Does Astral Warrior cost anything for the Ectopic Artisan?

[PastorDontPlay]

Hi all,

I'm planning on making an aegis/soulknife/metaforge for a game in the near future. I got pretty excited when I saw the Ectopic Artisan archetype but I have a few questions I thought you'd be able to help with.

1) Does it cost any resources for the character to create the astral warrior once they hit level three? Other than the 1 minute to create, I don't see any cost in terms of PP or other resources. This seems pretty strong with no cost.

2) Is there a limit to the number of times a day the astral warrior can be created?

3) If my character takes levels in metaforge, would the astral warrior advance from those levels? With every level, the metaforge gains an effective aegis level for the purpose of his astral suit and the astral warrior is totally rolled into the astral suit feature for the ectopic artisan so I thought it might work. If not, it wouldn't be very effective to be a 16th level character (3 ectopic artisan/3soulknife/10 metaforge) who only creates a level 3 astral warrior.

4) Can the astral warrior be equipped with normal armor and weapons once created?

5) The astral warrior ability seems really powerful to me if I'm reading it right. It's basically a free buddy you can revive at full health between every fight for no cost. You don't even have to customize it at all and can just keep the customization for your astral suit. In your opinion, is this too powerful?

[Bob Bob Bob]

1. Yes, it costs no resources. Neither does the summoner's eidolon. No, it's not that powerful, and you'll see why soon.

2. No limit on how often you can make it, but you can't make another until the first one goes away (which only happens when it's killed or you die or go unconscious). I didn't see any way to dismiss it.

3. Only partially stacks. You should read the feature more closely. All it grants is the damage reduction and customization points (and what customizations they qualify for). Ectoplasmic Artisan gives up DR. You would be able to give your Astral Warrior more and better customizations, but that's it.

4. Sure, but it's not proficient with anything except the weapon you create it with. This means it would take the armor's ACP as a penalty to all attack rolls, and a -4 nonproficiency penalty for any weapons you give it (that aren't the one it's created with).

5. It's a reusable meat shield, unless you spend some of your customization points on it, that's all. It doesn't get evolutions, feats, or skill points (mindless construct) so all it is is a stat block (only need HP, defenses, and attacks) with whatever customizations you give it. And you need to pick those customizations when you choose yours, and you no longer have reconfigure to do any of them on-the-fly. The "cost" of it is probably all the PP you'll have to blow on Augment Suit for every time your meat shield can't actually reach (flying) or hurt (DR/magic even stops him) the enemy.

[Zaknaefin]

PastorDontPlay wrote:

1) Does it cost any resources for the character to create the astral warrior once they hit level three? Other than the 1 minute to create, I don't see any cost in terms of PP or other resources. This seems pretty strong with no cost.

1. The cost is that you are an Aegis with no Astral Suit Damage Reduction or Reconfigure (the DR is the big loss).

Bob Bob Bob wrote:

4. Sure, but it's not proficient with anything except the weapon you create it with. This means it would take the armor's ACP as a penalty to all attack rolls, and a -4 nonproficiency penalty for any weapons you give it (that aren't the one it's created with).

4. The Astral Warrior cannot actually wear armor as the Summoner's Eidolon cannot. It can wield a shield, but it has no proficiency with shields, unless that is a Feat you choose to give it.