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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JoeGKushner" data-source="post: 2009891" data-attributes="member: 1129">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.</blockquote>

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