. Construct armor does not.
1.1) "You may wear a terra-cotta soldier, but you are no terra-cotta soldier." And since the construct loses all independent actions, I wouldn't count is as fighting (in or out of rank).
2) The construct armor says "as breastplate armor" - which could rule out mwk. quality. But it doesn't list armor check penalty (in my copy of UM), so mwk. might not do anything - although I believe this to be an oversight.
I interpret it the same as you 2, but a few people brought up the question recently and I thought it might be nice to get some input from the designer. They basically want power armor, and it is far from it.
In any case, please faq.
The Aegis class from DSP could replicate power armor fairly well. Though if they are looking for something along an AI, you'd probably better off doing an intelligent suit of armor with animate object as a SLA.
I don't think the rules presented for Construct Armor are anywhere near complete enough to adjudicate all situations only by what's presented.
This means the DM is going to have to fill in the gaps.
For example, while the construct can't take any actions (and construct limb's difference in wording would certainly imply the wearer can't use special attacks himself either), the fact that attacks affect the armor first raises the question of the construct's defenses working against those attacks.
I also do see why you shouldn't be able to craft the construct so that it counts as masterwork, special material, or magical breastplate. These are all "breastplate".
Again, these are positions I have because I don't think it works to go only off of what's presented, as they aren't very complete.
From The Rules FAQ, and How to Use It:
Should I put "FAQ request" or “Designer response needed” in my post or thread?
No.
Doing so suggests that your post or thread is more “worthy” of staff attention than someone else’s thread which doesn’t include this text.
Also, because having more FAQ clicks doesn’t make a thread more likely to be answered, doing this to encourage more FAQ clicks doesn’t help you.
Finally, most people insisting they need a designer or developer to weigh in with an official answer are in a situation where they’re disagreeing with the GM or another player and one side refuses to budge unless they get an official response from Paizo, and Paizo doesn’t want to encourage that sort of heavy-handedness.
Thread renamed.
Sorry about that, hadnt noticed that in the FAQ-FAQ. It's pretty long.
@ samasboy: This is what is frustrating me with construct creation/enhancement in general. It feels like an afterthought in the system sometimes (and it probably is). For the moment, I'll treat it as a plain, generic breastplate, enhanced only by the "armor-type" enhancements the golem already has.
In the end, I wish there was more on construct creation in general, beyond just monster creation (which is pretty hard to balance). I'll have to find some extra stuff on it.
I would also like more material on construct crafting and modifications. (Same with undeads for necromancers.)
I allow transfering armor enhancements to the wearer, but I don't think it's by the rules.