Man in a Construct

ValdDrakul · Aug 22, 2018

I'm making a encounter that is a man in a construct, basically a guy in a hulk buster-style armor. My players won't know this but I'm gonna drop hints that maybe its a guy in fancy armor. My question is is if the two of them (the construct suit and the man in it) are subjected to a AoE effect that the construct is immune to, would it effect the man inside? Since he has full cover being inside the construct suit.

EDIT: To be more specific, would the guy in the armor be effected by AoE status effects?

iserith · Aug 22, 2018

Just write the following as a trait on the stat block:

Iron Man. [NPC Name] is immune to all damage while inside the [Construct Name].

OB1 · Aug 22, 2018

I am so stealing this idea.

I would say it wouldn’t effect the man inside at first, but maybe after the construct is below half HP you can start seeing bits and pieces of him and then he would be able to be effected.

ValdDrakul · Aug 22, 2018

iserith said:
Just write the following as a trait on the stat block:

Iron Man. [NPC Name] is immune to all damage while inside the [Construct Name].

He is immune to damage. I'm more wondering if say, they do a AoE fear or charm effect. The construct is immune to both, but being a humanoid(i'm struck between a human or a goblin/gonome) would he be subjected to those effects.

Reynard · Aug 22, 2018

OB1 said:
I am so stealing this idea.

I would say it wouldn’t effect the man inside at first, but maybe after the construct is below half HP you can start seeing bits and pieces of him and then he would be able to be effected.

Maybe give it a hardness rating and anything that exceeds that hardness it splits the damage between them?

The Crimson Binome · Aug 22, 2018

When I ran it, I essentially treated it as a polymorph effect. The pilot was immune to mind-affected abilities, because the suit was a construct which was immune to mind-affecting abilities, and the suit stats superseded the characters stats.

ValdDrakul · Aug 22, 2018

I might go a different route then polymorph effect, but the idea itself is what I had in mind. Something like:

"Iron Man.The the pilot is immune to all damage and effects while inside the Jauggernaut Armor(what I'm calling this thing)."

jgsugden · Aug 22, 2018

I built an Artificer class hat had two subclasses. One built constructs that walked around with the hero, and the other built constructs that walked around with the man inside.

I gave the man inside three quarters cover. He was lashed into the device, effectively making him immune to most strength saving throws. However constitution, wisdom, charisma and intelligence saves generally impacted him normally. Melee and ranged attacks could target either the driver or the construct. Area of effects had a chance to hit either, but that three quarters cover gave the driver a +5 on dex saving throws and most attacks. The driver gained more defensive abilities as they improved their construct building capabilitises, eventually gaining the ability to create a construct that gave them total cover (for a period of time - air runs out eventually).

Slit518 · Aug 22, 2018

I once had a "power suit" that I gave a player character. It worked similar to Ironman's armor, or a Hulk Buster suit. The only thing the character had to do was Attune to it using all 3 Attunement slots. It was pretty powerful. He could fly, had Resistance to various damage types, could breathe in space and underwater, and could shoot ki blasts just to name some features.

ValdDrakul · Aug 22, 2018

jgsugden said:
I gave the man inside three quarters cover. He was lashed into the device, effectively making him immune to most strength saving throws. However constitution, wisdom, charisma and intelligence saves generally impacted him normally. Melee and ranged attacks could target either the driver or the construct. Area of effects had a chance to hit either, but that three quarters cover gave the driver a +5 on dex saving throws and most attacks. The driver gained more defensive abilities as they improved their construct building capabilitises, eventually gaining the ability to create a construct that gave them total cover (for a period of time - air runs out eventually).

I'm making this encounter a bit tougher since my players, a group of 5 who are all lvl 15 with really good gear, plus a bunch of npc followers with them. As long as the "pilot" is in the suit he's pretty much invulnerable. The suit is air tight and covers him head to toe. I might allow gas and cloud based attacks to effect him since the suit HAS to allow him to breath somehow.

Slit518 said:
I once had a "power suit" that I gave a player character. It worked similar to Ironman's armor, or a Hulk Buster suit. The only thing the character had to do was Attune to it using all 3 Attunement slots. It was pretty powerful. He could fly, had Resistance to various damage types, could breathe in space and underwater, and could shoot ki blasts just to name some features.

"Powerful" is the idea. This is a boss fight and I want them to work hard for the victory. I just ran it's stat block through a DM app and it calculated it's CR at 26.