ZEITGEIST [Pathfinder] Zeitgeist Steamsuit Questions

[ArilliusO]

I actually have a question about the Zeitgeists (awesome) Steamsuit prestige class, largely because I am hopefully going to be taking levels in said class shortly.

Alright, here it goes! Can the Steamsuit be made out of special materials if all the appropriate expenses are paid? Adamantine, Mithral, etc. Considering it's a suit of armor, but powered, I automatically assumed it did but my friend pointed out that there was really nothing saying you could modify the steamsuit beyond the rules allotted. The only example of it being changed was by the enhancement bonus of the characters existing armor and weapons. I then pointed out that the adamantine carried over and you can probably see where it's going from there.

In the end, I thought it would add a cool way of customizing it. Adamantine Steamsuits might cost 15,000 gold worth of material (the medium version at least), but it would be awesome. Or if you want to go for something lightweight, Mithral offers the option of getting some dex going in the AC. There are probably other options that could be interesting to, eventually leading to an Ironman style collection. Oh, fighting a red Dragon today? Better get my Fire-Forged steel suit out!

Buuut there's also arguments against it, (admittedly my friend could only think of a few, such as 'potentially too powerful') and in the end an answer would be awesome!

 

[RangerWickett]

My assumption when writing the class was that you've already used the best mix of materials -- a little adamantine, a little mithral, some gold-palladium alloys to resist high-altitude icing, etc.

I might let a player make an all-mithral suit, lowering the armor bonus by 1 but lessening the armor check penalty and spell failure. Or an all-adamantine one, increasing armor check but maybe improving the AC by 1.

 

[ArilliusO]

Except that's not how the materials in pathfinder work at all, which is the source material the Pathfinder players guide was supposed to work with. If you made heavy armor out of Adamantine, it'd give you a constant DR 3/- bonus. That's quite useful. If you made it out of Mithral, it's suddenly light enough to use some of your own natural grace in it.

Ontop of that, it ruins synergy with a few archetypes. For instance the Armor Master fighter would benefit more from not getting the cool steam suit and instead getting an Adamantine full Plate when they could afford it. People taking the class are taking it for the Steamsuit. The class offers no other benefit, and it comes at a time when leveling is slowing down.

Now in my opinion, it stands to reason that because there -is- part of it that serves as Armor, or could serve as it, there's a reasonable way to build or rebuild the suit using materials without touching the rest of the mechanics. Should you be able to treat it like heavy armor in regards to materials? Or is this thing so far removed from actual armor that for some reason the best part about spending 15k gold on Adamantine for it is now only +1 AC rather then DR 3/-, and spending all that gold actually comes with some disadvantages that normal armor doesn't for less benefit?

 

[RangerWickett]

[MENTION=53273]Rugult[/MENTION] or [MENTION=12882]ltclnlbrain[/MENTION] would be better equipped to answer this.

 

[ArilliusO]

As a heads up, I apologize if my questioning came off as rude. I'm really rather excited about the Steamsuit and ontop of that I've worked with a third party developer before... I had a habit of scrutinizing details that he found both useful and infuriating. If it came off as rude, I am sorry, and I want to thank you for taking the time to speak to me in the first place!

If I may ask, would sending one or both of them a private message be the way to go about asking them, or should I wait for them to give their input in this thread? If my low status on the site isn't any indication I'm rather new to Enworld.

 

[ltclnlbrain]

Modifying the steamsuit to be made of special materials or even enchanting it further isn't really that different from modifying regular armor. I would say as long as you're willing to spend the money on the special modifications, go for it! Everything should stack with the other benefits from the prestige class.

 

[ArilliusO]

Sorry for taking so long to get back to this! Long week.

Thanks for the reply, first off!

Secondly! (I hadn't even considered this but now that you've said it, I'm curious for a clarification). Would the Defensive Shield ability stack with the Adamantine armor for DR? If so, that would be awesome, (especially because my Armor Master wouldn't benefit from the DR/- portion of that ability normally, since he'd be at DR 6/- regularly when he can afford adamantine.) If not, what did you mean by stacking?

Lastly, thanks again for creating the prestige class, and working on the adventure path and world as a whole! It's all so bloody brilliant!

 

[ltclnlbrain]

Normally, sources of DR don't stack. You would take the more advantageous DR depending on each situation. However, I would allow the DR from your armor master abilities to stack with that of the defensive ward, it shouldn't really break anything, since it's only for one round.