Man in a Construct

Slit518 · Aug 22, 2018

ValdDrakul said:
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.

"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.

The suit could have a function similar to a gas mask, which allows people to breathe in hostile environments.

In fact, make the user immune to Poison & Disease as well.

ValdDrakul · Aug 22, 2018

Slit518 said:
The suit could have a function similar to a gas mask, which allows people to breathe in hostile environments.

In fact, make the user immune to Poison & Disease as well.

I would like to leave it some kind of weakness, in case the suit turns out to be TOO powerful and just mows them them down. But they've surprised me before and I don't thing I've ever seen them use poison attacks anyway, so giving it a filtration system to block fog and cloud attacks wouldn't hurt.

Ancalagon · Aug 22, 2018

I first thought that the title was "Man is a construct" - I was expecting something pretty philosophical

Ancalagon · Aug 22, 2018

ValdDrakul said:
I would like to leave it some kind of weakness, in case the suit turns out to be TOO powerful and just mows them them down. But they've surprised me before and I don't thing I've ever seen them use poison attacks anyway, so giving it a filtration system to block fog and cloud attacks wouldn't hurt.

Weakness? Heat metal

NOT lightning though. The suit is a faraday cage.

aco175 · Aug 22, 2018

Go with whatever is fun for your game and makes the encounter better. Be careful when the players want it for their PCs though. Also think about the weight of the thing if you are going to make the wearer immune to damage. Full plate armor seemed to be the extent of what people could wear and still be able to fight for a bit. Never mind that D&D assumes that the character wears the armor all the time while traveling and such. I would allow damage reduction or something, but not immunity since I would not have something in my game this advanced in technology to make him immune.

Oofta · Aug 22, 2018

I like the idea, i would also say that at first the person inside is immune to pretty much everything and the suit is effectively power armor that gives the user a belt of giant strength as appropriate.

However, I'd also have the suit vulnerable to damage. Maybe at 2/3 HP it starts to "leak" and now just provides DR but also starts "leaking" giving off a toxic cloud of gas to others nearby. At 1/3 HP the guy starts to lose control. He strikes randomly but with advantage or starts firing off short range lightning bolts, also in a random direction. The idea is that you want something other than a big bag o' hit points and in some ways the creature transforms during the fight to provide different types of challenges.

I don't know the exact powers and abilities you've given the armor but look at other constructs for inspiration - I recently did something similar with a reskinned gorgon.

Good luck!

SkidAce · Aug 22, 2018

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.

I made a suit of demonic armor like that. Only used one attunement slot though, the demon wanted to be used after all...

ValdDrakul · Aug 23, 2018

aco175 said:
Go with whatever is fun for your game and makes the encounter better. Be careful when the players want it for their PCs though. Also think about the weight of the thing if you are going to make the wearer immune to damage. Full plate armor seemed to be the extent of what people could wear and still be able to fight for a bit. Never mind that D&D assumes that the character wears the armor all the time while traveling and such. I would allow damage reduction or something, but not immunity since I would not have something in my game this advanced in technology to make him immune.

Its not armor in the normal sense, its a literal construct that's has room for a creature, which I've decide to go with goblin. No one in the group could fit in it, except maybe our halfling but I don't see him being interested in it. For roleplaying reasons he wouldn't even consider using it.

Oofta said:
I like the idea, i would also say that at first the person inside is immune to pretty much everything and the suit is effectively power armor that gives the user a belt of giant strength as appropriate.

However, I'd also have the suit vulnerable to damage. Maybe at 2/3 HP it starts to "leak" and now just provides DR but also starts "leaking" giving off a toxic cloud of gas to others nearby. At 1/3 HP the guy starts to lose control. He strikes randomly but with advantage or starts firing off short range lightning bolts, also in a random direction. The idea is that you want something other than a big bag o' hit points and in some ways the creature transforms during the fight to provide different types of challenges.

I don't know the exact powers and abilities you've given the armor but look at other constructs for inspiration - I recently did something similar with a reskinned gorgon.

Good luck!

I re-skinned a Marut from Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes, but changed a few things around. I'm in the process of coming up with some things that will happen when it hits certain hp marks.

MonsterEnvy · Aug 24, 2018

I had an idea similar to this. One of the villains of the campaign was a Gnome Wizard and when he finally fought the party he was inside an Iron Golem (It had a hollowed out chest that he could sit inside with a iron lid.)

The fight was more or less more with the Iron Golem then the Wizard as he could not be harmed inside the Golem. (Though he would open the lid once in a while to fire out a spell before closing it.) He ended up just surrendering when the Golem was destroyed as he was largely helpless without it.

Coroc · Aug 24, 2018

If you plan on the golem armor being destroyed by confrontation, then the man inside should be invulnerable to everything. If they are separable somehow and players might get their hands on it you of course have to go a different way. Make it eventually so that the man inside is resistant to all direct damage be it from spells, natural sources etc, immune to electricity (Faraday's cage rule obviously applies) but otoh make it so that there are serious disadvantages would a player use this item for himself after obtaining it:

Half movement speed

Only one attack per round

Impossible to sneak jump climb dash swim or cast spells while equipped.

That should do the job.