Construct Mechanus

[Krug]

This is not a playtest review.

There are PDFs that don't bother with design and illustrations at all, and there are those that use it badly, and now there's this; first thing you notice when you open up the PDF is how well-illustrated this book is. Done by Christopher Shy of Studio Ronin, who have handled many other RPG products, this sets a new standard for PDFs. There's more than a dozen atmospheric pieces, which might kill off your inkjet, but thankfully Reed has included a printer-friendly B&W version that dispenses with the illustrations.

Construct Mechanus introduces a race of mechanical creatures, Mechanus, that are playable as PCs. They have a +4 to Fortitude saves and a +1/odd level after, though why exactly isn't explained. They do not eat or sleep, have 120' darkvision, and a level adjustment of +4. I would have prefered a lower level adjustment or none at all. Mechanus also have a big achilles heel; they start to malfunction when exposed to water.

The Mechanus are divided into two sub-races; Stilt and Abominus. Stilts are build using 30 points, allowing them to choose from a range of bodies, appendages and special features. Abominus are just hulks of metal designed to destroy, and have a +8 to Strength, compensated by a -2 to Dex and a -4 to Charisma.

Two classes are introduced for the Mechanus: The Tanker, a fighter type, and the Mystic Defender, which can cast arcane spells. The latters seems too powerful for my taste. It has a whole slew of bonus feats every odd level, spell resistance and Cleric style BAB progression, and the ability to deal double damage to all those 1/4 the defenders HD. Ugly.

A bunch of Feats are included to further personalize your Mechanus, including such things as Augmented Strength (+2 to Strength !!?!) and a Mounted Cannon. Finally there's a section on firearms, which introduces new firearms for inclusion in your game.

There's quite a few editing errors; the Tanker class has a listing for his Fort saves, while the Mystic Defender doesn't. Is the former cumulative with the Tanker's Fort save adjustments? (Which I feel is an unnecessary complication) Other minor editing errors crop up, but nothing major.

The main complaint is that it's too short. There's undoubtedly a lot of material more to be covered, and the book feels incomplete. We're promised a Construct Mechanus II which includes a detailed Mechanus community. I feel the product would have been stronger with this inclusion, and sample mechanus characters as well. Most of all, I feel that the powers of the Mechanus have been toned down to make it on an equal or near equal footing as compared to other races.

It's hard to give a strict rating; I like the product for it's ideas but think it would need some major tweaking to fit into my campaign. The illustrations are fabulous and the price is paltry. I'm kind of skeptical about how balanced the Mechanus race is, particularly the Mystic Defender, but I do think there's lots of good ideas here.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

Constructs as player characters!

Construct Mechanus introduces a new PC race, mechanus. Inside this 24 page PDF you will find two different mechanus races, two classes, an assortment of feats, and a selection of firearms (using previously released OGC firearms rules).

This new supplement helps players and GMs to bring steampunk to their fantasy games. When combined with the upcoming 101 Clockwork and Magical Prosthetics, this supplement will go a long way toward allowing you to play in a very non-standard fantasy campaign world.

For campaigns looking to keep a more standard fantasy feel, Construct Mechanus will allow the GM to construct the perfect villain(s) for use in planar adventures.

All of the text in this supplement is open game content.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Construct Mechanus is a small book that packs a powerful punch behind it’s 24 pages. The book is for those who wish to introduce an edge of technology related to golem design where the creature takes a life of its own. Right off the bat though, I do have a small problem with the premise of the book. It goes with the idea that because it’s such a high magic ritual and costly that the method of creation isn’t as important as the fact that the creatures are created.

I disagree mainly because without knowing what the power level needed to create the creatures, how can you determine how many of them are supposed to be around today? Are they a new race or a dying breed? Is there a quest by other Mechanus to discover an easier way to craft themselves or are they content with their small numbers?

The book itself doesn’t really go into those issues, but instead, brings us two new branches, Silts and Abombinus, to the d20 rules. Each starts off with the same basic foundations in many ways. They both have the type construct, bonus to Fortitude Saves, Darkvision, Fast Healing and other goodies but both have a level adjustment of +4.

Now with the Stilt, the author has done something clever. He’s provided a base racial traits that modify that are customized through design and point spending. The problem though is that the points are based on the level of the campaign, much like a standard point buy system, which may have an impact on the creatures actual level adjustment. The cool thing about this though, is that it brings back options that books like the Player’s Options series, Skills & Powers, first brought to 2nd edition D&D. You don’t need to play a standard Stilt, you craft your own. A neat idea. Have it made out of bone or mithril. Give it extra arms and armored cover with forearm blades.

The Abombinus on the other hand, doesn’t get all that fancy stuff. Instead, it’s a large construct that specializes in combat. These creatures too though, have a little leeway, more for the GM than the players. See, the artist really loves to draw these things in huge and menacing stances so the author decided that GMs should have the option of carrying that image over into the game so he can proudly hold up an image and say, “You see this.” And appreciate the fear that the players stink of. These modifiers show how to take the creature from medium to colossal.

Being a warrior race, the Abombinus get a boatload of free feats like Endurance, Expertise, Improved Unarmed Strike and a few others to insure that they’re never unarmed or never defenseless. They’ve also really, really strong. Use lots of missile fire here boys and girls.

Now another interesting twist, is that instead of providing some Prestige Classes to hang the meat of these races on, the author has gone a step further and went with some core classes just for the Constructs. The first, the Tanker, is another well illustrated monster that gains special abilities that relate to its construct nature. It’s skin grows harder, its size increases, the innate ability to cast massive damaging spells grows out of them even as they shrug off damage themselves.

The Mystic Defender on the other hand, while missing it’s Fortitude Save due to typo I suspect, is a d8 arcane spellcasting terror that gets base attack bonus as a cleric. Overall, a powerful combination, especially with the bonus feats and bonus spell like abilities. This one I’d have to playtest a bit. The only factor that looks like it would balance this sucker out is the spell failure, as they aren’t really designed to cast spells, they suffer a base penalty of 25% on spell failure, which stacks with any armor they wear.

For those looking to tweak their strange constructs a little further, there are several new Mechanus Feats as well. How about the ability to generate an anti-magic field or have greater strength than other constructs? To those who don’t want to play such a character though, there are a few general feats like Deep Wound where you inflict extra damage or Overpower where your size and strength enable you to batter smaller and weaker foes more easily.

The book closes off with some Firearms and this is perhaps the one section that lets me down illustration wise as there are none. What does a Minotaur Heavy Musket look like? What does a Lightning Pistol look like? What’s the difference between a Wraith Light Rifle and a Flare Rifle? Still, the costs are provided with the weapon stats and rules for black powder weapons are always optional.

The art is really a stunner here. The important thing though, is that the author realizes not everyone is like me, likely to print out the full colored version in landscape format just to have the great illustrations. No, most who will use this will go with the standard format, which is just 18 pages of text.

To get the 5, the firearm section would have to be illustrated, the errata included, the rules for character creation prior to player use, and if possible, some black and white artwork. I mean not an ounce of disrespect towards Christopher Shy whose works are like cover pieces, but sometimes the details aren’t very clear, and for things like size comparison, different models, and other things, the crisp clean lines of ink might work a little better for some of the illustrations and still be printer friendly.

If you don’t like mixing stuff like Dragonstar or Arsenal into your standard D&D game and have never used the firearm rules from Freeport, then despite the art and low cost, Construct Mechanus isn’t for you. If you want to add a touch of the exotic to your game, Construc Mechanus is for you.

 

[GameWyrd]

Construct Mechanus lets you have a construct as a player character. Well, nearly. You can have a Mechanus as a player character and that is a special sort of Construct. Mechanus have both intelligence and free will and that’s enough to qualify them as possible PCs. Their simple Construct cousins probably wouldn’t do. Mechanus have more than just intelligence and free will, they pack a mighty punch and that’s why they have an effective level of plus four.

Nicely – heck no, wonderfully – all the text in Construct Mechanus is Open Game Content. This small PDF product (24 pages) could open the floodgate. The artwork isn’t Open Game Content, artwork never is, but it’s just a shame we won’t be seeing these illustrations elsewhere. Once again, Studio Ronin have done a fantastic job. The illustrations of Mechanus manage to capture what is a fantasy metal construct and what is not a robot perfectly. They’re atmospheric and enticing too boot!

These 24 pages are wider and shorter than paper pages in a typical book. Not all PDFs are but this one is. This allows you to fit an entire page into your screen and keep the text readable. It allows the layout to use three columns of text per page rather than two.

Construct Mechanus gives you all that you’ll want to play a Mechanus. It presents; races, classes, feats and then picks up on the fact that some of us might be wondering about black powder firearms. I know I started to think about fantasy mechs. That’s right – races.

It’s best to think of Mechanus as a race type; like humanoid or goblinoid. There are types of Mechanus and Construct Mechanus gives rules for Stilts and Abominus. The Abominus have a better name but really aren’t suitable for any normal player character. Abominus are giant fighting machines. There’s no pretence that these Mechanus go off adventuring when, by hook or by crook, they develop free will and the product describes them as more likely to thump off to a forgotten corner of the world. I can see them being a great NPC but not a good PC. Thankfully the Stilt Mechanus is hugely flexible. The race has its own characteristics. The name "Stilt" comes from the long, spindly and inhuman frame the Mechanus has as a body. You can customise this frame, the head, the arms, legs and even add on extras. You could build a spider-like Stilt Mechanus if you want. This is all managed through a point system. Extra and improved parts cost points. You can literally build your own character here.

There are two new classes too: the tanker and the mystic defender. Their names do a good job in describing the class. The tanker class is very similar to the fighter class but levels up with Mechanus only abilities like stronger armour and fireball abilities. It’s a combat machine. The class is fine. It’s powerful but that’s not a problem. I am concerned with where some of these abilities come from. Where does the new and improved armour appear from when the tanker increases a level? Ah-well, author Philip J Reed is perhaps sensitive to this concern since the special ability suggests that tankers are "programmed to evolve as they grow". This asks for some suspension of disbelief but that isn’t a crime in a fantasy roleplaying supplement providing rules for magical metal constructs! Actually, you can build your Stilt Mechanus out of bone or other materials if you spend the points.

The mystic defender isn’t so in-your-face powerful but it only takes a little thought as to what a heavily armoured mage might be like. They are subject to spell failure though, an off-putting 25% of the time. The mystic defender’s class abilities tally up at every level and are often a spell effect like magic missile or detect magic and these won’t be (unless the GM reads other wise) subject to the spell failure though.

These combinations will create powerful character. The Mechanus do have an effective level of plus four. I don’t think it’s a problem. The characters might be too powerful for your campaign but within the bounds of the Construct Mechanus supplement the rules are balanced.

I’ve taken to snorting at the inclusion of yet-more unnecessary feats. These feats are necessary; they’re new Mechanus feats. A fair number of these feats belong to the "Improve-Enhance-Advance" well scraped barrel but even then they benefit from this new context. There’s actually a bunch of general feats as well. These aren’t exclusive to Mechanus characters and do less well in the originality test but are fairly constructed anyway.

If you like the idea of fantasy robots or black powder weapons attached to Mechanus then you can use the extra firearm rules. If not – you can ignore them. That’s one of the benefits I see in PDF products; they’re cheap enough so that you don’t have to worry if you find yourself ignoring large parts of it. These optional firearm rules aren’t a large put of Construct Mechanus. They’re worth having though.

The layout really enhances Construct Mechanus. It’s an easy PDF to navigate through. There’s a black and white version that comes free with your purchase. This extra version is great for printing out and uses a different, paper friendly, layout. I don’t think Construct Mechanus will have a huge appeal; the concept is a little too far from typical fantasy to appeal to the mass audience. Construct Mechanus certainly does do what it sets out to do and it does it well and that’s the telling mark of a good product.

* This GameWyrd review was first published here.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

CONSTRUCT MECHANUS is an oddity among d20 supplements, a strange little detour down a fascinating alley of clockwork fantasia. Featuring mechanus, a magically created race of sentient constructs, CONSTRUCT MECHANUS is the first in a proposed series of related products that will expand upon the idea of the mechanus and the world in which they exist. And there is a lot of room for expansion.

The CONSTRUCT MECHANUS download comes in the form of two PDF files. The first is a very attractive, full-color version of the supplement that weighs in at 24 pages, while the second a plain (though not plaintext) version of the same information suitable for printing. While the former is the most fun to read, particularly onscreen, the latter is far more appropriate when one gets down to the process of actually working with the information in the supplement. Illustrator Christopher Shy’s colorful, and sometimes bizarre, artwork is a must-see, as it evokes the intended mood – dark, moody, and even frightening – of the CONSTRUCT MECHANUS world posited by author Philip Reed.

Though slender, the supplement packs in a wealth of material. It introduces two types of mechanus for play, the stilt and the abombinus, along with guidelines detailing their assembly in game terms. The stilts use a point system to “buy” their body parts, and the end result of this process can be quite twisted and bizarre, with multiple arms tipped with blades, mechanical mandibles chomping away at its head, and spindly wings extended from its back. The abombinus are simply huge, powerful beings layered with armor and built for combat. Judicious application of CONSTRUCT MECHANUS’s new feats can modify a mechanus even further, adding mounted weapons, hidden compartments, and more.

Reed provides a pair of mechanus-only classes, the tanker and the mystic defender, though mechanus are perfectly capable of assuming any of the standard classes found in the PLAYER’S HANDBOOK. These classes play directly to the magical, inorganic nature of the mechanus, and feature not only standard progressions in attack bonuses and the like, but also alter the character as levels accumulate. In the case of the tanker, the ultimate mechanus fighting class, a mechanus who gains a level also begins to mutate. This mutation could mean thicker layers of armor, or the sudden growth of a mounted weapon. Similarly, the mystic defender – a sort of preprogrammed magical warrior – spontaneously accrues spellcasting and other abilities, seemingly acting as an arcane magnet in a process that is mysterious and inexplicable.

An air of mystery hangs over the entire CONSTRUCT MECHANUS supplement. This is partly thanks to the text itself, which offers no easy answers for the origin of the mechanus, or the nature of their class- and feat-related transmutations, and partly due to the supplement’s brevity. Philip Reed’s supplement is low on fluff, even managing to cram in a couple of pages on black-powder weaponry, so if the prospective DM/GM wants answers to the conundrum of the mechanus…too bad. This is one of CONSTRUCT MECHANUS’s greatest strengths, as these strange beings should not be taken for granted. This is not the umpteenth variation on elves, dwarves, or some other fantasy-gaming staple, but something truly unique. One hopes that the promised follow-ups will be as rich as this inaugural entry.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

By Duane Nutley, Staff Reviewer d20 Magazine Rack

Sizing up the Target
Construct Mechanus is a 24 page pdf sourcebook published by accomplished pdf writer Philip Reed. Christopher Shy from Studio Ronin is the illustrator of the cover and all interior art. The pdf retails at $4.00 and is available from RPGNow.com.

First Blood
Construct Mechanus is the first in a new series of pdf sourcebooks. It is a player supplement and details a new player race – the Mechanus. The series will provide new races of this type. However this pdf will be needed for all other supplements as it provides the initial d20 rules about this new race. Mechanus are created by wizards and are similar to golems, but they have an intelligence and free will that separate them from other constructs.

The first thing of note about the pdf is that it is landscape layout and not the normal portrait layout. This is a big plus in my book as it means less use of the scroll mouse or “gripping’ the page and moving it up and down. One simple move of the mouse when you start a new page and all the text is available for easy viewing. A black and white pdf is also available in the zip file and this contains no artwork, just the plain text and is in portrait layout for easy printing. The first pdf I saw of this type was the RPGNow Monthly and I wonder how long it will be before other pdf publishers start using this layout as well.

Mechanus as a race are quite powerful. They have an ECL of +4, quite high for a player race. Abilities include, but are not limited to, Fast Healing, Darkvision and no need to eat, drink or sleep. Racial abilities are determined by Mechanus type. There are 2 types of Mechanus outlined in this pdf – the Stilt and the Abominus. The Stilt is a customisable race and no two are ever alike. A player gets 30 points to build their character. This will determine what they look like and what abilities they gain from the materials used and different options available. As a side note, the author states that 30 points might be too limiting and provides some further options of 45 or 60. However each 15 points over the 30 increased the ECL by +1. Body, arms, legs and intelligence must all be decided upon. You could decide on a bone body, with no arms and ‘spider’ legs and an armoured head. Then special abilities can be chosen from Drill, Wings, Magical Blast or even a Weapon Mount. The Abominus is more of a fighter type Mechanus and has heavier natural armour and bonuses to melee weapons.

2 classes are available in the sourcebook – the Tanker, a frontline fighter and the Mystic Defender who can cast arcane spells. Briefly speaking I would see Mechanus taking these classes over the core classes as they are more powerful and they will get more benefit from these than standard classes. The classes themselves are hard to read. Both get nonstandard save progression and the Mystic Defender doesn’t even have a Fort save. The abilities gained are listed alphabetically, instead of the normal as they are gained, thus making it hard as you need to read through the others to find the ability you are looking for. Both classes are extremely unbalanced and overpowered, as if to make up for the +4 ECL. Following the classes are 4 pages of feats, both General and Mechanus specific. A number of these feats can only be taken at 1st level and some of the more powerful feats can only be used once a day, thus making them playable. The last 2 pages before the License page deal with firearms. I wasn’t overly thrilled about these as I don’t use firearms in any campaign that I play, but it is good to see them here for those who like their robots more modern.

Critical Hits
The big hit for me was the landscape layout. The integration of sci-fi with fantasy was also a plus and now has me thinking about what other sci-fi or modern elements I can use in my normal play.

Critical Misses
I think the fact that the ECL for Mechanus being +4 is going to make most people just not play a Mechanus character. Seeing the BAB progression for the 2 classes as “As Fighter” or “As Cleric” was a low point. It would not have taken much to put in the correct BAB modifier.

Coup de Grace
New races are always welcome on the d20 market, it can be fun and exciting to play a new race. Players will definitely have some roleplaying memories playing a Mechanus in a world where people run or faint at the sight of a mobile, free-willed golem. The classes themselves need a major rework to be playable and this is the only reason the Final Grade is only a C+. If the classes were more standard and balanced, this product would easily have scored a B+ as the rest of the work is excellent material.

To see the graded evaluation of this product and to leave comments that the reviewer will respond to, go to Fast Tracks at www.d20zines.com.

 

[jaults]

Summary: Construct Mechanus is a great source of ideas and concepts, and has beautiful artwork and layout, but the rules as presented are not usable without tweaking.

Disclaimer: I have not playtested any of this. These are only my opinions.

Most of Phil Reed's products are works of art. I really like the style he and Christopher Shy bring to RPG "books." He also has a definite flavor to his writing that I like. In those respects, CM shines.

However, I don't think that a lot of the rules in CM are usable as written. Take, for instance, the Stilts "race." It is pegged as having a +4 LA. It gets an effective +4 attack bonus with a given melee weapon (+2 Str, +2 racial bonus, free Weapon Focus), a +5 AC bonus (+2 Dex, +3 natural armor, +1 deflection) and four free feats (Endurance, Expertise, Toughness, and Weapon Focus). In addition to all of this, Stilts are built using a point-based system that allows them to have quite a few extras with little penalty to offset the benefits. Given those gripes, I still really like the Stilts, and their bigger cousins, the Abombinus.

CM also includes two core classes, specially designed for mechanus characters, the Tanker and the Mystic Defender. I have some reservations about both of them. The Tanker has d12 HD, Ftr BAB, a non-standard save progression, and one special ability per level. At 20th level, these abilities amount to +11 armor bonus to AC, +6 HP, DR 6/-, a charged magic item/weapon that does 1d10 damage as a free action, +2 damage on all ranged attacks, Fireball 2/day as a 10th level caster, and a few free feats. And honestly, the Mystic Defender is even less balanced. Bonus Feats every other level, Clr BAB, quite a few spell-like abilities (usable only once per day, but still), a frightening Absorb Magic ability. Worst of all, the Mystic Defender can cast spells as a wizard (up to 7th level spells) with only requiring three hours of rest in between.

There are also a number of feats, some better than others. The final chapter includes rules for firearms that are pretty good, I think. Alas, there are no images for the cool sounding weapons (Flair, Imp, Marauder).

Anyway, Construct Mechanus is an extremely atmospheric work that has a ton of great ideas. It just suffers a bit from lack of experience with the d20 system. I still recommend it. After all, for $5, how can you go wrong?

Jason